DOVEPAW WAS ROUSED from her sleep when she heard a rustle a few fox-lengths away. She sat up in her nest and narrowed her eyes to the outside of the den. She spotted a shadow coming into the apprentices' den. She couldn't tell who it was because of the darkness or the earthy scent that covered this cat. She kept her eyes only half-open so that this cat wouldn't see that she was awake.

When her eyes adjusted to the darkness she realized that the cat entering the den was Spottedpaw. The apprentice glanced from side to side before she slipped inside the den. She looked like she'd seen a ghost; her eyes were wide and she looked fearful. She carried a very faint scent, but Dovepaw was certain she knew what it was.

Suspicion rose in Dovepaw. What was she doing? Why is Moonclaw's scent on her? Can she help me with my investigation? Is she dealing with the same thing that Sparrowfeather was? Desperately wanting her questions answered, Dovepaw curled back up in her nest, planning to talk to Spottedpaw about this the next day.

***

The next morning Dovepaw awoke when she felt the warm sun shining on her white fur. She opened her eyes and stretched in her nest. She sat up and began to give herself a slow, precise grooming. Whilst she looked around to see if Spottedpaw was anywhere in the camp.

Afterward, she left the den to see if Spottedpaw was anywhere outside the den. She went on patrol yesterday, so she was bound to still be at camp this morning. Plus, Flypaw and Icepaw needed to do their first round of training today, so they would probably be on patrol anyway.

Dovepaw felt her heart warm at the thought of her brothers—though they weren't her biological brothers, they still meant so much to her—being apprentices already. They were quick learners; they would become great warriors some day.

Spottedpaw was sitting alone at the front of the apprentices' den, giving herself a neat wash. She looked up when Dovepaw approached. "Oh, hi. What do you want?" Her voice was quiet and tired. It was unusual for a perfectionist like Spottedpaw.

"I need to talk to you. Where no one else can hear us. It's urgent." Dovepaw nodded to a little space behind the nursery. "There. No one goes there."

Nervousness flashed in Spottedpaw's eyes as she followed Dovepaw behind the nursery. "What is it?"

"What were you doing last night?"

"I can't tell you, It's secret. You can do your investigating yourself," Spottedpaw growled stubbornly.

Okay, she's obviously not going to tell me as hard as I try. Let's start with something small. Something that is in the center of this investigation. "Is Moonclaw related to this?" she asked steadily. She silently and desperately hoped that Spottedpaw would be open to answers. Not that it was very likely.

Spottedpaw glared at Dovepaw angrily and stubbornly. "If I told you, it would be giving away too much."

"So she is? I don't see how it would be giving away much if you said that she wasn't," Dovepaw pointed out slyly.

Spottedpaw shook her head. "It's more complicated than that."

"Is she related to this or not?" Dovepaw asked, getting impatient but pushing her impatience back down.

"No," Spottedpaw responded immediately.

"Stop lying to me," Dovepaw demanded. "This is for not only your well-being, but the entire Clan's. Okay? So tell me the entire truth."

Spottedpaw was unresponsive for a long moment. "I can't, and I'm going to keep it at that. I'm sorry." She didn't sound very sorry, though. She left the den with a disapproving look on her face. Dovepaw stared after her hopelessly.

No. No, she obviously won't share anything with me, so I'll have to go to someone else or figure this out for myself. There is no way that StarClan could let MoonClan prevail. Dovepaw waited until Spottedpaw was gone before she, too, left the space behind the nursery and headed toward the medicine den where Badgertooth would be.

"Good morning, Dovepaw. Where were you? I was getting worried," Badgertooth asked.

"I needed to talk to Spottedpaw. It was nothing important," Dovepaw lied. She glanced at Skypaw, who was leaving the den. "Oh, well, I guess I can tell you."

"Okay."

