CHAPTER 1

Smoky tasted the air, sniffing for prey. He was in a forest searching for some prey, he had left the easy life of a kitty-pet never really caring for it. As some cats now call him, he is a 'rogue'. He smelled a bird, possibly a starling. He stopped to scan his surroundings. He quickly spotted the bird and it was a starling. He stealthily padded up to the tree, stopping at the base. He leaped up the tree landed on the startled starling and quickly killed it with a nip to the spine.

As he started to climb down he heard voices and stopped on a low branch. He wondered who they could be and if they were friendly. He waited for them to be under him one was a brindle she-cat and the other was a grey tom.

He heard them talking, "I swear I smelled something" the tom mewed

"it was probably a kittypet, i smelled one earlier, the scents similar" the she-cat mewed.

Smoky bristled his fur indignantly and accidently let out a low growl. "What was that" the she-cat said pricking her ears.

The tom looked up, "THERE!".

Smoky jumped out of the tree leaving his starling, "i'm not a kittypet" he growled.

"What are you doing here" the she-cat hissed.

"Hunting" replied smoky a matter of factly.

"On our territory" the tom growled.

"Your territory?" smoky asked "i don't smell any markers" he mewed smelling the air.

"Don't try to act smart, we know that you crossed the border a day ago" said the she-cat.

Smoky sighed, "why are you so territorial?".

"We need to defend our territory from other clans, or we lose prey and starve" said the tom.

Smoky tried to look like he understood but he barely understood as the cats went on about their clan for a couple hours.

Finally the tom asked "do you want to join us, we need warriors".

Smoky sat shocked and stared then after a couple of heartbeats later he nodded yes. They stood up and went deeper into the forest and smoky quickly got his starling and followed as the lept over streams and around bramble thickets then they slowed and ducked into a hole in the brambles and as smoky came out the other side after them he stared around, "this is your camp?" he asked astonished.

"Yes" said the tom. Many cats turned their gaze to look at the stranger. Smoky felt trapped under there gaze.

Then the tom jumped onto a large rock in the middle of the clearing "all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here under highrock". The cats started to gather around highrock. Smoky stood at the bottom nervous under all the gazes of the cats, his starling at his paws.

The tom said his voice slightly raised so all the cats could hear him "we are low on warriors so we have invited an outsider to join BlazeClan". "As you all should know, PineClan has been unusually aggressive lately I hope we can find out why at the gathering tonight".

Gathering? Smoky thought to himself.

The tom continued "any objections?".

It was at this moment the a cat stepped out of the crowd "he looks like a kittypet look at his collar!"

At this smoky bristled "I left the easy life of a kittypet a moon ago" he growled.

"Tigerpelt!, You of all cats should be most forgiving for his heritage!" mewed the tom

"I was a kit!"

"Tigerpelt!"

Tigerpelt sighed and headed towards a hole in the brush in the camp.

"Smoky is seven moons old he will need a mentor" mewed the tom "Brindletail, you will be smokys mentor after smokys ceremony." " smoky step up here".

Smoky followed his direction.

"Smoky, from this moment on, you will be known as Sootpaw." "Brindletail, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You will be mentor to Sootpaw." "Brindletail, you have shown yourself to be a strong and swift warrior. Do all that you can to pass on what you know down to Sootpaw."

Brindletail padded up Sootpaw and touched noses with him.

Then the tom called a lot of cats up to him "Redfur, Tigerpelt, Ivytail, Brambleclaw, Spottedfur, Cloudpaw, Cinderpaw, Mudtail." and him and all the other cats left the camp.

"Where are they going?" Sootpaw asked Brindletail.

"To the gathering I'll show you where you sleep, you're going to need to sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow" she padded towards a hollowed out gorse bush "here is the apprentice's den. You can pick where ever you wanna sleep"

"Ok, thanks Brindletail" mewed Sootpaw he scraped together some moss and lied down he realized that there were two other cats in the den staring at him "hello?"

One of them scowled the other one said "hello your Sootpaw right?"

"Yes, what's your name?" he said he also realized they were both she-cats.

