The decomposing leaf litter left over from leaf-fall made the forest floor soft below Waterpaw's pads, but the soft ground provided little comfort as the sky grew darker and darker. She and Grasspaw had been walking for almost an entire day now, and neither of them had any idea where they were, or if they were any closer to the lake. At least it had stopped raining a few minutes ago, even if the sun hadn't really come out afterwards. It had continued to hides behind the cloud cover, which didn't look like it was going to be lifting anytime soon. But that didn't matter anyway, because Waterpaw knew that behind those clouds, the sun was slipping lower and lower in the sky. Before long, it would be nighttime.

"How much longer do you think we should walk?" Waterpaw inquired as a chilly breeze ruffled her fur. She didn't want to admit it, especially not to Grasspaw, but she was beginning to feel a bit scared. "It's letting late, and I don't want to be walking all through the night."

"Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, aren't we?" Grasspaw replied. His smug tone was an annoyance to Waterpaw, but one she could stand if it meant getting a good answer. "It's not even night yet, and if you want us to ever get home, you should be prepared to spend as much time on your paws as necessary."

"Yeah, but…" Waterpaw studied her paws, now wanting to come off as too squeamish. "I don't like the dark very much. What if another owl comes after us?"

"If a predator of any sort attacks us right now, we won't stand a chance," Grasspaw said matter-of-factly. "But we'll be more vulnerable to attacks if we're sleeping than if we're awake and on the move. Besides," he added, his voice dropping a few decibels, "I don't want this trip home to take longer than it has to, and the more often we stop, the longer it'll take."

Waterpaw studied the look on Grasspaw's face. He wore an expression she recognized as one she'd tried to banish from herself many times, but one that always kept crawling back in: uncertainty. When Grasspaw noticed Waterpaw examining him, he pointed his muzzle away from her so she couldn't look him in the eyes. Waterpaw dropped her gaze away from him; he clearly didn't want to be analyzed.

The two apprentices continued on their way. At one point, they came across another wide thunderpath. "This doesn't seem right," Waterpaw mumbled. "I'm sure the owl only carried us over one of these."

"Well, maybe we've been going the wrong way this whole time," Grasspaw suggested. "So, should we turn around?"

Waterpaw couldn't tell whether he meant it or not, but she seriously hoped he didn't. They couldn't turn around now! They'd already walked so far. Waterpaw's legs were aching, and she was sure Grasspaw's were too. Turning around would be making almost a whole day pointless.

Just as Waterpaw was about to voice these objections, a monster roared by, its glowing eyes making Waterpaw squint in contrast to the darkness of her surroundings. She stayed still as it zipped past, knowing that she was well off to the side of the thunderpath, but Grasspaw jumped back, muttering curses under his breath.

He waited until the monster was out of sight to express his thoughts in an audible manner. "Stupid monsters, always running around like that," Grasspaw spat, smoothing out his ruffled fur. "And at all hours of the day, too! What could it possibly be doing up so late?"

"Maybe it's trying to get home, too," Waterpaw offered, only half serious. She had always had a funny feeling about monsters- sometimes it felt like they weren't even alive at all, but were being controlled by some unseen force. "Or maybe some types of monsters are just nocturnal."

"Did you see all the stuff piled on top of it?" Grasspaw added. "There were those long, curved things that twolegs ride around in on the lake sometimes on top of it, and some of those skinny monsters you were talking about earlier on the back, and it was pulling a weird rectangle thing behind it- like a compacted twoleg den, but it was also a monster at the same time!"

"What could it possibly need with all those things?" Waterpaw wondered. "The only place I've ever seen any of those things before is-"

The answer hit Waterpaw in a sudden burst of glorious realization. The twoleg greenplace! Of course! And if they were going to the twoleg greenplace, then that meant they were going to the lake. And if they were going to the lake…

"Come on, Grasspaw!" Waterpaw cried joyously, a renewed energy flowing through her. "We're going to follow this thunderpath!"

