A/N: Thank you,all of you, for your reviews! I must've sat staring at my screen grinning like an idiot for over a minute! Something that was pointed out: Sunpaw doesn't really have a distinct personality that separates her from her friends at the moment. Fear not, it'll be fixed. I just looked back and realized how bland she currently is. Thanks for the tip on writer's block, and again, much thanks on the reviews in general!

Oh yes...Sunpaw and Icepaw? Read on through the chapters, dear people, read on.

Disclaimer: I think if I owned Warriors, I'd be writing the books, not trying to get a job at Borders.

Chapter Four

The shadow-cat came to her again in her dreams.

Sunpaw was back at the sun-drown-place. It was night now, and the cliffs were cool beneath her paws rather than warm. The silver moonlight illuminated the pale gray cat with the blue eyes, the shadow-cat. In the dream, Sunpaw felt no sense of fear or uneasiness. The cat cast a sense of peace and calm gentle as the moon's touch. Sunpaw again met those pale blue eyes, and at once the whisperings flooded her mind.

Fluttering of wings, soft rushes of wind, murmurs of muffled voices, all echoing in her mind.

Sunpaw moved silently to stand flanking the shadow-cat. This time, when the gray cat motioned with its head, she could see down the cliff side. With her eyes that brightened the darkness, Sunpaw was able to make out a downward path made of smooth, flat rocks. Any cat would easily be able to jump down them.

She raised her head to meet the shadow-cat's eyes. As she did-

-wings fluttering above her head, soft rushes of wind, voices calling, calling her, those pale eyes boring straight through into her mind-

"What do want with me?" Sunpaw yowled to the cat, who stood unmoving.

"To wake you up. We're on dawn patrol."

"Huh?"

Sunpaw jerked her head up and found herself eye-to-eye with Rainpaw, who stood over her. As she pushed herself up, Sunpaw saw she had scrabbled her meticulously kept nest over half the den.

"I said we're on dawn patrol," repeated Rainpaw.

"Oh."

Standing up, Sunpaw padded out of the den and shook the moss from her coat. As she bent around to give herself a hasty wash, Rainpaw trotted over to her, pale blue eyes clouded with worry.

"Are you alright? Were you dreaming?"

Sunpaw glanced up, then kept washing. "Yeah. Had a dream. Where are we patrolling?" she added, wanting to change the subject.

"RiverClan border," answered Rainpaw, plainly still concerned.

"'kay. Where's Icepaw?"

"He's on ShadowClan border patrol. They left right before I woke you up."

Sunpaw grunted to show she had heard, then kept washing, trying to smooth down her fur. In addition to being mussed from sleep, it had bristled due to the dream. Sunpaw was many things, and proud was one of them. She wasn't about to admit a dream had frightened her to fur-bristling point.

She hoped she would be able to get away today. Maybe Lightningstar would send her on a hunting mission near the sun-drown-place.

She doubted it. They'd been in training for three quarter-moons now, and still none of them had been sent out on their own.

Given luck, I'll probably get there by the time I'm a warrior.

;-;-;-;

"RiverClan patrol," Sunpaw warned the group. A waft of strong, fishy RiverClan scent had drifted across from over the narrow end of the lake.

"Are we safe here?" asked Rainpaw. "Should we move away?"

Ever the worrier, aren't you, Rainpaw?

"We'll be fine," said Sparrowbeak. As she said that, three cats stepped out of the reeds across the lake. A heavily muscled, dark russet tom was leading the group, with a slender white warrior and small, pale brown apprentice just behind him. The tom stalked up to the edge of the border, getting as close as he could to Lightningstar without crossing into ThunderClan territory.

"Greetings, Lightningstar," he said in a deep, gravelly voice. "You're rather close to the border, aren't you?"

Seeing as how the russet tom was far closer to the border itself than they were, Sunpaw mewed boldly, "You're right on the edge. We're at least four tail-lengths back."

Lightningstar shot her a warning glance, Rainpaw looked worried, and the russet tom's eyes narrowed. He glared at Lightningstar.

"I would teach her respect, if I were you," he growled.

"I wouldn't tell a leader from another Clan how to mentor his apprentice, if I were you," replied Lightningstar evenly. With a short nod of-acknowledgment, farewell?-to the tom, Lightningstar led the patrol away from the border and back into the forest.

Sunpaw kept her head high, carried her tail tall and straight. Lightningstar asked Sparrowbeak and Rainpaw to finish the patrol on their own, then beckoned for Sunpaw to join him under the shade of an oak.

"Sunpaw," he said, causing her to get the feeling this was going to be a lecture, "while you were correct in your fact about how close to the border Oakfur was, I recommend you hold your tongue in the future."

"He had no right to say that when he was essentially in our territory!" she exclaimed. "Wh-"

"Sunpaw," said Lightningstar. The way he said it, the deepness of his voice, all his nobility and strength as leader fixed into the one word, made her stop. "You are a bold individual, and I respect that. What you need to see is that warriors can easily view a bold apprentice as impudent."

