Prologue:

"You piece of rotten fox-dung!" The tom snarled swiping his sharp unsheathed claws over the brown tabby's muzzle. He winced in pain, but stood taller and seemed to regain his posture.

"Don't worry, this time I've got a plan that can't fail. You deserve to become leader, and I'm sure this'll work. All we have to do is capture that bratty little kit and her mother will come to find her, and then we'll set a trap for her and wait until the twolegs take her." The tabby growled, not betraying any emotions.

"Yes…yes… that's brilliant, and I've got another plan to go with it. Yes… you deserve to be mine deputy once I take over the clans." The tom smirked, his ambitious blue eyes sparkled.

The brown tabby bowed his head with respect.

"I will be proud to serve as your deputy!" He agreed, thanking the other tom and backing out of the dark cave. The bigger tom sneered, making sure his company had left.

"You'll never serve me as deputy, because I'll kill you before that…" The tom whispered after the tabby. 'Never…."

Chapter one:

"OCEANPAW! OCEANPAW! OCEANPAW!" Oceanpaw looking around to see her clan mates chanting her name, pride swelled up inside her as she puffed out her chest, her mother, Silverstar, looked almost as proud as she was to see her daughter FINALLY become an apprentice.

"Your mentor will be Hawkshadow!" Silverstar announced as the expression on Oceanpaws face turned from a smile, to a frown.

Hawkshadow showed a wide happy grin as silverstar and Oceanpaw walked by.

"Yay Oceanpaw!" her clan mate Fireclaw called out. Oceanpaw was proud to be called by her new name she forgot all about how she would dread having Hawkshadow as mentor.

"how much longer till I become a warrior?" Oceanpaw asked

"not for 5 moons, at least." Silverstar laughed

Five moons is not that far away she thought to herself as she followed the rest of the apprentices to their den. Oceanpaw lay in her new bedding and stretched out in all of the space she had and thought, My first full day of being an apprentice is not long to wait and she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2:

"Oceanpaw, you hedgehog, it's way past dawn, you were supposed to be outside training a long time ago!!" Brightpaw nudged Oceanpaw's ribs with her forepaw. Oceanpaw immediately sat up, her jaws breaking into a huge yawn.

"Why didn't anybody else wake me?" She asked Brightpaw sleepily. Brightpaw shrugged.

"Probably cause they thought you need the sleep," She replied. "Hawkshadow's waiting for you outside, in fact he's been waiting for ages, I wonder why he even bothered to train you." Brightpaw teased. Oceanpaw suppressed a growl as she heard her mentor's name, there was around a million bad things she could say about him, no scratch that, around a billion! Oceanpaw sighed,

"You're lucky Amberdust's your mentor, I can't believe silverstar just had to give me Hawkshadow."

"Maybe she thought it was best for you…anyways Amberdust is calling, enjoy your first day!" Brightpaw yelled over her shoulder as she headed towards a pretty tortoiseshell. Oceanpaw glared at hawkshadow, who was staring back at her with a disapproving look. She hoped he hadn't heard her. But today wasn't exactly her lucky day.

"Good morning Oceanpaw, why don't you go hunt by the stormclan border, seeing you obviously don't want my help or me." Hawkshadow informed her, his voice had no hostility, just sadness and amusement.

" Are you sure? I mean I don't even know where the border is …yet." Oceanpaw stammered. Hawkshadow took no notice of her nervousness because he kept going and ignore the apprentice's protests.

"Well, I think you'll do fine, you were the leaders daughter after all. This won't be that hard, just think of it as an assessment." The black tom told the silver apprentice.

Were? Oceanpaw thought, what did he mean by were the leader's daughter??? Hawkshadow stared at her again.

"Come on, go on then." He urged.

"Ummm" Oceanpaw hesistated, "I uhh got to make dirt.. be right back!" The she-cat scrambled away from the deputy, she desperately wanted to tell someone what she just heard.

The first cat she saw was Fireclaw. She hurried over to him as Hawkshadow left and she blurted " I hate having Hawkshadow as my mentor!" when she was sure that Hawkshadow had left.

Fireclaw turned around and she said " He said I think you will do fine, you were the leaders daughter, but what is that suppose to mean? I still am the leaders daughter!"

Fireclaw remained silent for a few moments until Oceanpaw said " did you hear what I just said?"

" yes" he replied

"well then…why don't you…." But before she could finish the sentence he cut her off and said

" Hawkshadow is my father!"

Chapter 3

"ohhh…" Oceanpaw was silent, she bowed her head, not daring to meet Fireclaw in the eye. Nice going Oceanpaw, now they'll both hate you. Oceanpaw wished she would for once keep her muzzle shut.

"I'm sorry…"Oceanpaw began, Fireclaw cut her off.

"It's okay, really, sometimes it doesn't even seem like he's my father anyway, he never came to see me when I was a kit, my mother was the only one that cared for me." Fireclaw glazed into Oceanpaw's blue eyes, he could see his own sad eyes reflected in hers.

"Who was your mother?" Oceanpaw asked gently.

"Willowwood." Came the blunt reply. Oceanpaw eyes widened, she had heard of willowwood before, the elders used to tell her stories of the young hero, she had died mysteriously when a dawn patrol had found her body near the stormclan border. Everybody grieved for the warrior, she had saved Fireclan from many dangerous situations before, and Waterstar, the previous leader accused Stormclan for murdering one of her best warriors, and that was when the rivalary between Stormclan and Fireclan began. Oceanpaw never suspected Fireclaw's mother to be Willowwood, but now, after finding out the truth, she had to admit the mother and son did look kind of alike. Fireclaw had inherited his mother's blue eyes and his father's strength.

