(I made this for some people i know who are reading it and leaving weird comments, who asked for recaps)
PREVIOUSLY ON NIGHTFALL
Sandfur starts the investigation of the death of Lakeheart, which was either caused by a bear or a KILLER CAT. Addertail tells Nightstorm to stay away from the case for his mental health. Sandfur feels bad for not spending time with Nightstorm, and decides to do questioning after searching the crime scene. Nightstorm hear's that Lighthaze, Sandfur's annoying sister, thinks the secret lover is Firepelt.

OK SO I'm BAck ya'll woohoo... Back with another chapter... This one took me a long time, it had a lot of moving parts and no "Big event" like a lot of other chapters, especially chapter 8, "unstable cliffside," and chapter 15, "a rock that you can perfectly pick up" which you can find referenced in chapter 2 ;). The book itself will have 16 chapters. Right now, I'm trying to focus on developing both Nightstorm and Sandfur naturally to understand their goals and relationship, that's some of this chapter as well as developing other characters.

But it IS important to the story. So I will go ahead and reveal it, by now you can go ahead and figure out who the killer is if you look hard enough, so please at least guess in the reviews. Otherwise, I love getting reviews and you can make them about literally anything.

Two kits played around FireClan camp, pouncing on one another. They playfully tried to fight each other, depicting the warriors of FireClan. Another kit, Nightkit, saw them. They both paused what they were doing and walked over to him. "Hey, it's the creepy one! Ha!" said one of them.

Nightkit rolled his eyes. One of the kits whispered something to the other, and that kit spoke to Nightkit. "Hey, did you ever hear of the 'thing' out in the woods?"

Nightkit shook his head. The kit continued. "It lives in the woods, but it can't hurt you, and it tries to make a cat go insane to take over their body!"

Nightkit widened his eyes.

"It's super old! Older than the trees, older than the mountains, older than this place.

Sandfur was walking through the caves with her two Clanmates. They were headed towards the entrance, but following a slightly different route in case of some clues being left along the way. The air was damp and cold, and she could barely see anything besides the dark stone. Despite this, she pushed on, determined. "Maybe you should rest for the day," suggested Graywhisker to Sandfur, "you've done so much today, you walked across the territory to find the body, and then you investigated and now you've walked back to the body… Now you want to walk to camp and look to question some cats… maybe you should take a break?"

Sandfur realized her paws ached from walking so much, and she hadn't eaten anything that day. It was already past sun-high. She had barely thought of anything today besides solving this case, and maybe it needed more time than she had thought.

"I… I don't know… what if an important clue goes missing… or blows away, and then the case can't be solved,'' wondered Sandfur.

Graywhisker sighed. "You can't solve this case in a day, it could take moons before you find the killer."

Sandfur became a little defensive. "And have the Clans live in fear of bears? Or a killer?"

"Well, it's better than tiring yourself out. Or is this just something you want," replied Graywhisker.

"No, that's not what's happening-" Sandfur was unexpectedly cut off with Graywhisker gasping and jumping back suddenly.

She instantly halted and backed away a little. Rubyheart, who was behind the two, stayed back as well. "What, what?" asked Sandfur, a little frightened.

Graywhisker stared at a dark shape on the ground a fox length in front of him. "I think it's an adder!"

Sandfur recognized the creature when Graywhisker said that, a long thin shape. But it was lying on the ground, motionless. "It's dead," said Sandfur.

Rubyheart stayed cautious, but examined the adder from afar. "How can we be sure?" she wondered.

"If it was alive, it would be moving, especially if we were this close," Sandfur explained as she slowly reached her paw out to prod it.

"Wait-" Graywhisker yelled at Sandfur before she had touched the adder.

No movement came from the adder and Sandfur closely looked at it. The adder had been killed by a bite to the back of the neck, as a large chunk was missing and blood had spilled out from it. Sandfur scented the adder. "It's at least a day old by the smell," she mentioned.

Graywhisker tilted his head. "What does that mean?

Sandfur huffed. "Looks like our killer had some fun during their escape."

The search patrol had arrived back, but the time was sunset. Sandfur felt the tiredness of the day, wearily heading into camp. Yellowstar was waiting for her to return and greeted her. "Are you tired?" she asked Sandfur.

