Water filled his ears as he struggled to reach Gingerpaw, to try and stop her from drowning. "Silentpaw be careful!" Lilytail sounded panic stricken. Very quickly he realised that he was not the cat to be trying to swim in a current to save someone else. Now the pair of them were being tossed and turned at the mercy of the current.

For a split second he saw Gingerpaw's face, her eyes focused fearfully on something behind him. His immediate fear was of pike. It wasn't even a fish. Bubbles streamed from his mouth in shock. Lilytail was there, fur rippling in the water, bubbles streaming from her nose, yellow eyes large in confusion and fear.

It wasn't possible for her to be there, it didn't make any logical sense for her to be there.A couple seconds later it was as if she was never there. Gingerpaw's reflexes and kicks were beginning to slow and he was running out of air.

He could hear the muffled sound of something hitting the water, sharp teeth grabbing into the scruff of his neck and the sensation of air as his head was ripped from the water. His initial breaths were ragged as he tried to regain control of his heart rate and airways. A few seconds later he could hear Gingerpaw spluttering, water re-joining the river as she dispelled it from her lungs.

He reached out for Lilytail but his plea remained unanswered.

The initial panic was over as he felt himself moving through the water, driven by the cat that was holding his head up. He caught a glimpse behind him of Gingerpaw hanging from Lizardglare's mouth. She looked like a drowned rat her fur slicked down to her skin in orange chunks.

As they reached the shallow waters he was dragged until they came onto the beach. He couldn't believe the current had swept them that far down the river. He landed with a thud and Crabfang came into view, his soaking wet pelt dropping onto the compact sand. "Silentpaw can you hear me?" Silentpaw nodded from where he lay in the sand. He wasn't quite ready to stand up yet.

Gingerpaw landed with a thud next to him, he heard her make an 'oof' noise before hacking her lungs up again. He forced himself to sit up and could see the rest of the group still racing in the water. Cloudfang and Brambledip were padding across the beach towards them as Nighstar watched from the dune.

"I do think it was really brave of you to try and help her Silentpaw but I don't think it was the best idea" Crabfang told him apprehensively. Lizardglare said very little, the occasional word to encourage Gingerpaw to get the last of the water out and to try and breathe. At last her coughing fit seemed to lessen.

Brambledip seemed to have little to no reason to come over to them, but he looked across them both scornfully. "I don't see why Nighstar would let them compete, both are poor swimmers" He commented casually. Gingerpaw looked up venomously, her slitted eyes mostly hidden by the fur overhanging her eyes. Her long tail flicked with annoyance, water splattering onto the sand.

He watched his friend pull herself up from the sand and shake her coat. He was beginning to tremble from the cold. "I think you two should get back to camp, rest up" Crabfang told them both sympathetically. Silentpaw nodded in agreement. He'd rather be asleep. Gingerpaw took the lead, striding past her mentor and Brambledip wordlessly.

Silentpaw followed behind. "Hope you enjoyed playing hero Whisper, good job you're a medicine cat, you'd make one lousy warrior" Brambledip whispered as he walked past. Silentpaw looked away sadly, a cold lump in his stomach at the mention of the nickname.

"What did you just call him?" Gingerpaw stopped walking and turned to face the tom defiantly. Brambledip looked taken aback, but the expression was replaced with one of affrontation. "I beg your pardon, you think you can talk to me-"

"I said what did you just call him?" Gingerpaw growled, cutting him off. Silentpaw felt like he was going to be caught in the crossfire of this argument. " I didn't call him anything and if I did it's none of your business, remember who you're talking to Gingerpaw, I'm a warrior and you're an apprentice" Brambledip spat, looking her up and down.

"You always use that as an excuse to target us! Sure you're a warrior but you haven't given me a reason to respect you, you pick on me when I can't do things and you make fun of him cos' he can't talk. I've never done anything to you and neither has he!" She spat at the tom, who Silentpaw could see was getting increasingly angry, he opened his mouth to speak but she spoke over him.

"I'm done with letting you treat me like this and if you do it again I'm not going to shut my mouth like some good little apprentice!" She growled as Brambledip rolled his eyes and laughed. "Always the victim aren't you?" he hissed through his fake smile.