"My name is Dovepaw, and that's Shadowpaw" she said pointing her ears in the direction of the other she-cat.

Dovepaw was grayish blue with beautiful green eyes and Shadowpaw was black with blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you" he said yawning.

"Nice to meet you to" said Dovepaw.

"So, who's your mentor?" asked Sootpaw.

"Redstar" Dovepaw replied happily "he's the cat that brought you here, and the she-cat that was with him is Breezefur"

"Ah ok" Sootpaw replied "is Shadowpaw always this quiet?"

"Only because you're here, rouge" Shadowpaw hissed.

Sootpaw's fur started to bristle angrily.

"Hey, no need to fight" mewed Dovepaw nervously.

"I'll… him later dur… ning" mumbled Shadowpaw.

Dovepaw looked nervous "maybe we should all just go to sleep" she said tentatively.

Sootpaw couldn't make out what Shadowpaw had said but felt uncomfortable as he curled up to sleep "good night".

"Good night" said Dovepaw as she curled up.

Sootpaw woke in the morning confused at first before remembering where he is. Then he jumped up and ran through the entrance of the den, towards the entrance of the camp before skidding to a halt in front of Brindletail.

"Well you're enthusiastic today" she mewed.

"I can't wait to get training!" he mewed enthusiastically

"Well that's good because today i'm going to teach you how to fight, Shadowpaw will be joining us along with her mentor, Tigerpelt." Brindletail said

"Ok" he mewed

Brindletail padded out of the camp towards a sandy hollow with Sootpaw right on her tail.

When they reached the hollow, Sootpaw saw Tigerpelt and Shadowpaw. "Hello" he mewed cheerfully

Tigerpelt stood up, "cmon let's just get them training i need to go on a patrol after this" he mewed

Brindletail motioned for her apprentice to go into the sand as Tigerpelt did the same for his. "Oh, Sootpaw, no claws, same for you Shadowpaw"

Shadowpaw and Sootpaw stood face to face as Shadowpaw glared at him

"Any technique, this is a test of both of your skills" Tigerpelt said

"Ok" Sootpaw and Shadowpaw said simultaneously

Shadowpaw suddenly lunged with paws out stretched and Sootpaw quickly leaped to the side. She attacked again, this time landing on him, then lashed out with her paws, she unsheathed her claws as she struck him.

Sootpaw hissed in surprise and kicked her belly sending her flying into the sand, his wound was a decent size and was bleeding but the mentors couldn't tell because his injured flank was facing away from them. He leaped on Shadowpaw pinning her down and batted her harshly with sheathed back paws.

Shadowpaw lurched up and stunned him and pinned him to the ground a paw on his neck before she realized that in doing so she had revealed his bleeding flank to the mentors. And before she knew it she was flung off him bye both of the mentors who looked at his wound which was bleeding a little more as he staggered up.

"I thought we said no claws, Shadowpaw" Tigerpelt hissed.

"He's a rogue, the warrior code does not apply to him" she hissed.

"He is a clan cat now, the sooner you accept that the easier it will be" mewed Brindletail.

Sootpaw stood and looked at his injury "i've had worse" he mewed as he started licking it.

"You need to go to the medicine den no less" said Brindletail as she led him back to camp.

Sootpaw followed as he heard Tigerpelt scold his apprentice. As he arrived to the medicine den, he saw Dovepaw trot towards him.

"What happened?!" she exclaimed.

"Shadowpaw was a little rough during training" Brindletail answered for him.

As he entered the den, he mewed "I'll be fine"

Dovepaw entered after him "I'm coming anyway"

Mudtail listened as Brindleface told him what happened and gave Sootpaw some little black seeds "there poopy seeds they will help the pain ease"

"Isn't that too many?" mewed Dovepaw as Sootpaw ate three of the little seeds.

He waited until Sootpaw had swallowed them "no he should sleep i saw a lot of sand in his wound, it might get infected"

Dovepaw said something in reply, Sootpaw was already drifting to sleep and didn't understand. He didn't fight the darkness of sleep and fell asleep.

-this is my first story thanks for reading im going to figure out how to add chapters and what not review please i would like some tips thanks-