OK, I decided to do this thing where I put the amount of reviews I have so far at the beginning of each chapter so that I can go back and track the progress at different intervals. k, just needed to say that.

Reviews: 775

Here's the next chapter as promised! Enjoy it and be sure to review! PLEASE!

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"I'm done with your lies. I'm done with your hatred. And I'm especially done with you, overall. So stay away from me. I'd like to say I'll miss you, but I don't want to sink to your level and lie."

~Ruffleslash

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Three sunrises after the fight at ShadowClan's border, Screechpaw woke from yet another one of her troubled dreams. This one had been no more or less pleasant than any of the others, but as usual, it was still enough to give her a chill of dread whenever she recalled it.

Yawning, she stuck her head out of the apprentices den, taking in the sight of the drowsy camp as she stretched. A few cats padded about in the light of sunrise, the rays falling gently on their heads.

Screechpaw finally ducked fully out of the den, scratching at her head in an attempt to wake herself up. Just a few more days with her, she thought, trying to keep her hopes up. Then it's back to training with Ruffleslash.

As she walked over to the fresh kill pile, Screechpaw heard an overly forced giggle coming from the medicine cat's den and turned to see the object of her resent. She was purring and blinking her large yellow eyes at the dark ginger and black tom, smiling and trying to keep his attention.

Ugh. Skyheart.

Screechpaw's substitute mentor had been absolutely awful so far. She'd threatened her, ignored her when she needed help in battle, and had just been plain difficult. She was the last cat Screechpaw would've wanted as a mentor and yet she'd been stuck with her.

Screechpaw grabbed a squirrel from the pile and settled down by the thorn barrier, chewing on the meat and trying to ignore the jealousy that was creeping into her mind as she thought of Skyheart and Ruffleslash together.

Dang it, Screechpaw! He doesn't even like her!

A voice in her mind scoffed. He likes her more than you.

Ah, Poolkit, I was wondering if you were going to show up.

Well, I'm here.

Yay.

Is that sarcasm I detect?

NO.

Yes. Yes it is.

Screechpaw shifted on the ground, irritation pricking at her paws. Poolkit was usually tolerable, but today wasn't a good day for Screechpaw so far. She didn't need the extra annoyance and hassling from the kit, not now.

She watched Skyheart and Ruffleslash from afar, eyes narrowing as time went on. He didn't seem to be hating her company too much. Did he like her now or something? Had he always liked her and Screechpaw just hadn't noticed it?

But I thought he despised her.

Obviously not, idiot.

Screechpaw blinked in shock as Ruffleslash smiled at something Skyheart had said and nodded. Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe they really were a thing and she'd never noticed.

Wow.

Screechpaw shook her head, anger making her ears heat up. Why should she care? It's not like she liked Ruffleslash or anything. She liked Wolfpaw. Wolfpaw.

Thinking of the other tom made her heart stop racing and slowed her breathing. That's right, Wolfpaw. Wolfpaw. Why should she care about her stupid mentor when she had Wolfpaw?

Ruffleslash could like whoever he wanted, even mouse brains like Skyheart, if he felt like it. Why would Screechpaw care?

Standing up, Screechpaw went to dispose of her squirrel before padding up to Ruffleslash and Skyheart. "Hey, so are we going to go?" she asked the she-cat promptly.

The warrior seemed a bit taken aback by her suddenness, widening her eyes for a moment before letting out a puff of contempt. "Yeah, in a minute. I was just talking to Ruffleslash." She sighed as she said his name, as if it was the dreamiest word in the entire world. It probably was to her.

A thought popped into Screechpaw's mind. She remembered what Skyheart had snarled at her a few days ago, when she'd threatened her on their first day out. She'd growled, "Stay. Away. From Ruffleslash. Or else. He's mine."

Well, it was time to see what "or else" meant.

"So Ruffleslash," Screechpaw meowed, turning to her real mentor. "When do you think you'll be better?"

He shrugged, not seeming to have realized what she was doing. "Probably in the next day or two. I think I'm better now, but Wingfeather won't have any of it. She likes to be sure."

Screechpaw laughed. "Well, she is the medicine cat. I guess it's her job to be overly cautious, right?"

Ruffleslash grinned. "Yeah. I still can't believe she let you leave her den at all after the ShadowClan fight."

His apprentice gave a small shrug. "Eh, it really wasn't as bad as it looked. It was just a scratch, really."

