Disclaimer: I do NOT own Warriors. It belongs to Erin Hunter.

'Thoughts' Dreams Memories

Sandpaw glared at the hunk ofmeat then transferred that gaze to Spottedleaf, her tail lashing. "I am not a monster! Have could you even think of asking me to eat that?! Just because I may have demon blood in me does not mean I will do as they do! Father never ate any cats, you never so what makes you think that I-"

She was cut off by Spottedleaf, who snarled and unsheathed her claws, standing to her full height and looming over the apprentice. "Your father did everything he could to curb his hunger. But don't you doubt for a second that he never indulged. It's impossible and too risky to go without eating our natural prey for too long! Redtail and I, and every demon in this Clan has tried to not go down that path. But in the end, we learned through pain and madness that such a thing was impossible. While you can go without eating other cats for a while, if you don't want to lose your mind, you'll have to eat."

Sandpaw shook her head, stepping further away from her aunt and hissing at her. "No! Keep it away from me! I don't believe you, father was always fine, no matter what! I won't believe that I'll have to eat cat meat!"

The pale molly raced out of the den, nearly crashing into Graypaw, who flinched and backed away from her. Sandpaw watched her but soon shook her head, dashing out into the forest. She could hear Spottedleaf and a few others calling out for her, but she didn't stop running, she had to get away. She couldn't face the reality that Spottedleaf had laid out for her.

XxXx

It was night when Sandpaw finally came back to the camp. All day she had been avoiding patrols sent out to look for her and as a result, didn't have a chance to eat anything the entire time. She slipped through the gorse tunnel and was just able to hear Darkstripe organizing another patrol to search for her when Firepaw spotted her.

The darker molly stomped over to her and suddenly bit her ear, glaring at her. When Sandpaw shook her off and gave her an angry look.

"Spottedleaf told me about what happened. You'll regret it if you don't listen to her. You might get turned out of this Clan."

Sandpaw growled and shook her head, turning her head away. "I don;t care what you heard or what she said! It's not true! I'll never go down that path!" she vowed with a growl, looking at Firepaw with conviction shining in her eyes.

Firepaw stared back and huffed, turning her back on the paler female. "Then you are a fool."

Sandpaw growled at that, following Firepaw and blocking her path. "You don't know anything! You've never been lied to! You've always known who and what you are! Don't talk to me like you know what I'm going through!"

Firepaw frowned while snorting, giving the other apprentice a hard look. "You're right, I don't know what you're going through. But I do know that trying to deny what you are is only going to lead to pain and misery. And maybe even death. Listen to Spottedleaf, she just wants to help you."

Sandpaw only backed away, snorting and moving away from the darker molly, keeping her back to her.

The next day, Whitestorm and Tigerclaw had decided to take Sandpaw out hunting and the pair was joined by Firepaw and Ravenpaw. The black furred apprenticed was feeling a little better from his battle with RiverClan and while Spottedleaf didn't want him to d anything too strenuous, he was allowed to do a bit of hunting before going to back to the medicine den. However, that didn't seem to matter to Tigerclaw as he gave his apprentice an intimidating, making the smaller cat squirm.

"Today, we will working on stalking mice. Firepaw, can you tell me the best way to catch a mouse." the white warrior asked the flame colored demon gently, giving her time to think when she looked mildly surprised when she was called on.

When she looked down, not knowing, Ravenpaw cough and tapped his paw gently on the ground a few times and Firepaw looked at him confused before realization dawned and she turned her gaze to Whitestorm.

"Step lightly." she muttered, her body tensed in anticipation.

Smiling, Whitestorm nodded, his tail waving. "Yes, that's right! Good job! Now what would be the best method for hunting a rabbit?"

"Stalk downwind," Sandpaw called out, sinking her claws in the dirt with an amused expression. Firepaw snorted softly, but when Sandpaw took a look at her, she could see the molly smirking.

"That too, is correct. Well done, Sandpaw." Whitsestorm praised his apprentice with a smile before calling for the apprentices to try stalking themselves. Sandpaw did just fine, but Ravenpaw struggled, earning a annoyed growl from Tigerclaw.

"Come on, Ravenpaw! You know that stalk! Act like you've hunted once before in your life! Your shoulder can't be affecting you that much!" Ravenpaw flinched at Tigerclaw surly tone, feeling hot shame wash over him as Tigerclaw sighed in disappointment. "Try again, this time get it right!" he added, rolling his eyes.

