A few hours later, the Clan had gone back to normal duties, and Starpaw was relaxing in the apprentice's den with her Lakepaw and Flamepaw. Starpaw smiled to herself, thinking about the battle with the ShadowClan leader. There was no one that could defeat her!

"Starpaw!" yelled Bramblestar from outside the den. He brushed through the thorns around the den's entrance. "It's time for battle training!"

"But I just defeated Blackstar!" she protested

"That's no reason to put off battle training. Even though that was a clever move, you still have a lot to learn." He said.

"Ok." Starpaw said, giving up on the argument. She would rather do battle moves than clean out the elder's den. They walked through the forest to the training hollow together.

"Well, what do you want to start with, dodging or attacking?" said Bramblestar.

"Attacking!" said Starpaw immediately after he asked her the question.

"Then we'll start by learning a basic slash technique. When I leap at you, jump to the side and pretend to claw me. Make sure your claws are sheathed; we don't want any accidents!" the Clan leader said.

"Yep!" yowled Starpaw. She waited for Bramblestar to leap at her, and then she dodge to the side and lashed out her front paws. She had hit him in the ribs, and he flipped in the air, with the breath knocked out of his lungs. Starpaw meowed with laughter at the surprised look on Bramblestar's face.

"Wow, Starpaw!" he said once he had caught his breath."You really are a good fighter! I bet you could even defeat me!"

"Really?" gasped the apprentice, but then scowled when she saw the sarcastic look on his face.

"No, really, that was very good. I couldn't even dodge, and you hit me in just the right spot to make me lose my breath. I bet that's how Firestar felt when he was attacked by Scourge!"

"Really?" asked Starpaw, offended."Scourge? You mean the Scourge?" She remembered all of the stories the elders had told her about Scourge, and about the ways he had killed cats. It wasn't how she would describe herself at all."I'm like Scourge?"

"I didn't mean it like that!" said her mentor quickly. "I just meant that you are a really good fighter."

"Oh, sorry." Said Starpaw. They trained for a while, until the sunhigh, and Starpaw was really hungry afterwards. She wanted to see if she could catch her own food, though.

"Bramblestar, can we hunt? I want to see how good of a hunter I am."

"Aren't you tired?" he asked, hoping that she'd say yes, because all he wanted to do was relax in his den.

"Nope!"

"Okay, come on then." He sighed and led her into the woods near the WindClan border where the prey was plentiful and slow.

Soon after they got there, Starpaw scented something in one of the shrubs. She silently moved downwind and crept forward, almost in a perfect hunter's crouch. When the apprentice was only a few feet away from the bush, she darted underneath and came out with a vole in her mouth.

"Very good!" said Bramblestar. The continued to hunt, ad at the end of the day, Starpaw had another vole, a robin, and two mice to add to her mentor's catch of a shrew, a mouse, and a couple rabbits.

"All you have to do is try to perfect your hunter's crouch, and then you'll be able to feed the whole clan!" said Bramblestar when they were back in camp. Take these rabbits to the elders and give the robin to Jayfeather. Put the rest on the fresh-kill pile, and you can have your pick of what you want."

After giving the prey to the elders and Jayfeather, Starpaw was stretched out in the remaining sunlight with Redpaw, Lakepaw, Jadepaw, and Flamepaw. They all shared their stories about their first day as an apprentice.

Later that night Starpaw was looking up at the stars with Jadepaw, wondering if they would ever get to meet the ancient warriors that lived in StarClan.

"Do you think that we're important, or just some random apprentices, in StarClan's eyes?" asked Jadepaw.

"Oh, I think that we all are important to StarClan." Said Starpaw. "Maybe even more than we realize. Goodnight, Jadepaw." Starpaw turned over and wasn't awake long enough to hear her friend whisper goodnight.