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

'Thoughts' Dreams Memories

A few days after Patchpelt's death, the Clan tried to go back to normal. And normal for the apprentices was training.

Sandpaw grunted softly as Firepaw slammed her down to the ground, sand getting in her mouth which she spat out in disgust while grumbling under her breath. Nearby Graypaw was sparring with Ravenpaw, their mentors watching carefully. Sandpaw retaliated by hooking her paws around Firepaw's shoulders and sending her to the ground as well. Firepaw tried to shake loose by battering at her belly with her hind paws but Sandpaw clung on, determined to win this fight. On the other side of the training hollow, Graypaw and Ravenpaw were sparring as well, but it was apparent that their mock fight wasn't as intense as Sandpaw and Firepaw's.

Firepaw had managed to get out of her hold by slapping her left paw hard across Sandpaw's face, driving her back. As the pale molly staggered back and shook her head, she forced herself to find her paws and face Firepaw, thinking out her next plan. However, Firepaw didn't give her the chance as the fiery apprentice charged forward, growling loudly and baring her fangs.

She pounced on Sandpaw, barreling into her and sinking her fangs hard into her shoulder, drawing blood. The scent of it quickly filled the training hollow and all the demons, sans Whitestorm slid out their claws in response. Luckily there was no risk of them losing their heads, Spottedleaf's careful trips with all of them to feed on cat flesh had them all rather calm and sated for the first time in a long time.

Still despite that, all the mentors looked worried as Sandpaw struck back with a hard paw slap, her claws extended. The blow seemed enough to get Firepaw to loosen her grip and back away a few paces. Sandpaw, despite her injury, followed her legs supporting her even as her wound bled rather heavily.

Sandpaw grinned lightly at Firepaw, her tail lashing before she dashed forward, plowing into Firepaw and biting her her leg and pulling. Another advantage to eating properly was the advantages that demons had that most of the normal cats feared, their strength, size and weight.

It had only been a few days but Spottedleaf had made sure that they all ate at least once every other day. It was hard at first to find a system to cycle through but eventually everyone got their fair share. In that time, Sandpaw had the others had bulked up and even already large demons like Lionheart and Tigerclaw on put on mass and gained even more strength. There was also the handy vast tolerance to pain that came with it, which of course lead to incidents like this.

Sandpaw and Firepaw were now engaged in a full on battle now, biting and clawing viciously at each other, the sand around them quickly staining with their blood. But they didn't seem to full of rage, in fact the pair, while tearing into each other, seem to be enjoying it, grinning and even laughing. However Whitestorm narrowed his eyes and rushed forward, pulling them apart and this is what seemed to turn at least Firepaw's mood.

"What are you doing? I almost had her!" she hissed at the white warrior, glaring at him while Sandpaw seemed to realize what was about to happen and lowered her head, her earlier energized mood now now.

"Whitestorm, I-" she began only to have her mentor cut her off. Tigerclaw, Lionheart and the others were soon there too, the tabby warrior lashing his tail at Firepaw, growling.

"You've been here long enough to know that we do not extend our claws in training! You been here long enough to know that you do not shed the blood of your Clanmates!"

Firepaw looked up at Tigerclaw, her green eyes smoldering in anger. "Then what is the point of having fangs and claws? When fighting, isn't it better to spill blood, to have a better chance at fighting? I would think that it would make training more effective if we did claw and bite for all we were worth, it would make us better warriors!"

"Firepaw, what you suggest is not only unreasonable but dangerous. While we strive to make all our cats strong, to just attack and make them fear for their lives during training is simply too much. We are not barabarians, Firepaw. To protect our Clan with loyalty and respect, that is how it goes. How can they ever trust us if we are tearing them to bits in a simple training session?" Lionheart tried to reason with the young molly but she frowned when he realized that Firepaw was looking down at her paws.

"They don't trust or respect us anyway, so what does it matter? Strength in your claws and your fangs is the only thing that matters. Perhaps it would change things if we gave those cats a few wounds to think about, then they wouldn't treat us like fox dung!"

"You watch your mouth!" Tigerclaw snarled, stepping up to the younger cat, his claws unsheathed. "We have suffered enough and still continue to suffer. I will not let some rouge demon who only thinks of blood drag us down any further!"

