Final Assessment (Private: Roo&Smoke)

Mistlepaw swerve around and gazed at Sagevine with bewilderment. What in StarClan's name was he doing, bursting from his hiding place in the middle of her assessment to talk to a ThunderClan warrior. 
"Sagevine, what's the matter? Have I done something wrong?"

Hazelrise froze when he heard his name being called back over the river. Larkpaw had raced ahead, but noticed her "brother" had stopped and began to back-track.
"What is it, Hazelrise?" she asked from her position a few rabbit leaps ahead. 
"Nothing, I expect," the tom replied, "You go back to camp while I go and talk to these RiverClanners. If I'm not back soon, come and find me, and bring some of the warriors with you."
"You can't keep treating me like a kit, you know."
"But you'll always be my baby sister. Now go on."
Larkpaw scoffed, but obeyed, and soon her silver tabby pelt vanished into the foliage. Hazelrise waited for a moment before returning to the bank where he saw the apprentice again, this time joined by a tom, a warrior he had met before.
"Sagevine!" he exclaimed in a friendly enough tone, "How are you? How is RiverClan?"
The ThunderClan warrior remembered the first time he had met the skilled warrior, back when they were apprentices at a gathering. Sagevine had been boasting about something to a group of apprentices, and at first Hazelrise had found him insufferable. But later, when the leaders were talking, he had found himself consoling in the arrogant apprentice about Halloween, who had just taken over ThunderClan at the time, and recalled that the RiverClanner had been rather sympathetic, thus earning a place in Hazelrise's good-books.

Ooc: Before I reply and probably make a fool of myself, Larkpaw and Maplepaw are sisters, right? :P

Ooc: Yes, Larkpaw and Mistlepaw were sisters but got separated on the Thunderpath a while ago along with their brother, Pridestep, and dad Shadeclaw who are in the other two clans ;3

Ooc: Goody goody. Just double checking.

Sagevine was extremely embarrassed in front of the ThunderClanner and his apprentice but he had to push through it. Something about that she-cat was familiar, and he knew he had never met her before.
"No, no, you're fine Mistlepaw, just sit for a bit and rest, you're passing your assessment so far very well," Sagevine meowed to his apprentice before walking up to Hazelrise to talk to him.
"How did that she-cat join ThunderClan? It is extremely important that I know this, and it won't be wrong to tell me, so please," Sagevine almost pleaded. He needed to see if it was true. He remembered Mistlepaw whens he had first come to RiverClan, so scared and worried for her littermates. There was a possibility they were still alive, and that scent was too much to give up.

Hazelrise was instantly suspicious of the RiverClan tom. Why did he want to know about Larkpaw? He narrowed his eyes, trying to read the Sagevine's expression, but evidently failing. 
"Why does it matter?" came his reply, trying to remain calm and casual, "She was born into the clan, like myself."

"No, she wasn't," Sagevine slowly pointed out, his eyes flashing back to the shrubs where he had last seen the cat.
"Listen, just something is familiar about her, and you're a terrible liar. If I'm wrong, no harm done. If I'm right, she could have a blood-related littermate," Sagevine explained, keeping his voice low so Maplepaw wouldn't overhear. He didn't want to set her hopes high and then crush them.

Hazelrise was more confused now than ever. All he knew was that Sagevine was being genuine; there was urgency in what he wanted to know. Still, the ThunderClanner was suspicious, and continued to eye his RiverClan counterpart in an atempt to read his face. 
"First you need to explain to me what is going on, Sagevine," he muttered in response, "If you want to talk to me in private, send your apprentice away and talk to me here, on my territory."

Sagevine did not like the idea of sending his apprentice away, but he knew it would be better if she did. He glanced at her, his green eyes betraying his guilt of sending her away.
"Head to the border of Four Stones. I will meet you there, Maplepaw," He ordered his apprentice.

Mistlepaw tried to hide the look of hurt from her face and managed to conceal it in confusion and doubt. With nothing else but a nod, the she-cat turned and began padding towards Four Stones, glancing back only once and catching nothing of what the two toms were saying.

Hazelrise waited for the RiverClan apprentice to be out of sight before facing Sagevine. "Very well. It's true; Larkkit was adopted by ThunderClan. On a solo patrol, I caught sight of her getting carried away by the river rapids. When I pulled her ashore and took her back to camp, she told me and my mentor that she didn't belong to a clan, so we took her in. But was does any of this have to do with her? Your apprentice, I mean."

"The same thing happened with her," Sagevine blurted out before shutting up. "Well, I mean, not exactly that but uh..." The warrior was, for possibly the first time, messing up his words.
"We brought her in from outside the clan. Her kin died and abandoned her on the Thunderpath, but now I'm not so sure they're gone. I caught the scent of the same nursing milk on them. I think they're littermates, Hazelrise," Sagevine explained in length.

The ThunderClan warrior looked on in disbelief, but eventually sighed.
"I've never really spoken to Larkpaw about her family before," he began, not meeting Sagevine's gaze, "After I found myself in a position of care for her, I discovered I loved it so much, loved her so much, that I didn't want there to be anyone else. I was her brother, she, my sister. We didn't need anyone else. Now all I feel is that I've let her down..."
Hazelrise suddenly looked tired and older beyond his seasons. In an attempt to regain himself, he finally looked back at his RiverClan counterpart. "What do you suggest we do?"