Chapter Four

"Glacierpaw. Wake up."

Something prodded me on the side. I let out a small growl. No, Mom, I will not wake up. I won't do any more of all those stupid chores; I've had enough of them. But when I opened my eyes I saw not Mom – but Brambleclaw's amber gaze above me.

"Your first training session is right now, Glacierpaw," he said. "I'll take you on a tour of the territory, okay?"

"Cool! I mean, sure!" I exclaimed, bouncing to my feet. I cursed myself for being so careless about what I said.

Brambleclaw purred and led me out of the den.

The forest was slightly darker than it had been in the morning – it was rather late in the day now, but not completely dark. As we walked by the fresh-kill pile, which I will never get used to seeing, I spotted a young long-limbed black tom with a brown underbelly and amber eyes.

"Is that Spiderpaw?" I asked Brambleclaw.

The dark brown tom shot a look behind him and said, "Yes, it is. He's Mousefur's apprentice."

I almost said that he was cute – if he was human. Then I shook that thought away. Whoa, what was wrong with me? I was a human; not a cat. Then again, hadn't I already decided that I had accepted the fact that I would be a cat forever? So was there a crime in liking another cat?

I thought all about that as I exited the tunnel leading out into the forest. I drank in a sweet scent of outside of the camp, and hastily padded after Brambleclaw.

As soon as we were out, Brambleclaw had gone to the left of the territory. I struggled to keep up as he leapt nimbly over every root sticking up, every fallen log, every rock. I was surprised at how tired I already was. Just when I was thinking that I should yell out that I was exhausted, Brambleclaw came to a halt in front of a rushing river.

"This is the, well, the river," he said. "Across from here is RiverClan territory. They excel at hunting fish, and are incredible swimmers because of it."

"Because the fish they eat makes their pelt more water-resistant?" I blurted.

Brambleclaw looked impressed. "That's right," he said. "Now, over here…" He padded downstream, and I followed. "Here is the falls. Quite a few cats have died here. I heard that a RiverClan warrior, Whiteclaw, fell into it."

The falls was a small waterfall – but that didn't stop it from surrounded by sharp rocks. It looked harmless to a human, deadly to a cat.

"Down here are the Sunningrocks," said Brambleclaw, padding in the opposite direction. "RiverClan has tried many times to steal them from us, but we have always taken them back."

Farther downstream, we crossed the river, where it was shallow. I didn't mind being in the water so much, and I followed Brambleclaw without complaint. He was waiting for me at the foot of a tree.

"There's an owl up there," he said. "They are very important to ThunderClan."

"How?" I asked, blinking. "I'd think that they'd be dangerous."

"Because if an owl swoops in one direction, you know there's prey over there." He purred. "Our Clan has never gone hungry during leaf-bare when the owls are around."

"Leaf-bare?" I repeated.

"You know, when leaves gone from the trees and snow is on the ground."

"Oh…" He means winter. "What about the other three?"

"Leaf-fall is when the leaves fall from the trees and change color; newleaf is when new plants grow; and greenleaf is this season: when the air is hot and plants stay green."

I nodded. "Okay, I'll try to memorize it."

Brambleclaw rose to his paws. "Time to see the Thunderpath, Glacierpaw."

I decided not to question what the Thunderpath was in risk of annoying my mentor half to death. So I followed silently through the trees for quite a while, until the trees disappeared and we were facing a road.

"This is the Thunderpath," said Brambleclaw. "Monsters carry the Twolegs in their belly."

It took me a second to realize what he had just said.

Oh, he meant cars carried humans on the road…man, that is hilarious!

"Duck!"

"What?"

Brambleclaw pressed me to the ground with a huge paw – just as a car, or a monster, rolled past, spraying dirt into the bushes. The monster continued up the Thunderpath.

"That was a monster," explained Brambleclaw, sitting up again. "They're horrible, stinky things. Thunderpaths are dangerous, Glacierpaw, they have killed the strongest warriors with their monsters."

You mean roads and cars, I thought. A sudden image struck me. With intelligence of the human world on my side – imagine what I could do! I could make ThunderClan great. Then, no, I realized, I'd be acting like Tigerstar. I shivered. No way I would start to act like him.

I shot a look at Brambleclaw. And I was sitting right next to his son! I took a long look at Brambleclaw and tried to imagine the cat called Tigerstar in his place.

"Right," said Brambleclaw suddenly. "Across from the Thunderpath is ShadowClan territory. They smell just like the monsters."

I raised my head and breathed in the scent of ShadowClan – I recoiled in disgust. He was right, they smelled horrible!

"ShadowClan lives in a swamp," he explained.

"Are there just three Clans?" I asked. "ShadowClan and RiverClan?"

"There's WindClan, but it is above RiverClan territory, and is quite a ways away." He paused. "Remember, Glacierpaw, the main job of the Clan is to patrol the borders and protect it from the other Clans who might steal territory or prey." He rose to his paws. "Now you just have to see the Tallpines and Twolegplace, and then we're going back to camp."