Whether he looked as if he was going to attack Firepaw or not, Ravenpaw rushed forward and stood in front of the fiery apprentice. He stared defiantly up at his mentor, his stance strong and rooted to the spot. Tigerclaw narrowed his eyes, his ears flattening as a dangerous growl rumbled from Tigerclaw's throat.

"Move, Ravenpaw." he said quietly, his voice straining with the effort of tryong not to start screeching in rage.

"No. What she says may be problematic, but I don't think attacking her will solve anything. You say that you won't let her drag us down any further but you were about to attack her. That will not make things right, Tigerclaw! Besides, I know that you have done something far worse than just wounding a fellow Clanmate. What Firepaw suggests is nothing compared to that." Ravenpaw added, frowning.

Those words sent Tigerclaw staggering back, sputtering. The others couldn't seem to figure out what was wrong with him but Ravenpaw only sighed, turning to look at Firepaw. "Are you okay?"

However, Firepaw only stood, heading out of the training hollow towards the camp further in. Sandpaw watched her go before trying to go after her, but Whitestorm gently bit her tail, holding her back.

"Don't worry about her. You had better get those wounds checked on, I'm sure Spottedleaf will have something for you. Off you go." Sandpaw stared at her mentor still worried but knew that she couldn't argue. Ravenpaw came up to her and nudged her, giving the paler molly a certain look.

"I'm sure she'll be okay," he then leaned in a little quieter, he muttered, "We'll go check on her later, I promise.

Firepaw didn't stop at the camp, she didn't go to Spottedleaf or stop to speak to Yellowfang. She kept walking until she was out of camp and kept on walking. The wounded molly was nearly to Twolegplace when she finally stopped, her wounds throbbing. She stooped to lick at her injuries, growling softly to herself. She had decided then and there, she wasn't going to wait for the full moon. It was over, she was going to leave the Clan. There was nothing there for her.

And yet as she thought that, the image of Sandpaw came to her mind. The paler molly was the first one of the Clan cats to treat her with any sort of kindness. Firepaw had to admot that she was a comfort to her as she had to go on without Jake and Firepaw remembered how crushed Sandpaw was when she lost Redtail. Firepaw would be lying if she said that she wouldn't at least miss Sandpaw.

But...one cat wasn't enough. The Clan was just far too cruel to demons and the rest seemed to think that all they have to do is try hard enough and things would work out. Firepaw shook her head, the world wasn't like that and she knew that things would only get worst before they got better. She wasn't going to stand around being demeaned while waiting for that day. The flame colored molly then sighed then shook herself, she couldn't stay here, this area belonged to ThunderClan after all, she didn't want to risk running into an enemy here. With that, she then got to her paws and limped off, resolving to leave ThunderClan behind and not looking back.

XxXX

Sandpaw was heading towards the dmeon's usual spot in camp to gather and share tongue with a large rabbit in her jaws to share with Firepaw when Ravenpaw walked up to her, his expression worried. Sandpaw put her rabbit down and tilted her head, wondering what was wrong.

"Hey, have you seen Firepaw? She wasn't in the medicine den when I went to check on her and Spottedleaf said she never saw her." the black cat lashed his tail in worry, and Sandpaw closed her eyes, trying to think.

"Perhaps she just went to be alone, she did get scolded pretty bad back there. I would think that she would want time to cool off." "Maybe," Ravenpaw muttered, while his eyes then found Tigerclaw. The massive tabby was crouching with his eyes glaring at him and while Ravenpaw lowered his head, he did not cower. After today, he would not let Tigerclaw scare him, no matter what.

"Well, I wanted to share this rabbit with her, but if she's gonna be gone for a while, do you want a few bites?" Sandpaw asked, snapping Ravenpaw out of his thoughts. The skinny demon smiled and nodded his head, picking up the rodent from the ground.

"Sure."

The day slowly eased into evening and none of the apprentices had seen Firepaw come back, Sandpaw was worried now, more than Ravenpaw now. Firepaw had been a constant in her life since the first day the full bloodied demon came to ThunderClan. And now she was missing. As the shadows lengthened and night truly began to claim the forest there was a harsh wail as suddenly, Brindleface and Willowpelt burst through the camp, dragging two bodies with them. Bluestar, despite everything, came to the center of camp with Darkstripe by her side. The two demon mollies narrowed their eyes at Bluestar but did not do the same to Darkstripe, allowing him to come closer to the bodies than the leader.

