Chapter Seven

It had been about half a moon since the Gathering and Briarpaw was thriving in the Clan. Mapleshade's wound still wasn't fully healed, so Sandcloud was training Briarpaw for the time being. They'd become closer than they'd been before and didn't have to worry about Mapleshade. The orange and white she-cat would rest for most of the day, but her wound would be reopened by the next morning. Blizzardtail was perplexed by it, but Sandcloud had grown suspicious. He told Briarpaw that he thought Mapleshade was sneaking off at night.
"I doubt she is." The silver and white apprentice replied with a hint of irritation. "Mapleshade is loyal to Thunderclan, so why would she sneak around?"
Sandcloud shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she's not as loyal as you think."
Briarpaw's hackles rose slightly, but she tried to stay calm. "She wants to lead the Clan one day. Why would she jeopardize that?"
"Why don't you ask her?" Sandcloud dared. "I bet she won't tell you."
Briarpaw rolled her eyes and batted at Sandcloud. "You don't even know if she's been sneaking off."
"Let's go see Blizzardtail." The sandy tom gently pushed Briarpaw. "I want to see if she needs us to gather any herbs for her." He got to his paws and headed for the fern tunnel. Briarpaw followed, but she dragged her paws the whole way. "I hate doing this." She complained. "I'd rather train or hunt. I mean, I know it's helpful, but I hate collecting moss and taking care of the elders."
"Everyone does." Sandcloud replied. "You're just not used to it because Mapleshade didn't make you do anything except train and hunt. She wasn't giving you the full apprentice experience."
"I'd rather have the Mapleshade experience." Briarpaw grumbled under her breath. She loved that she got to spend so much time with Sandcloud, but she missed the training with Mapleshade. As much as she disliked the she-cat, she also deeply respected her. Mapleshade was cunning and defiant of everything normal. Briarpaw liked that about her because the two of them would be unstoppable while the other cats were mouse-brained and worried about what Starclan thought of them.
"Starclan." She spat quietly. "They don't know anything. They're just a bunch of dead cats that think they can control the living."
"I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" Sandcloud meowed absentmindedly. Briarpaw shook her head. "No, I was talking to myself. Why are you so nice to Blizzardtail?" She asked suddenly, trying to change the subject.
"You know that she's my mother's littermate." Sandcloud replied. Briarpaw nodded. "Yes, but so is Dawnstar and you don't spend very much time with her."
"She's the leader." Sandcloud retorted, beginning to get irritated. "Blizzardtail helped me recover after my mother died and now those bad dreams I had when you were a kit are gone."
Briarpaw dipped her head. "So have mine. I guess I've been so tired from training that I haven't had any energy for dreaming."
"Hello, you two." Blizzardtail's sweet meow interrupted the younger cats. "Did you need something?"
Sandcloud purred and touched noses with the pretty white she-cat. "We were wondering if you needed any help gathering herbs or something."
"Is Mapleshade here?" Briarpaw interjected. Blizzardtail motioned for Ravenpaw to come forward. The young black she-cat touched noses with Briarpaw. "We haven't seen Mapleshade since last night. We were hoping you would be able to find her. We've learned some information that she'll definitely want to know."
"Of course we can." Sandcloud answered quickly. "Let's go, Briarpaw." He bounded away from the medicine cat's den and Briarpaw followed closely behind. They had just camp entrance when Mapleshade burst through, nearly running the two over.
"We were actually going to look for you." Sandcloud explained, distrust tingeing his meow. Mapleshade narrowed her amber eyes. "Why? Do I need someone to watch over me at all times?"
Briarpaw rolled her eyes and pushed Sandcloud a little bit. "He's being mouse-brained. Blizzardtail and Ravenpaw were worried about you because they didn't know where you were. We offered to find you because I wanted to see how you were doing."
Mapleshade sighed and sat down. "I have some bad news for you, Briarpaw. We're going to have to halt our training for a little while."
Briarpaw tilted her head. "Aren't we doing that now?"
"It'll be for much longer." Mapleshade replied. "I'm expecting kits, Briarpaw."
The young she-cat didn't know how to react. Didn't Mapleshade always tell her that she didn't need other cats? The confusion on her face must have shown because Mapleshade wrapped her tail around Briarpaw's shoulders and led her to a more private area. Sandcloud shook his head and padded back toward Blizzardtail's den.
