Larkwing followed Cirrus at a distance into the forest that bordered the camp. Her head was full of thoughts, full of questions and they left her no peace.

Right after Topaz had dragged Phoebe into the ruins, Cirrus had appeared, suddenly strangely tense, and had urged Larkwing to move on. Cirrus had stubbornly turned her head straight ahead and without another word had meandered between the ruins.

Her behaviour worried Larkwing, just like Topaz's. Is Topaz Phoebe's mother? she wondered, then decided that it was probably true. She tightened her claws as what the golden she-cat had claimed found its way back into her mind.

It was simply unbelievable, truly the most mouse-brained, the most stupid thing Larkwing had ever heard. And it made her so incredibly angry.

What does that mean, healing is feminine? Larkwing snorted heavily and broke a twig — that dared to lie in her path — in two as she passed it. That's not true at all! It's a good thing Cloverdapple didn't hear that. He certainly wouldn't have been happy about that. Neither would Finstrike.

She glanced over her shoulder. The ruins were barely recognisable among all the trees. Now her nose finally picked up the familiar smells of the forest. They seemed to flow through her body and for a moment she thought she was as light as a feather, as if she could float.

Flooded with a wave of sudden longing, Larkwing sighed softly. What a pity that I can't fly! Surely it would be great if I could turn into a bird — yes, preferably into a lark. After everything that's happened recently, I wish that was possible. Just to be able to fly away from all the problems... But they can probably fly too.

As if they were mocking the she-cat, birds began to chirp. At first a single starling drowned out the wavelike rustling of the treetops, then gradually more and more joined in until the air was filled with a multitude of different songs.

With narrow eyes, Larkwing peered up. Immediately afterwards, she hissed in fright and quickly lowered her head again. The sun shone down from the sky unhindered, so that she almost looked directly into the glistening light by mistake.

At that moment, she realised that Cirrus already had a considerable head start. Larkwing stormed after her, uttering several curses. "Not... so... fast," she gasped, feeling like her lungs were going to burst.

Cirrus then came to an abrupt halt. With her ears pressed to her head, she crouched down and lowered her head to the ground and back up again several times. "Excuse me! I apologise so much. Please forgive me." Her voice rose an octave in nervousness.

"It's all right." Larkwing suppressed an exasperated sigh.

Oh great StarClan, please make us get out of here as soon as possible!

It was almost embarrassing to see how Cirrus had immediately thrown herself into the dirt over this little thing. It was compounded by the fact that she was actually much older than Larkwing, and that overwhelmed the young, black-red mottled and ginger tabby speckled warrior.

Without giving Larkwing another glance — probably to avoid embarrassing herself even more — Cirrus continued on her way. Shaking her head, Larkwing trotted on as well.

Where exactly are we going?, she asked herself at some point. It seemed that they had been walking around in the forest for quite a while. Larkwing couldn't see anything other than trees either. She nibbled on her lower flew, a stinging feeling in her stomach. Having experienced more than enough by now how Cirrus reacted when she meowed a single word, she preferred to stay quiet.

Then, out of nowhere, a fit of panic shot through her. And what if Cirrus deliberately leads me so deep into the forest until we are far away from all the other cats and then she attacks me?

Immediately afterwards, she felt the urge to hit herself for her irrational fear. There was absolutely no need to think up any unrealistic scenarios. No matter how strange the ruin cats might be, they couldn't possibly go to the trouble of making up such complex lies just to deceive and ambush outsiders.

Besides, Larkwing had a great advantage that the ruin cats certainly didn't have. For moons she had enjoyed excellent combat training and had been recognised for her skills and potential by a wide variety of cats, some of them very experienced. There was no doubt that Larkwing was ready to defend herself at any time, and any means would do.

But she didn't have to. When a dark, crescent moon shaped rock face appeared in front of them in the middle of the forest, Cirrus stopped. "Well, here we are," she announced, pointing her nose upwards in a direction that wasn't quite defined. "In the cave there is the Ancient Stone."

"Up there?" Larkwing searched the rock until she spotted a narrow crevice quite far up.

Cirrus flicked her tail. "I'm going to return to the main camp now," she explained.

Larkwing's eyes widened. "Wait! What am I supposed to do now?"

But Cirrus had already scurried away until she was only visible as a blurry spot. Larkwing unsheathed her claws in annoyance. "Thank you, that was really very helpful," she growled.

