Angel followed Amberpelt over the hills, dragging the rabbit behind her. She hopped along, unable to contain her excitement. She didn't even bother to look at Blackpaw, the apprentice had remained silent since Amberpelt's proposal, and Angel was not going to go out of her way to give the young she-cat a chance to ruin this moment. She, instead, looked up at the beautiful blue sky. The sun was shining, everything was beautiful.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her forepaws vanished and she felt herself falling. She and her catch tumbled down a slope towards a cluster of brambles. She was thankful when she hit the brambles because they stopped her, but the feeling was short-lived when the brambles caught on her fur and pulled it.

"Owww!" Angel yowled.

Blackpaw trotted down, laughing the whole way. "Not even into the Clan and she's already falling all over herself. This is trouble. I feel sorry for whoever has to mentor her."

Angel glared at her. She twisted and turned until she was free and then crouched ready to pounce. "Hey, it coulda happened to anyone who's unfamiliar with this place!"

"A WindClan warrior is never unfamiliar with their territory," Blackpaw sassed. "Besides, this is camp."

"Huh?" Angel turned back to the brambles and watched Amberpelt, Echobound, and Mooncloud vanish into them. She padded around to where they had been and saw a tunnel formed under the arching brambles. "Cool." She dragged her rabbit through the bramble tunnel with Blackpaw right behind her.

On the other side of the tunnel was a sight to behold. Angel gasped in awe as she looked around. They were in a large dip in the ground, with burrows dug into the sides. Full grown cats and kits alike were scattered around the dip, although the three youngest kits were off in one corner with a pale gray she-cat Angel assumed was their mother. Some cats, who seemed no older than her, were play-fighting in the open, others were laying side-by-side eating and talking. Angel was so wrapped up in the sight, she didn't even notice Echobound approach her, so her voice made her jump.

"You can pu-oh, I'm sorry did I scare you?" Echobound asked, smiling.

"No," Angel replied, making a quick recovery and looking around to be sure Blackpaw didn't see that. She was relieved to see Blackpaw approach two other cats about her age.

"Well, that's the fresh-kill pile," Echobound pointed with her tail to a mound of small dead animals. "You can put your rabbit there. You're not hungry are you?"

Angel shook her head.

"Good," Echobound replied. "You probably would not be allowed to take from it anyway."

"Where's Amber?" Angel asked, dragging her rabbit to the pile.

"Amberpelt is with Stormstar, asking if you can stay," Echobound answered. "And there he is now." She turned her head to an giant boulder at the far end of the clearing.

A pale gray tom-cat with a white patch on one eye hopped up onto the top of the rock. Amberpelt sat at the base of the rock. The tom scanned the whole camp and spotted Angel and Echobound. He and Angel locked eyes, which made Angel nervous, but she dared not look away. Something about this cat conveyed a sense of power and something inside her told her to do as he says.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!" the tom yowled.

The cats in the dip began to make their way to the tall rock, some eyeing Angel. Echobound led Angel towards the rock as well and shouldered her way to the front. Angel followed, not wanting to be left alone and Echobound nudged her so she sat in the very front.

"The dawn patrol has found something rather interesting this morning as they patrolled the borders," the gray tom announced. "Some of you may have already guessed it by now, since she has joined us."

Angel shrunk low as all eyes turned to her. She could almost feel their gazes piercing right through her. She hoped not all the cats were like Blackpaw.

Murmurs broke out among the Clan cats. Angel could hear some asking who she was, others if she was staying. She winced as some hostile remarks reached her ears.

"Rouge," the gray cat's voice thundered and brought all the cats to silence, "what is your name?"

"A…Angel," Angel replied nervously.

"Amberpelt has told me of your hunting abilities," the gray cat continued, "and thinks you should be accepted into our Clan. What do you think of this?"

Angel was silent, amidst all the gazes of the cats, she had lost her voice and her will to use it. Suddenly she was having second thoughts about joining this family. What if they didn't accept her?

"Angel?" the gray cat's commanding voice made her jump.

"I…I'm not sure," Angel finally said. "I…I thought it would be great to…to live in such a big family but….I….I don't know."

"Do you have a family?" the gray cat asked.

"I have my mommy," Angel answered.

The gray tom looked down at Amberpelt with a questioning look. Amberpelt shook her head.

"Is she nearby?" the tom returned his attention to Angel.

"No," Angel looked at her paws. She heard a gasp from Echobound beside her.

"Well," the gray cat said, "a cat as young as you can not be living alone like this, it's dangerous."

"You're gonna let her stay?!" Blackpaw shouted.

"I see no reason not to," the tom replied. "Does any warrior object?"

Again murmurs broke out amongst the cats, but no others spoke out.

