Chapter 4

Silverpaw followed Paletree out the entrance tunnel. She had never properly left the camp and she studied it, trying to find every detail and memorize it. The tunnel was really more of a trail when you got out from between the rocks. It was a lichen trail that wound through the trees. It stretched far ahead of them.

"Is it all he entrance trail?" she asked. Paletree purred.

"No. When you get into the trees it's just another trail in the woods," she explained. "Soon you'll have every trail in the woods memorized," she mewed. Silverpaw swallowed, her memory wasn't that good. Paletree glanced at her.

"Don't worry. Our territory is the smallest," she informed her. Silverpaw was surprised by this. Her clan was the greatest, why did it have the smallest territory? "We're the smallest clan," Paletree said, recognizing her apprentice's confusion.

"But there are so many of us," Silverpaw gasped.

"There are even more in the other clans," Paletree mewed. Silverpaw was taken aback. More? The other clans must be HUGE, she thought.

"How do we fight them if we're so few?" she asked.

"We're strong. And we use our territory to our advantage. We have the most trees and we can climb them even when they're slick with ice. Sometimes in battle we jump down from them onto the enemies," Paletree mewed. Her voice was light and she had a faraway look in her eyes. She must be imaging a fight were they did that, Silverpaw realized. After a while she grew bored.

"Excuse me," she mumbled. Paletree shook herself out of the memory and turned to her.

"Huh?" she grunted.

"Should we continue?" she hinted. Paletree nodded and started to walk again. She was quiet for the most part but occasionally she point out a place where a great battle was won or where a leader lost their ninth life. Silverpaw took it all in, memorizing every bush and every tree.

When the tree line ended Paletree halted. Silverpaw stood beside her, gazing over the treeless land. It was very familiar.

"This is the border with Oceanclan, isn't it?" she asked. Paletree nodded, her eyes dark. Silverpaw gazed across the border remembering her time there. It had been almost two moons since they had captured her sister and her. She shook her head, that didn't matter now. "Can we continue?" she asked, her voice low. Paletree nodded and walked on, away from the border.

"I'll show you the border with Moonclan now," Paletree said, her voice taking on a brighter tone. "They live on flat ground with no trees at all." Paletree was trotting now and Silverpaw was almost running to keep up with her. "Because of that our battle tactics work well with them," she continued. Silverpaw moved to her mentor's side.

"Why are we running?" she panted.

"Exercise," she grinned mischievously. Silverpaw groaned. Living in the nursery was easy and she had never needed to exercise so she was out of shape.

Then the tree line stopped again and they slowed to a halt. The ground in front of them seemed to stretch endlessly and was undisturbed by anything. It was coated in a layer of thin snow and ice. The sun reflected off of it making the ground glow red. It was beautiful.

"Wow," she breathed. Paletree was smiling at her.

"Terrible place huh?" she asked. Silverpaw was about to shake her head but decided against it. What if she thinks I'm unloyal? Nodding she turned back towards the trees. "I'll show you the border with Frozen Falls now."

"Frozen Falls?" Silverpaw echoed.

"It's where we have our gatherings. You'll get to see it when you go to your first gathering," Paletree explained. "Now come on."

Duskpaw followed Twigshade into the woods. Silverpaw had just gotten back and was talking about how cool it was so Duskpaw was excited to see what Silverpaw had. Twigshade said he was taking her to the border with Frozen Falls to gather some fever few. Duskpaw was bounding with energy and was about to die with Twigshade's slow pace.

She bounded a little ways ahead of him after she couldn't stand it anymore. Twigshade didn't even glance at her. He just kept plodding along. Duskpaw walked forward at a brisk pace. She could smell Silverpaw and guessed she must have been heading to the border so she followed it.

Twigshade never argued so she assumed she was right. Following Silverpaw's scent trail she studied the land. The trees were short and were pearly white like the White Tree. The branches were full of snow but there wasn't much on the ground. Duskpaw enjoyed stepping on dry ground for once.

As the continued forward a new scent hit her. It was cold and wet and smelled empty. She racked her brain, trying to remember what is was. Water! Frozen water. She had found it. When she ran into a wall of cat scents she stopped realizing she had found the border. She looked at Twigshade, expecting him to praise her but he was sniffing clumps of herbs. Feeling a little let down she walked beside him and sniffed.

"How does fever few smell?" she asked.

"You smelt it in the den before we left, remember," he snapped. Digging his nose deeper in the plants he turned his tabby back on her. She shrugged off his grumpiness. Digging into her memory she recalled the tangy scent and sniffed.

Catching the scent she found a large clump in the roots of a tree. Snipping it at the base she walked back towards Twigshade. He had a bundle in his mouth. When he saw her he flicked his ears at the trail and started home. Duskpaw hurried after him.

"Aren't you going to show me the territory?" she mumbled around her herbs.

"You're a medicine cat apprentice not a warrior apprentice. You don't need to know the territory," he mumbled back. Duskpaw glanced at her paws. Following him purely by scent.

"Oh," she grumbled. Twigshade flicked his ears. He could detect the sadness in her voice. Sighing he stopped walking and turned to her.

"I might be able to get Paletree to take you out with Silverpaw," he mewed, dropping his herbs. Duskpaw brightened.

"Thanks," she purred, dropping her herbs too. Twigshade purred in amusement before he picked back up his herbs and continued on his way. Duskpaw grabbed her bundle and hurried after him.

