The moon had risen eight more times since Flaxclan's border raid, and so far, all had been quiet. The extra patrols came across nothing unusual, noting Flaxclan scent markers only in their usual places. Indeed, a few days prior, they had started to become less frequent. This caught Icestar's attention, though he wasn't giving away exactly what he was thinking. Dappledpaw had her own thoughts. She wondered if it was some kind of bait; a trap to tempt Gorseclan into crossing the border so Flaxclan could then turn around and claim righteousness. Icestar instructed them to stay the current course and wait and see.

For now at least, the uneasy peace was maintained.

Dappledpaw had other things to worry about anyway.

Icestar was as good as his word; he took a more direct paw in the training of all three apprentices, and Rowanpaw and Sedgepaw regularly joined them during their sessions. He never offered a concrete reason as to why she had not been made a warrior after her last assessment was interrupted, simply telling her to look to the future one instead. Frustrated, she became determined to perfect every technique. She would give absolutely nothing to criticise this time.

Icestar seemed to set up which of the other apprentices she was paired with to challenge her and to play to their strengths; Sedgepaw was typically brought on for hunting and scouting-based lessons, while Rowanpaw was frequently her sparring partner these days. Combat lessons were more frequent than the former, and she and Rowanpaw typically ended their days grumpy and sore; the hot, humid weather was not helping matters either. He was good; even she had to admit that. He had an uncanny knack of sensing where an attack would come from, even when she was deliberately trying to feint. He was still absolute rubbish at hunting though, and that made her feel better.

Today, Icestar had decided to have them switch mentors to learn a new move each. "Kowhaifall is closer to your build than I am, and vice versa to myself and Rowanpaw." The leader explained. "I can brute force my way through a grapple, for example, and full grown Rowanpaw might be able to as well." He looked the other apprentice up and down for a moment, as if considering how strong he might grow to be. Rowanpaw straightened up under the leader's eye. "You will be more lithe, Dappledpaw, and it's not as easy for me to teach you speed and flexibility based techniques practically." She nodded along with his words. They made sense, really. Icestar's one flaw really was that his massive size made him slow, and although usually he could work around it in battle, the physical limitation was something a clever opponent could take advantage of. It was how he had gotten his scars in a skirmish with Fernclan as a young warrior.

Not that she'd ever want to go against him in a real fight, however. His ratio of wins to losses in battle were very much in his favour. He was easily one of the strongest cats in all the clans, and then of course he had his nine lives of leadership to account for too.

Today though, she would be learning from Kowhaifall, who was much more of an unknown entity to her. She'd never seen her in a fight before, and so her technique was all new. She was known as one of the clan's best hunters, but Dappledpaw had never heard much about her fighting. Hopefully, Kowhaifall could teach her something useful…

"So you're with me today huh?" Kowhaifall mewed as she made her way over, Rowanpaw padding to respectfully dip his head to Icestar. There was an eagerness in his eyes to be getting a private lesson from their leader. He'd always been jealous that Dappledpaw had him as a mentor.

"Yes ma'am." Dappledpaw also dipped her head, minding her manners. "What technique will you be teaching me?"

The red tabby and white she-cat let out a gentle laugh. "Straight to business then? Very well, let's get going."

"Going…?" They were already at the training grounds.

"I have my own spot where I like to teach Rowanpaw." She seemed to detect Dappledpaw's hesitation to leave, her bushy tail swishing to beckon her to follow. She didn't seem at all annoyed. "Trust me, you'll like it."

Dappledpaw couldn't argue with the young warrior, so even though she wanted to stay where she could watch what Icestar taught Rowanpaw (and how he performed) she reluctantly followed after Kowhaifall, heading south.

The southern part of Gorseclan territory wasn't really anything special; largely grassy farmland that was currently seedy and brown with summer heat. Their southern border naturally ended with the thunderpath; on the other side lay Tussockclan land. Visible across the thunderpath from their border was a long paddock that housed large and imposing cattle, before becoming sand dunes that rolled down to the rocky shore at the ocean's edge. Dappledpaw wondered what special training area Kowhaifall could possibly have down this way when it was such a homogenous part of their territory's landscape.

Or so Dappledpaw thought anyway, until Kowhaifall led her to an area of the territory she had never been before. She had never bothered coming down to this south-western point of the territory before; the tip of their land touching both the Tussockclan border and the Flaxclan one; designated at the river's edge that had grown wider as it winded it's way south from the mountains, ready to flow into the sea. She was surprised to see the ground had grown quite rocky and scrubby in this area again, much like the northern part of their land.

