Just as she had promised herself, Lilyspark was out of the camp at dawn the following morning, accompanied by Goldenflower and Lionheart. As she pushed her way through the gorse tunnel, she passed by Adderfang, who was guarding the camp entrance. She nodded to the older warrior as she walked by, receiving a brief flick of the ear in return. Lilyspark paused for a heartbeat just outside the camp entrance, stretching her legs out behind her. The dawn air felt cool and refreshing after spending the night surrounded by warm bodies in the warriors' den, and she was looking forward to spending the morning patrolling the borders.

"Are we ready to go?" she asked, turning around to face Lionheart and Goldenflower.

"In a moment, Lilyspark," Lionheart meowed, looking amused. "We still need to wait for Thistleclaw."

"Thistleclaw?" Lilyspark repeated, staring at her friend in bewilderment. "Is he even on the dawn patrol? I thought it was just the three of us."

"It was at first. He volunteered to join us last night," Goldenflower explained.

Normally, Lilyspark would have either groaned in annoyance or made some sort of sarcastic comment about how "delighted" she was that her sister's former mate would be joining them. Today, however, she felt more confused than irritated. She still remembered their odd confrontation the previous day, when Thistleclaw had invited her to go hunting with him. Of course, she had rejected him immediately, but she couldn't help wondering if her refusal had prompted him to offer to join the dawn patrol today.

Don't be ridiculous, Lilyspark scolded herself. Thistleclaw wouldn't do that, would he? He probably doesn't even care that you turned him down.

Still, something about the spiky-furred warrior's behavior bothered her. Thistleclaw had to know that she would be on the patrol, yet he had still volunteered to join anyway. They didn't like each other; both of them had made that as clear as day. Most of the time, they made a conscious effort to stay as far away from each other as possible. Why was Thistleclaw suddenly showing so much interest in her–and, more importantly, why was he doing it so soon after Snowfur's death?

Maybe, just maybe, it was because of Snowfur's death that Thistleclaw was suddenly behaving so strangely. Perhaps he was grieving over the loss of his mate and wanted to seek solace in her because she was Snowfur's sister. But that didn't make much sense either. After all, Bluefur was Snowfur's kin as well, as was Moonflower, and Thistleclaw didn't seem interested in bonding with either of them. If anything, he seemed to despise Bluefur even more now, if that were at all possible.

Lilyspark didn't have any more time to ponder her Clanmate's behavior for, at that moment, Thistleclaw finally emerged from the gorse tunnel. His fur gleamed in the morning sunlight, indicating that he had just finished grooming himself. She waited for him to give her his customary sneer, but instead, the older warrior merely dipped his head to her in greeting.

"Good morning," he meowed. His voice was different too–deeper, more pleasant.

"Er...good morning," Lilyspark replied slowly.

"You're leading the patrol today?" Thistleclaw asked.

Lilyspark shook her head. "Goldenflower is," she meowed.

"Very well," Thistleclaw meowed, nodding. "Let's go, then."

The four cats started walking toward the RiverClan border, with Goldenflower taking the lead. Lilyspark allowed herself to fall to the back of the patrol, more confused by Thistleclaw's recent actions than ever. She had expected him to be back to his usual self by now, but instead, the gray and white warrior still seemed intent on–well, she wasn't sure what he wanted. Of course, she could always ask him, but she wasn't too keen on having that conversation with him–or any conversation at all, for that matter.

Things were so much easier when he still acted as if he hated me, Lilyspark thought bitterly. But no, instead he has to be almost nice. What game is he trying to play? If Snowfur were here, she would...

She shook her head to herself, forcing any thoughts of her dead sister to the back of her mind as a sharp pang began to pierce at her heart. Now wasn't the time to start dwelling on her loss. Her Clan needed her, and right now, she was supposed to be on a border patrol. Sorting out her conflicting emotions over Snowfur's death and Thistleclaw's sudden interest in her could wait until later.

Unfortunately, if Lilyspark had been hoping to forget about Thistleclaw's odd behavior, she was sadly disappointed. She spent the entire day out of the camp on various hunting and border patrols, and somehow, Thistleclaw was on every single one. By the time she was returning home along with the sunset hunting patrol, Lilyspark could barely restrain herself from clawing his fur out. The last thing she had wanted to do was spend the entire day with the cat she hated more than anyone in the forest, and she had just been forced to do exactly that.

