your favorite.

Lakecurrent squinted her green eyes, trying to mitigate the bright glare of sunhigh as she closely watched the stream for passing fish. At the height of greenleaf, it was tough to resist the temptation to jump in the glistening water and cool off. This was no time to take a swim, though. Lakecurrent had a job to do. With greenleaf came plentiful prey, and she wasn’t going to let her fish-catching talents go to waste.

She continued to stare down intently at the stream for what felt like an eternity, when a fish finally appeared, at last. It was rather large, with blue-grey scales all over. Just the sight of it made her mouth water as she dropped down into a hunting crouch. Eyeing the fish carefully, she waited for it to settle in one spot before sharply lunging at it. With a single swipe, she had caught the fish, which was now weakly flailing in her grasp.

With a renewed sense of pride, Lakecurrent began to trot back to camp, holding the fish between her jaws. The light breeze against her damp fur was a pleasant relief from the heat; as a long-furred cat, greenleaf was often very hard on her.

Upon arriving back at the gully, the cats were still buzzing with excitement about Birchpaw’s apprentice ceremony earlier. Lakecurrent was proud of the young tom as well; despite being found abandoned as a kit, he’d stayed strong and given his all to the Clan. He’d made an excellent decision in choosing Crestedstar as his mentor; Lakecurrent knew that he would be in good paws.

Lakecurrent went over to the fresh-kill pile to drop the fish on top, but before she could, she heard someone calling her name. Turning around, she saw that it was Briarheather, the deputy. They were sitting in their new nest in the nursery, all alone. She wasn’t sure what exactly they would want with her, but she padded over to them anyway, deciding to bring the fish.

She dropped the fish in front of Briarheather, knowing that they needed it more than she did. The deputy smiled at this kind gesture, lowering their neck to take a bite of the juicy piece of prey. 

“Thank you so much,” Briarheather mewed after they swallowed their first bite of fish. 

“It’s no problem, really,” Lakecurrent said with a slight chuckle. “You’re our deputy, after all, and you need to be well-fed for your kits, so I thought I should share some of the fish I catch with you. I know it’s your favorite.”

Briarheather acknowledged her with a brief nod, mouth full of another bite of fish. Lakecurrent glanced around the nursery, which was empty save for the two of them. “Where did Mottledghost and her kits go?” she asked, remarking that she hadn’t seen any of them around camp on her way back.

“She took Cinderpaw out with the kits for a little training session,” Briarheather explained. “Cinderpaw’s not far off from becoming a full-fledged queen, you know.”

A small smile crept onto Lakecurrent’s face as she thought of the queen’s apprentice. It seemed like just yesterday, Cinderpaw was a tiny little she-cat. The way she so easily played with Mottledghost’s kits suggested that she was still a kit at heart.

“I’m sure she’ll make for a great queen,” Lakecurrent purred, looking over at Mottledghost’s nest and the three kit-sized nests surrounding it. After a moment, her gaze returned to Briarheather.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Briarheather averted their gaze, a nervous look appearing on their face. Though they were the one who had called Lakecurrent over in the first place, they were still rather anxious to open up to her about this. With a deep sigh, they spoke.

“Before I tell you this…can you promise to not tell anyone else?”

Lakecurrent’s brow raised out of curiosity at the question. Clearly, this was not going to be an ordinary conversation about hunting patrols or camp organization. This was something much more than that. Yet again, her lips curled into a smile.

“Of course I won’t tell anyone. No respectable mediator would go around sharing trusted secrets; especially not the secrets of their superiors.”

That made Briarheather relax a bit, anxiety fading from their expression. Knowing that they could confide in Lakecurrent made them finally gather the courage to get this off their chest.

“Well, it’s about my kits,” they began, looking straight into Lakecurrent’s green eyes. “You remember what I told everyone?”

“Yes, you said that you got pregnant from a kittypet who lives near your old twoleg nest,” Lakecurrent recalled. That was the story that the Clan had been told, at least.

She noticed Briarheather looking away in that moment, their expression growing nervous once again.

