For once, the three she-cats were allowed to wake up on their own time. There was no warrior sticking their head in through the den opening to try and rouse them.

Crescentsky stretched her paws, tongue curling in a massive yawn. She realized that Tinyflame and Cheetah had woken beside her.

"Let's go get these nests over with," Tinyflame said in-between licks. She was already beside the den entrance, where strong afternoon light slanted in. The sunrays had little flecks of dust floating through them.

It really is dirty in here. The dens need a good clean-out.

The bracken in Crescentsky's nest crunched as she stepped out of it, as if also agreeing that it needed a change.

"I suppose it's what we deserve, since we left without telling anyone." Cheetah gave her shoulder-fur a few good licks and then bounded out of the entryway.

Crescentsky and Tinyflame followed her. Before Crescentsky even made it to the fresh-kill pile her stomach was growling. Her denmates branched off to confront Raccoonstripe, who was grooming himself beside a grass-clump. Just beside him a thick band of reeds was growing along the edge of the river.

"Why'd you tell on us?" Cheetah questioned him, and the tom looked impenitent.

"Because Lagoonstripe hounded it out of me. Besides, she had to know what really happened, or else she would have sent some cats off in search of you."

"Did she?" Tinyflame demanded, but the tom shook his head.

"She waited to see if you would return from the Moonpool instead of sending cats in vain, but she wasn't happy about it."

Crescentsky drew out of ear-shot of their banter.
She took a piece of prey, daring Sootface to say something. The Skyclan deputy was padding away with a young squirrel, and tossed a glance back at her. But the tom had the gall not to egg her on.

That's right. You'd better not give me any mouse-bile about my warrior name. She'd half expected him to quarrel openly, now that there was no other cats within earshot.

Crescentsky tore into the food. Trufflefur, Pepperpelt and Emberfawn entered camp from the corner of her eye. Trufflefur approached her with a friendly waving tail. There was a fat vole gripped in his teeth.

"Gooh'd day. I came across on' of these on our border patrol." He dropped his vole beside the fresh-kill pile.

"Maybe I should try some of that trout myself. It looks good."

She almost felt embarrassed, with her face covered in fish scales. Then the brown tom flopped down beside her, his whiskers twitching.

"You look like you're starving. You deserve it, you know. After traveling so far to reach the Moonpool. Do you want some of that vole?" His blue eyes sparkled.

"If Sootface or one of your clanmates argues, I'll tell them I ate most of it." Crescentsky smiled as he looked around. "But it's not like anyone is looking, and it's Greenleaf."

Trufflefur was right. Pepperpelt had retreated back into the nursery for Oatkit. Sootface was picking at his squirrel atop a flat sun-bathed rock. Emberfawn was talking with Racoonstripe and Cheetah now, while her sister Tinyflame sat beside them and listened.

"Plus there's no elders or kits."

Crescentsky thought about it. Oatkit wasn't a kit anymore, since he was supposed to be appointed as an apprentice by now.

But she didn't know if she was hungry enough to eat two pieces of prey. Sure, she was starving- but her belly wasn't accustomed to eating that much.

Crescentsky took her last bites rapidly and settled for saying, "Thanks. But I might be full enough after this one." And I prefer fish anyway.

Trufflefur curled his tail, nodding as if he understood.

"A warrior's belly isn't used to overstuffing itself. Anyhow, who do you think the new medicine cat will be?" He spoke amiably, hooking a near-matching trout with his claw.

The tom pulled it toward himself while Crescentsky answered.

"That's a hard one. I'm not sure, honestly." She thought that all of Riverclan's warriors seemed like just that; warriors. Not medicine cat apprentices.

"Maybe Rowanpaw." She lowered her voice. Crescentsky didn't know if her sister was around camp or not.

Trufflefur's gaze narrowed with confusion.

"She seems introverted. But at the same time sure of herself, when she does speak out." was all he said.

"Right? It's an odd choice, I know." Crescentsky nodded.

"But it's because she's so misunderstood. No cat talks to her much, and she's become sort of an outcast. I think there might be something special in store for her in the future. That way she could be a more... integrated member of the clan." Crescentsky spoke avidly as she talked about her chestnut-furred sister.

What she really meant was a more accepted member of the clan. Most of the time when Rowanpaw said something, it brought controversy or strife to the conversation. Alpinefog, her mentor, was often seen correcting her more; rather than agreeing with or praising his apprentice.

But Crescentsky felt it was only because her estranged sister wanted to be recognized as someone valuable and important. Rowanpaw wanted cats to agree with her, even if she was wrong.

"Yeah. But maybe you could be one. After all, Starclan communicated with you."
Trufflefur was staring at her imploringly.

"Oh, no." Crescentsky nearly laughed, drawing her chin into her chest-fur.

"I've wanted to be a warrior since my eyes opened. I'm a warrior, tried and true."

Trufflefur shrugged and licked some trout scales off his claws. The orange-stained sky brimmed with warmth beyond the shade covering their pelts.

They continued with the small talk until Trufflefur had stripped the fishes spine clean. Then she politely excused herself to bury her prey-bones and start doing nests. Trufflefur parted ways with a dip of his head.

🐈‍⬛

Crescentsky was hauling dirty bedding away from the apprentices den with Tinyflame and Cheetah just as Jadestar slid back into camp, followed by a curled-lipped Lagoonstripe. Rainpaw padded in behind them, sulkily dragging her paws.

Crescentsky's tabby mentor flung down a pale-bellied salmon. It hit the fresh-kill pile so hard that some of the other prey went flying, sprawling across the other stones and spinning in the taller heaps of grass close by.