"Yes… but we have some ideas. We'll start doing some questionings tomorrow," she murmured.

"That's good," replied Yellowstar, "Now go to sleep. You have enough to do."

Sandfur silently agreed and walked to the warriors' den, a mixture of bramble and sticks all crafted into a small entrance. She caught a glimpse of a dark figure with bright orange eyes lying down near the entrance. When she came by, he instantly got up, and she realized it was Nightstorm with excited eyes. "Oh you're back! Great… oh wow it's really late huh? How long were you out there for?"

"Long enough," said Sandfur simply, entering the den and lying down on the nearest nest.

"Uh-," said Nightstorm, "nevermind…"

She heard Nightstorm let out a sigh and walk away. She felt a little bad for not being able to spend that much time with him, but she wasn't that worried about it right now. She just wanted rest.

The next day, Nightstorm was woken up by Snakefang and his tedious, snarling voice. His mangy cream pelt and aggressive amber eyes. "Nightstorm, you're on a border patrol. Now get going," he growled.

Nightstorm got up, realizing he had slept in and that Sandfur was already gone. He stepped outside of the den to the camp covered in white. He continued walking, confused, then was startled when his paw touched something cold and frozen. He realized snow had covered the area of the camp and it was hanging off of all the trees, his paw now soaking wet.. He felt a cold breeze stir through his pelt, which made him shiver a little. Snakefang walked by him, heading towards the leader's den. "What? Can't handle a little snow?" asked Snakefang sarcastically.

Nightstorm ignored this, meeting the patrol that was waiting for him, consisting of a warrior named Sootfire and his apprentice Hailpaw. Snakefang viewed the patrol, then glanced over at Whiteheart who was sitting and eating a squirrel. "Whiteheart, join the border patrol to CaveClan's border. We want to make sure we have… more experienced warriors since tensions are high right now," ordered Snakefang snarkily.

Whiteheart shrugged and joined the patrol. Nightstorm felt a bit off all of a sudden. He realized someone was staring at him. He looked to see who it was but he couldn't tell exactly, just someone looking at him from the other side of camp, who quickly turned away and continued talking to someone else. Nightstorm blinked and turned back to the patrol. "Are we gonna leave?" asked Whiteheart impatiently.

"Yeah," murmured Nightstorm, still peering at the mysterious cat.

Whiteheart walked towards the entrance and the rest of the patrol followed, clearing not caring to wait for Nightstorm. Nightstorm hurried to catch up.

During the patrol through the brown and white woods, Hailpaw walked by Nightstorm's side with a happy grin on her face. "Hey! You're Nightstorm right?" she asked excitedly, "I heard a lot about you but I've never talked to you before… Mom told me not to…"

"Hm… what'd she say?" meowed Nightstorm curiously to the small cat.

Hailpaw looked at her paws. "Stuff about… some cat named Snowkit…"

What? Nightstorm felt an unexplainable shock in his heart, and he clenched his chest. He nearly fell over while Whiteheart and Sootfire turned around instantly at the commotion. Hailpaw stumbled back to his mentor, while Nightstorm caught his breath against a tree. "Nightstorm?" called Whiteheart, worriedly looking at Hailpaw, "Are you okay?"

Nightstorm exhaled and opened his eyes. "Yeah… yeah, it was nothing, I just… I don't know what that was…" he explained to the worried patrol.

Whiteheart gave a glare to Nightstorm as he followed the patrol again. Of course, you don't care if I'm fine, you only care about Hailpaw.

After a little bit of walking, Sootfire unexpectedly slowed down to whisper something in Nightstorm's ear, "What did you remember about the bear attack?"

Nightstorm titled his head at the random question. I tried to forget about it but it always comes back. "I really don't want to discuss that," replied Nightstorm.

Sootfire rolled his eyes. "Come on, who do you suspect so far? I mean I was thinking it might be Graywhisker!"

Nightstorm was a little curious about this theory. "Really? Why?"

"He's so invested in it, always following around Sandfur on her missions. They say a killer always revistits their crime scenes. Either that or he's got a huge crush on her."

"Huh? Wait, slow down, Graywhisker? He's been going with her on the investigation?" questioned Nightstorm.

