//Un//marked

// chapter 29 //

Dewpaw whisked his tail. "I'm happy for you."

"Me too, especially since I don't need to put up with Webpaw and Hazel everyday." The two she-cats had grown ever more competitive, especially now that Beetlepaw and Lightpaw had proved themselves decidedly better in battle.

"Webpaw's happy for you too," Dewpaw said quickly. "But, yes, they can be a pain."

"Dewpaw, you're not in pain are you?" Mothpelt asked as she entered the den, voice muffled through the soggy leaves in her mouth.

He shook his head. "No, just visiting Crowpaw."

The she-cat dropped the leaves to the ground. "Oh, good, but make sure he doesn't slack on his duties. I just rescued these leaves from the weather, hopefully they'll dry out nicely and still be useable. Crowpaw, make sure to lay them out separately."

Crowpaw nodded, hopping to his paws and starting on the work. Dewpaw watched in amazement as his paws skillfully separated the wet leaves and put them out in a straight line along the den's edge. The tom was meticulous, smoothing each leaf out with a couple of brushes with his paw.

His methodical approached pricked at Dewpaw, and he wondered if the tom might be able to help him figure out his earlier musings. He looked left and right for signs of others before speaking.

"Crowpaw, do you know anything of Mothpelt's dreams?" he started.

The black tom shook his head. "No, but I've been told that StarClan visited medicine cats in the Old Life frequently. I haven't been visited yet but if we defeat DarkClan I'm sure it will happen."

"Do you know what will happen after we defeat DarkClan?" Dewpaw asked.

Crowpaw hesitated for a moment. "Mothpelt told me that we were going to establish the three Clans of old. But don't tell anyone else."

Dewpaw nodded. "I already overheard her saying so to Cinderblossom."

The other apprentice purred ruefully. "Anything else you've managed to overhear? I hardly hear anything while I'm stuck in this den." He didn't sound disappointed, just curious.

"I heard Sprucetail and Nightchaser arguing about the attack on DarkClan," Dewpaw replied in a hushed voice. "She wanted to increase training and he said there was no time, that they were too close to attacking. He seemed to think Beetlepaw and Lightpaw were sent as spies for DarkClan."

Crowpaw's head snapped up. "You do know that Nightchaser is unstable, right?"

Dewpaw's eyes widened at Crowpaw's frank tone of voice. He hoped, for the tom's sake, that Nightchaser was nowhere near hearing range.

"Sprucetail knows what she's doing," Crowpaw continued. "She takes Nightchaser's worries into consideration, but she needs to think about everyone else too. She and Bronco have been working together to provide the best possible life for all of us here until we're ready to face DarkClan."

"Yes, but what if Nightchaser's right? What if there are spies in the camp?"

Crowpaw paused. "I know you've seen Beetlepaw and Lightpaw fight, but have you seen Sprucetail?"

Dewpaw shook his head.

"Well, if you had, you would know the two of them wouldn't stand a chance against her."

The grey apprentice found this hard to imagine when Lightpaw's fighting skills were already so high above his own.

"Point is, Sprucetail knows what she's doing, and intensifying training is really the only course of action she could take. If she didn't and we attacked DarkClan right away, most of us wouldn't survive." Crowpaw shuffled the herbs in front of him around until they were in tidy piles. "Some of us may still not."