AN: oops sorry it's been a long time, huh? U~U It has been pretty busy in my life recently, and my dad and brother just got into a car accident last week on Monday. Everyone is completely fine, but it's just been really crazy! Here's the next chapter. Enjoy! ~ Song

ps. dang this one is pretty long gg me

The ground underpaw was cool, and Minkpaw relished the feeling. She couldn't wait for leaf-fall. She and her siblings, as well as Duskpaw, had been born at the tailend of leaf-bare, just as it had begun to warm, and had never truly experienced the cold. The idea of not being all hot and yucky-feeling before beginning training for the day excited her, as silly as it sounded.

She glanced back at the camp entrance, becoming impatient. Reedstar had told her and the other apprentices to wait outside for him and whoever he brought with him, but so far, it seemed that only Silverpaw and Shellpaw, two of the older apprentices, had bothered to show up. It was the day after her argument with Frostfoot and she was eager to prove herself to her mentor. A huff from Shellpaw let her know that she wasn't the only one that was irritated, however.

The older she-cat's light brown tabby fur was bristling slightly, and her tail lashed to and fro, stirring the grass under it with a soft swish.

"You keep that up and you're gonna be an elder by the time you should be becoming a warrior." Silverpaw mewed, breaking the silence, and Minkpaw giggled as he spoke. Shellpaw turned to him, looking indignant.

"Well, Reedstar said that we were to meet here. It's not my fault he isn't he-"

"Now!" A voice yowled, nearly scaring the three of them out of their fur. Around them, cats running so quickly that they couldn't identify them by scent or by appearance burst out of the undergrowth, throwing themselves at the apprentices. Minkpaw was almost immediately thrown off her paws, falling hard onto the ground. One of their attackers pinned her, one paw on the back of her neck, claws just barely unsheathed, letting her know that if she moved, they would hurt her.

She heard her friends being pinned down as well, their grunts of confusion and their fear scent filling her nose. Despite knowing that she could be harmed, Minkpaw quickly formed a plan in her mind, and, recalling a technique Frostfoot had taught her, she went completely limp. She felt the other cat shift above her, stepping off of her, and she knew that she'd gotten exactly what she wanted. Leaping to her paws as swiftly as possible, surprising the cat whom had had her pinned and making them stumble away, Minkpaw let out a battle screech and, whirling around, lunged toward them with every intent of inflicting some serious damage.

The face she saw, however, as she made contact with the other cat was not that of an enemy, however. It was of her leader. It was…

"Reedstar?" Minkpaw squeaked, scrambling away from the golden brown tom cat. He laughed at her mortified expression, righting himself so that he was sitting back on his haunches.

"Yes, Minkpaw, it's me." He meowed, nodding to the other cats whom had come with him to let the other apprentices up. They, too, had been struggling against their captors, their fur mussed up and dusty.

"Why did you do that?" Shellpaw demanded, looking angry. "You didn't tell us you were going to ambush us, you just told us that you were going to meet us here!"

"What you just said is precisely why I did what I did. You all reacted rather poorly to the situation at hand."

"You ambushed us, sir." Silverpaw stated bluntly. "Shellpaw and I have only been in one battle - one that we were ambushing in, not being ambushed - and Minkpaw here has never had to fight another's claws except in training. We didn't know how to react."

"That's exactly my point. I thought that all of our apprentices needed to practice how to react in such a situation so that, should they ever find themselves in one, they know what to do." Reedstar said. "This was the easiest way to show you all what an ambush is like."

Minkpaw glanced around, realizing that the cats accompanying her leader were mostly the other apprentices in the clan. Her sisters were standing on either side of Silverpaw with Shellpaw's own sister, Tansypaw, and Duskpaw was standing a few tail lengths from Shellpaw. Maplepaw and Minnowpaw, whom had been apprenticed only a few sunrises before, stood near herself and Reedstar. Two warriors - Heroncloud and Birchtail - watched them from the edge of the clearing.

"Reedstar?" She asked, confusion suddenly filling her mind.

"Yes, Minkpaw?"

"The other apprentices… Well, they helped you attack us. They didn't get to feel what it's actually like. What about them?"

Pride entered his copper-colored gaze, and he purred lightly at the young she-cat. "Clever, you are. The others will be experiencing it as they go on patrols with the warriors. The warriors will be informed before leaving, but the apprentices will have no idea. You three will also experience it more than just this time. This is so you can practice the things you learn today in our lessons."

"Oh, great!" Shellpaw muttered softly, her eyes narrowed. "We have to go through that horror again?"

"Better to be prepared than to die because we're too stupid to react, I suppose." Silverpaw mused, looking less than enthused about his leader's plan but not saying anything against it.

"That's the spirit!" Reedstar crowed, looking amused at their words. Motioning to Birchtail and Heroncloud with his tail, his meowed, "I know that Waspwhisker is still in camp. Who else is there?"

"Cloudface was, but I think she mentioned going on patrol with Goosefur and Rushfang." Heroncloud mewed, her voice as warm as always.

"Did she mention where they'd be going?" Reedstar asked, his head cocked to the side slightly.

