Here it is!

. . . ….. . . .

"Get up!"

Screechpaw moaned as she heard her mentor's too awake voice calling to her from the clearing. Blinking her eyes open groggily, she spied the dark sky spread out above the forest, just able to see it through the cracks in the apprentices den. The various creatures of the night were still awake and active, their noises echoing around the still slightly chilly camp.

The sun's not even awake yet, she inwardly complained. Why do I have to be?

She perked her silver ears, trying to hear her mentor. Not a sound met them. She sighed; she must have imagined his voice. Screechpaw settled back into her comfortable nest, closing her eyes as she sank back into another dream.

"Hey, get up! We're on the dawn patrol!"

Okay, she definitely had not imagined the voice this time. She groaned as she pushed herself to her paws, an enormous yawn erupting from her jaws.

She ducked out of the den and looked around the quiet camp. Smokeleg, who was awake early to perform his deputy tasks, stood next to Ruffleslash and the rest of the patrol, Tailstripe and Shimmersoar. At the sight of the sleepy apprentice, the last two cats headed up the thorn tunnel while Ruffleslash stayed there patiently for Screechpaw. After moons of waiting, she finally reached him and they headed into the forest together.

Screechpaw yawned again as they padded into the woods. "Where are we going?"

"ShadowClan border." Ruffleslash replied. "I'm sorry that we had to get up so early on your first day as an apprentice, but it's the deputy's orders, not mine. And after, we can have a hunting lesson if you want to."

What she really wanted was to go back to sleep. But she couldn't tell her mentor that on her first day of training. "Sure," she murmured, still too asleep to say anything loudly.

The sun was just rising as the group of four reached the ShadowClan border, the birds beginning to fly about and use their voices. Screechpaw scrunched up her nose at the ShadowClan scent; how could anyone live in that unearthly stench?

She stood back as the other cats set the borders, refreshing the markers as they made their way along the whole length of the border.

Screechpaw, bored by the whole endeavor, just gazed around. ShadowClan hadn't seemed all that different from ThunderClan when her mother had described it to her, but now she saw that the two territories really weren't alike at all. Other that the fact they both had trees, they were opposites. Unlike the soft trees of ThunderClan, ShadowClan had rough pine trees closely packed together. The whole land was overflowing in shadows, anything five fox lengths past their border swallowed up in darkness. The ground was covered in a giant blanket of pine needles, while ThunderClan had the soft underbrush and flowers under their paws, the occasional bramble thorn or two showing up to ruin the party. But that was expected and put up with. But how could anyone live in a place like this?

Ruffleslash noticed her wrinkle her nose in disgust and purred, amused. "I know, it's horrible the first time you smell it. But you'll eventually get used to it, as sad as it is to say."

Screechpaw nodded as they continued their way down the border, making their way towards the lake slowly but surely. Screechpaw zoned out for a while, pushing the voices to the back of her mind as usual, deciding to concentrate on nothing. It wasn't going too well.

She gasped in shock as she heard a twig snap behind her. She whipped around, surprised to see a ShadowClan patrol looking at her and the three other cats with her.

Tailstripe, a brown tom with a striped white tail, dipped his head to the normally hostile cats. "Hello, Sunleap," he mewed respectfully to a she-cat, whose odd pelt faded from white to grey.

Sunleap dipped her head back to him. "Tailstripe," she mewed plainly. "How is ThunderClan today?"

"Good," he said. "And ShadowClan?"

She shrugged. "Getting along. How is WindClan? Have their attacks ceased at all?"

Tailstripe, along with the other warriors of ThunderClan, growled and swiped at the ground in anger at the mention of their rival clan. "No," Tailstripe answered. "Not yet."

Sunleap narrowed her eyes and nodded. "I'm sorry for you. It really is uncalled for that they attack you and RiverClan. I don't doubt that it won't be long until they manage to find a way to attack us."

"So how is the prey running?" Ruffleslash meowed, trying to change the subject in front of his unsteady apprentice. "Treating you well?"

Sunleap smiled. "Yes! It's the most we've had in ages! It makes me wonder why WindClan would even want extra territory. If they've had as much luck as us, then they surely don't need any more."

The white and grey she-act's eyes suddenly turned from Ruffleslash to Screechpaw, growing wider as they realized who she was. "Wait, are you that little kit who was stolen by WindClan?"

Screechpaw, petrified at the sudden attention, merely nodded. The ShadowClan cats blinked in surprise, then angrily sheathed and unsheathed their claws.

"Those rotten cats!" another ShadowClan cat, Scorpionwing, growled. "If they ever even think about taking one of our kits, then they will pay with their lives."

Screechpaw frowned. "You guys know about that?"

