"Of all the foxdung in StarClan," he swore, watching the leaves rustle as the mouse made its escape. He sighed and sat in the ferns, licking the dirt from between his claws until his paws were clean, wrinkling his nose against the bitter taste. The sun was already high in the sky and while he could scent wrens and mice and squirrels all around him, getting the prey under his paws was a different matter entirely and a challenge that was nigh impossible for the lithe tomcat to overcome.

He thought about giving it another shot -he could hear the sparrows calling in a bush not two tree lengths away. But what was the point? He couldn't even catch a slow, summer-fat mouse and birds could fly. "Mintpaw!" The birds took wing in a flurry of calls and shivering of leaves. It felt silent in the forest without their racket.

Mintpaw saw a ginger-and-white she-cat weaving through the trees and stood, waving his tail. "Over here."

He watched as she paused, scanning the treeline before spotting him and darting over. She was slightly out of breath but was smiling ear to ear. "I was hunting- in a ravine- caught-sorry, sorry." She coughed, forced herself to breathe. "Okay. I caught a couple rabbits and could use the help getting them back to camp. If you don't mind, of course," she added hastily, yellow eyes wide.

"You know I don't mind, Maplepaw. Lead the way." I didn't mention that helping take back prey may make it seem like I helped with catching some of it.

Her smile was back, wider than ever. "Thanks, Mintpaw!" Maplepaw darted off the way she came, leaving Mintpaw rushing to try and keep up with the excitable she-cat. Two rabbits. He shook his head in disbelief. At least the Clan won't starve, he thought, though he knew it was only he who had trouble catching prey in the middle of greenleaf.

Maplepaw was already digging the rabbits out from between the rocks she cached them when Mintpaw made it to the top of the ravine. He peered over the edge. The bottom was grassy and full of small bushes: mostly dark-leaved holly and prickly raspberry vines. But the sides to this ravine were steep, clustered here and there by fallen boulders and thin, sharp ledges of slate. Mintpaw picked his way down, carefully pressing his paws down on the rocks before giving them his full weight. The action was like second nature to him, and while he sent a few stones tumbling down the side, he made it to the sloping base without even a scraped pawpad.

Maplepaw was waiting at the bottom, the two rabbits laid out onto a rock and their ruffs dark with their own blood. Mintpaw was surprised to feel the grass give way as he jumped off the stones, the earth marshy and saturated with water. Of course the bottom of the ravine was much lower than the rest of the territory, but the pond- and marsh-filled ravines usually sat closer to ShadowClan territory and their many rivers. This one was south of BlossomClan's camp, closer to FireClan's forest, yet it felt more like ShadowClan's marshes as he sloshed through the soggy grass.

He shook the water from his paws as he padded farther into the valley, curious. Maplepaw followed, bouncing between tufts of taller grass. "Never been down here before? I love it; it's one of my favorite places in the entire world."

"Out of all the ravines in BlossomClan, why this one?" Mintpaw asked. He flicked Maplepaw on the shoulder with his tail and turned with a smile. "You could have chosen one less wet." She stopped and he took a few more steps before turning back, worried. Her eyes were on her paws. The white-and-grey tom mentally clawed himself as he padded back to where she was. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It was a joke, this place is beautiful."

Maplepaw looked up, yellow eyes wide as ever. "No! No, it's not that." She shook her head. "Can I show you something? You have to promise you won't tell any cat, not ever."

Mintpaw blinked, pulling his eyes from hers: pleading with him, tugging on him. "You don't have to, I-I can-"

"Please. I need to show somecat." She paused, shuffling her paws. "I found this place when I got lost my first day out of camp and ever since then I needed to talk to somecat about it, but every time I try I know they're going to think I'm crazy so I can't say anything at all. But I know you, Mintpaw, and you'll get it, I know it! Even when we were kits you were always kind and understanding and-" she cut herself off. "Please, Mintpaw. I trust you."

The desperation was clear on her face as any emotion was. She hadn't changed either: since she was born any cat could read her at a glance, that's just the way she was. "Okay."

