"Again, Sunpaw!" Dogbark commanded. "You almost got me that time! Come on, you stalk like a blind badger!"

Sunpaw smirked at his mentor's playful insults. The gingery tomcat prowled closer to Dogbark, keeping his intense gaze centered on her. Dogbark's brown gaze locked with his, and she gave a taunting hiss. Sunpaw leapt. Dogbark caught him with her shoulder and tossed him to the ground. She crouched overtop of him, grinning. "You're getting better," she rasped.

"Thanks, Dogbark," Sunpaw mewed. "Any tips for me?"

"Do you really want my advice?"

"Dogbark!" whined Sunpaw.

"All right, all right." The brown she-cat let out a rusty purr. As a kit, Dogbark had contracted a virus that had made her voice scratchy and throaty. It did not make her meow very attractive, but she was still a beautiful queen with sleek fur and lively eyes. "Listen, you're a strong little tom. But you keep trying to overpower me. I'm too big for that to work, Sunpaw. Out-think me, not out-muscle me!"

Sunpaw scrambled to a sitting position to think. What could he possibly do to beat Dogbark? His ice-blue eyes were shadowed with thought. Dogbark crouched down in front of him to wait. She's right...She is too big for me to tackle on my own. There has to be some way that I can distract her...Yeah! I'll draw her attention away from me and when she's not looking, I'll jump in! Yeah! Awesome!

The ginger tom started to stalk towards his mentor. Halfway to her, he stopped and pricked up his ears. He stiffened his whiskers. "Dogbark...I can smell something," she whispered. "It's right behind you..."

"Like I'll fall for that," was the reply he got. "Come on, Sunpaw, let's get a move on. We haven't got all day to train."

"HAWK!" Sunpaw yowled, cowering down against the ground. Dogbark gave the sky a worried glance. When she realized she'd been had, her tone changed to that of an annoyed queen to her kit.

"Sunpaw, you do real—MROW!" Dogbark broke off in a sudden yowl of surprise as Sunpaw tackled her to the ground.

"How's that?" he asked. Dogbark shook her apprentice off, purring and speaking intermittently.

"Y...you lit...little...hair...hairball!"

"Gotcha, Dogbark," Sunpaw mewed teasingly. Dogbark took a slow, deep breath. She sighed, though not unhappily.

"Yes," she rasped. "Yes you did. But I hope you understand that that's not going to work against an enemy warrior."

"What enemy warrior?" Sunpaw asked. "Dogbark, it's been moons since we've even scented a rogue! We're the only cats out here. There's no enemy warriors to worry about."

"Perhaps not at the moment. But there may come a day when new cats will try and throw us out of here. Maybe we'll know these cats. Maybe we'll have had something to do with them, from nine lives ago." The brown queen shrugged. "I don't know. That's enough training for today, Sunpaw. Let's head back to camp. I'm beat."

Sunpaw yawned. It was sunhigh. They had been training since sunup in the grassy field that bordered PromiseClan territory. Sunpaw liked the field. It reminded him of MeadowClan territory. The golden tabby tom padded behind his mentor, glad for the chance to think by himself for a while.

This new cat, Trickpaw...What's up with him, I wonder? He's only been here a week, and already, he's made his alliances clear. He's petrified of Shadowpaw and spends all his spare time with Promisepaw. I wonder if he knows they can't be mates. Well, he'd better stay far away from Summerpaw. She's my best friend. There's no way he'd be mates with her. He shook his head firmly. Look at me, already thinking about fathering kits! Well, whatever it is, I hope he gets over it soon. Shadowpaw's okay and all, but it's not like she'd hurt him.

.-''-.-''-.-''-.

"Everything okay, Sunpaw?" asked Summerpaw. Sunpaw shrugged and lay beside her.

"I guess. I mean, I'm worried about Trickpaw..."

