"Aderyn... Or should I say Autumnpaw?

My eyes were instantly open. I was standing at the edge of a large, glittering lake. The sun was beating down on my fur, but I couldn't feel it's heat.

"it was a long journey, to bring you here. Welcome, Aderyn, to the well-trodden home of RayClan"

"RayClan?" I asked, "You're here...? I thought you'd abandoned me!"

From the sun's glare, a bright, shining golden cat walked towards me. "Greetings, little Aderyn. Remember me?"

"Risingsun!" My eyes teared up; Risingsun had been the noble leader of SunClan, before he died two months ago. Only the leader was permitted to have a non-native name, and all leaders had to have 'sun' at the end.

"Yes, It's me" His amber eyes glittered, "It seems you have found a new life with ThunderClan, my daughter"

"But I don't WANT this life! I want to come back to SunClan!"

"I'm afraid there isn't much you can do but live with your new Clanmates. My daughter, please have faith in us, and StarClan."
"StarClan, are they ThunderClan's ancestors?"
"They are ancestors to all four Clans in the forest, they even watched over MoonClan when they thrived in our mountains." He licked me over the head affectionatly, "But now I must leave, my daughter."

"No.. No, don't go!"

"Hey, Autumnpaw, wake up!"

Someone was prodding me in the side. I opened my amber eyes slowly and found myself looking at Adderpaw, "Come on, Autumnpaw, Owleyes is having a fit! He'll flay you if you're not outside soon"

I stretched, feeling the sun filter through the den lining and onto my back. It felt good. I grinned at Adderpaw and followed him out into the sunshine, where Ratclaw, Owleyes and another warrior, the brown tabby I saw leading the patrol back yesterday, were waiting. Snowpaw padded up beside me,

"See that brown tabby? He's my mentor, and deputy of ThunderClan, Mintleaf." She mewed proudly.

"Thanks, Snowpaw" Mintleaf purred. I could tell he was friendly right away, "Now, today, we shall be checking the borders. This is Snowpaw's and Autumnpaw's first time... Yes, I know you've seen them before, Adderpaw, but knowing your memory, you've probably forgotten."

Adderpaw looked at his paws, ashamed.

"We're only going half-way though, because Autumnpaw still looks stiff. And besides, WindClan have been rather hostile lately. We don't want to run into a patrol. After we come back, we'll have a little lesson on StarClan" Owleyes muttered, glancing at me, as if he was directing the last bit towards me. My fur bristled with annoyance.

"Let's go" The three warriors bounded off without warning, followed swiftly by Adderpaw. Despite him being forgetful, hyper and clumsy, I couldn't help but notice the strength that flowed through his limbs as he scaled the quarry wall, keeping perfect pace with the older cats. Snowpaw gave me a nudge, and we followed them out of camp and into ThunderClan territory.

"Sniff the air, Adderpaw, what is that scent?" Owleyes quizzed his apprentice.

"Um..." The ginger cat looked skyward, as if expecting to find the answer there, "...Blackbird, faint traces of rabbit, mabe some vole there, too... Oh! I smell WindClan!" His voice turned into a growl.

"This far into our territory?" Ratclaw looked suprised, "Surely they're not that stupid?"

"Over here!" Snowpaw muttered, crawling on her belly through the tangles of a thorn bush. Sure enough, there were two lean, fierce looking cats there, a tom and a she-cat. The tom had a vole clamped in his jaws.

"Theives!" Owleyes hissed. Mintleaf strode towards them, eyes on fire,

"What are you doing here?" His voice was menacing. The she-cat gave a rusty purr,

"No, what's the ThunderClan deputy doing out here, all alone?"

"You must be stupid if you think I'd come out alone" He hissed. Owleyes and Ratclaw left the cover of the thorn bush to stand at his side. Adderpaw boldly joined them and, after a little hesitation, so did me and Snowpaw. The she-cat's eyes eyes widened, but he forced herself to keep her cool,

"It's not like ThunderClan are going to miss one vole, is it?"

Adderpaw flexed his claws, "Then maybe WindClan won't miss two of it's warriors!"

My jaw dropped at Adderpaw' bravery.

"Oh, and who's going to kill us, you, a little scrap of ginger fur?"

Adderpaw leapt at the she-cat, digging his claws into her back. She screeched and threw him off, but two pawfuls of her black fur went with him. The rest of us unsheathed our claws,

"You better get out of here, or I'll give my warrior permission to kill you, you mangy flea-bags." Mintleaf warned. The two cats realised they were no match for six cats and fled, yowling taunts back at us. When they were out of sight, I let my fur lie flat once more. I hadn't even realised how fast my heart was pounding.

"Fox dung!" Owleyes suddenly spat, "They got away with the vole."
"We should report this to Shootingstar." Ratclaw meowed.

"It's not like she ever hears anything different" Owleyes shrugged, "This is the third time" He turned his yellow gaze on his apprentice, "You were very brave, Adderpaw, I'm proud of you."

"So, Owleyes can be nice?" I whispered to Snowpaw. Ratclaw's eyes slid towards me, and I was worried he was going to tell me off for my statement, but there was amusement there.

"Hey, Autumnpaw, want to hear about StarClan?" Adderpaw padded up to me. It was night-time now. The stars above me glittered, and I shivered. I hated the dark. We had reported the theft to Shootingstar, and she and Mintleaf had gone to inspect the borders for more intruders. The rest of the day we had been kept busy, taking prey to the elders, queens and Thistlefang and Rosepaw. Apparantly, Rosepaw was Thistlefang's apprentice. It was so not fair, because she didn't have to do the tasks we had to do. She got to go and collect herbs. I hadn't seen Timberpaw all day though; He was out training. I wondered for a brief moment who his mentor was.

"Go on then" We had missed our lesson on them today, so I guessed Adderpaw was only trying to be helpful. He sat down beside me,

"Well, that line of stars in the sky is called Silverpelt. Each star represents a StarClan warrior, who died a member of one of the Clans. The watch over us all night."

"Silverpelt, eh?" I looked skywards. Our Clan had never been able to explain what stars were. So they were other ancestors, watching us, and we never knew they were there? I felt pretty stupid.

"Sometimes, the cats of StarClan visit the leader or medicene cat. In the times of a prophecy, sometimes they will even speak to a warrior"

Something twitched in my memory at the mention of being visited in dreams...

"I am Inkstar. Nice to meet you, Aderyn"

"Do they visit apprentices?" I asked casually, or cats from Clans who don't believe in them, like SunClan?"

"I don't know about apprentices, but I doubt they'd visit cats that don't know they exist" Adderpaw shrugged.

"Oh well..." I sighed. Then why had I dreamt about a StarClan cat?

"New leaders go to the moonpool to receive their nine lives from StarClan, and medicene cats go to share dreams and learn of the future"

Sounds like what we do...

"Hey, Timberpaw!" Adderpaw suddenly piped up, "Had fun?"

"Yeah..." He nodded, dropping a mouse on the fresh kill pile and padding up to us, "Um... Autumnpaw... I wanted to apologize for being so cold to you yesterday."

"That's fine!" I grinned, "I can't blame you. It must be odd to have an outsider in the Clan."

"Yeah. Um, my mentor, Eagletail, wants to know if you and Ratclaw want to come to do fighting training with us tommorow. He says he's interested to learn how a SunClan cat fights." Timberpaw said awkwardly, scuffing his paws in the dirt.

My eyes lit up at the oppertunity, "Well, as long as Ratclaw agrees, you bet!" Maybe this was my chance to impress these cats!