Promisepaw padded back into the camp, her jaws full of fresh-kill. Her belly growled hungrily, and the sound made her proud. Yes...she had obeyed the warrior code to the letter and had not eaten a single mouthful of prey while she was hunting. The white apprentice dropped her prey in the fresh-kill pile and took a mouse for herself to eat. Now that she had hunted for the Clan, she could eat.

"Promisepaw! Promisepaw!" someone yowled. Promisepaw looked up to see Riverpelt. The gray warrior touched her nose to the apprentice's. "Hey! It's good to see you."

"Nice to see you too, Riverpelt," Promisepaw mewed. Riverpelt shuddered happily at the sound of her warrior name. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know, the usual warrior stuff," Riverpelt replied. "Patrols, hunting...by the way, I watched you get that thrush. Nice jump, that."

Promisepaw's whiskers twitched embarrassedly. The apprentice medicine cat recalled the catch: she had startled the bird with a stick cracking under her paw, and had leapt onto its back before it had gotten too high off the ground. She hadn't thought any cat, much less her friend, had seen her. "Maybe if I was training to be a warrior and not a medicine cat I could have gotten it easier," she muttered.

"Well, you caught it, and that's all that counts," Riverpelt meowed. "That bird will be filling some cat's belly and not pecking seeds off the forest floor. A catch is a catch. Anyways, I was wondering if you could take a look at my paw. It's been hurting since the last patrol."

"Let me take a look," Promisepaw mewed, and Riverpelt sat down and lifted the paw. Promisepaw sniffed the pink pad. Dried blood was around the center of it. She gave it a gentle lick, and Riverpelt flinched. "Looks like you've got something stuck in the pad."

"I might have stepped on something. It was dark and all..."

"I'll try and get it out. My teeth are smaller, so I should be able to get it out easier than you." Promisepaw licked again and felt the bump of whatever Riverpelt had stepped on. She nodded and set her fangs on either side of the bump. With a soft grunt, she tugged. Riverpelt let out a sharp meow of pain. Promisepaw stumbled backwards, the thorn flying through the air to land beside her.

"What was it?" Riverpelt asked, licking her bleeding pad. Promisepaw prodded the sharp thing with a paw. It was long and thin, colored bright, unnatural green. She shook her head, scraping a shallow hole to bury it in.

"Some Twoleg thing," she replied, patting the soil down firmly. "Come on, let's get you all bandaged up."

Promisepaw led Riverpelt into the den and rooted through the supplies. She came back with a few leaf-wrapped bundles and a wad of cobwebs. Unwrapping the first bundle, she revealed a few herbs. She chewed the leaves and spat the juice onto Riverpelt's pawpad. "This will stop any infection," she explained. Then she pressed the cobwebs one by one onto the warrior's paw. "And this will stop the bleeding. You're doing fine, Riverpelt."

"Good job," Seedgrowth meowed, stepping out of the shadows behind the tree trunk. "You'll make a fine medicine cat, Promisepaw."

Before Promisepaw could say anything, Riverpelt added her praise. "Isn't she great? Look out, Seedgrowth, you've got competition! Did you see the way she took that thing out? Totally painless! It was over so fast I didn't have time to hurt!"

Promisepaw finally managed to squeeze a word in edgewise. "Okay, I did a good job, but probably used too much marigold, or not enough, or marigold wasn't the right herb to use, or—"

"Learn to accept flattery, Promisepaw," Seedgrowth meowed, laughter at the edge of his voice. "It's part of being a medicine cat. Cats will tell you how good a job you did, and then some. Just purr and say thanks."

Promisepaw purred. "Thanks," she mewed. Riverpelt licked her behind the ears and left, hardly limping at all.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you, Promisepaw," Seedgrowth murmured when Riverpelt was out of earshot. "Ever since Riverpelt, Ashfire, and Nighthawk received their warrior names last week, you've been acting very unusual. All of your energy seems gone. You look and smell very worried. Is something wrong?"

Promisepaw sighed softly. "Seedgrowth...I had...a dream...from StarClan, and..." There was no mistaking the relief in her mentor's gaze, but he didn't interrupt her. "A kittypet appeared to me..."

