Chapter 9

Tinyclaw woke to find that Graystripe was hunched beside him, stiff like a tense rabbit. His friend's fur was fluffed out from nose to tail. Concerned, Tinyclaw nudged his friend with his nose and mewed, "Graystripe?"

Graystripe jumped.

"Are you OK?" Tinyclaw wondered.

Graystripe sat up straight, drawing a paw over his ear. "Yeah," he replied, his mew light. "It's just getting really cold out."

Tinyclaw opened his jaws. The air tasted sharp and cold, like his tongue had been coated in sparkling frost. From underneath the canopy that sheltered the warrior's den, Tinyclaw could see the camp shimmering before him with a thin layer of frost on the ground. Each blade of grass was tipped with white.

"Won't be long until leaf-bare now," Graystripe meowed, breath puffing out before his nose. "One-eye always said that once the grass starts freezing, the snow isn't far off."

Tinyclaw puffed out his fur. He wasn't looking forward to that. He drew himself up in his nest and licked down his chest fur. Graystripe seemed to be making the effort to sound more cheerful today. "Any plans for Cinderpaw today?" he wondered.

"I was going to show her the territory," Graystripe replied.

"I could bring Brackenpaw," Tinyclaw offered. "They could see the forest together."

Graystripe blinked, looking away from Tinyclaw. "It… It might be better if we travel alone today," he meowed.

Tinyclaw's heart fell. So Graystripe still wasn't feeling his best – that was all right, he supposed. Tinyclaw would give his friend the space he needed. Still, it hurt a little – he had caught his first glimpse of the forest with Graystripe, when he was first made an apprentice. He had hoped that they could show Cinderpaw and Brackenpaw the world beyond their camp together.

"Fine," Tinyclaw decided, trying to not sound hurt. "We'll meet up later – share a mouse and compare apprentices."

"Sure," Graystripe agreed.

Tinyclaw slipped out of the warrior's den. The ground felt like cold, solid stone beneath his paws as he stretched, one leg at a time. His breath puffed and swirled before his nose, and Tinyclaw wondered when the sun would come out from behind those dark gray clouds.

The grass crackled beneath his paws as he made his way over to the apprentice's den. Brackenpaw was curled up beside his sister, a golden-brown lump in the den. His flanks rose and fell as he slept. Tinyclaw reached in and prodded Brackenpaw gently.

"Brackenpaw," he called.

Brackenpaw woke quickly, but not so quickly as to shock Tinyclaw. His eyes opened, and he yawned. It took him a moment to get a grip on his surroundings, but he spotted Tinyclaw and his eyes brightened. Brackenpaw padded out of the apprentice's den without waking his sister.

"Good morning," Brackenpaw meowed. "Did I sleep in?"

Tinyclaw shook his head.

Brackenpaw licked down his chest fur and then asked, "What are we doing today?"

"I thought I'd take you on a tour of ThunderClan territory," Tinyclaw replied. "How's that sound?"

"Great!" Brackenpaw agreed. He stood up and raised his tail. Then, the tip of his tail lowered. "Will we… be seeing the Thunderpath?"

Tinyclaw frowned. "Yes, I suppose," he replied.

"I hear it stinks," Brackenpaw sighed.

"It does," Tinyclaw confirmed.

Brackenpaw looked back at his sister. "Cinderpaw really wants to see it," he meowed. "I hope she doesn't get too disappointed."

"You can talk about it later," Tinyclaw told his apprentice. "Are you hungry?"

Brackenpaw shook his head.

"Later, then," Tinyclaw decided. He raised his tail and meowed, "Follow me!"

A feeling of pride swept away his worry for Graystripe as Brackenpaw followed him out of the thorn tunnel. The feeling of having an apprentice following him, listening to his every word… it was amazing! Tinyclaw wondered if cats who had had more than one apprentice still felt this way as they showed their newest students around.