A gnawing feeling spread through her chest. What a pity that she has disappeared so quickly. It would have been extremely interesting to find out what it is like to fight a clanless cat.

Larkwing shook her head with a hiss. What was wrong with her today? Of course she was glad that it didn't come to a fight. Even as a battle strategist with professional training, she could run the risk of getting seriously injured. Whatever this impulsive thought was, it didn't reflect what she was really feeling.

With one last glance over her shoulder in the direction Cirrus had disappeared, Larkwing finally made her way to the cliff face. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the rock was weathered and had numerous cracks and small edges. So it would be easy to climb up to this cave.

Before she started the ascent, she checked the air for smells to be on the safe side. After all, she didn't want to be led into a trap and burst into an enemy's den!

However, once she had realised that she wasn't in for a nasty surprise, she began to pull herself up.

That's mouse-brained. Her front claws found support in a long indentation, while she placed her hind paws on a protruding part of the cliff. Now she even felt embarrassed that she had made such a big deal about the supposed prophecy yesterday. Her pelt grew hot with embarrassment and anger at herself. How could she have been so stupid? She couldn't believe she had agreed so quickly yesterday to follow the ruin cats and leave her old life behind.

She paused in the middle of the climb, her body pressed tightly against the cool rock. Recognition, it whispered in her subconscious. Did I perhaps want recognition?

Shaking her head, she scrambled on. Nevertheless, she couldn't let go of the thought. She had always longed to be rewarded for her actions. Starting out as a tiny, fiery kit whose greatest dream was to become the best hunter in the Clan. Then, as an apprentice, she desperately wanted to live up to Fernpool's expectations. She hadn't realised it at the time, but now that she thought about it, it all made sense. Even though she didn't realise it herself, she had always chased after the greatest achievement.

Maybe that was why she had reacted so strongly to the news that she was a prophecy cat. At the same time, it still seemed strange to her. It was almost as if she wasn't herself at that moment.

The idea made her snort in disbelief. "Exactly, I was probably possessed by something again and it planted this weird idea in my head that I should leave my Clan," she muttered to herself.

She had to exert her strength one last time, then she stood in the cave. At first she couldn't recognise anything. There was just enough light through the narrow crevice for her to recognise that the cave was not particularly large and had a rather low ceiling. A large cat like Crowshadow could not stand upright here.

Timidly, Larkwing took a few steps forward — until her paw bumped against something hard. "Ow!" She drew in her breath between clenched teeth and licked her paw. She hadn't seriously hurt herself, but it had still been pretty unpleasant.

At that moment, her gaze fell on a purple shine in the shadows in front of her. What is that? Her fur ruffled, she jumped backwards. Holding her breath, she stared in shock at the sparkles.

When it neither moved nor made a sound, she became curious. Pressed close to the ground, she crawled forwards until her nose brushed against something cool.

And what she saw astonished her.

It was a round, halfmoon-shaped stone with a smooth, anthracite-coloured surface. To all appearances, it had once broken perfectly in two and revealed a view of what was inside of it — a dark purple colour, sparkling and glossy, as if the stars had fallen from the sky.

Deep awe flowed through Larkwing. The Ancient Stone... That must be it! A powerful aura emanated from it, filling the cave and almost taking her breath away.

Indecisively, Larkwing stepped from one paw to the other. What was she supposed to do now? The ruin cats believed that she was the guardian of this stone, so basically she would have to do nothing but guard it.

But that would be ridiculously easy. No, there was more to the task than she suspected, that much was certain.

What a shame there's no one here I could ask. With a heavy sigh, Larkwing made herself comfortable in front of the Ancient Stone — if one could even speak of 'comfortable' when lying on a hard rock floor.

There was no cat here to watch her. Everyone probably thought she naturally knew what she had to do as the Guardian of the Ancient Stone. Otherwise Cirrus would certainly have explained it to her.

Larkwing stared at the purple stone with half-closed eyes. "What am I even doing here," she muttered.

***

As the sun slowly rose lower and covered the sky with a fiery red glow, Larkwing climbed out of the cave and slid down the rock face.

It had been an extremely dreary day that she had spent looking at the Ancient Stone. Every now and then she had poked her head out of the crevice and chirped at birds perched on branches out of her reach. Or she had amused herself by chasing her black tail, noticing that it had grown even bushier over the last few moons.

