The rising sun filtered through the golden leaves that formed the lattice canopy of the apprentices' den, casting glittering dapples across the resting cats. Diamondpaw opened her eyes groggily and stretched out her paws, still exhausted from the long trek she had made across the territory in the night. Her fluffy tail twitched back and forth across the small open space in the bramble-covered den, brushing up against the still form of her sister. She glanced up at the bright morning sky broken up by the intertwining branches above her and heard the sounds of waking cats from outside the den. The Clan felt quieter than usual, as nearly half of the warriors were busy guarding the graveyard in shifts.
"Wake up," Diamondpaw mumbled into her sister's ear. Stormpaw flicked both ears at her in annoyance.
"Let me sleep," the gray she-cat groaned, her voice thick with lethargy.
Diamondpaw cocked her head in confusion, as her sister clearly hadn't been sleeping anyway; she had responded immediately to Diamondpaw's words. "Did you not sleep well?" she asked as she pulled herself up into a sitting position and began to groom her fur like the apprentices around her were doing as they awoke.
Stormpaw rolled over to look at her sister and nodded. "Yeah. You woke me up when you snuck into the den last night, and I haven't been able to sleep since."
The white-furred apprentice felt a stone of dread drop into her stomach. Stormpaw had noticed her return? Clearly, Diamondpaw wasn't as sly as she thought. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she tried desperately to keep her response calm and controlled.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't think I'd wake you. I just ran into Silverpaw when she was, um, hunting. We went for a walk."
"In the middle of the night?" Stormpaw asked, her expression was quizzical.
Before Diamondpaw had time to answer, to her relief, the cat in question suddenly appeared by her shoulder, already fully awake. "Yep. Diamondpaw and I were just going for a walk. It was nice to talk with her," Silverpaw said in her typical smooth, calm tone. Diamondpaw wondered how she was always so relaxed, compared to Diamondpaw's constant anxious paw-shifting that had been present ever since she had met Larkpaw and agreed to help him. Maybe she could learn a thing or two from the silver cat about keeping her composure.
The doubt seemed to leave Stormpaw's eyes, and she smiled. Diamondpaw felt her tensed muscles relax for a moment at her sister's grin. "Hey, you made a friend!" Stormpaw meowed happily, flicking her sister with her tail. Diamondpaw felt her face flush slightly. She didn't think the entire apprentices' den needed to know how lonely she was.
It's, um, really no big deal," Diamondpaw mumbled, trying to act natural. "Uh, in fact, Silverpaw and I were... planning to go out on a hunting trip today!" she lied, startled at how easily the words had come to mind. Maybe she was becoming too good at hiding things.
"Really?" Stormpaw mewed with a bit too much surprise. She seemed to notice her blunder, and lowered her voice. "Sorry. That sounded rude. But really, I'm happy for you, Diamondpaw. Besides, I have guard duty with Eaglepaw and Lilypaw at the graveyard, so I wouldn't be able to hang out with you. Thank StarClan Owlpaw won't be there."
All three apprentices shivered slightly at the thought of the rude ginger tom, barely over seven moons old but already as pretentious as a fox. Clearly something had gone wrong in the upbringing of that insufferable apprentice.
"Well, good luck guarding the graveyard," Silverpaw meowed, breaking the sudden silence. Diamondpaw nodded awkwardly in agreement, knowing full well that she was later planning on infiltrating said graveyard. As Stormpaw's fluffy tail and hindlegs slipped out of the two apprentices' views, Diamondpaw turned to face her new friend.
"Sorry about that. I didn't really mean to drag you into a sudden promise like that, but I worried Stormpaw was getting too curious, so..." Diamondpaw said with a slight grimace.
The silver apprentice shrugged amiably. "It's perfectly fine. A hunting trip sounds really nice, actually."
Diamondpaw started, surprised that a cat would be so willing to spend time with her, but she was inwardly pleased. "Okay! Sure! We can go on the trip," she promised, though her mind suddenly flooded with thoughts of Larkpaw watching the afternoon sun dip below the horizon with herself nowhere in sight. Diamondpaw had to make sure that she made it to the rendezvous on time regardless of her outing with Silverpaw, for the sake of her DawnClan friends' safety.. Another detail suddenly came back to her. "I should probably ask Flickerwhisker if it's alright, though." She hadn't seen her mentor in days because of the assault on DawnClan, and had nearly forgotten about him.
