~•••~ RIPPLESHADOW ~•••~

Rippleshadow paced back and forth, claws scraping against the dirt and he turned to walk from the corpse, then back again.

His mind was swimming, well...more like drowning in fear. Except all the fear came from what would happen to him, not the fact his apprentice was dead.

Perhaps that was the scariest part of all.It took slipping and falling on the wet grass to knock Rippleshadow out of his trance of self pity and anxiety.

Finally, he reached a conclusion."It's not my fault," he muttered, "Dandelionpaw was overreacting. All I said was that she was untrustworthy, I don't remember doing anything bad to her before that." Yes, that made sense. He wasn't a bad cat, so he couldn't do bad things.

Simple.

A while later, Rippleshadow crashed into camp, panting heavily and looking exhausted. His thundering footsteps disturbed a flock of seagulls which cawed loudly, alerting his Clanmates to his presence.

"Dandelionpaw!", Rippleshadow yelled, desperately fumbling inside his head to remember his cover story, "She...she got caved in! I tried to stop her!"

Lightningstar quickly emerged out of his den, concern clear on his face, "Where is she? How did this happen?"

"We were out getting water when she ran into a cave.", Rippleshadow lied then, remembering that Lightningstar called his apprentice trustworthy, quickly added to his story, "There was a giant puddle there, more water than you'd get at the river in its dried up state. I tried to stop her..."

Rippleshadow gritted his teeth at that part, if only his apprentice had listened to him.

He continued, "...but she ran in anyway, and the cave collapsed in on her. It's near the river, follow me!"

"Eggsplash, Bluebrook, Ravenpelt, follow me!", Lightningstar called before running after Rippleshadow, and all five cats raced to the site of Dandelionpaw's 'accident'.

When they arrived, it was just as how Rippleshadow had left it. Rocks filled the entrance completely. The cave was surprisingly stable, he had snapped a claw getting it to collapse. Only now did he see paw prints in the dust on the rocks left by him.

He winced, what if his Clanmates noticed and connected the dots? He felt Eggsplash's paw rest on his shoulder, "I know you're scared, but we'll get her out of there."

 Rippleshadow smiled, they didn't suspect a thing. "Thanks." he replied, "That made me feel a lot better."

While the other cats frantically worked to save the lost apprentice, Rippleshadow simply mused on how lucky he was that Eggsplash was a complete idiot.