Breezepelt had been down in the tunnels with Hollyleaf for nearly ten moons, and it had been four moons since his and Hollyleaf's last big argument. His view on her had changed significantly since he had learned she wasn't just self-exiling herself because she was so ashamed of being half-WindClan- she had actually committed a horrible violation of the warrior code. He wouldn't have thought someone as rules-obsessed as Hollyleaf had it in her, but apparently she was full of surprises. Maybe this realization should have made him like her less, but it had had exactly the opposite effect; he respected her more now that he knew she could actually think for herself.

One damp morning, Breezepelt was awoken abruptly to a paw nudging him. "Wake up!" meowed a voice. Fallen Leaves. "Wake up," Fallen Leaves insisted. Breezepelt sat upright to see Fallen Leaves awakening Hollyleaf in the same manner.

"I'm awake," he grumbled. "What do you want?"

"Cats fell into the tunnels," meowed Fallen Leaves urgently. "I think they're from ThunderClan." Hollyleaf snapped to attention instantaneously.

"What? Where? Who is it?" asked Hollyleaf frantically.

"I don't know!" Fallen Leaves snapped. "But they can't stay down here. I told them how to get out but they didn't listen and they're still lost. Go and help them, will you?" He seemed unusually irritated, maybe just over being ignored. He remembered how annoyed Fallen Leaves had been with Breezepelt after their first meeting. He had learned later the strange cat was just trying to help, but he hadn't exactly been polite to him at the time.

"Are they okay?" meowed Hollyleaf.

"They're well enough to be bickering nonstop, so I presume they aren't injured." Fallen Leaves started to walk away. "Just get them back where they belong," he meowed over his shoulder. And with that, the strange cat was gone

Based on the urgent look in her eyes, Hollyleaf was clearly going to go help her Clanmates. Which meant she was going to make Breezepelt help her Clanmates too.

"Breezepelt, please can you-" she started.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "I'm coming."

"Thank you," she meowed gratefully, brushing her pelt against his.

"Fallen Leaves couldn't have given us any more information about where they are?" he complained. "The tunnel system is massive. They could be anywhere."

"He said they were arguing," meowed Hollylead. "Listen for a minute. Maybe we'll hear them." They went silent, and before long it became clear the cats weren't far away. Two female voices could be heard, and as Fallen Leaves had described, they didn't sound too happy with each other.

"I hear them," meowed Hollyleaf, relieved. "This way." She gestured with her tail, but Breezepelt hesitated. The arguing wasn't the only thing he heard.

"Hollyleaf…" he started.

She turned. "What?"

"It's raining." Hollyleaf went silent, listening for a moment as her eyes grew wide in terror. Not for herself, but for her Clanmates.

"The tunnels are going to flood," she murmured. "They don't know how to avoid the water. They'll be swept away. We have to go now."

She turned and dashed off in the direction of the voices, and Breezepelt followed on her heels. He was always impressed by how fast she was for a ThunderClan cat. But he supposed that was due to her half-Clan heritage.

Before long, they found the origin of the voices. Two she-cats stood in one of the open caverns, eyes darting around frantically. If their eyes weren't used to the darkness yet, they probably couldn't even see Breezepelt and Hollyleaf. Or much of anything at all. Both she-cats looked young, most likely apprentice-aged. One was pale gray, and the other was a silver-and-white tabby. Both of them looked irritated.

"Dovepaw, can't you find an exit?" huffed the tabby she-cat. "You can't see the way out? Or hear it?"

"I can't see or hear anything down here!" wailed the gray cat. "I'm completely blind."

"Okay, don't pitch a fit," snapped the tabby cat. "We'll figure it out."

"I wish I'd asked that cat his name," Dovepaw muttered. "We could call for him." There was a pause before she added, "I don't suppose he would have come, anyway. Ivypaw, how are we ever supposed to find the way out?"

Just then, the tabby cat- Ivypaw, he supposed- noticed Breezepelt as he entered the cavern. "Dovepaw!" she hissed. "He's back." She must think he was Fallen Leaves. Well, he had no reason to correct her. It wasn't as if he planned on giving them his real name anyway.