A shadow passed over Silverpaw's eyes. "Oh, right. I need to ask Goldentuft. Can I walk with you?"
Diamondpaw nodded, and the two apprentices padded side-by-side to the nearest warriors' den, planning to scour both of the sleeping spots for their mentors.
"Is Goldentuft still bitter about Hawkstrike?" Diamondpaw asked in reference to the silver apprentice's mentor.
Silverpaw let out a long sigh, making her appear uncharacteristically exasperated. "You have no idea. He's nearly all she talks about, other than Rosedawn, though they kind of go paw in paw. I mean, her anger is justified and all, but it's hard to work with a mentor who's constantly upset. At least she's an alright teacher."
Diamondpaw thought back to the scandal involving Goldentuft and her former mate, Hawkstrike, that had upset all of DuskClan just over two seasons ago. Hawkstrike had gotten his apprentice, who was then named Rosepaw, pregnant, leaving behind his old mate, Goldentuft, as well as his daughter, Blossompaw. Diamondpaw was barely an apprentice at the time, and while no cat dared speak openly about it to the cats involved, every apprentice in the den seemed to collectively exclude Rosepaw, sleeping on the opposite side of the den from her and avoiding any conversation with the bubbly, yet unfortunate, she-cat.
Diamondpaw nodded, pulling herself out of her thoughts. "Yeah, I guess it makes sense. I'd be upset too after what Hawkstrike did to her." While her nerves constantly shook with worry about Larkpaw, the conversation between her and Silverpaw did something to calm it. She felt safer near the silver cat.
As their chatter drew to a close, the two apprentices arrived at the first warriors' den, a small patch of shade littered with moss nests and clumps of fur underneath a broad-leafed tree. At a glance, they could both tell that neither Flickerwhisker nor Goldentuft were present.
"Huh. I could swear they both slept in this den," the white she-cat meowed as Silverpaw continued to glance at the slowly waking cats beneath the tree.
Silverpaw turned to face her. "Maybe they're on guard duty like Stormpaw? I guess we could ask Rippletide and see if he knows," the silver apprentice offered, gesturing towards the large tom who was just then pushing his way out of the nursery.
Diamondpaw agreed, and the two apprentices quickly met up with the deputy as he was walking away from the bush sheltering the Clan's kits.
Even though he certainly couldn't know anything about Larkpaw and Wolfkit, Diamondpaw felt her throat tighten under the intimidating gaze of the DuskClan deputy. Silverpaw must have noticed, and decided to speak in her stead.
"Have you seen Goldentuft or Flickerwhisker anywhere?" the silver cat asked without any of the frantic energy flowing through Diamondpaw's veins.
The great tabby tom shook his head. "Sorry. I'm rather sure they're both guarding the graveyard today. You can ask me anything you needed to ask them."
Diamondpaw heard Silverpaw give a quick sigh of relief from beside her. She apparently hadn't been looking forward to speaking with Goldentuft.
The white she-cat mustered up her courage to speak, worrying that silence would implicate her, despite the fact that Rippletide didn't appear to suspect her of anything in the slightest. "Um, I just wanted to ask Flickerwhisker if she and I could go on a hunting trip?" Diamondpaw meowed quickly with a flick of her tail towards Silverpaw.
Rippletide shrugged half-heartedly. He seemed to have less energy than usual. "It doesn't look like they'll be available for training today, so I don't see why not. Bring back as much prey as you can."
The two apprentices nodded and set off toward the tunnel entrance.
"Is something wrong?" Silverpaw said simply as they approached the tunnel.
"Oh, it's um, nothing. I just feel like I can't breathe when I'm in camp."
Silverpaw looked confused. "You mean because of last night, or...?"
Diamondpaw felt her heartbeat quicken at how close Silverpaw had come to the truth. It still felt wrong to give away her DawnClan friends' position, so she decided to go along with Silverpaw's statement. "Y-yeah. I'm just worried that if cats find out they won't look at me the same."
Silverpaw's expression softened. "Yeah, I get how that feels."
