The three cats pushed through the woods, their pelts clawed at by fronds and stalks and their paws aching with exhaustion. The white she-cat paused for a moment and took a long, ragged breath, her lungs heaving.

"Could we take a break for a bit?" Diamondpaw asked her companions, who were a few paces in front of her.

The cream tom looked back at her, his eyes filled with confusion. "You're tired already?"

Even the small kit seemed to be judging her. Diamondpaw flushed. "Hey! Don't look at me like that!" she protested, frantically grooming her ruffled pelt. "It's not like I'm out of shape or anything. I just have long fur, and it gets stuffy in the forest…"

He sighed, his shoulders moving beneath his shining, short coat of fur as he sat down. His sable tail curled around his legs, twitching impatiently. "Fine. I'd rather reach the graveyard before tomorrow, though."

Diamondpaw paused her grooming to look up at him. "You never really told me why you wanted to go to the graveyard, actually. Would you mind…" she didn't have to finish her sentence; he responded with a quick shake of his head.

"I told you. She just wants to see it. Not that it matters," the tom meowed, the answer he gave to nearly every question she asked.

The white she-cat tried to take a deep breath, but she could already feel her skin beginning to burn. Why did he have to hide everything from her? She had offered to help, so didn't Diamondpaw deserve his trust?

She turned back to grooming her pelt, picking a twig out of her chest fur with a fang. At the back of her mind the doubt she had maintained since she had met the mysterious tom and the little grey kit that tailed him around nagged at her. Diamondpaw couldn't put the thought aside- what reason did he have to be so secretive? And why did she feel that he could be trusted despite his mysterious air?

Diamondpaw felt anger rise in her and tried to quell it with a long intake of breath through her nose. She picked up once again on the mysterious cat's smell, and something clicked in her mind.

It hit her all at once.

The refusal to give his name. The odd scent. His request to go to the graveyard. How he didn't even know about DawnClan's capture when she had first met him.

But no, she thought. How could he have known that DawnClan was being kept in the graveyard? It wasn't like she had told him.

Or had she?

Diamondpaw struggled to remember the conversation she had had with the tom when he had asked her his favor.

"I need you to take me somewhere."

"Where?" Diamondpaw asked after a moment of waiting for his response.

At first it didn't seem like he was going to answer. He simply sat, eyes fixed on the kit, clearly thinking deeply.

"The Moonfalls," he said suddenly, his eyes bright with some realization. "I have to go there."

Diamondpaw recoiled slightly. A rogue that wanted to visit StarClan? Was this a joke?

He must have noticed the change in her expression, because he leaned forward and began to explain. "I've heard it's a beautiful sight. I won't go inside, of course, but…" he looked at the she-kit beside him and smiled weakly. "She would like to see it."

"Moo fall!" the kitten squeaked, failing to pronounce the word. The kit beamed proudly and puffed out her chest.

The DuskClan apprentice felt her pulse calm itself. The rogue just wanted to show his kit- was she his, even?- the pretty waterfalls that the Clans had settled beside. It had nothing to do with StarClan.

"Well, we'll have to take a detour to get there," Diamondpaw mused, trying to view her territory in her mind. What path would keep her and her companions out of sight of her Clan? "Traveling along the river will bring us right past the warrens, which is usually swarming with hunting DuskClan cats. That won't work."

"So we'll take a path straight north and then turn once we clear the warrens?" the tom offered.

She shook her head. "No, that would go straight to the monster graveyard. We can't risk going there."

The cream tom's ears perked up. "Why not? A graveyard doesn't sound like a place bustling with cats."

Diamondpaw shifted her paws uncomfortably, remembering the conversation she had had with Stormpaw during her trip back to camp. Featherstar had ordered that DawnClan be taken to the monster graveyard and kept there by a rotation of guards, made up of warriors and apprentices that would switch out at sun and moon high. She didn't feel like it was a good idea to tell him, though.

"Oh, nothing. It's just…" she scrambled to come up with a lie, some sort of excuse that would keep her from revealing a Clan secret to this stranger, but she was empty-pawed.