"To the ShadowClan border, then along the edge of the lake and coming back to camp." Birchtail put in. "She was originally going to check the WindClan border, but the dawn patrol had already covered it."

"I see. Well, it'd be wonderful to have her input - she's led a few ambushes with me when we've been fighting against one of the other Clans, and Rushfang is amazing with the planning of them. Duskpaw, Minkpaw - would you go and find them?" Reedstar cast his inquiring gaze onto the young tom first, and then onto Minkpaw, who both nodded.

"Of course, Reedstar!" They chirped in unison, then whirled and bounded off into the woods. Even though she was a RiverClan cat and in turn was better at fishing and swimming than running, it still felt wonderful to be pelting along at full speed through her homeland, her tail streaming out behind her, muscles working at overdrive to keep her going. She glanced to her left at Duskpaw, finding that, within his golden eyes, the same exhilaration was there.

They crossed one of the streams that surrounded the camp with little difficulty, making their way as swiftly as they could over the mostly treeless land. She remembered faintly that the elders had told her stories that their parents and their elders had told them, stories of the old forest from where the Clans had come from. There, they had had an even lesser amount of trees - next to none, in fact - and, in coming to the lake, had felt a little strange at first. Though there were nowhere near the amount that ThunderClan and ShadowClan had, the newfound cover above them made them feel somewhat like WindClan, whom hated having themselves cut off from the sky.

Thinking about that now, Minkpaw wanted to giggle. It wasn't as though their entire territory was forest - only bits. What was so scary about that?

We're suppose to be getting the patrol, Minkpaw. Focus! Shaking her head as she ran, trying to clear it of her useless thoughts - she wondered how she could have even become so scatterbrained - Minkpaw took in a deep drag of air. The change in scent was becoming obvious to her, and to Duskpaw too, it seemed, for they slowed their gait as they approached the Greenleaf Twolegplace. Even though it was the middle of leaf-fall, it was generally an accepted rule that one absolutely did not go bursting into the area. Sometimes, though it was fairly uncommon, twolegs stayed well into leaf-fall in the Greenleaf Twolegplace between ShadowClan and ThunderClan, or came unexpectedly to stay for a day or two, leaving their monsters in the one by RiverClan territory, and it was always best to be wary. The monsters' sleeping area seemed to be nothing but a giant clearing made of the same stinking black stuff that the thunderpath was.

"Wait!" Duskpaw hissed, skidding to a halt on the short grass near the edge of the vast, hard black sea of stone. Minkpaw stopped just a few pawsteps ahead of him, turn to look at him in confusion.

"What are you doing? We need to fi-"

"Use your nose, mouse-brain - don't you smell that?" He muttered, a tone to his voice that set Minkpaw on edge. Glancing at him warily, she opened her mouth, letting the breeze bring the scents of the forest into it, as it was blowing toward them. The acrid odor of the monsters overpowered most things, but she could identify trees, grass from the clearing ahead of them and from around them, and the faintest hints of mouse, some type of bird, and...

"Is that…?" She trailed off, looking at him in alarm. Duskpaw nodded, looking grim. A sharp, metallic scent had begun to drift towards them, and it made Minkpaw want to gag.

Blood.

"We have to go and find them. There are no monsters here right now. Let's go." Duskpaw said, sinking a little lower to the ground, not quite crouching but not quite standing, either. He began to slink away without another word, his paws making scarcely a sound as he began to skirt the black stone clearing.

Minkpaw wanted so badly to turn tail right then and there and just run - to run home to her mother and father and sisters, to be safe and to not have to deal with whatever they were going into. However, she also knew that if she let Duskpaw go on his own, the idiot would probably get himself killed. He was too rash for his own good sometimes, and while it was good for comic relief in some situations, when he would say the stupidest things to make someone angry laugh, at a time like this, he would only do something he'd regret. If he tries something and gets hurt, I'll never forgive myself, Minkpaw thought, and darted after him after only a moment's thought. If he went down, it wouldn't be without her.

She caught up to him easily, as he hadn't gone very far before she'd made her decision. Feeling her presence behind him, he glanced over his shoulder and nodded quickly, a swift sign of thanks for coming with him.

"No need to thank me," Minkpaw whispered, following him, slipping in and out of the undergrowth when he did and copying his every pawstep. "I feel like I'll leap out of my fur if even a bird flies past and scares me."

Because they were downwind, and because the wind was strong, the scent of the blood seemed stronger to their inexperienced minds. They had no idea how close they were to the scene of whatever was going on until the voices reached their ears.

"These are kits, Ravenfur."

"That was Cloudface!" Duskpaw hissed softly as they slowed their pace, finally reaching the edge of the clearing. Minkpaw had to hold the tom back from running forward right then and there.

Cloudface was standing as she normally did, her head held high, looking as regal as she could with her fluffy light gray fur stained red with blood. Several gashes ran along her right shoulder, and it was obvious that she was favoring that leg. On her back and on her left side, there were other cuts, and some patches of fur were missing. Beside her, Duskpaw's mentor, Rushfang, and Goosefur looked equally worse for wear.