"No?" the gray cat asked, looking around the camp. "Then I'll give her her apprentice name."

"B…but I like my name," Angel said, fighting against some instinct deep inside her that told her to be quiet and obey.

"It is not a clan name," the gray tom replied with a slight mrrow of laughter. "And I don't think it suits you."

"O.K." Angel mewed weakly.

The gray tom touched Angel's shoulder with his tail tip. "From this day forward, this apprentice will be known as Silverpaw. Amberpelt, as we agreed, you will be her mentor. You have served well as a Warrior and my deputy, I'm sure you'll pass on all you've learned to her."

Amberpelt approached Silverpaw and bent her head close to hers. "Touch noses," she hissed.

Silverpaw obeyed, carefully touching her nose to that of her new mentor. "I…is that it?"

Amberpelt smiled. "Yep. You're a real WindClan apprentice now. And soon you'll be a warrior."

"Yay!" Silverpaw hopped once with joy. "So what do we do now?"

"Now I take you on a tour of WindClan territory," Amberpelt said, "so that nothing like what happened earlier happens again."

"Oh…" Silverpaw said looking down at her paws in shame. "O.K."

Amberpelt smiled and nudged her with her muzzle. "Well, c'mon, get moving!"

"Yes ma'am!" Silverpaw hopped to her paws and pranced to the tunnel of brambles. Amberpelt stifled a chuckle as she followed.

"Where to first, mentor?!" Silverpaw asked after she bounded up the edge of the dip.

"Let's head to the lake," Amberpelt said, "from there we can go down to Twolegplace." When her apprentice opened her mouth to question her she added, "I'll show you what that is when we get there."

Silverpaw closed her mouth with a nod. "Will there be rabbits down there?"

"You like rabbits?" Amberpelt asked.

"I like to chase them!" Silverpaw said excitedly.

Amberpelt let out a soft mrrow of laughter. "Maybe I'll allow a little hunting, but you can't catch all the rabbits. If you do, there'll be none left and none to have baby rabbits."

Silverpaw nodded happily, already thinking about racing across the moorland after the rabbits.

"For now, to the lake," Amberpelt walked in front of her and led the way around the camp to the lake near the back of camp.

"Is that it?" Silverpaw asked as the lake came into view.

"That's it," Amberpelt answered. "This lake touches every Clan's territory."

"How many clans are there?" Silverpaw asked.

"Four," Amberpelt meowed. "WindClan, ThunderClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan."

"Are ShadowClan bad?" Silverpaw asked.

"Well," Amberpelt sighed, "they have had more than their fair share of problems. Most of them originate from their leaders. They once had a leader who had become leader by killing the leader before him, who was his own father!"

"That's awful!" Silverpaw gasped.

"ShadowClan drove him out with the help of two ThunderClan apprentices," Amberpelt said, "but he's not the worst of them."

"He's not?!" Silverpaw was alarmed and curious.

"Tigerstar was," Amberpelt mewed gravely. "He was exiled from ThunderClan for murdering one of their deputies, plotting to kill his apprentice, who knew that he had killed the deputy, leading a band of rouges to attack ThunderClan and trying to murder their leader."

"And after all that they let him be leader of a clan?!" Silverpaw was appalled.

"Well, they didn't know," said Amberpelt, "no one knew. ThunderClan didn't tell anyone. Most of the times Clans don't tell other Clans things that could be seen as a weakness. He also showed up in ShadowClan at just the right time; their current leader had died to a sickness that was sweeping the entire Clan. It was a time of great weakness, and in that, Tigerstar gained strength. He tried to wipe out ThunderClan with a pack of dogs, and tried to unite all four Clans into one Clan led by him."

"What happened to him?" Silverpaw asked.

Amberpelt closed her eyes solemnly and inhaled deeply. When she opened them she said "the worst thing that could have happened to any cat. As a clan leader, he received nine lives from StarClan." She waited for her apprentice to ask what that was, but the apprentice remained silent, staring intently at her, wanting to know more. "A cat named Scourge, who was the leader of his own clan, BloodClan, killed him nine times with one blow. Scourge ripped a huge gash in Tigerstar's stomach and Tigerstar bled to death…nine times. Each time, it seemed, was more agonizing than the last."

Silverpaw's blue eyes were filled with horror and awe. She was picturing the entire scene in her mind, although she had no idea what either cat looked like.

"But Phantomstar, that's their new leader, he seems alright," Amberpelt said. "A little rough, but that's how most ShadowClan cats are."

"Where do they live?" Silverpaw looked out over the lake and could see all the shores of it from where she stood.