"A kittypet," Seedgrowth mused. "A most unusual messenger from StarClan. But, continue."

"Well, I have to back up. In my dream, there were cats running and crying out in fear. Fear-scent was everywhere, along with the smell of blood and death. I wanted to run, but I couldn't move...That's when the kittypet appeared. He...he said he had a message from StarClan."

"And what was this message?"

Promisepaw took a deep breath to steady her racing heart. "He said 'Hope, Shadows, Fire, and Water will come together and save the promised Clan.' I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I think the 'promised Clan' is us...after all, we're called PromiseClan. But who are Hope, Shadows, Fire, and Water? And what do they have to save the Clan from?"

Seedgrowth was silent. His tail swayed slowly from side to side as he thought. "I'm not sure, Promisepaw," he meowed. "But while your dream worries me, it reassures me as well. StarClan have not forgotten us, as Riverstar feared. They have just chosen a new cat to receive their words." He shook his head wonderingly. "Well, I'll think about it. If I come up with anything, I'll be sure to tell you." He licked behind her ears. "And I'm very impressed with how you handled Riverpelt's injury today."

Promisepaw looked down at her paws. In particular, the white one. It always amused her how she could have paws colored the way she did. Three were white, while one of the ones in front was as white as the rest of her fur. She gave it a lick. "Well, I learned from the best," she mewed. Seedgrowth purred, rubbing his head against her flank.

"As did I: Healingtouch, the DuskClan medicine cat." He gave a happy sigh. "Well, I'm going to catch a quick nap. You're free to do whatever you want with the rest of your day."

Promisepaw padded off in the direction of the apprentices den. She poked her head in to see her sister, Summerpaw, seated on a spur of rock on the wall of the den. "Hey! It's the future Clan medicine cat!" she mewed, tail curling up happily. The other apprentices turned and meowed their greetings.

Promisepaw's gaze fell on each cat in turn. Summerpaw, Bearpaw, Greatpaw, her littermates, the first litter born in PromiseClan. Summerpaw was a beautiful golden tabby with a white chest and white front paws. Greatpaw looked like their father, Quartzfur. Bearpaw was dark brown of fur. Wavepaw, an ash gray tom with long fur who had come from LakeClan with Icewind and Whitebelly. Sunpaw, a gold and ginger striped tom who had left MeadowClan with his mentor, Dogbark. And Shadowpaw, a dark gray cat with gleaming tawny eyes. She had come from SwampClan by herself, with no other cats to accompany her.

"Hey Promisepaw!" Bearpaw meowed.

"Promisepaw! What's going on?" Greatpaw asked, rubbing his head against his sister's.

"I saw you with some fresh-kill today," Sunpaw mewed. "I didn't know medicine cats trained to be warriors too!"

"You didn't? Really? Wow, Dawnbreak had an apprentice. You remember Snowpaw, don't you?" asked Wavepaw.

"Snowpaw? I remember her! She's got blue eyes, but she's not deaf." Greatpaw purred. "Hard to forget such a lucky cat."

"StarClan smiles on her," quiet Shadowpaw murmured. Promisepaw looked from cat to cat. These were the other apprentices. Theses were her friends. She could trust them with anything...even StarClan prophecies.

"Hey, guys, I need some help with something," she began. Summerpaw, the biggest and oldest of the apprentices leapt down from the rocky spur to touch her sister's nose with her own.

"What is it? Need someone to get hurt for your assessment? I volunteer Bearpaw!"

"Hey!" the brown tom hissed, swiping playfully at Summerpaw. "Keep talkin' like that and I'll make it you who gets hurt!"

"Settle down, furballs!" Greatpaw snapped. "Promisepaw's trying to get a meow in sideways here!" The two siblings looked up from their playful tussle. Summerpaw was seated on Bearpaw's side, while the other apprentice was scrabbling his paws in the soil on the floor of then den.

"Sorry, sis," mewed Bearpaw.

"Won't happen again," Summerpaw added with a wink.

"What is it, Promisepaw?" Sunpaw asked. Promisepaw settled down on the sandy floor of the den.

"I had a dream from StarClan," she mewed. "And got a prophecy. Maybe you guys could help me out with it?"

"What'd it say?" Wavepaw asked, sitting down beside her.