"Perhaps actually hunting prey would be better for them, don't you think, Tigerclaw?" Whitestorm asked, swiftly coming to the black cat's rescue. Tigerclaw muttered something and turned his head away, looking at the sky. "It's settled then. Sandpaw, I want you to go Tallpines, Ravenpaw, you can try Sunningrocks, but please be careful. And Firepaw, for your first hunt, you can go to the Great Sycamore."

The three apprentices nodded, eager to prove themselves. Even Ravenpaw seemed to shed his discomfort at this challenge. Without hesitation, the young cats took off, Tigerclaw watched them go before heading out to tail them. He wanted to see just how well they would do.

However he was stopped by Whitestorm, the older warrior calling out to him gently while giving the tabby a somewhat stern look. "Let the apprentices be, Tigerclaw, there is nothing more nerve wrecking than knowing your mentor is following you."

"I wasn't going to-" Tigerclaw began but Whitestorm cut him off.

"For Ravenpaw, you were. Let him breath for a moment. I know you want him to be strong but there are different kinds of strength. Give Ravenpaw time and stop badgering him so much. A apprentice is allowed to make mistakes and feel pain. Even you demons can suffer too." Whitestrom gave Tigerclaw a friendly nudge before walking off to wait for the apprentices. Tigerclaw remained where he was before he tilted his head to the sky. "We demons can suffer... Oh Whitestorm, you have no idea how right you are. Redtail... I'm sorry." XxXx

Firepaw sat in the shade of a tree, her tail flicking irritably. Three mice. So far, she had missed three mice that managed to slip through her claws. Growling softly, she got to her paws and scented the air, trying once more to get a prey scent. She soon found one and tracked it to another mouse, half hidden under a bunch of leaves, looking for seeds. Firepaw took a deep breath and copying Ravenpaw, went into a crouch and pulled her body forward. The mouse remained under the leaves and Firepaw prayed that it would stay there. She was so close now, just a little more... Suddenly the wind shifted and the mouse twitched, pulling its body out from under the leaves to sniff around. Before it had a chance to detect her and bolt, Firepaw gave a mighty leap and slammed her paws hard on where the mouse was. During the jump, the fire colored molly closed her eyes, expecting this mouse to have run away, or like the others, slipped through her claws. Firepaw opened her eyes when she felt a fading pulse and fur beneath her paw pads, lifting them up to see the mouse, dead, under them. Firepaw blinked and let out a soft yowl of triumph! She did it, she caught her first prey! Feeling a rush of sudden satisfaction, she snatched up the mouse to show to Sandpaw. Perhaps, this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe she could truly feel like a cat of ThunderClan now!

XxXx

In the coming days, Sandpaw had seemed to have gone to become a little off. Every other day, Spottedleaf would go to speak with her, but every time, Sandpaw would send her away. She would growl at anyone who got too close and snap at them savagely if they stayed. One time, she lunged at Graypaw, claws out, when the gray furred molly accidentally bumped into her and sent Graypaw running with a nasty scratch.

She had also taken to eating more and more, and when bullies like Longtail or Mousefur tried to start something, Sandpaw had retaliated with unexpectedly fury, biting into them both and chasing them all over the camp. Darkstripe had to get involved and punished Sandpaw with only moss gathering and caring for the elders and tried to do the same with the warriors, but Bluestar said she would handle it but it turned out she did nothing at all.

Sanpaw was also filled unrelenting energy, nearly bouncing all over the forest and running Whitestorm ragged but hissed and jeered when the older warrior would slow even for a moment. She would claw at the ground, then at any nearby trees until the warrior finally reached her. Spottedleaf, Lionheart and even Tigerclaw seemed to know what was going on but everytime someone would try to say something, Sandpaw would brush them off.

Today, all the apprentices would be taken out for battle training. Ravenpaw had been cleared by Spottedleaf to resume his apprentice duties and while he was a still a little skittish around him, Tigerclaw had seemed to take Whitestorm's words to heart and was trying to do better. But his impatience still got the best of him at times and he would softly growl and scoff when his apprentice wouldn't perform as well as he hoped. Sandpaw sat in the training hollow with Whitestoem, her tail curled tightly around her paws and her head bowed. During the light briefing before training started, she said nothing and kept her eyes firmly fixed on the ground. The mentors had decided that Ravenpaw would go up against Sandpaw and Firepaw against Graypaw.

