"Well?" Maplepaw asked, brushing off the leader's facial expression as though it were a mere gnat.

"Y-y-y-you passed. W-w-well done, Maplepaw," the leader whispered, trying to keep her emotions under control, but looked utterly shaken by the skull Maplepaw had brought forth. Despite Shadepaw and Cloudpaw both completing their assessments before her, Cinderstar only stared at the skull, the other two pieces of bone completely forgotten.

"Well done for completing both assessments successfully," Waspsting spoke for the leader. "You may rest until sundown in which we will gift you your warrior names."

Maplepaw limped towards the medicine cats' den, the pain completely unbearable now that the adrenaline from the assessment had worn off.

"Ghostwhisper," Maplepaw called, a strangled voice coming from her throat.

"I'm coming," Ghostwhisper responded.

As he felt her arm, she gave a sudden screech when he pressed on her shoulder.

"A fracture, I think," he responded. "We get them pretty often after apprentices come back from their assessments. I'm going to warn you though, the treatment process will be anything but smooth."

"Just do it," Maplepaw commanded.

Ghostwhisper sighed and said, "Ok. But I'll need to find some cat to hold you down, just in case."

As he left, Maplepaw saw Ashpool's soft blue eyes connect with hers and he approached her, dropping the bundle he was carrying in his mouth, revealing a pawful of bright red berries.

"Eat them," Ashpool meowed. "They'll take the pain away."

Maplepaw just reached out to take a berry in her mouth when Ashpool spinned around, back facing her. She took a closer look at the berries, a brown seed coated in the fleshy red berry.

She flinched as she saw the seed, gasping at the berries before her, scrambling away from them, as best as she could with her malfunctioning leg.

~~~~

Maplekit giggled as she glanced at Silentkit, who had tumbled into a muddy puddle, then rolled into the medicine cats' den, getting all sorts of herbs stuck on her fur.

"Hehe!" Maplekit laughed. "I win!"

"Hey!" Silentkit protested, shaking some of the herbs off her fur. "That's not fair! You pushed me!"

"I still won!" Maplepaw exclaimed triumphantly.

"Whatever," Silentkit meowed, indignantly, rolling her eyes, but Maplekit could still see the happiness that shone brightly in those pale blue eyes of hers. "Let's check out the medicine cats' den!"

"Sure," Maplekit responded, following her sister.

"I know so many herbs already!" Silentkit exclaimed after a while and began pointing at several herbs, berries and seeds while saying, "Borage, comfrey, poppy seeds, juniper berries, feverfew, catmint, watermint..."

A bright red flash took Maplekit's attention as she turned around and looked at a couple of bright red berries, with a small brown seed inside. As she reached for one, ready to put it in her mouth, Silentkit smacked her on the face.

Maplekit, shocked, dropped the berry and glared at Silentkit. Her sister never raised her voice or temper at anyone. She snapped at her, annoyed that Silentkit had chosen her of all cats to inflict her temper on, "What was that for?"

"Thank me later, but those are deathberries. If you eat one, you'll be dead before the sun's down," Silentkit meowed back harshly, anger burning in her pale blue eyes.

Maplekit's eyes widened as she looked at the berries then at Silentkit before asking,

"Then why would they put such horrible things in camp?"

"To assist those who are departing from our world a quick and painless ending," Silentkit meowed back, gazing in wonder at the well-stocked supply of herbs in the medicine cats' den, the entire ordeal forgotten.

~~~

Maplepaw felt a snarl ripple through her throat as she glowered at Ashpool, who had an innocent expression on his face. She wanted to reach forward and tear it off, along with a couple inches of his flesh.

"What's wrong?" Ashpool coolly asked, tilting his head.

Maplepaw breathed, gnashing her teeth as she repeated a mantra in her head,

I must not smack. I must not bite. I must not kill.

"All would be fine, if only you weren't trying to poison me," Maplepaw replied, grooming her fur.

"What do you mean?" Ashpool queried, furrowing his brow into a way that could almost come across as genuine.

Maplepaw almost burst out laughing as she reflected Ashpool's expression on her own face, wondering how he could keep a straight face when having such an absurd expression on his face,

"I don't know actually. Maybe you'll tell me why you're trying to feed me deathberries?"

Ashpool's eyes flickered with bewilderment, but only for a heartbeat as he responded,

"No. You must be mistaken, Maplepaw. Those are juniper berries, quite different from deathberries. If I was doing so, I'd be sullying my own name in front of StarClan."

"Well then, sully your name indeed," Maplepaw shot back. "How dim-witted do you think I am? I may be a warrior, but I have basic medicine cat training, as should all other warriors in this clan, according to the Law of the Raven."

"How do you know-" Ashpool began, but was interrupted by Ghostwhisper, followed by Heatherstalk.

Ghostwhisper glanced at Maplepaw, the berries, then Ashpool and back to Maplepaw again.

"Oh," Ashpool meowed. "I was just talking to Maplepaw about the deathberries and how toxic they are and why she shouldn't eat them because she was going to do so. Anyways, I should probably attend to our leader, she has not moved from the same position since the skull was brought forth."

With that, Ashpool dashed out faster than some cat could blink. Ghostwhisper shook his head and sighed,

"My apologies for leaving you alone for such a long time. Heatherstalk demanded details. A lot of details. Thank StarClan that you have picked up something from your sister."

Maplepaw shrugged, wincing at the pain and meowed,

"It's all good. Silentpaw taught me the basics of medicine cat knowledge, so I know the difference between juniper berries and deathberries."

"Anyways, shall we fix you up?" Ghostwhisper asked. "Heatherstalk, hold onto Maplepaw's body. I know for a fact that Maplepaw's a feisty one. Just keep out of the way of her claws and you should be fine."

"What's happening?" Maplepaw asked, confused as her mother placed her forepaws on her body.

Ghostwhisper placed his paw on Maplepaw's foreleg and gave it a sharp shove

Maplepaw heard the crack before her body reacted. She screeched, writhing under Heatherstalk's grasp as she struggled to escape, a natural reaction she'd gained from her secret training. Fleeing from pain before tackling it in order to prevent further damage from being done.

As the pain gradually subdued, Maplepaw blinked away the tears that formed in her eyes and meowed,

"Well, that wasn't so bad after all."

She stood up after Heatherstalk let go of her and walked around, testing her right leg, and after realising it was fine, thanked Ghostwhisper before leaving.

As she exited, she saw Cinderstar, sitting in the exact position, shivering, tears dripping down her face onto the skull as her eyes were wide in fear.

"How long has she been sitting like that for?" Maplepaw asked Heatherstalk.

"Ever since you brought the skull in. She hasn't diverted her gaze ever since then," Heatherstalk meowed, voice tight.

Heatherstalk dipped her head at Glassflicker who informed her about a border patrol she was to participate in and bid farewell to Maplepaw. Glassflicker was one of the few, if not the only kittypet that had been accepted into MistClan since forever. No one knew why or how, they just accepted it as a normal thing.

As she sank back, grabbing a random piece of prey from the pile, devouring it in three bites and watched the leader, she couldn't help but feel as though the more she was living in MistClan, the darker the secrets she was dredging up. Normally she wasn't scared of the dark, nor of abrupt twists,