Larkwing strolled leisurely back to the camp. She wondered what her patrolmates had been doing while she was stuck in the cave. She felt a pang of guilt as she remembered how she had simply disappeared this morning. Hopefully they hadn't worried too much.

Oh no. Larkwing felt fierce anger rise up inside her once again and she let out a hiss. It still annoyed her that Crowshadow thought she was in love. Oh no, I do not care what they think of me.

Larkwing strutted on with her muzzle raised. Faster than she intended, she arrived at the edge of the forest. Lots of cats had gathered in the entrances to the ruins. Some were sharing fresh-kill, others were washing each other's fur.

Larkwing actually wanted to sneak past them quietly. But the ruin cats promptly stopped what they were doing and stared at her as intensely as if she were glowing and had two heads. All meowing was silenced from one moment to the next. The silence seemed ghostly and Larkwing lowered her head and hurried to the tree trunk.

Surprised, she realised that Lakepelt was the only one there. He was lying in front of the trunk with his paws outstretched, where some residual warmth from the sun was still stored in the ground, and his eyes were closed. When Larkwing stepped closer, however, his black nose twitched and he sat up.

"You're back," he trilled delightedly as he stretched his muzzle forward and touched his nose to Larkwing's.

Without a word, Larkwing dropped to the grass. She would love to fall asleep right now.

Unfortunately, Lakepelt didn't even think about letting her rest. "What have you been up to all day?" he enquired. "Because I haven't seen you at all."

"Looking at a stone."

"Exciting."

Larkwing blinked. "What's with you? Or have you been lying here all day counting ants?"

Lakepelt shook his head. "I was hunting," he explained. "There's not much else to do here."

"Me too," Larkwing replied. "Where are the others?"

In response, Lakepelt twitched his ear cluelessly. "I haven't seen them in a while, but I guess they're trying to spy on the ruin cats."

Silence followed. But not for long.

Meowing so loudly that she should have been heard all the way to the edge of the camp, Lavender galloped towards them. Her honey-coloured irises were only a ring due to her dilated pupils, but the warmth was clearly visible in them.

She came to an abrupt halt next to Lakepelt, almost running into the treetop from exuberance. "Hello!" she chirped in a bright, clear voice. "I've been looking for you all day."

Scowling, Larkwing noticed that the lilac tabby and white she-cat was once again only adoring Lakepelt. Great, and I'm invisible, or what?

"Why?" Lakepelt's claws twitched and he looked past Lavender.

Lavender's ears flattened briefly, hurt in her expression, but it disappeared a moment later. "Because I'd like to get to know you better." Determined, she stuck out her chest and fluffed her tail. "Don't you think we might be a good match somehow?"

Larkwing almost snorted in disbelief. What kind of mousedung do you meow? You don't even know him. She jumped up, ready to defend Lakepelt if necessary.

The hairs in Lakepelt's fur slowly stood up. "Well, I don't think so," he snapped as coldly and unfriendly as Larkwing hadn't seen him in a long time. As if looks could kill or at least torment, he glared at Lavender from narrow eyes.

Larkwing stood helplessly by. It was quite clear that Lavender had a crush on Lakepelt, but why she did so was the purest mystery. How could she think she was in love with a cat she didn't even know? It just didn't make sense.

Unfortunately, Lavender wasn't even intimidated by Lakepelt's death stare. She took another step closer. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm quite sure you're the one I've been waiting for all my life," she declared. "We should become mates."

That was the moment when something exploded in Larkwing. Tail lashing, she pushed herself in front of Lavender and bared her fangs, snarling. "Listen, please do us a favour and mate with yourself if you're so crazy about it. Can't you see that he's not interested in you or don't you want to accept that?"

That really hit home. The gleam in Lavender's eyes finally disappeared. Silently, she slowly backed away, then ran off.

"What an intrusive piece of crowfood," Larkwing sighed and lay down again.

Lakepelt stared at his paws. "Actually, I've spent the whole day hiding from her," he admitted in a darker and rougher voice than usual. "She's like a burdock. Totally convinced we should be mates. And I don't want that at all."

Larkwing sighed. "I know, I don't want that either. But still-"

"But still what?" Lakepelt turned his head towards her, interested.

Larkwing hesitated. But still, there are some who think that we both have a crush on each other and just don't want to admit it. The words were as clear as the water in a mountain lake in her head; she would just have to open her mouth and let them out into the open.

Instead, she replied, "Not so important."