Ravenpaw reared on his hind legs and quickly landed a blow on Oakpaw's shoulder, unsteadying the red furred tabby. His brother hissed before ducking away from a second blow and then lunged at Ravenpaw's hind legs, pulling him down. Oakpaw pinned his brother down with a forepaw on his neck and the other on Ravenpaw's belly.

Oakpaw could feel Tigerfur, Stormheart, Mudpaw, Shortpaw, Nettletail and Mothbelly watching him closely. He shrugged the feeling off. Why were they surprised? It was just battle training. Suddenly, he felt Ravenpaw grow limp. "So you surrender?" Oakpaw asked. Then Ravenpaw gave a mighty heave and Oakpaw felt himself fly of his brother, but he managed to land properly, on four paws.

Tigerfur called. "That's enough. Now we can do it. He meowed to the other warriors.

Oakpaw saw bracken ferns quivering, and he tensed. Out padded Firelight, Moonwillow, Sunburst and Hawkclaw. Both warriors and apprentices gathered at Riverstone.

Tigerfur stood at the top. "Shadestar has requested the clan to practice battle more. Especially when we are strong in Greenleaf so we can fight better in the other seasons.

Today we will do a different exercise." Stormheart began to meow. "Each of us will be split into one of the two clans. I am leader of Stormclan." "And I am the leader of Tigerclan." Tigerfur continued. "Each clan will have three stones. Your clan will win when they have all six of the stones. We will have a few moments to make strategies so quickly decide whether you are playing to defend or attack." He meowed again. "Before we begin, has everybody understood this exercise?"

Every cat nodded and they started to line up, as Tigerfur and then Stormheart started to call names for their Clan.

"Firelight!"

"Nettletail."

"Hawkclaw!"

"Mothbelly."

"Sunburst!"

"Moonwillow."

"Mudpaw!"

"Shortpaw."

"Oakpaw!"

"Ravenpaw."

As each cat bounded out towards their "leader", Ravenpaw couldn't help but feel a small twitch of annoyance, and anger. Why did he have to be chosen last?

Oakpaw crouched low, and flicked his ears towards his mentor so he could hear better. Tigerfur whispered. "Mudpaw and Oakpaw might be faster than the warriors, so you two will be attacking. I will shadow you two, if you need any help against, the warriors. Defenders, Firelight is in charge." Then the deputy padded away, returning moments after showing several, smooth looking pebbles in one of his tabby brown paws.

He passed half of them to his brother and meowed loud enough that all the cats would hear. "Our stones are hidden under one of the borage flowers. Stormheart's clan has left their pebbles near Riverstone and Sunrocks." Hawkclaw mewed. "Springcloud will be as mad as a fox in a fit if we fight near our stones, and trample her herbs." "I will personally take the blame." Tigerfur replied. "Wow." Oakpaw thought. His mentor was responsible and must of thought about it first."

Pride filled him to be Tigerfur's apprentice, as if he was the mentor instead of an apprentice. Maybe I will become better from him as my mentor. And not just in skills.

Finally, Tigerfur yowled; "Begin!" and cats ran forward, racing to get all the stones. Ravenpaw ran as hard as he could, Nettletail flanking him on one side and Mothbelly on the other.

Their clan had agreed to all run at the same time, forming a wall of cats that could only be forced apart. Well that won't even happen. He thought gloomily, as his forepaw slipped underneath his belly. Suddenly, something tugged at him and he felt himself drifting away, just as he had, when…

When what? What was it? Ughhhhhhh! He thought in frustration. He couldn't remember, but he knew it was important. He glanced up and finally noticed a small black tom, with bright green eyes; clumsily stumble over his own paws.

The tom looked exactly like him. The cat even had the same distinctive star shape on his head, just like Oakpaw and himself. Suddenly, it hit him. The tom… was him!

He saw other cats running past, and not taking any notice of the fallen apprentice.

The feeling felt worst than a belly ache, and brought cold pain to his heart.

Didn't any cat care about him?

He suddenly felt himself return back, just in time to raise his paw, fending of a blow. "You're a little slow, Ravenpaw." Mudpaw hissed.

Oakpaw felt like he was a soaring hawk, from the speed he was going at. His belly barely skimmed the ground as he sent his legs to take even longer strides, until he quickly glanced back and realized he had passed Mudpaw who was dealing with his brother.

He slammed into a wall of thick, white fur. It was Moonwillow. The she-cat swiftly ducked as Oakpaw tried to leap onto her back. Missing his target, he landed on his side, and his breath was knocked out. Moonwillow took the moment to duck under the apprentice's belly and reared up, throwing the russet brown tom backwards, towards his team's base, but this time he landed hard on his belly, his four paws splayed out on the ground.

Moonwillow led her teammates through the gap and they began to stream past, even as a surprised Tigerfur, tried to force them back, with hefty blows.

Cream, colored fur flashed at the edge of Oakpaw's vision. He rolled over, a moment before Shortpaw crashed onto the patch of dirt, where he had fell.

Shortpaw leapt onto Oakpaw and bowled him over. The two apprentices tussled, but Oakpaw managed to pin the older apprentice down, and leapt off of him heading towards the enemy's stones, hoping to mange to grab at least one this time. Instead, Shortpaw grabbed quickly grabbed Oakpaw's hind leg, dragging him down and they started to fight once more.

Instinctively, Oakpaw's mind went, duck, swipe, roll, leap, rear, and attack. However, Shortpaw's fighting level definitely wasn't the same as a kit's. He still held on to Oakpaw and heaved him backwards, letting go of him as he did. The force from the thrust, helped boost Shortpaw a little when he leapt at the same time.

Turning around, Shortpaw now had his back to his team's stones. The bold apprentice bushed out his fur, and whipped his tail, back and forth with a hiss. He could easily be an enemy, from his flattened ears and angry snarls.

But Oakpaw was no coward. He charged head on. I can do this!

Then Oakpaw leapt higher then he had ever done in the past, right over Shortpaw, and next to the stones. Oakpaw could tell that, Shortpaw was momentarily frozen from shock, from his wide eyes, gaping mouth, and his loud gasp, "How did you do that!?" His loud voice drowned out everything else, and caused several pairs of eyes to stare at him.

Tigerfur took no time to dawdle in the mist of the unplanned surprise. "Go!" And suddenly the frozen cats began to move again as if nothing had happened. Oakpaw sprang to get to Sunrocks where Stormclan's stones lay, and used his paw to dig around the crevices. Finally, he grasped several small rocks and decided to carry them in his mouth. But as he turned around, he saw Nettletail and Mudpaw standing shoulders to shoulders, blocking his path back to Tigerclan's territory.

Panic began to rise in his chest. No way, could he beat two older apprentices and a senior warrior. They began to close in on Oakpaw, forcing him to move until he had his back against Sunrocks.

Ravenpaw could taste his brother's fear scent. Does he actually think it's a real battle?

Tigerfur and Shortpaw barged past him and tackled Nettletail together before Ravenpaw could even blink. The small distraction was enough for Oakpaw to use to get away. He ducked his head so he could crawl under Mudpaw's underbelly as if it was just a tunnel, leaving a very surprised, Mudpaw while he ran back to his base. Tigerfur yowled loudly. "We've won!" And the rest of his clan cheered. He padded over to his apprentice and gave him a proud nudge. "Well done, Oakpaw."

Oakpaw spat the stones out promptly onto the ground. "It feels great to win," His eyes shone. "But it was fun too!"

Hey Guys!

Yes,I went to the library to randomly post a review. And I agree that i really write more from Oakpaw's point of view, because I'm running out of ideas! If you have any suggestions, please, send.

-Catqstar