Leafpool's POV, and thanx for all the reviews:
After making Crowfeather promise not to injure himself further by coming to see her so often, Leafpool set off back for home. His news disturbed her. After what had happened with the rogues, she had been more willing to trust Hawkfrost. But she had just been proven wrong. After all, what sort of cat murdered an innocent apprentice in a border fight?
Tigerstar would. That thought frightened Leafpool more than anything, and though she reached her nest again with plenty of the night to spare, it was a long, long time before she finally slipped into dreams.
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"What's troubling you, Leafpool?" It was Squirrelflight. Leafpool looked up from the mouse she was chewing, taking her time before swallowing. "Nothing. What made you think something was?" She tried to keep her nervousness out of her tone.
"Oh, I don't know...it's just that you've been so distant lately. Different. I thought something might be bothering you."
"No, of course not. I would tell you if there was." Leafpool's heart pounded painfully inside of her at her lie, but she knew it was a lot easier than telling her sister the whole truth. What would Squirrelflight think if she knew about her and Crowfeather? What would Firestar think?
Squirrelflight looked at her thoughtfully, stretching out her tail to touch Leafpool's flank. "If there was something, you would tell me, wouldn't you?" she meowed.
"Of course." Leafpool shuffled her paws, feeling so terrible that it seemed impossible Squirrelflight couldn't feel it too. But her sister was already turning away. "I said I'd meet Brambleclaw..." she mewed. Her eyes brightened at the mere mention of the tom, and Leafpool forced out a purr. "So things are all better between you two?"
"Yes," Squirrelflight meowed happily, and then suddenly paused. Clearly she was realizing that Leafpool- as far as she knew- wasn't aware of all that had gone on between the two of them the night of the rogues and Hawkfrost. "Well, you know, he apoligized, and I saw what he meant all along."
Yes, he was trying to protect you. He loves you. Leafpool completed what she knew must be going through her ginger sister's mind as Squirrelflight got to her paws. "He's great, you know?" she meowed. "He's a good warrior. And he's smart. And sweet. And he really cares about things."
Leafpool's mouth opened, and she knew she was about to spill everything about Crowfeather, despite the consequences. But Squirrelflight turned away and bounded across the camp before she had a chance, and Leafpool was left with her tail and head hanging, so much left unsaid.
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Sorreltail, the only one she could speak to, wasn't particularly supportive. "If it's so difficult, just end it, for StarClan's sake," she meowed as she sat with Leafpool in the corner of the camp. "It's never going to work out. And think of all the rules your breaking!"
"I do think of them," Leafpool meowed defensively. "But I can't just stop seeing him. What if someone said the same thing to you about Brackenfur? Would it be that easy?"
Sorreltail considered it, and then shook her head so swiftly that her ears flapped. "But Brackenfur's not a WindClan tom, and I'm not a medicine cat!"
"And that's the only difference!" Leafpool hissed back, and she bounded away in frustration, stopping just in time so that she didn't slam into Firestar, who was speaking with Sandstorm and Graystripe over beneath the Highledge.
"What do you think about WindClan?" her father was mewing. "If RiverClan is planning on attacking them..."
"We can't spring in to help them again, Firestar," Graystripe meowed. "From what I hear, we've done that enough lately. Onestar's their leader. He should be able to run his own Clan."
Sandstorm nodded. "Most of WindClan won't thank us for charging into their territory again."
Firestar nodded in acceptance. "It is newleaf. They should be strong enough to defend themselves."
"Of course they will be." Graystripe butted his friend in the side with his muzzle. "Remember when we took them back home, in the old forest? Tough cats if I've ever seen them!"
"And even if they weren't strong enough-" Sandstorm fized her mate with wide green eyes- "that doesn't mean we should help them, anyway."
Leafpool backed up, her ears flat. None of the rest of her Clan knew about Weaselpaw's death, or the fight at the balanced rocks. That meant they didn't know about Hawkfrost either. And Leafpool couldn't tell them, at the risk of revealing her own secret.
There were spiders that spun webs in the corners of hers and Cinderpelt's cave den. They were delicate things; silver in the morning dew, fragile like dried leaves.Leafpool was beginning to think of her own life like one of those webs, and with each new lie, secret, or realization, she was becoming more tangled up.
'Tis short, I know. I'll update soon, but for now:
Reviews are appriciated!