When Sandpaw pushed through the group of cats, she was able to see Lionheart crouching by one of them, his nose buried in the stiff fur. The two bodies brought in were Speckletail and Frostfur. Both were demons of the Clan and that fact alone had most of the Clan not caring but Sandpaw gasped at the horrible state their bodies were in.

Both mollies looked nearly torn to shreds and it even looked as though the bodies were partial eaten. ShadowClan scent absolutely covered their fur and Sandpaw could see Lionheart trembling, his eyes narrowed into murderous slits.

"ShadowClan. ShadowClan!" his snarl echoed for all to hear and he leapt to his paws, his claws glinting in the moonlight. He began to head for the camp entrance and still caught in the deaths of their Clanmates, the other demons didn't notice until the last minute to stop him. It was Darkstripe and Tigerclaw who did their best to restrain him.

"Let me go!" Lionheart snarled as TigerClaw and Darkstripe did their best to hold the massive warrior down. "They killed my mother! Eaten her! I want to flay them alive! See how they like it!"

It was the most furious Sandpaw had ever seen Lionheart, the warrior had always been controlled in all his emotions, even when he was angry, but this...

'Of course, his mother did just get killed.' Sandpaw thought, remembering her own father's death. Her heart went out to Lionheart.

"That's enough!" A cold voice rang through the night. Bluestar. She was sitting by the bodies, her tail wrapped neatly around her paws. "I can't allow you to get yourself killed by ShadowClan, no matter the reason, Lionheart. To lost another to them would be a blow this Clan cannot afford. Does anyone know what happened?" she spoke clearly and looked all around but Sandpaw could see that she didn't look all that devastated at the loss of life.

Willowpelt stepped followed, but not before pressing her nose to Frostfur's ripped pelt, muttering a few words. She then turned to face Bluestar, her face twisted in a suppressed snarl. "They said they wanted to stretch their legs and go hunting. They told us they were going to follow the path close to Tallpines and told us that they would be careful. We had thought that they had just slipped back into camp unnoticed but when no cat could find them, Brindleface and I went to find them. When we followed their scent trail to Tallpines, we found three ShadowClan warriors crouched over them, eating them!"

Willowpelt took a moment to bow her head but Bluestar only lashed her tail, looking annoyed. "And then what happened?" she asked, her eyes showing little sympathy.

Willowpelt's head shot up at her leader's callous tone but turned her head to her fellow demons, her eyes finding Lionheart, who closed his own in grief. "We fought them off, the vicious brutes. I even managed to kill one of them for taking poor Speckletail and Frostfur away from us. That's one ShadowClan cat we do not have to worry about!"

Small cheers for what Willowpelt had done burst from the demons of the Clan along with Whitestorm and Darkstripe, glad that in some small way, their sisters were avenged. Bluestar however, didn't see it that way. She stood, her fur bristling as she yowled for the clamor to stop. "You fools! ShadowClan is already up to something and now you go around and do this!? They will want revenge for you killing their Clanmate!" "And we should want revenge for the same thing! The Gathering is tomorrow, we should challenge them there!" Lionheart snarled, his fangs bared and claws ready to rip something apart. "We cannot let this go unanswered! My mother and Frostfur were killed! They deserved justice!"

"I will deal with this in my own way!" Bluestar growled, glaring all around her. "What's done now is done. Frostfur and Speckletail are dead. But their kits still live. We...will make sure nothing happens to them. Until the Gathering, no one else is allowed outside of camp, is that clear?"

"But what about Firepaw? She hasn't been seen all day? Surely we should send someone to look for her?" Sandpaw spoke up, her voice filling with dread as Bluestar stared at her coldly.

"If she is out there, then may StarClan have mercy on her." she answered, uncaring, before swiftly turning her back and heading towards her den.

A/N: Well now, I wonder if Firepaw will be okay wondering the forest alone? She is wounded after all and doesn't know the real danger she's in. Hopefully StarClan truly does watch out for her and she stays alive. As always, hope you enjoy and see you in the next chapter~