Sootfire smirked. "Yeah, it's so obvious too- wait, no, okay, I only wanna know, who do you think the killer is?"

"I have no idea," voiced Nightstorm, slightly irritated at this point.

"Name a random warrior," said Sootfire.

"No," Nightstorm replied stubbornly.

"Fine, have it your way," murmured Sootfire.

Sootfire huffed and caught up with Hailpaw. Nightstorm felt bizarre after that, cats seemed to act weird all of a sudden. He noticed Sootfire talking to Whiteheart now. He didn't hear most of the conversation, but he made out that Whiteheart said, "I don't care at all about the stupid bear attack!"

Sandfur stood with Graywhisker as they stared at Firepelt, trying to intimidate him with silence. They were located out in the woods around a small clearing of trees, but Sandfur's paws were freezing from the snow. As soon as Sandfur had woken up that morning, earlier than the sun coming up, Lighthaze excitedly told her to question Firepelt since "he loved Lakeheart". Sandfur asked around FireClan camp to see if there were any rumors that Firepelt might be in the cross clan relationship, and there were quite a few. When Sandfur had approached Firepelt about it, he had seemed a little too nervous, so Sandfur asked to question him and she was granted that from Yellowstar.

Graywhisker whispered to Sandfur, "You think it's working?"

Firepelt appeared terrified, a blank expression, but fear in his eyes. Both his ears were flattened as well. "Yeah…" Sandfur whispered back.

Sandfur approached Firepelt, getting unusually close to him. "So, Firepelt. As you know, Lakeheart is missing and we have to ask you a few questions about it," explained Sandfur.

Firepelt gulped. "I-I don't know Lakeheart that well!"

Sandfur chuckled. "You are not that good at keeping your secrets. Tell me, how do you know Lakeheart in the first place?"

"What? I don't know Lakeheart at all! I only ever saw her at a gathering once," he replied frantically.

Graywhisker smirked. "Clearly you contradicted yourself-" Graywhisker meowed before being cut off by Sandfur.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sandfur, glaring at Graywhisker, "I thought I was doing the interview."

"I'm sorry I just had to point it out," chuckled Graywhisker.

Sandfur laughed, then turned back to Firepelt, with a serious expression. "You just contradicted yourself. You just said you didn't know her that well, which I'm pretty sure implies you knew her at least a little bit."

"Fine," nervously admitted Firepelt, "I knew her a little okay? Me and her were friends!"

Sandfur wouldn't buy this excuse of 'friends' in a million seasons. "Friends? Really? You expect me to believe that? We know the rumors, and we know how you really felt about her."

Firepelt simply stayed silent with a worried expression on his face. "Well? You wanna tell us or are you just gonna be silent?" shouted Sandfur.

Graywhisker murmured something to Sandfur, "I have an idea."

Sandfur reluctantly nodded. "Firepelt, listen," started Graywhisker, much more relaxed than Sandfur had been, "You don't need to be afraid of whatever you and Lakeheart did, we are over that. We are all young at some point, we all make mistakes. We only want to help you and find whatever killed her. In fact, I would say you are dishonoring her by blatantly lying and instead keeping her killer safe," Graywhisker stared coldly at Firepelt.

"Well… I… Okay, yeah we met up a few times and… I really liked her… she was so nice and… and she's gone and I can't believe myself, what was I thinking!" Firepelt started to get teary eyed and his voice cracked.

"YES!" echoed Sandfur, "I knew it! Wait, no… oh StarClan… okay what did you do with her that night."

Graywhisker whispered to Sandfur, "I think you might've blown your cover."

Firepelt looked up from his cry. "What?" he asked, confused, "did you not care at all?"

Sandfur almost came nose to nose with Firepelt, back to the intimidating face. "What did you do with her that night?" she demanded angrily.

Firepelt shrunk down, a tear still in his eye. "I-I was meeting with her, but… we were supposed to be meeting in FireClan territory, deep in the border."

Sandfur huffed. "That seems like a mouse-brained idea. Why meet in the middle of the territory where anyone could come across your scent, and where Lakeheart had no idea where she was going?"

Firepelt looked confused by the question. "I don't know… it was her idea, she thought it would be fun. We wanted to have a real discussion about our relationship… And then she didn't show up, yeah, that's it... I waited for so long but she never showed and I finally had to leave before anyone suspected anything and then all of this happened..."