"Why have I never been brought down here before?" She questioned aloud as they winded their way down a small bank, bringing them to the largely rocky river shore, though there was an area where silt and sand had banked up nearby. She flattened her ears as soon as she spoke, regretting her impulsive question as it left her mouth. Icestar didn't approve of apprentices asking stupid unwanted questions. He said those kinds of questions she could figure out on her own, or if not, then she didn't need to know.

Kowhaifall though, seemed unbothered; pleased even, with the question, to Dappledpaw's surprise. "Probably because it's so out of the way, and there's really no prey here, unless you learn to fish." She indicated upwards to a small ledge indented in the rock face. Scattered around were small bones. "An owl makes his home here, so prey is mostly scared away." Dappledpaw nodded in understanding. The two kinds of owls that could be found in clan territory were too small to bother any cat but the smallest kits, but the small prey they hunted overlapped a lot with their own.

"Now, let's get to training, shall we?" Kowhaifall indicated towards the sandy bank with a flick of her tail. "I have seen you are a talented fighter, Dappledpaw, but if you are used to training at the normal grounds, you are used to fighting on flat land." She paced a few catlengths away, and then turned to face the apprentice, her long coat flowing on the gentle breeze. "I want to see your space work; how you can utilise your surroundings to gain the upper hand on your opponent."

Now Dappledpaw understood why she had brought her here. With the river, the sand, the small rocky ledge and embankment… It was the perfect place to test how she might utilise her surroundings in a battle. She had to admit, her training in this area had been more minimal than was probably ideal… it wasn't something she'd really ever thought about. Sometimes she had used the long grass or kicked off a tree or rock for momentum like Icestar had taught, but she had never considered vertical space, or indeed fighting near water. Considering one of their most historically common skirmish sites was a river border with Fernclan, that was definitely an oversight.

Dappledpaw got into a crouch as she glanced around, deciding how to attack. "Ah!" Kowhaifall mewed suddenly, her ears angling back and looking almost embarrassed. "I forgot to say; I'm feeling a touch under the weather, so if you don't mind avoiding physical sparring practice today?"

Dappledpaw blinked a moment, a touch confused (as Kowhaifall seemed fine, but maybe she had a sore stomach or something)... but she shrugged it off. "Sure, no problem. I can do mock pounces."

Kowhaifall purred warmly, looking relieved. "Thank you. Now, let's get started. I'm an enemy Fernclan warrior who's crossed the river. How do you approach?"

"You've just left the river?" Dappledpaw asked, wanting to further understand the scenario, and given Kowhaifall didn't seem to mind questions, she was going to take advantage.

"Yes, and as you can see the river is shallow this time of year. I wouldn't have had to swim."

Dappledpaw hummed thoughtfully, pacing a moment and considering different angles. "Can my starting position be different, or only where I am now?"

"Your choice." Kowhaifall returned in that ever-pleasant tone of hers. "You've just come across me, wherever you may have been."

"Okay then, let's say I was on top of the bank. If this exercise is about using the environment, being up high is beneficial, no?" Dappledpaw turned, making her way to scramble back up the rocky, steep bank.

When Dappledpaw glanced back, she saw Kowhaifall waiting patiently, seeming mildly amused, though the apprentice could only guess as to why. Then, suddenly, her expression shifted to surprise, then an angry sort of panic, which for the small beat of time made Dappledpaw wonder what she did wrong; if she had pushed her boundaries too far with Kowhaifall's tolerance compared to Icestar, but then the young warrior called out.

"Get away from her!" Her spitting demand made Dappledpaw turn her head back towards the top of the bank, where two strange cats were standing. She snarled, taken aback by the appearance of two enemies standing above her, putting her in a vulnerable position. Cursing herself for allowing them to sneak up on her with the wind blowing their scent away, she swatted a paw with outstretched claws, trying to get them to move back.

"Hey hey, woah-!" One of the cats yelped, jumping back. "We aren't here to fight!" The tortoiseshell flattened their ears, their position looking like they were ready to take off running at a moment's notice.

"Yeah, relax before you slip and fall." The second, a fluffy while she-cat with black splotches huffed, looking less scared and more annoyed. She looked away from Dappledpaw to Kowhaifall. "Get your apprentice under control. Have you ever heard the phrase, don't claw the messenger?"

Kowhaifall's expression changed slowly to one of a guarded mild irritation, her stance wide and tense, ready to act. "She's not my apprentice, Gullcry." Her ear flicked, glancing between the two cats. "Dappledpaw is Icestar's; you'd know that if you ever paid attention at Gatherings."

The she-cat, Gullcry, apparently, let out a dismissive snort. "Leader's ickle apprentice huh? She stared down at where Dappledpaw was still awkwardly clinging to the rock-face, unsure what to do. "Why you got her then?"

