Goosepaw grinned widely as he flopped onto the stick in front of him. He fumbled it and threw it out of his grasp. "Oh no!" He shouted in mock horror.

"This is hopeless!" His clanmate, Rosepaw, groaned. "You can't even catch a stick! How are you supposed to be any use to SkyClan?"

"Hey, I'm getting better," the black and white tom defended himself. "At least that time I landed on the stick."

"It's an inanimate object! A blink kit could do better then you!" She shouted at him before stalking off, grumbling to herself. Goosepaw thought he was doing an amazing job. He had to pretend that he didn't know anything about living in the wild. He told his clan he had eaten twolegs scraps and kittypet food before this.

In actuality, it would have been easy for him to scale the tree next to him and catch the sparrow on the branch above. Back home he had a lot of time to himself and he had spent it hunting in the trees. But he had to act like he didn't know what he was doing! He was doing a good job acting like a mousebrain, he thought.

Heronstar had left no instructions on how he was to be trained. And the deputy, Applestorm, was more concerned with patrolling. His mentor, Mapletuft, had spent a couple days showing him the territory and then teaching him some battle moves. And then Goosepaw had spent some more days cleaning the camp and watching the kits while the older cats were out hunting. But today while the warriors were out patrolling Rosepaw was supposed to teach him how to hunt.

Goosepaw righted himself and crouched again, this time correcting his sloppy posture slightly. He leapt at the stick again, catching it in his mouth. He had to show some improvement, but only a little.

"Rosepaw! Rosepaw!" He exclaimed, his speech muffled by the stick. He bounded over to where his fellow apprentice was banging her head into a rock. Okay, she wasn't really doing that. But Goosepaw saw her staring at the rock very intently and he wondered if that was what she imagined she was doing. "I caught the stick!"

"Oh, joy," the two-tone she-cat said turning to him. "Drop the stick and let me see your crouch." Goosepaw did as she said, although he kept his rump too-high in the air with his tail brushing against the undergrowth.

Rosepaw pushed his rump down with her paw. "Don't stick it up like that. You won't have any balance. And beside the prey will see you coming. Also keep your tail off the ground. The prey can hear you coming."

Goosepaw stalked a couple paces in his 'newly-learned' hunter's crouch. Then he sprang up into the air. "You're a great teacher, Rosepaw!" He beamed a gigantic smile at her. "I bet you're going to be an amazing warrior!"

The gray and white she-cat flattened her ears and looked away. "If only Applestorm could see that," she grumbled to herself.

"Teach me how to hunt in the trees!" Goosepaw suggested, trying to change the subject. He could tell that his fellow apprentice was obviously upset about her mentor.

"You fell out a tree and nearly killed me!" Rosepaw argued. "You need to master hunting on the ground before I even think about letting you climb a tree." He grinned to himself seeing her demeanor change.

Goosepaw flopped onto the ground again, scrambling his limbs into a hunter's crouch. "Okay! Teach me how to stalk prey then!" The she-cat rolled her eyes and then joined him on the floor. As she showed him how to move through the undergrowth he began to see her chilly exterior melt off. Perhaps there was a half-decent cat in there after all.

Goosepaw flew through the trees of SkyClan territory as silent as he could. It was nearly moonrise and he was going to be late! Rosepaw had taken far too long to finally fall asleep in their den. He hadn't an opportunity to sneak out before.

His paws hit the ground and he ran the rest of the way to Fourtrees watching the moon above him. Yup, he was late. He suddenly felt a sense of dread. What if his comrades hadn't been able to sneak out? What if they didn't show up? However, his fears were put to rest as he came into the clearing and found four other cats waiting four him.

"Took you long enough," Jaggedscar sneered. Goosepaw couldn't help but notice the fresh scars on her pelt. Had she already gotten into a fight? And with who? The Clans were at peace.

Dapplestream flicked her tail at the ShadowClan warrior. "Don't mind her, Goosepaw," she said to the apprentice in a kind voice. "She's just mad because she got renamed."

"I told you not to mention it!" The calico she-cat exclaimed. She huffed and turned away. "I'm sure everybody else got renamed too, so it's not a big deal."

"No, Vixenshade, my leader let me name myself. So I'm still Dapplestream," the RiverClan she-cat informed her. Goosepaw had to hold in his laughter because he knew that Jaggedscar would claw his eyes out. What type of name was Vixenshade for the cranky she-cat?

