Sleep became hard to come by. Night after night, the truth-teller's apprentice would lay in his nest, staring up at the interweaving brambles until he heard Flamepaw stir beside him, signalling the start of their battle training. The other nights, when even his littermate slept soundly, Nightpaw would lay awake until dawn's light filtered in through the den entrance.

Unable to stand the mundanity of the brambles after a couple of nights, he moved to look up at the sky. Though the days grew warmer, the nights were still cold, and the apprentice fluffed his fur as he exited the den. Overhead, the stars peeked out from behind clouds, patches of midnight sky visible through the grey covering.

Sootstar, are you up there? Nightpaw thought, gazing upwards. Finchwatcher, can you hear me?

The stars remained silent, glimmering almost laughingly down at him. He spotted a group of them - seven, if he counted correctly - and he wondered if they were a sign from StarClan.

Seven... He shook his head. The numbers didn't match up. Cedarheart, Swallowstorm, Cinderpaw, Mothpaw, Wrenpaw and I makes six.

He sighed. Even a seventh cat, unless they were of the stature of Lionmask or Spiderthorn, wouldn't make a difference against the forces of DarkClan.

Still, he wondered who it could be, if the stars were to be believed. Sprucetail? Goosepelt? Birchfrost? Thistleshade? Bramblepaw?

Wrenpaw was right. He needed to start putting a plan into action.

//

Training became more and more gruelling as leafbare turned slowly into an early newleaf. Each night, the apprentices would return to camp with their fur soaked through, damp leaves sticking to their pelts and mud caked between their claws. The muck didn't dampen their mood.

"Did you see that partner fighting Shadepaw and I managed to pull off?" Bramblepaw asked, droplets of water coming off of his pelt as he jumped up and down excitedly.

"Yes, we did," Flamepaw hissed for the third time, unimpressed by the younger apprentice's boasting. The ginger tom drew his paw discretely over his ear, which Bramblepaw managed to nick during training.

"You make a good team," Wrenpaw offered. Bramblepaw nodded while Shadepaw gave the smallest twitch of his whiskers, seemingly unenthusiastic about working with his littermate.

Nightpaw and Cinderpaw remained silent, not overly interested in the battle training of the day. Nightpaw's silence was not out of place; Cinderpaw, however, seemed distant, and had been increasingly so over the past moon.

"Are you alright?" Nightpaw asked, bumping the she-cat's shoulder. It felt strange to have the roles reversed.

She jumped, startled, her hazel eyes losing their distracted sheen. "Yes." Her response was too quick. "I was just thinking."

"About?" The tom left the question open-ended, studying her face to see if he could glean any information from her.

Cinderpaw hesitated, glancing about the camp nervously. Before she could speak, Smoketalon's sharp voice called her over from the other end of camp. The grey tom's tail lashed in an agitated way. An uneasiness filled Nightpaw as he noticed the tension in his littermate's shoulders.

"He must want to take me hunting," Cinderpaw said quietly. "He says Flamepaw and I will have our assessment soon."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Nightpaw asked, voice low as the urge to protect his littermate filled him.

She hesitated, but shook her head. "Believe me, it would be best if you didn't intervene."

With a sigh, Nightpaw stepped aside and let Cinderpaw join her mentor. His eyes met Smoketalon's across the clearing and he narrowed them in response to the tom's smug expression.

"Nightpaw, tell us a story!" Webkit's cry as she crashed into him drew his attention from the guardian. Crowkit, always trailing after his more adventurous littermate, skid to a stop right before the apprentice.

Nightpaw twitched his whiskers. "How about we do that in the nursery?" The nursery would be more quiet and, besides that, more private. Perhaps he would even be able to tell the kits a story that didn't quite align with DarkClan's views.

As the trio approached the nursery, however, the tom remembered that Dawnstar and her kits would be there, along with Thistleshade and the newborns Rainkit and Reedkit. The idea of telling a story before them - even one approved by DarkClan's standards - made his fur prick.

"On second thought, why don't we move to the edge of camp? Somewhere quiet." As he spoke, he heard hushed, angry voices coming from the nursery. Curiosity piqued, he sent the kits off on an adventure to find the 'perfect story-telling spot', while creeping closer to the den entrance himself.

"Your interference caused the riot, and you know it!"

"My interference saved the Clan the shock of losing a valuable warrior!"

Dawnstar's voice was unmistakeable.

"At the cost of losing the Clan's trust in you as their leader!"

