Chapter 1

Several moons later...

"Had enough, Sparrowpaw?"

"Ne...ver..." I choked, managing to land another weak blow on Spiderpaw's paw. The tom grinned, tightening his hold on me and completely cutting off my air.

"Spiderpaw! That's enough!" Through a blackening haze, I could see my mentor knocking Spiderpaw aside, and suddenly I could breathe again. "This is only a training exercise!"

I gasped, sitting up and rubbing my sore throat. Cedartail, my mentor, was glaring at Spiderpaw.

"We do not intend to harm our fellow apprentices during training exercises," he spat.

Spiderpaw shrugged. "I didn't hurt her too badly," he pointed out.

"That's not the point, Spiderpaw. You'll be spending the rest of the day cleaning out the elder's den."

"What?" whined Spiderpaw, eyes wide. "But that's not fair! I was only sharpening my battle skills! You should make Sparrowpaw clean the dens out," he added, casting a dark look at me. "It's not my fault she can't defend herself."

"Alright, that's it," Cedartail growled. "You'll be spending two days cleaning out the elder's dens."

"Why?"

"Three days."

"I didn't even-"

"Four days."

"Fine, fine! StarClan, Cedartail. Chill." Spiderpaw rolled his eyes and padded towards the camp.

Cedartail glanced at me. "You okay?"

"Yep," I croaked, massaging my throat. StarClan, it was sore.

There was an awkward pause.

"I'll make sure Spiderpaw apologizes," said Cedartail, shifting from one paw to another.

"Spiderpaw hates me," I stated flatly.

Cedartail's eyes widened. "What?" he protested. "No! He got carried away, definitely, but he doesn't hate you."

I shrugged. It was useless; Cedartail might've been a great warrior, but he was so clueless it was almost funny. And I knew that even he had a little seed of mistrust and dislike planted in his heart against me.

Why not? After all, I was the former loner. I was the worst fighter in the clan. I was the one nobody liked.

Actually, that wasn't true, strictly speaking. I had friends. But I could see their little fidgets whenever I was around, however involuntary they might have been. And they were never easy or carefree with me.

Sometimes it got a little... well... repetitive.

Cedartail and I headed back to the camp in silence, where the medicine cat gave me some herbs for my throat. Then she ordered that I stay in the medicine cat's den overnight, so she could check that my breathing was normal.

"I'm fine," I protested. "Really."

"No you're not," Sootflame, the medicine cat, snapped. "You can barely talk." She seemed angry, but then again, she was always angry. Sootflame would have been a great warrior, but she twisted her leg as an apprentice. She poured her anger and frustration onto her patients.

My eyes were starting to droop, and I looked outside. StarClan, was the sun setting already? I curled up in a ball, my head resting on my paws, and watched it go down. Stars, it was beautiful. A mixture of red and orange and purple surrounding a fiery ball of light. I was quite content like that, watching it go down, but of course Spiderpaw had to ruin it all.

He popped into the den, totally unannounced. He gave me a cursory glance, then looked at Sootflame.

"I scratched my paw on a thorn," he said, and I snorted, pleased to see that it was the same paw that had held me down earlier. "Can I get some herbs for it?"

"Yeah, sure." Sootflame pressed some cobweb and marigold into Spiderpaw's wound, grumbling. "StarClan, you apprentices are so careless."

"We sure are," said Spiderpaw brightly. "I mean, take Sparrowpaw here. She almost choked herself to death!"

I gasped, eyes wide.

"I did not!" I spat, scrambling to my paws and giving him a cuff on his ear. "You liar! You almost killed me!"

"An accident," he replied smoothly. "You should've been better prepared. Thanks for the herbs, Sootflame," he added, leaving the den.

Sootflame grunted.

I muttered some curses underneath my breath, and then flopped down on the ground, curling up in an exhausted heap. I soon drifted off, dreaming of getting even with Spiderpaw.

That was when the screams started.

Hey hey hey! Infinite here! Sorry about this chapter being weird, short and boring; I just wanted to fill you in on some stuff (which is perhaps not the best idea, but anyway). Spiderpaw's going to be a pretty important character, if you can't tell already. I apologize for the choppy ending. And a thank you to SleepyGhosty for being the first reviewer!

I'll probably be writing more one-shots soon, by the way.

I actually redid this chapter quite a few times; the first versions were weird, and I'm still not that happy with this one, but oh well. X'D

QOTD: Who do you think was screaming?