"Well, maybe we can stop there, too?" the tom asked with, much to her chagrin, a dazzling smile. "She'd like to see it," he explained, gesturing towards the kit with his tail. The she-kit nodded vigorously and mewed her assertion.

Diamondpaw felt a trickle of annoyance creep down her tail. Had she really been put through all this trouble just for a pair of touring rogues that wanted to see the sights of her Clan's territory?

Nonetheless, she couldn't say no to his smile, or the excited squeals of the kitten. They had set off in the middle of the night.

Horror washed over her as she studied the mysterious tom, every detail of his appearance setting off alarms in her brain.

Though he was much older and larger than she, Diamondpaw rose to her paws, claws unsheathed. She took a step toward the cream-furred tom and his kit, who showed no signs of surprise or worry.

"How did you know?" she asked, her voice sharp and brash.

He smiled. "Hey, you finally figured out how to look intimidating."

Diamondpaw growled in frustration. "I'm not joking with you! How did you know DawnClan was being kept in the graveyard?"

The tom blinked in surprise. He said nothing.

She took a long stride forward, now a tail-length away from him, her claws flexing into the earth below her.

"I didn't, really," he responded as she crept even closer. "It was a guess. But now I know for sure."

She felt her heart shatter, replaced with an angry flame. He had cheated her! Lied to her, made her betray her own Clan! Diamondpaw wanted to leap at him, tear his pelt to pieces, gouge out his eyes-

"Woah, why are you looking at me like that?" he exclaimed, momentarily calming her blinding rage. "What did I do?"

"You lied to me!" she hissed, her tail thumping against the ground. Diamondpaw could see out of the corner of her eye that the kitten had fluffed out her fur and flattened her ears in fear, or perhaps anger. "You're not a rogue! You're a DawnClan-"

He cut her off by leaping forward, barreling into her and sending the both of them flying into the foliage behind them. Diamondpaw started to let out a battle cry, but he pressed his right paw down hard on her throat, cutting her off. She writhed beneath his grip, shocked at how much strength his slender body held, but the tom restrained her.

"Shut up." he whispered, his voice barely a breath. Diamondpaw began to retaliate, but suddenly her ears caught what he must have noticed moments ago. She cursed herself for being so reckless and inattentive.

The sounds of traveling cats passed by her head, legs brushing against the woods' dense foliage. There was a low murmur of conversation, the voices vaguely familiar. Diamondpaw stilled, quieting even the slight shake of her paws. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat. It was a DuskClan patrol.

The voices came closer. The DawnClan tom slowly backed away from her, keeping as silent as he could, and poked his head out of the bush they hid in. She could hear him trying to signal towards the kitten, and crept up by his side to see what was the matter.

Just in front of her eyes, blocked slightly by the dense leaves of the bush, sat the clearing that the three cats had paused in, at her request. The gray tabby she-kit was creeping towards them, her hind legs in an awkward hunter's crouch, when suddenly another cat entered the clearing.

For a split second Diamondpaw thought she was going to throw up. If the patrol found out that she was sheltering escaped DawnClan cats, she would be exiled, taken away from the few friends and family she had.

Wait- why was she sheltering them anyway? Wasn't this the perfect opportunity to get herself out of the uncomfortable situation she had found herself in? She could tell the patrol what had happened, the DawnClan cats would be apprehended, and her life would go back to normal.

Diamondpaw stepped out of the bush just as the approaching DuskClan cat noticed the grey she-kit. He turned toward her, and Diamondpaw scented him as Spottedsnow, one of the older DuskClan warriors.

She opened her mouth and began to say something to the now-quizzical warrior, but with a quick glance behind her she caught sight of the cream tom's bright yellow eyes, round and terrified. How could she send him into captivity, or even worse, when she had the ability to save him?