Hollyleaf spoke to the apprentices first. "We're not here to harm you," she meowed gently, keeping her voice calm so as not to frighten the young cats.

"Who are you?" asked Dovepaw, eyes still darting around to try and find the source of the voice she had heard. Great StarClan, these cats really are blind down here. I didn't realize how much our eyes have adjusted, he thought. He supposed their dark pelts also helped to hide them. Good, he thought. The less of us they see, the less likely it is they'll somehow recognize us. He wasn't particularly worried about himself, especially since they seemed to still think he was Fallen Leaves, but if these cats were from Hollyleaf's Clan they could have met her before she had left. Fortunately, she seemed to understand this risk as well, and stayed behind him, a safe enough distance from the apprentices that the odds of them making out any of her features were slim.

"That doesn't matter," meowed Hollyleaf. "What matters now is you're in danger. It's raining, which means in a few moments, a huge river upstream of here is going to flood and these tunnels will become deadly if you don't get out of the way."

"But we don't know the way out!" wailed Dovepaw. She was already getting on Breezepelt's nerves. At least the other cat was keeping a somewhat level head.

"There's no time to get out now," Breezepelt snapped. "We have to take shelter from the water, and then I'll show you the way out after."

"But-" Dovepaw started to argue.

"Don't argue!" he hissed. There was a chance they could get out in time, but he didn't know how long it had been raining and the way out would take them directly past the areas of the greatest flood risk. It was much safer to take them to one of the ledges Fallen Leaves had shown them.

"He's right," meowed Hollyleaf urgently. "You need to come with us right now." The she-cats exchanged a look, as if wordlessly deciding whether to trust the strange cats they had just met. Breezepelt didn't blame them for being skeptical. He knew from experience it was hard to immediately trust strange cats living in tunnels. But they didn't have time for this.

"Now!" he snarled. "If you want to live, that is." Both she-cats jumped, and exchanged a nod.

"Okay," meowed Ivypaw. "We'll go with you."

"Good," meowed Hollyleaf. "This way, quickly." Turning, she led them down down a side tunnel. He was glad she seemed to know where the nearest ledge was, because he certainly didn't. His sense of direction in the tunnels had improved a bit in the time he had been down here, but he still found it far too easy to get lost.

Shortly, they reached the ledges. It was a very short walk fortunately, and even better, this particular location actually had two ledges on opposite sides of the tunnel. All four of them could shelter there at once without Hollyleaf and him having to be right next to the apprentices.

"Climb up there," meowed Hollyleaf, gesturing up at the ledge with her tail. The apprentices looked intimidated by the height of the cliff wall, but clearly seeing no other choice, Ivypaw began to scramble up to the ledge with Dovepaw close behind her.

Breezepelt and Hollyleaf climbed up the ledge on the other side of the tunnel, and once they were both at the top, he looked over at her. "Do you know them?" he meowed in a whisper.

"They were tiny kits when I left," she whispered back. "Littermates. Not even a moon old. I don't think they would have been old enough to remember me, but I still don't want to risk it by letting them see my face."

Across the tunnel, the two sisters had begun to argue again, starting in a whisper so as to hide their conversation from the strangers they had just met, but soon their voices rose loud enough for Breezepelt to make out their conversation. He and Hollyleaf went silent to listen.

"If you had just watched where you were putting your paws-" Dovepaw began.

"You know it's your fault we even fell down here, right?" meowed Ivypaw curtly, cutting her off.

"I told you, I heard something! I thought the fox might have come back, and it could've been a threat to the Clan. I have these powers for a reason, and Lionblaze says it's my duty to use them to help ThunderClan," insisted Dovepaw. Powers? wondered Breezepelt. What powers? "You're the one who insisted on coming with me," she finished.

"I wanted to stop you from doing something stupid and getting yourself killed," retorted Ivypaw. "Believe me, I know you didn't want me with you."

"Of course I wanted you with me, Ivypaw," insisted Dovepaw.

