DOVEPAW STRETCHED HER leg out again. A rush of joy entered her. She was able to stretch it out normally again! Would Badgertooth let her return to medicine cat duties when he saw this? She looked around eagerly for her mentor, but he was nowhere to be found. She sighed, deflating a little. She sank back into her nest in her disappointment. She wanted to be up and walking again, and maybe even see Spottedsong and Dawnsplash if it was even possible.

"Hello, Dovepaw." Badgertooth came into the den, his blue eyes bright. His jaws were full of the green leaves that once belonged to daisies. "I found the best spot where daisies grow, that Hareleap and Brownfur have been complaining more and more about the aches in their joints." He put down the herbs next to the herb store in their own pile. "These will last us moons!"

Dovepaw stifled a meow of amusement at Badgertooth's enthusiasm. He was always so excited about herbs or anything related to it that he was always so happy when it came to herbs, or even StarClan. For example, at the time when Mapleleaf showed him the Moonpool, he came back and looked as excited as a kit out of the nursery for the first time. "I have something to show you," she told him.

"Oh, yeah? What is it? I hope you haven't been outside of the den," Badgertooth responded.

"I promise I haven't. I can move my leg normally again! I was hoping I would be able to go back to my normal responsibilities now, if not later," Dovepaw meowed.

"Let me see," Badgertooth instructed.

Dovepaw nodded. With ease, she stretched her leg all the way out, then looked at Badgertooth expectantly. Badgertooth nodded approvingly and stepped forward to run his paw over it. "Make sure I don't push it down," he instructed. He pushed down lightly on her leg, but Dovepaw didn't let him. "Good. I'm sure you're able to go back to your regular responsibilities today."

Dovepaw felt a rush of excitement. "That's great!"

Badgertooth's eyes glittered with joy for his apprentice. "For your first task, I would like you to put the daisy leaves in their spots. If there's no more room left, make room."

"Okay." Dovepaw slipped out of her nest and to the meager pile of daisy leaves. She began to put them in their assorted spots. "Are Spottedsong and Dawnsplash doing okay?" she asked Badgertooth, glancing over her shoulder at her mentor.

Badgertooth hesitated. "Something happened yesterday. I didn't have time to see what it was about, but I believe it was about Spottedsong. I heard Mousetail talking to Lynxstar after she was gone for a while. I heard things like 'Spottedsong' and 'MoonClan'."

"MoonClan?" Dovepaw wondered what that meant. "What does MoonClan have to do with anything?"

"I don't know. But I think that whatever happened to Spottedsong was related to MoonClan," Badgertooth told her, his voice heavy. "I'm afraid she's not in prison. She might have run away."

Is this because of what she has been talking about, the thing about Moonclaw? Where is she now? Dovepaw finished her sorting and washed her paws in the small pool beside the medicine den. "Does anyone know anything about her whereabouts now?"

"If they do, I don't know about them. You can talk to Mousetail, though. I think she went to find Spottedsong yesterday, but I don't know if she succeeded or not," Badgertooth informed her.

Dovepaw felt like shadows of foreboding had settled over her. Suddenly she didn't want to talk to Mousetail. But she knew she had to if she wanted more information on Spottedsong. "Okay. I'll talk to her. Is it fine now?"

"Now's fine," Badgertooth approved. "There's not too much to be done now."

"Okay. Thanks." Dovepaw left the den and walked to the camp entrance where Mousetail was coming back into the camp from a hunting patrol. "Mousetail! Do you have some time to talk? I have something to tell you."

Mousetail's eyes brightened when she saw her littermate. "You're all better," she observed happily around the vole in her jaws. She nuzzled Dovepaw's ear affectionately. "Sure, we can talk. Where do you want to go?"

Mousetail looked surprised. "Of course. Let's go outside of camp."

"Sure." Dovepaw walked alongside her sister to the outside of the camp. As they exited the camp, she asked, "Did you find Spottedsong yesterday?"

Mousetail tensed beside her. She waited until they were beside a large patch of grass. She turned to look at Dovepaw. "Yes, I did. What do you want to know?" she asked cautiously.

"I just want to know if she's okay and where she is," Dovepaw answered simply.

"She says she feels like she doesn't belong in a Clan, so she became a rogue," Mousetail answered, her voice tight. "I told her to come back, but she said she didn't want to. I'm sorry." She looked down at her paws, not saying anything else.

