Adderheart woke up to light sunlight streaming through the den.

He'd slept the entire day away, slept the entire night away, and now it was the next morning. That was the only answer as to why it was so bright. He cracked open his eyes, dark gray gaze sharp beneath his eyelids as he shuffled his position. He didn't really want to get up.

Absently, he wondered if anyone would actually notice if he were to stay in the den the entire day. Maybe Cougarstar would just hold it against him, but would any of the other warriors care if he stayed in the den? Well, they likely would care but would they report him to Cougarstar or to Bearpatch?

And would Bearpatch care? Would anyone? Palewhisker? Pantherleap would likely think something to be wrong but what if he didn't? Then what? Would anyone come to check in on him? Adderheart's face twisted into a frown and he buried his head in his paws as if to hide from the world that seemed to be getting heavier and heavier around and on him, pressing on his chest forcefully.

Tiredness dragged his limbs down like a heavyset weight. He felt tired even though he'd just slept for a fair bit of time, and despite this, he pulled himself to his paws. He cleared his throat, shook his head as if to clear his mind from the want to lay back down and to fall into slumber once more, and he carefully picked his way through the den till he exited.

He spotted a few cats gathered and chattering at the entrance of camp, to his surprise. Cats were almost never up this early, no matter the moon or day. Well, except battle days.

"...excited!" Birchpaw's bright and excited chirp cut the clearing's pleasant and soft silence.

"So am I," Finchpaw agreed. "I think we'll all do well."

Their mid-assessments.

Fluffyflame, Fernfall, and Freckletuft all stood near their apprentices, surveying each of them sharply. However, there was a fourth cat to stand in as Finchpaw's mentor, and that cat was none other than Marigoldcry. The thick-furred she-cat offered quiet words to Finchpaw, who nodded seriously.

Marigoldcry has never helped with a single one of Finchpaw's training sessions. I have. So why aren't I over there, helping with the mid-assessment for the apprentice I helped train?

"You'll all do fine, I'm sure," Marigoldcry announced as if she was some sort of leader over the rest of the mentors and apprentices, staring at each of them for a few moments each with a glint in her eye like she expected them to do outstanding and nothing less.

"However, if you don't, something will..." Fluffyflame's lip curled and he continued, "...something will have to happen."

"Like what?" Birchpaw asked. It seemed as though he wasn't attempting to irritate the mentors, but it was going to do so anyway.

It wasn't by fault of his own. Marigoldcry was just touchy like that. It was as if she cradled a stone heart, and if one were to poke too sharply or hack harshly at it with a hammer, it'd break and she'd hate everything and everyone forever and ever and ever.

Definitely not qualities that are preferable or wanted in a mentor.

"It, well, doesn't matter right now," Freckletuft commented with a dismissive flick of her tail. "You won't be falling into that sort of trap, so it won't matter to you."

"Understand?" Marigoldcry looked sharply to Birchpaw, who seemed to swallow nervously and nod. The thick-furred she-cat gave a satisfied nod, backing up a bit as she continued to watch as the other three mentors took over once more.

He stopped a frown from rising on his features as he watched the group.

"Now, remember, you're meant to prove yourself through this assessment," came the murmur of Fernfall. "This isn't something to do for fun or just to fool around with. It's a real assessment, and there's a possibility that Cougarstar could be judging your scores."

A hushed silence fell upon the apprentices. They weren't scared of the assessment. It only appeared that they were nervous about the outcome of it. Had they been around during the incident regarding Cougarstar and Tinydust, and if so, what had they done?

He attempted to recall the memory but he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. Eventually, after another portion of a longer, drawn-out speech from Fluffyflame, the apprentices and their mentors scampered out of the camp. Finchpaw, however, paused at the entrance.

The she-cat glanced around the clearing and her gaze stopped on Adderheart. She said nothing but let her left ear twitch, blinking once at him, and then her ears pricked as if she had been called away. She quickly turned around and sprinted out of the camp.

Frustration pulsed inside of him like a huge, crying, messy monster. How come he never could do anything right? Finchpaw, although not his apprentice, felt like she was his apprentice, and so he naturally held a more protective side for the she-cat. He knew that she likely didn't care very much. She had a social life outside of protecting her 'mentor' and his feelings.

He didn't feel betrayed by her by any means. It wasn't up to her, it wasn't her choice. However, it was the mentors' choices, and yes, he felt betrayed. It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. He should've expected that he didn't get to help with their mid-assessments but he wanted to. That was better than Marigoldcry! She looked miserable!