"Oh, still," Skyheart meowed, butting in and giving Screechpaw a harsh glare. "One should always be careful to not get hurt when one can avoid it."

It couldn't have been clearer what she was implying.

But Screechpaw was playing dumb.

"Oh, I tried to avoid it," Screechpaw mewed, shrugging again. "But it is battle. It's impossible to go away from it totally unscathed. Unless you don't show up to the battle," she purred, nudging Ruffleslash. "You have anything to say about that, hmm?"

He rolled his eyes and smiled. "I would've been there had I been able to, but I was caught up in camp."

Screechpaw scoffed. "Sure, Ruffleslash, sure. You weren't just playing sick to get out of work."

His jaw dropped in pretend shock and hurt. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you're just faking this whole sick façade, that you're really absolutely fine. You could've been mentoring me for the past quarter moon but you were too lazy so you put on this whole persona to trick everyone."

Ruffleslash sighed dramatically. "Alas, you're right! It was all fake! And I would've gotten away with it had you not ruined everything! I'll get you for this, cat!"

The two burst out laughing, shaking their heads at their own idiocy. Skyheart just watched on, eyes narrowed and ears flat against her head. She was outraged at Screechpaw.

"Well," she meowed through tight lips. "If you're quite done, we've got to go and get some training done. Screechpaw, follow me. See you later, Ruffleslash!" she added in an overly sweet voice before she whipped around and bolted through the thorn tunnel.

Screechpaw smiled at Ruffleslash again, still laughing at their stupidity, before following Skyheart out into the forest. She padded after the scent trail of the she-cat, which led towards the training hollow. When she reached the sandy section of the forest, she shook out her pelt before jumping down into the hollow.

As soon as her forepaws hit the white, powdery ground, the rest of her body was thrown against the walls of the hollow by another cat. Screechpaw yowled in surprise as she hit the side, quickly getting to her paws and shaking her head to clear it of the cobwebs that shrouded it in darkness and shortsightedness.

Skyheart stood not two foxlengths away, hackles raised and bristling more than Screechpaw had thought possible. Her ears were pressed flat to her skull, eyes narrowed, lit up with the fire of a thousand storms. A low hiss escaped her jaws, shrieking at Screechpaw's ears as harshly as Skyheart's tail whipped through the air.

"You," she spat. "I warned you, fox dung. I told you to stay away from Ruffleslash."

Screechpaw narrowed her eyes. "Skyheart, what's your deal? Why do you even hate me so much?"

"Because you took away Ruffleslash!" she snarled. "He was mine! Then you were assigned to him as an apprentice and stole him from me!"

With an angry screech, Skyheart leaped at the apprentice, crashing down on her and raking her claws over her face. Screechpaw yowled, bring her paws up to defend her face.

Remember your moves!

Shaking her head, Screechpaw went on the offensive. She struck out, swiping blow after blow at Skyheart's face, slowly making the she-cat defend herself.

But Skyheart wasn't one to let the other cat have all the fun. She timed her movements perfectly so that she was able to jerk forward and catch one of Screechpaw's legs in her mouth, forcing it to the side and pulling up so that the apprentice's belly was exposed. With a jump and a twist of her body, she was able to swiftly kick the apprentice in her stomach, earning her a grunt of pain as the cat tumbled over in the sand.

Screechpaw got to her paws, glaring at Skyheart. "Skyheart, it's not my fault that Ruffleslash is my mentor! Besides, I don't understand why you couldn't just keep talking to him after he got an apprentice!"

Skyheart scraped the ground with her claws. "That's not how it works. As soon as he had something better to do, he stopped talking to me. He had to go off and train you, a better version of me!" She scoffed. "As if someone like that really existed."

"You don't think he stopped talking to you because you started acting like this?" Screechpaw meowed, motioning to the angry form of her adversary. "No one would want to hang around someone who acted so harsh and cruel!"

"I don't act like this, cat," she spat. "You don't know me. I only hate those who deserve it, and I make it clear when I don't like them."

That's for sure.

"But that's not the point," she continued. "The point is that I told you to stay away from Ruffleslash, but you ignored my warnings. Now, you're going to pay for it."

Skyheart bowled her over, biting at her ears while she held her off with her muscular limbs. Despite her attempts, Screechpaw was still much smaller than Skyheart, so she was kept down singularly by her size. She clawed at the she-cat as best she could, but her weight was too great for her to be thrown off of the much smaller cat.