Grasspaw hadn't known Waterpaw for long, but in the time he'd known her, she'd seemed to be a fairly normal cat aside from her destiny that she wouldn't shut up about- although now that he thought about it, she'd been fairly quiet about it that day. But walking alongside a thunderpath for an extended period of time was such an insane idea that Grasspaw was instantly convinced that Waterpaw must have had bees in her brain.

"Are you stupid or something?!" he demanded, waving his tail at the thunderpath. "We can't follow this! A monster will come along and run us over!"

"We won't have to walk on it, fish-brain," Waterpaw mewed, like she was so smart. "We just have to follow the path it takes. If we stay off to the side a little, it'll be perfectly safe."

It didn't sound safe at all to Grasspaw, but he supposed he wasn't the one with a prophecy about him, and for good reason. He wouldn't let his apprehension get in the way of finding his way home, he told himself. Waterpaw sounded pretty sure of herself- well, she always sounded sure of herself, but this time she sounded like she was sure of her decision. Besides, it wasn't like Grasspaw had any better ideas.

"Okay," Grasspaw agreed finally. "We'll follow it. But if you turn out to be wrong, I swear to StarClan I'll-"

"Yeah, yeah," Waterpaw purred, already beginning to take off ahead. "Just try to save your pessimism 'til then, okay? I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing."

Before long, they were following the thunderpath up a long, gentle slope. When they reached the top, Grasspaw stopped and looked around to see if he could see any familiar locations. He could see the forest they'd been walking through, complete with the river, which, as it turned out, veered off in an entirely different direction shortly after they'd broken away from it. It looked like it eventually flowed into a small lake, but it certainly wasn't the lake the Clans lived by. It was in a completely different shape, and it appeared to be in the middle of a twolegplace.

"I guess it's a good thing we didn't keep following the river," he muttered. "We'd have just gotten even more lost."

"Yeah, good thing," Waterpaw agreed. Then she perked up, pointing her tail toward a faint shimmer on the opposite side of the hill. "Hey, look, I think I see the lake!"

"Are you sure that's what it is?" Grasspaw asked critically. "It's too dark to really tell."

"Well, there's only one way to find out, right? We keep following the thunderpath!" Waterpaw proclaimed. Then her belly grumbled and she looked down at it awkwardly, adding, "…I guess we should stop and hunt first, though."

Grasspaw offered to do the hunting- anything to be by himself for a while- and Waterpaw agreed, saying she'd go looking for him if he took too long. Grasspaw doubted he'd take that long, although he considered taking longer than needed just to annoy her.

He headed down the hill and into the woods that they'd been walking through earlier, trying to get rid of the horrible smell of the thunderpath that clogged his nose and mouth. Right now, it was the only thing he could smell, so he couldn't pick up any prey scents- and he wouldn't be able to detect the scents of any dangerous predators if need be.

Grasspaw decided to look in the twisting roots of an oak tree. He crouched down and peered between the roots, opening his jaws. As soon as he did so, his wish was granted- the tangy aftertaste of the thunderpath was driven out of his mouth by the powerful stench of rotting flesh. Grasspaw backed away from the oak tree, gagging. Some animal must have died in there, and nothing had gotten around to eating it yet. At this rate, he could hardly imagine anything wanting to eat it, but he supposed the term crowfood existed for a reason. He was just glad he wasn't a crow.

"Why'd I decide to try hunting at night, anyway?" Grasspaw mutter aloud to himself as he stalked through the forest, unnerved by the silence and darkness and just wanting to hear a voice, even if it was only his own. "All the prey is probably asleep. Waterpaw's the better hunter. Why didn't I just ask her to do it?"

The longer he remained in the forest, the more worries crept into Grasspaw's mind. What if something attacked him? What if something attacked Waterpaw while he was gone? What if he couldn't find his way back to her? What if…?