His tail whipped with anger as he looked around the clearing, half expecting a grinning warrior to emerge from the brambles after watching him. Of course, no cat emerged, and the pale-furred tom was left relatively alone in the middle of camp, due to the fact that there didn't seem to be many awake yet. It was early.

Of course, I'm the one who actually wants to be up, yet gets no recognition for it. He thought, tail dragging against the dirt beneath his figure, and the pale tom padded over to the fresh-kill pile. Against his best wishes, he presumed it would be a good idea to eat something. He likely would be assigned a patrol today. He actually sort of hoped so.

With no assigned patrols as usual, he felt lonely and unsure of what to do. The pale tom needed some form of regularity within his daily schedule and the lack of patrols and hunting didn't help that. In reality, nothing that was going on helped that. The rogues, the fights... His ear twitched as he glanced down at the fresh-kill pile.

It seemed somewhat populated. Perhaps there had been an even earlier patrol. He plucked a small mouse from the pile and noted that on its thin brownish fur lay some frost. His lip curled with disgust but he wasn't going to put it back. It was a fine piece of prey, overall. He could just lay his paw on the frost and it would melt.

And that was what he did when he settled down.

He was quick to sit in his usual spot in camp. It was almost his classic place now, ever since the incidents that had occurred there. They rose within his head, flashing with colors and emotions and he shoved them down, a paw lifting to rub at his muzzle absently.

The mouse was fine, he soon found. It had originally tasted strange, but it was fine overall.

He rose to his paws and stretched, yawning with his jaws opening wide as he snapped them closed. Glancing around, he spotted Pantherleap padding toward the camp entrance. Swiftly, Adderheart trotted up behind him.

"Hi," he said softly, to which the tawny warrior jumped in surprise. Whipping around, his head tipped upon seeing Adderheart. However, understanding filled his gaze, and the warrior bounded off.

Wait, don't go!

Adderheart sprinted after him, launching into a run. The trees blurred in the edges of his vision and the logs nearby seemed to just be flashes of color, yet he still ran.

The run wasn't too long. Pantherleap slowly managed to get his pace average and normal before he skittered to a stop, tail whipping like a flag behind him as if to steady himself. Adderheart pulled himself to a stop, inhaling sharply as he pressed a paw into the ground. It was firm and hard as if frost had crept in.

Sunlight shimmered into both cats' eyes and he shifted, blinking to get rid of the gleam within his vision.

"What?" Adderheart prompted, studying the warrior with something like concern.

"Did you want to go hunting or something?" Pantherleap asked, and he was quick to add, "I thought you did. Did you not?"

"I did," he assured the warrior swiftly. "I did. It's fine, I just didn't expect it to happen." A light laugh was forced from his jaws, rather stiff and awkward, and his ear twitched uncomfortably.

Pantherleap's nose twitched absently and Adderheart shifted. A silence filled the air and the latter warrior felt suffocated by it... the silence felt as though it was clogging all of his senses at once and making it impossible to breathe, and it made his vision all shaky and weird and bright again. As if in a light retaliation, he stumbled backward, and Pantherleap looked to him, concerned.

"What's wrong?" He asked, and his voice wasn't truly concerned. It was the casual tone that he'd use with any warrior, and not him. Adderheart thought it was different. I thought it was different. I thought it was different!

"Nothing, nothing is wrong," he assured quickly and padded away. Consequently, he trailed around a few trees, and he called haphazardly over his shoulder, "I'm going to hunt."

He heard a reply but it was muffled. Muffled by the sound of his own thoughts rising and clambering within his skull and clogging everything up. He just couldn't think, it was too hard to think. It was too hard to walk. It felt like his legs were turning to stone and to water at the same time yet he couldn't melt nor freeze either of them, and his brain was turning slowly to stone, freezing every thought.

He tried to sort through the multitude of thoughts but a familiar string ran through his brain. He doesn't care for you.

But why did it matter? No other cat had cared to the extreme about him. So why was Pantherleap so different? He was related to Cougarstar! Didn't that make it worse? Was that why he was different? He continued stumbling along, edging around trees, and his breathing grew heavy as if he was lugging along a million cats upon his shoulders. Everything was too hard...

Stop, Adderheart, this isn't something to be worried about!

Sliding to the ground, and underneath a tree, he curled up tightly. Shifting so that he was curled up in the roots of it, he felt concealed and comforted by the strong, large roots of the tree. It was as if the tree was giving him a big, warm, somewhat prickly hug that no cat could offer.

