Here's Chapter 3. We're back at Leafpool's POV now. What happens when she meets Crowfeather for the first time since he saved her...

Almost as soon as the leaders had finished speaking, Leafpool heard a voice calling behind her. She had been sitting very near to the Great Oak, and the voice was calling from a more secluded area, behind a gorse bush. She padded over in confusion to see Crowfeather. Seeing him brought a wave of emotion flooding all over again inside of Leafpool until she felt almost light-headed. She shook herself and stared at him, waiting for him to speak. He had called her over, after all.

Crowfeather spoke without any sort of introduction. "Leafpool, I'm sorry. I never should have said...what I said like that. It wasn't fair to you, I know it wasn't."

"It's okay," Leafpool choked out, though some part of her heart fell hard. Was he going to take it back, regretting that he'd ever said it? Would she have to forget all she felt, without ever having a chance to say it to him? Could she do that?

"No, it's not okay," Crowfeather meowed. "I got ahead of myself. It was just, you were there, and you were about to fall. Like Feathertail did."

The last words were almost a sob, as if speaking it aloud was more difficult than she could ever know. Leafpool stared at him silently as he went on, "But I saved you. Saved you when I couldn't save her. When she died because I got trapped..."

He broke off with a shudder of memory. Leafpool felt a deep rush of pity for him, and mewed, as comfortingly as she knew how, "It's not your fault, Crowfeather. Feathertail died because she wanted to save you. It wasn't because of you."

He looked up at her with blue eyes brimming with emotion. "I don't think I'll ever be able to convince myself of that. But...you live in my thoughts, Leafpool. You haunt my dreams. I don't want to forget Feathertail, I don't want to stop grieving for her, but I can't forget you."

"Does that mean you want to forget me?" Leafpool asked, afraid of the answer, whatever it was.

His fur bristled as he spoke, as if he was just realizing it himself. "No."

"I don't either," Leafpool admitted, knowing that as she spoke she was violating her oath to StarClan, her oath as a medicine cat. She felt like bowing her head to the cats of StarClan, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Crowfeather.

The lean tom shook his head, his whiskers waving in the wind. "I'm sorry, Leafpool, you don't know how sorry, but I can't see you like this. Not now, not when I think I'll be forgetting Feathertail. No matter what else I feel, I won't ever be disloyal to her. But if I see a sign from StarClan, something that tells me she approves...then I'll think."

Leafpool knew what he said was fair, and was how it should be. But she couldn't stop the pain in her heart from increasing, and was grateful that Crowfeather couldn't see it. She leaned in close, her nose brushing his muzzle. "It's all right," she mewed softly. "I'll wait to speak to you again."

He nodded, and he lifted heavily to his paws, taking his time, as if hoping that the sign might come now, so that he didn't have to leave. But nothing happened as he turned, and Leafpool watched him, her head swimming with thoughts. She suddenly found her voice. "Crowfeather, wait!"

He half-turned. "What is it?"

She got up too, and padded to his side. She spoke in a mere whisper, and did not look at him for the fear of what she would see in his eyes. "What you said before, at the camp...I feel it too," she mewed. "As much as you."

It was she who turned away and squeezed into the throng of cats, leaving him behind. She felt her insides fill with pain, but she knew that this was all that could have happened. You're a medicine cat, Leafpool! she told herself. Even if he was ready to forget Feathertail, that didn't mean that you were ready too!

But she was, she was with an intensity that frightened her. Did her oaths to StarClan mean so little that she was ready to discard them for a WindClan warrior that she had, not so long ago, hated with every whisker on her?

She found herself settled with the other medicine cats, except for Mothwing, who she supposed was still with Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw. Littlecloud gave her a friendly flick of his tail. "There you are!" he meowed.

Barkface's eyes were warm, too. "I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to have a chance to officially greet the newest medicine cat of the forest!" he purred, and then crouched to nudge a cat at his side. "Meet Icepaw," he meowed. "My new apprentice."

The small cat was pure white, except for a splash of black on his side . He looked up at Leafpool with large blue eyes, and she was struck with how young he looked. "Hi," he squeaked.

Leafpool bent to touch noses with him in welcome. "Hello. Good luck as Barkface's apprentice."

"If he gives you any trouble," Cinderpelt added, her ears twitching in amusement, "Just give his whiskers a tug and remind him that a little patience wouldn't hurt!"

Barkface's tail curled up in reluctant amusement, and Littlecloud purred. Watching them, Leafpool felt suddenly unworthy. Did she deserve her place as a medicine cat while she dared dream about a future with Crowfeather? And what about Barkface, Littlecloud, and Cinderpelt themselves? Did they too have secret yearnings for mates of their own? Or was this StarClan's way of showing Leafpool that she had chosen the wrong path?

Whitepaw came padding over to her and Cinderpelt. "Firestar says it's time to go," she meowed, dipping her head to the medicine cats.

"All right," mewed Cinderpelt, touching noses with Littlecloud. "Come on, Leafpool."

Leafpool twitched her ears in farewell to the others before following the crippled she-cat. She looked around to see the WindClan cats already climbing the fallen log. She spotted Crowfeather and watched him for a moment, though he didn't see her. Then Cinderpelt's voice made her turn back.

"I should tell you, Leafpool," she meowed, obviously having seen where the tabby had been looking, "it would be wise to stay away from Crowfeather. Your places are different enough; it shouldn't be difficult."

Leafpool said nothing, but she twitched her ears to show she had heard her former mentor's words. As she padded beside the gray she-cat she was still silent, pondering over all that had happened. Sheglanced sideways at the medicine catbeside her, feeling momentarily wretched.Cinderpelt's warning was well and good, she knew. But it had come far too late.

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