No... You're lying. Lakepelt would never want to hurt me.

Larkwing backed away. Away from the puddle, away from Twilightwing and Ivykit. "Tell me the truth," she growled. At the same time, her voice trembled violently. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe you? I have more faith in Lakepelt than I do in any other cat. You don't even know him!"

At that, Twilightwing's eyes narrowed. "I only knew him for a few days as a kit, but even then it was clear what a bloodthirsty cat he would become. Did he ever tell you that he hurt Birchpelt back then, so he had to spend several nights in the medicine cat's den? I don't think so!"

Larkwing almost snorted in disbelief. Twilightwing couldn't be serious. Of course, she realised that Lakepelt wasn't necessarily pacifist, but Twilightwing made it sound like everything he'd done had been done out of malicious intent.

But I know that's not true! Lakepelt only ever did what was necessary to protect himself. To protect me.

She remembered the night she was held captive by the renegade ruin cats and Sunray. Back then, Lakepelt had set out on his own to get her out of that hole and escort her to the forest when she was at her weakest. The sacrifices he had to make that night were necessary for her to survive.

With that realisation, Larkwing lifted her chin and returned Twilightwing's accusing gaze. "You dare to pass judgement on a cat you've only known for a few days?"

"StarClan's Surpreme Council has been watching him for moons!" Twilightwing retorted tensely. "It's already certain that he'll end up in the Dark Forest if he doesn't change."

Larkwing winced. An eternal stay in the Forest of Darkness as a result for Lakepelt having seen to it that the cats who had harmed her received their punishment?

"That's enough!" she hissed. "I'd rather hear the reasons from Lakepelt himself, if he really was the one who attacked me. And the ones regarding the incident with Birchpelt."

Twilightwing opened her mouth slightly and closed it again immediately, as if she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. "Well," she began hesitantly after a short pause, "there is a way for you to get back into your body. But you have to really want to. It has to be your deepest desire."

"It is the biggest desire I've ever had in my entire life!" Larkwing meowed promptly.

If she had the chance to live, she certainly did not want to waste it. The time for her to die shouldn't come yet. She was only fourteen moons old. There were still countless leaf-changes ahead of her. She couldn't just waste them.

When I'm back, I'll make every single day the best, Larkwing swore to herself silently. I'll always be grateful that I'm still alive and can serve my Clan.

Now Twilightwing padded towards her. Her ears were flattened and her expression showed that she still seemed to be thinking about what a bloodthirsty cat Lakepelt was and that she definitely didn't want Larkwing near him. "In that case, even I won't be able to stop you." She faltered briefly, her lower jaw quivering. "But you have to promise me one thing. Stay away from Lakepelt."

Larkwing gasped. "Never!" she hissed. "You don't know how I feel about him. I trust him and love him in a way you'll never understand!"

It hurt to snarl at her own mother like that. At the beginning, she had been so happy to finally get to know her. But Larkwing could not tolerate the way she talked about Lakepelt.

"I can't believe you're so foolish as to believe that this tom can even feel any form of love," Twilightwing pressed out.

"Is that what the StarClan Supreme Council told you? A bunch of long-dead cats pretending to be important?"

At these words, Twilightwing fell into a stupor. The image of her body began to flicker. "All right, then. You wouldn't have it any other way. Return to life. Keep believing that Lakepelt loves you for all I care." She whirled around and stomped off.

Mewing, Ivykit looked back and forth between her and Larkwing, as if he didn't understand why his littermate wasn't following her.

Oh, Ivykit. Larkwing gave the tiny, golden-white tom a sorrowful look. I didn't want my first meeting with Twilightwing to end like this.

"Go on," she mumbled in a choked voice. "It's all right. I have to go somewhere else. One day we'll meet again. But now it's too soon."

For a moment, Ivykit stared at her out of huge, sad, dark blue eyes. Then he, too, turned and crawled after the fading form of Twilightwing.

Larkwing gazed after them until they had both disappeared and there was nothing to indicate their presence. As if they had never been here.

"You said it yourself. StarClan is not omniscient." Her voice echoed through the endless expanse. "But I will find out the truth. Even if—" She faltered. "Even if the truth hurts. Even if... even if nothing will be the same anymore."

Time to return to life. Larkwing closed her eyes, but before she knew it, her consciousness already slipped away.

***

"Isn't she breathing differently now?"

"How should I know? I'm not a medicine cat."

