Chapter 3

Flowpaw paces outside of Hazelstripe's den, her pawsteps echoing off the walls of camp. The only thing she can think about it Lightpaw. Blackmoon has been stopping by, trying to get the medicine cat to let her inside to see her daughter, but she was turned away every time. Flowpaw has been having no better luck.

"Hey, Flowpaw?" a quiet voice asks.

Flowpaw lifts her head. Hazelstripe's apprentice, the dark gray Larkpaw, is looking at her intently.

"I can't tell you much about your sister," Larkpaw continues. "But... she'll be fine. Her left hind leg is broken, but it's nothing we can't fix. It might take a while, but I'm positive that she'll get better." The apprentice nods resolutely at that last bit, her expression warm and confident.

"Oh, StarClan," Flowpaw sighs, letting out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding. "Thank you so much, Larkpaw."

The dark gray she-cat smiles warmly and pads back into the medicine cat's den, leaving Flowpaw dazed and relieved outside.

I have to let Blackmoon know, she thinks after a moment. Her mother is probably worried sick, waiting for news. Flowpaw trots out of the medicine cat's clearing and into the main camp, her spirits higher than they have been in days.

"Blackmoon!" the white she-cat calls to her mother. Blackmoon looks up from the piece of prey she is busy picking at near the fresh-kill pile.

"What is it?" she asks, her eyes wary, like she's hoping for good news but expects the worst.

It takes the white apprentice a few moments to catch her breath. Her mother waits nervously. Finally, she meows, "Larkpaw told me that Lightpaw will be alright! Her leg is broken. It might just take a while."

The white and black warrior's face loses the anxiety it has been holding for the past days. "Thank StarClan," she murmurs, tension seeping out of her shoulders. The two stare at each other for a moment, relieved beyond measure.

"I heard your sister is going to be okay," a voice says from behind Flowpaw. She turns around and bows her head at her mentor, Iceclaw, as he approaches the fresh-kill pile. "And that means that I can start training you again. I trust you'll be able to concentrate better than last time?"

Flowpaw nods sheepishly, remembering how she could barely listen to Iceclaw in their training session a few days ago because she was so worried about Lightpaw. "When do we start?" she asks.

"Now," he says, nodding at Blackmoon politely. "Do you mind?" he addresses her.

"Not at all," she mews and looks warmly at Flowpaw. "Have fun," she says.

Flowpaw waves to her mother with her tail and hurries after her mentor. His blue-gray pelt looks odd against the white snow.

"So," he says as they burst out of the thorny tunnel to camp. "Today is a good day to hunt. Leaf-bare is almost over, and the animals will be getting curious about what it's like outside their dens. Ready to try it?"

The white apprentice nods breathlessly, looking up at the cliff in front of her. Without hesitating, she steps up and jumps from ledge to ledge until she arrives, her chest heaving, at the top. She looks down as Iceclaw follows, imagining what Lightpaw saw when she fell. She prays that something like that never happens to her.

"Nice job," Iceclaw says as he arrives next to her. He pauses for a moment. "My mentor, Sunpelt, he said a few things that I still remember. One of them was, 'if you think you're going to fail, you're going to fail.' I've been thinking about that a lot since your sister got hurt." He looks at his apprentice. "Flowpaw, would you promise me something?"

Flowpaw looks up at Iceclaw, surprised by the sudden change of mood. "Yes," she says, her voice a lot stronger than she thought it would be.

"Promise that you will believe that you can succeed, not fail. Can you do that?"

Flowpaw nods, thinking about what might have been going through Lightpaw's mind as she stepped down the wall of the camp. Maybe she expected to fail. Maybe that's why she did.

"Okay," Iceclaw says after a few beats. "Sorry for getting all wise and solemn there. It just occurred to me and I wanted to pass that on to someone."

"It's fine," Flowpaw says, still pondering Iceclaw's - well, Sunpelt's - words. If you think you're going to fail, you're going to fail.

"Ready to hunt?" Iceclaw meows. Not waiting for an answer, he dashes off into the forest, weaving around the barren trees. Flowpaw scrambles after him, taking a few moments to admire ThunderClan's territory as it whizzes past her. The trees are laden with fragments of ice and what little undergrowth remains is covered in frost. Everything shimmers ethereally.

Suddenly, Iceclaw stops, causing Flowpaw to almost run into him. He signals for her to be quiet and to stay where she is. His paws move silently over the snow as he stalks forward, his eyes fixed on... well, Flowpaw can't see anything there. Nothing is moving, but Iceclaw seems to sense that something warm and meaty is nearby.

Without a warning, the gray warrior pounces under a bare bush, emerging a few seconds later with a small, furry animal in his claws. He tosses it to Flowpaw and she bends down to study it.

