Rookpaw trailed the patrol at an easy pace. She never got tired in these dreams. The ache of her body from her training was gone too.

So far, nothing of particular interest had happened. A regular patrol, by all accounts. They walked, they marked the borders, looked for anything suspicious and so on. Smallpaw had to keep being called into check, but things were otherwise peaceful. Rookpaw had found the walk at least mildly interesting… Some of the trees were smaller than before; plant life there or not there compared to the Gorseclan territory she knew. It was also very dry; the sunlight beating down oppressively, the grass around them brown. If she could feel, the black cat was sure it would be uncomfortably hot. It had to be greenleaf; and one where it had not rained for a while.

Yet despite the peace around the patrol, Rookpaw felt a sense of foreboding in the air. Not all of her strangely real dreams had been significant, but she felt like this one was… Nothing had happened. But something was going to.

"Fieldclan border ahead. Keep low." Raincloud said as he dropped into a creeping stalk, the two she-cats behind him following suit. Rookpaw wondered if he was a senior warrior, while she reminded herself that she didn't need to crouch too. He had many scars, and a silvering muzzle that spoke of a cat that had moons of experience behind him.

Briarwing moved softly across the ground. She was young and beautiful. A cat that was probably a newer warrior… Smallpaw likely her first apprentice. The little she-cat herself had eyes glowing with excitement. Rookpaw wondered how long she had been an apprentice for.

Curious, Rookpaw decided to look up ahead of the patrol. The fence that marked the Fieldclan border lay ahead, yet the border marker's scent wasn't there; instead it lay just on the other side of an empty river. So, this Gorseclan had a little less territory than the one Rookpaw knew.

In the distance, on the other side of the fence, Rookpaw could see the tall shape of a twoleg. She had only seen one once before. When Icestar was showing her the territory, she saw one tending to the beehives in the south. Icestar had warned her to be wary of them, and so instinctively she found herself lowering her body like the patrol that was approaching her.

Silly, she thought with a little shake of her head as she got up again after remembering where she was. They can't see me. Cats couldn't, so why would a twoleg? Embarrassed at herself just a little, she looked around some more. She couldn't see any Fieldclan cats, but then they could be hiding in the tall grass of their territory… The slight breeze blew the patrol's scent towards the border, not the other way around. The conditions made Rookpaw worry that there was a Fieldclan group ready to ambush the little patrol.

And then something caught her eye; a shadow, quick movement. Rookpaw looked back towards the twoleg. It was still pretty far away, ambling along. But what was rushing at speed towards them in front of that twoleg sent Rookpaw's blood running cold.

Dogs. Two dogs. A small scruffy one not much bigger than a cat was ahead; a big, muscular brindle thing thundering behind with a long tongue hanging from huge jaws.

Rookpaw hoped that neither would notice the patrol, who were still oblivious to their presence behind her. They couldn't see them; they couldn't smell them with the wind blowing the other way.

The scruffy one stopped by the fence, head turning towards the cats. Beady eyes almost seemed to stare right at Rookpaw, and she found herself holding her breath in fear. Drool wetted a hairy muzzle as the small dog sniffed. It's ears came up, causing the bigger one's attention to be drawn too. They started getting through the fence.

No. No, no, no, no, no! Rookpaw turned and ran back down the slope that met the riverbed toward the patrol. "Run!" She cried in vain, knowing they couldn't hear her. "Run, run please! There are dogs; you have to run!" Her yowls didn't reach them. It was the twoleg yelling fruitlessly that did.

"What was that?" Smallpaw perked her ears up as Rookpaw got to their sides, reaching frantically with paws that just went right through their solid forms.

"You have to run! You have to go now!" The cat who was not really there continued to cry desperately. "Please!"

"Sounds like a twoleg." Raincloud grunted. His ears swiveled. He could likely hear the dogs as they approached. He raised his body up so he could see over the grass. He looked up to meet the gaze of the smaller dog, only catlengths away. "DOGS!" His screech pierced Rookpaw like a claw. The patrol took off, leaving gouges in the ground with haste of their movement.

"Run Smallpaw!" Rookpaw heard Briarwing cry over the dog's excited yips and growls. "Don't stop running! Get up a tree!" The patrol split off into different directions. The big dog followed Raincloud, the hairy one shot after Briarwing.

