A large group of apprentices sat nervously in the sand as Shadestar stood before them to see the progress of their training, a tradition that he himself had enacted in order to help better DarkClan's warriors and increase his awareness of his cats' particular strengths and weaknesses.

He had already finished watching each of their training sessions and spoken with their mentors, now it was time for him to announce his analysis.

Shadestar's eyes traveled over the apprentices sitting before him and he felt a great pride in his chest looking into the eyes of the future of his clan.

"You are our future, what you do may very well end up changing our clan's destiny one day. Therefore your training is very important, I hope that all of you will remember this." Shadestar meowed oddly.

The apprentices watched with wide eyes, eagerly hanging onto Shadestar's every word. The leader closed his eyes and quickly reopened them in a flash of blue.

"I am very impressed with your training. However, I believe many of you should try and put in more effort." Shadestar's words made many of the apprentice's heads fall in shame.

Sunpaw hung his head low, eyes a dull green. How could he have not been working hard enough? He had to if he and Willowpaw were going to be the leaders one day.

Shadestar watched curiously as his golden apprentice hung his head low, surprised by the display. The tom then smiled to himself.

"However."

At his words, the apprentice's heads shot up and watched their leader in surprise.

"Sunpaw has done a great job of proving himself as a warrior today, you all should take after his example."

Shadestar's words made Sunpaw's eyes light up. Ivypaw and Neopaw both lightly pushed him, laughing at their friend's face. Sunpaw blushed as Silentpaw came over and meowed her congratulations along with her friend Cherrypaw.

The small brown she-cat merely rolled her eyes, "Don't get too cocky, hotshot." she meowed. Sunpaw laughed and smiled at the small cat, she may have a bite to her, but he knew Cherrypaw was kind friend.

Shadestar watched the group of interacting apprentice's intently, however a figure in his peripheral caught the sooty tom's attention. Willowpaw sat away from the group, his yellow eyes staring at the other cats with an intensity Shadestar hadn't seen before.

He knew this young tom, it was Willowpaw, Sunpaw's brother. He was one of the apprentices who appeared to be falling behind in his training. He was a thin cat, giving his opponents a clear weight advantage, that and the apprentice was just...weak.

Shadestar had taken to keeping an eye on Willowpaw out of curiosity. He often found the mangled young tom in the training hollow, slashing away at the log that lay on the far side of the clearing.

Shadestar frowned lightly and turned back to see the other apprentices leave the hollow laughing and beginning to make their way back to camp. Wordlessly, after the apprentices had padded far enough away, Shadestar walked over to the young tom.

Willowpaw looked up in surprise at the leader's sudden appearance, but he quickly regained his composition. "Shadestar?"

"Since you were young," the leader began unexpectedly, "I have always taken to keeping an eye on you and your brother. Young one... you must stop chasing after your brother, jealousy will get you nowhere. Being a leader isn't the right path for you." he meowed gravely.

Willowpaw's eyes slowly widened as he took in Shadestar's words and Shadestar could see the anger burning in his shining yellow orbs.

"What do you know!?" the tom hissed. "No one understands how hard I try! Maybe if you actually would help train me I would be better than him!" Willowpaw shouted, clenching his eyes shut.

"Why?...Why him? I've always dreamed of being a leader one day. We promised each other...that we would rule, together."

The question didn't surprise the leader, he could see it in Willowpaw's eyes. The tom longed to be a leader and was jealous of his brother's talent.

Shadestar remained impassive and watched the frustrated young tom calmly. "It is not the way of things. All my decisions are made for a reason, but I know that both you and your brother are very important to this clan."

Willowpaw's eyes narrowed at the leader defiantly, "We're going to be leaders one day! The two most powerful cats in the forest, together no one will ever defeat us! I'm going to be a great leader!"

Willowpaw had leapt to his feet and was now watching Shadestar with the same intensity the leader had seen directed at the other apprentices.

"Being a clan leader is an honorable position, young one. There is much you do not understand. Being leader gives you a lot of power, but some cats cannot handle that power. The choices you make determine what type of cat you are going to be. You must make sure that you always make the right ones. Do you understand?"

Willowpaw's expression remained unchanged, but the young tom said nothing. Willowpaw suddenly seemed to deflate after his bout of anger.