"That's a vole," he announces. The creature looks like a mouse, but is wider with a shorter tail. When Flowpaw puts her paw on its body, it's still warm.

"How did you do that?" she asks, still staring at the prey in front of her. Funny how for so long, the vole was a vole, but in one moment, it was transformed into prey.

Iceclaw crouches down, signalling for his apprentice to do the same. His tail hovers barely a mouse-length above the ground, probably to keep it from making unnecessary noise. Even with no experience, Flowpaw can tell which of Iceclaw's muscles are tight and ready to spring into action and which are relaxed so that the way he moves is fluid and silent.

Her mentor takes a few steps, not making any sound.

"That is how I did it," he says and straightens up.

Flowpaw runs through what she saw him do in her mind, trying to remember how each part of his body was positioned. She looks at him and he nods, encouraging her to go ahead and try it. She lowers herself and lifts her tail, tightening her back but keeping her paws lightly placed on the ground. She pads forward, every part of her focusing on being silent and smooth.

"You can get up," Iceclaw says. Flowpaw relaxes her muscles and realizes that they're sore and aching. "That was... well, impressive. Where did you learn all that?"

"From watching you," Flowpaw shrugs.

"Really?" Iceclaw says incredulously. Then he pauses. "Wait, really?"

Flowpaw shrugs again. "I guess."

"Well, this is going to be easy for me," he laughs, gesturing for her to assume her hunting stance again.

He paces around her, studying her form. "When you first discover that there's prey nearby, you need to figure out which way the wind is blowing. If it's blowing from behind you, then the prey will be able to smell you, and then there will be no prey. If it's blowing from your front, you can smell the prey, but it can't smell you." He moves around to her right side. "Pretend I'm a mouse. Where would you go so that I can't tell you're there?"

Flowpaw perks her ears, listening for any wind. The air is still.

"Is that a trick question?" she asks.

Iceclaw laughs, his eyes surprised. "You got me. There's not even a little breeze today." He pads back to his apprentice and lays his tail on her back. "You're very tense here. All you need is enough energy bundled up to let you catch the prey - no extra. Otherwise you'll land harder on your paws as you're stalking it."

Flowpaw nods, trying to loosen the tightness along her spine. Her muscles stop protesting and some of the aching fades away.

"See?" Iceclaw asks, gesturing at her quivering legs. "You're muscles are still building up, so training will be hard at first, but it will get easier. Just keep yourself relaxed. You can get up now." He bends down and scoops up the vole.

Flowpaw sighs and stands, following her mentor as he leads the way through the trees. With a start, she notices the quickly fading light filtering weakly through the bare branches above her.

"It's really late," she says.

"Well, I guess it is," Iceclaw calls back from in front of her. He speeds up, dashing around tree trunks and under prickly bushes. It's all that Flowpaw can do to keep up. She stops thinking about her aching legs and concentrates on the trees flashing by and the wind in her fur. Before she knows it, they have arrived at the edge of camp, looking down over it.

"Remember -" Iceclaw starts.

"Don't think you're going to fail," Flowpaw finishes, giving him a glance before stepping down over the edge, balancing on each pawhold on her way down. If you think you're going to fail, you're going to fail. Flowpaw lands on the ground, her legs shaking furiously.

"You look exhausted," Iceclaw notes as he makes his way down. "And it wasn't even a full day of training. Are you ready for tomorrow?"

Flowpaw nods, a new rush of energy coursing through her. If this is what training is like, she could do it forever. "Definitely," she meows, bouncing twice before freezing in her position and looking up at her mentor, embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm just really excited."

He shakes his head, laughing, and leads the way through the tunnel. Flowpaw hurries after him and scampers straight to the medicine cat's clearing. Lightpaw would want to hear about how well she trained today, assuming she was allowed to have visitors.

"Oh, hi, Flowpaw!" Larkpaw says as Flowpaw bursts into the little clearing. The dark gray apprentice puts down the piles of leaves and seeds she was sorting and trots over.

"How can you see in the dark?" Flowpaw gestures toward the piles of herbs.

"I don't need to see. I can smell the scent of each type of herb and if it's too stale to be used or if there's a worm inside it." Larkpaw grins, like she had been practicing this sentence.

"Wow," Flowpaw says. It comes out more sarcastically than she meant to, but Larkpaw doesn't seem to notice. Actually, Flowpaw is genuinely impressed that finding herbs and hunting for prey are so similar - both are based off of scent. "I was wondering if I could visit Lightpaw?"

"Um, I think that's alright," Larkpaw glances back at the den she shares with Hazelstripe, the medicine cat. "She's doing a lot better than this morning."

Flowpaw's eyes light up and she hurries as fast as she dares into the cave, her eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light. Lightpaw is curled up in the far corner on a nest that reeks of fresh herbs. She doesn't look too bad.