"There," Amberpelt pointed with her tail to a large cluster of tall pointy trees. "And RiverClan is over there," she pointed to where a wide river emptied itself into the lake, just beyond a large swampy area. "And ThunderClan's camp is there," Amberpelt pointed to an enormous hole in the ground not too far around the lake. Silverpaw imagined that the hole was rather deep as well.

A splash in front of her in the lake caught her attention. "Was that a fish?"

"Probably," Amberpelt turned to where the splash had come from, not having seen it at first. "There're many fish in this lake, but they usually stay out farther. Besides, catching them is too-"

"Shhhhh!" Silverpaw hissed, crouched low at the shore, "you'll scare it!"

"You can't catch it," Amberpelt mewed, with an edge of amusement in her voice. Still, she did not say it loud enough to scare the fish, and she waited patiently for her apprentice.

Silverpaw held one paw over the edge of the lake, and watched the shadow of the fish swim in and out of her vision. It was much harder to predict its movements when there was so much room for it. Finally, she made her move, striking quickly and flinging a silver fish into the air. Its scales and the droplets of scattered water glistened in the sun light as it flopped onto the shore. Silverpaw wheeled around instantly and pounced on it, killing it before it could retreat back to its home. "Yum! I haven't had fish in a while!"

"And you'll have to wait longer," Amberpelt snatched the fish away just before Silverpaw bit into it. "You can't eat what you catch now, it is the task of apprentices to catch prey for the Elders."

"Elders?" Silverpaw tilted her head.

"You'll see," Amberpelt placed the fish on the ground. "For now, we'll continue our tour." She kicked dirt over the fish.

"What're you doing?" Silverpaw asked.

"Hiding it," Amberpelt replied. "We'll get it later. Now then, let's go down to Twolegplace."

"Isn't Twolegs what you call Tallups?" Silverpaw asked.

"You catch on quick," Amberpelt mewed, leading the way down by the bank. After going for a short while, they could see some Twoleg nests that looked small with distance.

"Look!" Silverpaw scampered ahead a few mouse-lengths, "pointy dens! We're almost there! Right?"

"That's it," Amberpelt replied. "Can you smell anything?"

"Of course I can!" Silverpaw mewed. "I smell mouse and vole, and-" She tensed up and leaned slightly forward, ready to dart off. Rabbit!

"We're not hunting," Amberpelt put a paw in front of her. She too had smelled the rabbit and guessed what Silverpaw was going to do. "Anything else?"

"Not that I know," Silverpaw replied. "Although I think I smell a lot of dirt. Not ground dirt, but-"

"I know what you mean," Amberpelt abruptly interrupted her. "Can you smell anything beyond that?"

Silverpaw parted her jaws to taste the air. The smell of the dirt was quite overpowering, but she could pick up some trace scents beyond it. "Yea…." She replied hesitantly. "You're not gonna ask me what it is, are you?"

"No," Amberpelt replied with a mrrow of amusement. "I'll do better, I'll tell you, it's horses."

"Well that didn't help," Silverpaw mewed tartly. "What the heck's a horses?"

Amberpelt laughed again. "A horse. Horses are more than one. And, c'mon, I'll show you." She led the way down the hill they were atop and across the plain below that led to the pointed dens of Twolegplace.

Silverpaw's ears twitched. "What's that noise? It sounds like thunder."

"Which one?" Amberpelt asked. "The long bursts of thunder or the short stomping thunders?"

"They're different?" Silverpaw asked.

"The stomping is horses," Amberpelt mewed. "The rest is the Thunderpath. I'll show you that next. That's also that really bad reek you probably smell."

"I thought you said that was horses," Silverpaw mewed.

Amberpelt could have cuffed her own ears for her carelessness. "No, that reek is the Thunderpath. You'll be able to smell the horses better when we get closer."

There were still questions buzzing around in Silverpaw's mind, but she kept silent. Every time she asked a question the answer only made more.

They arrived at Twolegplace and Amberpelt led them around it. There was an odd a barrier of wood around the whole of Twolegplace. Silverpaw stared at it, thinking of just how easy it would be for her to leap over it, and if Amberpelt wasn't there, she probably would've tried it.

"Those are horses," Amberpelt's voice came at just the right moment to stop Silverpaw from colliding with her hind leg.

Silverpaw padded around her mentor and sat beside her. She gaped in awe at the sight before her; enormous brown animals on four legs trotted around inside another wood barrier which seemed hardly effective, the creatures could simply step over it like a small rock in their path. "Those monsters are horses?!"

"Yes," Amberpelt nodded, her face betraying her amusement at her apprentice's awe. "And the real monsters are at the Thunderpath."