"Who says I've lost them? I would have lost them had I failed to have kits with Spiderthorn."

"Perhaps. But at least you wouldn't have shown any weakness. What happens when the values DarkClan is built on crumble because not even the leader of the Clan can uphold them?"

"What happens when the truth-teller doesn't?"

Belatedly, Nightpaw realized the other cat was his own mentor.

"Your time is up, Hailwatcher. DarkClan will move on and they will follow me. You had your chance and you wasted it on a she-cat."

"It's not your job to remember the past, Dawnstar."

"Neither is it yours. Not anymore, anyway."

The smug cruelty of her words made Nightpaw flinch and, believing he had heard enough, he ducked away from the nursery. Then:

"An eclipse brought about the rise of DarkClan. It is the darkest of nights that will bring its end."

The tom heard Hailwatcher shift and he sprang away. By the time the old truth-teller emerged from the nursery, Nightpaw was padding towards the kits, who had settled in the shadow of the High Rock closest to the apprentice den.

The black tom launched straight into a story - that of Acornstar - but, even as he spoke, he knew Hailwatcher's gaze rested on him, and he couldn't help but feel that it held the slightest hint of hurt.

//

Smoketalon had been right about Cinderpaw and Flamepaw's assessments, and the two were sent out of camp to begin their trial the following sundown. The instructions were clear: for three days they would hunt prey or scavenge the territory for intruders, eating nothing and drinking only when they needed to, before returning on the third sundown with their wares. Then, the Clan would decide whether they were worthy of warrior status within the Clan.

During those three days, Nightpaw busied himself with anything and everything that let him avoid both Hailwatcher and Dawnstar. He would join the other apprentices for every training and hunting session, spending as much time as possible with Wrenpaw in an effort to keep himself calm. Her steadiness and determination made StarClan's plan seem more possible and, besides that, he enjoyed just being around her. She had an innocent sort of boundless energy about her.

When he wasn't with Wrenpaw, Nightpaw spent most of his time with Webkit and Crowkit, always away from the nursery. One day, Lionmask even offered to join them for the afternoon and escorted them to the river, where Nightpaw dared to tell them a story about the medicine cats of old. The cream guardian flicked his ear once in a while, but did not move to stop the truth-teller's apprentice and, on the way back, even gave him a knowing look. Before Nightpaw could decide whether or not to tell Lionmask of his plans, a border patrol joined them and his chance disappeared.

By the third sundown, not even Wrenpaw could calm Nightpaw's frayed nerves. Once the sun began to disappear from the sky, he took up a post in front of the Speaking Rock, from which he could clearly observe the camp entrance, and sat waiting. His paws kneaded the ground and his tail tip twitched uncontrollably, but the apprentice refused to pace.

Flamepaw appeared when the thinnest line of orange lined the otherwise dark silhouette of the world, bringing with him a small white she-cat. She lay limp across his shoulders, gouges in her shoulder and flank.

"Knocked her out with a large branch," the ginger tom said proudly as he shook the body from his back, depositing it in the centre of the clearing.

Dawnstar acknowledged the offering from her post atop the Speaking Rock - the kits were being taken care of by Snowdapple and Cherrypool - but kept her eyes trained on the camp entrance. Nightpaw's attention, until now focused only on his littermates' return, wavered as he spotted a black and white spotted figure sitting on the fringes of the Clan, its blue gaze almost haunted.

Even before Cinderpaw returned to the camp, Nightpaw knew something was wrong.

Smoketalon and Blackstrike dragged her in at moonhigh, blood spattered and limp, but still fighting against their hold. They threw her to the ground with such force Nightpaw thought she might not get up, but Cinderpaw struggled to her paws all the same. Her hazel eyes met his for a moment before they landed on Dawnstar.

"You've broken the rules of the assessment," Dawnstar said coolly.

"I broke no rules!" Cinderpaw yowled back defiantly. "I hunted rather than looking for prisoners. I've even got the prey to show for it."

Sprucetail nodded her agreement, stepping forward with Oakshade to show Cinderpaw's catches. There were seven pieces total, mostly mice.

"You let an intruder escape the territory without engaging them!" Smoketalon snarled, swiping a paw over Cinderpaw's head. The she-cat hissed angrily and turned on the warrior, but was quickly wrestled to the ground by Blackstrike.

"I had my attention focused on my hunt!" the apprentice defended herself. "I didn't realize there was someone else hunting the same prey until they barrelled right into me!"

