A/N: Double update! Hopefully this can make up for the obscene amount of time I left this story sitting here :P

He awoke to pain throbbing in his limbs and the sound of dripping water in his ears. Slowly, he blinked open one yellow eye, and then the other. He didn't know what he expected to see before him. But what he did not expect to see was the face of a cold, damp rock wall before him. He blinked in surprise, drawing back slightly. As he did, a wave of sickness washed over him, and he listed to one side. He caught himself with one hand, gritting his teeth together as his stomach roiled. For some reason, his arms felt…strange. They bent strangely when he tried to move—were they broken, perhaps? No, not broken—the pain that throbbed in his limbs was not nearly enough to be caused by a broken bone.

But it was as he tried to stand once more that he heard something shift in the darkness. He went absolutely rigid where he was, his breath catching in his throat.

He was not alone in the darkness.

The sound of footsteps on stone echoed through the small cavern—at least, he supposed it was a cavern of some sort. But the footsteps were very odd as well—there were too many sounds for it to be one person. Perhaps two—

It was then that the figure rounded the corner. It moved in a strange way—hunched over and moving on all fours, like some great beast as walked. Suddenly it stopped in its tracks, turning its face towards him. He froze where he was, mid-way into an attempted standing position as it turned huge green eyes on him with surprise.

The figure—whoever or whatever it was—let out a gasp of air. "Are you all right?" it asked. The figure lurched towards him, and he acted without thinking. He lunged forward, striking out with one hand in attempt to push it away. He felt his fist connect and heard a grunt of pain, but he turned and fled down the corridor without waiting for it to respond.

Had he been in a clearer state of mind, he would have noticed that when the creature in the darkness spoke, though he understood, he would have realized that the tongue it spoke in was not human. Had he been in his right state of mind, he would have realized that his legs refused to support his weight—that they would not allow him to walk upright and would force him to move on all fours. He would have realized that his clothing had been replaced by a ragged coat of dark fur.

Had he been in his right state of mind, he would have realized he was no longer human at all.

But he was not in his right state of mind. His head was pounding furiously as he ran through the tunnels. He was incredibly confused; he knew not where he was, nor who or what had brought him there. And hanging over and through it all was a churning cloud of thought and emotion: anger, pain, fear, fatigue…grief. Pure instinct drove him on, drove him to run and escape from whatever fate the thing in the corridor would bestow on him.

He simply ran blindly through the darkness of the tunnels, whirling around corners and charging up passageways with reckless abandon. He nearly cracked his head against the walls many times, but he did not care. He simply continued to run.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, he staggered to a halt, limbs shaking and gasping for air. He could run no farther. Not far away from him, a gaping crevasse in the cave wall yawned wide like the opening of a huge mouth. Too exhausted to do much more, he crawled into it on his hands and knees and curled himself into a ball. His thoughts were too muddled by fatigue to do much else.

As his mind spiraled back down into oblivion, one last thought managed to steal into his dazed mind.

A single image of his Christine…

Hollyleaf winced again as she felt pain shoot up her foreleg. She must have landed harder than she thought. But she shook the pain off and stumbled through the thorn tunnel and back into the camp. The moment she was inside, every head lifted to stare at her. She ignored their stares, simply walking as best she could into the camp with her head held high.

There was a rustle, and Jayfeather's head emerged from the medicine den. The thin gray tabby sniffed the air, then pulled himself out of the cave in the rock. "Hollyleaf," he greeted, sounding relieved. Hollyleaf smiled at her brother as he approached. "Hello, Jayfeather," she purred warmly.

"Lionblaze said you fell into the tunnels," he said.

Hollyleaf nodded. "I'm fine now," she told him as her brother began to sniff her over. "Just a little pain in my shoulder. It doesn't feel too bad."

Her brother grunted as he sniffed her shoulder. "It doesn't seem too bad," he said. "If it gets worse, come see me."

The black cat nodded. "Thank you, Jayfeather," she told him.

As her brother turned to leave, two more cats emerged from the warriors' den. Lionblaze looked relieved to see his sister as well, smiling as he loped over to her. Brambleclaw followed not far behind. "You're back," Lionblaze said cheerfully, giving his sister a friendly flick with his tail.

Hollyleaf couldn't help but smile again. "I'm fine, Lionblaze," she told him. "First Jayfeather, now you…soon I'll have the whole Clan swarming over to see how I am!"

The large tom simply shrugged. "Is it wrong to want to make sure my sister is all right?"

She didn't answer. Brambleclaw dipped his head to her as he joined them. Though his expression was stonier than her siblings, she could see relief in his gaze as well. "Welcome back, Hollyleaf," he said evenly. "Firestar would like to speak with you in his den."

Hollyleaf nodded. She padded past her step-father and siblings, hauling herself up onto the Highledge. She winced as her shoulder spiked again, but ignored the pain and shook out her pelt, padding into the ThunderClan leader's den.

Firestar was curled up in his nest, but he rose into a sitting position as she entered, dipping her head. "Hello, Hollyleaf," her grandfather greeted. "Brambleclaw told me about what happened earlier." He shifted. "He told me that you also found a rogue-scent that seemed to be coming from the tunnels."

Hollyleaf nodded slowly.

"I'm curious…did you manage to find anything else about the rogue?"

It was then that Hollyleaf hesitated. It would be hard to explain how she'd found out so much about the strange cat in the tunnels without having to explain about Fallen Leaves as well. And would Firestar leave the rogue in peace if she explained about it? Especially after learning about what Sol planned to do in the tunnels…

So Hollyleaf took a deep breath. "I found traces of a rogue scent in the tunnels," she said. "But I didn't see or hear anything else other than that."

Firestar tilted his head. But then he nodded his head. "Very well, then," the ThunderClan leader said. "Thank you, Hollyleaf. You may go now."

She nodded in return, then turned to leave with a dip of her head. As she hopped down the rocks to the ground below, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt about lying to her leader. But she couldn't have explained all her knowledge away so easily. And if Firestar chose to go after the rogue…

She had no idea whether or not the strange cat she'd glimpsed in the tunnels was friendly or not, or what he meant for the Clans. But she knew that, during her own self-imposed exile, she hadn't meant any harm to the Clans. All she'd wanted to do was live in peace, away from her family. If this rogue wanted the same thing, then she couldn't let him be driven out. Not yet, anyways.

But for now, Hollyleaf felt like she was going to drop to the ground from fatigue. So she trudged into the warriors' den and sank gratefully into her nest. It wasn't long before sleep enveloped her once more and she sank into blissful darkness.

Hollyleaf had never noticed the unseeing stare that followed her all the way back to the den. Jayfeather stared blindly at the place where Hollyleaf had disappeared. A crease appeared in his brow as he turned back to his herbs.

Something was definitely off about Hollyleaf. He couldn't put his paw on what…but something told him that something else had happened in the tunnels. But for now, he would leave his sister be. If she wanted to tell him anything, she would do so on her time and not his.

But he couldn't help but shiver. He'd been having a very odd feeling all day—his pelt had stood on end at the slightest of sounds, and he'd jumped every time a cat had entered his den.

Somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that StarClan was trying to tell him something. Something important…