"So I caught Spottedpaw coming back to camp last night, and she looked terrified, as if she had seen a ghost. So I asked her what happened, but all she told me was that she saw Moonclaw. I was always suspicious of Moonclaw, so I guessed she was up to some—"

Badgertooth slapped his tail across Dovepaw's mouth to silence her. He had a disappointed gleam in his blue eyes. "I have told you already—"

Dovepaw stood up. "Don't finish that sentence! I knew I shouldn't have told you, because you're one of the cats that Moonclaw is using in her little show." Her words dripped with frustration. She began to head towards the clearing behind the den. "I thought I could trust you. But I guess I was wrong." She threw the words over her shoulder at Badgertooth before she slipped out of the den.

Badgertooth opened his mouth to protest, but Dovepaw stormed out of the den before he could get a word out.

Why does everything have to be so difficult? Dovepaw sat at the edge of the clearing, gazing out at the uncharted territories beyond. Rogue territory. For a second the thought of her days with Foxclaw flashed across her mind, causing her to feel a stab of guilt and maybe even a bit of wistfulness. It had been two moons since she last saw him, and she was happy. But whenever she looked out to the forest, she thought of him.

I would do anything to forget about him. Dovepaw raked her claws across the dusty earth. I would do anything to know what Moonclaw is up to. She whirled around when she heard approaching paw steps. Mousepaw was walking up to her with her uncommon calm and grace. "Hi. I don't really want to talk."

Mousepaw strode over to Dovepaw and sat down beside her. "What is wrong? You seem angry."

"I am angry. But it's not your business. Shouldn't you be training with the other apprentices?" Dovepaw asked, hoping that Mousepaw would leave

"Shouldn't you be training also?" Mousepaw flicked her ear sternly. "Tell me, Dovepaw. I'm your sister; I care about you."

Dovepaw let out a long sigh and looked down at her paws. "It's a long story, and I think I told you already anyway."

Mousepaw shook her head. "Whatever it is, I'm sure you haven't told me. What happened? I won't tell anyone."

Dovepaw guessed it would be fine if she told Mousepaw. So she told her everything that she needed to know. ". . . So now I'm trying to figure out what Moonclaw's power is, and what she plans to do with it."

Mousepaw was listening closely. "Huh. I could help. I would help in any way I can. Especially so you can stop worrying so much. It's bad for you."

Dovepaw dropped her gaze to the ground, feeling a wave of shame washing over her. I guess I have been worrying a lot. "Thanks, Mousepaw." She nuzzled her littermate briefly before there was a call from the medicine den.

"Mousepaw! Dovepaw! Where are you?" It was Whitefoot.

"Looks like we got to go," Mousepaw meowed, standing up. "Come on."

Dovepaw nodded and followed Mousepaw out of the den. Whitefoot and Badgertooth were waiting for them in the medicine den. "I want to practice your fighting and defense skills, Dovepaw. And Whitefoot has offered to help."

Dovepaw nodded, glancing at Mousepaw briefly before they both followed their mentors. They left the camp and headed towards the training hollow. Flypaw was there with Goresberry, practicing basic moves like the front paw strike. He was already quite good, despite a few clumsy mistakes. But it was his first time, so no one could blame him much. And Gorseberry was being kind and patient with the young cat.

"Okay. Dovepaw, you know all the basics. And since you are not able to fight because of your leg, I thought that we could make up some moves you can use," Badgertooth explained.

"That sounds great. What is the first thing that I can do?" Dovepaw asked.

"Well, since you can't use both of your hind legs, I predicted that it would be easy enough to use your front legs," Badgertooth explained. "Here are some moves I thought of . . ."

***

Dovepaw finished off a modernized version of the leap-and-hold, pinning Mousepaw to the ground. She let her go and puffed up her chest in pride and accomplishment. "I got it!" After the third time of attempting the move and making mistakes, she had finally mastered it and beat her more talented sister.

Mousepaw stood up and shook dust from her pelt. "That was good. Great job, Dovepaw."

"Thanks." Dovepaw limped towards her mentor as they began to leave the training hollow. As they headed towards the camp, she couldn't help but feel like someone or something was watching her. She looked around to try to spot someone, but she found nothing and moved onward. What is it? Is someone spying on me, or was that another patrol?

"Is everything okay?" Mousepaw came up beside Dovepaw, looking concerned.

