"Lilypaw, you're here." Leafpool's soft amber eyes looked up and held mine for a few, brief moments. The weak sunlight, filtering through the clouds left from the snowstorm last night, cast Leafpool's brown-striped fur into a near amber glow. "You'll be helping Jaypaw with our herb stocks today."

I glanced at Jaypaw, who doesn't look up. A prickle of frustration stabs at my paws and my heart like a thorn. At one time, not more than a quarter-moon ago, I would have loved to be ignored by Jaypaw. Somehow, I want him to look up at me. My dream floods back into my mind and sends me reeling. Would Jaypaw understand? I wondered cautiously, thinking of Lionpaw's enthusiasm, his lack of distrust around Tigerstar. Does he know that his brother visits Tigerstar?

A soft flash of fur brushed across my eyes. Leafpool stares at me, her eyes glinting with annoyance. "Lilypaw, wake up," she growled. "You're going to help Jaypaw sort out the dead marigold from the fresh flowers."

The morning came and went with a tense, icy feeling. I could feel Leafpool's eyes watching me and Jaypaw as she mixed poultices. Sometime near sunhigh, the snow had stopped and Leafpool announced she was going out.

"To fetch some mallow," Leafpool mewed, shaking out her thick fur. "Before the snows start again. Jaypaw, you and Lilypaw are going to sort through the juniper berries." She rolled a pile of crushed, frost-blackened berries towards Jaypaw's paws.

Jaypaw glared at me as Leafpool vanished from sight. "What do you want?" he asked, challengingly meeting my eyes as if he just realized I was there.

I met Jaypaw's gaze fairly and evenly, blue eyes meeting blue. The silence stretched for several heartbeats, and I looked down. "Look," I sighed. "Can we just sort through this juniper?" I began to paw through the pile, the deep color of the berries staining my paws.

Jaypaw sighed, and his forepaw brushed against mine as he rolled a frost-nipped berry from the pile. I shivered, feeling my heart race with an unusual anxiety. StarClan, Lilypaw! I scolded myself. What's up with you?

My head spun with confusion. Jaypaw worked without a spark of emotion, and his cloudy blue eyes gave away nothing. A shiver rippled my pelt as I realized that Jaypaw, too, shared Tigerstar's dark legacy. Does Tigerstar visit himI wondered. Is it really such a big deal that Jaypaw has the blood of an evil, dead cat, anyways? A flutter of butterfly wings beat in my stomach. Does he know danger is coming?

A furry tail brushed against my cheek, and Jaypaw's voice, bitter and irritated, rose from the other side of the den. "Hey, Lilypaw," he snorted. "Planning on getting back to work anytime soon?"

I glanced down at the juniper berries that lay below me, crushed under the weight of my paws. I hadn't realized that I'd crushed the berries. "W-wow. Sorry," I muttered hastily, drawing my tongue over a juniper-flavored paw. The bitter flavor stung my tongue.

"What's biting you?" Jaypaw questioned, nudging the good berries back to their position in the back of the den. "You're acting like a sleeping badger." He glanced up, and a faint glow of amusement soothing the anger in his blue eyes.

I shivered. "Well…Jaypaw…" I mewed awkwardly, words coming out thick and heavy in my tongue. I played around with the shadows and words in my head, thinking of Jaypaw's brother and the dark message he certainly held in his paws.

Jaypaw flicked his tail, beckoning me to come closer. I approached him cautiously, the ground feeling cold under my paws. What do I tell him? I wondered. How much do I not tell him?

"Well…I had a dream last night," I admitted slowly, carefully avoiding any mention of Lionpaw.

Jaypaw's ears twitched. "From StarClan?" he suggested slowly, his voice flat and emotionless once again. "What did you see?"

Where was I last night? I thought, recalling the eerie trees wrapped in fungus and the branches that blocked out the sky. "Not StarClan," I explained. "A place with trees that"---

"Block out all light from the sky?" Jaypaw finishes hastily. He draws his tongue over his paw and swipes it around his whiskers. "Tigerstar walks there, and Hawkfrost. What did you see?" The warmth in his tone surprises me, in contrast to the bitter voice he uses most of the time. I took a deep breath, preparing to tell the rest of the story.

"Tigerstar was there," I said quickly. "And"—I bit my tongue after almost saying Lionpaw—"he was talking to a cat that I couldn't see."

Interest glimmered in Jaypaw's eyes. "Did the cat have ThunderClan scent?" he pressed.

Guilt makes me look down, avoiding eye contact. "I don't remember," I lied. "But Tigerstar said that there's danger coming to the forest—danger smarter than a cat and stronger than a dog."

