Everything seemed so peaceful the next morning. A blue sky stretched out over the trees, whose tops were gradually becoming leafy. There was not a breath of wind and it was pleasantly warm again for the first time in a long time.

With her rump in the air, Larkwing stretched extensively. She must have slept the whole day before through. Now she felt much fitter. She hardly noticed the scratch on her face anymore. However, the poultice had fallen off by itself during the night.

After stepping out of her den, she opened her mouth and took in the familiar scents of the forest. It's finally newleaf.

Her eyes fell on a small pile of fresh-kill stored on a flat stone. All the pieces looked new, which must mean that a hunting patrol had already been out.

As if it had a life of its own, Larkwing's belly began to rumble. Embarrassed, she tensed up. No wonder, really, since the vole from yesterday afternoon was the only thing she had eaten in a long time.

How long had it been since Sunray had kidnapped her? Larkwing felt as if she had lost all sense of time. Whether it was three days or three moons, she wouldn't know the difference.

Sunray... Just thinking of that hated name made her feel nauseous. This catification of evil was still out there, waiting to strike again as Larkwing had seen in the vision.

If it had been one at all. Larkwing began to have doubts. Why would she, of all cats, get a vision? She wasn't a medicine cat. She had no connection to StarClan.

Unless this vision wasn't sent by StarClan.

A dark premonition wafted around in Larkwing's head. Before it had happened, she had been thinking of Sunray, wishing she knew where she was.

She shook her pelt vigorously, as if this would free her from such thoughts. Don't be a mouse-brain, she berated herself. As if we have a mental bond with each other now!

But she couldn't find a better explanation and she already had a hypothesis as to why. Suppose Sunray really is a Shadowless, and so am I. What if that's the reason why I was able to find out about her plans?

At the same time, it sounded so incredibly stupid to her. She still couldn't believe that Sunray was a Shadowless. After all, she didn't fit the image that Larkwing had of Shadowless. Of course, she was evil, cold-blooded and not afraid to hurt other cats terribly. However, she had behaved normally before that or at least pretended to.

Besides, if Sunray wasn't a Shadowless, neither was Larkwing. She was fine. She felt like she always did. That had to be proof enough that Sunray had been lying.

Nonetheless, Larkwing couldn't help but be curious. A crazy thought occurred to her. Maybe I've always had the power to know where other cats are and what they're doing if I think about them hard enough.

She remembered the ghostly apparition of Swallowfern she had two moons ago. I wonder if that was some kind of vision too? The longer she thought about it, the greater grew her desire to try out whether she really did have a supernatural ability. In any case, it wouldn't do any harm.

Larkwing closed her eyes. The first cat that came to her mind was Bramblepaw. She gathered all her concentration and let the shape of the RoseClan apprentice appear before her inner eye. Her bright green eyes, the short, light brown fur, the dark tip of her tail. Even though they had been separated for so long, it was easy for Larkwing to imagine her.

She thought of Bramblepaw's scent, of the sweet sound of her voice, of the happiness she always felt whenever she spent time with her. But the only thing that stirred was a powerful surge of homesickness that almost took Larkwing's breath away. A little disappointed, she opened her eyes again. Maybe she had been wrong after all. But she still had no explanation as to why she could see Sunray.

The bushes shook next to her and a sleepy-looking Lavender crawled out. Scraps of moss clung to her fur, which she immediately shook off. She opened her mouth wide to yawn, but broke off in the middle and squeaked.

"Oh, Larkwing! I'm so, so, so sorry!" she exclaimed. "This was all my fault! I saw you being dragged off to the ruins, but I didn't dare say anything."

To appease her, Larkwing put a paw on her shaky shoulder. "It's all right, I heard about it," she purred. "Listen, you really don't have to feel guilty. You couldn't have done anything anyway. If you had intervened, you would've been in great danger."

It was obvious from the sad glint in Lavender's honey-coloured eyes that this hardly made her feel any better. "I'm sorry," she repeated with a hanging head, looking like a disheartened kit.

Larkwing sighed silently. "You're fine, aren't you?"

Lavender nodded. "Well, as far as circumstances allow." She lifted her muzzle slightly and stared not very unobtrusively at the scratch on Larkwing's face.