"Fine." Dovepaw didn't want to explain all of her thoughts with Mousepaw, especially since Mousepaw was always sticking her nose in all of Dovepaw's business. Most of the time Dovepaw appreciated it, but sometimes it was just annoying.

"Okay." Thankfully Mousepaw shrugged and fell silent. She stayed silent for a while. "That was great, you know. I never thought you would ever beat me in a fight, especially because of that leg. Badgertooth is smart to think of those moves."

"Yeah. But, I mean, I don't really have to fight. That's not a part of my role in the Clan," Dovepaw replied expressionlessly.

"Sure it is. Sometimes you have to defend yourself or someone else, like a helpless kit or something. And you have to be able to defend yourself more than others because of the MoonClan attacks. At that battle when Leafpaw died, you were lucky that Foxclaw saved your tail."

Dovepaw nodded. "Yeah. I guess so. But that time Foxclaw saved me and I didn't save Leafpaw. That's not what a medicine cat is supposed to do."

They entered the camp and continued their daily routine, and Whitefoot and Mousepaw were required to go on patrol immediately.

Dovepaw followed Badgertooth into the medicine den. By now, the strongly scented herbs were not as shocking as they were a few moons ago. They were normal things now. A normal part of life.

A flash of tortoiseshell fur caught Dovepaw's eye. She turned to look and saw Spottedpaw eating her fresh-kill alone. A pang of pity stabbed Dovepaw's gut. Spottedpaw was very confident and sometimes even selfish, but to Dovepaw, she seemed a little lonely, even if she did like being alone most of the time. Her mother was dead, and her father lived in MoonClan, forced to do terrible things. Her littermates had already found someone to love, to care for. And her mentor was so busy, being the deputy.

"Hey, I'm going to go join Spottedpaw if that's okay," Dovepaw informed Badgertooth.

"That's fine. Have fun."

Dovepaw left the den and joined Spottedpaw. "Mind if I join you?"

Spottedpaw hesitated. She seemed to still be angry at Dovepaw for their conversation yesterday. But she didn't seem to acknowledge it. For now. "It's fine," she answered politely, and to Dovepaw's relief. "And you can have some of this squirrel if you like. I won't finish."

Dovepaw laid down in front of her, the sun-warmed ground comfortable on her belly. She took a small bite for the squirrel, her appetite small. "I was thinking . . . do you think that you would be comfortable coming with me to talk to Moonclaw sometime?"

Spottedpaw paused, looking up at Dovepaw. "Why would we do that? She's dangerous!"

"Well, I've been getting information from cats that have just had interactions with her, friendly or not. Maybe there's things that only Moonclaw knows. And maybe she isn't as bad as she seems," Dovepaw answered.

"What? Why would you be so mouse-brained? I've only known you to be sensible." Spottedpaw shook her head disapprovingly.

"Think about it," Dovepaw urged.

Spottedpaw sank into deep thought. Then she looked at Dovepaw again, looking uncertain still. "I still think this is a completely mouse-brained idea," she meowed stiffly.

"Well, we can go to RiverClan and have a talk with her and find out if she is to be trusted or not. Better safe than sorry," Dovepaw suggested. "Tomorrow, maybe."

"Yeah, better safe than sorry," Spottedpaw muttered under her breath. "Or I could get more information from her tonight," she suggested hopefully. "Moonclaw came at midnight, so maybe you should wake up then to see if you can follow us."

"No. That's too risky. What if I get caught? What would they do? Kill me, or even both of us. Do you want that?"

"No," Spottedpaw responded. "Either way it's too risky."

"No, it isn't. I've done this kind of thing before, going to a different Clan. I know that this will work," Dovepaw assured.

Spottedpaw still looked unsure. She tipped her head to one side. "If you really want to . . . but won't our Clanmates be suspicious of us? Leaving the camp to do something dangerous like that?"

"Trust me."

Spottedpaw sighed in defeat. "Fine. Tomorrow, at what? Dusk?"

"Dusk."

"Okay." Spottedpaw fell silent as they both continued to eat their share of fresh-kill.