“RAWR!” Wingpaw roared, and tackled unsuspecting Wolfpaw to the ground.

Grinning, Wolfpaw cried “Oh, help! Someone, please SAVE ME FROM THIS BEAST!” Wolfpaw had meant for Snowpaw to come help, but had no objections when Lynxpaw came to her aid.

“I shall save you from this vile beast!” he declared, and bowled into Wingpaw.

“Aww, come on, I’m not that vile, am I?” Wingpaw complained as Lynxpaw batted at her playfully.

Soon, Snowpaw had joined in, and they even got Scarletpaw to play. The five of them rolled and batted at each other for what felt like ages, and Wolfpaw couldn’t help but feel like a kit again.

Finally, they lay side by side, grinning and pointing at the stars, and Wolfpaw felt truly happy nestled in between Lynxpaw and Snowpaw, her belly full and her fur warm, just gazing at the stars. Most of the Warriors had already gone to bed, besides those watching for the wolf, and it felt so quiet and peaceful.

Until Amberwood screamed.

Flurryfeet darted out of his den, Skypaw right behind him. Skypaw, the medicine cat apprentice, seemed nice enough, but never really played or talked with the other apprentices, and always followed Flurryfeet around like a shadow.

But Wolfpaw could tell he would make a good medicine cat. While he always looked awkward and out of place talking with the other warriors and apprentices, he looked powerful and controlled when he was healing the dying, his normally worried face contorted into a calm, focused one.

This is what he looked like now, as he hurried into the nursery, a bundle of herbs in his mouth. Snowpaw was up in an instant, her eyes wide. “Amberwood is having her kits!” she said in barely a whisper.

Wolfpaw’s eyes widened. She and her sisters had grown up around Amberwood, and knew that the gentle fuzzy brown she-cat would make a wonderful mother. But the thought of her having kits, having tiny little kits... it just seemed... weird.

After Amberwood started kitting, things felt sort of awkward, and they all went to bed. But Wolfpaw felt restless, and decided she would go for a short walk.

Her long tail streaming out behind her, Wolfpaw couldn’t help but let out a free, joy filled laugh. She felt so free, just running under the stars. No cats were there to watch her or tell her to clean the elder’s nest pelts, or to laugh at her. She could finally be free.

If only for a night.

Eventually, she realized that she smelled something, and came to a sudden stop, realizing that she was at the Tundraclan border. She smiled, and tilted her head back at the moon.

The beautiful, brilliant moon.

Suddenly, a howl. But it was no wolf’s howl. It was the howl of... of a cat.

Wolfpaw’s eyes widened with awe. “Fallensnow... she said in barely a whisper.” She had known that Fallensnow had been hiding something. She wasn’t stupid. As crazy as it seemed, she was positive that Fallensnow herself had once been a wolf.

On some crazy impulse, Wolfpaw threw her own head back and howled with all her heart.

No one to laugh. She told herself. Just for tonight, she could howl. And later, she would talk with Fallensnow.

So she howled.

She howled and howled and just let her soul out into piercing, ghostly cries of feeling.

And then she felt better.  But she knew that she needed sleep, and she also knew that they would start to worry if they noticed she was gone, so she reluctantly began to pick her way through the woods.

As she walked, she reminded herself just how awkward and despicable what she had just done was. But she shrugged it off. No one to laugh.

But then, suddenly, there was a rough, low laugh of amusement coming from the bushes right behind her. Wolfpaw’s eyes widened and her ears flattened back against her head as she slowly turned and came face to face with a midnight black wolf.