By the time that Duskelle walked out of the den, the clan had broken out of its frenzied state from earlier. Frostmist, who'd finally managed to make herself heard, had organized the cats into several small groups, with three or four warrior in each. There was a word for these...she had heard it just a little while earlier...ah, yes patrols were what they were called.

She stopped by the apprentice den, watching the way that the search was being carried out, once again amazed at the cats' effectiveness. How many seasons, how many generations of this had to have happened for all...this to happen?

Duskelle continued to watch on for a few more minutes, until she grew unsettled and stood up. She decided to go check in Lilacfeather's den to see how Seapaw was doing.

As she padded along, thoughts filled her head. This Hawkkit, she seemed to be liked by everybody in the clan. Well it was inevitable, Duskelle supposed, as she was a kitten and kittens were valuable to all communities, weren't they? And this fox...it seemed like it was dangerous...but as Duskelle thought about it, she reconsidered the danger of the creature. The cats were rather small compared to her, to creatures like her. To Twolegs. The cats themselves probably couldn't cause much harm to her if there was only one of them. The fox was something that could cause harm to the cats. From the looks of it, a kit would be no fight against it. The patrols earlier had three or four cats in each of them. That seemed to be enough to pull a fight, if one were to happen, onto the side of the cats. Though three or four cats could definitely hurt Duskelle, the possibility that the 'fox' would be as scared of her as the cats had been at first combined with her size gave her a chance.

A chance to fight the fox.

A chance to bring back Hawkkit.

A chance to show herself in a better light.

A chance to make herself fit in with RiverClan.

Then again, there was another chance.

A chance that the fox would be more powerful than her.

A chance that she would not succeed in her quest.

A chance that she would not make it.

A chance that she would fail.

But that was a chance that she was going to take.

Duskelle stopped, and sat down, ignoring the bustle around her, though her sharp gaze did not miss the looks that cats cast her. She had to formulate a plan for how she was going to do this. She couldn't just run headfirst into the forest without any idea of what she was going to do. And besides, she'd need a good reason to do that anyways. There was no way that the clan cats would just let her leave their camp without inquiry.

First of all, she had to get out of the camp. But how would she do that? She thought...and thought...and then thought some more.

And just as she began to get frustrated, just as she began to give up hope that the idea would never work, it hit her.

The dirtplace! Of course!

No cat would be watching her over there. It would be quite easy to slip away into the forest. And her scent would not be able to surface over the horrid odor that covered the entire place.

It was perfect.

Duskelle got to her paws, and turned around in the direction of the dirtplace. It also just happened to be the direction in which the sun was setting, sending lazy rays of red, orange, and yellow rivers across the world in front of her, turning the sky around it into a wash of soft colors.

With the sun in her face, the wind ruffling the fur on her head, and the cats around her staring suspiciously, Duskelle let a small smile steal across her face.

She was finally going to be a part of something.

It was what she had always wanted.