Chapter 4! Next chapter onwards, things are going to pick up in action a little bit, and a few chapters after that, things are really going to get interesting :)

Thanks for the reviews!

Hissing Mist: Thanks for the feedback! I'll soften her up a little bit as she and Hawkpaw get to know each other, so I really appreciate the advice :) And I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "breaks Hawkpaw," but you're going to meet two new cats in this chapter who both will probably be pretty important.
Sapphire-Glow: That's a really good way of putting it, LOL. And thank you! I thought Yellowfang would spice things up, instead of just giving perfect sweet advice like Spottedleaf (*cough* Mary Sue).
Fastbreeze37: Thank youuu :) I chose Yellowfang so that there would be quite a few comedic rapid-fire butting heads moments. And aww, thanks! Hawkpaw and Sorrelkit are going to be pretty good friends, so it's good that you like her!
Flamewing: Haha thanks! I think we all have a bit of Yellowfang energy in us...
LilacArtist: I'm so glad you feel that way! I was originally really debating whether I should have Cinderpelt or Yellowfang as Hawkpaw's StarClan guardian buddy, but in the end I decided to put both in because they have such different styles of teaching and nurturing. Thank you so much!

I don't own Warriors, as usual :)

And a quick note: I changed Hawkpaw's appearance a bit. LilacArtist (huge thank you!) PMed me informing me that black with one white paw was a lot like Scourge, which was totally unintentional... so I've changed her to having two white forepaws. Please let me know in the reviews if you catch me slipping up on that!

CHAPTER 4: EMBERPAW

Hawkpaw gulped down the last of her thrush, almost choking on a stray feather as she sensed a pair of eyes on her and silently refused to turn around until she had swallowed her fresh-kill in peace. The sun had almost set, and only a few of the warriors continued to hang about the clearing in the ThunderClan hollow, so Hawkpaw figured she could spare a few heartbeats of conversation before heading back into the medicine den for the night.

She stood up, wiped a forepaw over her whiskers, and looked around.

Her mother, Whitesong, was padding into the warriors' den, though Mapleheart was pressed so closely against her that Hawkpaw figured it couldn't be long before she had more siblings on the way. Owlshade was standing near the Highledge, his dark gray pelt barely visible in the evening shadows, and speaking urgently to Cloudstar, who was nodding at whatever he was saying. Leopardwish was nowhere to be seen, and—

There.

Emberpaw was watching her from just outside the apprentices' den, his russet fur glistening almost golden in the fading light. Even as she swung around her gaze to meet his, he didn't move, simply curled his tail around his forepaws, as if waiting for her to approach him. As if!

She groaned internally. She had never really liked Emberpaw; he was one of the older apprentices, and they hadn't seen much of each other to begin with. But his green stare had always seemed challenging, almost, whenever she had interacted with him, like he was daring her to oppose whatever fox-dung he was meowing.

Somehow, however, her paws had already carried her towards the muscular tom, whose eyes gleamed as he surveyed her up and down. Hawkpaw was much smaller than the other apprentice, an observation that had her fixing her own scrutiny on her white forepaws and muttering quietly, "Hi."

"Hey, Hawkpaw." Her name rolled off his tongue like venom, like he was too good to even be saying it out loud, but Hawkpaw wasn't about to let this tom ruffle her fur. They held each other's gazes for a long, awkward moment, until she tore away, chagrined, and Emberpaw flicked his tail in amusement. "You should learn to hunt, you know."

"I'm a medicine cat apprentice," she meowed, because that was an explanation in and of itself. Hunting and fighting are best left to the warriors, Leopardwish had told her on her first day. Where was this coming from? "I'm never going to need to hunt."

"That's where you're wrong, medicine cat apprentice," he drawled. "Everyone needs to know how to hunt. I can promise you, there'll be a time in your life when the Clan's warriors will be doing something a bit more important than feeding you."

"All right, all right." Hawkpaw tensed; the older apprentice's ominous words were practically a warning. It was probably clearer than anything StarClan would tell her, at least. She could imagine Yellowfang's raspy meow of agreement as soon as the thought flashed into her mind. "I'll ask one of the warriors later."

"Why don't I show you?"

What? That was a strange request from a warrior who never had hesitated to flatten his ears at her ever since she was five moons old and had announced she wanted Leopardwish as her mentor. What are you playing at?

"Why?"

Emberpaw twitched an ear, as if he didn't understand her hesitation. "Why not?"

"It's late." She was making excuses.

"Seriously?" Emberpaw got to his paws, annoyance creeping into his tone. "You don't have to leave camp if you don't want to. I was just going to show you the crouch."

"Fine."

The red-brown tom opened his jaws, looking unconvinced about her half-hearted approval, but seemed to think the better of whatever he was going to say and instead stalked ahead of her into the center of the clearing and dropped so low that his belly seemed to brush the ground. "Like this."

