Sorry, this chapter's a bit shorter than the others but it got done what it needed to get done. XD Thanks for all the new reviewers~ 'Specially you, Shadowchan. =3 I'll get to Float eventually; this is more fun to write. X3

Anyways~

Onto the story~

As soon as Cranepaw got back into ShadowClan's camp, he tugged Racingpaw away from the other warriors. They all went to their den, ready for sleeping, which seemed on the forefront of Racingpaw's mind, too.

"What?" he protested sleepily as Cranepaw pulled him into the side of the thorn barrier, pushing him up against the backside of Yellowfang's den. "What's wrong?"

"Brokentail killed my mother," Cranepaw said, his words falling out in a rushed tumble.

Racingpaw blinked. "Sorry, I'm really tired. I don't think I heard you right."

Cranepaw gritted his teeth. "Brokentail murdered Silversong! Because she rejected him, he killed her!"

"No way," Racingpaw said, his eyes now very wide. "No way, Cranepaw. You've got to be wrong. Brokentail's a ShadowClan warrior! He wouldn't—"

"I heard him," Cranepaw hissed, lowering his head. Thorns pricked deeply into his side but he could barely feel them. The intensity of this moment was overwhelming. He could feel it beating in his blood like fire.

Hesitation glimmered in Racingpaw's half-shaded blue eyes. Cranepaw hated that instant of uncertainty, of pause. It meant that Racingpaw didn't trust him.

"Racingpaw, you've got to believe me," Cranepaw said urgently, leaning forward, every limb straining. "Please. I heard him myself."

Racingpaw's reply was slow in coming. "Cranepaw… I mean, that's a huge thing to accuse someone of. And Brokentail is Raggedstar's son. He wouldn't ever betray the warrior code."

"He told Blackfoot that cats in ShadowClan needed 'relocation.' That he should be the one to get rid of all the weaknesses in ShadowClan so that when he becomes leader, we'll be strong."

"I mean… StarClan, Cranepaw. Murder?" Racingpaw shook his head. "Are you sure? You can't just throw around accusations—"

"Are you a mousebrain?" Cranepaw snapped. "How else was I supposed to interpret that? He said straight-out that he killed her! My mother is dead because of him!"

Cranepaw waited for a few incredulous heartbeats but Racingpaw said nothing. Furious at his so-called friend, Cranepaw turned on heel and walked away, ignoring Racingpaw's pleas for him to come back. Thorns ripped out stripes of his fur and that made him wince. He felt the blood well up but it still didn't sting as much as Racingpaw's betrayal.

Halfway across camp, Cranepaw caught sight of Raggedstar. He was on his way into his den, just the thick tip of his dark tail showing before it whipped out of sight.

Cranepaw made a snap decision. Without any second thoughts, he marched right over to the den, his eyes narrowed and burning.

"Raggedstar," he called. Closing his eyes, he pressed into the dangling bits of thornless vines—it was the apprentices' job to make sure they stayed that way—and headed into the curved body of the oak tree's trunk.

Before he got any further, something seized him by the scruff, lifting him bodily from the ground.

But Cranepaw was a ten-moon-old apprentice, and it took immense strength to hold him like a kit.

Scent washed over him and he felt a gut-wrenching sense of choked terror.

"Not so quick, Cranepaw." Brokentail hauled him easily back out of the den, tossing him back around the edges of the oak's roots. He stood in front of Cranepaw as he coiled on the ground, fur bristling.

Brokentail's shoulders were wide enough that they blocked out the bright moonlight, which backlit his horrible orange eyes until they glowed like hot coals.

He smirked. "Going to my father? Why?"

Cranepaw tried his best to be brave but he was terrified. His entire body was shivering as he tipped his head back and bared his teeth at Brokentail. "You killed my mother."

Brokentail didn't show a mousetail of regret. "So?"

Cranepaw couldn't believe his ears. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He felt as though he would be sick.

How could this cat admit to killing a fellow warrior so easily?

