Ravenpaw was awoken by a soft paw in his side when the moon was high in the sky, its light sending silver streaks over the apprentice's black coat. He stood slowly, stretching and shaking himself clear of snow with a large yawn. The rest of the patrol was sleeping with a light sprinkle of snow over their pelts. Rain, though, looked fluffy and awake.

"Did you sleep?" Ravenpaw asked softly, noticing that he had no tell signs of having laid down.

"Some cat had to guard," Rain answered quietly, as to not wake the other cats. Noticing Ravenpaw's worried expression, he added, "I was trained to be able to stay awake for days. I can wait until tomorrow night to rest." He shook his coat and meowed, "follow me and stay quiet. We don't want to scare any cat before we see them."

Ravenpaw followed the tom's orders and walked quietly by his side, looking around the quiet dark area. Soft snowflakes fluttered down and touched his fur, a chilly feeling that did not help his muscles, which were still sore from earlier in the day and tensed from sleep.

Rain's tail softly touched Ravenpaw's shoulder, drawing the apprentice to a stop. The tom nodded his head to a fern bush in front of them, and Ravenpaw noticed a shadow sliding through it, intent on stalking something they couldn't see. Suddenly, it flashed forward, and the sharp aroma of blood touched Ravenpaw's scent glands.

"Go quietly, and speak kindly," Rain whispered in Ravenpaw's ear.

"What should I say?" he murmured back, fear prickling his spine.

"Whatever comes to heart," was Rain's unhelpful reply, and he nudged Ravenpaw forward.

Knowing he had no choice now, the apprentice forced his paws forward one at a time, giving his entire focus on just managing to get them to move. He slowly neared the cat and paused to take a breath. This is for EchoClan, he reminded himself. For Eagleclaw and Mossrain.

"Excuse me?" he mewed in a light, soft voice, trying to sound as small as he could--it didn't take much.

The cat leaped around, fur bristling and claws sliding out. Ravenpaw was now close enough to make out a pale ginger coat, dusted with snow. "Don't come any closer," the she-cat growled. "Turn around and go away."

"Please, I don't want to fight," he mewled, his fur twitching with fear. "I'm just looking for someone."

"Aren't we all," she taunted, but after a moment her fur lowered slightly, and her claws slid inward. "Who are you?"

"Ravenpaw," he answered, hoping a Clan name wouldn't trigger her.

Her eyes looked downward at his paws. "Strange name--you don't seem to have ravens on your paws."

Ravenpaw opened his jaws to answer, but quickly realized he didn't know what to say, and shut his mouth awkwardly.

The she-cat snorted, flicking her tail. "Who are you looking for?"

"Her name is Acornstar," he answered quickly. "She's a ginger-brown she-cat. She would've arrived in the last few days, probably kept to herself a little."

The she-cat looked thoughtful for a moment, but then she shook her head. "Sorry, kit, haven't seen her." She started to turn away, then added over her shoulder, "good luck. Be safe out there."

"Thanks, you too." He couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice, and headed back to Rain, shaking his head as he got close. The tom, who had settled into the snow to hide, stood up and shook snow from his coat.

"I didn't expect to be so lucky," he meowed. "Let's keep looking."

They got nowhere with three more cats. Two were hostile but were willing enough to answer that they hadn't seen her, while the third fled the moment they had seen Ravenpaw approaching. He wasn't feeling all that hopeful when he approached the fifth cat, an older thick-furred gray tom. But after repeating what he said to all the other cats, the tom tilted his head slightly.

"She look skinny, but muscular from younger seasons?" he asked in a slightly hoarse, elderly voice.

"Yes!" Excitement wriggled under Ravenpaw's fur, chasing away the fatigue that had started to take over once again.

"Well, if so, I saw her by the abandoned Tallwalker den yesterday--I knew she must've been new around here, cats know not to go there anymore after those forest cats raided it a few seasons ago."

"Thank you," Ravenpaw breathed. "Be safe out there."

"You, too, youngster." The tom dipped his head and shambled off. Ravenpaw hoped he would be okay, but trusted than if he had lived this long, he could survive further with no troubles. Rain seemed to know it was good news the moment Ravenpaw started heading back, and he raised his head with interest in his eyes.

