Author's Note: Never thought I'd get here with any story, but I suppose a steady persistence really does pay off (or at the very least pretending to abandon something and then randomly coming back to it, which is something I tend to do often). Anyway, aside from that, thanks for reading, and, despite my terribly infrequent updates, I shall try to carry this on until the end. I need to work on that. Finishing stuff.

Also, I kind of wrote myself into a dreadful corner last chapter. Really wasn't planning on any of that at all. It will be fun to see how I go about getting myself out of it. Also used the Warriors Wiki extensively for this, since I have somehow misplaced my own copy of The Sight.

Chapter Thirteen

"Willowpaw!"

Mothwing's voice rang out across the clearing, clear and crisp in the early evening air. Her young, gray-pelted apprentice, who had been hoping for a bit of a lie-in, struggled to her paws and hurried forward to where her golden mentor awaited her by the camp's entrance. "What is it, Mothwing?" she asked, trying to sound more awake and less annoyed than she actually felt. She had been running herself ragged all day, relieving the elders of their ticks and having to hunt all over the territory for elusive herbs. It didn't help matters that she had not seen Mothwing doing any actual work that day. In fact the most she had seen her mentor do for the past couple of days had involved her sitting around trying very hard to stay awake.

"Have you forgotten? Tonight is the half-moon. We've got to go to the Moonpool." Mothwing sounded almost desperate. Her eyes were wide and abnormally bright, and she was beginning to look a little undone.

However, the mention of this being the half-moon and the two of them going to the Moonpool completely absorbed all of Willowpaw's attention. She couldn't even bring herself to notice the beginning effects of sleep deprivation that Mothwing was so blatantly displaying. Instead the pale gray apprentice found herself caught up in the nervous excitement of seeing Jaypaw again. She could already feel her heart beating more rapidly in her chest, making her feel quite lightheaded. Her excitement became more nervous, and almost depressing, as she remembered the last time the two of them had spoken. She would have to find some way to talk to him alone and explain about Minnowpaw. She hoped he would listen.

"Willowpaw!"

Mothwing's voice cut into her thoughts, and she noticed with dismay that her mentor had already left the camp and was quite a few fox-lengths from the entrance. Scampering after her, she called "Coming!" and ran up until she reached her mentor's side. The two of them then continued in this way all the way to the border with WindClan and ThunderClan, being joined on the way by the WindClan medicine cat Barkface and his apprentice Kestrelpaw.

"Where are Leafpool and Littlefoot?" asked Barkface, impatient at being kept waiting like this. Willowpaw was also beginning to feel rather impatient. She craned her neck, trying to see the ThunderClan border over the backs and heads of the other three medicine cats.

"There she is!" cried out Kestrelpaw, bouncing in excitement, "And Littlefoot is with her!"

"At long last!" muttered Barkface under his breath. No one paid him any heed.

Willowpaw bowled past the excitable apprentice, tail twitching in indecision as all of a sudden she felt herself doubting whether she really wanted to see Jaypaw or not. With a shake of her head she pushed past it. This was important, and she had already taken it too far to turn back now. "Where's Jaypaw?" she asked Leafpool, surprised to find that no one was with the ThunderClan medicine cat aside from Littlefoot. Carefully she scented the air around them, not wanting to risk having missed him and then have him criticize her for it.

Leafpool, however, just hung her head and turned away, a very uncharacteristic response from the normally friendly pretty brown-and-white tabby she-cat. All the other medicine cats, noticing the conspicuous absence of Leafpool's apprentice and her own reaction to it, also turned away sheepishly. Willowpaw cocked her head at them all, confused.

"Geez Willowpaw," said Kestrelpaw eventually, after the silence had been allowed to stretch for a bit. "We thought you knew."

"Knew what?" asked Willowpaw, not entirely sure where this was going and not altogether sure that she liked it.

"Well," the WindClan apprentice continued, scuffing a paw in the grass, "Jaypaw's no longer Leafpool's apprentice. She announced it to us at the last Gathering. We thought Mothwing would have told you." Willowpaw turned to face her own mentor. Mothwing did not meet her gaze.

