A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates – I've been reeeeeeeeeally busy since school started... T T ….

Anyway! Here's the new chapter. I own nothing. (I decided to experiment with Leafwhiskers POV. Just a heads up.)

Chapter 15

Leafwhisker was exhausted. She fervently wished that she was back in the forest, in the Darkclan camp, instead of the exposed, open meadow. She missed the crunch of twigs and leaves underpaw and the rustling of the trees. She missed her cozy, well-stocked den, too, but she knew that she would probably never see it again.

She peered at the other forest in the distance. They might be able to reach it if they started walking again today, but the Clan was tired and she knew they needed rest.

She yawned and sleepily twitched her ears. Leafwhisker hadn't been getting much sleep lately. Ripplegaze's paw was infected and the few measly marigold plants she could find had just about been killed by the frost. Tanglefur, her father, had cut his paw on a rock, and Leafwhisker didn't have any spiderwebs or herbs to bind it with. If it got infected too, she couldn't do anything about it.

Mosspelt, the elder, was weak with hunger and Leafwhisker feared he would die if he didn't get enough to eat. She looked at the swallow she had just brought into her den and decided that he should get it instead. Leafwhisker padded out of the hollow she had made her den with the bird. It was nice and plump and she would have loved to eat it, but she knew that Mosspelt needed it more.

The elders were resting in the pale early morning sunlight, huddled together for warmth.

"Here," Leafwhisker mewed, "Eat this. It's a swallow, still plump."

Mosspelt licked his lips, his tongue running over yellow teeth. "Thanks, Leafwhisker. That looks delicious. Sprigstep, would you like a bite?"

Leafwhisker left them to their swallow and padded back to her hollow. What I need, She thought, is an apprentice. Then I wouldn't get so tired.

She wondered if she could recruit one of the kits; Brightkit and Hazelkit would be apprentices soon, so it wouldn't hurt if they got some extra training. Hmm... Brightkit is energetic and bubbly, but I don't think she could remember which herbs to use, Leafwhisker reflected.

Well, what about Hazelkit, then? She was more serious; maybe she would make a good medicine cat. Then Leafwhisker dismissed the idea. She remembered Hazelkit telling her sister that she couldn't wait to be an apprentice, that warrior training looked fun. She couldn't take the kit from her dream.

Leafwhisker sighed, causing her whiskers to flutter. Well, maybe one of her mother's kits,one of her siblings, would be her apprentice. She felt a pang of grief and guilt. Poor Bark-kit. She wished she could have saved him.

She lay silently for a few moments. Then she straightened up with a gasp. "Oh, no! I was so busy thinking, I forgot to change Ripplegaze's marigold poultice!" She shot over to the marigold plant, muttering to herself about how mousebrained she was.

She glanced over at Shinestar, who was closing up the Wake. That was when she saw something that made her blood run cold.

Review, please!