Sunleap huffed as if she couldn't believe that the apprentice had asked that. "Are you kidding? You're practically famous! A few moons ago, Blazestar announced at a gathering that WindClan had stolen and abused you. WindClan, like the thieving frogbrains they are, lied and said that they had never laid a claw on her. But ThunderClan had the proof that those vile cats had hurt you, a tuft of fur that smelled exactly like your pelt. Well, you and a mix of WindClan. It was obvious that they were lying; no one believed them."

Well, Screechpaw thought. There goes the possibility of Thornstar ever not finding out about the clans' awareness of our little fight. She sighed. Maybe he had forgotten about his promise to kill her. She sure hoped so.

"Well," Ruffleslash mewed hurriedly, trying to keep his apprentice's ears away from the clan gossip that related to her. "Wish Moonstar our best. We'll just be continuing our patrol."

The group padded on after the ShadowClan cats said their farewells, the warriors marking the border while Screechpaw basked in her dark thoughts.

What would Thornstar do to her? The next time a battle happened between the two clans, would he find her and kill her? Or would he find her some other time and kill her then?

Stop being stupid, the voice in her head snarled. If he tries to kill you, just murder him. You've had enough practice.

Screechpaw screwed up her eyes in defense against the voice. I did not kill anyone!

Oh really?

Yes! It's not my fault that she died!

I can see into your heart. I know that you don't fully believe that. Just accept it. All will be better for you.

Should she? Should she just accept the fact that she had killed one of her closest friends? Screechpaw sighed. Her world was so confusing, so dark, so devoid of light. Oh, how she wished she could just have a little ray of sunshine come down upon her weary, ruffled pelt. As sad as it was to know, the fact that that would probably never happen again, or at least for a long, long time, had settled in her heart and mind. Maybe she should just accept it.

The border patrol had finally reached the lake, the sun now in the sky for all to see. Ruffleslash and Screechpaw said goodbye to Tailstripe and Shimmersoar and began padding into the woods.

Screechpaw looked up at her mentor curiously. "Where are we going to practice hunting?"

Ruffleslash thought for a moment. "Hmmm, how about the Great Oak? You haven't seen it yet, have you?"

Screechpaw shook her head. The dark ginger and black tom purred. "Well, Aspenpaw, then we have to go there!"

Screechpaw almost stopped in surprise at the use of a different title. He had called her Aspenpaw! So he wasn't going to call her Screechpaw like the rest of the clan. That little fact made her like him as a mentor a whole lot more.

"That gives me a great idea," he said, deep in thought. "How about I teach you how to catch a squirrel today? That way you can both climb the Great Oak and hunt in it!"

Screechpaw flicked her tail happily. "Sure! That sounds fun!"

"Yeah, and you can impress the other apprentices at the end of the day when you tell them that you learned to hunt squirrel. Most mentors teach their apprentices to hunt mice or shrew first. Not me! I'm going to teach you something more advanced right away. You can handle it, right?" He looked at her expectantly, eyes shining in amusement.

Screechpaw snarled playfully, batting at a nearby log with unsheathed claws. "You know I can!" And just like that, her dreary mood was gone.

They finally arrived at the tree, and Screechpaw gasped aloud at the size of it all. The massive structure stretched out high above her head, reaching into the clouds and heavens above. The trunk was as thick as a thousand foxes, the branches as sturdy as StarClan themselves. Imagine how many animals would call it their sanctuary, their haven, a home!

Ruffleslash smiled as he watched Aspenpaw gape, eyes wide, staring at the gargantuous thing, its leaves almost all replenished after the long leafbare. She just kept staring and staring at the tree, eyes unblinking.

He eventually laughed, snapping her out of her leaf filled trance. "So the first thing that you should know about squirrels is that they are extremely fast. The key, then, is obviously speed. To start, though, you get into the normal hunter's crouch."

He nodded at her expectantly. Screechpaw swallowed, nervously stepping into the position that she had seen previous cats practice in the clearing back at camp.

Ruffleslash watched her closely, twitching his nose. "Not bad. Just . . ." He used his tail to push her back closer to the ground and to lengthen the space between her front and back legs. "There. Now pretend that that leaf over there"—he pointed to a leaf at the base of the Great Oak—"is a squirrel. The goal is to kill it before it has time to run up a tree. Make sure that you don't step on any twigs or leaves; if you do, they make a noise, and the prey will hear it and get away."

Screechpaw nodded, slowly and carefully making her way towards the tree. She watched her paws, maneuvering them around any stray underbrush, stepping lightly. Once she was within tail distance of the leaf, she pounced on it, proudly standing back up with her prize clasped in her jaws.

Ruffleslash grinned. "Great! How about you try that out on a live squirrel?"

Screechpaw nodded, searching around her for any signs of movement. She sat there, patiently waiting for a little creature to show itself. Nothing moved. She waited some more. Still nothing.