"I know, I know, it looks really hideous," the tortico she-cat snorted in a helpless attempt to divert attention from it.

Visibly surprised, Lavender curled her white muzzle. "No, I wouldn't say that," she disagreed. "It's just that I find the shape quite interesting."

"Huh?"

Suddenly, Lavender was eagerly pacing around her. "Come with me! I'll show you where you can have a look."

So Larkwing had no choice but to follow the small lilac tabby and white she-cat out of the ruin cats' new camp. Behind the bushes, they met Cirrus and Redleaf. The latter curled his tail up delightedly when he saw Larkwing.

She, on the other paw, could only twitch her ears in greeting before Lavender pushed herself in front of her. "Hello, Cirrus," she meowed cheerfully. "I just wanted to show Larkwing something. We'll be back soon."

Without waiting for a response, Lavender wrapped her tail around Larkwing's foreleg and pulled her forwards with an unexpected force. The ruin she-cat dashed between the trees with astonishing speed.

Larkwing had serious trouble keeping up with her in the unfamiliar territory. She really has got an amazing speed, she thought as she dodged bushes and roots.

Soon after, Lavender turned abruptly to the right. Larkwing followed her and immediately tumbled headfirst down a small slope.

An amused purr sounded. "Sorry, I must have forgotten to tell you that it's quite steep here," Lavender meowed and nudged her back onto her paws.

She apologises quite often. Larkwing shook the dirt out of her pelt. "No harm done."

Her gaze fell on the stream beside her. The water was brackish, so it was impossible to see the bottom. Treetops were clearly reflected on the surface.

"Look at it," Lavender urged.

Only reluctantly did Larkwing step closer to the shore. All at once, she felt catapulted back in time, to the day when she was confronted with the fact that her eyes were not a uniform colour. It had been one of those moments that she would remember forever.

Today, she had become accustomed to this unique feature because it was one of the many things that defined her. But back then, it had taken her a long time to come to terms with the fact that she had an external peculiarity. She hadn't dared to look at her reflection in the water because she looked so strange.

Now she was plagued by exactly the same feelings. Naturally, she was curious to find out why Lavender had labelled the injury as 'interesting'. However, there was also a small part of her that seemed to be resisting, whispering to her not to look.

With all the determination she could muster, she shook off all the doubts. It had happened and could not be undone.

First her ears appeared on the surface of the water. Little by little, Larkwing came closer until her whole face was reflected in the stream.

Her wide-open eyes gazed back at her. But this time her attention was not focussed on them, but on the deep, long, slightly squiggly scratch that ran from her left ear to her lower right jaw. A few smaller lines extended from either side.

"Looks a bit like lightning." Lavender's face appeared next to hers.

"Like lightning?" Larkwing echoed cluelessly. I never knew lightning looked like that!

She did remember how she had been caught in a thunderstorm on the way to her traditional StarClan meeting. But she had only seen the sky light up every time there had been lightning.

"Do you know how it happened?" Lavender enquired.

Larkwing froze. "I..."

It was the tentacle. It had darted straight at her and a heartbeat later she had felt this unbearable pain in her face. That would also explain the unnatural shape.

But could she tell Lavender that? What did the ruin cats know about the tentacles anyway? Larkwing tore herself away from her reflection, her thoughts caught in a whirlwind.

Why am I so afraid to tell the truth?

In the end, Lavender ran the tip of her tail over her flank reassuringly. "It's alright. If you don't want to remember, I won't keep asking you about it," she purred softly. "Let's better get back to camp quickly. As far as I can remember, there's a squirrel on the pile. We can share that."

On the way back, Lavender walked much slower, which Larkwing was glad about. She just wasn't cut out for running. For a moment, the question of why Lavender would want to share prey with her flitted around in her mind as she remembered that it was common practice among the ruin cats to share every piece of prey.

This custom seemed strange to Larkwing, though of course she would never admit it out loud. In RoseClan, she usually only shared her food with cats she had a close relationship with. While she agreed to make an exception during leaf-bare, it always seemed strange to her.

They reached the camp through the sloping path. Larkwing immediately noticed that there were a lot more cats than yesterday. She could count at least a dozen.

Lavender trotted past her to the flat stone where the fresh-kill was stored. There, she rummaged around with her muzzle for a moment until she pulled out the squirrel in question.

