To whoever Sparkheart is…that was very sweet of you, I must say. You have pointed out the STUPIDEST THINGS IN MY F!CKING STORY! HOW CAN GLACIERSTAR BE A WEIRD NAME, YOU ASSH!LE? THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY F!CKING SENSE! SPARKHEART IS THE MOST RETARDED NAME I HAVE EVER HEARD! LIKE I KEEP SAYING, I WROTE HIS NAME AS SPIDERPELT BEFORE STARLIGHT CAME OUT! NOT ONLY THAT, BUT I'VE TOLD IN MY STORY WHY SHREWCLAW IS AN ELDER AND SPIDERPELT ISN'T, RETARD! AND IF YOU THINK MY STORY'S BAD BY JUST LOOKING AT THE ALLEGIANCES, THEN YOU AREN'T VERY SMART, ARE YOU? IT DOESN'T HELP EITHER THAT YOU'RE A COWARDLY ANONYMOUS REVIEWER AND DIDN'T EVEN LEAVE YOUR EMAIL SO I COULD REPLY, BECAUSE GUESS WHAT, I HAVE TO REPLY TO YOU IN FRONT OF ALL MY OTHER REVIEWERS! AND, YOU HAVE GIVEN ME MY FIRST F!CKING FLAME EVER! FEEL PROUD?

There you go, Sparkheart. I hope you received the reply you were anticipating.

Chapter Eleven

"Ebonyclaw? Have you seen Dragonheart?"

I looked up. It was Glitterpool, talking to me. She had just received her warrior name yesterday, and already she was acting as though she had been a warrior longer, had more experience. Her white tail was curled around her paws and the tip was twitching nervously.

I blinked. "Why? Is she missing?"

"Yes…no one can find her. We haven't seen her since yesterday."

I kneaded the ground with my claws. "We should tell Glacierstar."

Glitterpool swallowed. "Creamwhisker tried to do that. But…she wasn't in her den."

"What? Glacierstar wasn't?"

I climbed to my paws and walked past her, into the camp. Everyone was busily searching for their lost leader and deputy. I tried to remember where they had gone last night, but it was impossible.

"Who's going to lead ThunderClan?" fretted Glitterpool.

I swallowed nervously. "Don't," I warned. "Glacierstar and Dragonheart will be found."

The white she-cat with gray patches gave a nod and wandered off to find her brother, casting a final look back at me. Wondering what that was about, I went to see if the apprentices were doing what they were supposed to. Surprisingly, the only apprentice there was Dovepaw.

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "Shouldn't you be helping finding Glacierstar and Dragonheart?"

Dovepaw looked at me with dazzling green eyes. "It is time," she whispered.

I was confused. "What?" I meowed blankly. What was she talking about?

"Come, Ebonyclaw," meowed Dovepaw, pushing past me. She walked into the center of the camp and headed for the gorse tunnel.

"Hey!" I blurted, rushing after her. Apprentices weren't allowed to go outside the camp, especially not at this time. When I spotted her once again, she was talking to a ginger she-cat who looked just as stumped as I had been. Squirreltail blinked and looked at me as I padded over.

"What is she going on about?" hissed Squirreltail.

"I have no idea," I replied. "Dovepaw, what –"

"Come!" ordered Dovepaw. Squirreltail and I glanced at each other, and followed the small white she-cat out of the gorse tunnel and up the ravine. She turned and was soon headed for RiverClan territory.

"Dovepaw…" I began. "Could you please tell us what is going on?"

"In a minute," Glacierstar's apprentice replied. "We must all be here first."

"Well, who's we?" demanded Squirreltail impatiently.

Dovepaw didn't answer as she padded quickly through the forest. She finally stopped at the edge of the river by Sunningrocks, very close to RiverClan territory. I was astonished when she shouted a name, so close to enemy territory,

"Elmheart?"

A light gray warrior I hadn't noticed appeared out of the shrubbery on the ground, and swam across the river with absolute ease of a RiverClan cat. The warrior named Elmheart gave a shake, spraying water all over the ground, and stared at all three of us with curiosity.

"Feathertail told me that I had to come here," he murmured.

I had no idea who Feathertail was, but Dovepaw seemed to. She dipped her head respectfully.