"Stronger than a yappy Twoleg pet that can't catch a pigeon if it was starving?" Jaypaw sneered, twisting his paw against the hard-packed earth.

Frustration pricked in my belly. "Do you not believe me?" I snapped back.

Jaypaw's tail curled up. "That's not what I said," he snorted. "But is that all Tigerstar said? Nothing about what the danger was?"

I shook my head. "No, nothing." Lionpaw's lithe, golden-brown body comes to mind, and I shake the image away. There's no reason for him to know about that, I reminded myself.

Jaypaw looked confused. "I don't know what to make of it," he admitted. "Honestly, Lilypaw, all I could say is to keep dreaming." To my surprise, his tail flicks out and grazes my whiskers, leaving a tingly feeling in my belly. "There's something to make of this, Lilypaw; I wish I knew what."

Leafpool's arrival put a stop to our conversation. She arrived with sweet-scented mallow dangling from her jaws, her amber eyes glazed from the cold. Dropping the mallow, she mewed, "Jaypaw—Lilypaw. On my way back from camp, I noticed a patch of catmint just on our side of the border, near ShadowClan."

An awkward silence briefly ensued, before Leafpool shakes her head, pawing her mallow into the pile. "I want you two to go out and fetch it," she added quickly. "Have you two been getting along?"

"Just fine," I mewed shortly, slipping through the bramble walls that surrounding Leafpool and Jaypaw's den. Jaypaw follows, his bright-blue eyes gleaming and his fur fluffed out against the cold winds that whip our whiskers into our eyes.

"Bye, Leafpool," Jaypaw called, flicking his tail. He followed me from the camp and into the ravine, battling against the bitter cold. The scent of snow and ice wipes away the vivid, dark colors of the forest and the scents of ThunderClan. I feel like we're walking inside of a cloud.

As we hurried into the shelter of the oak trees, Jaypaw caught up to me, shivering. "It's cold!" he purred, sounding uncharacteristically bright. "Headed to the ShadowClan border?"

Really! I bite back the sarcastic remark. For a cat who claims that they're not useless…

"I can't smell anything because of the wretched snow," Jaypaw snorted. "That's how I get around—with scents and feelings—but my paws are numb and the scent of ice makes it impossible to navigate."

Despite my efforts to suppress it, a bitter remark rose from the back of my throat like bile. "Fine, then," I growled. "Just follow me."

As we trekked along the lakeshore, the winds whipped the snow and made it impossible to see a few fox-lengths ahead of us. My paws floundered in the snow, higher than chest-deep. Jaypaw growled from behind me, nearly drowning in the snowdrifts up to his neck.

"Lilypaw!" he called fiercely. "Are we anywhere near the ShadowClan border?"

I lifted my head as the wind blasted against the roof of my mouth. I couldn't see anything through the swirling pelt of white that clung to the forest like mist. "I can't see or smell anything!" I called back. The helplessness made me shiver. Is this what it's like to be blind.

Jaypaw padded up to stand beside me, his thick grey fur coated with powdery snow."Forget it," he murmured. "It's not worth it for a bunch of flowers."

I dipped my head, relieved to get back to the warmth of camp. The cold air froze in my lungs and stung my head and pelt. "We'll tell Leafpool when we get back," I agreed thankfully. "Let's go." I glanced over my shoulder at the swirling mess of snow that surrounded us, the flakes falling thicker and heavier on our pelts and shoulders.

Jaypaw halts suddenly, his tail-tip laying on my shoulder. "Hey, Lilypaw," he hisses urgently. "Listen! Do you hear something?"

I froze, shivering as the wind pierced my grey-tabby pelt. The wind whistled through the trees with a sound like white water through rocks; the snap of a branch echoed faintly in the clearing. A low, mournful howl slices through the wind, distinct and clear. The noise continues for several long heartbeats before falling silent.

"What is that?" I asked, fear pulsing through my veins. "D'you think some cat's lying injured?"

Jaypaw's tail curled up. "Dunno," he muttered, continuing towards the camp.

"Should we tell Firestar?" I pressed, catching up to Jaypaw. My heart skipped along, quicker than the wind. I don't like things that I can't see, touch, or bite.

Jaypaw shook his head. "We'll figure it out when the storm blows over," he said decisively, pushing his way through the powdery snowdrifts.

I glanced back once again. A grey shape, long-legged and slender with a plumy tail and pricked cat's ears, stand near the lakeshore, with amber eyes that gleam, piercing through the snow with an unflinching certainty. The wind howls through the trees again, and the creature is gone.