Rookpaw didn't know what to do. She had found herself frozen when the dogs passed by her. A shaking ball of hair. If she was really here, she would be dead. As it stood, the beasts ran by her. To them, she was an invisible ghost, cursed only to watch.

The heartrending scream from Raincloud as the big dog tore him apart, over the twoleg's distant shouts, was something that she'd never forget.

Rookpaw had to look away. She had to run away on stumbling paws. She went in the direction the other two had gone. The air was thick with fear and blood scent.

She watched as Briarwing made it up the nearest tree; scrambling and leaving bits of bark to tumble down to the barking mutt below. The little dog whined as it looked up at her hissing form, jumping to try and reach her a few times.

To her horror, Rookpaw then noticed Smallpaw had come back. She saw her dark head poking out of the bushes nearby, watching her mentor with wide eyes. "No, you idiot!" Rookpaw yowled, knowing it was pointless. "Go away!"

The dog circled the tree a few times. Briarwing then saw Smallpaw too. "Smallpaw no! I told you to run! Get out of here!" She screeched at her apprentice. "Before it smells you!"

The dog looked up the tree at Briarwing's yowls, tilting its head, nose working away. Yet Smallpaw seemed unable or unwilling to move. "GO!" Briarwing and Rookpaw yelled in unison.

That seemed to jerk the ticked tabby into action, and she turned. But the rustle of the shrubbery around her caught the dog's ear, and it noticed her striped tail vanish. It went after her with another high-pitched bark. "Smallpaw it's coming!" The mentor cried after her apprentice. Rookpaw could see how conflicted she was. Come down and risk her own life to try and help, or sit there and wait and hope? It was a choice Rookpaw would wish on no cat. Briarwing, with clenched teeth, chose to wait, digging her claws into the tree with frustration, so Rookpaw followed instead.

She couldn't help; she couldn't get hurt either… But a morbid part of her had to know what happened. Her feet were fleet as the wind, and she caught up with the dog first. Smallpaw wasn't far ahead, and the hairy little creature was gaining. For some reason Smallpaw ran past trees or tall rocks or other means of safety. She had to have just lost her head. All she could think was to run.

Rookpaw prayed to Starclan that she would make it; that the apprentice would get away. But it was a pointless sentiment.

It had all already happened.

The dog latched onto Smallpaw's face when it caught her.

Rookpaw suddenly fell back into blackness as teeth met flesh; the other apprentice's wails fading away.

….

"Would you cut it out!?" Silverpaw's annoyed growl brought Rookpaw back to her senses. Opening her eyes wide, she saw her sister standing over her in her nest, a paw lifted like she'd been prodding her. Outside it was dark.

"I… sorry." Rookpaw mumbled as she tried to get her breathing under control. She was panting, shivering and on edge, like she was still in the dream. "Nightmare…"

Silverpaw leered down at her. "You were flailing and mewing all over the place. You kicked me in the face!"

"Sorry." She repeated, ducking her head with flat ears, consciously aware of how her hackles were still up. "I'll… go get some air."

"Yeah well don't wake me when you come back in!" Silverpaw huffed, flopping back down in her nest. The twitch of Cavepaw's ear next to her made Rookpaw wonder if he was awake too, but he didn't make any move to show it. Further back in the den, Pebblepaw snored next to Honeypaw. Applepaw lay on his back, mouth slightly agape. At least she didn't wake everyone.

In the camp clearing the air was cool, but not unpleasant. The stars shone brightly above in a clear sky; half moon hanging in its centre. It really was the middle of the night.

Rookpaw sat just outside the den, looking skyward while she calmed herself down. In, out, in out. That… that was awful. And she hadn't been able to do anything for those poor cats.

Had that really happened?

None of those cats were familiar to her… only something about Smallpaw nagged at her memory… but the apprentice had surely died like Raincloud…

She was looking across the camp to the elders den when it finally hit her. Why Smallpaw looked a little familiar… of course, she was so stupid! She hadn't thought of it before because "small" wasn't an unusual name for a cat… and she looked so different now. Rookpaw had only known her as a withered creature with untidy fur and grey hairs everywhere. But it had to be, there was no way it wasn't!

The one-eyed elder; Smallstep. A cat who never told the story of how she had come to have only one eye. Rookpaw knew; she'd heard every elder story there was to hear. Silverpaw had asked her once, and the elder had spat that it wasn't a story she wished to share.

Rookpaw's dreams were in the past. And now, she had a way to prove it.