Diamondpaw let out a silent breath of relief as Silverpaw accepted her words–though really, they weren't far from the truth–and as they reached the thick brush at the entrance to camp. The two cats were silent as they pushed through the foliage, and the white she-cat could finally feel her nerves calm down as she moved away from the prying eyes of her Clanmates. She knew they couldn't guess her secret just by looking at her, but it truly felt that every pair of eyes that rested upon her snowy fur had some ulterior motive, some superior knowledge that could put her at risk. Except for Silverpaw's, that is.
"Hey, uh, Diamondpaw?" Silverpaw asked as the two apprentices briefly paused to pick leaves out of their pelts.
"Yeah?" Diamondpaw replied, glancing up at the silver cat as she finished plucking a twig out of her tail.
"I was wondering if you would refer to me as 'they' instead of 'she'? How I feel sort of changes sometimes. I don't know, it's difficult to explain, but–I just feel more comfortable with 'they'. I think it suits me best. So I'd... really appreciate it." the silver apprentice explained, shifting their paws as they spoke. It was clearly taking a lot of courage on Silverpaw's part to speak up about it.
Diamondpaw felt a rush of embarrassment at having called Silverpaw 'she' earlier, but was glad that they felt comfortable enough with her to share this. "Oh, of course! I'm really, really sorry I didn't know before."
With a shrug, Silverpaw turned back to grooming their fur as they spoke, using that characteristic nonchalance that Diamondpaw so admired. "Don't worry. I hadn't told you yet. I mean… I really don't mind being called 'she' sometimes, but it's just not always how I feel, so 'they' just feels better. I'm probably just confusing you, huh?" they added with a small laugh. "Anyway, it's just who I am, and I'm glad you're okay with it."
Diamondpaw shot them a look laced with concern. "Why wouldn't I be?"
The silver cat glanced to the side and hesitated before replying. "There are a lot of different reasons I don't like living in DuskClan, and one of them is Owlpaw."
"Ugh. I'd expect nothing less terrible from him," Diamondpaw growled, lashing her tail in anger at the thought of Owlpaw being rude to Silverpaw. She'd have to do something about it the next time she crossed paths with the small apprentice, though she doubted she'd ever really work up the courage to do so. Then again, here she was hiding fugitives in her own territory, so perhaps she did have the spirit to call Owlpaw out on his behavior.
Silverpaw laughed, glancing at Diamondpaw's sudden angry demeanor, her shoulders hunched and her scruff standing straight up with tension. "Yikes! Remind me to never get on your bad side," they joked, making Diamondpaw suddenly draw herself up into a more pleasant position.
The two apprentices padded across the forest floor in silence for a while as Diamondpaw struggled to find a topic to talk about. As she tried to remember everything she could about Silverpaw, hoping something interesting was to be found in her memory, she was suddenly struck with a detail from their conversation the previous night. Honestly, she wasn't sure why she hadn't thought of it before–Diamondpaw had even dreamt about the mysterious cat.
"Why don't you tell me more about Rose?" the white-furred apprentice asked as she opened her mouth to taste the air for prey. As she expected, the forest smelled almost entirely barren. They'd have to hunt on DawnClan's old territory if they wanted to catch anything.
Silverpaw smiled. "There's a topic I have a lot to say about. But...no offense, I really shouldn't be talking about it anyway. Rose is meant to be a secret to Clan cats."
"But aren't you a Clan cat?" Diamondpaw asked, realizing briefly that she and Silverpaw might have more in common than she had thought. Was Silverpaw, too, tasked with hiding the existence of an entire cat from their Clan? Diamondpaw wondered if they had any idea of what to do about Larkpaw.
Silverpaw shot an appraising look at her, and finally let out a small sigh. "I guess it's alright to trust you. But, please, promise you won't tell anyone about her? It's for her own safety. I really don't know what I'd do without her."
The white she-cat smiled, suddenly reminded of her first encounter with Larkpaw. He had said something similar about trusting her, and she hoped his judgement held true. She wanted to do right by him, and now by Silverpaw. "I promise. I won't tell anyone."
Silverpaw seemed to collect their thoughts for a moment as the two apprentices ducked underneath a fallen tree and came closer to the river that split the territories in two. Just as their paws reached the cold mud of the riverbed, Silverpaw opened their mouth to speak.