"You're young," Brokentail said, his voice sounding mockingly sympathetic. "You wouldn't understand."

"I know the difference between loyalty and murder," Cranepaw spat, his claws extending. "You're on the wrong side of that line, Brokentail."

Brokentail laughed lightly, tossing his head. "Ah, Cranepaw. You're amusing. Did you think you would simply walk into my father's den and report me?"

Cranepaw growled as Brokentail loomed over him. "Yes," he said shortly.

"Then you've got guts," Brokentail said, sounding appraising. He tipped his head to the side. "Your mother might have been a traitor but I don't think you are. You're ShadowClan, through and through, aren't you? You've got strong blood. Polluted, of course, by your RiverClan father."

"You're just reaching now." Cranepaw shoved past Brokentail's shoulder, pushing the older cat a little bit. "I've got things to do. I'll see you exiled for this. Or worse—" He let that hang, turning to look significantly at Brokentail.

Brokentail's eyes narrowed. He clearly understood.

ShadowClan had only implemented that punishment once: death. It was a cat a few seasons ago, when Raggedstar hadn't been leader. It was Cedarstar's time then. A she-cat named Blackflower, the medicine cat before Yellowfang, had taken to murdering her enemies with deathberry-filled prey. She got away with it for awhile until Raggedstar became leader and found out about it. Blackflower went to go lay one of her traps at the wrong time in ThunderClan territory and Raggedstar just…let it happen. ThunderClan caught her on their territory, and then she wasn't a problem to ShadowClan anymore.

"You think my father would believe you over me? His own son?" He tipped back his head, which cast dark cutting shadows down the planes of his face. "His heir, his blood, his only kin, versus some halfClan apprentice, raised by a mother who wasn't entirely loyal to ShadowClan." He shook his head. "Sounds like a tough sell to me."

"Then let me give it a try," Cranepaw growled, dipping his head. "We'll see who Raggedstar believes." He turned to go again.

Brokentail's paw came down on Cranepaw's tail, pinning him there. Cranepaw wheeled, terror icy in his throat, as Brokentail leaned down, putting them on eye-level.

"I guess I didn't make this clear enough," he said softly, his breath foul, smelling of blood even though his last prey must have been around sunhigh. "If you try to report me, I will kill you. Do you understand? And I won't make it quick like it was with your mother." Brokentail laughed as he smelled Cranepaw's fear. "That's right. So you understand, do you? Say a word to my father and I'll know. And if he exiles me because of it, that won't stop me. If I leave ShadowClan, I will make it my life mission to find you and kill you. No matter how long it takes. Who knows, I might even wait a while, get the taste of being a rogue, and then come back once you're grown with a mate and kits. Then I'll steal you away from them and let you live long enough to watch their suffering, too."

He stepped off of Cranepaw's tail, his expression unbearably smug. He moved aside, letting Cranepaw pass on wildly shaking legs, his fur fluffed out to twice its normal size.

"You just wait, Cranepaw," Brokentail said softly, his voice like the low call of an owl. "I'll be deputy—sooner rather than later. You'd do best to start obeying me now."

Cranepaw's heart felt like a trapped bird in his chest. Icy fear had him in its clutches and he kept thinking over and over again about what Brokentail had said, how he would kill him too, and his future—StarClan, it was going to drive him mad!

He turned halfway across the clearing but Brokentail hadn't gone to the warriors' den; he was talking to Raggedstar, who had come out for a bit of late-night fresh-kill.

Brokentail's eyes locked onto Cranepaw's as he bent to his father's ear, whispering loud enough for Cranepaw to hear: "Yes, Father. She told me that she wished to go to RiverClan a few moons ago. She wanted to be with her mate now that Cranepaw is nearly a warrior. She would have no regrets about leaving ShadowClan knowing that he would be safe with us."

Raggedstar sighed heavily, the mole at his paws forgotten for the moment. "Are you certain, Brokentail?" he asked, sounding hesitant. "Silversong would not abandon ShadowClan. We're her family. She has kin here."