"Forget it."

With those final mumbled words, Willowpaw turned away from Shadestar and padded off into the forest, leaving Shadestar alone in the clearing. His bushy tail swaying side to side as he went.

Shadestar watched the apprentice leave with a serious expression. He was so focused on becoming leader...the young tom's ambition astounded him.

"Willowheart!"

A pair of yellow eyes blinked calmly in the shade of the forest, turning to see the source of the sudden noise. The familiar golden pelt of his brother suddenly appeared before him, a stark contrast to his dull, brown coat.

"Sunspirit? What are you doing here?"

The golden tom blinked his vibrant green eyes, "I could be asking you the same, what are you doing out here all by yourself anyways?"

"I was just going to do some hunting, why? Does Shadestar need me?" Willowheart asked blandly. The DarkClan leader had always pushed him away, it seemed doubtful he would start paying attention to him now.

Sunspirit watched his brother with concern, he seemed so distant now. The other cats were always whispering about his brother, but he didn't pay attention to them.

"No, I just don't get to see you as much anymore. Shadestar keeps me pretty busy, being deputy and all."

Willowheart's pelt twitched lightly at Sunspirit's words, "Yes, it must be such a pain." he replied sarcastically.

Sunspirit was surprised by his brother's words and felt his pelt heat up in anger. "What's that supposed to mean?" he growled.

Willowheart faced Sunspirit evenly, meeting his brother's angry gaze with a hard glare. "Do you think you're better than me?" he growled lowly.

"What? Where did that even come from?!" Sunspirit retorted angrily, shaking his head.

Willowheart snorted and began to stalk away. Sunspirit watched him in frustration, if he was going to be that way fine. Willowheart was just jealous that he was a better fighter and Shadestar liked him better.

'I don't know what's been up with him lately.'

It was probably just a phase, Willowheart was always like this, off and on. Sunspirit knew that his brother was angry about Shadestar choosing him to be deputy, Willowheart was too stuck in the past.

It was impossible for two cats to be leader at one time, Sunspirit and Willowheart's promise was just a little kit thing, just playing around. It couldn't be applied to real life, it didn't matter now anyway. When it came time, Sunspirit would be the leader of DarkClan.

'Still...'

Sunspirit smiled lightly, he already knew that when he became leader he couldn't choose anyone besides his brother to be his deputy. He owed him that much, besides, Willowheart was a loyal warrior of DarkClan and a decent fighter. Sunspirit knew how dedicated his brother was.

Although he had to admit, Willowheart was acting stranger than usual as of late. Just this morning he could have sworn he had overheard the tom whispering to himself.

Shaking the thoughts of his brother from his head, Sunspirit walked through the forest feeling completely at ease. The small spots of sunlight shone brilliantly on his pelt and warmed him up easily. Things couldn't be better.

After successfully driving away an attacking OceanClan patrol, Shadestar had been quick to name Sunspirit deputy after their deputy, Ravenclaw, passed away of old age. It was unfortunate that the old tom never got his chance, but Sunspirit was happy nonetheless.

Willowheart had also been in the defense group, Sunspirit knew if his brother hadn't been there, they might not have won. For that, he was extremely grateful.

He smiled as he caught sight of the large maple tree in the center of the small grove. His whole being lit up as he caught sight of Silentshadow, Ivyfoot, and Cherrynose lounging in it's branches. His friends turned to look at him and began to shout their greetings.

Sunspirit smirked and bounded through the flowers before pulling himself quickly up into the tree, as he had many times before. As apprentices, they had always met up here. It was a place where they could relax and have fun, simply enjoying each other's company.

This was their place.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Didn't proof read this, so I apologize for any small grammatical/spelling errors. :) Read and review~ And feel free to ask questions and voice opinions and thoughts, I really enjoy reading all your theories! OK Im gonna go all Warriors hipster here, but does anyone else hate the new warrior names the come up with? They're just so ugh. Especially third and fourth series, I didn't really like them either. The original will always be my favorite, back then the story was better and the names sounded better. Plus there were several cats with the same name endings and it was fine, now everyone's all ewww its too basic. Personally I prefer those types of names. some of these new ones/ fancy things people come up with are just...stupid. :P Rant over, I apologize.

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