" Why are you two here?" Kowhai elected to ignore the abrasive cat, who's Tussockclan scent had now hit Dappledpaw's nose. "In case you didn't realize, your border is that way." She jerked her head to the south.

"We don't want a fight, Kowhaifall…" The tortoiseshell piped up again, still giving off nervous vibes as mismatched eyes darted between the cats present and various directions, taking in possible escape routes, perhaps. "Like Gullcry said, we're messengers…"

"And messengers are protected by a all-clan agreement, just to remind you Gorseclan brutes before you get any ideas." Gullcry added with a decisive nod. She suddenly snapped her attention back to Dappledpaw. "Are you going to cling there all day like a stunned bat, apprentice?"

Dappledpaw leered back, allowing herself to slowly slide back down the bank to the river shore below. "So, what do you want?"

"I was speaking to Kowhaifall, watch your manners, apprentice." Gullcry was quickly making her way up a list of cats that she disliked immensely. Who knew Tussockclan cats could be so tetchy? Normally they were meek and avoided trouble. This one would fit in at home! Still, she bit her tongue. She wanted to know why these cats were here.

Kowhaifall also seemed to be losing what Dappledpaw thought was her endless patience. She turned her attention to the tortoiseshell instead. "You tell me, Patchedpetal. What message are you here to give?"

The tortoiseshell jumped at suddenly being addressed directly. "Ah, well." He exchanged a glance with Gullcry, who rolled her eyes then nodded. "We uh. Well, a couple of cats from Flaxclan came by camp yesterday…"

Dappledpaw's eyes narrowed with intrigue, and she saw Kowhaifall stiffen up too. "What did they say?"

"They were giving us a warning, ah…" Patchedpetal looked uncomfortable, so Gullwing shoved him.

"Ugh I told them not to send you with me." She huffed, taking over. "Look, they came to tell us they were attacked by rogues a few days ago. And no, they didn't offer the details." She added quickly as Kowhaifall opened her mouth. "All we know is it sounded rough. They seemed pretty spooked, and one of the cats that came had some nasty scratches."

"They were really cagey about exactly what happened…" Patchedpetal affirmed. "They told us not to tell you in Gorseclan about it, only pass it on to Fernclan but…" He shrugged. "It didn't seem fair. Rogues are a threat to all of us, we warriors should unite to face common enemies under Starclan's guidance. Warning your clan is the right thing to do."

Dappledpaw suppressed the urge to scoff. Tussockclan did everything for Starclan, never for themselves! Still, this was good intel their kind nature had brought them… Perhaps Flaxclan was weakened… Maybe Flaxclan didn't want to share details because something major had happened. Perhaps Swallowstar had been killed?

Kowhaifall seemed to process for a moment, then dipped her head. "Thank you, for telling us when you didn't have to. Tell Dewstar we appreciate her kindness."

Argh no! Dappledpaw wanted to run over and shake the warrior, talking to these enemy cats and practically telling them they owed Tussockclan! Everyone knew Gorseclan always paid their debts!

"Sure thing Kowhaifall." Gullcry replied offhandedly, her expression smug. "We'll be sure to tell her your gratitude on behalf of Icestar." She jerked her head towards Patchedpetal. "Come on, let's cross the river and see if we can find some Fernclan cats before I have to walk all the way to their camp." She stared at the forest across the shallow water for a moment. "I hate being in all those trees, you can't even see the sky sometimes. How can they stand it?" She shuddered, and then led Patchedpetal down the bank, inclining her head to Kowhaifall as they passed by.

Dappledpaw came up beside her. "Let's just wait till they actually cross." Kowhaifall muttered to the apprentice. "Not that I expect to them to do anything stupid but Icestar would want us to."

"I dunno, that Gullcry cat doesn't seem trustworthy." Dappledpaw returned lowly with a huff.

"Oh don't mind her. She's all spit and not much claw. She's had a stick up her butt ever since her sister was made deputy, even more so now she's leader." Kowhaifall let out a little quiet snort of laughter, her eyes still watching the two cats as they waded in the shallow water; it meeting only up to their bellies. Like Flaxclan, Tussockclan cats didn't really mind water and they seemed pretty unbothered. She kept her green eyes on the cats until the tip of Patchedpetal's tail vanished into the thick undergrowth on the opposite shore.

The red and white she-cat then shook off her long coat, and turned to Dappledpaw. "I'm sorry to cut our training short before it even started, but we need to go back and tell Icestar what happened right away."

Dappledpaw shook her head. "Don't worry about it Kowhaifall, I know this is more important. For what it's worth, I liked the idea of the training. Maybe Icestar will let us try again?"

Kowhaifall blinked at her and purred. "Thank you Dappledpaw, I suppose we will see. Now let's go, at least you can stretch your muscles out running!"