"You got something?" he asked hopefully.

Ravenpaw nodded. "He said she was near an abandoned Tallwaker den--that's a Twoleg den, right? Do you know where it is?" Anxiety suddenly rushed over his fur--if Rain didn't know, would they have to ask around again?

Luckily, Rain's eyes shined. "That's close by! Come on, we should leave now. Staying in the park until morning would be a bad idea." He turned and hurried back in the direction of the others, and Ravenpaw kept close to his side.

The patrol was still sleeping at the makeshift camp, curled up to protect themselves from cold. Rain quietly went to Silverstrike, calling his name softly and touching his paw to the senior warrior's shoulder. Instantly, the silver and white tom flipped onto his back, paws raised with claws out with a warning hiss in his throat. He calmed himself the moment he noticed it was Rain, letting the puffed fur around his neck rest.

The other patrol members awoke from the sound, shaking sleep from their eyes.

"We know where Acornstar is," Rain told the tom. "Or at least, where she was."

Excitement shined in Silverstrike's eyes. "That's enough for me!" he decided, flipping over and getting to his paws. He shook snow from his flattened coat with a soft groan, lifting up his injured paw and giving it a sniff. Ravenpaw approached softly, and the warrior quietly held it out to him.

The snow had kept it clean of infection, and the cold--as well the herbs--had reduced the swelling. "Just be careful where you walk," Ravenpaw decided. He would've liked Silverstrike to rest for a day, but they could do that once they had Acornstar.

"What's going on?" Frostfall murmured, letting out a large yawn.

"Acornstar," Silverstrike replied gruffly, copying her yawn with a flex of his claws.

"Sorry?" Frostfall looked confused, her ears flicking.

With a purr of amusement, Silverstrike clarified with a louder voice, "Acornstar's near."

"Finally!" Shadefur sighed. "I can't wait to get back home."

"Yeah, same," Stonecoat muttered, scratching the snow briefly. Ravenpaw cast a sad glance at his brother--Shadefur and Stonecoat had been closer than ever during the journey, and hearing that they soon would be heading home is probably making him believe Shadefur will leave for Mossrain again.

Can't the three of them just hang out? Ravenpaw wondered.

"We should head immediately, getting there sooner than later would be best. It shouldn't take too long." Rain waited for all the cats to stand and stretch themselves, then he started off at a determined pace. Ravenpaw moved himself closer to Jaypaw, brushing against his brother's cold, wet coat with a shiver.

"I hope we find her and get back," Jaypaw murmured. "I miss home."

"Me, too," Ravenpaw agreed. Then realized, "Oh, I'm going to miss the next Moonstream meeting..." Sadness prickled his fur. StarClan had yet to visit him during his journey, and he didn't like it--he felt very distant from his ancestors. He would be okay going the same length of time without speaking to them in the Clan territories, but the strange stars above him sent an unnerved shiver through his coat.

Jaypaw seemed to sense his sadness and pressed closer as they traveled. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're watching over us. I bet they'll visit you the moment you come back. Maybe they just can't reach you from here," he added.

Ravenpaw gave a slow nod, but anxiety still prickled his fur. It had been a moon since Echo visited him last, and he was almost worried about the she-cat. She was supposed to be showing him the past, but yet she had not visited him in so long--the breaks between the visits had never reached this length.

Maybe she's mad I'm not using my power, Ravenpaw thought. Sometimes, he almost forgot he even had it. Avoiding other cats' noses had become second nature, and his last vision had been quite long ago, over a moon in the past. Echo must be upset--she convinced me to keep my ability and I haven't even been using it!

He would find a way to use it, to please Echo. He would just have to wait for the opportunity. 

But for now, he focused on finding Acornstar, so he went along with the patrol as they left the park behind and followed Rain along dark, empty Thunderpaths. He kept his nose in the air and his ears perked, and the warriors copied him instinctively, searching for enemies while staying bunched together.