Sandfur was suspicious of this, but it seemed to be true. "So you're telling me, you went to meet her in this unknown territory and she fell through a hole, and you're surprised by that?" asked Sandfur aggressively.

Firepelt looked at his paws. "I don't know what I was thinking…"
Sandfur sighed. "Well, do you know anyone who didn't like Lakeheart that she might have mentioned?"

"I mean… she seemed like she might've had some family issues, but I don't remember much. We didn't really talk about that," replied Firepelt sadly.

"Okay, we're done here," said Sandfur.

The three trekked through the snowy woods in awkward silence until they reached camp. Sandfur was only thinking of possible suspects and whether or not Firepelt was involved. He seemed suspicious, but also too mouse-brained to be the killer. Or maybe he was acting that way on purpose. Still, it was unknown how many times Firepelt and Lakeheart would have met secretly for sure, but it could be estimated when it started based on the start of the rumors. Sandfur just wished she could ask Lakeheart herself. Sandfur suddenly heard a rustle. She realized there was something moving in the woods to her right side. She peered out while the rest of the patrol surrounded her, trying to get a good look. She realized it was Snakefang, stumbling through the woods alone. "Snakefang?" called Sandfur.

Snakefang nearly jumped and turned to meet her gaze. "Don't sneak up on me," he growled.

"Wait, what are you doing out here?" asked Sandfur.

"Uh… nothing you should worry about," explained Snakefang strangely.

"Doesn't…Yellowstar need you?" suggested Sootfire.

Snakefang glared at Sootfire, who backed away slightly. "No, not right now," replied Snakefang, "I'm just hunting, okay?"

Sandfur smirked. "Oh really? Where to?"
"Up the mountain, actually. Not very much. Up near the waterfall. So can you leave me alone now?" questioned Snakefang.

"Alright fine," said Sandfur, "just making sure."

Nightstorm and the others had reached the border to CaveClan, a simple, clear stream that was now completely frozen. He pushed the ice with his paw, seeing how shallow it was. The ice instantly broke, so it wasn't at all stable. "Hey! Don't be crossing the border, or I'll give you something you won't forget," called a voice from the other side.

Nightstorm looked up, not intimidated, to a CaveClan cat on the other side, and another patrol coming up behind them. Whiteheart bristled. "He wasn't crossing the border, keep to yourself!" she spat.

"We still better watch him," said the CaveClan cat, "For all we know, he killed Lakeheart!"

Nightstorm tilted his head. Why would I do that? Oh well… Whiteheart seemed to get defensive, though. "Are you kidding me? Why would Nightstorm kill Lakeheart? He doesn't know her or Firepelt."

Oakshade popped out of the trees where the rest of the patrol were. "Nightstorm wouldn't kill anyone. Is Firepelt the cat Lakeheart knew?" he questioned.

Whiteheart stepped back a little in the details. "Er… no… he was just our… our main suspect right now."

Oakshade wasn't convinced. "On what evidence?"

"I don't know the details, I'm not involved in the investigation. Ask Sandfur or Graywhisker," lied Whiteheart nervously.

"Oh, is Sandfur the investigator? That's good…" murmured Oakshade.

"Yeah… I don't know about Graywhisker," explained Whiteheart, "He's just kinda there."

"Well that's good," meowed Oakshade, "When I find the secret cat Lakeheart knew, they will pay."

"You can't just attack one of our warriors!" yelled Nightstorm.

Oakshade huffed. "We'll see when the day comes."

Sandfur was back in the snowy camp, eating a small mouse next to Graywhisker. The questioning had gone well, but it left her exhausted and hungry. It was currently sun-high, with most of the camp gathered together eating something from the fresh-kill pile, which had been slightly lower than usual.

A thought came to Sandfur's mind, about something Graywhisker said earlier. Or this is just something you want. "Y'know what Graywhisker?" she asked.

Graywhisker grunted. "I think you're right. My entire life, everyone just thinks I've been the privileged leader's daughter. I feel like I never get any respect, and Lighthaze doesn't help that either. I want to solve this case because I can show them that I can be a capable warrior, and that my life isn't just something easy. So, I want to do this for justice, and for myself."

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