"No, you can't become a medicine cat apprentice!" Starpaw's eyes were wide with shock, and clouded with dismay. "What about all the plans we had made to train together?" Frostpaw stood up, her neck fur bristling. "You can't become a medicine cat apprentice!" she hissed. "We have always done everything together as siblings! You can't just… just... abandon us like this!" Starpaw flicked his ears in acknowledgement to Frostpaw. She was right. Ever since the five apprentices had opened their eyes they had always done everything together; even facing a scolding from Honeyflower when only one of them had done something wrong. It just wasn't like Moonpaw to leave her littermates behind.

"Well," Tawnypaw began. "Maybe it is just the best for Moonpaw. She's never liked the fighting. If she becomes a medicine cat apprentice she will not have to worry so much about the dangers of battle. She will be amazing at healing and free from battle."

"How could you ever say something like that, Tawnypaw? Moonpaw has never left us behind!" The words flowed out of Starpaw's mouth like water. He just couldn't hold it back. He had to say something. But then again, Tawnypaw may be right. Moonpaw was always a peace-loving, timid cat who just couldn't handle all of the tension between the Clans.

"You all are over reacting! I know that we had plans together, but Sootstar told me to be the one to protect you. I don't know how, but Yellowfang is waiting for a sign from StarClan that this is what he meant. " Moonpaw added.

"That's true!" Eclipsepaw began, "Besides, we are not the ones to chose Moonpaw's life. We are not StarClan. I for one can live with Moonpaw's decision, how about you Starpaw?"

Starpaw opened his mouth to retort something but was interrupted by the sound of his mentor calling his name.

"Starpaw!"

The wind ruffled Starpaw's fluffy fur. He whipped around to see that Bullheart was looking at him from across the clearing, his eyes narrowed. "Come on Starpaw! Are you going to sit there like a log or come with me to do some battle training?" Starpaw looked at his siblings. He could see disappointment glow in their eyes. "I….guess I have to go," he muttered. Tawnypaw licked his paw and then looked at Bullheart. "He must be really tough on you, huh?"

"I know but it will all be worth it once I am the best warrior in ShadowClan!" Starpaw touched noses with Moonpaw. "Do what you think is best for you. Don't listen to the others." Moonpaw gave Starpaw a playful cuff around the ear. "You were the one that started it!" she hissed. Starpaw twitched his tail and padded off. "I'll see you guys around the fresh kill pile tonight!" he called.

"Well that took you long enough," Bullheart hissed. "Do you even want to be a ShadowClan warrior or not?" Starpaw's pelt bristled. "Of course I do!" he meowed. Did Bullheart really think that Starpaw was slacking? He had been training his hardest for the past two moons! This means I am clearly going to have to work my paws off if I want to become a warrior. He glanced at Bullheart, who was concentrated on getting to the training hollow. Starpaw wanted to get off the conversation.

"What are we going to do today?"

The brown warrior turned his head only for a glance at his apprentice, then whipped his head away as soon as Starpaw noticed. Bullheart seemed to think about it for a moment and then answered, "I have realized that we have only been focusing on your battle moves," he murmured. "Those are coming along nicely, so I have changed my mind. Today, rather than beginning on your advanced battle tactics, we will be hunting."

Starpaw flattened his ears. He didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed. He could take whatever he caught to Moonpaw and Yellowfang, but he hated hunting.

Starpaw followed Bullheart into a place filled to the brim with prey probably so that he wouldn't have spend countless hours trying to find the prey itself instead of catching it. Starpaw heard sounds all around him. He scented mice, voles, mockingbirds, crows, ravens, rabbits and a lot of other animals that would look perfect on the fresh kill pile.

"Watch me and try to copy, I'll correct your stance if you do it wrong later."

Bullheart lowered to a crouch so that he could not be seen. Starpaw tried to copy his form while he still had a model. He noticed that he could not hear his footsteps, so tried to be light footed. All of a sudden, he pounced into the tall grass. Bullheart came back with a juicy rabbit in his mouth.

"I want to try! I want-"

Bullheart flicked his tail signaling him to be quiet. "Do you want scare everything away?" Starpaw lowered his head. "No," he dug in the ground with his paws, embarrassed.

"Good. Now did you notice anything about my position?"

"Well, you were crouched down and you were light footed," he announced happily.

"Anything else?"

"No?"

"Starpaw, what did I catch?"

"A rabbit"

"There you go!" Starpaw tipped his head in confusion. He had never hunted rabbit before. "Is that what we are learning today, to hunt rabbit?

Bullheart nodded his head in approval. "Yes. WindClan hunts rabbits," he meowed "But from time to time a rabbit will stray into ShadowClan territory. That is fair game and you don't want your Clan to starve, One of the secrets to hunting rabbit is to be silent so it won't hear you. Creep up on it downwind so it won't smell you, and when you are close enough, break into a chase."

"Yes, Bullheart!"

Almost immediately Starpaw smelled something, His ears pricked up. WindClan. What were they doing here? Starpaw turned his head towards his mentor, Bullheart smelled them too. They crouched and creeped towards the smell. He parted the grass and there they were, Those mangy, prey-stealing WindClan cats. One was chasing a rabbit clearly, and prominently marked by ShadowClan.