The distant hoot of an owl sent a shiver down Grasspaw's spine and he tensed up, instantly ten times more watchful. He kept a close watch on the sky in case a winged creature should swoop down at any moment and snatch him up again. It was highly unlikely, but his first encounter had made him paranoid. It was funny; the thought of owls had never bothered him that much before. But now that one had almost killed him once, Grasspaw couldn't help but worry that there would be a second time.

Maybe he could try to find that river again. That fish he'd shared with Waterpaw hadn't tasted all that great, but at least it had been something. Then again, the river was too far away. Grasspaw just wanted to catch something and get this over with as quickly as possible. He was used to open spaces, and being surrounded by all these trees made him feel too closed in. Being along at night in a forest was probably the worst combination Grasspaw could possibly think of. Sure, he'd wanted to be alone for a while, but he hadn't taken the environment into account.

Finally, just when Grasspaw was considering giving up and turning around, the wind shifted and the scent of mice drifted through the air. Mice generally weren't Grasspaw's favourite food, but the smell still made his mouth water. He sniffed the air, following the scent to a little hole in the ground next to a clump of ferns. There, a mouse was nibbling on a seed. Grasspaw dropped into the hunter's crouch, sneaking up on the mouse, which was too busy with its seed to notice him until it was too late. He brought his paws down on the mouse and killed it with a quick bite to the neck.

Grasspaw scraped a bit of earth over the dead mouse so he could come back for it later. If he'd found one piece of prey, he could find another, and he didn't want to share any more fresh-kill with Waterpaw. It wasn't that he didn't want to share with her, but it just didn't feel right. Stuck together, separated from their Clans, or not: Waterpaw was not a Clanmate. Grasspaw couldn't treat her as such. Such behaviour would only tempt further infringement on the warrior code.

He'd almost forgotten about it after all that had happened, but Grasspaw had to remember the dream he'd had right before he and Waterpaw had been attacked by the owl- the cat made of grass and the cat made of water destroying one another when they touched. As soon as they got back to the lake, Grasspaw pledged to tell Waterpaw about that dream. He hadn't told her about it yet, because he knew it would just make things awkward between them, and they needed to stick together for now, but once they were back in their respective Clans, they had to stop spending time together for their own safety.

It didn't take Grasspaw long to track down another mouse. He killed it, retrieved the first mouse, and carried them both by their tails back to the top of the hill, next to the thunderpath, where Waterpaw was waiting for him.

Waterpaw sleepily licked the corners of her mouth, gathering up the last morsels of mouse from between her teeth. She gulped them down and let out a long, contented sigh.

"I'm guessing you enjoyed it," Grasspaw muttered, watching her with an unexpected amount of interest. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Huh? I didn't say-" Waterpaw broke off, realizing she'd neglected to thank him. "Oh, yeah, thanks for catching those mice, Grasspaw."

"No problem."

"So, what now?" Waterpaw asked, stifling a yawn as she settled down next to Grasspaw, who was lying on his stomach with his paws tucked neatly underneath him. "Do we keep going?"

"Judging by how tired you sound, I say we get some sleep," Grasspaw suggested. Waterpaw blinked at him gratefully; she'd been hoping he'd say that, but she hadn't wanted to bring it up herself in case it made her seem weak. "The side of the thunderpath probably isn't the best location to sleep," the greenish-gray tom went on. "We should find someplace more sheltered."

"Did you see any good spots while you were out hunting?"

Grasspaw shook his head, looking embarrassed. "I wasn't really looking around that much," he mumbled. "To be honest, the forest kind of creeps me out."

Waterpaw didn't understand how a bunch of trees could bother any cat so much; in fact, sometimes she wished that there were a few more trees on RiverClan territory to shelter her from the harsh sunlight that reflected off the river. But she supposed that it would be different for a WindClan cat. Grasspaw probably liked running through open fields with the wind blowing through his fur.