"Elmheart. Your mother wanted you here for very special reasons. All four of you," she added, glancing around us. "There was…a prophecy."

"A prophecy?" repeated Squirreltail disbelievingly. "Why would it include the four of us? We don't have anything in common."

"Oh, yes we do," replied Dovepaw. "Squirreltail, you are the daughter of Firestar and Sandstorm. The former leader of ThunderClan, and probably the most famous cat in the forest."

Her green eyes turned to Elmheart. "Your grandfather is Graystar, Firestar's best friend."

"But my father wasn't a leader of any sort," I protested, my heart clenching.

"No," agreed Dovepaw. "Ravenfur was not the leader. But my mother is Spiraltail, who is the daughter of Spiderpelt, who is the son of Dustpelt." She glanced around at all of us. "Firestar, Sandstorm, Graystar, Ravenfur, Dustpelt. Now do you see?"

Squirreltail answered. "Yeah…those cats. They trained together, as apprentices."

"Exactly." Dovepaw nodded her white head.

"And we are their descendants," I mused thoughtfully.

"But what about Streamtail?" inquired Elmheart. "She's my sister, the same age as me."

Dovepaw shrugged. "StarClan wanted two she-cats, two toms. It would not have been even. Don't tell Streamtail that, though," she added teasingly.

"You said it was StarClan who wanted this?" I asked.

"Yes," replied the white she-cat, ruffling her fur. "The prophecy stated that the descendants of the five cats who were apprentices during Firestar's time as an apprentice are the ones who will defeat Flamesorm if Glacierstar falls."

There was a very uncomfortable silence. Finally,

"If Glacierstar falls?" I repeated. "Well, she's disappeared, does that count?"

Dovepaw purred. "Well, she could be considered dead. If I tell you what happened to her, it would lead to more questions."

"Who's Flamestorm?" asked Elmheart.

"The last Tigerstar," answered Squirreltail. "She tried to get BloodClan to attack ThunderClan. She killed Glacierstar – or, rather, Glacierclaw at that time. Dragonheart, our deputy, killed Flamestorm in return. Since Glacierclaw had once been a Twoleg, she used her Twoleg life to save our Clan."

"Twoleg?" repeated Elmheart in awe. "Glacierstar once was a Twoleg?"

Squirreltail launched into the story of Glacierstar's life. I turned to Dovepaw and whispered,

"So what is it we have to do?"

"Defeat Flamestorm," replied Dovepaw, "before she has the chance to kill all of us."

"So, how far away is your camp?" I asked Reefpaw.

"Not far now," she replied. "We just moved to the Great Sycamore because LeopardClan was moving too close to our territory. So we moved farther away."

I nodded and concentrated on walking. I was amazed that the Great Sycamore was there in the times of the Great Clans and I guessed it had to be pretty small now, or at least not at its full height. More importantly, I was wondering why the cats of the forest always called TigerClan the cats of the night, and LionClan cats of the sun, and LeopardClan cats of the hunt. Or why they were the size of their name as well, when Reefpaw was an ordinary cat. Unless she really was as small as everyone said she was and the cats of TigerClan really were tigers, and Reefpaw was the ordinary cat.

I'd have to clear things up a bit, I thought with a laugh.

"There it is," meowed Reefpaw suddenly. I nearly crashed into the blue-gray she-cat as she froze. I recognized the sounds of yowls and screeches of cats from inside. My heart lurched. Dragonheart!

Without a word, Reefpaw hurried into her camp. I rushed after her and saw with relief that the cats that I saw were not tigers, but ordinary cats.

I've said before that some cats in the Clans that I was used to are big. Well, that was nothing compared to these cats. They were huge. Not tiger huge, but really big and muscular. Their faces were broad and flattened and their bodies showed signs of life in the forest. I recognized vicious scars from many other cats.

Three of them were holding down a very familiar ginger, gray, and black cat. I gasped as another TigerClan warrior came up and slashed at Dragonheart's face. She hissed and spat as blood was drawn, sprinkling the ground. The cats let out yowls of laughter.

"Stop!" cried Reefpaw. "Please, don't!"

The TigerClan cats froze and stared at her. Then a pitch-black tom stalked forward, swishing his tail menacingly.