She was about to give up when her eyes caught sight of a tiny scuffle among the roots of the Great Oak. Out popped a little head, then a fluffy tail. It was a squirrel.

Screechpaw turned to look at her mentor, who gave her an encouraging nod, having had seen the squirrel. That was enough to motivate her into at least trying to catch it.

As stealthily as possible, she crept around the leaves and sticks in her way, making sure that her paws didn't alarm any of them to sound their ear splitting calls. The squirrel carried on its business; there was no reason in its mind, after all, to be frightened of anything.

Screechpaw was a cat's length away from the creature when her left forepaw made the dreadful mistake of snapping an extraordinarily loud twig. The sound echoed throughout the forest and the squirrel's head shot up. The animal immediately lost interest in what it was doing, shooting up the trunk of the tree.

Screechpaw, not giving up yet, followed it up, clawing her way up the massive tree. She pulled herself onto the same branch as the squirrel, but the latter just flung itself onto another one. She followed it there, too. On and on and on they went, until the squirrel had finally had enough. It jumped from the Great Oak and into a neighboring tree, mocking Screechpaw as it scurried away to safety.

Screechpaw stamped a forepaw into the bark angrily. She shouldn't have let it get away!

I could've caught it, the voice in her head gloated.

Shut up!

"Aspenpaw," the voice from below sounded out. "Aspenpaw, its okay that you didn't catch it."

Screechpaw looked down from her branch and immediately became nauseous at how high up she was. Ruffleslash was now only a tiny pebble on the ground far below. Why had she let herself climb so high?

"Come on down!" Ruffleslash called. "You can try again later!"

Screechpaw nodded. "Okay!" she called, placing her paw over the edge of her branch, but quickly putting it back onto it. She put it over the other side. No, that wouldn't work either.

She swallowed, embarrassed, as she called down to her patient mentor. "Umm, Ruffleslash, I think I'm stuck!"

"What?"

"I can't get down!"

There was a pause, then, "Okay, you stay there! I'm coming to get you!"

Screechpaw watched as the young warrior crawled up the tree, gracefully jumping from branch to branch as he made his way higher and higher. It was only a matter of minutes before he was sitting next to her, looking for the best route down.

"Okay, Aspenpaw, just put one paw here," he mewed, placing his own paw on a nearby but awkwardly placed section of the tree. "Now put one here, and here . . . ."

Ruffleslash and Screechpaw slowly made their way down the length of the tree, the first always patiently letting the frightened apprentice take her time. Several times, she almost lost her footing and fell, but he would be there for her, holding onto her scuff in the tough situations.

They finally made it back to the solid ground just after sunhigh. Screechpaw, as soon as her paws touched the earth, shrank to it thankfully.

Ruffleslash let out a long breath. "Okay, next time," he mewed, all of his worry now turned into relieved amusement, "We'll pick a different tree."

Screechpaw purred at that, then got to her feet and padded back towards camp with her mentor.

"Hey," he mewed. "If it helps, I didn't catch anything on my first day, either. And I was taught how to stalk a mouse!"

Screechpaw laughed as he continued on. "You should have seen the look on Heatcloud's face when he saw that his son hadn't brought anything back to show him! The other two apprentices had, why not this one?" Ruffleslash frowned as he imitated his father, seriously putting on a straight face. "'Rufflepaw, I'm very disappointed in you. Go and clean out the elders den for the rest of your life!'"

Screechpaw was laughing hard now. "Did he really say that?"

Ruffleslash shrugged, a glint of humor in his green eyes. "Maybe."

They walked into camp, which was now full of cats lounging around or performing duties. The sun was shining down on the ThunderClan mentor and apprentice as they talked.

"Go back to your den and sleep," Ruffleslash meowed. "It's already been a long day and we shouldn't have gone on the dawn patrol on your first one as an apprentice. I'll wake you up later. Besides, you deserve it! Even though you didn't catch that squirrel, you tried as hard as anyone could have. You deserve the rest!"

He tapped her on the head with his tail playfully before he padded away, leaving the tired apprentice to retire to her den. As she curled up in her comfy nest, she smiled as she thought about her first day. In reality, though she hadn't caught any prey, it hadn't been bad. And though her dreams may be haunted as she slept, she knew that at least the waking world wasn't always as bad as the voices in her head made it seem.

. . . ….. . . .

Author's Note Thing

2761 words! A long-ish chapter!

Sorry if it seemed rushed at the end, I'm really tired and we have school off tomorrow so I want to go downstairs and watch The Simpons. But not yet!

I hope u guys liked that chap! If u have any questions or comments, don't forget to leave them in a review!

QOTDT: should there be a ShadowClan cat that plays a semi big role in this story? If so, who (look in the allegiances) and what role would he/she play?

OK! Don't forget to suggest, correct, and review! Will try to update as soon as possible! Byeeeee!