"And what did you do then?" Smoketalon asked. "Did you give chase?"

Cinderpaw's breath stopped short. A silent moment, charged with fear, passed before she dropped her head in defeat.

"No," the grey tom said smugly. "You let them get away."

From his position below the Speaking Rock, Nightpaw saw Blackstrike's claws dig deeper into Cinderpaw's throat. He forced himself to remain impassive, though his paws burned to lash out at his littermate's aggressors.

"Nightpaw, what have you to say about this?" His black fur rose as Dawnstar's even voice reached him, a smugness very similar to Smoketalon's evident in it.

He glanced first at Cinderpaw, who watched him with a hardened gaze - believe me, it would be best if you didn't intervene, Nightpaw remembered. Then, he looked to Flamepaw who, to his surprise, seemed just as shocked by the turn of events as he was. Spiderthorn, standing at the front of the crowd, did not even blink.

It was the hard line of Hailwatcher's jaw and his disgusted gaze, set on Dawnstar, that gave Nightpaw his answer. He would give DarkClan the intelligence and cunning they so craved, and turn Dawnstar's own weapon against her in the process.

"We all know the story of Pinefrost," he began, recalling Acornstar's deputy. A couple of heads in the crowd nodded their agreement; many remained still, intrigued by what he would say.

"She saved Acornfire from Martenclaw," Nightpaw continued. "She became his trusted deputy. And, perhaps most surprisingly, she also became the first to advise Acornstar that not all battles can be won immediately.

"The territory became infested with rats which, though they provided more prey for the Clan, also carried with them terrible diseases. Their numbers became so great that not even hunting them served to cull their population and Acornstar began to wonder what would become of his Clan. DarkClan was tired out from the constant patrols and their members weakening with the sickness the rats spread.

"It was Pinefrost who suggested the Clan leave the rats alone until the opportune moment. So, for a couple of moons, no rat patrols were sent out. The odd rat would be caught during patrols but the Clan attempted to avoid the rodents otherwise.

"When leaffall and, afterwards, leafbare came, the rats slowly began to disappear. The cold got to them, perhaps, or the disease they carried spread through their own ranks. Eventually, DarkClan was able to hunt down the remaining ones and kill them before newleaf - and the breeding season - came once more.

"Pinefrost's thinking may have very well spared the Clan a number of warriors. Her lack of immediate action did not harm the Clan - in fact, it only benefited it. That is, in my opinion, the best lesson to be learned from this story."

The Clan remained silent. To Nightpaw's surprise, they did not stare at him as he finished his telling; instead, they all looked to Dawnstar. His gaze followed theirs to find the DarkClan leader practically seething, though she tried her best to hide it.

"You make a compelling argument," she managed to hiss through clenched teeth. "So, instead of having Cinderpaw executed, I will let her live out the rest of her miserable life as a caretaker."

Nightpaw opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it once more when he realized there was no use in arguing with the DarkClan leader. He had saved his littermate from death and that would have to be enough.

"Cinderpaw, from now on you will be known as Cinderblossom," Dawnstar crowed from atop the Speaking Rock. "I hope your lack of action does not cause future DarkClan kits any harm."

Blackstrike and Smoketalon let the grey she-cat up and she rose to her trembling paws slowly, as if in disbelief of her fate. She seemed relieved to be alive - as any cat would be - but the forlorn look she cast towards the nursery made Nightpaw's chest hurt.

"Flamepaw." Dawnstar called the ginger tom forward. Looking somewhat dazed, he stepped closer to the Speaking Rock.

"Your strength and ambition outshine those of many," the DarkClan leader said. "From now on, you will be known as Flamestrike. We welcome you as a full warrior of DarkClan."

The Clan cheered, though somewhat half-heartedly. The lack of enthusiasm did not seem to bother Dawnstar, who slunk off to the nursery to feed her mewling kits not long after the end of the ceremony. Nightpaw watched her go, noticing the look she exchanged with Hailwatcher as she passed him. The shift the apprentice had seen between them made him increasingly uncomfortable.

His fur rose higher as the spotted tom approached him, blue eyes void of emotion.

"We need to talk," the truth-teller said, motioning for the apprentice to follow.

Nightpaw gulped.

A/N: My apologies for updating later than usual, but I had quite a busy weekend. Lots of drama in this chapter and I look forward to your reactions to it! Thanks for sticking around, you guys are the best!