" there is something you should know about my father that im not suppose to tell…" Fireclaw started

" my father use to be in the storm clan" He said

Oceanpaw stared at him for a long time then she finally asked

" Why isn't he still in stormclan?"

" My father killed my mother.. and he's still friends with the storm clan, and… he's trying to kill silverstar so he can take over as leader and make the fire clan just as evil as stormclan." He started

" But I won't let that happen, im too scared to talk about anything with my father but I won't let him kill silverstar!" He finished.

He looked over to see Oceanpaws reaction. There was worry in her eyes.

" don't worry Oceanpaw, Silverstar has 8 lives, killing her once won't hurt her." He said in a comforting way

" And if he tries to kill her then she will ban him!" Oceanpaw realised relieved.

But Fireclaw kept the thought about if his father took over as leader without killing silverstar first, then she would loose the 8 lives she has and will remain only with one, and then if his father killed her she'd be done.

He didn't want to worry Oceanpaw anymore so he says

" you'd better leave now… or Hawkshadow might find you and you won't have any fresh kill. Or even the proof that you have tried to find it."

" oh right….ok I guess I better head over to the stormclan now…"

"THE STORMCLAN! What is a beginner gonna do there!" he gasped but Oceanpaw had already left.

Chapter 4

Oceanpaw padded through the forest, her legs were aching and she was just as tired, she already spent the first few hours trying to find the border of Stormclan, but she had no such luck, now, she was just wandering through what seemed to be the endless forest like a little kit. She was so desperate she even called for Hawkshadow, but he was nowhere to be seen. Oceanpaw kept forcing her worn out body through the forest, she had to prove she was strong enough to become a warrior, she had to show courage. Oceanpaw raced blinding through the trees, suddenly a spasm of pain came to her leg and she collapsed on the damp forest floor, groaning inwardly Oceanpaw glanced back to see a tree root right behind her. Clumsy badger! Struggling to get up Oceanpaw suddenly heard a rustling behind the cherry bushes, and a scent flooded over her as fast as snow fell in leaf-bare.

"Who's there?" She whispered, too weak to shout. The only reply was the birds chirping, cursing to herself Oceanpaw realized it was already sunset, she sighed, why hadn't any come to look for her yet? And just where was Hawkshadow? Deciding she would find her way back later, Oceanpaw rested her head on her forepaws, she lay there thinking what to do for a while, she also thought about what Fireclaw had told her. Was it really true? Did Hawkshadow really want to become leader that baldly? As if answering her questions, a jet black tom appeared out of nowhere, along with three other companions, they lunged for Oceanpaw, pinning her down with unseathed claws, Oceanpaw let out a shriek of pain as her attacker dug his claws into her flesh, he dug his claws in deeper as he heard her scream. They're torturing me, she realized with an sickening jolt. Oceanpaw forced herself to not cry out again, she wasn't gonna let this tom enjoy torturing her.

"LET ME GO!!!!" Oceanpaw yowled through gritted teeth.

"Awww, she thinks we're gonna let her go, stupid mouse-brained apprentice, you should know not to go so near the Stormclan border alone. Ha! I can't wait to see Silverstar's face when she finds out her daughter is missing!" The stormclan warrior sneered.

"WHAT ARE DO YOU WANT WITH SILVERSTAR!!!!!" Oceanpaw yowled, but the stormclan warriors paid no attention,

"Come with us you little brat or we'll torture you more!" The brown tabby snarled at her, showing his sharp teeth and unsheathing his claws. A surge of anger soared through Oceanpaw's veins making her forget the intense pain she was feeling in her shoulders, she thrashed wildly at the black tom holding her down, she raked her unseathed claws over his belly, the brown tabby hissed and dug his claws deep into Oceanpaw's side, he drew his claws out slowly too make the pain last. His sharp claws dripped of a scarlet liquid forming a pool of blood on the floor. He looked at Oceanpaw expecting her to yowl again, but Oceanpaw just gritted her teeth, saying nothing but fighting hard. A look of surprise and disgust spread across the tabby's face, Oceanpaw grinned and bit hard on the black tom that still had her pinned down, the tom yowled in pain and drew back, Oceanpaw didn't hesitate to make a bite for the tom's soft exposed belly, but a firm grip on her scruff told her the other two toms were behind her. She let out a frustrated hiss and bite hard on the grey tom's foreleg and he immediately let her go. But Oceanpaw was still outnumber, the brown tabby pinned her down and hissed in her ear,

"So you're a fighter huh? Well how do you think of this?!" The tabby made a lunge for her throat and just narrowly missed. Oceanpaw glared at him kicking his belly with her back legs.

"Come on the boss if waiting for us, just get the apprentice!" The black tom yowled. The tabby hissed at him,

"She won't stay put!" He shouted back, his last words were droned out by Oceanpaw's furious screeching.

"JUST KNOCK HER OUT!" The black tom replied impatiently. Oceanpaw suddenly felt the tabby lifting her up, heading towards a sharp rock right beside her.

"I'll never go to Stormclan, never…" She whispered as blackness enveloped her like a blanket, the last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was the toms' laughter, echoing…