Ravenfur chuckled, shaking her head slowly. "They're kittypet kits. We can't, won't, and don't want to take them in."

"You know the code," Goosefur spat, "Any kits must be cared for, even if they aren't your own. Clan or no clan, these are still kits and they still must be cared for!"

"What kits are they talking about?" Minkpaw asked, her voice scarcely more than a sigh. "I don't see any kits."

"They must be hiding… I can't even smell them over the blood." Duskpaw said, tensed beside her.

"ShadowClan has listened to ThunderClan for too long. We've lost the nature we use to be known for! We are no longer seen as having hearts cloaked in shadow, chilled by the cold north winds. We started to look like them for StarClan's sake, especially when we decided to help those loners you all heard about at the last gathering. It's time we became who we use to be - strong, focused on taking care of ourselves rather then others." Ravenfur hissed back, taking a step forward. Her black fur was marred with wounds just as Cloudface's was, and Minkpaw had to wonder just who got hurt more in this fight.

Three ShadowClan cats stood behind her, all in varying stages of hurt. One of them, a dark gray she-cat, was virtually being held up by a small pale gray she-cat and a light brown tabby tom. She looked to be an apprentice, though nearly a warrior, probably Silverpaw and Cypresspaw's age. All the fur had been torn off of one of her shoulders, the flesh below seemingly shredded by thorn-sharp claws. The gray she-cat had a ripped ear and a few claw marks on her face and flanks, and the tom had sustained a nasty bite just above his left paw, which he seemed to barely put pressure on.

"While I can understand wanting to live up to the reputation that your Clan has always had, I simply cannot go along with hurting innocent kits because that cold north wind has chilled your hearts so much that you don't even care about them." Cloudface growled, her tail lashing back and forth. Minkpaw could see just in that sign that she wanted to go back at the ShadowClan cats again, but also that she couldn't because of her leg.

"Big words for an injured she-cat on the edge of her territory," the light brown tabby tom sneered, and Rushfang let out a low snarl from deep within his throat.

"Do not threaten my deputy, unless you actually want my to do to your other front paw what I did to the left one?" He said smartly, to which the tom replied with a hiss.

"Enough. We're done here; we don't need these useless kittypets and we don't need a bunch of fisheaters telling us that we're wrong. Come, my warriors; let us return to camp, away from this…" Ravenfur looked the RiverClan cats up and down, and then said, "Scum."

"Go ahead, run. WindClan and ThunderClan will hear of this at the gathering in a few days' time, though. They will know what you've done." Cloudface warned, though they'd already begun to leave.

The black-furred ShadowClan deputy turned, her eyes narrowed, a grim sort of satisfaction gleaming within her eyes. "Let them know." Then, she turned and left with her cats - as quickly as they could, anyway, with the apprentice in the condition that she was.

As soon as they were gone, Cloudface turned and limped toward the bushes at the edge of the clearing. Carefully, she sat before them, and then called out softly. "Come out, kits. You're alright now. ShadowClan have gone."

Rushfang and Goosefur settled down on either side of her as, slowly, three small cats emerged from the undergrowth, two black and one a gray tabby-patched white. All three were shivering violently, and it wasn't because it was cold. Fear scent rolled off of them in waves, and Minkpaw's heart ached for them. They, too, had claw marks on them.

"Let's go help them." She said, and with Duskpaw's nod, slipped out from her own hiding spot. The five cats before them turned around as quickly as they could in their state, with Cloudface and her other clanmates sheltering the kits behind them.

"Oh. It's just you." Cloudface breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought…"

"That we were ShadowClan?" Minkpaw guessed, then shook her head. "We were suppose to come and get you - Reedstar's orders - but then, when we saw ShadowClan, we hid. We figured, if you needed us, we'd jump in."

The deputy nodded, seeming a little impressed. "A good choice, you two. Many apprentices would have darted straight into the thick of things and possibly made things worse. That's something I will remember about you both, that you have good heads on your shoulders."

"Well," Duskpaw began sheepishly, "when I saw you and Rushfang and Goosefur looking like you do, I kind of really wanted to shred them. If it wasn't for Minkpaw, I probably would've."

"Being truthful is also a good trait that all good warriors need. I'm proud of you both, and I'll be sure to tell Reedstar. Right now, we must deal with these three." Cloudface sighed, glancing behind herself at the kits. They were still shaking. Standing, she carefully walked toward them in a way that wasn't threatening. "Hello, little ones. Who are you? Why were those cats chasing you and hurting you?"

The larger of the three took a small step forward so that he - for it was a tom - stood ahead of the two black kits. "I… I'm Oliver." He said, his voice high pitched and sounding even more terrified than he looked. "T-these are P-punk and Mina. They're my mama's f-friend's kits. Those cats… They've been coming into the city and hurting anyone who is against them with the bad alley cats that live there."

Cloudface looked absolutely stunned. "Why? Why are they doing that?"

"I don't know, but… They killed Punk and Mina's mama, and they were going to kill mine when she made us leave!"