In a forest dark as night
Poppypaw stumbled down into her den, felling as if there was no energy left in her weary limbs. There she slept until morning came. Birchtree woke her at dawn and called to hurry up and get down to the training hollow. Poppypaw paused a moment to lick her ruffled fur into place, and then charged into the sandy hallow, where a cat immediately dropped on her head.
She flipped and twisted, trying to fight off her invisible attacker, while at the same time looking desperately around for Birchtree. Suddenly a laughing voice said, "And that's for being late!" the cat dropped off Poppypaw, who saw that it was just Birchtree. She purred and sat down in front of her mentor.
Birchtree was the deputy of ThunderClan, and she already showed the makings of a fine leader. She was already in charge of much of the day to day running of the clan, including organizing hunting patrols and border patrols, and-
"I've been thinking," meowed Birchtree, "You'll be looking forward to your first gathering, won't you?" Poppypaw nodded eagerly, and Birchtree continued. "Would you like to go tonight?"
"Oh yes!" said Poppypaw, and Birchtree replied,
"Then we must continue training as soon as possible. They worked hard all morning, hunting, fighting, and eventually falling down, exhausted, some time after dark. "Well we better get back to camp; we don't want to be late to the gathering!"
The two cats charged back to camp, only to be informed by one of the cats staying behind that Bramblestar had waited as long as he could but had finally left.
"How long ago?" asked Birchtree
"Not too long."
"Then we can still catch him!" the two bounded out of the clearing and into the forest, catching up to their leader and the others just as they ran down into fourtrees. It was then that Poppypaw finally saw her brother.