Hawkpaw hadn't decided whether or not she was going to take him seriously, but she respectfully lowered her head and padded in a wide circle around him, pausing only to memorize the slope of his shoulders and the dip of his tail as he inched forward through the short grass. There was nothing intimate about her scrutiny she administered; she supposed it couldn't hurt to learn to hunt and provide for ThunderClan during leaf-bare, to keep the warriors well-fed and healthy so that there wouldn't be too much of a need for the herbs that wouldn't grow in those moons anyway.

His tail was admirably still, though, and Hawkpaw couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy for the excitement a warrior apprentice must experience on a daily basis. By the time she circled back to his head, she found Emberpaw glaring up at her, as if she was the one who had insisted on this impromptu lesson.

"Finished?"

Her hackles raised. "You wanted me to learn. I learn my own way."

"Whatever."

What was his problem? Hawkpaw flattened herself against the ground, mimicking Emberpaw's movements as she snaked through the grass, keeping her tail a whisker-length higher and ignoring the itch in one of her flanks. Pride surged in her when she found the other apprentice watching through narrowed eyes.

"Keep your ears flat."

Gritting her teeth, she obeyed, a little impressed when she found how much smaller she felt—not that she would ever admit it.

"You're arching your back too much."

Well, it's more comfortable that way. This was why she didn't hunt. Being a warrior just seemed overwhelming, with all of those enemies and codes and patrols. As a medicine cat, she could veer clear of all of that, and still make friends in all of the other Clans, if she wanted.

"Stop moving your—"

"Oh, shut up." She wasn't going to thank him.

"He likes you!"

Of all possibilities, that was the one Minnowpaw had decided upon when Hawkpaw approached her in the apprentices den the next day. While she might have been just as old as her brother Emberpaw, the dark gray and silver she-cat could have been a five-moon-old kit for the surprised enthusiasm plastered on her face, so different from anything Hawkpaw had ever seen in her red-furred littermate.

"What?" Hawkpaw hooked a claw into a stray clump of moss. "That's mouse-brained."

"Oh, don't pretend like you don't care."

"I don't. I don't even know him, and I don't want to."

Minnowpaw pranced around her, the darkness of her blue eyes sparking excitedly. "That's exactly what you'd say if you're mooning over him, too."

"Okay, first of all, I'm a medicine cat." Hawkpaw patted down the side of Oakpaw's nest, rearranging the moss with her nose so that it would be more comfortable. "And second, it's disgusting. I don't like him any more than I would a RiverClan cat."

"So do you have a thing for RiverClan cats?"

"What? No!" she hissed, only half-amused. "I was hoping that you, as his sibling, would have another possible reason for why a cat who hasn't looked twice at me since I decided to become a medicine cat would suddenly be padding after me like StarClan themselves asked him to."

"Other than him mooning over you?" Hawkpaw was about to snarl again, but the older she-cat suddenly looked serious. "I don't know. He's been acting a little strange for, I don't know, about two or three moons, but—"

"Three moons? That's half your apprenticeship!"

Minnowpaw flattened her ears. "But, as I was saying, I figured it was just being an apprentice and all. He started taking his warrior training a lot more seriously."

And now he's trying to force it on every other cat in sight. It was Hawkpaw's turn to be irritated.

Still, though she dug her unsheathed claws into the dirt to relieve a bit of her burning frustration, she did her best to maintain an expression of glorious indifference and only flicked her tail. "So he wants every cat—even a medicine cat—to do the same?"

"Well, maybe. Or StarClan just happened to entwine your fates as lovers."

"Eugh." Hawkpaw shuddered. "At least I know that's not true. StarClan wouldn't break the warrior code."

And neither would Emberpaw, she figured. It was one of the few things she had noticed about the powerful apprentice: that the Clan boundaries and every part of the warrior code relating to all the borders, whether with other Clans or with Twolegs and rogues, seemed to be of the utmost importance to him.

She'd seen it, too, back when there had been a rumor—false, idle gossip, of course—that Minnowpaw had been padding after a ShadowClan tom; Minnowpaw had complained that because of it, her brother hadn't spoken to her for days together. Needless to say, Hawkpaw's neutrality had shifted to dislike for him ever since.

"I wouldn't test the fates," Minnowpaw teased. At least StarClan is on my side. "But really, Hawkpaw, it's probably nothing to worry yourself over. Stick to the medicine cat stuff."

I'm not worried, Hawkpaw thought, though she didn't dare voice her concerns out loud. I just don't like it.

Sorry this chapter was a teensy bit shorter/more boring (at least in my opinion) than usual! I needed to introduce you to these two, but things are going to get interesting next chapter! And everything's going to come together, just... not yet. Pretty soon, though, so please stay tuned :)

Thoughts on Emberpaw and Minnowpaw? Personally, Minnowpaw is really fun to write.

And as always, review however you can!