//Un//marked

// chapter 29 //

Big flakes of snow fell from the murky sky, leaving swaths of white on the frozen ground. Dewpaw watched their descent calmly, paws tucked underneath his grey chest, from the shelter of the Tumble Down Den. He hated the cold, but the fresh snow meant training was cancelled and it was a welcome reprieve from the intensity of the past moon.

Dewpaw found no joy in training anymore, despite his slowly growing understanding of his own abilities. The others were always so competitive and, with the threat of DarkClan attacking looming ever closer, the higher ups of the camp kept pushing for more and more and more.

Just a couple sunsets prior, Beaver's patrol had encountered a Clan cat – or, rather, Lightpaw had. He still didn't know what to make of her.

The snow held a lull over the camp, the first peaceful day in Dewpaw's recent memory. There were no cats rushing about trying to get patrols in order. There were no trainees sitting around freshkill and arguing over battle strategies. It was still early and, so far, Dewpaw had only seen Sprucetail wandering in and out of the camp.

Briefly, he wondered if he should follow her, but decided against it. Though his paws itched to test his stealth, he knew the more often it happened the more likely he was to get caught. Already, he knew he'd heard much more than anyone should have overheard.

He had tried piecing the various bits of information together – Mothpelt's revelation of her dream and the need for the three Clans of old to rise again, Gannet and Killian's conversation of joining the fight, and Nightchaser's arguments about DarkClan and the need to attack. One thing was certain: they were going to fight DarkClan and, if they won, establish the three Clans of old, just as this StarClan had told Mothpelt to. If they didn't...

Dewpaw didn't want to think about that and instead rose to his paws. With training out of the question today, he decided hunting would be his best course of action. Ever since Sprucetail decided to increase training, the trainees had spent very little or no time hunting and Dewpaw found he missed it sorely.

He crept out of camp and disappeared in the direction of the border.

//

He returned to camp with sunhigh still a ways away, two mice in his jaws. He was surprised he'd scented them through the stench of DarkClan, let alone caught them with his lack of recent hunting training. He had put himself to work testing his stealth instead, and found that he was a lot quieter than he thought. He had even managed to sneak up on Killian, who had also decided to make himself useful by hunting.

"Nice catch!" purred Beaver as Dewpaw entered. He nodded his head, surprised to find Cinderblossom sitting at Beaver's side. They had seemed rather close as of late.

He dropped the freshkill in the meagre pile and turned in the direction of Oats and Crisp, who sat chatting with, to Dewpaw's annoyance, Beetlepaw and Lightpaw. He decided to visit Crowpaw instead.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Crowpaw commented as he sorted herbs.

Dewpaw wrinkled his nose at their scents. "Training has been so intense we hardly ever had time to ourselves," he replied.

"Must be snowing pretty hard out there to deter Jaystrike from a training session," Crowpaw said dryly. He was still not on good terms with his ex-mentor.

The grey tom shook his head. "It's not too bad. Managed to do some hunting."

The medic's apprentice lifted his head briefly from his sorting. "Hunting is probably the only thing I miss about warrior training. Otherwise, I think this was really the best thing to happen to me. Thank you, Dewpaw." His voice was genuine warm and happy.