"Me too," Summerpaw mewed. "I mean, he hardly speaks to any cat but Promisepaw. And Shadowpaw seems to hate him. Have you noticed the way she bristles whenever he comes within a half-tail-length of her?"

Sunpaw nodded and took a bite of his mouse. "I know what you mean," he mumbled with his mouth full. Swallowing, he added, "It's like she knows something about him, and he doesn't want her to tell any cat about it."

"Maybe that's what it is," the golden she-cat mused. "But what, I wonder? What could Shadowpaw possibly know about Trickpaw that none of us know?"

"Maybe he wasn't a rogue. Maybe he was really a kittypet."

Summerpaw dropped down from her stiff, upright position, and curled up on the ground beside Sunpaw. She licked his ears tenderly. Sunpaw gave a soft purr. It was nice to just sit out and watch night fall over the camp, especially if you had a friend beside you. Just then, Trickpaw padded up to the two others, holding a finch in his mouth. He dropped it down and rolled over onto his side.

"Hey, Trickpaw," Summerpaw mewed in a friendly voice. Trickpaw nodded to her. "Something wrong?"

"Shadowpaw been after you, has she?"

Trickpaw gave Sunpaw a sharp glare for the last remark. The good-natured golden-striped cat ignored the fiery stare and took another bite of mouse. Trickpaw sighed. "I dunno. It's just...Riverstar works me really hard. It's like nothing I've ever done before."

"Well, that's the point of apprentice training," Summerpaw reminded him. "It's supposed to be rough to toughen you up, and prepare you for the day when you have to face a much stronger cat than yourself and come out on top."

Trickpaw gave a wry grin. "I guess...So, Sunpaw, how'd your training go?"

"Oh, the usual. Dogbark's hard to fight. I mean, really hard. And she's more mysterious than StarClan themselves. She won't give you straight advice."

"What did you do today, Summerpaw?" Trickpaw asked.

"Me? Oh, Blazetail and I went on the dawn patrol with Wavepaw, Owlfur, and Quartzfur."

"Tell me more!" Trickpaw mewed. "Never been on a patrol before."

"You have to have been an apprentice for a moon to go on a patrol," Sunpaw explained. "Just you wait. Soon it'll be time for your first patrol, Trickpaw."

"He's right. Well, anyways, we picked up a rogue scent trail. I was the one who found it." Summerpaw closed her eyes, practically glowing with pleasure.

"Rogues?" Sunpaw demanded, leaping to his paws. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Quartzfur says he'll have to report it to Riverstar, so just be prepared for the announcement tonight." Summerpaw scooped a hole to bury the bones of her prey as well as Sunpaw and Trickpaw's. "But aside from that, it went well. I got to eat on patrol, too. Quartzfur said it was okay, because I had worked for the good of the Clan and earned the right to eat."

"What else?" Sunpaw asked, still a little edgy from the news of rogues. His fur tingled, and he only half-heard Summerpaw tell about what she saw. Didn't Dogbark tell me I had to prepare for the day when I would have to face enemy warriors? But what rogues could possibly try to take on PromiseClan? No Clan back home was ever this huge! We're a super-Clan!

"A little cold, there, Sunpaw?" Trickpaw asked innocently, for the golden-ginger tom had just shuddered deeply, his body rippling like prairiegrass in the breeze.

"Well, it's almost leaf-fall," Sunpaw admitted. "I guess my fur's just not thick enough yet."

Trickpaw nodded, but Summerpaw seemed deeply troubled. Genuine concern flashed in her eyes. Sunpaw shrugged it off. He felt uncomfortable around this new cat. There was something distinctly different about Trickpaw...something that made Sunpaw uneasy. "I'm kinda tired," he lied. "Think I'll lie down for a while..." He padded into the apprentice den. Shadowpaw was there, sitting up in her nest and gazing at Trickpaw.