Skyheart smirked down at Screechpaw, teeth glinting in the sunlight. "I told you that you shouldn't have messed with me. It just ends up worse for everyone. Well, everyone but me."

Suddenly, Skyheart was ripped from Screechpaw, her claws grasping some of her silver and black fur as she went, pulling out tufts of it. Screechpaw gasped as she stood, shaking out her pelt as she prepared herself to take on the larger she-cat yet again, but she didn't need to.

There stood Ruffleslash, pelt bristling in hostility as he faced Skyheart. He stood between the two cats, facing the warrior in case he needed to fight her in defense of his apprentice.

In that moment, Skyheart seemed to realize her fatal mistake. "Ruffleslash!" she purred happily, as if everything was normal. "What are you doing here?"

"I just dropped by, wanting to see your guys' training session," he growled, any friendliness gone from his voice. "But it seems I had to do something else: stop a warrior from attacking an apprentice."

Skyheart opened her jaws, but only silence escaped them for a long moment. "I…I can explain!"

Ruffleslash sat back, wrapping his tail over his paws. "Oh, please do. Please explain it to me, Skyheart."

She seemed to have to think about her answer for longer than what would be deemed necessary. "I, uh, we – we were just practicing. We were having a training battle."

"Mm, yeah," Ruffleslash said, tilting his head to the side in question and narrowing his eyes in question. "So let's pretend that that makes sense. If you guys were having a practice battle, then why were your claws unsheathed?"

Skyheart swallowed. "So that it would be as real as possible…?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"You think that giving an apprentice very real wounds that will take days to heal is worth it? Yes, this all seems very 'real,' but I don't think it made sense in the long run, hmm?"

Skyheart shook her head, clearly done with being put in her place, wanting to change the subject. "Ruffleslash, I was just—"

The dark ginger and black tom held up a paw. "Stop, Skyheart. I heard what you said to Screechpaw, I'm not an idiot."

Skyheart was still trying to save face. "Okay, but I was right—"

"No," he growled. "You weren't right, Skyheart! You assume that I do things for stupid reasons, that all of my actions are driven by you, but that's not true. You can't just assume these kinds of things!"

Skyheart was clearly beginning to panic, seeing where things were heading. "Well, okay, but I thought that—"

Ruffleslash's laugh cut her off. "You thought – what? That attacking my apprentice would somehow make me think higher of you? That glaring at her would make me like you? Huh?"

Skyheart was silent, not having a good answer to any of the questions.

Ruffleslash shook his head. "I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, Skyheart. But you proved that I was wrong. You are just as bad as I thought you were. Beating up an apprentice? How low could you go?"

Skyheart found her voice. "I was just doing what I thought was right! I thought it was the only way to get you to like me!"

Ruffleslash glared at her. "Just stop. I'm done with your lies. I'm done with your hatred. And I'm especially done with you, overall. So stay away from me. And if you think you can hurt Screechpaw ever again, then you're sorely mistaken. Don't even try. Good bye, Skyheart. I'd like to say I'll miss you, but I don't want to sink to your level and lie."

He jerked his head towards the camp, motioning for Screechpaw to follow him. She jumped out of the hollow after him, leaving a fuming and heartbroken Skyheart behind in her wake.

Padding next to Ruffleslash, she was finally able to digest exactly what had happened. Ruffleslash had told Skyheart off. They were over. Skyheart couldn't do anything to Screechpaw that Ruffleslash wouldn't eventually find out about.

Screechpaw cleared her throat. "Thank you."

He shrugged. "I should have believed you about the battle a few days ago. I guess I thought that maybe she wasn't all bad."

There was a moment of silence before Screechpaw spoke again. "So, uh, will you be back to being my mentor again tomorrow?"

He smiled down at her, all signs of his previous hostility gone. "Who says we have to wait until tomorrow? Come on, let's go catch a squirrel."

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Author's Note Thing

2387 words. Kind of short, but it works

Please go and follow my fanfiction account on Instagram! The account is whisperblaze_luvs_eikko! I follow back :P

Big news: Screechpaw is almost a warrior! By the end of this week, she'll have her warrior name! Aren't you guys excited?!

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QOTDT1) what character in thunderclan seems to be hiding the biggest secret? What is the secret that they're hiding? (this could be a legit guess that you think or a fake one that you wish was real)

QOTDT2) What warriors fanfiction do you think is the best (on fanfiction)? I'd like to read some of your favorites and see the sort of styles the authors write in so that I can get better! XD

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