Starpaw backed up. "They're stealing more prey on our territory." The young apprentice was infuriated. This was the second time before the Gathering that they stole prey from ShadowClan territory,"We need to report this."

"Right. You go and tell Dovestar while I will continue to watch them. Oh, and send two more warriors over here."

Starpaw nodded and ran as fast as he could back to the camp, which wasn't that far away. Dovestar was heading toward Mossfur to check up on Moonpaw.

"Dovestar! Dovestar, quick!"

Alarmed, Dovestar turned his head to face Starpaw.

"Dovestar, WindClan is stealing prey from our territory! Bullheart wants backup to drive them out. Hurry! In the tall grass!"

Starpaw realized how loud he was meowing because by now there was a crowd around him.

"WindClan? In our territory? Starpaw, take Twistclaw, Foxstripe, and Tulippaw to the tall grass, quickly!"

With that Starpaw, Foxstripe, Twistclaw, and Tulippaw were racing out of the camp towards the tall grass. Once there they found Bullheart battling three WindClan cats. Starpaw charged at Bullheart's attackers, the fury burning in his eyes. Bullheart was suffering severe injuries he had intervene. Foxstripe ordered Tulippaw to bring Bullheart back to camp while the others kept fighting.

Starpaw managed to pin down a warrior and place a good nick in his ear. That'll teach him to stay out of ShadowClan! he thought to himself, bitterly. Foxstripe had also pinned a warrior down, while Twistclaw was battering at an apprentice. The three WindClan cats fled and Starpaw chased them to the border. After, making sure they were off Shadowclan territory Twistclaw, Foxstripe, and Starpaw headed back to camp with small scratches.

"You fought well, Starpaw. Bullheart must be doing something right" said Foxstripe and Starpaw realized that he really had. He had taken down a full WindClan warrior at only four moons old. Starpaw was impressed with himself.

"Thank you, Foxstripe. Bullheart says I'm coming along quite nicely," Foxstripe nodded his head.

"I can tell," responded Twistclaw.

Starpaw smiled and continued on the trail, pondering if he would become a warrior after this battle. He laughed at the silly thought. He couldn't hunt well yet, that still had to be learned before he became a real warrior.

Dovestar was waiting for them back at the camp. She looked stressed. "Well?" she said, anxiously.

"All is well. We drove WindClan off the territory, Starpaw made sure of that. He also managed to give one WindClan warrior a big tear in the ear." meowed Twistclaw, confidently.

"Good. This has got to stop. If WindClan is spotted on ShadowClan territory another time before the gathering, we have no choice but to attack."

"Dovestar, if WindClan breaks the Warrior Code one more time we must go to war with them," advised Scarface, who had come behind and sat down next to Dovestar.

Starpaw's pelt bristled. "War!" A battle would be fine but a war would be going a little too far. Was Scarface thinking about how many cats would be lost? Starpaw wanted nothing more in his life than to be in the midst of battle, with enemy blood pulsing warm and sticky as Starpaw bit into their flesh. But then he imagined war. Little ShadowClan kits hiding in the nursery, their eyes round with fear as waves after waves of cats descending on the camp, their faces pictures of fury.

No, Starpaw would not let that happen. There would not be a war, he would make sure of that. But this was at the back of his priorities, for now. Bullheart was being tended to by Mossfur and Moonpaw and war with WindClan was merely an idea floating around ShadowClan. It probably wouldn't happen.

Even though Moonpaw wasn't officially Mossfur's apprentice, she was teaching and testing Moonpaw for the time being. For now, Starpaw was going to let Moonpaw be happy. She'll learn. he said to himself. He glanced over to Moonpaw who was tending to Bullheart. "Hold still," she scolded. She'll have to learn where she truly belongs. He ached with sadness and flinched like he was raked across the face with a sharp claw. But she looks so happy. She doesn't have to worry about training or war. Maybe this is what Dovestar was talking about…

Starpaw shook his head, his eyes cloudy. He would sleep with only Frostpaw next to him in the apprentice den. No! He couldn't let this happen. He looked behind him. Frostpaw was standing there. Her eyes were blazing with sorrow. She mewed in her agony so quiet that Starpaw could barely hear her.

The two padded over to Moonpaw while Bullheart was at bay. Moonpaw noticed that they were here and looked over to Mossfur and asked, "Mossfur? Bullheart is fine for now, uh, Starpaw and Frostpaw are here though. I'll go see what they want." Mossfur sighed and padded over to check on Bullheart once again.

"So, what are you two doing here? Is somebody sick?" She peered over Frostpaw's shoulder.

"No, we just wanted to say hello and check up on you, that's all," Frostpaw answered. "But we can see that you are fine so I guess we will be leaving now." Frostpaw turned her body away towards her mentor and started walking. "Oh, okay. I'll see you later then, bye" answered Moonpaw, her tail drooped down for a moment. "Moonpaw! Come on, there is still training to be done!" With that Moonpaw scampered back into the den.

Starpaw was alone again. He sighed. Silverpelt was starting to show and his eyes were beginning to droop. The time to sleep was upon him and Starpaw couldn't help but being tired after the long day. The battle with WindClan during his lesson was probably the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him.

Starpaw began to pad back to the den but was stopped abruptly by a dark mottled pelt flashing at him from the darkness .

"Tawnypaw!"