"Lash out your paws, Boldpaw, don't just fling yourself at your enemy, lash your paws!" The yowl of Rosestem ran out through the training hollow as Boldpaw lashed out her paw at Birdpaw.

The apprentice tried to lash our her paws, but every time Birdpaw blocked it with kicking out one of his hindpaws in the air. The apprentices were practicing battle moves by jumping on and at each other, using their paws to kick out in air. It was hard, even harder that Birdpaw was training with her. The black apprentice had been so focused on fighting he hadn't been hearing the commands that Oakstorm, his mentor, and Rosestem were yowling out to him. Not only that, but when they took breaks he had been staring at Boldpaw and not hearing when to start training again or when to rest in the shade. For some reason, Boldpaw had felt that the older apprentice liked her because if his staring and ignorance.

Boldpaw lashed out her paws again, and this time Birdpaw got hit. "To slow, mouse brain!" she sneered at him playfully, though she could tell he took it seriously. The tom's eyes grew dark and he unleashed his claws, leaping at her and knocking her onto her side, his claws digging forcefully into her shoulder. The young apprentice screeched in alarm and pain and tried to get away from his awful grip, but every time she tried to the tom forced his claws in deeper. She could feel his gaze piercing her pelt, and she looked up at him, still yowling in pain.

"Thats enough, Birdpaw!" Oakstorm stormed over to the angry apprentice and pulled him off his daugher. Rosestem leaped over to her and helped her to her paws, sniffing her wounds while Oakstorm pulled his shock stricken apprentice to the side.

"What do you think you were doing!" he snarled. "You could have killed her, you know. Even worse, your claws were sheathed! I never thought any son of Goldenstar would ever do that to the deputy's kit!" With that he turned and stalked over to where his daughter was standing, blood trickling from her wounds.

"Oakstorm, we better get her to Cloudfang, before her wounds bleed to much!" Rosestem meowed swiftly, and Oakstorm nodded, helping Boldpaw walk back to camp.

When they got into the camp, Poppypaw saw Boldpaw and darted into the medicine cat den, coming back up with Cloudfang, who held marigold in her jaws. Boldpaw looked over at the apprentice den to see Blackpaw standing at it's entrance with Spiderpaw at her side. Nightpaw came out from behind them and pushed his way out to get some more marigold from the medicine cat den, since he was the medicine cat.

Shinningflower came veering out of the warrior den and ran over to her daughter, who was now laying on her side in pain. The ginger she-cat let out a screech when she saw Boldpaw's drenched shoulder.

"Boldpaw, why!" she yowled and crouched down next to her daughter. Boldpaw saw Oakstorm come stand next to his mate and put his tail on her shoulder, trying to hush her softly, though Boldpaw could see he was as worried as she was. The apprentice strained her head to look over at Goldenstar who was bounded over from her own den.

"What happened?" the leader asked her deputy, who bowed his head in grief.

"Your son got angry with her for no reason and attacked her," he meowed quietly, casting a glaring glance at his apprentice.

Boldpaw almost wanted to agree with him, but she remembered how she had said he was a mouse brain. She closed her eyes in horror of what might happen to her. "No, he didn't."

She suddenly relized that every cat was looking straight at her, their gazes wide with amazement that she had spoke. The apprentice cleared her throat.

"He attacked me because I said he was too slow and that he was a mouse brain." then she added quietly to herself, "It's all my fault..."

She looked over at Birdpaw, who's mouth was wide open in shock. She could see he was now trembling with fear of being kicked out of ThunderClan by his own mother, Goldenstar. He soon closed his mouth though and nodded. "I thought she was being mean to me, thats all. It's still my fault though, no matter what." then he looked over at Goldenstar. "I'm sorry, my leader. You can cast me out now: I deserve it."

Goldenstar padded over to her son. "My son, you do not deserve it. You might have done something wrong, but did it hurt her so much it killed her? No. She is alright, and it was no body's fault this happened. I don't ever want you to say that again about yourself, do you hear?"

The black tom nodded, though his gaze was still low with a hint of terror. Boldpaw sighed and let Cloudfang and Nightpaw get on with their work on her wounds. Blackpaw padded up to them and looked down at her sister.

