The forest was still and quiet, and that was a problem. The birds no longer chirped and the only real noise was the soft lapping of the river as it ran the course preset many moons before any of them got there.

At least that remained the same.

A young black tom with amber eyes crouched in the bushes close to the river, watching the scene before him with horrified eyes. A tortoiseshell tom laid on the ground, marked by his wounds and covered in scarlet, so much blood…

A dark brown tom with black stripes, marked by almost as many wounds, loomed over the dead cat with a sneer plastered on his face.

This isn't happening…

It was. It was real, so real… the brown tom towered over the mauled body, blood on his claws and around his mouth and just blood everywhere! It soaked the clearing until even his sight turned red, red, red….

Quite suddenly, it turned dark brown.

"I told you," The large tom growled. "to go back to camp."

The smaller black tom opened his mouth to inhale a shaky breath. He didn't expect the words to pour out of his mouth.

"Are you going to kill me?" He didn't expect his voice to be so steady either.

"Do I have a reason to?" The dark brown tom asked.

"No," The black cat mumbled.

"Then there's nothing for you to worry about. Go back to camp, Ravenpaw. Tell them only that Redtail is dead." The black tom spared the dead tortoiseshell a glance and suddenly it hit him all over again. Redtail, the deputy of ThunderClan, was dead. Tigerclaw, his mentor, had killed him.

"No," He closed his eyes and whimpered.

"What?!" Tigerclaw snapped, but Ravenpaw backed into the brush, eyes squeezed shut and shaking his head.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" He wailed. His eyes snapped open and amber pooled into amber. "Do you realize what you've done?! You just killed a cat! Of your own Clan! Redtail was the deputy and you just …murdered him in cold blood! How could you?" His voice went quiet on the last part. "You took away Sandpaw's father, Tigerclaw! Redtail was Bluestar's friend! He was a loyal ThunderClan warrior! What in the name of StarClan were you thinking?!"

The black apprentice was shaking, his words quivered and he was wracked with sobs as the full force of what happened dawned on him again and again.

"I don't have to explain anything to you, Ravenpaw. Keep in mind that you are my apprentice and not the other way around. Compose yourself and go back to camp. You are not to say a word to anyone about what happened today other than to mention Redtail's death. Am I understood?" Tigerclaw's last words were a growl and his face was so close to Ravenpaw's that the black tom could feel his breath.

The scared apprentice scampered off, panting for air through heaved sobs and scrambling to get as far away from his mentor as possible. He could keep a secret, alright, but Tigerclaw didn't need to know that.

The first thing he did when he burst into camp was announce Redtail's death. He gave no more and no less to the Clan as a whole, but searched instead for Sandpaw, the daughter the deputy had left behind. She was, predictably enough, sitting with Dustpaw. There went the last shred of his pride and dignity as he crawled across camp to where the two sat.

"I couldn't do anything." He admitted when he reached the tan apprentice and her darker striped counterpart.

"What are you meowing about, Ravenpaw?"She snorted in exasperation. "Just leave me alone." Dustpaw chose this moment to sneer at his brother.

"You heard her, Ravenkit. Why don't you and Greykit chase a stone or something?"

Ravenpaw watched as his brother wrapped his tail around the down-trodden she-cat's shoulders and led her away.

"But it's my fault," He whimpered. He sighed and padded over to where Redtail's body was laid. Tigerclaw had returned shortly after with the deputy draped across his shoulders and the medicine cat had set to work preparing him for vigil.

"Ravenpaw!" Spottedleaf's yowl snapped him out of his thoughts and he uttered a small yelp at the sight of the medicine cat's furious glare. She didn't evevn pause as she scooped the younger apprentice up and dropped him into a nest in her den.

"I could have walked." He groused, embarrassed at the fuss she'd made.

"You would have collapsed with two steps and you know it. Tigerclaw was stupid not to bring you in here first thing." She growled under her breath about apprentices trying to be brave and getting themselves killed. He sighed and rested his head on his paws, trying desperately to rid himself of the day's previous events. He would keep the secret, just like Tigerclaw ordered.