Brokentail nodded solemnly. "I heard correctly. She wished to leave. Something happened to her on the way there." His eyes flashed to Cranepaw. "Perhaps someone wished to stop her from leaving them."

Cranepaw, though his fear, felt a sickening rush of disbelief. Was Brokentail trying to pin the murder on him now?

Raggedstar didn't seem to believe him. "I don't know about that, Brokentail… You've given me quite a lot to think about this night. I need to sleep on this."

Brokentail bent his head obediently. "Of course, Father. I understand. Please, keep in mind that I am always loyal to you and to ShadowClan. I only want the best for us."

Raggedstar laid his tail against his son's shoulder, soft fondness coming into his yellow eyes. "Of course. Your loyalty is never in doubt, Brokentail." He turned and disappeared back into his den, his mole forgotten.

Brokentail watched the mole for a moment, then snatched it up and carried it away, his tail high in the air. His eyes caught Cranepaw's once more from across the clearing, and Cranepaw half-thought Brokentail looked triumphant.

Cranepaw watched him go, his mind reeling, his legs unable to stop shaking.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Cranepaw avoided Racingpaw for a while after that, choosing to mull things over by himself. That was what he had picked to do that day. Finished with his ambush training for the moment, Cranepaw laid up in a tree, letting his forepaws dangle, his chin resting on the branch.

He heard paws trotting by and he straightened, holding perfectly still, knowing his smoke-gray pelt would blend in perfectly with the smooth bark behind him. His white paws were tucked up and out of the way, which left him with no color but that dreary dark gray.

It was the sunhigh patrol. Brackenfoot was in the lead, followed by Poolcloud, Archeye, and Rosepaw. Poolcloud was telling Rosepaw a story of how Archeye had gotten himself stuck in a hollow log before, and how it had taken four warriors all day to claw away enough of the rotten wood to get him free.

Archeye did not seem to appreciate this story. He snorted, rolling his eyes. "Must you, Poolcloud? I preferred it when my apprentice worshipped the ground I walked on."

"Oh, she still does that," Brackenfoot supplied, his whiskers twitching with amusement.

Rosepaw looked at Archeye, her tail waving. "If you stopped being so great all the time, then perhaps I wouldn't worship you so much, Archeye."

He purred, obviously pleased, and brushed his tail over his apprentice's ears. "Let's keep the stories to a minimum, Poolcloud. Unless, of course, you want to talk about the time you got so frightened about a mouse appearing that you yowled loud enough to alert ThunderClan. They thought she was an injured kit. And that was when she was already a warrior."

The group laughed, even Poolcloud. Rosepaw tossed her head back as she laughed, and as she did, she caught Cranepaw's eye. Her eyes widened and she look confused. She mouthed, What are you doing?

Cranepaw just twitched an ear.

Rosepaw looked worried, her brows low over her eyes. "Archeye, may I be excused? I'm not feeling so well."

Archeye turned immediately to his apprentice, his eyes concerned. "Are you sick?"

"I think I ate a bad frog. My belly's hurting." She made a convincing wince, curling in on herself a bit.

Poolcloud clicked her tongue. "You better get to Yellowfang right away. She'll give you some juniper or watermint for that bellyache."

"I will." Rosepaw shuffled from paw to paw, her expression miserable.

"Well, get going," Archeye said, already turning away. "You're excused for the day. If you're feeling better later, we'll do some sneak training, okay?"

"Okay," Rosepaw said, evidently relieved.

She turned and headed back towards ShadowClan, just long enough until the patrol was out of the way. Then she darted back to the tree and climbed it agilely, coming to a stop in the branch just above Cranepaw's. Her striped tail waved in the breeze.

"What are you doing, Cranepaw?" she whispered. "Why are you here by yourself? Where's Nightpelt?"

"I finished my training for today," he said. "I just wanted to…think a bit."

Her eyes softened. "About Silversong?"