But his mind did not stop whirring. It came up with millions of thoughts and possibilities, all of which he shoved away. He didn't want to think about Pantherleap anymore. He didn't want to think anymore. He just wanted to hunt, or maybe just run around till everything faded away. Or, maybe, till he found a new Clan, where he could be away from Cougarstar and Pantherleap.

If Pantherleap was out of his sight, he'd be out of mind, right? No, no. No! It didn't work like that. Frustration pulsed from him and his ears pinned tightly to his skull, pale fur beginning to bristle. But, quickly, he smoothed it down and inched closer to the tree, squeezing his eyes shut tighter.

Why? Why? Why?

And, underneath the tree, all alone, he began to cry.

He muffled the sound as best as he could. He didn't want anyone to hear and investigate. Briefly, he recalled the fact that there would be apprentices wandering the forest for their mid-assessment, but he didn't care, only buried his muzzle further into his paws.

"Adderheart...?"

No.

The scent of Pantherleap wreathed around the area and the pale warrior didn't know what to do. He could just pretend like nothing had happened or just try to sink into the tree to get away. Or get up and run. Would that be good? Would that allow him to get away from questioning?

"Adderheart?" A paw poked his flank, but it wasn't a harsh one. "What's going on?"

Delicately, he lifted his skull and looked up to the warrior. Adderheart could tell that his eyes were rimmed red, somewhat puffy, and probably unappealing. He knew that his fur was messed up and that his expression was probably all sorts of awful.

"Adderheart?" Pantherleap prompted, sitting down in front of him. His figure was stiff. "What happened?"

"Nothing," he replied, voice wobbly.

Pantherleap's tail tip twitched absently and his gaze flitted back to Adderheart. His ears perked up in a rather uniform and straight fashion, shoulders straightening.

"I know that isn't true," he claimed with a gleam within his eyes. "Tell me and maybe we can fix it."

"It's fine," he lied, rubbing his eyes with the back of his paws rapidly. He didn't want Pantherleap to see him like this at all at any time, but he supposed that couldn't happen anymore. Not with the tom just straight up coming to see him.

Pantherleap's face held a light frown for a moment. "That's... not true, Adderheart. Please tell me, I..." he stopped, swallowing nervously. The warrior realized how close he had edged and he stumbled backward, tail tip lashing as he shook his head a bit.

"Fine. It's not true, but it's fine. I'm fine," he murmured softly, rising to his paws. He knew he looked awful but the urges to get out were growing stronger and stronger by the moment. He needed to get out before something horrible happened.

"We were going to go hunting—!" Pantherleap's voice suddenly hitched, eyes flashing with hurt, and a paw flew to his muzzle. Instantly, the emotions drained from his eyes and his whiskers twitched sharply. "I... sorry, s-sorry..."

Adderheart wanted to slam his head over and over again into the tree behind him. This wasn't meant to happen at all. He felt guilty for letting it happen yet he knew it wasn't his fault but he still felt bad for Pantherleap. He wanted to go over and curl up beside him and cry if he needed until it was all better.

"It isn't your fault, P-Pantherleap..." he mumbled and instantly he hated the way that his voice tripped over its own paws. It wasn't a problem with any other cat. Why was it an issue with Pantherleap?

It's because—

His muzzle scrunched up and he carefully picked his way away from the tom, trembling as he backed up away into the bushes.

"Wait, don't go—" Pantherleap's voice was a soft drifting tone. It came from his soft, pleasant, well-meaning heart and not his walled, intelligent, sharp mind. Adderheart wanted to run so badly. His lean form felt as if it was wasting away by standing there.

"S-sorry, I just can't right now, Pantherleap. It's not y-your fault," Adderheart stammered, surprised at the words from his mouth. "I—"

"Don't go!" Pantherleap launched forward, and Adderheart whipped around, preparing to run. And run for as long as he possibly could, until his legs simply withered away beneath him and he fell in a random place, away from the Clan and all the horribleness of everything.

However, a paw slammed down on his tail, and immediately he knew he had made a horrific mistake. He should have stayed and tried to make things right but now Pantherleap had him trapped. He didn't want to stay but knew that Pantherleap would make him stay.

If I cry again, will he let me go? I just... I don't want to be near him. I don't—

"Adderheart, please tell me what's wrong... I want to help you," Pantherleap mumbled softly, helping the other warrior to his paws. "Run if you want... but I'm here. To help."