The DuskClan she-cat quickly hurried over to where the grey she-kit was curled on the ground, shaking in fear at the unfamiliar tom. Diamondpaw turned towards Spottedsnow and quickly sent thanks to StarClan that the cat that had found them was so amiable and kind; Spottedsnow was perhaps the most sympathetic and welcoming warrior in DuskClan.

Even still, the tom had surely noticed her friends' (could she call them that?) DawnClan scent. There was little time to hesitate.

"Please don't say anything," Diamondpaw whispered as quietly as she could, so that the other patrol members wouldn't be able to hear. She wrapped her fluffy tail around the grey she-kit, who leaned into her fur. Diamondpaw could feel the kit's shaking body, and was glad that she had made her decision. "They're my friends."

Spottedsnow looked at her, his soft brown eyes wide with worry. After a moment he nodded and turned around, disappearing through the bushes as if he had never encountered her.

Diamondpaw waited until she and the kit were back in the bush and the patrol was far away to let out a long sigh of relief. To her surprise the cream tom pressed up against her side and briefly groomed her pelt, a surprising show of affection she hadn't expected from a near-stranger. Though she did just sort of save his life.

"Thank you," he said, breathless. "I thought Wolfkit and I were done for."

She smiled weakly. "Me too."

Wolfkit, or the kitten she assumed was named as such, had pushed her way between the two younger cats and now sat staring up into Diamondpaw's eyes. "Who that?" Diamondpaw assumed she was speaking about Spottedsnow.

"Spottedsnow," the she-cat apprentice explained quietly, still nervous from the close call just moments before. "A very kind DuskClan tom."

"Dusk... Clan?" Wolfkit mewed, confused. "What?"

"The other Clan. Diamondpaw here is a DuskClan cat," the cream tom said to his kit, lowering himself to her level. Diamondpaw felt shocked for a moment to hear herself referred to as "other", but it was the truth. She and this tom did not belong in the same camp.

The she-kit still did not understand. The tom sighed and shrugged. "Wolfkit's only been Clan for a day. She still doesn't get it, I suppose."

She felt a spark of excitement at his words. He was finally beginning to tell her who he was; at least, slightly.

"So whose is she?" Diamondpaw asked, getting to her paws and slowly exiting the bush. The tom and kit followed.

He paused for a while before answering. "A friend's. She's… kind of adopted."

"That was nice of her parents. To adopt her, I mean."

"Yeah, they're definitely kind cats," he meowed, an undertone of spite in his voice. No matter how much she wished to, Diamondpaw decided not to pry.

"So… do you want to tell me your name?"

"It's Larkpaw. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Larkpaw revealed. She was momentarily surprised that he was only an apprentice, as he had the strength, skill, and size of a warrior. Again, she didn't ask.

They walked in silence for a long while before her curiosity finally got the best of her.

"So um, why are you not captured?" she asked bluntly. From the quick intake in breath she heard after asking Diamondpaw immediately regretted her phrasing. But she didn't correct herself, instead waiting for Larkpaw to speak.

"I was hunting," he started, not once slowing his pace as he spoke. In fact, he sped up as his words carried on, making Diamondpaw have to lengthen her own strides and nearly leaving Wolfkit behind in the dust. "I was upset. About… really, about nothing," though Diamondpaw could tell this was a lie, she noted that Larkpaw glanced toward the she-kit following them as he said 'nothing' and assumed that his anger had something to do with the kitten. She hadn't the slightest idea what that could mean. "The attack happened when I was gone. I came back to an empty camp. Except for Wolfkit, that is. She was still in the nursery."

The white she-cat paused for a moment, trying to imagine what it would be like to return to a camp devoid of any life, completely silent and cold. It made her shiver, and she was glad she hadn't been a part of the invading patrol.

No cat said anything for a while. They were in the heart of thick-trees (what DuskClan liked to call the healthiest part of their forest) when she spoke again.

"It's rather late," she pointed out, feeling immediately stupid for saying so. It was Moonhigh, and all of Silverpelt was climbing in its dazzling way across the sky. Any cat could have noticed that. "Maybe you should stop and rest."