Tinyclaw led the way up the ravine, pausing now and again to make sure Brackenpaw was keeping up – the stony path could wear out even the most energetic of apprentices. Brackenpaw was doing fine, however, his face screwed up in thoughtful concentration as he scrambled up the rocks. He was panting when he reached the top, but his eyes sparkled with triumph.

"Wow," he breathed. He lifted his head, his eyes scanning the treetops. "The trees are so beautiful… they look like they're made of moonstone!"

Tinyclaw twitched his whiskers. His first view of the forest from the top of the ravine had been in newleaf, with every tree heavy with green leaves. He had never seen the trees like this, though – each one sparkled with white frost, twitching as the chilly breeze tickled through the air. He could see the paths that ThunderClan warriors walked clearly from here, and he traced an ideal path for them t walk.

"Which way now?" Brackenpaw wondered, breath puffing before his nose.

"Follow me," Tinyclaw meowed. He looked at Brackenpaw, still puffing, and added, "Conserve your energy – we've got a long way to go."

Brackenpaw nodded, eyes sparkling with determination.

Tinyclaw couldn't help but smile as he turned away. Brackenpaw was already proving to be an easygoing apprentice. Training him would be easy! Hopefully Graystripe would have the same luck with Cinderpaw.

He led the way along the ravine into the sandy hollow where he had spent his apprentice days training with Bluefur. As he stepped into the hollow, he frowned – memories of his last training session with the blue-furred deputy ran through his mind, and he shivered.

Daylight streamed onto the frozen red earth as they padded into the center of the hollow. During greenleaf, the trees kept out most of the sunlight, making it a nice shady spot for training. The warmth had even loosed a small stream, the same one where Tinyclaw had caught his first mouse.

"This is where we'll be doing most of our training," Tinyclaw meowed. "This is the sandy hollow."

Brackenpaw drank it in, his eyes wide. "Did Bluefur train you here?" he asked.

Tinyclaw suppressed a flinch, knowing that Brackenpaw knew Bluefur as a loyal deputy and great warrior – he had no idea what dangerous and deadly moves that she had impressed upon Tinyclaw… nor did he knew about her vicious training methods.

"Yes," he replied, "she did."

"Wow," was all Brackenpaw said in reply.

"There's a stream up the rise there," Tinyclaw meowed, nodding in the direction of the stream. "It runs during newleaf and greenleaf, but it's dry now. I caught my first prey there."

Brackenpaw nodded, absorbing the information silently. He looked as if he wanted to ask questions, but he seemed nervous. Tinyclaw swallowed – perhaps having such a quiet apprentice wasn't a good thing?

"Anyway," he continued awkwardly. "You won't catch much there now but fish… and I'd leave that to RiverClan."

Brackenpaw's whiskers twitched in amusement.

"Let's head to the Owl Tree next," Tinyclaw suggested, recalling his own favorite routes through the forest.

Tail up, he led the way across the frosted ground. Brackenpaw was keeping up, a pace behind, his kit-soft fur fluffed up against the cold. Tinyclaw pushed through tall, crisp, ferns, leading the way to a leaf-strewn clearing. The Owl Tree stood up high and tall in the center, its branches touching the sky.

"Wow," Brackenpaw mewed, tipping his head back. Growing dizzy, he looked back at Tinyclaw. "Does… Does an owl really live in the tree?"

Tinyclaw nodded. He gestured with his tail. "Can you see the hole up the trunk? The owl nests there," he meowed.

Brackenpaw narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure?" he wondered.

Tinyclaw blinked. He hadn't expected Brackenpaw to question him – however, he knew how to answer the apprentice's question and, unfortunately, it was thanks to Bluefur. He pushed at the leaves strewn over the ground with his paws.

"Try burrowing under the leaves," Tinyclaw meowed. Quickly, he warned, "Don't use your mouth!"

Brackenpaw nodded and rooted about in the leaves with his paws, shuffling around. The crackled and snapped around the golden-brown apprentice as he searched. Finally, Brackenpaw took a sniff and drew his nose up, curling his lip.