"Ah, hello," Hazelstripe's raspy voice greets her. "Feel free to wake her up, but I don't know if she'll be okay with it." He chuckles softly and turns back to his work. Flowpaw nods in return, her heart pounding, and settles down next to her sister.

"Lightpaw?" she whispers. Please, StarClan, let her be okay...

Her sister's eyes open a little, then widen when she realizes who is in front of her. "Flowpaw!" she mews excitedly, brushing her tail along her sister's pelt. "I missed you so much."

"Me too," Flowpaw says, trying to convey all the happiness she's feeling in her voice. "Are you feeling alright?"

Lightpaw looks down at her hind legs, her expression glum. "Well, as alright as I can be with my left leg broken," she huffs.

Flowpaw nods, for once at a loss for words. Lightpaw seems to be taking it well. Flowpaw knows that her sister is stronger than most people think she is, and that she'll have no trouble getting through this.

"Well, how is training?" Lightpaw asks, changing the subject.

"I'm starting to learn how to hunt," Flowpaw replies, perking up again. "Iceclaw says I'm doing really well!"

"Wow," her sister sighs, he white pelt glowing in the pale light. Her expression turns sad and dejected.

"Sorry that you can't train with me," Flowpaw shrugs. "But you'll be better before you know it!"

"Yeah, I will," Lightpaw mutters. Flowpaw's optimism doesn't seem to be reaching her.

Flowpaw leans back a little and studies her sister. Her eyes are stormy and her mouth is set in a frown. Flowpaw has never seen her this bitter before.

"I think it's time for the patient to sleep," Hazelstripe pipes up from behind the two sisters.

Lightpaw nods. "Goodnight, Flowpaw," she murmurs and closes her eyes, her expression... relieved, maybe? Flowpaw can't be too sure. The emotions she's seeing in her sister are all new to her.

"Goodnight," Flowpaw meows, padding out into the clearing again. Her earlier good spirits have been put down a bit by her sister's sullen attitude. Larkpaw is still hunched over her herbs, muttering under her breath. She doesn't look up as Flowpaw passes her.

As she enters the main camp, she sees her mother outside the warriors' den, sharing tongues with her mate - Flowpaw's father - Foxgust. They look happy and peaceful and untroubled. Part of Flowpaw wants to share the good news - that Lightpaw can take visitors - but the other part wants to keep it from them, in case Lightpaw turns bitter toward them too.

"Oh, well," she sighs and walks into the apprentice's den, maneuvering around sleeping cats on the ground. She curls up in her nest, the cold seeping into her bones. This is a problem for another day.

Please let Lightpaw get the training she deserves, she prays as she drifts to sleep. She deserves it. Even if she expects to fail.

O O O

"Ah, so he told the little one that old adage I always said," a midnight-black tom rumbles. His voice seems to reverberate through the air around him.

"All part of the plan," a russet and white she-cat responds from next to him.

"You always do seem to have one of your plans, Ashstar," the tom shakes his head. "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"For this plan to work, I need you to trust me, Sunpelt. I need all of StarClan to trust me. Without the river, the three can't unite." Ashstar glances around warily before lowering her voice. "And you know how hard it will be to unite them already."

"Peace, Ashstar," Sunpelt says. "Your plans are not flawed. But you rely too much on yourself. You need to let the three realize their path on their own. Otherwise they are nothing but pawns. You've already interfered too many times. They need to find their own way."

"But -" Ashstar tries.

Sunpelt looks directly in her eyes, his dark gaze bold and wise. "You've done far too much. The mirror died because of you, because of your plan. You have no right to send her back to the living world."

"How do you know about that?" Ashstar says, her eyes fearful.

"You asked me to trust you... well, I'm asking you to trust me. The mirror is alive once again, and she is the only one of the three that knows of the prophecy. She is your final play, Ashstar. There is nothing more StarClan can let you do. Trust me when I tell you that you need to trust the cats below. The warriors, the elders, the queens, the apprentices... even the little kits. All of them have done nothing but believe in us, waiting for our guidance. Now it's their turn to act."

Ashstar nods reluctantly. "I trust you, Sunpelt. I trust you more than I trust most other cats. But you know how difficult it will be to bring the three together. I have one more layer to my plan. Then I am finished. That layer won't come into play until the three are all warriors, but trust me when I tell you this: three is a special number. It keeps coming back to us, in prophecies, in signs... like in Firestar, Graystripe, and Sandstorm, and in Jayfeather, Dovewing, and Lionblaze. It will come back to us again. You need to trust that my actions will be the ones that will bring the three together."

Sunpelt hesitates, Ashstar's works sinking in. Finally, he murmurs, "I will trust you, until things go wrong. As they always do."