Snowfall16: Yeah, when Flamepaw says he doesn't want to rely on other cats, he means he doesn't want to rely on other living cats. Since he was really close with Eaglekit as a kit, he couldn't let go of him when he died. And Frostheart is quite weird. She seems like a nasty character, but not evil like Flowerstar or Sandfur. As of now, her story seems to be going off in an interesting direction… (evil smile)

Okatu Fernsneeze: It is really annoying when they give the honors classes so much more work than the regular. Yes, honors is a higher level than regular, but do you really need to dump so much work on our heads? The regular kids are only fit for getting Cs on extremely easy assignments, while the honors kids have to struggle through endless amounts of work. And some of those assignments in English class are really pointless. I think the whole system is flawed. English class doesn't teach you how to have fun reading and write creatively; it just gives you a lot of pointless work. In school, they don't encourage creativity; they just enforce following rigid rules. Yes, you need to know grammar rules and stuff, but do you really need to do twelve different analysis papers? That's not writing, it's just busywork.

CHAPTER 6: SWANPAW THE BRAVE

The next morning

Swanpaw's POV

I woke up from a night of restlessness and with an ache in my back. Training yesterday was really tiring, and my muscles felt strained. I got up and stretched.

"Morning," Flamepaw muttered to me as he left the den. I stared at him. Great StarClan, what's up with him? His fur looked dull, as if he had aged overnight. I know that training had been tough, but it didn't seem to affect him yesterday that much. But today it seemed to have gotten to him. What was up with him?

I shrugged. Why was I even thinking about this? It was Flamepaw's problem, not mine. I headed out of the den, where I saw Heronpaw talking to Waterpaw.

"Get me a snapper-fish," Heronpaw said to Waterpaw. "See that red one over there? I want it."

I watched as Waterpaw obediently nodded his head, and turned around to the pile to grab the fish. He went back to Heronpaw and dropped it at his feet.

"Thank you," Heronpaw said in a polite voice that was obviously fake. He turned to Greenpaw and laughed.

I had enough. First Flamepaw acts up, and now Waterpaw. I went up to Waterpaw, who was getting trout for himself. He looked up as he saw me. "Hey, Swanpaw. What's up?"

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "Why do you need to serve Heronpaw his food? Why can't he just get it himself?"

"Shh!" he hissed, sounding agitated. "Listen, we kind of had a deal. It's nothing major." He didn't sound very convincing, though.

"Are you going to let him boss you around?" I pressed on. "Why can't you stand up for yourself? You can't let Greenpaw and Heronpaw act like they rule the camp!"

"Mind your own business, Swanpaw! What's it to you?" he suddenly exploded. "Why do you care, anyways? You're not exactly perfect yourself." He grabbed his fish and stormed off.

"Fine!" I yelled at him. "Be that way!" I kicked over a pebble and watched it fly across the grassy field.

At sunfall, Harepaw and I were due for a fishing lesson. We met Goldensun and Frostheart by the river. "Swanpaw and Harepaw, both of you are going to learn how to hunt," Goldensun said.

"You mean, you're going to teach Swanpaw and I'll re-teach Harepaw, as he seems to have forgotten how to hunt." Frostheart put in. Harepaw lowered his head in shame.

Goldensun pointedly turned his back on Frostheart, clearly annoyed by her rudeness. "So, as I was saying," he meowed icily, "Harepaw, you're more experienced, so show Swanpaw how it's done."

Yeah, right, I thought. Even Whitepaw would be a better teacher than Harepaw. I didn't dare say it aloud, though, because I didn't want to miss another day of training.

It seemed Harepaw's skills had regressed over the past moon. He's always been clumsy, but apparently he's gotten worse. I've heard Frostheart complain about him to the other senior warriors. Harepaw's lack of abilities has also made him a target for constant teasing from Greenpaw and Heronpaw.

Harepaw eagerly bounded over to the river, where he squatted down, waiting for a fish to come. When a huge trout came swimming nearby, Harepaw eagerly thrust his claws in, hoping to catch the fish. But he misaimed, and nearly fell into the water. The fish used that time to escape.

"Harepaw you fish-brain, I've taught you this a thousand times," Frostheart growled.

Even Goldensun seemed to agree. "I'm the blind one here, and I could tell where that was," he muttered. "Let me demonstrate." He walked up to the river and sat quietly, angling is ears towards the water. Since he was blind and couldn't see fish coming, he had to balance one whisker carefully over the water so that he could detect movements in the water. He waited, and when the time was right, he pounced. Goldensun triumphantly lifted a huge pike out of the water.

"Wow!" Harepaw gasped. That was most certainly one big fish! Even Frostheart seemed impressed.

"Swanpaw, now you try," Goldensun said.

I cautiously walked towards the water. "Unsheathe your claws," said Frostheart. "You have to be silent. When a fish comes close enough, you pounce, but don't fall into the water."