"Ugh!" he spat. "Something smells like crow-food!"

Tinyclaw padded forward and glanced into the hole Brackenpaw had made. Reaching in with a paw, he pushed forward a large pod the size of a pinecone out into the open.

"What you smell is this, Brackenpaw," he meowed. "This is an owl pod. Owls eat much of the same prey as we do, but they can't digest the bones and fur so their bellies roll it all up into this pod and then they vomit it up. If you find one of these under a tree, then you've found an owl."

Brackenpaw wrinkled his nose. "Did Bluefur teach you that?" he wondered.

Tinyclaw nodded. Though, she tricked me into nearly eating the pod… He shivered at the memory. Tinyclaw buried the pod beneath the leaves again, grateful as the air began to clear up.

"But… why would you want to find an owl in the first place?" Brackenpaw wondered. "They carry off cats!"

"Owls get a really good look at the woods, a look that we can't get ourselves," Tinyclaw replied. "On nights when it's hard to hunt due to wind or other factors, you can look for owls and watch where they go."

Brackenpaw blinked, listening quietly. Then, he mentioned, "Dappletail once told me a story of an old ThunderClan leader who used owls to hunt. It sounded so strange at first, but now I can see that it might be the truth after all."

Tinyclaw nodded. "Come on," he meowed. "There's still so much more to see!"

Brackenpaw got to his paws, and Tinyclaw led them away from the Owl Tree and through the forest. They crossed a Twoleg path and a frozen stream as the sun rose up into the pale sky, pushing away the gray morning-clouds. A huge sycamore tree rose up from the earth in their path, its branches reaching across the sky for forever.

"What's this?" Brackenpaw wondered. "It's bigger than the Owl Tree!"

"This is the Great Sycamore," Tinyclaw meowed. "This tree is so old, Smallear claims to have been able to climb to its very top when he was an apprentice!"

Brackenpaw's tail twitched. Then, he chuckled, "It was probably a sapling then!"

Tinyclaw purred in amusement. So he did have a sense of humor! Tinyclaw told his apprentice, "We'll be coming here to learn how to climb trees – the Great Sycamore is very sturdy, and its borne the weight of many ThunderClan apprentices."

"I can't wait!" Brackenpaw mewed, eyes lighting up. He looked about, then he asked, staring into a deeper part of the forest, "What's over there?"

"That's Snakerocks," Tinyclaw meowed. "Adders make their home there, and a bite from one of them could kill a cat your size." Inwardly, he reflected that Brackenpaw really wasn't much bigger than Tinyclaw himself. "We'll be avoiding that for now, until the snakes are hibernating. We'll be looking at the Thunderpath next."

"Alright," Brackenpaw agreed. He didn't seem eager to disobey his mentor, or get tangled up with adders.

Tinyclaw nodded, grateful that he wasn't shooting off in any direction he pleased. Tinyclaw led the way past the Great Sycamore and further, deeper into the woods. He kept Brackenpaw on a path that skirted around Snakerocks – though when they saw the pale stones rising up through the trees, Tinyclaw pointed them out to Brackenpaw, making sure to impress that he wasn't to go there without supervision.

The trees began thinning out all around them, and Tinyclaw could smell the Thunderpath looming ahead. He wrinkled his nose – but he found that, after his journey to find WindClan, the smell wasn't as bad as it had been before.

Tinyclaw kept one eye on Brackenpaw as they emerged from the forest. Brackenpaw shivered, and Tinyclaw could feel the ground rumbling beneath his paws as a monster approached. The Thunderpath stretched out before them, wide and gray and stinky. Brackenpaw curled his tail at the stench.

"Keep close," Tinyclaw called, seeing Brackenpaw take a paw step forward. "There's a monster coming."

"A monster?" Brackenpaw wondered. "What's a -"

His question was cut off by the answer – a monster roared past, buffeting both cats with the wind it kicked up. The cold air swirled around them while the ground thundered beneath their paws. Brackenpaw's claws were dug deep into the ground in shock.