Silverpaw nodded, still staring at the horses. She slowly rose to her feet and approached the wood barrier. She peeked her head under it and stared at the horses. Their paws were jet back and looked very hard. She thought how easy they could crush her. Suddenly she felt something jerk at the scruff of her neck and pull her back.

"Are you listening?!" Amberpelt scolded. "I said don't go over there. They'll crush you in an instant without even knowing.

"Yea, I figured," Silverpaw turned and looked back at the horses. She walked back to the fence only a few paces before turning back to Amberpelt. "Don't worry, I'll stay on this side." In her mind she thought of how little the wood would do to protect her if these creatures were vicious, but she could run if anything happened. "Hey!" She poked her head through the wood barrier again. "Helloooooo up there! I'm Silverpaw, what's you names?"

"They don't talk," Amberpelt said. "C'mon, let's go, we've still got a lot of ground to cover."

"Okaay!" Silverpaw turned from the horses and pranced along behind her mentor, bouncing with every step. So many new places! So many new things to see, Silverpaw could hardly contain herself. "Hey, I'm getting hungry."

"You want to hunt?" Amberpelt asked.

"Mmm!" Silverpaw nodded briskly.

Amberpelt smiled with amusement, "alright."

"Yes!" Silverpaw tore off over the moorland.

"Hey! Don't go far!" Amberpelt raced after her.

Silverpaw didn't even bother to open her mouth to scent better, although she passed multiple prey scents. She had one scent in her mind, and that was all she was catching.

"Silverpaw, be reasonable!" Amberpelt called. "I know what you're looking for, but there won't be many rabbits here, they're deeper into the moor. Catch a mouse or something. You can't eat a whole rabbit anyway!"

"We'll share!" Silverpaw called back, determined to have a good chase. Rabbits were the only thing fast enough to truly be of interest, although a mouse was a close second. But a mouse could easily dart into the gorse bushes and be lost, where as a rabbit was much easier to follow. The scent entered her nostrils and she skidded to a stop.

Amberpelt stopped more gracefully beside her. She parted her jaws to taste the air. "Well, you got your wish," she said in a hushed mew.

"Tell me something I don't know if you're gonna risk scaring it!" Silverpaw hissed. She crept forward, the scent getting slightly stronger. She poked her head through a clump of gorse and saw her target, a black and white spotted rabbit, easily within striking distance. Silverpaw grinned, threw her head back, and let out a loud piercing yowl.

Amberpelt gasped shortly and watched as the rabbit nearly jumped out of its fur before tearing off over the moorland with Silverpaw hot on its heels. "Stupid kit," she sighed, but with a hint of amusement. "That'll scare all the prey from here to camp!" She raced after her apprentice, having to keep her in sight.

Silverpaw was rapidly gaining on the rabbit. Her heart was racing and her paws pounded hard on the moorland with every bound. This was what she had been waiting for. But as she watched the rabbit, she saw just how easily she was overtaking it, and to make matters worse, it began to slow. "Stupid animal," she spat. "You wanna die so bad, fine!" She pushed off with her hind legs in a powerful leap, forepaws extended, but laws sheathed. She planted her forepaws on the back of the rabbit's neck and put all the weight of her landing into them, pushing the rabbit's front down to the ground and snapping its neck instantly. She pushed off the rabbit, and leaped a short ways forward, and skidded before placing her hind legs on the ground to stable her.

"Impressive," Amberpelt mewed as she approached. "You didn't even need to use your claws."

"It was easy," Silverpaw said, prodding her catch contemptuously with one forepaw. "Stupid thing barely ran. It was not trouble catching up to it, and then it slowed down! It was practically begging to be fresh-kill!"

"Hmmm," Amberpelt stood over the rabbit and examined it. "We don't get rabbits that color often. They can't survive out here, they'd be too easily spotted by birds." She prodded it with her own paw and flipped it over. "Fat too. That's why it didn't run well. That's also probably why it slowed down, it got tired."

Silverpaw spat, and almost seemed to laugh at the notion. "Rabbits don't get tired!"

"They're living creatures as much as you," Amberpelt mewed in reply. "Everything gets tired when strained for too long. My guess is this thing has never run so fast."

"Fat, stupid and slow," Silverpaw mewed, "sounds like a comfykit."

"Twolegs do keep dogs and cats," Amberpelt said, thoughtfully. "Maybe they have bunnypets too. It would explain what it's doing here."

"Bunnypets!" Silverpaw laughed. "Well, let's hope tall-er Twolegs raise good prey!"

Amberpelt nodded in agreement and laid beside Silverpaw to eat the fresh-kill. "You know," she mewed after a few gulps, "I think this is gonna work just fine, you in the Clan."

"Yea!" Silverpaw replied, happily, a piece of rabbit hanging out of her mouth.