Hey ya'll! Sorry I took so long updating: Summer Problems. (nods) Anyways, thank you ever so much to all who reviewed! I fully appreciate it! XP

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

pEaRLa

PS: Obviously, there is alot of talking in this chappie. (grins. waves. hugs. smiles. waves again. rock-on. peace-out) Y

Silverpaw gave a sigh. She was so very lost.

She had followed the vole a little too far, and ended up completely confused in a pine-forest with a marshy ground. The trees made the shadows seem to move, and Silverpaw was getting nervous.

"Darn that vole," she cursed in her head. "It made me as lost as a fox-cub in the Clan nursery!"

And to top it all off, she hadn't caught it!

"Rosepetal is going to claw my ears off," she thought glumly as she sniffed at the ground. She was starving. At least it wasn't dark, or she would be scared out of her fur!

"What's that smell again?" she wondered as she sniffed the air. She had identified it with Rosepetal just a few minutes ago…it was ShadowClan. It really smelled like a badger that had been dead for a moon.

"Yuck," she spat, shaking her head. "Am I glad I'm not a ShadowClan cat!"

This, she realized as she leaped over a bramble bush, is bad. If she had crossed the border, the ShadowClan cats might, might… Silverpaw paused. What would they do?

"Oh, no!" she gasped to herself. "They might force me to roll around in fox-dung and eat stale mice so I'd smell like them! What a punishment!"

Silverpaw flattened her ears. She wasn't so hungry that she would eat a stale mouse. But ShadowClan would make her!

Gathering her courage, she padded forward to the edges of the trees, trying to pick up Rosepetal's scent. It was so faint: cluttered up with the smell of prey, plants, and ShadowClan. Silverpaw sighed, and put her nose in the air again. But she froze as a cold voice behind her spoke up.

"What are you doing here?"

&&&

Silverpaw flattened her ears and she whipped around. The birds had stopped chirping, as if the presence of this new creature had scared the lives out of them.

A small cream-colored she cat glared at her, yellow eyes menacing. Her claws were unsheathed, and her tail lashed back and forth.

"Speak up!" she spat again, neck fur bristling. "Get off ShadowClan territory, now! What are you, ThunderClan? Are you so stupid that you dare to challenge us?"

"I'm-I'm sorry," Silverpaw stammered, taking a step back. "I'm quite lost, and-"

"We don't want ThunderClan filth on our territory!" the she-cat spat again. "Get off, or I promise you I'll go get Dawnstar to finish you off!"

Silverpaw's mew was caught in her throat as she heard the insults being given to her HomeClan. She forced herself to stand strong, and lifted her head proudly, hoping her voice did not waver. "My Clan is not filth!" she said clearly, as if every cat of StarClan were in front of her. "Flamestar is a wise and just leader, and-and she's way better than YOURS! Plus, ShadowClan-ShadowClan stinks!"

There was a long moment of silence, broken by the rustling of leaves in the wind. The creamy cat blinked. "What?" she asked faintly.

"You stink!" repeated Silverpaw, hissing. Suddenly, the creamy-colored cat's fur went down, and her eyes grew alight. She started to laugh, and squeezed her eyes shut, rolling around on the marshy ground.

Silverpaw looked bewildered. "What's so funny?"

"Of-of all the insults in the forests!" gasped the ShadowClan she-cat. "You stink! Is that the best you can do? I call my brother much worse things than that!"

Silverpaw considered being hurt, but she managed to give a little purr as well. It WAS kind of funny…and she should be grateful that the she-cat hadn't ripped her to shreds!

The creamy-colored she-cat looked curious now. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she caught her breath.

"I was hunting," said Silverpaw honestly. "And I strayed too far off. I can't find my way back. I didn't mean to intrude or-"

"Are you an apprentice?" the she-cat interrupted.

"Yes."

"What sort of apprentice doesn't know ThunderClan scent from ShadowClan scent? Oh, and our scent doesn't smell. Yours does to us, so ours does to you."

"RiverClan has a nicer scent, and so does WindClan," thought Silverpaw, but kept quiet.

"I was worried a patrol would catch me and force me to ear a stale mouse-and it's only my second day as an apprentice," she added, suddenly becoming defensive. "I wouldn't know one scent from another."

The cat looked amused. "Uh-huh. What do I smell like?"

"ShadowClan."

"What do you smell like?"

"ThunderClan, of course!" Silverpaw sighed. Did she look that daft?

"See. You can distinguish scents. And by the way, I hate to tell you but if a patrol caught you they'd do much worse than make you gobble up a bad piece of prey. They'd kill you."

Silverpaw gulped, fear rushing into her heart. "Please don't let them see me," she squeaked, suddenly terrified. "I wasn't doing any harm!" Gosh, I didn't think they'd KILL me….

"Just show me the way out and I'll be on my way."

"Hey!" the she-cat suddenly looked sympathetic. "Don't worry; I swear I won't breathe a word. I'm Goldkit, by the way; and if anyone gets in trouble, it'll be me! Wandering away so far in the morning drives me mother insane!"

"You're a KIT?" asked Silverpaw in astonishment. "But you look so fierce you could take on a leader with nine lives!" She hadn't expected this. At Goldkit's age, Silverpaw had been afraid to take one step out of the nursery. And here Goldkit was, fearless and courageous, taking on a cat twice her size.

"I give that impression to intruders," Goldkit suddenly looked mean. "So don't think I can't hurt you. I went easy on you this one time-never again!"

"O-okay," Silverpaw blinked, making a mental note of that. "Sorry."

Her belly let out an embarrassing rumble, and she glared at it. "Stop!" she commanded, but she had no control over her hunger.

Goldkit looked amused. "Hungry?"

"You wish," whispered Silverpaw, but she gave a small nod. "Yea, I guess."

"I'll hunt for you! I'm an expert-Dawnstar reckons that I should become an apprentice early. Hey, what's your name, by the way? I make a point not to do anything for any cat unless I know they're names."

"Silverpaw."

"Heh, that's funny. Goldkit and Silverpaw. Our names match!"

"I guess so."

But as the two she-cats trotted away, Silverpaw thought long and hard. "That's funny, really! How our names match." She purred. "Like we were meant to meet each other!"