Chapter Twenty Five - Meeting By Moonlight

Hazelpaw soon fell into a restless doze; waking up many times during the night. Eventually, when the almost full moon was at its highest and hazy silver light streamed into the den, the grey she cat gave up and decided to go out for some fresh air. The young detective quietly slipped past her denmates and padded out onto the second floor.

Someone was already there.

At the front of the nest near the large hole, was a dark shape lurking in the shadows. The dark shape began to creep towards Hazelpaw.

The grey she cat felt her heart leap in her throat and her pelt spike with fear. She started to back away towards her den. She wanted to scream, but all that could come out was a weak gasp.

Just like in my nightmares! The murderer's here and is about to catch me alone!

The shape shook itself from the shadows and walked into the haze of the moonlight. "Hazelpaw. Hazelpaw stop. It's me!" Came the sound of Mudpaw's quiet, gentle and familiar voice.

Hazelpaw froze. A few heartbeats of silence passed before she spoke up, her voice gasping. "What are you doing here? You - I thought you were -"

"I'm terribly sorry Hazelpaw!" Apologised Mudpaw as he cautiously took another pace into the moonlight. His amber eyes glimmered with worry in the silver haze. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted a place to think."

Hazelpaw nodded. Trying to slow her pounding heart and flatten her bristling fur, the grey she cat padded towards Mudpaw, head butting his shoulder. "I know you didn't mean it."

Hazelpaw then padded over to the hole, and gazed out seeing the wide expanse of grassy hill and cardinal bushes bathed in silver moonlight, the now much more shallow waters in the valley sparkling beyond.

She felt another pelt brush hers, and turned to see Mudpaw standing close beside her, also gazing out into the distance. "Are you okay?" He asked softly.

"Yes," Hazelpaw whispered back. "I suppose so. As much as I can be anyway. How about you?"

"Sometimes I don't feel as though I'll ever feel right again." Replied Mudpaw, his amber eyes glistening slightly. Hazelpaw wanted to say that's exactly how she was feeling too, without having to explain it.

"I wish this was all over," she said miserably instead.

"I wish it hadn't begun," said Mudpaw, scowling. He rested his chin on the flat bottom of the hole. A small trickle of water running down the side of his check was visible in the moonlight.

"My father - he was a clan cat; Servalleap. While my mother was a kittypet that twolegs use for shows. Did you know that? And when my father died - it was at the paws of rogues. I..I saw it all happen. And these celebrations, it's brought it all back. And the rogue attacks these past quarter moon. I can't-"

The white tom paused and took a deep breath. "It feels like it only happened last sun-up. It feels like it's still happening."

Hazelpaw's heart twisted at how sad he looked, but she didn't know what to say. She found herself pressing against his side trying to comfort him. "I...I feel that sometimes too." Hazelpaw whispered. "When Whistlesong died at the beginning of the season…..I was the one who found her. I touched her. It…...wasn't very nice. Daisypaw thinks I should forget about it but, somehow I can't."

Mudpaw nodded, lifting his chin up from the hole and she felt him press back.

"I'm sorry about your father," murmured Hazelpaw.

Mudpaw blinked his amber eyes appreciatively. "Thank you, Hazelpaw." He replied softly.

There was a heart beat of silence, before the white tom turned back to face Hazelpaw, his amber eyes fixed on her intently. "Hazelpaw, listen. You mustn't worry. What - what I mean is, you're quite safe. Eaglepaw and I - we won't let anything happen to the four of you. I promise you that."

Mudpaw paused and Hazelpaw did too, looking up at him. Time seemed to freeze as Hazelpaw gazed into the white tom's eyes (his eyes are a particular shade of amber, like the setting sun at dusk, she randomly noted) and thought about what he had just said.

Then a sudden gust of wind shook the hole and made the two apprentices start. Hazelpaw turned away from his amber gaze and took a step back. "And the Clan Guard is coming tomorrow." The grey she cat added. "Gorsestep will help us."

I hope I'm right.

Mudpaw nodded, his amber (sunset!) coloured eyes blinking once more. "Goodnight, Hazelpaw." He said softly.

"Goodnight," replied Hazelpaw, with a blink of her own before turning back towards her den.

As she curled up in her nest, the grey she cat still had many worries running through her mind, but she felt strangely light. However, she still couldn't quite shake off the feeling of foreboding which clung to her pelt.

There seems to be something lying, hidden in the shadows and just out of reach, waiting for all of us.

Fun Fact: Mudpaw's eyes are the colour of the setting sun at dusk. Very crucial piece of info gathered from none other than our fav clever and all noticing detective Hazelpaw. Hello everyone and hope you enjoyed this chapter! Here's a bit of not so subtle hazelxmud for ya Friday. On the bright side, at least they seem to be able to console each other in amongst the bad stuff. Tune in next week to see our detective crew get right back in amongst it trying to cut down the rest of their suspects before Haze possibly arrives along with the Clan Guard. We're really coming toward the home straight now!

-Fastbreeze37 (Seven)

PS: Up now on my profile is a pic of Eaglepaw the Angsty. Go and check it out!

Reviews:

Hissing Mist – Hazel, Daisy and co certainly will be doing their best to figure who's lying and I have a feeling that was a clever reference to another book, movie, or tv show but it sorta went of my head….soz. Nevertheless, the detectives still have a bit of work to do which they will get on to in the next chap. Meanwhile, yes thank you, glad you like Minty's nickname! I didn't plan on using it as much as I have but it was too cute not to. And oopsie Whitefur put her paw in her mouth and now her popularity has lowered…well Hazel does think everything she does now seems kinda menacing, we'll have to see whether that has some merit or not. Well the sweet smells turns out to be from hanging around with a day and a bit old dead body. As for the muttering, jupiner did seem rather cross/annoyed/ irritated at sparrow. I wonder if that relates to anything? And the dragging hazel over to have a nice view of spider's corpse like it wasn't anything was just pure daisypaw! I mean is only just a DEAD body after all. And yes cute lil innocent Beans again! She just really wants to help. And yes Daisypaw finally admits falcon is acting sus. Hazel knows this too but really doesn't want it to be a family member for Daisypaw's sake so is hoping against hope it is whitefur. And yes all motives of the murderer will be explained at some point. Falcon's if it is him. Honestly I plan for every cats' motives to be explained because almost everyone has been acting sus at some point for some reason. And yea…maybe a little. I always planned Falcon's character to be mysterious like and to come off arrogant or standoffish at times, but in retrospect he really hasn't been shown to have been treating Daisypaw all the best and at times seems like a bit of a jerk. That's alright lol, he wasn't so jerky in the last chap then, I hope that's a good thing. I kinda see what you mean with 'pairing' white and falcon together. And yep the last impression with minty was really great sorry minty..:.( Anyway, but what is even better is this interesting theory going on here about whitefur being a spy for the same rogues haze and spiderstreak work for. And that she was the second resort after spider wasn't progressing fast enough, making them act weird/tense around each other when she showed up. Very interesting. Glad you enjoyed! :.)