Graypaw let out a little sigh of relief that he would be facing Firepaw, he licked at his still healing scratch and gave Sandpaw a withering look that turned into a whimper when Sandpaw snarled at her.

Sensing that Sandpaw was in one of her moods again, Whitestorm thought it would be wise to get the training session over and done with. The mentors took the young cats to the training hollow and hear they told the four youngsters to begin, the goal was to get their opponent on their back and pin them five times before the mock battle was over. Sandpaw grinned at that and stood facing Ravenpaw, who knew of her changing mood but didn't back down or run away. With Firepaw and Graypaw watching on the sidelines, the other two apprentices then faced each other. Sandpaw snarled before launching herself at the black cat.

Ravenpaw stalled before flitting to the side and with a surprisingly hard paw slap to the face, sent Sandpaw crashing down into the soft sand. Sandpaw coughs and glares up at Ravanpaw before lashing out with her left paw and slamming it hard against Ravenpaw's chin. The scent and sight of blood dripping onto the sand alerted everyone to the fact that Sandpaw had her claws out.

What was Sandpaw doing?! There was supposed to be no claws when it came to training!

With her claws unsheathed, Sandpaw rushed at Ravenpaw, who lowered his head and braced himself, baring his fangs until the two collided. Over and over they rolled, clawing and biting with snarls and growls ringing out. Sandpaw ended the tussle by coming out on top, pinning Ravenpaw beneath her, the black furred tom narrowing his eyes in pain as Sandpaw leaned down, sinking her fangs into Ravenpaw's leg, digging in deep and deepening the smell of blood in the air. Firepaw watched with slightly dazed eyes, the scent of blood had her in a lull. It was so sweet to her. Lionheart, had to grit his teeth and sink his claws into the earth, his eyes shut tight and his breathing taking on a more labored tone. It was all he could do to keep himself from going insane!

Sandpaw gripped Ravenpaw hard in her jaws, shaking the skinny tom savagely and managing to ignore the pain of his claws at her muzzle as he tried to fight back. Releasing him from her jaws, as the dark furred apprentice apprentice tumbled, Sandpaw followed with a vicious claw swipe to the tom's head, striking dangerously close to Ravenpaw's eye. Ravenpaw managed to shove Sandpaw away with a kick of his hindpaws and scrambled to his feet, panting lightly. The pale ginger molly glared at him but didn't have long to stew in that anger when the smaller cat lunged forward, biting as hard as he could into her chest. He then pulled back hard, taking a chunk with him and spitting it out.

Sandpaw felt the pain wash over her and shut her eyes against it, when she opened them, Sandpaw's eyes blazed in fury. She charged at Ravenpaw with such a speed that the black cat couldn't hope to get away.

Sandpaw plowed into Ravenpaw, raising her claws and bringing them down hard and fast on the skinnier cat's body. Blood and fur began to litter the training ground as Snadpaw didn't stop, her blows becoming more and more violent and deadly with each passing second. Whitestorm screamed at Sandpaw to stop, saying the training was over but the molly didn't respond. Ravenpaw was starting to look more like a bloody ragged lump of flesh than a cat with each adding claw slash or bite. Firepaw was watching and while at first she was dulled too all that was happening but when she saw the pain and panic in Ravenpaw's eyes, Firepaw's head cleared and she rushed forward. Movement from the corner of her eye showed Graypaw running alongside her yet before they could reach her, Lionheart reached the molly first. He bared his fangs and plowed into Sandpaw, pinning her down harshly and snarling loudly. The pale molly tried to fight back against the warrior but Lionheart was having none of it.

"Enough! This has gone on for too long! You're going to Spottedleaf and I've shove that meat down your throat myself if I have to!" He then struck out with his fangs, biting into Sandpaw hard enough that her body went limp after a few seconds. When it he was over, he picked the apprentice up, maneuvering her on his back and carrying her back to the camp.

As he passed Tigerclaw, he looked to him, shaking his head. "Take Ravenpaw to Spottedleaf immediately. We can't waste anymore time." Tigerclaw did not hesitate and carried his apprentice as gingerly as he could, the young black cat having passed out from blood loss. The rest of the training group followed in silence, all of them subdued and unsure of what would happen to Ravenpaw and Sandpaw.