"I know this is hard for you." Mapleshade began. "Since the day you were apprenticed I've preached about focusing only on yourself, but I didn't manage to follow that one rule. You've done exceptional and you have so much potential, Briarpaw. You don't need other cats, but I do. You will be a greater warrior than me someday, but you'll need my help until then. Just make sure you don't make the same mistake as me. I'm going to try to still attain my goals even with these kits, but it's going to be much harder than it would have been."
Briarpaw tilted her head to one side. "Am I still going to kill Brackenclaw?"
"Maybe, but it will not be as soon as I would have wanted." Mapleshade answered. "I do apologize for this, but remember, you need to train just as hard as you used to. Don't let Sandcloud make you weak like him."
Briarpaw nodded. "I'll try, but he makes me take care of the elders and gather moss almost every single day."
Mapleshade growled a little bit. "That little fox-heart is trying to sabotage you. I'll speak with Dawnstar and you won't have to do that anymore."
"Thanks." Briarpaw purred. "Just so you know, I think it's good that you told me how you feel. You've never really opened up like that."
Mapleshade bared her teeth and cuffed Briarpaw. "Don't be an insolent brat. I'm just telling you how great you can be, but only if you listen to me. Do not do anything stupid or I will shred you. Got it?"
Briarpaw nodded fearfully. "I think Sandcloud and I are going hunting." She turned tail and ran away from Mapleshade. Sandcloud met her by the camp entrance and started out of it.
"We're hunting, right?" Briarpaw asked hopefully. Sandcloud dipped his head. "Yes, but I would like to speak to you about something important."
Briarpaw shrugged and the two hurried into the forest. The leaves were turning a reddish brown now that it was Leaf-fall, but Briarpaw liked it. She thought the forest looked prettier when it was dying.
"Here, sit down." Sandcloud flicked his tail. "I want to talk to you about Mapleshade. I think she's an evil cat. She kills cats without a second thought and I don't want you to do that too."
"I don't." Briarpaw insisted. "I've only killed two cats."
"Out of how many?" Sandcloud snorted. "Five? That's not very good, Briarpaw. Oh, I forgot to tell you. I was on a border patrol yesterday and Pineleaf came across the Thunderpath to tell me something. She said that Lightpaw decided to become a medicine cat apprentice after you nearly clawed out his eye. He's really grateful for that, actually. She wanted to personally tell you that she was thankful that you helped him figure out his path in life."
"Why is Pineleaf so friendly to me?" Briarpaw asked. "No other cats have acted like that, I mean, I nearly blinded one of her kits and she's the nicest of anyone."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Sandcloud sighed. "I need to make a confession. When I was a young apprentice, not too long after my mother was killed, I was hunting by myself near the Thunderpath and I saw something strange. There was a small kit trying to cross it by herself. She couldn't have been more than a few sunrises old, so I picked her up by her scruff and took her to our side of the Thunderpath. Her name was Robinkit."
Briarpaw rolled her eyes. "What does this have to do with anything?"
Sandcloud flicked his tail over her mouth. "Hush. I looked at Robinkit and I was faced with one of the hardest decisions I'd ever made. She was so strong and brave and our Clan could have used another kit. I could have taken her back to Shadowclan, but I decided that she should be raised in Thunderclan. She was Pineleaf's only daughter. Now, I don't know what to do about it."
Briarpaw tilted her head to one side. "Well, is it absolutely vital to tell her? I mean; is this something that she'll definitely need to know? I would say don't tell her if she has no idea about it. Who knows besides you?"
"The she-cat that raised her." Sandcloud replied. "I didn't even tell Blizzardtail because I thought she would hate me."
"Well, I don't hate you." Briarpaw meowed brightly. "And don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
Sandcloud shot her a confused look, so Briarpaw pressed against his side. "Ravenpaw doesn't have any inkling of this." She assured. "And I'll make sure she never finds out."
Sandcloud backed away. "What? It's not Ravenpaw, Briarpaw."
Briarpaw shrugged. "Fine, don't tell me. It's not like I really care. You were the one that was disloyal to your Clan."