Everything around Larkwing was dark. But it wasn't scary, quite the opposite. It felt like she was lying on clouds. The smell of mud and rain and pungent herbs wafted around her.

Something cold and damp touched her flank, which instinctively twitched. There was also the smell of two cats — more precisely, toms, as she noticed.

"I think she's waking up," one of them meowed.

Somehow, that meow sounded familiar.

She felt a second touch on her other flank. "Larkwing?"

Hearing her name triggered a strange feeling in her that she couldn't describe. Somehow happy, in a very special way she had never experienced before. As if she were feeling happiness for the first time.

Suddenly, Larkwing felt the urge to break out of the darkness. Her eyelids fluttered open.

Everything was bright and blurry. In front of her, just a whisker-length from her face, two cats crouched. The redder of the two moved closer so that Larkwing could see the colour of his irises — light golden. "How are you?" he whispered, licking her muzzle briefly.

Leafwind? Larkwing began to purr weakly. But her chest hurt, so she stopped immediately.  "H-hmm..." That was all she could manage to say.

Suddenly, Leafwind pressed his muzzle against her face and began to purr, trembling. "Do you realise how worried you made us? You almost died!"

"You did die," Splashfur corrected. "But then you suddenly started breathing again."

Larkwing wrinkled her muzzle in confusion. "How can that be?" she muttered, still slightly dazed.

She didn't tell them that she knew she hadn't really died. It would probably stress them out even more if they knew she had almost seen StarClan.

Leafwind stopped purring. "We're wondering the same thing," he explained, his ears flattened. "Cloverdapple said that he had never seen a cat that had lost so much blood. It shouldn't even be possible that you're still alive!" Leafwind buried her muzzle in her fur again, careful not to damage the masses of poultices clinging to her dishevelled fur.

If you only knew why I survived. Larkwing tensed up. She was different. No one could survive a kill attempt like that. There was no way the cats would accept the explanation that she had been extremely lucky. Surely they would question her and not let up until they knew the real reason.

Splashfur pulled himself to his paws. "I'd better let Cloverdapple know." He shuffled backwards towards the exit of the cave, his yellow eyes fixated insistently on Larkwing. "Don't you dare really die now."

Larkwing's whiskers twitched. "I'll try," she croaked.

She would have liked to get up herself and take a look into the camp. But she couldn't even move a paw without being paralysed with pain. Mousedung cursed by StarClan! How long am I supposed to stay like this? I'll get stiff joints before I'm an elder!

"What happened while I was—" She paused. "Well, while I wasn't awake?"

"The Shadowless are gone," Leafwind replied simply.

"I can see that." Larkwing twitched the tip of her tail. "I meant did anyone die? Except..." She thought for a moment. "Except Trout."

This question made Leafwind's fur bristle. "You shouldn't worry about that for now," he replied tensely. "You're still in a critical condition. It wouldn't be good for you to put yourself under any more stress unnecessarily."

So we have more losses to lament than just Trout! Larkwing dug her claws into the moss she was lying on. "Who is it?" she demanded to know.

Leafwind remained stubborn. "You'd only get unnecessarily upset," he claimed.

Larkwing huffed. It looked like the ginger tabby tom was convinced to keep the names of the dead from her until she was feeling better again. Whatever. I'll find out sooner or later.

"What about Lakepelt?" Larkwing inquired, staring at Leafwind so intensely out of her green-blue eyes as if she hoped this would make him stop withholding information from her.

"He's still alive," Leafwind reassured her. "Well, physically at least. I don't think he's even realised you're not dead yet. He was the one who found you." He flattened his ears. "I've never seen a cat so traumatised... Tell me, you're mates, aren't you?"

If Larkwing hadn't been bound to her nest by her pain, she would have lashed out at Leafwind with her claws retracted. As it was, however, she had no choice but to glare at him as angrily and insultingly as possible. "Urgh, no! We are something else. If you want to know for sure—"

She faltered. After everything that had happened, could they really still be platonic mates? Assuming Twilightwing had told the truth and Lakepelt really wanted to kill her, was it still a good idea to continue their relationship?

Surely it was just a mistake. It simply had to have been a mistake. After all — and only now did she realise this with horror and shame — she herself had mistaken him for a shadowless cat.

At the same time, she had a nagging feeling that the truth was much darker than she had assumed. Whatever the reason, she would find out, even if it meant ending their friendship.