"What? Doesn't she know that there are plenty of cats in the Clan that care about her?" she asked, suddenly terrified at the thought of what would happen to her.

"She knows. She just doesn't want to come back."

"And why is her disappearance related to MoonClan?"

Mousetail looked up at Dovepaw quickly. "How do you know about any of this?"

"Badgertooth told me," Dovepaw replied.

"He didn't know much of it, either. Unless he overheard."

"Then he overheard. Either way, he told me and I want to know more," Dovepaw pressed. "Is her disappearance related to MoonClan?" she repeated.

Mousetail narrowed her eyes. "I don't know. Why would you ask that? Is there something I don't know?"

Dovepaw's breath caught in her throat. Mouse-brain! she scolded herself. Why would you ask that when she has no idea what Spottedsong has been doing? "No. Conflicts with MoonClan are just so normal now that I have to make sure."

"Ah. Okay." Mousetail shifted her paws slightly on the ground. She didn't say anything else.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Dovepaw asked.

"Hm?" Mousetail looked up at Dovepaw, her blue eyes wide. "Oh, um, no."

"Did you see anything else yesterday?"

Mousetail was silent for a moment before she took a long deep breath and admitted, "I did."

"What was it?" Dovepaw was curious now.

"Foxclaw."

This caught Dovepaw by surprise. "So . . . he's not dead? I would think that if this many moons had passed, he would have tried to come to me again. So I thought he was dead. Did you see him with Spottedsong or what?"

"I saw him with Spottedsong. But I believe that Spottedsong was just with him to help her get back on track with whatever she has planned," Mousetail answered.

Dovepaw narrowed her eyes on her sister's worried face. "Do you think I would be worried if they were, like, together? Because I'm not. I don't even like him like that anymore."

Mousetail sucked in a quick breath. "Oh, I know. I just wanted to make sure you knew."

"I wasn't that interested," Dovepaw mewed.

"It's too late to take it back now." Mousetail shrugged. "Let's go back to camp before too many of our Clanmates notice we're gone."

"Sure." Dovepaw followed Mousetail into the camp. "Thanks for telling me," she told Mousetail over her shoulder before she hurried to the medicine den. Badgertooth was rewrapping Frozenfang's wound on her side. "Hi," she greeted them. They both looked up curiously.

But immediately Badgertooth turned back to Frozenfang when he knew it was his apprentice who just walked into the den. "Hello. How was your talk with Mousetail?"

"It was good. She told me that she found Spottedsong, but she didn't want to come back."

"Who? Spottedsong?"

"Yeah. Spottedsong said that she doesn't want to come back because she feels like she doesn't belong. And Mousetail also said she saw Foxclaw with her," Dovepaw explained.

Badgertooth finished wrapping the cobwebs around Frozenfang's wound. He sat in his nest and looked at her curiously. "Really? I hope she realizes that it's better to be here." He paused. "And what does that mean to you?"

Dovepaw sighed exasperatedly. First Mousetail, now Badgertooth? Do they want me to be with him again? "I don't care about him anymore."

"Alright." Badgertooth nodded approvingly.

***

Dovepaw walked into the apprentice's den, still wondering how Spottedsong was doing. And she was with Foxclaw? He was still alive? Dovepaw tried to push the thought away. She had thought that after all of this time without seeing Foxclaw that he was dead. If he wasn't, he would have tried to talk Dovepaw into what they always did before. But Dovepaw would have said no either way, so she didn't care much.

As she made her way to her nest, she thought she heard leaves rustling above her. She looked up and saw green eyes—she was more than sure that they were cat eyes—shining overhead. Their gazes locked for a moment before the eyes vanished. Dovepaw blinked, confused. She slipped into her nest, suddenly feeling weak. Not from fear or any other emotion, but from something else that she couldn't name. She wondered if it was the eyes that she had seen a few heartbeats ago.

She curled up in her nest, trying to get the image out of her head.

***

Dovepaw emerged from the darkness of sleep, but it was almost like she was watching as another cat ran. She knew it was herself, of course, but she felt as though she had no control. She was running through the forest toward the MoonClan camp. Her heart leaped in her chest. What was happening? Was she dreaming? Why was she going to the MoonClan camp?