I really didn't want to see Twolegplace – I might see my parents. Legs shaking slightly, I followed Brambleclaw further into the forest.

Twolegplace was almost directly behind ThunderClan camp, so we had to walk quite a ways. When we were there, it looked so much like my old home that I was tempted to walk right in there and say hi to everyone – not that there was anyone to say hi to, of course, I thought bitterly. But what were my parents doing right now? Most likely they'd called the police to search for me. But what if they hadn't? Had they even noticed that I'd disappeared?

"Time to go, Glacierpaw," said Brambleclaw suddenly. I snapped my head up. "You'll have training sessions every day from now on. Don't worry, you'll be a great warrior! But remember – all Clans live by the warrior code. Which consists of several rules – but the most important one is the fact that the Clan must be fed first."

"Okay, Brambleclaw," I said, purring. The two of us headed back to camp.

XXXXX

For the next couple of weeks, I learned so much about being a cat.

For one thing, cats don't 'say' or 'talk' – they 'mew' or 'meow.' I also learned more about cat expressions than just purring with laughter or amusement – ears flat against head or tail-lashing was anger, flicking a tail in a certain direction was pointing, and ears twitching could mean embarrassment. Yowling pitifully was sadness.

As for Brambleclaw's training, I learned so much from him. Like, I learned how to stalk prey. My first catch was a mouse. I wasn't even disgusted as I carried it back to camp – I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, I caught thrushes, magpies, voles, and even a rabbit once I got good enough. Brambleclaw said I was a superb hunter.

My mentor taught me perfect fighting moves. At first I wasn't sure what these could be used for, and when I said so, Brambleclaw purred with amusement so much I thought he might have a heart attack. He told me that when he was an apprentice – I guess he'd have the name Bramblepaw – he had challenged BloodClan, a horrible Clan consisting of evil kittypets. Then again, Whitepaw and Shrewpaw had told me about BloodClan when we were on the subject of Tigerstar. So that had been a really dumb question.

Brambleclaw taught me how to climb trees, swim faster, run faster, leap higher. Squirrelpaw was the oldest apprentice in ThunderClan, and she had just been given an apprentice mission of hunting by herself while her mentor, Dustpelt, watched. I probably wouldn't be given a small mission like that anytime soon – I had barely been in training for two weeks.

More importantly, I learned about StarClan. I suppose that StarClan is sort of like what we think is God. Sort of. Whitepaw told me that the thick band of stars at night is called Silverpelt. Every star is a StarClan warrior. Weird, but interesting. So instead of saying God, I said StarClan from then on.

But there was one thing that the deputy of ThunderClan – Graystripe – said that made me a little unnerved.

One morning while I was eating fresh-kill – yes, I've gotten used to it, don't laugh – Graystripe padded over to me and selected a thrush from the pile.

"So, Glacierpaw," he mewed through bites, "how has your apprenticeship been going on?"

"Very well, thanks," I answered, feeling confused. Graystripe hardly ever spoke to me.

"Say, I heard this really strange word from an elder one time: human. Do you have any idea what a human is?"

I froze, and actually choked on the mouse I was eating. Graystripe looked at me in concern.

"You okay?"

"Fine," I gasped. I swallowed the bite and looked into his amber eyes. "Sorry, Graystripe. I don't know what that word – human, was it? – means."

"Ah, okay." I could see the same disappointment Firestar had had when he asked me if I had seen anything unusual. "Well, thanks, Glacierpaw. I'll ask Sandstorm if she knows what it means…"

But as Graystripe stalked away, I saw him not turn towards the warrior den, but into the nursery to check on the kits.

That was weird, I thought, giving my chest fur a couple of quick, thoughtful licks. How could he have heard the word human from a cat? Surely they can't understand Twoleg language?

Why do I keep lying? I wondered suddenly. I know perfectly well what a human is – a Twoleg, duh. What if my answer could help my Clan? I tried to imagine what would happen if I told Firestar that a human was a Twoleg. He might thank me – maybe. But what if he had more information than what I knew about? I won't tell until I know more, I thought. Besides, I added silently, settling on the ground, I would never tell dear Firestar anything.

The next day, Graystripe organized the patrols. He told me that Whitepaw and I could go hunting together alone, we had earned it. So excitedly, the two of us left the camp to go on a hunting patrol by the Owl Tree.

"This is great," mewed Whitepaw as we padded quickly through the trees. "I can't believe we are finally given a hunting patrol by ourselves!"

"I know," I meowed, feeling very proud myself. "I thought I wouldn't get one of these forever!"

"Me too," she agreed, coming to a halt and facing the river ahead. "StarClan, I hate getting my fur wet!"

"Same here," I mewed. "But we've got to. Come on…"
Hesitantly, I padded into the water, shivering at the cold that touched my fur. Whitepaw followed behind me. At last, we came to the Owl Tree. I could just see the black hole that Brambleclaw had shown me when he took me on a patrol around the territory.