"You alright, Boldpaw?"

The apprentice nodded, wincing at the pain in her shoulder. It hurt so much, but she forgave him for what he did. She suddenly felt something picking her up. She looked over to see Cloudfang, Nightpaw, Oakstorm and Bramblepelt picking her up and carrying her into the medicine cat den.

At that night's gathering...

Blackpaw looked around at the scenery. She had never seen marshes before, and she had never expected them to be filled with such life. Frogs croaked their night songs from on lily pads and fish swam close to the shore, almost walking out of the water and saying hi. The black apprentice looked over at Spiderpaw, who had picked up his pace and was now walking right next to her, his fur touching her own.

As they neared the island where the Clans gathered, she could smell the fishy scent of RiverClan coming up to the shore also. She finally spotted Petalstar, leader of RiverClan, and her deputy, Hollowbelly padding with a small brown tom that she had never seen before. She looked ahead to see Goldenstar dipping her head to the gray leader and letting them go first on the bridge.

The bridge that made a safe way over to the island was a long broken tree that had killed a long ago deputy who went by the name of Mudclaw, who had fought the former leader, Onestar, to be leader himself since the leader had been chosen to lead WindClan instead of the cat who was really supose to lead his Clan. Now Gingerstar was leader of WindClan.

As the RiverClan cats and ThunderClan cats got closer to the island, Blackpaw saw Goldenstar dip her head to Petalstar who dipped her head back. She then saw her leader let the RiverClan cats go to the island first, then once they were off the bridge, Goldenstar let the ThunderClan cats go. On the other side of the bridge, Blackpaw could make out the scents of RiverClan and WindClan, but no ShadowClan yet.

The black apprentice followed the cats in front of her until they reached a large clearing. In the middle was a giant oak, even bigger than the one she had seen in ShadowClan camp. Around it sat tons of cats, and she could tell which cats were RiverClan and which were WindClan by how they were shaped and by their pelts. Blackpaw trotted over to a group of other apprentices not far from where the roots of the giant tree started to come up.

"...I just found out about it at dawn." one apprentice was meowing. "I heard Beebreeze saying that it was time I became a warrior."

A dark brown tom with dark amber eyes flicked his tail in annoyance. "You haven't even begun to start learning how to fish right, mouse brain." He meowed in an amused voice.

The other apprentice glared at him, but looked up as Blackpaw and Spiderpaw came over. "Oh, if it isn't the KittypetClanners. What you doing now, finding new mates that are kittypets?" he sneered.

Blackpaw arched her back and hissed, fur rising high. Spiderpaw put his tail on her shoulder and she relaxed a little. "Hawkpaw, do you not remember that your grandfather was half rogue?" he meowed softly, giving no hint of anger in his voice.

Thrushpaw glared back at him. "At least I'm more Clan than you are." he growled.

"Quiet, you two." the bigger of the apprentices sat up, since he was laying upward on the forest floor watching the fight go on. "Thrushpaw, go back to your mentor and leave ThunderClan alone. Don't forget Hawkfrost, your grandfather, was half kittypet and half ThunderClan. You have more ThunderClan in you than RiverClan, and don't forget that."

Thrushpaw hissed, but got up and stalked off to his mentor. The big apprentice then looked back at Spiderpaw and Blackpaw. "You two better steer clear of him. He's no good. I remember you from the last gathering," he pointed his long dark brown tail at Spiderpaw. "Your name is Spiderpaw, correct?" The young apprentice nodded.

"Yes, thats right. And this is Blackpaw, Shinningflower and Oakstorm's kit." he pointed his tail at the black apprentice, who's fur was still up and she looked like a black ball of thorns.

The big apprentice dipped his head. "My name is Mountainpaw, and I've been an apprentice much longer than Thrushpaw has. He acts like he's so strong and clever, along with brave, but when he goes back to camp, he throws fits when he doesn't get his way."

Blackpaw almost let out a mroww of laughter, but remembered to stay silent. She dipped her head to the large apprentice, who stood with his eyes gleaming, watching them, and padded away to find her mentor.