"It said Hope, Shadows, Fire, and Water will come together and save the promised Clan." She looked around. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"Nope," Bearpaw grunted. "Other than the promised Clan part. But you probably already figured that one out."

"That's a doozy of a riddle," Summerpaw breathed. "Tell ya what, Promisepaw. We'll think about it as much as we can, all right? It's been a while since we've gotten a good puzzle to discuss after training."

"Oh, yeah. It's been moons since the last one. Everywhere and nowhere, seen and never seen, never touched but always heard."

"Breath," all of the apprentices mewed in unison, with much eye-rolling and tail-twitching. The riddle had been of Ashfire's creation, and had stumped them all for a good many days. Many apprentices believed the answer to be StarClan, until a burst of insight from Shadowpaw had brought about the real answer.

"All right," Promisepaw meowed. "Hey, I'm not doing anything tomorrow. I was going to go out on a little exploration. Any cat who wants to join me, can."

"I'll go!" Promisepaw's three littermates mewed together. The looked at each other, then fell about laughing. Wavepaw, Sunpaw, and Shadowpaw looked on. Sometimes it was hard to be the only apprentices without family in PromiseClan.

"Tomorrow at sunhigh, then," Promisepaw said. The others nodded. It was going to be an apprentice affair, no warriors allowed!

Promisepaw left the den feeling lighter than she had when she had entered. Being the apprentice medicine cat was hard work; she barely got any time off to just be herself. Seedgrowth asked a lot from his apprentice, but Promisepaw knew it was for the best. Even though he was a young cat, Seedgrowth would eventually get older, and finally have to retire to the elders. Promisepaw would be a fully-grown cat by that time, and have her warrior name as well.

She walked without looking down, and soon tripped over the tail of a sleeping cat. The white apprentice shook her head dizzily, looking around for the source of her stumble. She spotted a brown she-cat by the name of Birdflight, who was blinking lazily in the sun. "Who's wha?" she mumbled sleepily. "Oh...hey, Prom'sepaw..."

"Sorry, Birdflight!" Promisepaw mewed hastily. "I just wasn't looking where I was going."

"'S'allright." Birdflight yawned. She got up, stretching. Birdflight was a good and loyal warrior, but she seemed to sleep more during the day than other cats. She was Sunface's chosen cat to lead moonhigh patrols.

"Oh, hey Birdflight," Promisepaw began as the warrior lay her head back on her paws. One hazel flicked open. "Do you know where Twolegplace is?"

"Ask...a warrior..."

Promisepaw was about to remind Birdflight that she was a warrior, but decided against it. The white apprentice shook her head slowly and padded off to find another cat to ask. She spotted Ashfire stepping into the camp. "Ashfire, where can I find Twolegplace?" she asked.

"Why in the name of holy StarClan would you want to go there?" the gray warrior asked.

"I...just thought I'd check up on the gardens. I mean, Twolegs have been known to plant some useful things like thyme and mint." Ashfire shrugged, flicking his tail out of the camp entrance.

"Bear east. You can't miss it. The stench of Twolegs is everywhere." Ashfire paused to stare curiously at the apprentice. "Shouldn't you be going with a warrior?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," Promisepaw assured him. "Medicine cats train to be warriors as well as healers." She dipped her head to him and raced out of the clearing.

Promisepaw sped through the woods, a streak of white and ginger. She didn't know why she was running; she had all day to get there, and the scent of Twolegs was everywhere. Perhaps there was something subconscious about it, something that was annoying her on an internal level. She slowed her pace only slightly, and continued along more calmly.

The apprentice padded through the woods, looking around with wide, wondering eyes. She had never gone to Twolegplace before. Every tree was strange and new, every rock unknown. Promisepaw leapt up on top of a fence and gazed down at the garden beneath. She spotted a flash of ginger fur in the bushes and focused her lightning attention on it. The cat finished making dirt in the bush, and started to pad back to its Twoleg nest. Promisepaw's golden eyes grew wide as she recognized the pale blue collar.

"Trickster!" she hissed, not knowing what reaction to expect. The kittypet turned around, his ears twitching. His eyes grew round as full moons.

"Promisepaw?" he whispered.