Oh, she's mad. Oatkit, who had been playing with a wrinkled brown leaf underneath Riverclan camp's largest willow tree, widened his eyes and moved away in order to give Lagoonstripe a wide berth.

"Your daughter needs to do just as much as any Riverclan warrior is doing."

Rainpaw moved off as well. But not before indignantly blurting "I want to!" and throwing an accusatory glare at her mother.

"I told you, she's not going out on a patrol without me. I'm her mentor and her mother. You shouldn't have sent her out of camp in the first place!"

"Rainpaw should be a warrior under your leadership by now." Lagoonstripe let a growl creep into her voice. "You should be proud to name her as a Skyclan warrior. Besides, she was with her father and my clanmates! Sootface was right there."

"I don't care if Sootface was there," Jadestar snapped, looking down her muzzle at the she-cat reproachfully.

"I'm the one who leads my clanmates!" The Skyclan leader's tone was arrogant. Her lashing tail only vexed Lagoonstripe's anger, and as the two she-cats stepped closer to one another, their claws unsheathed and their ears flattened.

Jadestar doesn't trust any cat around her daughter, Crescentsky had time to think before her previous mentor could snap back.

"Then why did you curl your lip at Trufflefur being on the sunfall hunting patrol as well? He isn't your warrior!" The Riverclan warrior's voice swelled with fury as she condemned her.

"Don't think I didn't catch that!"

Jadestar's voice in turn filled the clearing gingerly. "It's because-... Well, if I told you that it would..."

The Skyclan leader flattened her ears. All of a sudden she looked like an unsure apprentice standing in the shadow of her interrogating mentor. Jadestar's claws were scouring so far into the grass that you could hardly see them.

What is she hiding? And what could the Skyclan leader possibly have against Trufflefur, a young Thunderclan tom? Crescentsky stared at them both, bewildered.

"Fine. I can't force you to tell us. Just know you're abusing that power in order to control your last remaining kin. Even a blind bat could see it." Lagoonstripe's tone was denouncing. "And you don't lead Trufflefur or us. So you can't dictate which cats go on patrol and with who. Not here you won't." Lagoonstripe's muzzle was a nose-length from the Skyclan leader's.

"Perhaps you're right. Me and you aren't deputies. But Sootface is," Jadestar gave a mild chuckle in a self-assured way.

"He should assign the patrols."

"Why, so you can tell him not to assign Rainpaw without you?" Crescentsky said it loud enough for the both of them to hear, but it was Sootface who reacted to her words. The burly tom swiveled his head from atop his flat stone, curling his lip belligerently.

Crescentsky's previous mentor was shaking her head as if Jadestar were mad.

"He's not Riverclan's deputy, so he won't be assigning patrols in our camp." Lagoonstripe hissed.

"Now stop changing the subject. You just trudged across Riverclan territory in order to find and disrupt our hunting patrol! There's been nothing wrong with the patrols before today," Lagoonstripe practically spat in the she-cat's face, the fur along her spine lifted.

"You create this problem and then say we need to change it? You caused it, Jadestar!" The Riverclan she-cat's ringed tail was fluffed up as she fought not to leap on top of the mottle-coated Jadestar.

Alpinefog emerged from the dirtplace's bush-ringed entrance, his fur ruffled as if he had already heard the arguing from afar. He strode across to meet them.

"Hey now. I'm sure there's a solution to this."

Rainpaw sauntered closer to Cheetah with her ears flattened. She looked depressed, her tail-tip motionless as it dragged along the earth.

"Are you okay?" Cheetah asked, and Rainpaw sat down with a thud.

"Yeah," she murmured in a reserved way, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. Crescentsky thought the she-cat looked a little embarrassed.

"I just wish I could do more things on my own. Become a warrior, you know. Or actually hang out with cats my age anywhere but in camp," she complained in a halfhearted mumble.

"I sort of know how you feel," Cheetah replied.

"Or at least I used to." She turned her head and looked at Tinyflame and Crescentsky with warmth in her gaze.

Crescentsky looked at the stout grey she-cat sitting beside her friend, thinking.

It sounds like she was robbed of the social experiences that other cats our age have had. Although Rainpaw still had her parents, Crescentsky couldn't help but feel that her circumstances were unfair.

She probably feels just like I felt, before I got my warrior name. I mean, she is older than me...

I should speak to Jadestar about it, even if it doesn't change anything. Just maybe not right now. The Skyclan leader and Lagoonstipe were still arguing, and Crescentsky felt that her mentor could hold her own during their disagreement.

She made sure to keep herself busy tugging the moss across the clearing, but kept stopping to listen in on the two heated she-cats. Their voices filled the clearing. Even Houndspots had awoken and peered out from the warriors den opening.

That sucks. He really needs his rest. Lagoonstripe had told her yesterday that his wound was now laced with a raging infection. And there was no cat to treat it until the medicine cat sign appeared.

Tinyflame drew up beside her. She heaved her giant moss bundle forward with her forepaws, pausing and then panting.

"Jadestar is causing too much tension within the clan." Crescentsky took the chance to say it, and her sister nodded agreeably.

"If you won't train your own apprentices or appoint of-age ones as warriors, then you aren't fit to be a leader."

Jadestar looked offended at that. Her muzzle creased as she lashed her tail from behind Alpinefog's broad shoulders.

A/N: Q1: Can you guess why Jadestar doesn't like Trufflefur?

Q2: Do you think that Trufflefur likes Crescentsky in a romantic way? Any answer is fair lol!