Chapter 20 - continued from Chapter 14

The first faint streaks of dawn stained the coal-black sky. The starless night spread like a sheet over the sleeping cats, disintegrating into rays of light as the sun rose weakly over the mountainous horizon, warming the den with golden light. In her bedding, Hazelpaw kicked and thrashed with all the might in her limbs. "No, don't go!" she begged in her sleep. "Don't leave me! Tell me more!"

The cat in a nearby clump of strewn mossy bedding jumped to her paws. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Hazelpaw blinked open one eye. Pale, streaming light flooded into her vision and she battered it out, moving her eyelids in rapid synchronisation. "Y-Yewpaw…?" she mumbled shakily.

Yewpaw's spine was arched and her fur stuck out at odd angles. Digging her claws into the den floor, she flashed her teeth and snarled, seething, "Why were you yowling in your sleep? Some of us here want to get a good night's rest, you know."

The flooding memory of her nightmare stung Hazelpaw like a thousand hornets. Who had been that strange cat from her dream? Why had she been in a cave? And, most importantly, why had StarClan come to visit her? She was just an ordinary apprentice!

"Well?" Yewpaw's gaze was narrowed and she twitched a whisker contemptuously. "Go on. What was your dream about?"

Hazelpaw's mind span in a thousand different directions. She felt as though she was being torn in two by twin, hungry pairs of snapping jaws, neither of which wouldn't let go. Fear pummelled her heart. What was she going to say?

The dream couldn't have been real. Trying to blame her wild imaginings on something logical, Hazelpaw looked up defiantly at Yewpaw, though her eyes were scarred and sunken from exhaustion. No way was she announcing to the apprentice den what her dream had been about, real or not! "I— I just had a bad nightmare, that's all."

Yewpaw smirked. "I thought you would. Haunted by guilt much, crowsniffer?"

The jab shot at Hazelpaw like a thorn piercing through her fur, and her heart sank. Skytail—her old mentor—was dead. She would never hunt with him again, never share a training session with him, never be praised or scolded by his gentle tongue. How could she bear with the pain?

And Yewpaw—she thought she was so brilliant, just because everybody else suspected that Hazelpaw herself had committed the murder! Forcing herself to stagger up, she stifled a yawn and glared squarely at Yewpaw, trying to make her muscles look lean and tough. "What do you know about Skytail's death? You weren't with the other group of cats at the time shortly after he went missing. I wonder were you were."

For a moment Yewpaw stood dumbstruck, the bright accusing light from her eyes temporarily fading. She looked as if she didn't know what to say. Then her ears flattened and her face bore a look that was absolutely furious. "Who are you to speak? I hate you! Mind your own business!"

Hazelpaw's spine bristled, but she felt with a pang of satisfaction that she had hit something sensitive in Yewpaw. "Well?" she pressed on decidedly. "Where were you?"

Yewpaw arched her spine and continuously sheathed and unsheathed her claws in an endless pattern. "I— I just fell behind the group, that's all. A bramble tendril wrapped around my pad, and I couldn't get free. I-I thought I could manage by myself, so I didn't call for help, but it took me a while. After I freed myself, I went to catch up with the group, that's all." Her small black nostrils flared for a second and she deliberately looked away.

To Hazelpaw, the story about a bramble tendril didn't seem convincing at all.

"How do you know the exact same didn't happen to me then?"

"What?" Yewpaw's fur bristled with indignation. "How come you were found by Skytail's body then? When he was dead?"

Hazelpaw was hugely tempted to whip out a claw and rake her claws across the yellow she-cat's nose. "You're a liar!" she spat.

"No, you're a murderer!"

Hazelpaw, without thinking, reared back, before plunging forward, slamming into Yewpaw and knocking her over. The latter kicked and thrashed desperately, squealing, and trying to get free.

Hazelpaw could hardly care. Pummelling her front paws with all the power she could muster, Yewpaw lay pinned under her, and a glimmer of satisfaction popped up in her mind. She's mine now!

"Stop!" Hazelpaw felt firm teeth meet her scruff, and she was pulled powerfully off Yewpaw. Paws flailing wildly, her eyes still blazed with fire and she hissed in vain attempts to claw her enemy's fur. The jaws set her down firmly, and she gazed up at Shaggypaw's furious expression. "Have you got bees in your brain? Just what did you think you were doing?"

At once, Hazelpaw felt her insides burn with shame. What had she done? She had openly attacked Yewpaw! That just gave the others more reason to think she was wild now. Shifting uncomfortably, her ears flattening meekly, she looked down. "She called me a murderer!"

"And you called her a liar," Shaggypaw pointed out promptly. "Both of you should be ashamed. We were all in for a good night's sleep, and we didn't expect to wake up to the sound of you two bickering like a pair of squawking birds!"

The words were flung to Hazelpaw, whom they felt like insults to. It still wasn't fair. It was much worst to be accused of being a murderer than a liar! Feeling the frost melt from her heart, she realised how foolish she had been. Shaggypaw was right. She and Yewpaw had disturbed every other cat in the den's sleep. Guiltily, she knew that if two cats woke her up by arguing she'd have their tails off.

And Shaggypaw—what must he think of her now? To him, was she an annoying selfish cat seeking attention? Or worse, a killer? Her insides were turned up-side down at the thought, and she shuddered. He was right. She did have bees in her brain—to embarrass herself in front of him like that. Why didn't she know better?