“Are you worried about the others judging you for that?” She asked in a gentle tone. “Because if they do, then they’re wrong. I don’t know what it’s like living with twolegs, but if I was born and raised around them like you were, then I’d feel homesick too.”

Briarheather’s gaze softened at her words. They weren’t out of the woods yet, but they felt a lot more comfortable about telling her the truth now.

“Really? You wouldn’t look down on me for that?”

Lakecurrent chuckled. “Of course not. Just because you used to be a kittypet doesn’t mean that you’re worth less to JadeClan. I’m guessing that your mate was someone who you used to see all the time back when you lived with your twolegs; of course you’d want to visit him after being away from him for so long, right?”

Briarheather didn’t respond, instead glancing down at their nest with a hesitant look on their face.

“So, I hope you know I’ll never judge you for your situation, or try to hold it against you,” Lakecurrent said, placing a comforting paw on the edge of the deputy’s nest.

“That’s not the problem, though,” Briarheather muttered, eyes darting left and right.

“Oh? Then what is the problem?”

Briarheather’s tone grew agitated, though their irritation wasn’t directed towards Lakecurrent. Rather, it was directed at themself.

“The problem is that the entire story I told everyone was fake.”

Lakecurrent’s eyes widened a bit in surprise, and then her smile returned.

“It was fake? What do you mean by that?”

Realizing that they had nothing left to lose, Briarheather at last let out the truth that they had been hiding for several moons. 

“It wasn’t a kittypet who got me pregnant. The truth is a lot worse than that. It was… a cat from another Clan.”

Without trying to examine Lakecurrent’s reaction, Briarheather held their head down, as if they were ashamed of themself.

Lakecurrent, however, was still trying to process that statement, frozen in place with her brow raised up high. When it finally hit her, she couldn’t stop a smirk from spreading across her face. “Really? Who was it?”

“I…can’t tell you that. I’m sorry.” Briarheather was clearly avoiding eye contact, as they felt their heart race.

“That’s alright,” Lakecurrent purred, with an odd sense of amusement seeping into her tone. “Can you at least describe them for me?”

“He was a black tabby with brown eyes,” Briarheather said hastily, the words seeming rather forced. Their gaze was still fixed on the ground.

“I see,” Lakecurrent mewed, suppressing a chuckle. “Well, even if I do figure out who he is, I still won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

“You really mean that?”

Lakecurrent’s eyes shone with confidence. “I swear on my life.”

“…thank you,” the deputy whispered.

“Hm? What was that?” Lakecurrent asked, even though she had heard them just fine. In truth, she merely wanted to hear them say it again.

“I said thank you,” Briarheather repeated, now looking directly at her once again. Their eyes were filled with gratitude and innocent vulnerability, like a kit whose mother had just saved it from a vicious fox. “Thank you for everything…for the fish, for helping me through this, for…everything, really.”

Lakecurrent’s expression was one of evident pride. “But of course. It’s my job as a mediator to be there for any Clan members in need, no matter what.”

Briarheather could do nothing but give her a shaky smile of relief, overwhelmed with how much weight had just been lifted off their shoulders in the past few minutes. They lowered their neck and continued eating the fish that she’d gifted to them, needing a distraction from all the emotions swirling in their mind.

Lakecurrent gave a respectful nod and walked out of the nursery, lips still curled into a smile. That was unbelievably quick, she thought, noting how Mottledghost and Cinderpaw still hadn’t come back yet from their training session with the kits. She was more than delighted that the deputy trusted her enough to tell her things like these. Now that the second-in-command was wrapped around her paw, her mission here would be much easier from here on out.

Sundown was fast approaching, and most of the cats were gathered around the fresh-kill pile. However, Lakecurrent had one important stop to make before she would join the rest of her clanmates in the clearing.

She headed over to the leader’s den and announced her presence with a soft meow. Crestedstar turned around and nodded her head, signaling for her to come in.

“There’s something that you’ll really want to know,” Lakecurrent said, her voice dripping with excitement.

“Is it about Streamleaf’s little prophecy again?” Crestedstar asked, her eyes glinting with curiosity.

Lakecurrent giggled, not even trying to hide her amusement at what had just happened. 

“No, not this time. This time, it’s about Briarheather.”