"No, you didn't. Ever since you found out you're part of some great prophecy, you think you're too good for me," snapped Ivypaw. "You spend all your time with Lionblaze and Jayfeather talking about how special the three of you are, and you never want to talk to me. I'm kin of Firestar's kin too, you know. And more importantly, I'm your kin. Does that even matter to you anymore?"

Next to him, Hollyleaf gasped as Dovepaw started to argue back. Breezepelt looked over at her in surprise, and she looked like she had been physically struck. Her eyes went wide, and her breathing became short. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but just then, he heard a rush of water start to pour into the passageway.

"Stand back as far on your ledge as you can!" he yowled across the tunnel to the apprentices on the other side. He stepped back as well, flattening himself across the cave wall, only to find Hollyleaf hadn't come back with him. She seemed to have forgotten how to move, and her feet stayed firmly planted. Breezepelt reached out with his tail, attempting to guide her back, and to his relief she snapped out of her shock and stepped back against the cave wall.

She was just in time, because no sooner had they taken their positions than the wave of water rushed in, showering them with water. He couldn't see the apprentices through the spray of water, but he hoped they had listened and were staying safe against the wall on the other side of the cave. He stayed crouched tightly against the wall, tail wrapped firmly around Hollyleaf in case she decided to do anything stupid. She was shaking like a leaf, but he couldn't speak to her over the rush of the water. They would talk about this later, he decided, after they had gotten the apprentices out.

After a few moments, the water started to recede, allowing him to see clearly across the tunnel. To his relief, the she-cats were both still there. They were shaking with fear and wrapped tightly around each other, but they were alive. Maybe this will bring them closer together and they'll stop bickering so much, he thought dryly. Though he supposed their arguments were nothing compared to how he and Hollyleaf had fought when they had first come to the tunnels.

As the water retreated, Dovepaw shook the water from her fur, staring at him with wide eyes. "Wow, that was terrifying!" she called across the gap. "I mean, I've been in rushing water like that before, on a mission when I first became an apprentice, but that was nothing like this." Next to her, Ivypaw scoffed, as if she had heard about this mission countless times before and didn't want to hear the story again. "I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't been here," she finished gratefully.

"Well, then it's a good thing we were," Breezepelt replied shortly. He needed to get them out so he could figure out what was up with Hollyleaf. "To get out, go up the tunnel in the direction the water came from, and turn left at your first branch, and you'll be out into ThunderClan territory," Breezepelt instructed the she-cats, gesturing them forward with his tail to attempt to hurry them out before they asked any more questions.

"Wait!" yowled Dovepaw, hopping down from the ledge with Ivypaw close behind. "You saved our lives. Who are you?"

Breezepelt hesitated. Of course he couldn't tell them the truth, or they would go right back to ThunderClan and tell their clanmates they were alive. "We're… StarClan cats," he meowed, trying to sound convincing. "We're not really here physically, but our spirits were sent by StarClan to help you escape. You must go now," he insisted urgently, hoping they would listen. If they believed they were a part of some prophecy, maybe they would also believe the strange cats they had met had been sent by StarClan.

The apprentices hesitated, as if wanting to ask more, but soon Ivypaw turned away to head back up the tunnels, clearly deciding their safety was more important than her sister's curiosity. "Right then. Well thank you. Dovepaw, let's go. You've put us in enough danger today." With that, she began marching quickly up the tunnel.

Dovepaw bristled, preparing an argument, but seemed to think better of it. "Thank you," she meowed with a nod of her head, before dashing off after her sister.

Once they were out of sight, Breezepelt turned back, looking for Hollyleaf. She was several tail-lengths behind him, watching from around a corner, a haunted look in her eyes. Her face was as stark as it had been when Ivypaw first mentioned the "prophecy".

"Hollyleaf, what was that?" he meowed, irritated that she had barely helped him save her clanmates. "You completely froze up."

For a moment, he wasn't sure she had heard him. Her eyes stayed fixed on the space the apprentices had left. Then she shook her head, looking at him.

"I… I can't talk about it," she whispered. And then she turned on her heels and sprinted off in the other direction.