"I'm sorry," she muttered, and she lifted her low-hanging gaze to Yewpaw's smug smirk. What a fox-heart! Hazelfur wanted to claw her ears till they bled, but she forced herself to give off only a frosty look of poison. Their looks crossed, and both had narrowed eyes. Hazelpaw knew that Yewpaw had won the battle.

Suddenly Mistpaw jerked her body up. "What's going on?" she muttered groggily. "StarClan spare us. All I heard was arguing and you scolding Hazelpaw and Yewpaw, Shaggypaw."

Shaggypaw shrugged. "It's all right. You can go back to sleep."

But Mistpaw stretched up in a huge yawn, blinking out the weak rays of sunlight filtering through her eyelids. "No, it's fine, I'm going out to hunt. Have any of us realized that for some of us, this is the last time in our lives when we will wake up in this den?" Hazelpaw knew she meant herself, Shaggypaw, and her.

"Actually, you're right," Dawnpaw remarked, scratching his ear as he stirred in his bedding.

"Will you all be quiet? I'm trying to sleep!" complained Russetpaw with a hint of good humor.

Hazelpaw realised with an overwhelming pang that Mistpaw was right—this was the last time that she would be waking up here. Fighting the urge to collapse, it hit her painfully that she had spent the time arguing with Yewpaw. What a waste of a last morning.

Furiously, she swung the smug yellow cat a cool, ice-touched glare, before stalking out of the den, head held high.

The sun was drowning across the horizon, and sending shattered pools of amber light across the camp. Itching her ears, Hazelpaw nipped down to give her chest fur a rough lick. She was curled up in camp near the nursery where she had had a good long nap all day. Her strength replenished from an almost-sleepless night of tossing and turning, she stirred and got up to groom her pelt.

It was just then that Juniperstripe emerged from the camp's bramble entrance, two plump mice dangling from her jaws. Blinking, she warmed up at the presence of her friend. She invited her over with a flick of her tail. Juniperstripe ran swiftly with a brusque pace to drop her catch over at the fresh-kill pile, and weaved through the camp to sit by Hazelpaw.

"I thought you were technically supposed to be hunting, to feed the Clan," Juniperstripe meowed. To Hazelpaw's surprise, there was a disapproving gleam to her eyes, and a seed of doubt began to sprout. Yesterday, Juniperstripe hadn't seemed too close to believing Hazelpaw's explanation for the turn of events.

"I know," Hazelpaw replied, flicking her gaze casually across camp, "but I hardly got any sleep last night, so I'd like to rest today."

"Just because you know your warrior ceremony is going to be held today doesn't mean you can lie around camp all day from now on," Juniperstripe interrupted sharply.

"I know!" Hazelpaw growled impatiently, lashing her tail in irritation. "Like I told you, I just had a hard night, that's all."

"Yes, you had your dream. I heard about it from Yewpaw."

Great, Hazelpaw groaned inwardly. Just what I need. Yewpaw spreading more rumors about me. What will the Clan think now, that I'm a gutless insomniac?

"Just because you heard something from Yewpaw doesn't mean it's true!" Hazelpaw snapped curtly, unable to control herself.

Something inside Juniperstripe boiled up to a steamy temperature, and her small pink nostrils flared. Hazelpaw knew her friend well enough—if they even were friends anymore—to tell that she was about to get angry. Feeling shame course threw her body, Hazelpaw hung her head in shame and quickly muttered, "Sorry."

Juniperstripe seemed to calm down, and she bent down to give her chest a few comforting licks. Twitching her whiskers anxiously, looking at Hazelpaw, almost on cue as if she were expecting a question.

Sensing the atmosphere tense rigidly, Hazelpaw wondered if she should know ask. This was the question that she had been dying to ask Juniperstripe all day, but she wasn't sure if now was the right time to say it. Making a hasty decision to go on anyway, she began cautiously, hoping that her question would finally break the frosting ice between the two, "Juniperstripe…I mean, I know what happened yesterday was awful and all, but you don't really think I did it, do you?"

Hazelpaw's heart only sank as she saw Juniperstripe stiffen. "I'm not saying anything yet, remember, but I do think you're innocent."

Uneasily, Hazelpaw wondered if there was something her old denmate was not telling her, something that was changing her perspective of the turn of events. Juniperstripe's words were supposed to be comforting her, but instead, they were clearly empty. Indignantly, she felt remorse fade into mere self-pity for herself. Why wouldn't Junipertripe believe her? What was she hiding?

"I didn't do it, for StarClan's sake!" she bellowed, feeling herself lash into unsheathed anger.

Juniperstripe's eyes turned, for the first time, icy cool with a frosty atmosphere that made Hazelpaw's fur tingle. "You don't know what you did," the warrior growled, casting her former best friend a final look of disdain before strutting away.

Hazelpaw felt despair tug at her paws as she watched Juniperstripe disappear, and her heart sink disastrously low. Would anything ever be the same again? Today was her warrior ceremony, supposedly one of the most important days of her life. She was idealistically meant to be looking forward to her ceremony with bright sparks of excitement, but instead, a dark sense of foreboding and horrible jabbing a pangs of wistful sorrow for the wish of how things used to be jabbed her heart.

StarClan, everything's going wrong!