AN: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The small forested patch of Gorseclan territory always smelt different. It was a damper scent; decaying leaves and softer earth. Rowanpaw liked spending time there. It was quiet and a peaceful sort of place under the dappled shade of the canopy above, and the cooler temperature was welcome during this blistering greenleaf.

He padded along, looking out for prey as well as Kowhaifall. He was following her scent trail; he was just barely able to pick up where her paws had tread. He couldn't be far behind her now if she'd been hunting in the area... He'd found a fresh prey cache not far back.

Movement caught his eye in the leaf litter; his pupils contracted as he spied a tail whipping beneath it. He stilled, one foot in the air, ears twitching as he listened. He was in luck, it was moving closer.

Rowanpaw pounced on the skink and tossed it out of the leaves and into the air with his paws. The lizard flailed; hitting the ground on its back. Before it could right itself and vanish again, Rowanpaw delivered a killing bite. He didn't much like the taste of these things, but some cats did. He buried the little creature for retrieval later and moved on, keen to catch up with his mentor.

He winded through the trees, naturally guided closer to the cliff side. This area was much taller and more imposing than where he had climbed up with Longtail and the others…

Threat.

Rowanpaw suddenly froze. It felt like a switch had just flipped in his head, a strange sensation running through his body. A blackbird's alarm call rent the air as the bird fluttered up and away from him nearby.

Threat...!

His fur bristled all down his spine. His instincts were shrieking at him. His gaze darted all around, pupils dilated. What…? Where?!

Threat…!

Something was very wrong. His blood knew it. The sense of dreadful foreboding was heavy in the air.

ThReaT!

A cat's yowl broke the peaceful ambient sounds of the forest. Rowanpaw found himself running to the sound. "Who's there!?" He called to the unknown cat.

"Rowanpaw!" It was Kowhaifall's voice; strained and distressed.

THREAT!

He stormed through the undergrowth, ignoring the thorns of bramble pulling at his coat as a thrill of dread clawed at him. "Kowhaifall!"

"Rowanpaw!" Her voice drew his gaze upward… "Help me…!"

His mentor was scrabbling at the top of the cliff, sending loose rocks and debris to the ground below. She looked injured; he could see blood on her fur. He had no idea how she had gotten up there, or why, but right now it didn't matter.

"It's okay! I'm coming!" He yowled up to her, his heart hammering in his chest as everything kept screaming threat threat threat in his head. "Just hang on!" The apprentice didn't have time to look for the safest route up, he just needed to get there as fast as possible. It felt like there were eyes on him and it only made him more on edge.

He started scrambling up the cliffside with the fire of urgency under his feet. The red tom grit his teeth together as he slipped a paw against loose rock. He felt a lurch in his stomach as his footing was momentarily lost and he felt like he was going to fall. He managed to right himself. Just.

"Rowanpaw I'm slipping!" Kowhaifall's shriek made him hasten with little concern to himself. The small rocks she was loosening in her frantic scramble hit his back on the way down, causing him to hiss with pain, but he hung on. Just. He was halfway up. She was so close, a few more catlengths…

"It's okay, Kowhaifall! I'm nearly there!"

A sound he would never forget cut through his ears. The sound of a section of weakened rock and earth giving way. The sound of Kowhaifall screaming. A sound that had rung in his ears once before; only that time, he'd been asleep.

He watched her fall past him. It was like it was happening in slow motion and too fast all at once.

He watched her… heard her hit the ground. Her and the rock and earth that fell around her and on top of her.

She didn't move or make any more noise after that.

"Kowhaifall…?"

Rowanpaw couldn't move. He clung there in shock to the cliffside for what seemed like an eternity. It was so abrupt, so sudden… She had been right there…!

Eventually, he slipped down; half falling. He landed heavily but barely felt the impact in his legs. He couldn't feel the sting of the wound from the rockfall on his back or the blood soaking the fur around it.

He padded over to her; numb.

He mewed her name a few times; voice as small as a young kit's. He knew in his gut she wouldn't answer as he pushed the debris off her body.

She was sprawled out; head and legs on awkward angles, back twisted. Her beautiful fur was dirty, ruffled and bloodstained from a wound on her chest. It was wrong, all so wrong. The small bump of her belly suddenly seemed so much starker than it had not so long ago.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong….!

Rowanpaw didn't know what to do. He pressed his nose into her pelt silently at first. She was still. No breath caused her side to rise and fall. He scrunched his eyes shut. This wasn't real. It couldn't be… It was another nightmare, just a horrifying clearer version of the one before. He dug his claws into the earth and bit his tongue till he tasted blood. He waited to wake up.

He didn't.

The young tom then let out a long, low wail that echoed in the silent forest, pressing his head into Kowhaifall's side.

As her apprentice let out his sorrow, the young warrior and mother-to-be's eyes were glassy and staring; still filled with the fear of her last moments.

Kowhaifall was dead.