They were walking home from the Gathering now. It had gone surprisingly well.

*X*

"Stealthclan is doing well too." Brightstar had said. "Great hunting and no sickness yet. We have a new apprentice, Wolfpaw."

"Wolfpaw! Wolfpaw!" All the cats had cheered.

*X*

"Wolfpaw!" He snapped back to reality.

Whitepaw was talking to him.

"Sorry." He meowed, slightly embarrassed. "I was distracted. What'd you say?"

Whitepaw rolled his eyes. "I asked you 'why were you staring at Maplepaw?'"

"Oh." He meowed. "I don't know. Just looking I guess."

His friend tipped his head. "Well, you better watch your 'just looking'. Cats from other clans aren't allowed to mate."

"Where'd you get the idea that I love her?" He rolled his eyes now.

"Forget it." Whitepaw snarled. He jogged ahead to catch up to Fernpaw.

Wolfpaw shook his head. I was not staring at her!

They walked back into camp and the three apprentices curled up in their nests. Wolfpaw closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

*X*

He opened them a heartbeat later in the Dark Forest. He made his way towards the meeting place.

"An apprentice now, eh?" A voice meowed.

"Buzz off, Stagfoot." He snarled, not turning back to look at the tabby.

"Did you just tell me to 'buzz off'?' The cat snarled. "No one tells me to 'buzz off'!"

"Go away, Staggy." Wolfpaw growled.

"Staggy?" Stagfoot meowed. A growl rose in the tom's throat.

There was the rustling of dead leaves as the brown tom raced forward, growling. Wolfpaw sighed in annoyance. He turned around and jumped onto a tree trunk, climbing to the lowest branch. He heard the opposing warrior land in the tree not far above him, leaves falling. He scrambled higher into the tree. As Wolfpaw passed Stagfoot, he heard the tom pursuing him.

Wolfpaw leapt into the next tree and so did the long limbed tom. They stood on the same branch, growling. Wolfpaw swiped a forepaw at his opponent, putting a few scratches on his nose.

Stagfoot countered by swiping an even larger forepaw at him. It caught on Wolfpaw's shoulder, sending him falling out of the tree. The apprentice hit the ground with a thump and slowly got up, looking at his bleeding wound, the first he had ever gotten here.

He jumped to the side as Stagfoot came crashing down where he just was. The two cats now circled each other, growling fiercely. Stagfoot leaped and Wolfpaw sidestepped the attack. He spun around to face 'Staggy'.

The cat was snarling now, anger in his eyes. "You're better than you look, Wolfpaw."

The apprentice narrowed his eyes, not intimidated by his attacker. He wasn't going to fall for this trick. "I have a good mentor." He snarled in reply.

Both cats leapt at each other at the same time, colliding in midair. They were scratching, biting, and clawing at each other viciously as they rolled across the ground. The thing they didn't know was that their loud screeches were echoing through the forest.

"Stop!" A fierce meow sounded.

Wolfpaw pushed Stagfoot away, who nearly collapsed to the ground.

The brown tom chuckled and then meowed, "Hello, Hawktalon."

Wolfpaw looked at his Dark Forest mentor. He just dipped his head slightly towards him.

"What happened here?" The light brown tom asked.

"I attacked your apprentice." Snarled 'Staggy'. He flicked a torn ear.

"He did better than you did." Hawktalon retorted to the brown tom. Then he laughed. "My apprentice is better than an experienced Dark Forest warrior." He shook his head. "Wolfpaw, kill him. He's useless to us now."

"But-"

"I said, kill him."

Wolfpaw dipped his head. He quickly thought of the killing moves he had learned. A very powerful one came into his head. He hoped that it would work because it never had before during training.

Bracing himself to kill the injured cat before him, Wolfpaw charged.