After bordly listening to Smokepaw explain how great he was, Barepaw heard a yowl of horror. He turned around and saw Baldpaw trembling, with Rockpaw next to her, looking confused. Baldpaw ran right to Barepaw, almost crashing into him.

"Barepaw!" she meowed loudly.

"Mace, Venom, Gooseclaw, Flowertail, and Yiye!"

Barepaw looked at her, trying to understand what she had just meowed. Then he reconized the names Mace and Venom.

Yiye's killers, he thought, she knows more about them…

Barepaw walked over to his sister.

"Baldpaw, please, calm down," he mewed, putting his tail on Baldpaw's back.

"Now, what about these cats?"

Barepaw sat down and listened to her explain; it was long, but much better than listening to Smokepaw.

"We need to tell Sedgestar now!" Baldpaw hissed.

"No, please, calm down. Sedgestar wouldn't bring up something if only two cats were affected by it. Now, Nightflower is taking me battle training with Rockpaw. Just stay here and keep calm."

…..

Nightflower led Barepaw and, Rockpaw into the training area. The ground was marshy, but not soaking wet.

"Okay now," Nightflower said, jestering the two apprentices to sit down, "today, Sedgestar told us mentors to do a new kind of battle gtrianing, and all skills you have learned," he flicked his tail to Rockpaw, "will now be completely useless."

Rockpaw stared at him in confusion. Abandon all techniques? Whatever they were teaching from now on, had better be good.

"Okay, from now on, we will not use standard battle moves. Instead, we will be using advanced moves."

Nightflower demonstrated a move. He narrowed his eyes and stuck one paw in the air, and made his claws on the other unsheathe as far as they could. Then, he struck the air with his clawed paw in one lightning quick movement.

Rockpaw and Barepaw stared in awe.

"Practice on each other, claws sheathed."

Rockpaw took the offense position, Barepaw the defender. Rockpaw stuck her paw in the air, and almost instantly Barepaw's attention was on it. Then, Rockpaw used her open paw to strike Barepaw in the belly, flipping him over. They practiced a few more times, switching the positions.

"Wonderful," Nightflower murmured, walking up to them after they were done. Barepaw was laying on the ground, tired. Rockpaw just sat and looked at Nightflower thoughtfully.

"This technique will be useful in the future."

Without a single word, Nightflower headed back home. The old black tom's comment was strangely said, as if the future he said would be just a few days past. Barepaw shrugged. If Sedgestar wanted to take training up a notch, then so what?

Leaders say is always correct.