"Let's look for a good spot at the bottom of this hill," she offered. Being stuck up at the top of the hill while Grasspaw had been hunting had made her feel a bit uncomfortable; it had felt like she was trying to show off or something. "It's not like we can see that much from up here anyway."

Grasspaw nodded approvingly. "Good idea," he mewed. "There might be a tunnel under the thunderpath or something."

"A tunnel?!" Waterpaw screeched. "I don't wanna sleep in a gross tunnel! If we're sleeping anywhere, it's going to be in nature!"

"Fine, then," Grasspaw muttered. "Nature it is."

They trotted down the hill, which was much steeper than the uphill. Waterpaw almost tripped over her own paws, but she managed to catch herself before she could tumble down. That didn't stop Grasspaw from snickering at her a bit, though. She gave him a playful cuff around the ears, and he retaliated with a gentled shove. Purring with amusement, Waterpaw ran the rest of the way down the hill, and Grasspaw followed after her. At the bottom, she pounced on him in a surge of exhausted giddiness, and they rolled around together for a while in the grass, being sure to keep well away from the thunderpath.

Before too long, Waterpaw had Grasspaw pinned down. "I win," she mewed in a singsong.

"Not so fast," Grasspaw shot back, rolling away from underneath her and coming up on his paws a tail-length away. "Spikeear taught me that move. He says it can come in real handy when you're fighting a cat bigger than you."

"Well, Foxfang taught me this move," Waterpaw exclaimed, rearing up on her hind legs and attempting to bat at Grasspaw, but she lost her balance and flopped over onto her belly. Waterpaw lay winded on the ground for a moment, glaring at Grasspaw, who was standing over her, snickering.

"I don't know Foxfang, but he sounds like a pretty stellar mentor if he's teaching you moves like that," Grasspaw teased. "The 'stand up and then fall down' attack- every cat who hopes to become a warrior should try this move on the battlefield at least once."

"I don't know Spikeear, but if he's teaching you that rolling is the best battle tactic out there, he must not be very good at fighting," Waterpaw shot back. She wriggled her haunches and then jumped onto Grasspaw's back, shouting, "Foxfang also taught me how to do this for when I'm fighting a big animal!"

Grasspaw squirmed around under her. "Hey, get off," he complained. "I'm not a large animal! In fact, you're bigger than me!"

Waterpaw let out a playful mrrow, hopping down from Grasspaw and running in circles around him. "Come and catch me," she taunted him. "I bet you can't!"

"I bet I can," Grasspaw replied, giving chase. Waterpaw headed into the forest so she wouldn't be as exposed, but she didn't run as fast as she could have, letting Grasspaw catch up to her and tackle her to the ground. "Caught you," he purred, wrapping his front paws around her.

"You sure did," Waterpaw mewed, gazing up at Grasspaw's shining green eyes. She could see her own face reflected back in them, and she realized that she looked happier than she'd ever seen herself look when she saw her reflection in the water. "What are you going to do with me now?"

"Aren't you going to try to escape?" Grasspaw whispered, lowering his head so that his whiskers brushed against Waterpaw's.

"Mmm… I dunno," Waterpaw mumbled. She was all tired out from playing with Grasspaw, and she wasn't sure if she had the energy left for another game. "Can't we just stay here instead?"

Grasspaw hesitated for a moment before murmuring, "Okay." He rolled off of Waterpaw and curled up in a clump of ferns. Waterpaw followed him, her pawsteps heavy, and simply fell onto him as much as she consciously lay down.

"This is nice," Grasspaw whispered sleepily, rubbing the back of his head affectionately against the bottom of Waterpaw's muzzle.

"Yeah," Waterpaw agreed, wrapping her paws around Grasspaw as she curled around him, feeling the line of his spine pressed against her stomach. "It sure is."

They feel asleep more quickly than Waterpaw would have thought possible, pressed close to each other in their shelter from the cloudy night.