It was the easiest option, so he just nodded.

Rosepaw said, "You don't have to be alone, you know. You have your friends. Racingpaw and Whitewind. Nightpelt. And me," she added softly, almost as an afterthought.

That made his heart kickstart a little bit. "Th-th-that's very nice of you, Rosepaw," he said, getting tongue-tied. His pelt felt hot. "Thank you."

Rosepaw purred, looking forward. From this height, they could see the pale gleam of the Thunderpath and beyond that, Fourtrees. The tops of those oaks' crests were deeply dark green, even this late in green-leaf.

Cranepaw enjoyed the comfortable silence. It was lonely up here by himself but now with Rosepaw here, he felt like he could stay here all day long. He looked up at her surreptitiously, admiring the sun gleaming off her ginger tabby pelt, which was unusually pale for a ShadowClan cat, her slightly paler legs, the bright gleam of her yellow eyes, bright as the sun.

She was so beautiful. He'd always liked her, and admired her. But she would never like a cat like him, small and scrawny and above all—halfClan. What kind of mate would he make for a pureblooded ShadowClan warrior when he himself was a mongrel?

Rosepaw caught his eye, her own softening. "Do you want to talk about it, Cranepaw?"

After a moment in which he just looked at her, he shook his head. He wasn't the one for her. He knew that. And that was never going to change.

Thankfully, she changed the subject herself. "Have you noticed about Clawpaw?" she asked.

"No?" He thought hard. Clawpaw had been sleeping in the apprentices' den as usual but he never talked to any of them, except maybe Rosepaw. He was older than them, closer to getting his name. His brown tabby bulk filled a good portion of the den.

Rosepaw looked away. The set of her mouth and eyes was sad, like she was in mourning. "He's been spending an awful lot of time with Brokentail and Blackfoot. Stumpytail, too, but I can't do anything more about him." She looked down at him. "I know you don't like Brokentail, Cranepaw, but I just think you should realize how dangerous he is."

"Dangerous?" This was interesting. Of all the times they'd talked about Brokentail, Rosepaw had never cited an example of why she was afraid of him, just that she didn't trust him. "What do you mean?"

"Have you ever been on patrol with him?" she asked. When Cranepaw shook his head, she said, "The way he goes after prey… It's not normal. It's brutal. He rips his prey apart." She looked away, the soft fur over her shoulders spiking. "I've only seen him do it once and when he caught me, he made me swear not to tell. But I couldn't get that image out of my head… All that blood. And he enjoyed it. You could tell." She shivered.

Cranepaw reached up and touched his nose gently to her shoulder. Sitting on his branch, his eyes were level with hers. "You don't have to be afraid of him," he said softly, his heart thumping again. Rosepaw's eyes were very lovely this close; he could see little flecks of darker gold and green in them. "I'll protect you."

Rosepaw purred softly, the sound rusty. "Are you going to be like the handsome, charming tom in all the kit-stories, who sweeps in at the last second to save the pretty she-cat from disaster?"

His heart catching a bit on the word handsome, Cranepaw said honestly, "I definitely wouldn't call you pretty. You're beautiful, Rosepaw."

Rosepaw leaned forward suddenly and pressed her nose to his. Her purr grew stronger. "No one's ever called me beautiful before. Except my mother, and she doesn't really count." She tried to make it into a joke.

Cranepaw said, "They should more often." He was still feeling flushed from Rosepaw's gentle nose; it was much softer than Racingpaw's or Whitewind's or even Nightpelt's.

"Come on," Rosepaw said, flicking her tail over his ear. "Let's get back."

"Yeah," he said dreamily, watching her leapt to the ground before following. Clearing his throat, he said, "After all, you've got a bellyache to tend to."

Rosepaw rolled her eyes.

Woo~ A kind of happy ending, I guess, maybe. XD

I hope you like it~

I've gotta go sing in choir now, so I'll get to that whole writing-Float thing later~

I'm such a procrastinator. Lololol

R&R~

Shadow