Frostpaw woke up in the apprentice den with a sharp pain. It felt like she was caught in a bramblebush with no one there to help here. She cried out in agony and woke the rest of the apprentices up. Her white fur standing on end "What's wrong?" they kept asking her, but she could not answer for the pain was too much for her.

"Ow, ow ow!" she screeched.

"We have to bring her to Mossfur, quickly!" shrieked Eclipsepaw. She nudged Frostpaw and lifted him up by the shoulder. Frostpaw winced in pain. "Would it anger StarClan to hurry up?!" Tawnypaw hissed

The five apprentices dashed out of the nursery and stopped right before slamming into Mossfur; she was just about to see what all the commotion was all about. Her sleep-filled eyes had hints of frustration and alarm mixed together. Mossfur looked at the apprentices and gave a lazy yawn. "What is it now?" she muttered. "I don't suppose you snuck out of camp and hurt yourself. Did you?"

"W-w-we didn't! She j-j-just wok-ke up l-like this," stuttered, flicking her tail in Frostpaw's direction."We don't know what h-happened to her."

"I'll take a look at him, okay? Calm down." Mossfur sighed. She paused and shifted her paw around in Frostpaw's fur. She touched one spot on her white flank and examined it.

"Ow ow! It hurts!" Frostpaw wailed

"Oh pipe down, you," Mossfur hissed, stroking the injured area. "It seems she was stung by a bee. And a bad one at that!"

"Do you think you can help her?!" Starpaw anxiously asked, flattening his ears in concern. The two siblings were always close; every cat in ShadowClan knew that if one of them was injured, the other was bound be upset and stay by their side until the other was better. The annoying part was both of them got hurt, a lot.

So Mossfur rolled her eyes at Starpaw and growled,"Of course I can help her it's just a bee sting, not like she got bit by an adder." Moonpaw attempted to hold in a fear scent, but failed, the instant Mossfur said adder. She had an irrational fear of adders and none of the littermates could bring up the name of that poisonous snake without Moonpaw panicking, breaking into a sweat, or nearly fainting.

"Okay, calm down," Tawnypaw said, quite aggressively, " There isn't an adder in ShadowClan. I don't know what you're so afraid of, you've never even seen an adder." Moonpaw didn't relax, but at the moment their main problem wasn't her fears. Mossfur sent the four apprentices away for her to tend to Frostpaw and disappeared into the medicine cat's den.

Moonpaw picked up some fresh kill and headed to where Frostpaw was being tended. "Thanks, Moonpaw" she said, "but this bee sting hurts so bad that it don't even feel like eating" Moonpaw, ignoring what Frostpaw said, dropped the fresh-kill beside her.

"It's too bad"

"It's too bad what?"

"It's too bad that you'll be so jealous when I come back and show you my awesome fighting moves" Moonpaw said, the light hearted-ness practically glowing from her eyes.

"Moonpaw? You're my best friend, you know that?"

"I figured"

With that Moonpaw padded out of the den leaving Frostpaw almost sad and distracted from the pain. But that all faded away when Mossfur put one of her herbs on the bee-sting. Frostpaw screeched with pain. Hearing Frostpaw's scream, Embersong padded in to find Mossfur lecturing Frostpaw not to scream like that. "You'll wake up the entire forest if you scream like that! And quite possibly break my ears."

"Mossfur, what is going on here? Why is my apprentice here?"

"I woke up with a bee sting, Embersong. I wanted very much to train today, but that's ruined"

Prided by her apprentice's wanting to train with her, she answered, "Get better quickly and we might train tomorrow" Embersong's eyes glowed with pride and happiness. This comforted Frostpaw.

With the last drop of Mossfur's healing herbs, she said, "That should do the trick. You'll be fine for now, just don't try any battle moves." Mossfur turned her attention towards Embersong, "A simple show around the borders would be enough training for today, don't you think?" Embersong nodded in agreement.

~.~.~.~

Frostpaw was having a hard time to keep up seeing that walking bothered her bee sting. Her mentor began to notice and slowed down to the apprentice's pace. As the got nearer to a hedge, Frostpaw sented a horrific smell and immediately scrunched her face up.

"This is the border with ThunderClan," said Embersong. "It is at the edge of ours and Thunderclan's territory. Don't cross it or ThunderClan will have a big fit with you them being as bossy as they are."

Frostpaw took a sniff at the ThunderClan border and spit with disgust. "Yuck! ThunderClan lives with that stench?"

"You'll get used to it once you go on border patrol regularly."

"If you say so, but I don't think I'll ever get used to that stench."

"We should get back on our lesson." Embersong purred as she brushed her tail over Frostpaw's head.

They started up again, but this time going at a slower pace, and arrived back at camp when they were getting hungry. The heartbeat the white apprentice got back to the ShadowClan camp, she raced to the fresh kill pile. Her siblings were waiting there for her; Moonpaw had saved her half of a mocking bird.

Noticing that Brokenstar had leapt up onto Highhill, Frostpaw glared at him from the corner of her eye and haughtily mewed to the other apprentices. "Look," she mewed, puffing out her chest and ducked her head to speak in private with her siblings. "A piece of maggot-filled crow food just happened to crawl out of the fresh-kill pile and leap up onto Highhill. "

Starpaw nodded his head and opened his mouth to say something else about Brokenstar, but paused when their dung-like leader let out a blood-curdling yowl."Let every cat old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath Highhill!" ShadowClan cats began to trickle out of dens and nurseries and Darkflower paused from raking her tongue over her two kits, Applekit and Tulipkit. She gave them a nudge and guided the two playful, toddling kits with her tail as she padded up to the meeting where Brokenstar stood. His muscles rippling his ragged fur fluffing up in pride and settling down under the wind.

"Loyal, brave, strong cats of ShadowClan, I have called this meeting to discuss two important announcements," Brokenstar glanced around the ShadowClan camp, the ferns bending in the breeze and the soft caress of marsh grasses brushing together. Brokenstar paused at the five apprentices, Starpaw, Tawnypaw, Eclipsepaw, Moonpaw, and Frostpaw. He smiled his wicked smile as he gazed upon them. The pressure building up on her as she met the ShadowClan leader's amber stare was unbearable.

Just when Frostpaw thought that she would burst, Brokenstar looked away and began again. "One of which," he purred, "Is one of my favorite duties to perform as your leader." Pausing once again, he looked upon Tulipkit and Applekit.

"Tulipkit, from now on until you achieve your warrior name you shall be known as Tulippaw." The new apprentices went up to Brokenstar and touched noses to his. " Foxstripe is currently open for another apprentice," Brokenstar meowed. " Foxstripe, you will be mentoring Tulippaw. Pass down all of your knowledge to her with dignity and honor" Foxstripe nodded his head and touched noses with his new apprentice.

"Applekit, from now on until you reach your warrior name you shall be known as Applepaw," The new apprentice beamed with excitement. "Lilyfur is currently open for another apprentice and will mentor Applepaw. Lilyfur, pass down all of your knowledge to Applepaw with grace and respect" Lilyfur nodded and bent down to touch noses with Applepaw.

After the two new apprentices went to join their new mentors Brokenstar said, " Now I must address the more important news,"Brokentar closed his eyes and turned them to Poisonfang. "Poisonfang and Lightningpaw were on patrol this morning when Lightningpaw noticed something," Brokenstar gazed at Lightningpaw whose eyes were wide with shock. "Would you like to tell ShadowClan what you saw?" Lightningpaw stood up, his golden fur showing his fear underneath. "Y-yes," he stammered.