Fastbreeze37: Thanks so much! I love mystery, and this only gets more mysterious! Also, I did make them warriors to start the mystery right away, but that doesn't rule out flashbacks.

So ye, leave a review and I will respond, also, they make my day. Anyways, enjoy :3

Sandfur was somewhat excited to enter the cave. The idea of something dangerous being in there lingered in her mind, but the amount of mystery in this mission undoubtedly excited her. As the patrol slowly climbed into the opening, Sandfur imagined what had happened last night to Lakeheart. So say Lakeheart and… some cat from our Clan is in love. They could've met before… maybe in certain areas. But, meeting out in FireClan doesn't make any sense... everything about this is suspicious.

Sandfur thought about the idea that Lakeheart could easily die if they fall was high enough, it could be a great tragedy, or it could insight war between FireClan and CaveClan, the first conflict in many seasons. Nightstorm entered last, behind Sandfur, being the most hesitant. Of course, that's Nightstorm… always suspicious. Sandfur was great friends with Nightstorm. If she wasn't busy with her warrior duties, she would be walking around the vast territory with him, up to small hills, past clear rivers, and through tall trees, talking about random Clan stuff with him,

"Did you ever hear those strange stories the warriors would tell us when we were kits?" she asked while they were walking through the cave.
Nightstorm padded up to her side, his eyes lighting up. "I remember a few... Local legends, that type of thing," he replied.

"Yeah… just a bunch of stuff that old cats made up to scare kits from going into the tunnels…" Nightstorm let out a purr at this, Sandfur remembered all the new apprentices being terrified of the dark tunnels on patrols, her and Nightstorm included, "But, that's as real as hedgehogs flying."

She saw him glance at something on the wall, but it was too dark for her to tell what it was. He turned his head away, uninterested, so she presumed it wasn't important. She went to catch up with Whiteheart, who was in the lead. She wanted to find out more information on what the plan was, feeling anxious that anything could happen to them down here.
"How far do you think we'll go in to find a scent?" asked Sandfur.

Whiteheart's eyes darted to Sandfur, lifting her head a little to register the question. "If it turns out to be deeper than we expected, you should go back to camp with Nightstorm, and I will continue the search with CaveClan. I don't know if he is okay with these tunnels, even I hate how compact they are."
Sandfur sighed with disappointment. She hoped they would pick up a scent soon, so she could continue exploring the tunnels, but she also acknowledged that Nightstorm shouldn't have to follow them; he hated the dark, and it only got darker as they traveled further. Nightstorm continued with the group anyways. Sandfur secretly wanted him to come with the rest of the group and didn't protest. She noticed a rock near her paw, around double the size of her paw. One that she could perfectly pick up. It had a symbol on it, three circles intertwined.

A voice cried out, startling Sandfur, who had been thoughtfully thinking of different ways Lakeheart could've fallen in that opening. "OVER HERE!" cried Thistlefall.
Whiteheart jolted her head in that direction, instantly running to where the voice originated, and Sandfur followed. After a brief sprint, she skidded to a halt in front of a dark substance that was dripping off of the stone wall, with Thistlefall squinting his eyes to figure out what it was. Nightstorm slowly came over as well, scenting it and turning back to the rest of the patrol, worry in his eyes. "Blood."

Sandfur froze. Her mind spun at this discovery. Why? She touched it with her paw. "Still wet… and CaveClan scent is on it" she whispered in horror.
Thistlefall turned his eyes to her. "She could be bleeding somewhere, we have to follow the scent!"

Sandfur realized he was right. Lakeheart could still be in danger somewhere; maybe she was unconscious after the fall. Sandfur looked back at the blood one more time. It was darker than usual blood, more like a smudge, rather than a splatter, being contained to a small area rather than being spread out.

The others, excluding Nightstorm, were already searching the area. She followed their voices with Nightstorm appearing on her tail. Her light walking turned into a sprint as the voices of her patrol seemed to echo farther and farther away. She wasn't sure if Nightstorm was still behind her, but when she listened closely she heard another set of paws behind her. Sandfur's breath started to run out, and the air had a small tang of catnip. Right as she thought she would run out of breath, she saw the others, spread out across a huge room. She managed to stop herself from crashing into Whiteheart, who was staring in awe at the size of the room.

Sandfur took a moment to catch her breath, before examining the area. The ceilings were so high she could barely make out the top, but she knew it was there, as there was a small passage of light coming through the ceiling. That's the opening we found… From her perspective on the ground, it looked to be the same size. The rest of the room had regular stone walls, but it looked as if half of the room was covered in water. The light from the opening reflected against its surface. She approached the edge, sticking a paw out, instantly yanking it back, as the water was ice cold. Lakeheart fell into this! Not only was the weather chilly during this season, Leaffall, but this water was the coldest thing Sandfur had ever felt.
She heard a cry. One of shock. She darted her eyes to the dark outline of Thistlefall, standing over something covered by shadows. She rushed over, stopping in shock as well. It was a cat, Lakeheart. Sandfur had only recognized her once during an announcement at the gathering, where she was presented as a new warrior. The feeling of emptiness in Lakeheart's eyes shook Sandfur. The other patrol members also surrounded the body, the other two CaveClan cats crying out in grief, sobbing at the ground, while Thistlefall winced and turned away. Nightstorm stood by the tunnel they entered from, awkwardly watching the group of cats, clearly uncomfortable.