"Let's go over to the waterfall," she decided.

Larkwing couldn't help but let out an amused snort. "You call that a waterfall?" she scoffed. "That's more like a puny attempt to look like a waterfall!"

She took a few sips from the trickle trickling down the rock face, grateful that the water here was far cleaner than out in the forest. Then she settled down next to the small pool with her hind legs stretched out to the side.

She felt a little bad about helping herself to the pile of fresh-kill pile so early in the morning when she didn't know whether weaker, sick or older cats and kits had already had their share. However, no one seemed to mind.

"I heard about Crowshadow," Lavender meowed after a silent pause. She pressed her ears with the white tips to her head. "It's awful what happened to her. I can't believe Sunray is capable of something like that."

The despair in her voice was unmistakable. For a brief moment, Larkwing was confused as to why Lavender was mourning Sunray so much. Then she realised that Sunray had been something like the leader of the ruin cats. She had been trusted like no one else.

And what is Sunray doing? Larkwing tensed her claws. She allies herself with evil, manipulates the thoughts and memories of others and has also devised a prophecy to capture me. I'm beginning to regret letting her live.

Suddenly she felt a touch on her paw. "What's wrong?" Lavender sounded frightened.

Looking down, Larkwing saw that the lilac tabby and white she-cat had stretched out a paw and placed it on hers. Sighing, she moved away. "It's okay," she murmured. "It's just that so much has happened lately."

She hurriedly concentrated on eating again before Lavender got the idea to question her further. From time to time, she lifted her head and let her gaze wander unobtrusively over the camp. She spotted all kinds of pelts, but there wasn't the black tabby and white one she was actually looking for.

Larkwing's heart beat faster. There should be no reason for her to worry. She knew from Sunray that Lakepelt was still alive. Provided that nothing else had happened to him.

Nevertheless, she resolved to look for him as soon as possible. She really wanted to see him again. Besides, they had a lot to talk about.

"Can I ask you something?" Lavender's timid meow snapped Larkwing out of her thoughts.

"What is it?"

Visibly nervous, Lavender shifted back and forth and chewed on her lower lip. "How is it possible that you know how to fight? And Crowshadow too. You're she-cats, after all."

Larkwing was so surprised by this that she couldn't find an answer in a hurry. She had almost forgotten that there were things the ruin cats considered gender-specific. Which sounded completely mouse-brained to her ears, because it made no sense at all.

"Being a she-cat and being able to fight aren't mutually exclusive," she finally pressed out. "In my Clan, half of all battle strategists are female, including me. Our cat-in-command is female. That's nothing special for us."

Lavender tilted her head curiously. "You're a battle strategist? What does that mean?"

"That I'm responsible for protecting the camp during an attack, for example," Larkwing explained between two bites. "We also come up with new tactics in case there's a planned raid and sometimes supervise the apprentices' battle training."

With each word, Lavender's eyes grew larger and larger until they were completely round. "But I was always told that she-cats are not able to fight!" she mewed in disbelief.

Larkwing curled her muzzle in bewilderment. She felt as if she was having this conversation with a kit that had no idea about anything. "Oh yeah? Why shouldn't we be able to do that?" she huffed. "What toms can do, we can do ten times better!"

Lavender purred happily. "Well, my parents always thought that a she-cat wasn't physically or mentally capable of learning fighting moves. They always supported my brother in this, but not my sister and me. We should both rather learn how to hunt and how to recognise herbs."

A hint of anger made Larkwing's tortoiseshell-and-white and ginger tabby fur prickle. "That doesn't make any sense! Why would anyone believe that?"

In response, Lavender merely twitched her ears helplessly and continued to eat her share of the squirrel.

But Larkwing didn't let the subject rest. As she licked her white chest fur, all sorts of assumptions raged around in her head. In the end, however, she found only one to be somewhat comprehensible.

The ruin cats set great store by family and the continuation of their family tree. Every she-cat is expected to bear kits, which in turn means that they spend a lot of time in the nursery as queens. Not only are queens seen as gentle and peaceful most of the time, but they also do most of the rearing of the kits. The ruin cats probably think that fighting doesn't fit into this picture.

She gave Lavender a thoughtful look. By now she realised that she wouldn't be able to get a sensible explanation out of the she-cat. Probably no one could remember the original reason anyway.

