Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Warrior series.

Arrowpaw began to wake up slowly. He tried to ignore the weird sensation of something moving on his head. "Ugh, Bree why is it so bright? I had the weirdest dream last night where there were talking cats and I shrunk-" He groaned, sitting up then freezing. It wasn't his girlfriend who often came over early to wake him up. Instead, a large gray cat with long fur was standing over him with a questioning look.

With a screech, he scrambled backward. Then the events of the previous night rushed through his mind and he remembered he was no longer human. For now he insisted silently and forced himself to relax . He realized two things- first that the weird sensation on the top of his head was the feeling of his now pointed ears unconsciously swiveling to listen to his surroundings and second that he kept referring to himself as Arrowpaw even though he was Max. He wasn't sure why this was, maybe something those magic, species-changing cats did last night.

The older cat simply watched as the newest Clan member calmed down. He estimated the cat to be about eight moons old. Luckily, the apprentice's den was otherwise empty so no one else was bothered by the racket. He cheerfully remarked, "What an interesting dream that must have been! Sorry to tell you that it really happened." As Arrowpaw groused, Graystripe mewed, "Come on twolegger, it's time for training. Follow me."

Arrowpaw grumpily followed Graystripe out of the den to the center of the clearing. He saw that he had been led to a large pile of small animal corpses. "Get some fresh-kill, you'll need to be fit for today." With that, Graystripe sauntered off to the base of the Highrock. Arrowpaw gulped. Although the thought grossed him out, he forced himself to gingerly pick up a mouse in his mouse. He knew that starving himself would do no good and forced himself to take a small bite. His widened in surprise. It was actually good! It reminded him of the time he had had a filet mignon when his parents had taken him out to celebrate his birthday. His hunger catching up to him, he quickly devoured it.

Looking up, he noticed he wasn't alone. Two cats that looked to be about his age were staring at him. While both were gray, one had blue eyes while the other had light green eyes. "Um, hi?" He mewed cautiously. The green-eyed one started at the sound of his voice, then launched into speech.

"Hi, I'm Fernpaw! Is it true you were a twoleg? What's it like being a twoleg? How did you become a cat? Oh my gosh, you must have so many questions..." Intimidated by the she-cat's sudden stream of questions, Arrowpaw backed up a step. The blue-eyed cat (he supposed the two were siblings), stepped in. "You'll have to forgive Fernpaw, she gets excited. I'm Ashpaw. You're Arrowpaw, right?" Watching the grey cat lick his paw and then brush his face with it, Arrowpaw quickly, if clumsily, copied him, sure his own face was probably covered with mouse blood.

Just as he mutely nodded after cleaning his face, Firestar and Graystripe padded up to him. "Have you eaten? Good. Let's go."

As he got up to follow them, Fernpaw cheerfully called out. "We'll talk more later!" As he looked back, he saw Dustpelt give the young green-eyed cat a disapproving look.

Firestar was glad to see some of the cats start to accept the young twoleg-turned-cat but he still wasn't sure about the newcomer. Shaking himself out of these thoughts, he led them to the training hollow, a sand-filled hollow where young cats were often taught basic fighting skills. He figured it would also be helpful in helping the youngster out with movements most cats learned while still in the nursery.

Arrowpaw was fascinated by his surroundings. Where did all the sand come from? He was interrupted from his observations by Graystripe calling out to him.

"Right, let's test your speed first." Arrowpaw felt a smirk crawl across his new muzzle. He was the fastest runner on the ultimate frisbee team at school, mainly due to having had to spend many a summer's day running from his favorite neighbor. He would enjoy showing them the meaning of the word speed. However, the smirk soon vanished. As he leapt forward, his back feet got tangled with his front and he ended up tumbling head over tail into the base of one of the surrounding oak trees. I didn't think there would be so many stars in the sky at this time of morning he thought giddily, still splayed at the base of the tree.