"But isn't night the better time to travel?" Larkpaw protested, slowing his pace to walk beside her. "Not many cats will be out this late."

"I know, I just…" Diamondpaw thought of making up some excuse about Wolfkit being tired, but the she-kit was still following cheerfully along behind them, full of energy and zeal. She decided to voice her worries honestly. "Larkpaw, if you want to get to the graveyard to see your friends and family… I should really be asking what your plan is. You don't want to break them out, do you? There's no way I can do that."

Larkpaw stopped in his tracks as she spoke and turned to face her. "I know. You're right. I just can't stand being alone like this," Diamondpaw felt a stab of hurt as he spoke before chastising herself. Why would she think that Larkpaw would be content with her as company? Of course he missed his Clanmates. Nonetheless, hearing the words come out of his mouth stung more than she had thought they would. "I have to do something about it. Even if that means ending up being captured myself."

"What about Wolfkit?" Diamondpaw asked, her voice small. "If you're taken to the graveyard, she'll be all alone."

Larkpaw glanced at the she-kit, and spoke as if the kitten weren't there. "No matter what fate awaits DawnClan in the graveyard, we all have to face it together. Wolfkit should be with her mother and siblings if… if they…"

The DuskClan apprentice caught on to what he was trying to say, and her fur bristled in response. "No! Featherstar wouldn't!" she said, appalled. "It's against the warrior code."

He laughed drily and looked at her with a dangerous spite she hadn't seen before. "It's against the warrior code to capture entire Clans, too, but here we are. I'm sorry, Diamondpaw, but your leader isn't above anything."

Loyalty rose in her. "It's not like your leader is any more noble!" She spat, but the raw and sincere pain in Larkpaw's eyes made her small rebellion fizzle out.

"No cat is perfect," Larkpaw said simply, and got to his paws. "You're right. We need to plan before we get there. You can go back to your camp; Wolfkit and I will be all right here."

Though Diamondpaw wished greatly to stay and learn more about Larkpaw and his life in DawnClan, she admitted that it was time to go. Her legs were weak with exhaustion and she could barely push herself to take each step; the idea of a trek back to camp in her state was daunting.

She nodded. "Okay. Make sure you stay alert. I'll try to meet up with you tomorrow afternoon."

Larkpaw looked surprised. "That late?"

"I still have to perform my apprentice duties. It'll be a while before I finish," Diamondpaw explained briefly, though of course Larkpaw knew already what it meant to be a Clan apprentice.

"Of course. Right. I'll try to work on a plan while you're gone."

Diamondpaw suddenly had the mental image of the cream-and-sable tom creeping around the edge of the woods to take a look at the graveyard. In her mind's eye, the situation did not end well. "Maybe it would be better if you stayed away from the graveyard until I'm there with you."

Larkpaw shrugged as he began to lead Wolfkit into a clump of ferns that would conceal the two of them well. "I won't make any promises, Diamondpaw. It's not enough for me to just sit around and wait. Not anymore."

She had the odd feeling that he wasn't just talking about the situation with the graveyard, but she was too tired to inquire any further. Diamondpaw dipped her head and yawned wide, slowly turning around and tracing her steps back through the forest on her sore paws.

As Diamondpaw finally split away from her two friends, she began to wonder why she had agreed to help Larkpaw in the first place. Was it out of fear? He was certainly older and stronger than her and would probably win in a fight, but she never felt intimidated by his seniority.

Maybe it was out of pity. She had felt bad for the poor, lost tom with his young kit and wanted to help. No, that wasn't it either.

For some reason Diamondpaw had felt a connection to him. That both apprentices had something in common. She had no idea what it could be, but it made him feel trustworthy, as if she could put her faith in him.

She laughed at the idea. After a rather lonely life with few true friends, Diamondpaw found it odd that she'd trust a stranger so easily. Especially when he was asking her to betray her own Clan.

