Leafpool sighed as she headed back to the camp with herbs clutched in her mouth; she was just so tired these days! She felt like a blundering fool, so fat. It was a wonder the clan hadn't noticed yet, after all, it was nearing leaf-bare.

There had been so many close encounters; Leafpool would've sworn that if the clan wasn't suspicious, Cinerpelt would most definitely be. After all, it was only after she had returned with Crowfeather that she had become this inattentive cat, even worse than the most inexperienced apprentice.

Her scent was most probably changing and it was quite a miracle that Cinderpelt hadn't noticed yet; this was mainly because Leafpool had taken to spending as little time with Cinderpelt as possible and as much time in the nursery as possible so she could pass her scent off as coming from the nursing queen's scents.

Briefly, Leafpool wondered when Mothwing was going to show up but was distracted again as Cinderpelt handed her herbs to help with Mousefur's sore pads, "Bring those to Mousefur immediately please, we all know how she is when she has to wait…" She suddenly sniffed curiously.

Hastily, Leafpool grabbed the herbs and darted out into the clearing and into the elder's den, hoping that Cinderpelt hadn't had a good, proper sniff. Chewing the leaves into pulp, she rubbed it gently into Mousefur's paws.

"Ah… that feels good," Mousefur purred. Leafpool nodded at her and continued to chew. Suddenly Berrypaw poked his head in.

"Leafpool? Mothwing's here."

Finally! Leafpool was thinking but she pretended to be concerned, "Why?"

"I don't know, you go find out, I'll finish with Mousefur's pads."

"Okay, thanks," Leapfool nodded at him before heading out.

Mothwing was deep in conversation with Cinderpelt and Firestar when Leafpool arrived to hear just the end, "So, if you could spare Leafpool without telling anyone about it, I'd be really grateful… Leapordstar doesn't even know that I really need help, she's too worried about the pride of her clan…" she broke off as if embarrassed that she was going against her leader's commands.

She's a very good actress, Leafpool thought.

Firestar was nodding thoughtfully, "It's fine, I understand how hard it must be for you to have had your mentor die so early in your training, and do not fear, I will not mention it to anyone. I am fine with Leafpool going to help you but the final decision is up to Cinderpelt," He nodded respectively to the medicine cat.

Everyone turned to Cinderpelt as she nodded carefully, "Okay, you can go Leafpool, but how long do you think it will be Mothwing?"

Mothwing frowned, as though thinking, "I don't know… maybe a moon, maybe even two. I'll try to have her back as soon as possible, I promise that."

Firestar nodded, "It'll be fine, we do not seem to have any looming battles coming up, we can spare her."

Cinderpelt agreed, "ThunderClan is lucky to have two experience medicine cats."

Leafpool nearly shouted with joy; no more sneaking around hoping that no one noticed her milky scent! She managed to contain it as they headed out of the camp and Mothwing led her to the outskirts of clan territory saying that she could stay there and that Mothwing had to go back to RiverClan now but that Leafpool needed to find a way to alert her once it was over so that she could drop the act.

Leafpool nodded her thanks, gratitude choking her throat. She settled down collecting moss for her nest and the necessary herbs as well as some food because she knew once she started to give birth, she'd be too exhausted to do anything else.

Meanwhile, back at camp, Squirrelflight was wondering about Leafpool's sudden disappearance. While the Clan bought Firestar and Leafpool's story that she had gone on a medicine cat duty, Squirrelflight didn't believe that for a moment. Leafpool had been acting strange for a while and there was also the fact that despite it being leaf-bare, she was still quite round. There was mystery going on and Squirrelflight was determined to solve it.

Padding into the medicine cat den while Cinderpelt was out, she sniffed at Leafpool's nest and gasped, for while the familiar scent of Leafpool was still there, it wasn't the same. There was a different sort of scent to it that Squirrelflight knew she had sniffed at somewhere. And sniffing deeper, she realized that there was a hint of Crowfeather buried too.

Squirrelflight gasped, She's not seeing Crowfeather still, is she? She tried to convince herself that Leafpool wasn't but the evidence was there, right in front of her. She frowned, she knew she had to get rid of this moss before it was obvious. She sighed and prepared herself for the apprentice task and she carefully rolled the used moss out of the den and replaced it. She carefully disheveled it slightly so that Cinderpelt would not notice a difference unless she actually sniffed at it.

There was definitely something going on with Leafpool, and the first way to figure it out was to figure out what that familiar scent was