"But," Willowpaw paused to gather her racing thoughts and organize them into something coherent. "But how can that be? He can't become a warrior apprentice, surely?" She asked this last thrusting her face closer to Leafpool's, half of her hoping that this was just a terrible joke being played on her.

"Actually," replied Leafpool softly, "he seems to be doing quite well as a warrior apprentice." This remark was followed by an awkward silence from all parties, and Willowpaw felt her skin grow hot under her fur at having pushed the ThunderClan medicine cat. She was immensely grateful when her own mentor saved her from prolonged embarrassment by reminding them all of the reason they were gathered.

Thrusting her way simultaneously through the middle of the gathered cats and the uncomfortable silence they were gathered in, Mothwing pushed her head briefly against Leafpool's and said, "I'm sure you'll feel much better about it after you've visited the Moonpool. If StarClan surely meant for Jaypaw to be your apprentice, I know they'll guide his pawsteps back to your den."

Leafpool looked up at her friend, blinking her appreciation for those kind words. The other cats, finding themselves back in more familiar territory, pushed on. "Yes, well, we really should get going," said Barkface, moving ahead and summoning Kestrelpaw to his side with a flick of his tail. "The night's not getting any younger, and neither am I."

Littlenose nodded in agreement and followed closely after them, leaving Leafpool, Mothwing, and Willowpaw to bring up the rear. As the other medicine cats followed the stream that led up to the Moonpool, Willowpaw lagged a couple of pawsteps behind, still wondering how StarClan could have allowed Jaypaw to quit being Leafpool's apprentice in the first place. What if it's because of me? The thought hit her quickly and she stopped in her tracks, the small seed of hope that the idea planted in her stunning her. What if he had quit being a medicine cat apprentice for me? So we could be together? It only took her a moment to shake it off, however, her mind wandering back to that conversation the two of them had had at the last Gathering. No, it couldn't be that. He hates me. Maybe that's why he quit, so he wouldn't have to see me anymore. This idea sounded far more plausible.

"Willowpaw! Hurry up!"

At the sound of her name, Willowpaw's head jerked up, and she saw with surprise that she had almost reached the Moonpool. All the other cats were down beside it, but Kestrelpaw was standing at the edge of the hollow, waiting for her. Feeling embarrassment at this for the second time that night, Willowpaw fought to drown out her thoughts and instead raced the rest of the way up to the hollow, bounding the last couple of foxlengths until she came to a halt next to the WindClan apprentice. "We didn't want to start without you," he explained, leading her down to the water's edge where the other cats were gathered, noses poised over the still, gleaming surface of the water.

Aware of all of their eyes trained upon her, the silver apprentice took her place beside her mentor and, with the rest of them, dipped her nose into the quiet waters. And waited to fall asleep and for something to happen.

She observed all the other cats drifting off almost immediately into a quiet, peaceful sleep, even her own mentor, who seemed to have so much difficulty with that lately, until she remained, as wide awake as ever. Puzzled, Willowpaw again dipped her muzzle into the Moonpool and waited. Again nothing happened. A sense of panic gripped her, and suddenly she felt terribly alone and exposed in the moonlit hollow, where previously she had felt nothing but safe, protected from the world by her starry ancestors. This had never happened to her before. She was sure it had never happened to any medicine cat, since the beginnings of the Clans.

What if StarClan never visits me again? she wondered, her sense of alarm rising. How am I supposed to be a good medicine cat to RiverClan, if I can't even communicate with our warrior ancestors?

Author's Note: Alright, so another Willowpaw-centric chapter. For those of you who are confused about Willowpaw not having heard Leafpool's announcement at the Gathering, even though she was ostensibly present, remember that she was off having a conversation with Jaypaw, and for that reason we also missed this major event. But now you know!

Also, I meant to be done with this chapter a lot earlier (like, months earlier), but, as mentioned in the Author's Note for Chapter Twelve, I got caught up in my own original project. I was recently comparing word lengths on both this and that, and I'm somewhat surprised and also ashamed to discover that although I've been writing this story since 2008 (and it has plenty of Author's Notes to boost the word count) my own original work (which I only seriously began working on in December of 2012) has a whopping 68,085 words compared to this story's (according to FF and before the posting of this chapter) 26,533. So you can see that at least I've been busy doing something.