"Impudent! They think I'm a bloody, traitorous, murderer!"

"Sunpaw." He did it again. One word, just one word, made her stop, but this time the one word was infused with traces of anger. "I am well aware of where many of Clan see you stand. I know they see you beneath them. What you need to see is that there are warriors who know you will be equal to them when you gain your warrior name."

"Who?" she growled bitterly.

"Quickriver, Jaywing, Sparrowbeak, Darkcloud, and Treeshadow."

"And Sorrelflower," put in Sunpaw, naming the tortoiseshell elder. "She's nice to Rainpaw, Icepaw, and me." Naming cats who trusted her did nothing to lift her mood.

"Speaking of the other apprentices," said Lightningstar, "how do they treat you?"

"Well, Icepaw and Rainpaw are my friends."

"Shadowpaw and Nightpaw?"

"Shadowpaw's like an adder with a short temper towards us, and Nightpaw doesn't say anything," she muttered in a surly voice.

"And Badgerpaw?"

Sunpaw shrugged. "He's always badgering us about something or other." For a moment, she couldn't understand why Lightningstar chuckled, then realized her wording. It was enough to take away some minuscule traces of anger.

"Badgerpaw will be given his warrior name very soon," he told her, "so you won't have to share a den with him much longer."

Sunpaw nodded stiffly. Along with her pride, Sunpaw possessed a streak that did not let anger lift easily. She still felt hot with the thought of more than half the Clan expecting her to turn traitor at the drop of a leaf. Lightningstar pricked his ears then, and a moment later Icepaw and Jaywing emerged from the bushes.

Icepaw trotted up to Sunpaw and pushed his nose against her cheek in greeting. Either he sensed her anger, or the anger itself had taken physical form around her, because a heartbeat later he pulled back.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm doing just dandy," she muttered. She was dimly aware of the two mentors starting back to camp, and stalked after them sulkily. When they reached camp, Sunpaw was about to bring the elders some fresh-kill when she felt Icepaw running his tongue along her flank in long, soothing strokes.

"You always have to go and spoil a good snit," she said to him in a mock-angry tone. He flicked his tail in amusement.

"You're no fun when you're in a snit," he said matter-of-factly. "You take a while to calm down, so I figured I'd help you along."

Sunpaw didn't know quite how to feel about that, so she scooped up some fresh-kill and hurried over to the elder's den.

;-;-;-;

"Hello, young Sunpaw."

"Hi, Sorrelflower," she greeted the elder. "Want some fresh-kill?"

"Thank you, that would be lovely."

Sunpaw never could get over how the elders sounded when they spoke. It wasn't that they bothered her, it was just that they sounded funny with all their formality. She placed a fat rabbit in front of Sorrelflower, then dipped her head respectfully.

"You can stay and share if you like," said the old she-cat, fixing her green eyes on Sunpaw. "I'm tired of talking to old cats. I need to talk to someone young who doesn't spend their day lounging around."

"Do you miss being a warrior?" asked Sunpaw, taking a mouthful of the fresh-kill.

"Do I ever!" exclaimed Sorrelflower, her voice cracking slightly. "I used to run like the wind, and I could climb trees faster than some of the warriors when I was an apprentice!"

"Did you ever listen to the elder's tales?" Sunpaw asked her.

"Oh, sometimes. I was quite a bit like you: always on the go, always doing something, either with another cat or on my own. I've slowed down considerably over the seasons, and now I tell the tales."

"Do you know any tales of Firestar?" asked Sunpaw. Normally she had no patience to sit and listen to elder's tales, but the tales of the legendary flame-coated cat had always interested her.

"Oh, of course I do," Sorrelflower said. "You've heard that the Clans used to live in a place on the other side of the mountains?" Sunpaw nodded, and the elder continued, "One of my ancestors was a young warrior for much of Firestar's reign, and he passed down many a tale about him."

"What was your ancestor's name?" Though Sunpaw knew she herself obviously had ancestors who had made the journey, her mother had never mentioned any names.

"Dustpelt, I think. Yes, it was Dustpelt."

Sunpaw glanced at the sky. "Sorrelflower, sorry, but Lightningstar told me to go hunting again at sunhigh..."

"Don't worry," said Sorrelflower. "I know you've things to do. Maybe at sundown you an come and listen. I know many a tale about Firestar." Sunpaw nodded. She was padding away when she heard Sorrelflower whisper something under her breath. The whisper made Sunpaw turn and stare at the leafy holly bush. For reasons she did not quite understand, the elder's whisper made her heart pound and paws prickle. As she shook herself and kept walking out the camp to where Lightningstar would be waiting for her, Sorrelflower's whisper stayed in her mind, though she had probably not been meant to hear it.

Firestar reborn.

;-;-;-;

Ever notice we always hear the things we're not meant to?

--B.L.B.

A/N: End of chapter four! You know, I'd really love to read some more of those reviews...I've got major testing going on all this week and I'll need some relief. What's good, improvments needed, ya ta ta, the usual.