Lizardgalre cooly stepped between the apprentice and warrior. "That's enough. Gingerpaw, Silentpaw, go back to camp- no 'buts' Gingerpaw" The deputies glare turned to his brother and the hatred in his eyes couldn't be masked.

Watching the brothers now, Silentpaw understood what his first flashback was. It was like a light bulb flickering to life in his skull. The two kits fighting...It was Brambledip beating Lizardglare up, spurred on and encouraged by the spectating tom. Silentpaw assumed it was their father. His few seconds of looking into Lizardglare's memories gave him an idea of what had caused the siblings to avoid each other, acting as if neither existed unless necessary.

He felt sorry for Lizardglare in that moment. "Brambledip. A word" Lizardglare began to walk away, looking back to make sure the warrior was following. Silentpaw was surprised to see that Brambledip looked worried, as if he didn't have the upper paw for once. He took a spiteful look at them both and stood to leave after Lizardglare.

Gingerpaw turned and began to frog march towards the dunes. She was furious. Humiliated. The confrontation was admittedly more caused by her frus at herself. Not being able to prove she was better than he thought, the adrenaline from feeling like she was going to die, from seeing a cat that wasn't really there. She tried to reason that it could have been her oxygen starved brain hallucinating.

But that wouldn't make any sense she quickly realised. She could hear Silentpaw's light steps as he tried to catch up with her. He looked back as well and reacted, so in theory he must have seen it as well. She scaled the bank, passing Nighstar wordlessy, the leader's eyes boring into the pair of them.

She brought it up when she was sure they were alone. She stopped walking and turned to him. "Silentpaw, I need to ask you something" She monitored his face as he looked around before sitting. He was listening.

"When we were underwater...You saw that cat right? You looked like you saw her" The cold wind blew, granules of sand stinging her pelt as they hit her. He shuffled on his paws, looked to the side and then shook his head. He was lying.

"Why are you lying to me? We're best friends" Gingerpaw mewed, feeling hurt. She'd never hide anything from him. Silentpaw shook his head again, a blatant look of guilt on his face.

"You've been acting so strange! You follow me about like some shadow, you look guilty whenever Leopardheart's kits are brought up-" She paused, eyes fixed on him. You could almost imagine cogs whirring in her brain.

"You don't have anything to do with the kits do you?' The question was pointed. His eyes went wide before his face creased into that of a frown. 'What's going on? Tell me!" A terrible thought popped into her head. "You didn't..You didn't kill-"

Silentpaw ears flattened against his skull, so many emotions flashing across his face, anger, hurt, fear, upset, distress. He settled on anger, pointing at his mouth. She rolled her eyes, even if he did have something to say he couldn't. It was the wrong thing to do, he stamped his front paws into the sand, pent up anger blazing in his eyes. It was almost scary seeing him like this.

"You're so frustrating!" She spat. He looked at her as if to say "Oh I'm frustrating am I?". He looked upset. He was upset because of her and because she was taking out her own humiliation on him. Her own anger towards Brambledip and not being able to prove him wrong was now manifesting itself in an argument. "Silentpaw I'm-"

It was too late, the young tom stalked past her quickly, tail lashing behind him. She tried to follow him as he disappeared through the grass. "Silentpaw please, I didn't mean it!" Her voice cracked but fell upon deaf ears.

Reviewer Responses!:

Mintflight0245: Hehe now you know who the she-cat is (assuming you read this of course)

ButterScotchTape: No problem, I like to show that I do read the reviews and listen to what readers have to say :) I also saw your application for Ruby, I can't 100% gurantee that everyones OCs will get in but if I find an appropriate plot line or moment then they will. As for using the clan names, theres probably a load of fanfics with the same names so of course you can use them. Unless you were writing a story set in the lore of EK, that's the only time where credit would be appreciated. Thank you again for reviewing!

ReadingEevee: Hehe now you also know who the she-cat is.

Uh oh, Gingerpaw gone messed up. Lets face it, Silentpaw's been pretty patient with her their entire friendship, some conflict was overdue especially in the current situation with Duneclan. I feel bad for Silentpaw because Duneclan and the cats around him haven't attempted to help create a means of communication which just makes his life so much harder.

Question of the chapter: I'm not sure what to put here, I feel like theres already a lot to discuss lol