"My name's still Aspenflight," the former ThunderClan deputy spoke up. "Told them my name was Aspen and by some stroke of luck my leader picked -flight for my name."

"I acted like a goose!" The apprentice puffed his chest out. "It was a wonderful performance, if I do say so myself. It left nothing more for Heronstar to do then name me Goosepaw."

"StarClan kept my name as Fawnpaw." The other four cats turned towards the medicine cat apprentice at the mention of their warrior ancestors.

"You talked to StarClan, of course," Dapplestream said. "How did it go? I'm guessing you didn't get cast out of WindClan so it couldn't have gone horrible."

"I saw WindClan's former medicine cat, Poppybreeze," the brown she-cat explained. "I told her the truth because she was already able to see there was something fishy going on with the five of us. I guess being in StarClan makes you crazy because she believed me."

"Did she give you any guidance?" Aspenflight asked. "And tips or leads on where we can start?"

Fawnpaw shook her head. "Poppybreeze didn't know anything. She did tell me one thing though, which hope that none of you have already done." Her green gazes looked directly at Goosepaw. What?! He hadn't done anything! "It's imperative that no one ever finds out where we come from. If they do it could change the course of history. We might not have anywhere to return back to if that happens."

"I don't appreciate being singled out," Goosepaw huffed. "I haven't said a word to any cat."

"Truthfully, Goosepaw," the RiverClan warrior spoke up. "If anyone here was to accidentally tell somewhere where we came from it would be you."

"I'm not that mousebrained!" The white and black tom defended himself. Sure, he put on a pretty good act of acting aloof half the time but underneath it all he had some sense.

"Enough." Aspenflight thrashed his tail. "What has everybody learned about their Clans? Anything that would cause someone to crack the Moonstone?"

"The Clans just seem so..." Fawnpaw trailed off search for the perfect word. "-melancholy. I can't believe that these Clans would see any conflict." Goosepaw agreed with her. This time's SkyClan was so small they couldn't risk and fights with the other Clans. The loss of even one cat would be detrimental to the Clan.

"I agree." Dapplestream nodded. "RiverClan and ThunderClan even share territory. They wave to each other on patrols! There's no way any fights are breaking out."

"Plus we're in greenleaf," Aspenflight suggested. "Prey is plentiful and bellies are full. Tensions are always low during these moons, even back home."

"Well what do you suggest we do? Ask our clanmates if they're planning any injustices against the other Clans?" Goosepaw realized that things like that were what made his comrades think he was dumb. Sometimes words just came out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"We'll just have to keep watching our Clans," Fawnpaw said and Goosepaw was thankful that she ignored his comment. "Disputes happen suddenly and conflicts can break out quickly. Who knows when it's going to happen."

"Speaking of our Clans, I think we should be getting back," the ThunderClan warrior spoke up as he stood and stretched. "My Clan's going to be wondering where I'm at if I'm not back soon." The group of cats murmured in agreement. Goosepaw knew for one he'd be in trouble if Rosepaw woke up and he was gone.

"We should meet again in a half-moon. We don't need to be sneaking off here too often otherwise our Clans will find out," Dapplestream suggested. Goosepaw nodded his head with the others and the cats began to pad off back to their territories.

But, Goosepaw held back for a moment because Fawnpaw had. The WindClan she-cat was staring at the nearly full moon in the sky. In a week's time there would be a gathering. Another chance at seeing his comrades, however, he figured they probably shouldn't act like they knew each other.

"The moon's the one thing that looks the same," Fawnpaw mused, noticing that Goospaw was still in the clearing. "Everything else is so different, my clanmates, the territory, even WindClan's scent. But, when I look at the moon sometimes I can just pretend for a second that I'm back home."

"We'll get back there one day," Goosepaw told her, stepping closer to the brown cat.

"How do you know that?" She looked at him with her green gaze. "We might fail in our mission and be stuck here forever."

"We're not going to fail," he said, flicking his tail. "Because I have faith and I believe in us. If the five of us could make up some fake backstory and be accepted into our Clans we can do anything."

"Goosepaw you might just be the most naive out of all of us." Fawnpaw shook her head and began to pad off towards WindClan territory. The black and white apprentice's tail drooped. It hurt that the others thought he was a half-wit. Especially Fawnpaw.

Then, the medicine cat stopped and turned back to look at him. "But we need that unyielding optimism. I need that." With that Fawnpaw turned around and sprang off towards her territory.

Goosepaw smiled softly to himself and began to make his way back to SkyClan's camp.