"Stop what, Reefpaw?" he hissed. "This is a prisoner from outside our Clans."

"She could help us," urged Reefpaw. "Pantherclaw, you should understand…she could help us fight against LeopardClan."

So that's Pantherclaw, I thought, narrowing my eyes. He was the mean warrior I had heard about, and was Reefpaw's father.

"And who is this?" meowed Pantherclaw suddenly. My heart jolted as I realized he was staring at me. "Another prisoner we should torture?"

I stepped forward bravely. "My name is Glacierclaw," I meowed. "I am willing to help you on your quest to defeat LeopardClan, but first you must let my friend go." I nodded toward Dragonheart, who was gasping on the ground.

I expected all the cats to leap at me and start slashing my face, but Pantherclaw was not stupid. The deputy signaled to his warriors to release Dragonheart. My friend collapsed, bleeding heavily. Pantherclaw stalked over to her and pulled her to her feet.

"What is your name?" he snapped.

"Dragonheart…" she gasped.

The black warrior looked at me. "You both have Clan names."

"Yes," I replied, "we are from a Clan far away."

"Why did you leave?"

I hesitated. Then, "We were traveling away from our old territory but the two of us were separated from our Clan. Wolves had chased us."

Pantherclaw bought the story. He jumped slightly as a huge long-haired gray tom pushed past him. Judging by the looks of respect his Clan was giving him, this had to be the leader.

"You will help us?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yes, we will."

The leader flicked his tail. "My name is Wolfstar," he told me. "The current situation with LeopardClan is that their warriors are hunting on our territory as though it is theirs. Cobaltstar, their leader, has attacked us several times. We are barely managing to make it through. We believe that LeopardClan is planning to slowly take over the forest, one Clan at a time."

"Right," I replied. "What are you planning to do?"

"Currently, we are training our young to become warriors as fast as we can before we launch an attack on LeopardClan camp," replied Wolfstar. "I am hoping that Reefpaw, Crystalpaw, Diamondpaw, and Dartpaw will be warrriors very soon." He peered at me. "Have you ever had an apprentice?"

"Three," I answered, my heart clenching when I thought of Dovepaw. "Two are currently warriors."

Wolfstar nodded, impressed. "You and Dragonheart will help in the training of our apprentices," he demanded. "For now, get some sleep. Training will begin at moonrise."

Moonrise? I thought. These cats sleep during the day?

I shot a glance at Dragonheart. She was struggling to remain standing. I was stunned that the Clan hadn't even bothered to do anything about her wounds. I guessed that here, in the time of the Great Clans, you had to be tough. I headed over to Dragonheart and pressed my shoulder against hers as the cats went to their dens.

"Do you have a medicine cat?" I asked Reefpaw as she passed me.

She purred. "Of course," was her response. "Glistenheart. Over there's her den," added Reefpaw, nodding toward a tangle of leaves that was apparently a den.

"I'll make it," grunted Dragonheart. She limped over to the den.

I hurried after Reefpaw. "Where do I sleep?"

The blue-gray she-cat shrugged. "You can sleep in our den, if you want," she offered. "I can introduce you to the other apprentices."

"Great," I replied. I followed Reefpaw to another crudely-made den. Three other apprentices were already inside. One of them, a white she-cat that looked a lot like Dovepaw, hurried up to me and touched her nose to mine.

"Hi!" she exclaimed. "I'm Crystalpaw!"

"Er…hello," I responded, stunned by her cheery mood.

"That's Dartpaw," meowed Reefpaw, nodding toward a sleeping dark gray tom. "And that's Diamondpaw."

The cat in question was a large silver tom with a white diamond on his forehead, hence his name. He merely gave me a nod before settling down in his nest and closing his eyes.

"He doesn't speak," explained Crystalpaw in a whisper. "We don't know why."

"Oh," I mumbled. That was pretty sad. I wondered what was wrong with Diamondpaw.

I found a place to sleep in the far corner of the den. I was glad when my senses shut off and I was dreaming again.

This was shorter than the last chapter, but better.

I hope I didn't scare anybody from what I said to Sparkheart. XD I just really hope that he/she read that…

Please review!