A grey tom was wandering in the lakeshore, waiting for an arrival of another clan's she cat.

"Redstripe, where are you?"

There was a cat emerging from the bushes, but as she came closer, Stonefang recognized his leader, Dovestar. She asked, concerned,

"What are you doing wandering in the forest far past moonhigh?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I... decided to catch some fresh kill."

Stonefang felt guilty that he lied to his clan leader, but he could tell no cat that he was meeting another clan's cat every moonhigh. He remembered that he buried a water vole near the lakeshore, so he went and dug up the vole, checked if the vole was crow food yet , and delivered it to his clan leader.

"Well, thank you for the offering but you look absolutely famished."

She nudged the fresh kill towards his muzzle but he became hesitant.

"It's okay, Stonefang. You should know that not everything has to be for the clan leader. I'm going back to camp. I'll see you at sunrise."

Stonefang walked further away from camp when he heard a rustling in the bramble thickets. He crouched. After a few steps, a she cat the color of autumn leaves pounced onto Stonefang. He struggled to get her to release him, but all she did was say "A little late, you think?"

He was surprised that he didn't notice the cat he was looking for was pinning him down.

"I didn't mean to be late. My clan leader would have ripped my tail off if she found out what I was doing. Anyways, how long did I take?"

"Well, first of all, I've been waiting for like a whole moon which feels like a forever. Second of all, if you were caught up with Dovestar, you could of just made up an excuse and ran."

"I did make up an excuse and it took what was your excuse. Was it as mouse brained as you are?I told her I was restless, so I was going hunting. You know that I love you, but what will we do when the time comes that someone finds out?Stonefang,I

Stonefang looks at the glimmering she cat with horror planted on his face.

"How could that possibly happen? If we have difficulties surviving, we'd have to come back to the clans and they will find out we betrayed the warrior code..."