A monster rolled by on the Thunderpath, moving slow and rumbling loudly. "If that's it stalking, it'd never catch anything!" Shadefur meowed as it rambled past, a Twoleg peering out at them. Ravenpaw felt his spine fur tingling as the creature's pale face stared at him, but then the monster was traveling away, and eventually disappeared around a Twoleg den.

"I've never seen one eat," Rain meowed as they walked. "But I know of a few cats who saw Twolegs feeding them through a hole in their side."

Are those cats MothClan cats you heard the story from? Ravenpaw wondered, peering at the tom.

"Well, that isn't terrifying at all," Stonecoat muttered, shaking his coat. "Any way you can get that image out of my head?"

"I could try," Shadefur answered with a mischievous gleam in his gaze. "It might be a tad painful though." Stonecoat snorted in response, and the patrol seemed to relax a little more as they continued on. Ravenpaw felt warmed by his brothers' amused view on the subject, but he couldn't help but imagine a large hole appearing in the side of a monster and a Twoleg shoving a squealing rabbit inside.

Shaking the image from his head, he walked a little closer to Jaypaw as Rain led them up a fence into a Twoleg "garden", as he called it, the den dark and seemingly empty. Ravenpaw was glad to hurry up the other fence like a squirrel, where he could see a line of dens that went forward for quite a while before taking a sharp turn to the right, where more dens lay once again facing the forest. 

"We'll take a shortcut through the forest," Rain meowed. "It'll let us get there a little quicker, and we'll be less likely to run into trouble."

"What about the rogues?" Silverstrike asked, eying the forest with a gleam of anticipation in his eyes. He was anxious to get away from the Twolegplace, even for a few moments, and Ravenpaw couldn't help but agree--he wanted the shelter the forest provided, even if the branches were bare.

"Their territory doesn't reach this far," Rain explained. "They come here sometimes, but usually only in the warm seasons. They'll be a few loners, but they'll keep distance from a group."

"Like the Twolegplace cats," Silverstike muttered. Then he gave a confirming nod, and Ravenpaw got to leap down from the fence and hurry into the trees. The shadows were cold but a comfort over his pelt, and he noticed the other patrol members relaxing as well. It was unfamiliar territory but at the same time a familiar feeling rushed over them.

Rain led the way through the trees. A few times a loner scent would come to the group, but the cat scent was either dull or fearful and quickly leading off deeper into the forest with frantic pawsteps imprinted into the snow. 

They weren't in the forest as long as Ravenpaw would've liked, and soon they climbed back over a fence, Silverstrike wincing and holding his paw slightly off the wood as they reached the top. Rain led them down into a garden, past a den, and back onto the edge of a Thunderpath. 

"I thought you said it was close," Silverstrike grumbled as he limped along the edge of the path, leaving red snow after each step of his front right paw.

For an answer, Rain just nodded his head in front of them. On each side of the Thunderpath was a row of Twoleg dens, looking quite older than the ones they had passed before near the park. They looked smaller, darker, and almost as if they were sagging slightly. They obviously needed some Twoleg to come by and help fix them. On the other side of the path, about five dens down was the darkest, smallest den of them all, with rotten wood and long grass that made the snow settle a few mouse lengths above the snow for the other dens.

"Is that it?" Ravenpaw asked, wondering what would never convince Acornstar to travel so far from the Clan territories. Why had she not just traveled for a few dawns, then found a place to settle?

"Yes," Rain answered. "Come along, and keep quiet. I doubt we want to scare her away." He led the cats across the Thunderpath and up to the den and onto the long grass. The cats sunk deep into the snow, the grass underneath flattening by the weight of their paws. Rain trudged onward, and Ravenpaw and Jaypaw followed his tail to find an easier path. They traveled along the side of the Twoleg den to the garden, the fence looking old and almost swaying in the wind.

The garden was not empty like most others. There was a small, short den at the back near the fence to the forest, with strange sharp-edged brown boulders stacked up the side. And sitting on top of the den, shadowed by the moonlight, was a cat. Ravenpaw knew instinctively that it was Acornstar.

They had found her.

Question #1: What do you think will happen when the cats finally confront Acornstar?