But she did, somehow, and it felt right to her. Helping him was what she had to do. It was almost as if StarClan wanted it to be so. She believed in him. He didn't want to harm her Clanmates, just save his own. There didn't have to be a bloody confrontation. Both Clans could be happy. She saw it in Larkpaw's eyes.

The moon was beginning to sink as she reached the training clearing, a landmark that she, Larkpaw, and Wolfkit had passed as they began the walk to the graveyard. Her legs were twigs, ready to snap at any instant, and she decided to take a quick break in the clearing.

Diamondpaw stepped out of the cover of the trees into the sandy ditch that sat at the base of the mountain. Pebbles crunched loudly underneath her paws as she walked, unnaturally so.

She heard a quiet hiss and felt her fur stand on end. Diamondpaw had stopped moving, but the sound of moving rock and sand remained.

Someone was there with her.

The apprentice dropped into a crouch, taking a few tentative steps toward the cover of a dying bush. She slunk between its branches, hoping that they would conceal her bright fur from a possible attacker, and began to scan the clearing in search of the sound's source.

Diamondpaw caught sight of a flash of grey fur, reflecting the fading light of the moon. The form she saw for just an instant was rather diminutive, clearly belonging to a younger cat. She felt slightly more at ease, but her heart still raced with the threat of confrontation.

Opening her mouth to scent the crisp air, Diamondpaw made her way out of the bush and towards the stranger, trying to deduce who it was.

The form was a few fox-lengths away, hunched over on the ground and raking their paws through a pile of pebbles. Their pelt was striped faintly and looked as if it hadn't been groomed for a long while.

"Hello?" Diamondpaw whispered, hoping that the cat was not an enemy.

They didn't respond.

Confused, she took a step closer, and then another, until she stood at the cat's side. They still took no notice of Diamondpaw.

Suddenly, she noticed something familiar about the cat's face and scent. "Silverpaw?" she mewed, confused.

The cat turned to look at her. "Oh. Hello." There was a faraway look in her eyes, as if she wasn't fully grounded in reality.

Diamondpaw opened her mouth to speak, but Silverpaw turned back to the pile of pebbles, pushing pawfuls aside and sniffing for… something.

She hoped that Silverpaw would say something, but it seemed as if she were too focused on whatever task she had to speak. Diamondpaw decided to initiate. "Have you lost something?"

The grey-furred apprentice shook her head. "No, I'm looking for gravel."

Diamondpaw had no idea what to say. Silverpaw had definitely found gravel in the pile of pebbles she sifted through, so what was she doing now? "Haven't you… found it?"

"No, no," Silverpaw said tersely. "Gravel. She's bound to be around here somewhere."

"She? You mean… Gravel is a she-cat?"

"What are you talking about, Rose? Of course Gravel is a-" Silverpaw trailed off as she glanced again at Diamondpaw, who was extremely confused. "Oh. You're not Rose, are you?"

Diamondpaw shook her head. "Um, no. I'm Diamondpaw, your denmate."

"I'm sorry. I mistook you for… someone else," Silverpaw explained, turning around and straightening herself up, giving her mussed chest fur a few quick licks.

The white she-cat nearly dismissed the encounter as nothing, just another one of Silverpaw's "eccentricities" that were so popular to talk about in the apprentices' den. Normally, the two names- Gravel and Rose- that she had heard would seem made-up to her, the daydreaming fantasies that Silverpaw was known for. But her encounter with Larkpaw and Wolfkit had changed her perspective, and these two unknown cats suddenly felt real to her.

Silverpaw began to turn back to the pile of gravel, likely hoping that her company would do the same and leave.

"Who are they?" Diamondpaw asked suddenly.

"Who?" Silverpaw responded without looking up from the pebbles.

"Gravel and Rose."

She answered curtly, "They're cats."

Diamondpaw could sense that Silverpaw was trying to hide something. For whatever reason, she felt brave enough to pry. "You're always speaking to yourself, looking at things that aren't there. Are Gravel and Rose… are they part of what you can see?" Even as she said it, it made very little sense to her.