Silverpaw dug into her hare. Snowypaw was eating a tern beside her. He purred as she ranvishly ripped into the rabbit. White fur flew in the air and settled on her fur, making it look like she had been snowed on. Snowypaw purred harder. Silverpaw glanced at him.

"What?' she mumbled, her mouth full.

"You eat like a fox," he laughed. She swallowed.

"Well you eat like a warrior," she shot back.

"Thanks," he mewed, puffing up his chest. "I'll be one soon. Then I'll be with Orcafin," he stared across the clearing at his brother, who was sharing a spotted owl with Foamfur. The two had their tails entwined and were staring at each other. Yuck, she thought in disgust. She hoped she never mooned over any one.

"We'll have more kits soon," she commented. Snowypaw sent her a side long glance.

"I agree but They're more likely to be from Whitefox," he mewed. Silverpaw looked at the white she-cat. She was sharing tongues with Tundrafoot. Her fluffy white fur obscured most of her but Silverpaw noticed her stomach was unusually large.

"We need more kits," she pointed out. Snowypaw stared at her.

"Do you plan on having kits?" he asked.

"Nope," she mewed almost immediately. "I want to be the best warrior ever," she boasted. "Kits would only slow me down." Snowypaw didn't comment. He just looked at his paws and quickly finished his tern. Wishing her goodnight he headed to the apprentice's den. Silverpaw finished her hare after a while.

Stretching she headed to the medicine cat's den to see how Duskpaw was doing. Duskpaw greeted her at the entrance.

"Better not come in, Twigshade's asleep," she warned. Silverpaw nodded and sat down outside.

"What's wrong with Twigshade?" she aksed. The old medicine cat had seemed fun and happy when she was a kit. Duskpaw shrugged.

"He's very grumpy today," she mewed. "He hardly said anything while we were gathering herbs except," she paused. Silverpaw pricked her ears sensing her sister's excitement. "I might be able to explore the woods with you and Paletree," she purred at last. Silverpaw grinned.

"We can train together," she purred. Duskpaw nodded.

"At least for one day," she mewed.

Silverpaw shrugged. "That's better than none," she pointed out. Duskpaw considered her answer. While she was thinking Silverpaw let out a huge yawn.

"You should get some sleep," Duskpaw said nudging her sister towards the apprentice den. Silverpaw purred with affection for her.

"Okay, you too," with that she turned to the apprentice den. Duskpaw went back inside the medicine cat den. Silverpaw poked her head in the den. Snowypaw was curled up in his nest. His slow, steady breathing told her he was asleep. Yawning again she made her way to her nest. Snowypaw had helped her make it when Duskpaw went to collect herbs. She smiled remembering how sweet he had been.

Curling up in the soft moss and lichen she drifted to sleep.

"Duskpaw."

Duskpaw blinked open her eyes. Seakit and Heronkit were standing above her. The two toms were on their first exploration of the camp, Lichenheart had warned the whole clan. "Duskpaw what's this?" Seakit asked poking a pile of berries.

"Those are juniper berries and don't touch them," she added. Rising to her paws she saw how tall she'd grown. The kits had to cock their heads to see her. She purred in satisfaction. "Do you want a tour of the camp?" she asked.

"Yeah," Heronkit cried in excitement. He raced to the entrance with Seakit at his paws. Duskpaw hurried after them. Walking into camp she saw the two running towards the warriors den. Uh oh, she thought as she followed them.

When she reached them they were attempting to crawl done the hole. Duskpaw pulled them back with her tail. "What are you doing?" she asked. Seakit looked up at her with innocent blue eyes.

"We're trying to find Shardclaw," he mewed. Duskpaw twitched her ears in annoyance.

"I thought you wanted a tour," she mewed. Seakit and Heronkit exchanged a glance.

"Not by a medicine cat. Your boring. We want to be warriors," Heronkit answered. He puffed up his tiny chest proudly, like he had won a great argument. Duskpaw was stung by his words. Was she really boring? Is that what other cats thought her job was like? She shook her head as the two bounded towards the apprentice den.

Snowypaw and Silverpaw were just emerging and the two kits bundled into them. Silverpaw tumbled over and was immediately covered in a mound of brown and grey fur. Snowypaw attempted to pull them off but Heronkit leapt on him and soon he too was lost in a puddle of fur.

Duskpaw turned away. She didn't want to watch. Twigshade was sitting with Creamfoot by the freshkill pile. They were sharing a tern. He beckoned her over but she had lost her appetite. Waving her tail to him she headed into the woods.

She didn't pay attention to where she was going she just walked. When she looked around she realized she was standing by the border with Oceanclan. The snow stretched out ahead of her in clumpy mounds. She sat down and gazed at it.

"Enjoying the view?" a voice asked. Duskpaw jumped. She looked around, a silver tom was sitting on the Oceanclan side. He was watching her with amber eyes. When she looked at him they narrowed. Uh oh, she thought.

A/N:

Sorry for another boring chapter. I know what I want to happen but I don't know how I'm going to get there so I'm just writing fill in chapters at the moment. Sorry. I hope you liked it though. I was just wondering who do you like more, Duskpaw or Silverpaw? I'm trying to figure out who I should do more of. Well please review and please keep reading. Byeeeeeeeeeeeee.