Sandfur tried to shake off her shock, instead of examining Lakeheart's body while trying not to feel sick. Lakeheart's eyes were glazed, clouded with fear and panic. The side of her head, just below the ear, was matted with blood. Her chest had been completely mutilated, but Sandfur spotted a vague clawmark also on her pelt, near the mutilation. Her pelt itself was soaking wet, her body freezing cold. It was extremely obvious she had fallen into the water. After examining the body, Sandfur scented the air. There was CaveClan, catnip, and something else. She saw something lying under Lakeheart's paw, gently moving it aside to reveal a tuft of brown fur.

She picked up the scent instantly. "Bear…" she murmured.

Instinctively she glanced back at Nightstorm, shock coming from his eyes at the sound of that word. She used her tail to signal the tuft of fur to Whiteheart, who also picked up the scent. Whiteheart's eyes were just as confused as Sandfur. Something is off about this.

Sandfur slowly moved behind Whiteheart, towards Thistefall, settling down beside him. "Have you picked up any CaveClan cats scent," Sandfur whispered softly, hesitating before asking, "besides… Lakeheart's?"

Thistlefall straightened up. Sandfur noticed a flash of fury in his green eyes. "If there was another clanmate I scented here, I would have already tracked them down," he growled.

Sandfur brainstormed a few possible scenarios, with the given information. She tilted her head before widening her eyes in realization. "I would have said she hit a rock while falling into the opening… but this is incredibly bizarre," she stated, the patrol, including Nightstorm, turning to her.

"There's only one possible answer," said Whiteheart, turning to Nightstorm, then back to Sandfur, "there is a bear somewhere in our territory."
Nightstorm seemed to freeze at this information. Sandfur shot back at Whiteheart. "That simply makes no sense… bears don't like the underground unless these are different from what we've encountered before, but all evidence points against that-" Sandfur was cut off by Thistlefall.

"She was murdered! They bashed her head against the rock, and tore open her insides, like a maniac!" he had complete rage within his voice.

Sandfur shifted her paws uneasily. "Then how do you explain the bear fur?" she asked, Thistlefall appearing dumbfounded, "if it were a murder, there would be claw marks… which there are," Thistlefall perked up at this, "but, there is also evidence that a bear did it, based off the wounds," Sandfur had to catch her breath for a second, while the others murmured among themselves.

"So imagine this… Lakeheart falls through the opening" echoed Sandfur, pacing around in a deep thought process, "She is cold, lost," Thistlefall winced at this, dipping his head in guilt for his fallen Clanmate, "she freezes to death in the night."

Whiteheart glanced back at the body. "You forgot the part where her insides were mutilated," she grumbled to Sandfur.

Sandfur nodded. "Right, which is why this is different. Isn't that a strange thing, that a bear, and a cat, both killed a cat? An injury that could only be caused by a bear, as all of you know. But a scratch from another cat. This is an unlikely theory, but I suspect that some cat made it look as if a bear did it."
Whiteheart curled her lip, her gaze fixed upon Sandfur. "Then how do you explain the bear fur?"
Sandfur shrugged. "I have no clue. But, there must be some explanation. As far as I know, a bear and a cat wouldn't team up to kill a random codebreaker, and then hide the scent with catnip."

"We must return her to camp soon, the others must hear about this," said Thistlefall, a hint of anger towards Sandfur for calling Lakeheart a "Codebreaker".

"Then why don't we return her body to CaveClan," suggested Whiteheart, her blue eyes still locked on Sandfur, "tell Yellowstar the news, and conduct an investigation."
Sandfur widened her eyes. "An investigation?"

Whiteheart nodded. "If we can't find the culprit today, and the body is covered in mixed evidence, Yellowstar should elect a few warriors to take a look around the area to determine what happened."

Sandfur thought about it, a sense of excitement flooding through her. She realized the terrible situation at hand and didn't bring her hopes up. "Alright then, let's go back to camp, and reveal what we found."

"One thing," Nightstorm meowed quietly, "I… I saw a tuft of brown fur near the entrance of the cave, I didn't look to see if it was bear fur."

Sandfur tilted her head. "We should search the area later today, see if we find any other evidence…" she murmured to herself.
Whiteheart rolled her eyes. "Don't get ahead of yourself yet, Sandfur, you aren't in this investigation, no matter how much you might want to be."

Sandfur realized Whiteheart was true, she was already too intrigued by this case. She noticed Nightstorm had come up to her. His eyes had a worry in them, Sandfur felt a wave of remorse for him. "We should probably leave," she said, nervous about what Nightstorm might say, "then maybe I'll come back later to look for clues, but you can stay back at camp."

Nightstorm looked thoughtful, and quietly murmured, "Yeah, I like it better in camp."

Sandfur sighed in relief, turning back to the scene of the murder one last time. The CaveClan patrol started to move the body across the stone. It would take a long time to get Lakeheart's body back, but Sandfur wasn't worried about time. She knew where to start this investigation, but was lost on what really happened to Lakeheart.

Detective Sandfur coming in, get outta here Sherlock!