New chap is ready- Crowfeather's POV. Also, in the suggestion for fics department: Blackbirds by Twitcherz and The Story of Sparkle by Dewflower. Thanx to my proofreaders (Ravenpelt, don't worry about this chap; I ended up changing it a ton after I sent it to you) and to all who, for reasons unknown, like what I write.

Crowfeather recognized the voice, and he felt horror freeze his limbs. "Nettleclaw!"

"I don't believe you, Crowfeather!" The black tom leaped out of the gorse, his eyes huge, his fur bristling. "Here? With...with a medicine cat!"

Crowfeather leaped instinctively before Leafpool, facing down Nettleclaw himself. "What makes you think you can follow me, Nettleclaw?" he hissed.

"It's a good thing I did!" snarled his Clanmate. Crowfeather had rarely seen him so angry, and he knew it was out of pure shock. "You're our deputy, Crowfeather! How can you do this?"

"It's none of your business!" Hating that his friend was echoing everything he was afraid of, Crowfeather bared his teeth.

Leafpool looked round him; her amber eyes wide with a mixture of fear and defiance. "We aren't doing anything wrong."

Nettleclaw's tail twitched. "You're breaking the warrior code!"

The medicine cat's eyes flashed with an admirable strength, and she stepped clear of Crowfeather, coming forward to look Nettleclaw in the eye. "StarClan is beside us," she meowed. "And that's good enough for me."

Nettleclaw stared at her, then turned to Crowfeather questioningly. He found that he could not meet the black tom's eyes, and instead turned to Leafpool. He tried to wordlessly let her know that he would do anything to keep Nettleclaw from letting the secret of their relationship spread, but he did not know if he was successful; she looked just as worried as ever as she leaped away. To her credit, she looked back once at Nettleclaw, her head raised and her eyes flashing, refusing to show any sort of embarrassment for what she had done.

What will happen to her, Crowfeather couldn't help wondering, if Nettleclaw tells other cats? What if she is forbidden from being a medicine cat any longer? What will she do then?

He began to pad in the direction of camp with Nettleclaw; the black warrior let rip as soon as they were moving. "I don't believe you, Crowfeather! Telling me nothing was wrong, when all the time you were out with a ThunderClan she-cat! Not only that, but a medicine cat! How many codes can you break in a day?"

"It's not like that!" growled Crowfeather. "I...I love her, Nettleclaw. I really do."

For a moment Nettleclaw was stunned into silence, and then he shook himself. "How could you do this, Crowfeather? I thought you were loyal. But how can you betray WindClan?"

"I'm not!" Crowfeather jerked his head up indignantly. "Just because I love Leafpool doesn't mean that I'll hesitate to rip any ThunderClan cat apart- if it ever comes to that."

"What about Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw?" asked Nettleclaw shrewdly. "Would you fight them?"

"If I had to!" Crowfeather crouched, his back arched, fur bristling on his spine, and yet at the same time knowing that he could never bring himself to attack his old friend.

Nettleclaw's dark blue eyes met his, and Crowfeather saw that there was sorrow in them as well as disbelief, all buried under a bitter anger. "I don't believe you."

&&&

Nettleclaw refused to speak to him any further on the way back to camp. He turned to Crowfeather on last time as they cleared the rise. "I won't tell any cat," he meowed, "But that's only because I don't want the Clan torn apart again- and I know it would be if the rest of the Clan found out what sort of cat Onestar made his deputy."

He flicked his tail and leaped away, to the other side of the clearing. Looking after him, Crowfeather knew that, though Nettleclaw was angry at him, he was still protecting him by keeping his secret safe. He wondered wryly whether he would ever have the chance to thank the black warrior.

How long can he hate me?

The deputy wanted to get angry, wanted to chase down Nettleclaw and make him understand. But he was simply too exhausted, so instead he sat down, peering vainly across the moor as if trying to see through the fog into the uncertain future that he knew lay somewhere ahead.

&&&

Breezes brushed Crowfeather's fur, fitting through the thin covering of the warriors' den. Usually, like all WindClan cats, he welcomed the movement through his pelt, but tonight he shivered and drew his nose over his paws as he fell into the starlit fields of dreams.

Crowfeather hunted through the moors. He caught the scent of rabbit and then tensed, coiling his muscles as his old mentor Mudclaw had taught him long ago. When at last he saw the flash of fur, the gray and brown spun silver in the moonlight, he lunged. The rabbit ran, but Crowfeather was faster. Stretching out his front paws, he pinned it down, his fangs flashing as he delivered the killing bite.

"A good catch." The voice came from nowhere, and Crowfeather jerked his head up aggressively. "Who's that?"

"You know me." The tone was oddly familiar this time, and a black cat stepped out of the shadows. The tom walked with an odd limp, and Crowfeather realized it was because one if his front paws was twisted and deformed.

Deadfoot! Tallstar's most trusted deputy, who had died soon after the battle with BloodClan. Crowfeather did not actually remember him from life, and he wouldn't have recognized him at all if he hadn't been visited by Deadfoot once before- and that was when the fallen deputy had told him to meet the others at the new moon to hear what midnight had to tell them.

"They didn't believe me, you know," meowed Deadfoot, coming closer. "The rest of StarClan, I mean. They thought you were too young. To aggressive, to be one of the chosen cats."

"I..." Crowfeather trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"But you proved them wrong. You were brave and strong, and you never forgot who you were fighting with. And now look at you. Clan deputy- and no StarClan cat can deny that you deserve the position."

"Even with..." Crowfeather looked down.

"Even with Leafpool?" Deadfoot finished. "Crowfeather, no cat can be blamed for love. It is not StarClan's way, nor will it ever be."

He touched Crowfeather's shoulder with his tail, making the WindClan warrior lift his head to meet his eyes. Deadfoot's star-filled gaze was intense, and Crowfeather forced himself to meet it.

"You are my chosen cat, Crowfeather. You are brave and strong and loyal- don't forget that. And don't forget the other chosen cats, either, nor what you have sworn to do for the forest."

His image was blurred, and as Crowfeather opened his mouth to ask a question, he disappeared altogether. The gray-black cat was alone on the moors, with only the echoes of the fallen deputy's voice for company.

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