I waited. And waited. It seemed to take forever. Then I saw some carp swimming towards me. Without thinking, I thrust my paw into the water, reaching for the fish. For a while, we both struggled; then I managed to hook it with my claw and pull it out.

"Nice job!" said Goldensun. "That was very good for your first try." Harepaw grinned at me, but I could tell he was feeling a little left out, particularly because a new apprentice had beaten him.

We carried our catches to the camp. Goldensun showed me how to balance the fish on my back and tail. Then he and Frostheart took the lead, while Harepaw and I walked behind, not really knowing what to say to each other. While we were walking, I saw Greenpaw and Heronpaw chatting excitedly.

Greenpaw came up to us. "Hi, Harepaw," he sneered. "And hi Swanpaw." When he said my name, his voice changed to something softer. I wasn't going to fall for it though. Clearly Greenpaw had a crush on me. But he was still a jerk.

"So, what did you catch?" Heronpaw asked us.

"I caught a carp," I said.

"Great job!" Greenpaw said in an unnecessarily loud tone. "And you, Harepaw?"

Harepaw bowed his head. "Nothing," he muttered.

Heronpaw started to laugh. "If you keep this up, Sassafrasstar is going to rename you Dumbpaw."

"You're warrior name is going to be Dumbfish!" Greenpaw added. "You're clearly as stupid as one!"

"Dumbfish! Dumbfish!" the two toms yelled.

"Stop!" pleaded Harepaw. The two were laughing. I felt a little sorry for Harepaw, but I had to agree with Heronpaw and Greenpaw. Harepaw really needed to get his act together.

"How about we get the little fishie?" Heronpaw taunted. "Come on Harepaw, swim! Swim like the fishie you are!"

"Stop it!" Harepaw screeched. By then, tears were streaming down his cheeks, and I had to look away. It was a pathetic sight.

"Fishies don't cry, you pathetic little swimmer!" Greenpaw crowed. "Maybe if we put him in the water, he'll behave."

"Let's do it," Heronpaw agreed, motioning towards him. The two toms stepped towards Harepaw.

And that was when I lost it.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled.

The two of them turned to stare at me. "Oh, hi Swanpaw," said Greenpaw, as if he had just noticed me.

"How cute," Heronpaw laughed. "He needs a she-cat to stand up for him."

"Shut up!" Greenpaw growled.

"I said, leave him alone!" I repeated. "If you're going to insult someone, at least think of something original. You two ganging up against him is not funny."

"We were just having a little argument," Greenpaw said. "It's what we toms do."

I snorted. "It didn't look like it. And for the record, this isn't the first time you've bullied someone. I saw you treating Waterpaw like a slave this morning."

Greenpaw came closer to me. "You're very cute when you frown," he said. He put his tail on my shoulders and placed his paw next to mine.

In one fluid motion, I lifted my tail up and slapped him hard in the face. The slap echoed around the forest. "Get away from me!" I screeched at him. Greenpaw backed away from me, looking shocked, while Harepaw doubled over laughing.

"What's going on?" I heard Frostheart shout. Greenpaw's and Heronpaw's mentors, Brightleaf and Snakescale, came running forwards.

"What happened?" Goldensun demanded.

"I don't want to talk about it," I snapped, trying to disguise the tears in my eyes. Frostheart was giving a long lecture on how Clanmates had to get along with each other, because arguing would make us weaker in times of war.

Yeah, I thought, like you get along with Harepaw. Frostheart was such a hypocrite. And I hated Greenpaw and Heronpaw. Why did they have to be so horrible to everyone?

Things didn't improve for me later on.

At sunset, when we all sat down in the camp to eat, everyone seemed to know the story. Heronpaw went around making fun of Harepaw, and Harepaw went around telling everyone what a great hero I was.

"So Swanpaw, whose life are you going to save next?" Waterpaw teased me.

"Oh shut up," I snapped at him. He sighed and went off to find Harepaw.

At that point, Greenpaw came to me. "Look, Harepaw and I were just having a disagreement," he said. "We toms always argue."

"That was not arguing," I replied, "it was flat-out bullying."

"It's nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about," he said.

This only made me angrier. "So just because I'm a she-cat, I supposedly don't understand these things?"

The look on Greenpaw's face said it all.

"Well, guess what? She-cats can be just as tough as toms. And Greenpaw, I'm not going to like you unless you pull your act together. Here's a tip: if you want someone to like you, then don't act like you own the whole world. We don't like that sort of behavior in toms." And then I snatched up my food and stormed off.

Harepaw came to greet me. "I don't think that I thanked you enough for what you did today."

"It was nothing," I mumbled through a mouthful of scales.

"No really." Harepaw blocked my path, forcing me to look up at him. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Actually, there is one thing," I said. "Get out of my way." And then I shoved past him and stalked off.

AOTD: Frostheart? Well, I can't say much, lest I spoil the whole thing, but… she's pretty nasty. I think we've figured out that much by now. And she's going to get nastier. It's really fun to write about her and Swanpaw having at each other, though.

QOTD: If you could choose a Clan, which one would you live in and why?