"Are we all here?" Toad's concerned meow echoed through the gloomy forest, and the trees seemed to whisper to him, yes.

"I think so." Raven looked around, and then stared at Toad confidently.

"Wow, this is a lot more than I thought." Darkthorn's snarl came from the opposite direction the group were facing.

"Hey Darkthorn, Maplefrost." Toad greeted the dark forest cats and Maplefrost, standing beside Darkthorn, narrowed her eyes at the unknown cats.

"We will have to use a lot of our cats to help train them all the best they can be trained." She thought aloud.

Darkthorn nodded and began to call some of the dark forest warriors over.

"There. Now everyone, go off with a dark forest cat and they will help." Darkthorn ordered and turned to Toad.

"Where's  Shadeberry?" He asked. "It's unusual for her not to come."

"I'm here! Sorry, Softpaw fell into some thorns." Shadeberry panted, skidding to a halt next to the group of cats, who were beginning to be slowly led away by a dark forest cat.

"Why didn't you kill her?" Darkthorn asked coldly, slitting his eyes.

"Yeah, and then what will be my excuse? 'Oh she tried to fix herself?" Shadeberry snorted, her tail waving around sarcastically.

Darkthorn cursed and turned to his apprentice. "I guess your right. But as soon as you get an apprentice, blame them."

"Wouldn't that be suspicious? Blaming my mentor then my apprentice?" Shadeberry meowed, surprised at how dumb Darkthorn was.

"Doesn't matter. You have pleased me with the amount of cats you have killed, I don't care if you get exiled. You can attack from outside the Clan with nothing to lose. Our plan may still go on." Darkthorn shrugged.

Shadeberry hesitated. "But how will we know what they are doing?" She asked uncertainly, unsure whether she was being dumb.

"Easy. A spy."

"A spy?" Shadeberry echoed. "Like who? How can we trust them?" 

"I don't know. Find one." Darkthorn snorted.

"It's not that easy!" Shadeberry protested.

"If you can kill cats, you can find a spy." He shrugged and glanced at Maplefrost, who stood beside him.

Shadeberry tilted her head, deep in thought. "Toad, was there any cat in the Clan who you think would be loyal to us and become our spy?" She glanced at her brother questioningly.

He shook his head slowly. "No one that I can remember."

"Well that's great." Darkthorn sneered sarcastically. "There must be someone."

  "Doubt it."

"Whatever. Now let's get training." He ordered, and beckoned to Shadeberry with his tail flick, before padding away into darkness.

Shadeberry hesitantly followed him, thoughts about who could help swarming her mind.

.~~.

"Come on, Shadeberry. You can do much better than that," Darkthorn sneered, lashing his tail from side to side.

His offensive words sent angry waves through Shadeberry and began to hit Toad more fiercely.

"Step up your game, Toad!" Maplefrost yowled, slitting her eyes.

Toad glared at Shadeberry and began to throw swifter attacks, soon driving Shadeberry backwards slowly.

Shadeberry knew it was her chance. She quickly ducked, leaving Toad to attack the air. Ur froze in confusion, and Shadeberry dived underneath him and clawed his soft belly fur.

With a howl of pain, he fell to the ground, quickly trying to regain his balance.

"Sneaky, Shadeberry, I like it!" Darkthorn praised Shadeberry, who stood, a challenge in her eyes as she stared down at her brother, panting.

"Next time, fight harder!" Maplefrost snarled and stalked away silently.

Shadeberry lifted her chin in pride. 

"It's morning soon. You better collect everyone and go back to your dens." Darkthorn ordered, before turning around and padding off.

"Okay," grunted Toadpaw, who stumbled for a moment, before standing up straighter. 

"Sorry Toad," Shadeberry apologised, and blinked in sympathy, before closing her eyes and imagining her self waking up.

She blinked open her eyes, and found herself in the medicine cat den.

A quiet breeze fell into the den, sending a chill to Shadeberry.

She shook out her fur and stood sleepily, her scratch marks stinging.

I guess no one can see them, I better go treat myself. She thought to herself, and slowly limped to the back of her den, which contained all her herbs, grabbing the ones she needed.

As she began to treat her wounds, she heard a rustle and Hollysong stepped in uncertainly.

"Uh, sorry to disturb you, Shadeberry. I wanted to speak to you about Crystalkit." She meowed hesitantly.

"What about her?" Shadeberry asked nervously, flicking her tail tip from side to side. Was the kit sick?

"Well, you know how Crystalkit, Tinykit and Eaglekit are becoming apprentices soon?" She continued, her gaze not straying from Shadeberry's eyes.

"Yes, I do." Shadeberry answered, her fur prickling at what the queen wanted.

"Crystalkit has a keen interest and passion in herbs and leaves." She carried not, not stopping to pause. "I was wondering if she could become a medicine cat apprentice?"

Shadeberry blinked in surprise, and Darkthorn immediately came into her head. 

Get an apprentice, kill someone and blame them. 

Shadeberry took in a deep breath, knowing this was a chance.

"Yes. Crystalkit can be my new medicine cat apprentice."

Crystalkit is CrystalwingOC 's OC, bc I let her add a character into this series, and she chose Crystalkit. She is not my OC, she won my art contest, and adding an OC into A Flicker of Hope was a prize. Again, I do not own Crystalkit, and whatever I do with her, I have permission from her owner, CrystalwingOC  .