YAY, Chapter 6 is up! A big WOOT, 'cause I love typing that (don't know why). We're back at Leafpool's POV. I think I'm going in order from Leafpoolto Squirrelflightto Brambleclaw's POV for the chappies, but I might change it up later. Anyway, hope you like it!

When Squirrelflight returned to camp, Leafpool didn't even have to look at her to know how upset she was. She could feel the distress pushing off of her like the warning before a storm. She padded out of hers and Cinderpelt's den, her jaws crammed with yarrow root, watching as her sister staggered over to the fresh-kill pile, dropped her prey, and then sat abruptly down as if she could not walk another step.

Leafpool set down her roots and leaped over to her. "What's wrong with you? You look like your piece of fresh-kill just bit you."

Squirrelflight turned to look at her, and Leafpool was confused and worried by the bleary distrust in her eyes. But not distrust for her, but for some other cat...Brambleclaw?

"What happened?" Leafpool asked again, sititng down beside her sister and touching her head with her tail. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"It is," Squirrelflight meowed, but she sat up. As she recounted her fight with Brambleclaw, and her conversation with Firestar afterward, the young medicine cat felt a chill run through her. It had never occured to her that her father might distrust Brambleclaw. But that was what it sounded like.

"What do I do, Leafpool?" Squirrelflight bleated.

"Do you want to forgive him?" Leafpool asked, all the time wondering what Squirrelflight was waiting for an apology for. Brambleclaw's sharpness with her, maybe? Or was she just waiting for him to admit that she was right?

"Yes!" Squirrelflight meowed. "But...Leafpool, do you think Firestar's right? Do you think he's as ambitious as Tigerstar?"

At that moment Brambleclaw walked into camp. His amber eyes were downcast, his tail dragging, as if he felt as bad about his quarrel with Squirrelflight as the she-cat did herself. Leafpool stared at him. He was Brambleclaw, a cat that she had known since she were a kit. A cat that she had never instinctively associated with Tigerstar, considering she'd never met the evil cat herself. But the name of the former ThunderClan deputy sent shivers down her pelt, made her remember all the terrible stories she'd heard about him; the cat with the tabby pelt dark and mottled like a molding leaf, the cat with the amber eyes that gleamed dark and cold like stars that had been torn away from the silver of moonlight. And staring at Brambleclaw, she knew one thing: Brambleclaw might not be Tigerstar, but he carried many similarities of him. So many, in fact, it may be impossible to overlook them all.

&&&

"Leafpool!"

The medicine cat jerked her head up. She had been dreaming. Again. Ever since the Gathering, she had found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything. Her mind always wandered to Crowfeather, and, try as she might, she could not get him out of her mind. He was beginning to dwell in her dreams as well, though she never spoke to him through them. Rather, he stood in hiding, in the shade where the starlight and sunlight did not reach him. His blue eyes would gleam at her like the shimmer of clear water, and there was a message in them, one that she could never puzzle out.

Sorreltail was padding towards her, and Leafpool thanked StarClan it wasn't Cinderpelt again. Her former mentor was already suspicious enough, and didn't need to catch her in another daydream. The tortoiseshell she-cat's eyes were bright, and Leafpool was surprised that she didn't see Brackenfur anywhere- he hardly left Sorreltail's side these days.

"Where's your shadow?" she asked the warrior with a twitch of her whiskers, but Sorreltail shook off the gentle teasing. "Want to go hunting? Do you have the time to look up from your herbs and stuff?"

Leafpool let out a purr. "Sure. My eyes are starting to water from the smell of these things, anyway."

She tucked the thyme leaves back in their crack in the rock and then left the medicine cats' den with Sorreltail. The two young she-cats headed out of the camp and set off through the forest. They were running at a fast pace, despite the freezing cold cloudy day.

"It makes you wonder if leaf-bare'll ever be over," Sorreltail commented, scowling at the sky. "Seriously, I've forgotten what sunlight looks like."

"Try taking care of the elders," Leafpool meowed, her eyes narrowing mischieviously. "They run Cinderpelt and I out of poppy seeds, complaining about aches from the cold winds."

Sorreltail let ouf a purr of amusement that was cut short as she sighted a squirrel, dashing out in front of them with a seed in its mouth. The tortoiseshell warrior fell into the hunters' crouch, and she lifted a white paw slowly, set it on the turf before her. Leafpool lingered behind, her tail swishing softly but overwise completely still.

Suddenly the squirrel's head jerked up, and it gazed around. But at the same moment Sorreltail lunged, her claws extended. She leaped upon the prey, finishing it with enviable speed. She looked bad at Leafpool. "A bit old, but it should keep Mousefur happy," she meowed.

Leafpool padded forward to join her, but sudden scent stopped her dead. "What is that?" she murmured to Sorreltail.

"Prey?" her friend replied, oblivious.

"No. It's catscent, but I don't recognize any Clan scent in it," Leafpool mewed, her neck fur beginning to bristle. Rouges!

Sorreltail abandoned the squirrel and took a few hops forward, her face lifted to the winds. They were close to the WindClan border, but further up, almost on the trail to the Moonpool. "I smell it too," she announced, after a moment. "And I don't think it's WindClan, and it's definately not ThunderClan." She looked around, her amber gaze suddenly fearful. "We should get back to camp and get another patrol to check it out," she warned. "Brackenfur or somebody..."

Her tone was serious, but it pricked Leafpool right in the heart. Maybe it was because of how close they were to WindClan, or maybe it was because of the look in Sorreltail's eyes. That look of instinctive need, as if whenever she was afraid she needed him beside her. It was the same look that she had seen in Crowfeather's eyes, that night behind the gorse bush.

"You don't know how lucky you are, Sorreltail," meowed Leafpool quietly, all thought of the rouge-scent forgotten in her mind. "Lucky to have him to turn to. I don't have that, do I? And I never will. No matter how much I hope to StarClan, they don't answer me!"

The last words were spat through clenched teeth. Then Leafpool turned and leaped away. It wasn't until she was halfway back to camp before she realized she'd said too much.

Ooooo, a bit of a cliffie there. Will Sorreltail find out? Maybe! (I haven't actually decided yet, so you all should be the first to know) Reviews are appriciated, thanx!