On top of that, there was the issue of toms not being allowed to deal with medicinal plants. The more Larkwing thought about it, the crazier it seemed to her. There was no reason at all to make healing a she-cat-exclusive thing. It was already convenient that all the she-cats here had knowledge of herbs anyway, so why weren't all cats taught about them?

At that moment, a sharp pain shot up her spine. Startled by this, Larkwing hissed.

A shrill mew, unmistakably that of a kit, was the answer. Larkwing turned round and discovered a snow-white ball of fur clutched in her tail.

Crystal looked up at her with her unusually bright blue eyes. "Hello! I missed you!" she squeaked.

An amused snort could be heard from Lavender. "Looks like she's already taken you to her heart."

"Seems that way." Larkwing gritted her teeth. Even though she thought Crystal was really cute, her little pointy claws were extremely painful.

Phoebe and Amaranth came stumbling over. The latter stood with her legs apart in front of Crystal, a reproachful expression in her green eyes.

The white she-kit promptly let go of Larkwing's tail and mumbled an inarticulate apology.

With an exaggerated sigh, Amaranth sauntered over to Larkwing. "I'm sorry. Crystal just doesn't know-"

Her eyes widened. Reflexively, Larkwing turned her head away. Everyone is staring at me, she realised sourly. Why did the tentacle have to hurt my face where everyone can see it?

"Who did this to you?" Amaranth wanted to know, sounding more fascinated than frightened.

Phoebe hopped over and stuck his muzzle towards Larkwing, sniffing. "Oh no!" he exclaimed dramatically. He looked round briefly, then dashed to a nearby stone and scraped the moss off it. "Quick, put that on there and you'll be cured!"

Unwillingly overwhelmed by the kits, Larkwing turned to Lavender for help. But she only watched from a safe distance, her whiskers twitching.

Thanks a lot! Larkwing felt the fur on the back of her neck prickle. She gently pushed Phoebe away with her front paw before he could get the idea of throwing the dirty moss on her not yet fully healed injury. It was a rarity to see a kit so interested in healing. But one couldn't entrust a cat to him like that. He was more likely to give them blood poisoning than help them.

Disapprovingly, Phoebe curled his muzzle, but before he could make his disappointment known, the blue-grey tom that Larkwing had seen when they arrived came trotting up.

"So there you are," he stated.

The kits squeaked indignantly.

"You can't be out of sight for a moment!" The blue-grey tom stepped in front of Crystal and picked her up by the scruff of her neck. He didn't respond to her protesting mew.

Amaranth ducked down and wiggled her rump. "Can't you not listen to Topaz for once?" the tortoiseshell she-cat with the black and ginger face complained. "We're already three moons old! We don't need anyone to look after us all the time."

The blue-grey tom set Crystal down on a rock she couldn't get away from. "That's not the point," he emphasised. "You just shouldn't disturb other cats. Especially if they're... Clan cats."

Larkwing jumped up hastily. "They didn't disturb me," she placated him, although that wasn't entirely true. Then she tilted her head with interest. "Wait. You must be Stream, right?"

Visibly puzzled, Stream nodded. "How do you know my name?" he asked, not without suspicion.

"Oh, Topaz mentioned you, so I figured it was you."

At the mention of Topaz's name, Stream's tail tip twitched. "Right..." he said slowly. "She took you and that other Clan cat away from the ruins."

Larkwing grew hot beneath her pelt. She didn't like that Stream called Crowshadow 'that other Clan cat'. It sounded so derogatory. Even if he didn't know her name, there were more respectful ways to refer to her.

With a flick of his tail, Stream signalled Phoebe and Crystal to come over. They trotted to him, this time without any objections.

"Don't let them bother you again. I want them to learn what it means to have decency." That was the last thing Stream said to Larkwing before he and the kits left.

So this is Topaz's mate? He looks to me like he's pretty overwhelmed with the kits, Larkwing thought.

Just as she was about to sit down with Lavender again, she spotted Cirrus staring at her intently. "May I steal you away for a quick chat?" she called out.

"Uhh..." Indecisively, Larkwing stepped from one paw to the other.

"Go with her," Lavender whispered. "I think that's something you're interested in."

What I'm interested in? Larkwing shivered. What can that possibly be?