Prologue

As the brackens around the nursery shifted, Mapleheart winced, but then she noticed the Clan deputy, Redfur, carrying a tiny silver coloured kit in his jaws. Her mouth opened in shock, and she meowed softly, "Whats this you got here, Redfur?" The deputy lowered down the sleeping kit, and he sighed. "It's difficult to explain. I found this kit here, abandoned by her mother. Can you take care of her?" Mapleheart lowered her head to stare at her other kits. "Did you take them from somewhere?" she meowed. "How can I trust you?"
Redfur let out sigh. "I'm your Clan's deputy, for StarClan's sake!" Lowering his voice, he murmured, "I promise you can trust me, Mapleheart. I promise she's a rogue's kit." Seeing sincerity and honesty in the deputy's eyes, Mapleheart lowered her eyes again. "Very well. I shall take care of her."
Chapter 1

As Silverkit focused her gaze on the butterfly. Once it had reached the point she wanted, she jumped, landing her claws on their target. The butterfly fell to the ground, but she accidentally bumped into a warrior just coming out of the warrior's den. Stoneclaw let out a screech of surprise, as did Silverkit. "Great StarClan! What are you doing out here?" the warrior's amber eyes blazed with anger. "Go back to the nursery!" Silverkit squeaked once more and ran back into the nursery. Silverkit, still trembling from the experience, crouched just inside, while she heard a she-cat's voice trying to comfort Stoneclaw.
"It's okay," a comforting voice called Silverkit. Her "mother", Mapleheart, was calling her. "Stoneclaw's the most edgy and unfriendly cat, but he's still a good cat at heart," she purred. Silverkit wasn't very sure about that.
Was it simply Stoneclaw was in a permanent bad mood, or was it something else?

"I heard about Stoneclaw today," the reddish cat meowed to Silverkit. This cat was the Clan deputy, and also her "father". Silverkit knew nothing of her earlier parents, and Redfur had told her that she was not his son. She assumed they belonged to the Clan and had died, therefore Redfur and Mapleheart were taking care of her. As her father continued to talk to her with comforting words, her attention drifted off to another butterfly. "It'll be all forgotten by tomorrow," Redfur promised. "Can I go play now?" Silverkit squeaked. An elder sunning himself in the corner let out a purr of amusement. "You'll have a hard time making that one listen," she rasped. "But then again, YOU were the same." Redfur's eyes glittered with embarassment, but he went over to talk. "What are you doing outside, Willowsong?" the rest of their conversation was cut short when a hunting patrol came back. "Prey!" Blackkit, one of Silverkit's brothers, meowed in excitement. "I'll be the best warrior in the forest!"
"And I'll be leader," Silverkit thought.

Chapter 2

"From this day forward, you shall be known as Silverpaw. Sunpelt, you wil train here. I hope you will pass on your fine hunting and fighting skills." The ginger cat dipped his head and touched noses with Silverpaw. A spasm of excitement made Silverpaw tremble as she thought that she would sleep in the apprentices' den tonight. Although being an apprentice made her proud to the core, she would regret that she could never sleep next to Mapleheart anymore, until maybe when she was made a warrior. "Hopefully that won't be very soon!" Silverpaw's thoughts were cut off as the warriors started cheering her name and her littermates', Gorsepaw and Blackpaw.
"Where will we go tomorrow?" she asked excitely to Sunpelt, her mentor. Her mentor shook his head and said, "Tomorrow we shall say. For now, we're all tired, so go to the nur...apprentices' den, I mean." He licked his head in embarassment, and Silverpaw did too when she heard elders talking about her in the corner. She caught the word of "rogue", and "StarClan", but thought nothing of it. Tonight, she would be sleeping in the Apprentices' Den!

When a paw prodded Silverpaw awake the next morning, sleepiness swept over her like a gigantic wave of water. She yawned again, but straightened up when she saw Sunpelt impatiently flicking his tail. "Come on, we've waited for you enough. Gorsepaw and Blackpaw are so excited they look like they might jump off into the trees and leave us."
"Sorry!" she squeaked. Today was her first day of training! Excitement pulsed through her once again. "Where are we going?"
"Just to explore the territory," Sunpelt replied. "Look, there's Stoneclaw and Clawfur." Silverpaw gulped. She had completely forgotten Stoneclaw was mentoring her brother, Gorsepaw! Worse, Sunpelt had warned her Clawfur was even more grumpy, and if she had did what she had done to Stoneclaw, by now Clawfur would be lining his den with her fur!
Still, she took a curious look at Clawfur when she passed by. He had a dark and scary look, and she quickly turned back. Poor Gorsepaw and Blackpaw! They had the grumpiest warriors in camp as their mentors. At least Sunpelt was much better. Hopefully she would enjoy this day as much as she enjoyed the nursery where her littermates played with her, and Mapleheart stood watching over them.

"...And this is the Thunderpath." Sunpelt was explaining. "Wait!" he meowed as Blackpaw took a step towards it. "Be careful, the Thunderpath is a very dangerous place." After checking around, he signaled for the apprentices to take a look. Suddenly the roar of a monster echoed the Thunderpath. Silverpaw jumped back in surprise as the monster blasted heat into her face. Her face must have looked funny at that time, as even the dark and grumpy Stoneclaw chuckled at it. "Over there is ShadowClan territory," Clawfur growled. "NEVER, go over it. If we did, that would count as trespassing. And if we did," he paused. "We would get a rebuke if we get caught by a patrol, at best."
"At worse?" Gorsepaw enquired. Silverpaw rolled her eyes. "A clawing!" she meowed. "That's right," Stoneclaw meowed. "The rogue knows her stuff." "Rogue?" Silverpaw asked. Sunpelt flashed Stoneclaw a look of pure rage and fury, and Silverpaw flinched. She had never seen Sunpelt angry. "Whatever, lets just go back to camp. It's late, and we've shown them everything," Clawfur said, looking a bit nervous.

When they got back to camp, Silverpaw felt like she was going to collapse. The journey from place to place had left her tired. And as soon as she got into her comfortable nest of moss, she immediately drifted off to sleep.