I love this story. I'm keeping up even with school going on! :D

Meowy Shadows: I'm a bit surprised at your review. I'm not saying ShadowClan have bad cats at all. Who says there even are bad cats? No cat is bad, just misleaded and misunderstood. Good and bad are all sides of the same story- and unreliable ways to tell which one is true. They're my favorite, actually. The plot just came to them, and who cares if Cliff-Fall doesn't like ShadowClan? He is not the narrator or me or the judge. Maybe he's the one that's misleaded. I just thought ShadowClan and LightClan would make a good ironic scene.

I'm going to be doing books for the other clans, too. I did ShadowClan first because I like them the most.

Chapter 9 Read the message at top.

I gasped for breath. My throat suddenly felt parched- and awfully exposed. It was surprising how quick a threat could make your brain think otherwise. "Uh, guh," I choked. I probably could say more, as his claws weren't on my throat (yet), but I just wanted him to get off of me entirely.

Narrowing his eyes, his tawny, dark-gray striped fur bristled along his neck, and then slowly dropped back down. His hazel eyes were still flashing distrust, however, and it didn't look like it was going anywhere anytime soon. "Fine, have it your way," he snarled, finally releasing his tight grip on me. I fell down backwards for a moment before regaining my balance and getting up on all fours. "I'll answer you question. Then your turn to speak. Got that little spiel?"

Nodding numbly, I leaned in closer to listen closely. "Then hear my words. I'm just going to give them a word of advice, nothing more, nothing less. 'Watch your step, because we're keeping an eye on you. Do anything funny, and you'll be in some real trouble soon.' That's all; after all..." his voice softened. "We just want the best. For... everyone."

Something about the way he paused before the word 'everyone' caught my attention and made me want to hesitate, but after a few more moments of decision and searching his eyes for truth, I found real love and hurt in there and began, carefully, "My mentor. He's been saying things like that to Creekstar. Something about other lives."

Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the part about Creekstar, but now the words were out, and it was already too late. Cliff-Fall tightened his shoulders. "It's that old hag, Shinelake, isn't it?" he growled. It was an especially low sound coming from his throat, even for him. "I should have known."

"No... it's a prisoner of war called Leaf," I said, thinking fast. Shinelake? Couldn't say that I've never heard of her before. She had a spotless tortoiseshell fur, with unusual white spots like paws running along her pelt. Like those of a leopard- legend says that they were huge beasts that could tear a cat apart within heartbeats, but anyway, they were just legends. Shinelake always seemed a little snobbish to me, and she would have made a more Dark Forest-ish cat than Leaf; she was not as dark and mysterious, however.

There was a flash of satisfaction and also something that looked like doubt in his two, squinted, narrow eyes. "Hm, ah, yes, her."

Something about the way that he said it made it clear to me that he had absolutely no idea who we were really talking about. "Yeah, Leaf," I confirmed. "It's a 'he,' not a 'she,' by the way." I still was debating about whether or not I should trust my father so easily, but he seemed to have real emotion, and cats with emotion are more reasonable when arguing with them. Or the other way around, I wasn't sure of that yet. But the way he attacked me...

That didn't exactly sound like something a dad would do. "We'll... do something about her- I mean, him, then," Cliff-Fall said as he grimaced.

"What do you mean, do something about Leaf?" I asked suspiciously. "That, and what salt do you have on Shinepool? She never talks about you, and the elders never say anything about it. That's saying something, anyway. The elders know all the gossip around, and this sounds like one."

Cliff-Fall snapped. He was clearly on his last nerve. "I don't have any quarrel with her!" he roared, turning around. I watched, momentarily stunned, as he stormed out of the den entrance. Without another glance back at his own daughter, he told the guards briskly, "Do not tell her anything. I'm warning you."

No reply from the guards. There was a rustle as he headed between a stream of bushes into the rest of his camp, and then there was no more. Never tell someone to not do something, especially when that certain someone is a newly-trained apprentice whose name is Glowpaw, I thought craftily, approaching the two wary-looking cats who stood guard in front of the den entrance. "Hey, I mean- ahem," I said, pretending to cough. "Please tell me, young gentlemen... I have a strange question for you. What have been my father's love interests?"

The left one from my perspective, a decent-looking tawny tom with large, but dulled green eyes, shrugged as he exchanged glances with his friend to the right. "Uh, sorry, missy, I'm not sure if Larktoe and I are supposed to be talking about this to you just right now-"

"Oh, come now, Duskleap," Larktoe said in a particularly mocking voice. "Ze boss didn't order us to not tell her zat. Zey never talked about no love interests during ze whole conversation inside ze tiny, squished den." He nodded toward the space behind me. "You know your name is not really Duskleap, Lilac."

He had a funny accent about him, I pondered. Must be from somewhere else. Cats outside of LightClan were dangerous, I heard Reedflower say one day. They were ferocious beasts with long, curving fangs and horns growing from the top of their heads. She had just been getting excited by a story about an encounter with those supposed monsters when Clouddrifter promptly told her to shut up. You'll be scaring the kits, he scolded. Like he always does.

Larktoe didn't seem to have either of those qualities, but I was still wary. Kithood experiences and all.

Duskleap growled, but it was a playful growl, filled with love. "I see. Then you go on. I don't want to be the one to get in trouble."

"Be it your way," Larktoe said. Happily. "Zen the story will begin." He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again a few heartbeats later. "Ze boss was always a picky little one. He never told me full story, no, but I do hear, zat the rumors are saying... zat once he set his eyes on a particularly attracting young she-cat, he never fell in love again, never. He had two kits in total, two and that was all, but he only loved one of them. StarClan knows why: isn't one newborn kit identical to another?"

That would not be me, I thought bitterly. Flutterpaw was always the best at everything, the nicest, the kindest, and the most caring, although not necessarily the most smartest. I could only assume that she had the same qualities as a small kit- however that worked.

But Larktoe was not finished yet. "Ze kit zat he loved, it soon vanished the night it was born. No one knows why. Just there in nursery one moment, and zen ze next, gone. Zere was nothing, no clues at all, no. But rumor has it that he knows something about disappearance, and-" he lowered his voice. Clearly, he shouldn't be talking about this to me right now.

"Zen, my boss knew it was unsafe for his remaining kit to stay with him- for reasons only he knows, so off he went. Swapped it with two kits of another litter, and of unsuspecting parent. Parents, ahem, I'm still not very fluent in zis language. It all happened in same night: pregnancy of two litters of two pairs of parents, disappearance, swapping. Ze mother that gave birth to other litter died during process, and ze father... out mourning by her body. Unsuspecting, as I said. He ended up thinking he lost one of his kits overnight, but that's a story for later. Never questioned why 'his' kit didn't look like him." He stopped, and took a deep breath. "Zat, is all I know."

My heart stopped in its place, frozen for what could be eternity for all I knew. "The remaining kit that was swapped by my father... was her name Pebblepaw, by any chance?"

Go back to the chapter where Pebblepaw was being described as opposed to her parents.