"It's gone," Tinyclaw meowed. "It's all right – yes, that was a monster. They don't normally leave the Thunderpath, but they need to be looked out for." He didn't want to think of what might happen if Brackenpaw tried crossing a Thunderpath without looking for one of those deadly monstrosities. "While the air is settling, take a whiff – is there anything you can smell besides the Thunderpath?"

Brackenpaw gradually lost his stiffness. He opened his jaws and then closed them, his tail bristling. "ShadowClan," he meowed. "I know it – it was on Thornkit and Swiftkit when they were brought back to camp."

Tinyclaw nodded, recalling that Thornkit and Swiftkit were Cinderpaw's and Brackenpaw's littermates. They were ill, which was why they hadn't been apprenticed the same time as their kin.

"Thank you for saving them," Brackenpaw offered. "That was very brave. Cinderpaw and I were very worried about our brothers."

"They'll be training with you in no time," Tinyclaw assured him with a flick of his tail. He glanced over the Thunderpath, feeling his pelt prickle at the thought of being so close to another Clan's territory. "Let's get going."

"Where to now?" Brackenpaw wondered, as they got to their paws again.

Tinyclaw led Brackenpaw into the trees again, well away from the Thunderpath. He laid his paws down on the path to their next destination, replying over his shoulder, "Tallpines. One of our borders is there, and it's a route that will take us back to camp."

"Isn't Tallpines close to… to the Twolegplace?" Brackenpaw asked hesitantly.

"Yes, it is," Tinyclaw replied, his fur ruffling a little as he anticipated Brackenpaw's next question.

"Weren't you born there?"

There was no hostility in his apprentice's question, unlike the accusations thrown at him from the WindClan apprentices that had reminded him of the barbed comments by his Clanmates. Tinyclaw flattened his fur – he couldn't snap at his own apprentice, especially when he was just wondering something.

"Yes, I was," Tinyclaw meowed. "But I'm a ThunderClan warrior now."

"I'm glad," Brackenpaw meowed. "Without you, my littermates might not have come back."

"It… It wasn't just me, you know," Tinyclaw told him bashfully. "It was mostly Whitestorm's idea."

"But you believed in Yellowfang," Brackenpaw insisted. "And Whitestorm believed in you. Frostfur told us all about it – I don't care that you were a kittypet, Tinyclaw; you're a great warrior, and I'm proud to have you as my mentor."

Fur burning, Tinyclaw hadn't any idea of how to reply. He led the way into Tallpines, keeping Brackenpaw away from Twoleg paths.

"Twolegs come here often with their dogs," he warned. "Keep a sharp eye out."

The scents of Twolegplace wafted through the Tallpines, making Tinyclaw's pelt prickle. Perhaps taking the long way home wasn't the best idea? The air stirred up memories of warmth and safety in his old home, surrounded by strange Twoleg objects – never having to look far for a meal, or someplace warm to sleep.

Tinyclaw shook it off. That wasn't his life anymore, and he couldn't want anything more than being a Clan cat.

"Look!" Brackenpaw hissed.

Tinyclaw halted. Brackenpaw pointed with his nose to a long-furred white she-cat padding through the trees. She wasn't facing them, and it seemed like she was distracted.

"A kittypet!" Brackenpaw breathed, as if he had seen some sort of exotic prey.

"Hush!" Tinyclaw hissed.

Brackenpaw nodded, and Tinyclaw peered closer at the she-cat. As the kittypet moved, her long fur swished against her kit-swollen belly. Her steps were heavy and clumsy in the woods, and her scent was warm and milky. He breathed it in, confused at what he tasted.

She's a stranger on our territory, so why don't I feel the urge to chase her? Tinyclaw wondered.

The kittypet's collar jingled gently as she moved, advancing slowly into the Tallpines.

"We should chase her off," Brackenpaw suggested. "This is our territory, isn't it?"