"The first thing about Rose is… well, it's sort of stupid, but I don't know why I thought she was you when you came upon me last night. It was impossible for you to be her. I guess I wanted to see her so badly that my mind tricked me into thinking she was there."
Diamondpaw tried hard to follow Silverpaw's reasoning, but she didn't know what they were getting at. "What do you mean?" she asked as she dipped her paws into a shallow part of the stream, shivering at how the chilly water matted her long fur.
"Rose is deaf," Silverpaw explained. "so she can't talk. Or at least, she never learned to, so she speaks mostly in tail signals. You spoke, so obviously you couldn't have been her."
Intrigued, Diamondpaw tried to remember if she had known a deaf cat before. Of course, most of the elders had gone hard of hearing, but they still knew how to speak, even if their pronunciation was off. If there had ever been a cat deaf from birth, she figured the Clan would find some reliable way to communicate with them, but how could a fully deaf cat learn how to speak in sign without any outside help? Besides that, the forest was a dangerous place, especially so if a cat was without one of their senses. Rose must have had to be constantly on guard to stay safe.
The grey cat smiled, reading the wonder on the Diamondpaw's face. "She's really remarkable, right? Even without her hearing, she's alive and well. That's what I love about her. She has a strong spirit."
Diamondpaw felt a touch of warmth at how Silverpaw spoke about Rose, but she still didn't feel as if the whole situation made sense. She gathered her nerve and asked, "But how did she learn to speak in the first place? Without a Clan there to teach her, I mean?"
Silverpaw hesitated a moment before responding. "I never said she was alone."
Before Diamondpaw could question their answer, Silverpaw had pushed off into the river and begun to paddle across it. Diamondpaw followed them silently, contemplating the few words Silverpaw had given her. If Rose wasn't alone, what did that mean? Diamondpaw guessed that the "Gravel" Silverpaw had mentioned previously was with Rose, but even still, none of it explained why Rose was meant to be a secret. Diamondpaw truly didn't know why she found Rose so intriguing; there was just something about the mysterious she-cat that seemed important. Perhaps if Diamondpaw could just discover what was important about Rose and how Silverpaw hid her from the Clans, she could keep Larkpaw and Wolfkit safe as well.
She had barely noticed that she had now crossed the river, and only when Silverpaw called out to her did she manage to pull herself out of her thoughts.
"Hey! Diamondpaw!" Silverpaw was mewing, nudging their snout against Diamondpaw's shoulder, which was dripping wet from her swim across the river. "I was going to ask if you wanted to split up? We'd cover more ground that way."
"Oh, yeah, sure," Diamondpaw agreed with an absent-minded smile, her head still swimming with questions about her silver companion.
"Great. We'll meet up afterwards, then. See you at Sunhigh," Silverpaw said assuredly, then raced off into the unfamiliar DawnClan foliage before Diamondpaw could say another word.
Diamondpaw hurriedly groomed the water out of her fluffy white coat, though she was now troubled by Silverpaw's odd behavior. They were certainly eager to split up; had Diamondpaw said something to anger them? She hoped not.
Without company, Diamondpaw fell once again into her spiral of contemplation, this time about Larkpaw. As afternoon time drew close, she realized that she had made no progress at all on the idea for a plan to break into the graveyard. She simply knew too little about the arrangement of guards there to conclusively form any plans, so her thoughts were abstract and vague as she wondered what she could do to outsmart her own Clanmates.
These thoughts tangled with her senses as Diamondpaw hunted, and it seemed like no time had passed at all by the time she met back up with Silverpaw.
Finding prey had proven easy, so both apprentices were carrying an overflowing mouthful of fresh-kill by Sunhigh. They met up at the stump-clearing that Diamondpaw had been to with her sister before, and both cats sat perched on the higher stumps in the peak Leaf-fall sun, taking a break from the exercise of hunting and discussing whatever came to mind.
"Did Stormpaw tell you much about it?" Silverpaw asked softly, speaking to Diamondpaw for the first time in a long while. The white she-cat was relieved; she had thought that Silverpaw was upset at her for asking so many questions about Rose.
"About what?" Diamondpaw responded as she stretched out her tired forelegs.
"The assault on DawnClan."