"Right." Whitepaw paused and sniffed the air. "WindClan scent is strong," she murmured. "They haven't been hunting in our territory, have they? And as for prey…" She took another deep sniff. "Aha, there's a vole –" She froze in shock.

"What?" I demanded. "What is it?"

"An enemy warrior!" she hissed, fur bristling. She turned around and faced the bushes behind her. "Not from any Clan I recognize, though. A loner!" growled Whitepaw.

I bunched up my muscles, crouched into a battle position, and prepared for a fight.

But the cat that stumbled out of the bushes was not the lean ShadowClan or RiverClan warrior – this one was rather fat. It was a tom, and his fur was completely black, with a white dash on his chest. I was horrified to see that his pelt was matted in blood.

"I know you!" gasped Whitepaw, rushing to the cat's side. "You're Ravenpaw, aren't you? Firestar's friend?"

"An apprentiec?" I mewed, still skeptical. "Why was he banished?"

"He wasn't banished," panted Whitepaw, struggling to get Ravenpaw to sit up. "Ravenpaw, what happened?"

The black tom made a horrible gurgling sound, and croaked, "Rogues…"

"Rogues," repeated Whitepaw. "Right. Okay. Come on, Ravenpaw, we've got to get you to camp!"
She hoisted the larger tom onto her shoulder and managed to get him to his feet. He stumbled awkwardly, but stayed on all fours.

Just then, I heard a horrible yowling – cats that I had never seen before blasted through the trees! There were at least five of them, and they were skinny, but lean and muscular.

"The rogues!" gasped Whitepaw. "Hurry up, people, run for it! We're no match for them yet!"

So we ran. And StarClan, did we run fast. We tore through the trees and bushes of ThunderClan territory, pausing for nothing. But as fast as we ran, the rogues were faster. At last, we reached camp, and shot right through the tunnel. Stupidly, the five rogues followed.

Whitepaw yowled on word to the Clan as she skidded to a halt, dropping Ravenpaw on the ground: "Rogues!"

Instantly, the Clan emerged from the dens, growling. These were not the cute little kitties that I had seen before. These were mean, powerful cats, that could chase of any intruder.

The rogues seemed to realize this. They bolted, without a fight.

"Ravenpaw!" gasped Firestar, recovering first. He dashed to his friend's side. "What happened? Are you all right?"
Ravenpaw tried to answer, but he sank in a dead faint.

"Cinderpelt!" he called, his fur bristling slightly with worry. The gray she-cat came into the clearing, followed by her apprentice, Leafpaw, Squirrelpaw's sister and Firestar's daughter.

Cinderpelt bent over Ravenpaw and studied him closely. Then she mewed, "Leafpaw, go get me cobwebs for this. He needs them badly. Whoever attacked him ripped him into shreds!"

"It was rogues," explained Whitepaw. "They attacked the farm."

"What about Barley?" wondered Firestar. "What happened to him?"

A terrible silence answered his words. Firestar flicked his tail toward three of his warriors. "Mousefur, Thornclaw, Cloudtail, the three of you can check the farm. Don't go directly into it in case there are still rogues around. Go now."

Cloudtail mewed a hasty good-bye to Brightheart before joining the other two brown-pelted cats. I turned my attention back to Ravenpaw, but Dustpelt and Sandstorm had moved him into Cinderpelt's den. I looked nervously at Whitepaw.

"Will he be okay?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "But if Mousefur, Thornclaw, and Cloudtail come back at all, he probably won't be going back to the farm…maybe he'll stay here."

"But why isn't he living in ThunderClan in the first place?" I asked. "Is he even a ThunderClan cat?"

"Yes," answered Whitepaw. "But his old, old mentor – Tigerclaw – you know, Tigerstar – had accused him of being a traitor when he witnessed Tigerclaw murdering Redtail. So I guess he thought that the Clan wouldn't listen to him if Ravenpaw carried out what he saw – or that they would banish him because he was a traitor. Ravenpaw had always been terrified of his mentor, and eagerly accepted the idea of living on a farm with the cat called Barley."

"And Barley is a loner too."

"Yeah, that's right."

We padded over to the apprentices' den, where Squirrelpaw, Spiderpaw, and Shrewpaw were already sitting. Whitepaw and I curled up in our own nests.

"Weird day," commented Shrewpaw, his dark brown tail curled around his paws.

"Definitely," agreed Whitepaw. "And you know, Shrewpaw, we were there when we found Ravenpaw!" I could tell that she was tired of Shrewpaw's smugness and had decided to take advantage of the situation. So she and Shrewpaw locked into a conversation about what had happened when they had found Ravenpaw.

My eyes swiveled over to Spiderpaw, and I felt my stomach tighten with uncomfort. The long-legged black apprentice was staring out into space, watching the kits playfight. This is so weird, I thought. I have a crush on a cat. How could my life possibly get any weirder?

XXXXX

So…what do you think about the Glacierpaw x Spiderpaw pairing? How about Whitepaw x Shrewpaw, maybe? Lol. Anyway, I'll have the next chapter up soon, and about what happened to Barley, and what will happen to Ravenpaw, and…yeah.