Silverpaw stopped her digging, her muscles frozen. She lowered her head to the ground, her snout pushing through the gravel, and came back up with the bloodstained skull of a bird clamped between her jaws.

The grey she-cat placed the prey bones on the ground and gestured to them with her tail. "They're cats. Here, in the forest. They bury their prey just like us."

Diamondpaw felt her heart begin to pound. The prey, though still wrapped in the reek of blood, had a terribly familiar scent about it. It was not of DuskClan or of some mysterious forest cats.

Silverpaw smiled. "Look, I can follow the prey-scent scent and show them to you. If you'd like to see, that is."

The white she-cat leaped forward, bursting with frantic energy. "No! No, that's quite all right, you don't have to track them, I believe you."

She shrugged. "Okay. I'll visit them on my own, then. They don't bite, you know. At least, they don't bite other cats. They do bite their prey."

Diamondpaw had no idea who Silverpaw was talking about, but she knew that if the grey apprentice followed the scent trail, she would find a secret that Diamondpaw was trying desperately to hide. "Um, are you sure you don't want to, uh," she grasped for some sort of diversion, a distraction from the scent trail. "It's really late, don't you think? You should go back to the den. And sleep! Sleep sounds great, doesn't it? Yes, I think so too," Diamondpaw rambled on as she attempted to get Silverpaw to follow her back to camp. It didn't work; the silver apprentice wouldn't move.

"I promised I'd visit them soon, though," Silverpaw protested. "They'll get worried if I don't come soon."

"I'm sure they're plenty preoccupied being… cats, you know. It's very hard to, uh, stay alive in this day and age," Diamondpaw continued speaking nervously, gesturing with her tail towards DuskClan camp.

"But-"

"No time for excuses! We have to sleep! It's very important for your health. Mothripple told me so," said Diamondpaw matter-of-factly as Silverpaw began to walk beside her. She felt her muscles relax slightly.

They were at the edge of the training clearing, Diamondpaw's heart rate nearly back to its normal speed, when Silverpaw turned to her.

"Why don't you want me to follow the scent trail?"

Diamondpaw jolted in surprise. Her thoughts flew to the image of Larkpaw and Wolfkit curled up in the clump of ferns, their peace interrupted as Silverpaw poked her head through the fronds and yowled at the presence of intruders. "It was me," she lied, adding a sad sigh to the end of her words for good measure. "I ate the bird before coming back to camp. I was just too hungry to wait. I… I broke the warrior code."

She immediately questioned her decision of admitting to serious misconduct instead of something more innocent. Why did she have to head straight for the dramatic?

"The bones didn't smell like you, though," Silverpaw commented, which nearly made Diamondpaw jump out of her pelt.

"Well, they didn't smell like Gravel or Rose either!" asserted Diamondpaw, hoping she was correct. Maybe the mystery cats happened to have the same scent as Wolfkit?

The grey DuskClan apprentice sighed. "You're right. They didn't. I was just hoping to find them today. It's been far too long since I've seen them."

Diamondpaw felt the knot of apprehension in her stomach unravel all at once. "That's okay. I understand."

They continued on for a few paces, and then Silverpaw spoke again. "I won't tell anyone you broke the code. You seem really nice. Like Rose. You'd like her, I think. She looks just like you. That's why I mistook you for her."

Nodding along with her words, Diamondpaw finally relaxed. "You must really like Rose, huh?"

Silverpaw shrugged slightly, but she was smiling. "I was pretty disappointed that you weren't her."

Even after their long conversation on the way back to camp, Diamondpaw had never thought to ask who Rose and Gravel actually were. Rogues? Kittypets, even? It didn't quite matter to her. Like Larkpaw. He was a friend, even though he wasn't DuskClan. Clearly Silverpaw had the same kind of relationship with this "Rose". She wanted badly to open up to Silverpaw about Larkpaw and Wolfkit, but knew that it might endanger her friends.

So she stayed quiet, and when Diamondpaw finally reached her small nest of moss and curled up beside her sister to sleep, she dreamt of Larkpaw, and of Rose.