While Graystripe tried (and miserably failed) to hide his amused purring, Firestar sighed. "This is going to take awhile..." Almost no one noticed the tan cat sitting in the shadow of the surrounding trees, observing the lessons intently.

After prying the stunned cat from the tree base, they taught him to run properly "Because if you can't run then how in the name of Starclan are you ever going to get anywhere?" as Graystripe aptly pointed out. From there they moved on to other movements such as jumping, leaping and crouching. Crouching was very interesting for Arrowpaw as the first time he attempted it, he unconsciously clenched his forepaws, causing his jet black, razor-sharp claws to pop out on full display. It took Firestar whacking him on the head with his own sheathed paw to get him to stop admiring his new weaponry.

This is just like the Black Panther! The nerd inside Arrowpaw was in fan-boy nirvana at this thought.

By sunset, Arrowpaw was completely worn out an internally praying that they were almost done. Apparently, someone above heard him because Firestar mewed "You look about done in. Go with Graystripe and get some fresh-kill." He then murmured something to the large gray cat before bounding off into the woods. As Graystripe made to leave, Arrowpaw quickly caught up with him.

"So, I guess you are sort of like the second-in-command?" He asked. Not expecting the question, Graystripe cautiously nodded. "And Firestar is the...Chief?"

"The leader, yes.

"And you call yourselves 'warriors', right?"

"Why the interest?"

Arrowpaw found his new whiskers twitching with annoyance. "Well, I just wanted to understand this whole Clan business better, since it looks like I may be here awhile. I honestly thought you guys just laid around all day."

Graystripe looked at him and burst out into laughter, a strange sound coming from a cat. When he finally calmed down, he managed to choke out "You twolegs really don't know anything, do you? Come on, I'll fill you in on the way back."

By the time they reached camp, Graystripe had filled him in on the hierarchy of the Clan as well as their activities of the warriors such as hunting and running patrols. Why would they need to run patrols? Arrowpaw wondered, but the deputy had gone to report to Firestar.

Making his way to the fresh kill pile, he selected a vole this time and munched it down, so busy mulling over what he had just learned about this group of cats, apparently called ThunderClan that he barely noticed the taste. "How is it going?" A chipper voice suddenly sounded next to him causing him to leap in the air. Fernpaw and Ashpaw were sitting next to him, mostly-eaten mice nearby.

"Jesus, you scared me!" He yowled. Fernpaw looked inquisitive. "Who is Jesus? But anyway, sorry for scaring you! Would you like a tour of the camp?"

He brightened. "Sure!"

The two apprentices led him to a fallen tree where four older looking cats waited, looking at him intently as they nibbled at prey gathered in front of him. Two were gray (Why are there so many gray cats? he wondered crossly as he realized he would need to keep everyone straight), one a tortoiseshell and one a light ginger tabby. Ashpaw came forward and gestured to each cat in order with his tail. "Right Arrowpaw, these are Smallear, One-eye, Dappletail and Speckletail."

"So, you are the twolegger." Speckletail stated pensively. Before he could respond, Smallear snapped. "This is a bad omen. Starclan must be angry with the clan to send a twolegger."

"Calm down, Smallear." Dappletail meowed. "It is not for us to decide the intent of Starclan." She turned her attention back to the younger cats. "Welcome to ThunderClan, Arrowpaw. I look forward to watching your progress."

"Th-thanks." He mewed stiffly. He made a mental note to avoid this bunch as much as possible.

From the elders den, the odd group made their way to the nursery. On the way, Fernpaw pointed out the warrior's den, a large bush near the Highrock with a hollow center. At the nursery, a silver furred she-cat greeted them briefly before returning inside to the sound of kits inside. At this point, he couldn't withhold his yawn. Looking over, he saw that the other apprentices looked just as exhausted and they all returned to the apprentice's den and, after Ashpaw showed him how to set of a bed of moss (he had been too tired the previous night to notice) before they all fell into an exhausted sleep.