"Disloyal?" Sandcloud gasped. "I was not disloyal! If anything I helped out our Clan by bringing Robinkit here. You don't know everything, Briarpaw, not by a long shot. You go hunting by yourself and I'll take care of the elders." The sandy tom turned away from Briarpaw and hurried toward the Thunderclan camp. Briarpaw grumbled under her breath and got to her paws. Now hunting was going to be a pain in the tail rather than a break. She slunk through the forest for a while and had caught a squirrel and two mice by sunhigh, so she went back to camp to deposit her fresh-kill. Once she'd gotten through the bramble barriers, she was bombarded by Jaypaw play-fighting. The blue-gray she-cat knocked Briarpaw off her paws and sent the fresh-kill sprawling across the camp.
"Now look what you've done." Briarpaw spat, throwing Jaypaw off of her. "You just got my fresh-kill all dusty."
"She was just playing, Briarpaw." Sandcloud meowed defensively. "Maybe you should try it sometime."
Briarpaw snorted and dropped a mouse and the squirrel off. She settled down in an area by herself and began nibbling on the mouse she'd caught. Mapleshade joined her soon after and they ate in silence for a little while.
"You were right." Briarpaw burst. "Other cats are a waste of time. I'm done paying attention to what they do. I'm only going to focus on myself."
Mapleshade let out a proud purr. "Now you can finally achieve what you've been wanting. You can do almost anything you want and not worry about others."
Briarpaw narrowed her eyes. "You're right, Mapleshade. Darkpatch and Tigerfang have hardly said anything to me since Birchpaw died. They're supposed to be my parents, but they obviously favored Birchpaw, even though he was weak. I mean, what kind of warrior gets killed in their first battle? Not a very good one. He would have never done well and would have always been compared to me, so it's a good thing he died, right?"
Mapleshade nodded slowly. "He would have been a liability to the Clan. It would have happened eventually."
"I'm sure it would have." Briarpaw agreed. She glanced over in Sandcloud's direction and saw him sharing tongues with Jaypaw. She growled lowly and narrowed her eyes. What was so great about Jaypaw? She wasn't very pretty and she wasn't good in a battle. In fact, she wasn't a very good Clan cat at all. That was probably why she wasn't a warrior yet. Briarpaw would be one before Jaypaw. The blue-gray she-cat just wasn't talented. Not like Briarpaw at least.
"Forget about him." Mapleshade hissed. "Let him settle for the mouse-brain. You're too good for him anyway."
Briarpaw snorted. "I'm not interested him like that. I'm not going to make the same mistake you did." The words tumbled from her mouth before she could stop them. Mapleshade just rolled her eyes. "Good to know you're so much more intelligent than me. Now, you need to go to your nest because I need to tell Sandcloud what you're going to do for training tomorrow."
"Oh, I nearly forgot." Briarpaw meowed, getting to her paws. "Ravenpaw and Blizzardtail wanted to tell you something earlier."
"I know." Mapleshade flicked her tail dismissively. "They wanted to tell me that I was expecting kits and that I needed to stop training you until the kits were born."
"Okay, see you to tomorrow." Briarpaw turned tail and headed to the apprentices' den. She settled into her nest and closed her eyes.
"All Thunderclan cats gather around the Highrock for a Clan meeting." Dawnstar called loudly. Briarpaw blinked blearily and tumbled into the camp clearing. Most of the cats were already gathered around the pale tabby leader, so she sat down near the edge and tried to figure out what they were meeting for. None of the warriors were old enough to become elders and there weren't any kits in the nursery at this point, unless Honeyfur had kitted without anyone noticing.
"Jaypaw has been training to become a warrior for a very long time." Dawnstar began. Briarpaw rolled her eyes and headed back toward the den.
"Briarpaw, you may want to stay out here for a little bit." Dawnstar continued. "Anyways, Jaypaw has passed every assessment Brackenclaw can think of so I think it's time she gets her warrior name. Jaypaw, from now on you will be known as Jayflight. The Clans accept you as a full warrior, so tonight you'll need to sit a silent vigil. Now, on to Briarpaw. Mapleshade was your mentor, but she was injured and now she's expecting kits, so you're going to need a new mentor for the time being. Tomorrow I will assess all your skills and then decide who will mentor you based on that. Make sure you're well-rested because we're joining the dawn patrol. All right, that's everything."
"Jayflight! Jayflight!" The Clan called, Briarpaw excluded. She just shrugged and padded back to her nest, missing a suspicious stare from Dawnstar.

Thank you to all the people who reviewed the last chapter! That's the most I've ever gotten, so thanks bunches. I hope you like this chapter as much as that one. Again, THANKS!