"Oh, that," Diamondpaw said simply, suddenly struck with the thought of two specific aftermaths of the assault–or, rather, two exceptions. She wondered if Larkpaw counted himself lucky to have escaped the attack, or if he wished more than anything to be back with his family. "No, she mostly kept quiet about it. I don't think it's a very good memory of hers."
She heard Silverpaw shifting around on the stump a tail-length away from her, and turned to see that they had sat up straight, squinting at the sun. "I still don't understand," they meowed.
"Understand what?" Diamondpaw asked, confused. Silverpaw was being oddly cryptic.
The grey cat shrugged. "You know. An entire Clan just lets themselves be herded into the graveyard like turtles. Not a single DuskClan warrior is killed. It doesn't seem right."
Diamondpaw felt a sudden prick of unease. Silverpaw was right; with Ashscar as their deputy, DawnClan never had a reputation of letting battles end easily for DuskClan. Why had it been different this time?
"Silverpaw?" Diamondpaw meowed suddenly, the words spilling out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Do you think the assault was a good idea?"
Silverpaw's fur bristled, but their response was what Diamondpaw was hoping for. "Of course not. It was wrong. I know Featherstar is our leader, so by the code we should obey her, but…" they glanced at their paws and shook their head. "Capturing defenseless cats in their sleep, abusing our numbers… it's cruel. Besides, Featherstar has no idea what she's getting into. The graveyard isn't our territory. We can't shove cats into it like it's an empty hole or something."
Diamondpaw blinked in surprise at Silverpaw's passionate explanation, though one detail struck her as odd. "You're right, but–what do you mean, the graveyard isn't our territory?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.
The silver apprentice glanced at her nervously. "Nothing. It just doesn't belong to us."
"Then who does it belong to?" Diamondpaw asked, beginning to get the sense that Silverpaw knew more than they were letting on.
Silverpaw lowered their voice. "Look, I know you promised not to tell anyone about Rose, but it still feels wrong to tell you–"
In an instant, Diamondpaw had put the two facts together, scrambling to her feet with a start and nearly falling off the stump in doing so. "You mean that Rose lives in the graveyard?" she exclaimed.
"Did I ask you to scream it for the whole forest to hear?" Silverpaw hissed suddenly, their tail fluffed out in agitation. "Keep your voice down!"
"Right. Sorry," Diamondpaw whispered, her heart beating fast. If Rose lived in the graveyard, and Silverpaw knew her, then certainly the silver apprentice would know something that could be of use to Larkpaw in infiltrating the monsters' resting place. Right?
"Anyway, yes, she's in the graveyard, from time to time. I just mean that DawnClan's only company right now isn't the monsters. They aren't alone in there."
Diamondpaw's mind was alight at once with a thousand different possibilities. Could these graveyard cats–Gravel and Rose–somehow help Larkpaw save his family? The cats hiding in the graveyard seemed to be the key that unlocked all of this. They would know the area well; maybe there was a way to sneak out DawnClan without the guards even noticing? In just a moment, her mind was set on attaining assistance from these mystery cats, and she barely remembered that they were still strangers to her.
She turned to face Silverpaw, taking a deep breath. They seemed very trustworthy, and seemingly had a good heart–being against the capture of DawnClan on principle and all–but Diamondpaw had only known them for a day. What if there was something about the apprentice that could ruin everything she was planning? Then again, she had only known Larkpaw for a few days now, and he had lied to her for most of that time, but she still trusted him. He was a good cat, and Diamondpaw was sure that Silverpaw was just the same. Or maybe she just trusted too easily. Either way, her heart screamed out that Silverpaw could help her, and all Diamondpaw had to do was ask.
The grey cat had begun to descend the stumps to gather the fresh-kill as Diamondpaw was considering her options.
"Silverpaw, I need to ask you something."
Silverpaw turned back to face her, their expression still slightly sullen from the heavy conversation they and Diamondpaw had shared. "Yes?"
"I… I need your help. I haven't been entirely honest with you, and I feel bad about that. You don't deserve to be lied to, but I thought it was something I had to do. Look, I didn't eat prey and break the code or whatever I told you I did. It's something much more serious and I worry it might put you or your friends in danger, but… if what you say is true, then you must agree. We have to save DawnClan."