Even worse, it wasn't as though she could report him because he technically hadn't done anything wrong. He was quite within his right to patrol with whoever he wanted, and Lilyspark knew that Sunstar and Tawnyspots would think that she was being immature if she complained about having to see Thistleclaw too often. A few moons ago, she probably would have done so anyway, but she had learned to pick her battles more carefully.

"So, I suppose I'll see you tomorrow," Thistleclaw meowed to her as she deposited two squirrels in the fresh-kill pile.

"Yeah, I suppose, seeing as we live together," Lilyspark muttered. Deciding to test him, she added, "You must be pretty annoyed right now, I bet."

"What?" Thistleclaw stared at her, evidently confused. "Annoyed about what?"

"Well, just about the fact that we were forced to spend time with each other all day today," she explained. "I mean, talk about bad luck, right? Tawnyspots must have eaten a bad piece of fresh-kill last night to put us on so many patrols together."

"Yeah...really bad luck," the gray and white tom agreed, though there was a strange note to his voice that Lilyspark couldn't decipher.

"Right. Anyway, I'm going to see if the elders want anything to eat," she meowed.

Before Thistleclaw could respond, she picked up a thrush and hurried past him in the direction of the elders' den. Her mind was spinning. Thistleclaw had more or less confirmed that Tawnyspots had placed them on the same patrols all day purely by coincidence. Yet at the same time, Lilyspark couldn't help feeling suspicious. It seemed almost too convenient that she had just so happened to be stuck with him the very next day after she had rejected his offer to hunt together. She tried to tell herself that she was just being paranoid, but still, a lingering feeling of doubt still remained.

As she walked toward the elders' den, she was intercepted by Rosetail bounding over to her. Lilyspark took one look at the gleam in the tabby warrior's eyes and let out a silent groan. She had seen the same expression on Rosetail's face whenever she pestered Bluefur about getting together with Thrushpelt, and she could only imagine what her friend was going to say to her now. Rosetail was a wonderful cat, but she was a hopeless romantic and it frankly irritated Lilyspark to no end.

"Hey there, Lilyspark!" Rosetail greeted her cheerfully.

"Hello, Rosetail," Lilyspark meowed tiredly. Please, for the love of StarClan, don't make some sort of remark about how Thistleclaw and I would make a cute couple!

"I just saw you and Thistleclaw talking. What was that all about?" the gray tabby asked. "I think it's the first time I've seen the two of you have a conversation without bringing your claws out."

"You tell me," Lilyspark replied, flicking her tail. "He's been acting weird around me since yesterday. Did you know that he actually invited me to go hunting with him?"

"That is strange," Rosetail agreed. Realizing how it must have sounded, she quickly added, "Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to go hunting with you, of course. It's just that–"

"–Thistleclaw usually never wants to spend time with me," Lilyspark finished. She nodded. "Yeah, I know. I don't get it either."

"Huh. Well, why don't we share a piece of fresh-kill later?" her friend offered, evidently deciding to brush off her brother's apparent change in attitude. "Maybe we can convince Bluefur to join us for our meal later tonight."

At the mention of her other sister, all thoughts of Thistleclaw instantly left Lilyspark's mind. "Is she okay?"

Rosetail shook her head sadly. "She ate a little bit this morning while you were out on the dawn patrol, but it was just a small mouse and she didn't even finish half of it. Thrushpelt invited her to go on a walk with him, but she turned him down."

"Tawnyspots asked me to talk to her yesterday," Lilyspark admitted. "But when I tried, she didn't want to listen to me."

"I know," Rosetail murmured, a sorrowful look flashing in her eyes. "I'm really worried about her. Even Moonflower can't seem to get through to her, and you know how close they are. I wish we could do something to help her."

Lilyspark didn't answer. Of course, she wanted to help Bluefur through her grief more than anything. But try as she might, she couldn't think of anything she could do that would heal her sister's broken heart.

Thistleclaw...what are you up to?

I mean, I know what he's up to since I'm the one writing the story. But...oh, never mind, you know what I'm getting at.

Thanks for reading!

-TheShadowedWarrior