Tinyclaw couldn't take his eyes off of the kittypet, but he found himself unable to reply. There was something about her… something familiar

Brackenpaw took a step towards the she-cat, his body lowered in a crouch. Alarmed, Tinyclaw surged forward and slammed his paws down on a brittle stick, snapping it in two. He looked up just in time to see the she-cat lift her head, her blue eyes round with shock, before she shot off, back towards Twolegplace.

"Sorry!" Brackenpaw puffed, eyes wide. "Was… was I not supposed to do that?"

Tinyclaw looked back at Brackenpaw. He couldn't bring himself to chastise his apprentice – he was just following the warrior code, after all – but Tinyclaw didn't want the she-cat getting so frightened by a wild cat.

"Why did you do that?" Brackenpaw wondered. Tinyclaw cursed himself inwardly, knowing he ought to have chosen a more discreet way to scare off the kittypet. "Was it because she was a queen?"

"Yes," Tinyclaw replied instantly. "Yes, because she was a queen! It's not nice to try creeping up on a queen. They can't move as fast as we can, and they can't defend themselves like we can. It's… It's dishonorable to attack an enemy who can't attack back!"

If Brackenpaw detected the tremble in Tinyclaw's mew, he had the sense not to call his mentor out on it. The golden-brown tabby shrugged and meowed, "Alright."

"I'm hungry," Tinyclaw decided. "Let's head back to camp."

Brackenpaw nodded in agreement, and Tinyclaw led the way.

Tinyclaw took him through the Tallpines, along a route that allowed him to point out the monster that cut down the trees in greenleaf – the monster's tracks was embedded in the hard mud and easy to spot. They headed on further into the trees, until they began to thicken again with oak and ash and beech. Then Tinyclaw put them on the path towards home, telling Brackenpaw that if he was ever lost he ought to follow the strongest ThunderClan scent and follow it – it would lead to a well-trodden trail that would eventually take him home.


By the time they arrived back at camp, Tinyclaw's throat was sore and his paws were aching. Brackenpaw was puffing, but he seemed to have absorbed everything that Tinyclaw had taught him. The young apprentice stifled a yawn as he padded to join Cinderpaw at the apprentice's den.

Tinyclaw spotted Graystripe. His friend had prey between his paws, and was beckoning Tinyclaw with his tail. Tinyclaw trotted over and settled down beside his friend.

"Good day?" Tinyclaw asked.

"Better than yesterday," Graystripe replied. He pushed a mouse over to Tinyclaw. "Got you some supper."

Tinyclaw took it between his paws and munched on it gratefully.

"Cinderpaw is really keen, if you know what I mean," Graystripe told him. Tinyclaw's mouth was full of fresh-kill, so he didn't dare comment unless he spilled it all onto the ground. Graystripe went on, "She almost charged right over the WindClan border at Fourtrees, and my jaw hurts from answering so many of her questions!"

"Brackenpaw is a lot calmer from the sound of it," Tinyclaw pointed out after swallowing. "He hardly took a step without my say-so!"

Graystripe sighed wistfully and meowed, "Cinderpaw made me forget that I'm the mentor and she's the apprentice, what with all her energy! She was practically leading me around."

Tinyclaw purred. "She sounds energetic!" he chuckled. Hopefully she helps pull you out of this mood of yours!


They shared tongues until the moon rose. A fresh layer of frost creeping onto the grass drove them into their nests, where they finally curled up in the warmth of the other warriors. Pressed together, Tinyclaw felt Graystripe fall asleep almost instantly.

Strangely enough, through the warm smells of ThunderClan, Tinyclaw still had the milk scent of the kittypet she-cat in his nostrils. As much as he tried to get it out, it wouldn't leave – the warm smell was bringing back memories of his time in Twolegplace, curled up with his kin.

Then his head shot up with realization.

"Rusty!" he murmured, as quietly as he could manage.

The white kittypet had the smell of his half-brother on her fur!