Maplepaw's ears perked. The smile started hesitantly but then grew across her muzzle. "Thank you! It won't take long, I promise." She shot off across the ravine, her paws kicking up water with every step. Mintpaw followed her path over the lush grass, following her pawsteps with their deep indents in the wet earth. A secret place in the heart of BlossomClan territory? He shook his head. He had never seen Maplepaw so serious about anything before. She was older than he was, being littermates for a pawful of days before she moved to the apprentices' den. There they had been apprentices together for a few moons, but other than chance training sessions then and scattered patrols together, he hadn't really talked to the excitable white she-cat.

He wondered how she had come to trust him, then. He knew she had a sister, Cloudedpaw, that she was close with and she was a social butterfly: no doubt she had plenty of friends to turn to. He was just another warrior close to her age and in the same Clan. Nothing more than that. So why me? He wondered as he watched her jump through the sodden grass like a kit out to play.

Maplepaw waited for him to catch up at the other side of the ravine beside a cluster of fallen stones. They were larger boulders than those on the other side, more rounded and with fewer angles. The holly bushes grew thicker and Mintpaw was forced to duck under their leaves as he approached, pushing his way through and under the low hanging branches when they arched above the thin trail Maplepaw had created.

"It was after we had seen the borders." It was a moment before Mintpaw realized she was continuing the story from earlier on, about how she had found this ravine in the first place. "I thought it would be fun to hide from Leafclaw. He was always so full of it, I just wanted to prove to him he wasn't infallible," Maplepaw said as she pulled a stone away from the wall, revealing a small dark space behind. She had to push her way through, scrabbling with her claws to fit her wide shoulders into the gap. "Don't worry, it's only a few steps inside."

Mintpaw looked to the stones above him, the blue sky flickering through the leaves. His paws squelched in the grass. Crickets buzzed in the distance. He shook his fur. "Quit stalling," he muttered to himself, steeling his courage as he crouched low to the ground and pulled himself into the darkness.

His nose bumped against something warm and he jumped, bashing his shoulders against the stone. Maplepaw laughed, echoing through the closed space. "It's just me. Another bit and then you should be able to stand." Mintpaw winced against the pain, but brushed his head against the top of the tunnel until he couldn't feel the cold stone anymore. He carefully brought himself to his paws. "Mintpaw?"

"Yeah, I'm here." The darkness was complete. Their voices echoed, making it difficult for him to pinpoint where Maplepaw's call originated. She couldn't have gone far. He pushed his paw in front of him until he felt it brush her fur, stepping away from the tunnel entrance towards her. A pale glow lit the ground beneath his paws and he felt the tension melt from his chest. They couldn't lose the entrance even if it was only a faint smudge of grey in the blackness.

He turned his head but couldn't see a thing. It was an interesting space to be sure, but what could be special about the complete dark?

"Look up," Maplepaw whispered. He felt her tail on his chin and he tipped his head to the top of the cavern. There was a single dot, far, far above, glowing white and gold, expanding in and out of focus. "Isn't it pretty? What do you think it is?"

"I don't know."

"I've been here a few times and it's just. . . sitting there. Blinking. Do you think it's a star?"

There was a whir and a buzz as the air vibrated around him. He felt his pelt flattened as though he was standing in the midst of a gale. A sharp sound rung through his ears. The little glowing dot expanded and suddenly there was a cat standing there, tiny from the distance, but definitely a cat. His eyes went wide.

It was him. The cat was glowing white and he couldn't discern any patterns, but for some reason he knew without a doubt that cat was him.

Another sharp note, like claws run over stone. It made his fur stand on end, sent a shiver through his body. The dot flashed once, twice, three times. Faster. A trail of red spooled out from the top, folding and turning like a ribbon caught in the wind. It twisted around the glowing cat's paws, his chest, his neck. And Mintpaw felt it. The red thread tangled and tightened. He could feel the pressure along his legs, around his stomach, pulling the breath from his lungs.

He pulled his eyes from above and looked to his own paws, lit with crimson light from the red thread as it pulled around him, twisting, tightening, digging into his flesh.

He screamed.

There was a red flash.

And then there was darkness.