But it was too real to be a dream. The wind whisking through her fur and her heart pounded in her chest were much too real to be a dream. She felt like her heart was about to burst from her chest. If it isn't a dream, then what is this? As she began to approach the forest, she saw a river flowing into the lake. And a silhouette of a cat. Dovepaw couldn't tell who it was or what color their fur was, but she was sure that she was headed toward that cat. She felt her control coming back as she neared, and she was able to skid to a halt at the bushes. She looked through them and tried to see if she recognized this cat.

Spottedsong? What is she doing here at a time like this? Dovepaw wondered. She cautiously snuck forward toward the tortoiseshell she-cat. "Spottedsong?" she asked.

The tortoiseshell cat looked in Dovepaw's direction, her amber eyes fearful. "Don't come near me," she growled, her voice shaking. "You're not safe around me."

"Of course I am. I know you wouldn't hurt me." Dovepaw was convinced that Spottedsong would never try to hurt her like that again.

Spottedsong's eyes flashed silver in the moonlight. "Look at what I did!" She lashed her tail toward Dovepaw's healing wounds. "Go away where I can't get to you."

"If you're so scared, why are you telling me to go?" Dovepaw cocked her head, confused.

"It's complicated," Spottedsong snapped. "Just go."

"Explain it to me! Is it because of what happened to you and me? Is it because of MoonClan?" Dovepaw asked desperately.

"Of course it's because of MoonClan." Spottedsong paused, her gaze suddenly far away, but then she shook herself and focused her gaze on Dovepaw again. "Go. Now."

Dovepaw felt herself subconsciously backing away from Spottedsong. She stared fearfully at the young she-cat. Her paws were shaking. What did she mean? "What did they do?"

Spottedsong sighed, clearly defeated. "The question is, 'What did she do?' Moonclaw did this to me. She brought you here. She made me, Foxclaw, Dawnsplash, Snowtail, and Sparrowfeather do all of the horrible things we did."

"I see." Dovepaw couldn't believe it. Moonclaw was evil all along! Why had she been too mouse-brained to see it? "But how can you hurt me when you don't want to?"

"She makes me." Spottedsong's answer dripped with hate. "That's why I told you to get away. So go! Stay well away from me."

Dovepaw stared at Spottedsong, horror making her heart race faster than ever. "I can't leave you. You're in distress. I can help you."

Spottedsong unsheathed her claws. Her fur bristled and her pupils were like slits. But she quickly shook herself again. "Go!" she yowled.

Knowing that she couldn't do anything to help, Dovepaw ran to the camp as fast as her shaky legs and useless hind leg could carry her. She glanced over her shoulder quickly at Spottedsong, but she was nowhere in sight. She must have stayed in the forest. Dovepaw expected her to come out of the forest, racing after her. What was happening to her?

"Dovepaw!" That was Badgertooth. Dovepaw looked toward the direction of his voice. He was running toward her, his blue eyes wide with disbelief and fear. "What happened?"

Dovepaw crouched low to the ground, trying to catch her breath. "Spottedsong . . ."

"Take some time to breathe. You can tell me everything in the camp," Badgertooth told her. He let her take some support from him while he led her to the camp. When they were there, Gorseberry was at the entrance. The camp was empty; it was the night of the Gathering. "I found her running like someone was chasing her back to camp."

Gorseberry's tense green eyes softened slightly. "What happened?"

Dovepaw took in a huge gulp of air and explained, "Spottedsong was there and she told me to run because I wasn't safe around her. I don't know what she meant, but I have an idea."

Badgertooth's eyes flashed with fear. "Spottedsong told you to run? Why? She was the cat who tried to kill you, wasn't she?"

"Of course she was. But she said that I wasn't safe around her because of Moonclaw." Dovepaw hoped her mentor would understand.

"The RiverClan medicine cat?" Gorseberry looked at Dovepaw with confusion. "What does she have to do with anything?"

Dovepaw looked up at the young warrior. It was time for them to know. "She has this ability," she began, "where she can do things. Unimaginable, indescribable things. And she was with MoonClan before, but she was exiled because of what she could do. And now she was told to work with them again."

The two toms glanced at each other in turn. None of them spoke. It didn't seem like they could speak. It was a shocking story, after all. Dovepaw couldn't blame them. "How could they just send her away and come back to make her do their dirty work?" Gorseberry asked, sounding almost breathless.

"I have no idea. But whatever it is, we know that Moonclaw isn't up to anything good," Badgertooth answered, his eyes dark.