"Sunpaw," she mewed, dipping her head to the young tomcat. Sunpaw returned the nod and curled up in his own nest. He sighed, rolling around to get comfortable. He still couldn't shake that bad feeling about the rogues. The elders tell the tale of how this camp used to belong to a group of murderous rogues...Could they somehow have come back to drive us out? But Longfang always tells us they've been disbanded, and how they're nothing without Bone Marrow, the cat Riverstar killed back when she was still just a warrior.

Sunpaw gave a low moan and buried his head in his front paws. This isn't right...This can't be right...Those days are over...PromiseClan is secure...Aren't we? A paw prodded his side gently. "Everything okay?" Shadowpaw asked. "You sound like you're about to be ill."

"I'm...I guess I'm okay," Sunpaw muttered, not looking up at the dark she-cat. "I mean, nothing makes sense right now...What is the future going to be like for us?" He gazed up into Shadowpaw's amber eyes. "Are we in danger?"

Shadowpaw shrugged. "I don't know, Sunpaw," she meowed. "Everything's so confusing to me, too. I mean, this prophecy...Trickpaw...I'm about ready to make an emergency trip to Highstones and speak to StarClan myself."

Sunpaw sat up. "Maybe not Highstones," he murmured. "Shadowpaw! Come on, we're going to the elders den!"

Shadowpaw shrugged a second time and followed behind Sunpaw. The golden-ginger tom skidded to a halt in front of the mossy cave where the elders, Longfang and Mudslide, slept. He could see the unmatched eyes of the former glinting out at him. "Shunpaw? Ish that you?"

"Yes...It's me, Longfang."

"Shadowpaw too?"

"Yes. We need to ask you something." Sunpaw entered the den and sat beside the old, black tom.

"What'sh that?"

"Remember that old story you tell all the kits? The one about that Clan of evil cats led by Bone Marrow?"

Longfang nodded. "Yesh. Why? Would you like to hear it again? Mentorsh quishing you on PromisheClan hishtory?"

"Well...actually..."

Shadowpaw stepped forward, an unusually bold move for her. Her tail waved like a stalk of wheat in the wind. "Longfang, is there any way that Bone Marrow's blood survives in the forest?" she asked. Longfang blinked slowly. At length, the old tom replied:

"Yesh...I think sho."

"Do you know anything else?" Sunpaw asked. "Maybe the cat's name?"

"I don't...but I think Mudshlide may."

"May what?" Mudslide muttered groggily.

"Didn't Bone Marrow have a kit?" Longfang asked the sleepy elder. Mudslide nodded.

"Yes. But only one. Rumor is that she killed the others because they reminded her of her mate," Mudslide meowed. "Not claiming to have seen the cat, but I believe her name was Ocarina."

"Ocarina?" Sunpaw and Shadowpaw echoed in unison. Mudslide nodded.

"They say she's as cruel as her mother, with the same love of murder and evil. They say that the sun refuses to shine on her. They say she's coming back with the remaining band of the AoDs."

There was silence in which the two apprentices were overcome with a severe case of the willies. They sat shivering in the shadow of the elders den. Finally, Sunpaw spoke. "D'you...d'you think they know where we are?" he whispered.

"It'sh more than likely that they do. But the main thing to remember ish that even if they come to try and kill ush all, we are PromisheClan, and we'll never fall to them." Longfang gave a yawn. "After all, how many Aodsh could there be?"

Sunpaw nodded to Shadowpaw and the two left the den quietly. Once outside, Sunpaw turned to the other apprentice. "D'you think it's all real?" he asked softly, his eyes wide. "D'you think there really is a cat out there who wants to take PromiseClan down?"

"Time will tell, Sunpaw," Shadowpaw mewed as she padded away. "Time will tell."

Another shiver passed down Sunpaw's spine. Something was wrong...deeply wrong. And whatever it was, Sunpaw had a very, very bad feeling about it. The ginger tom slipped back to the apprentices den and curled up in his nest. He lay in the den, listening to the sounds of sleeping apprentices around him. The sky was dark, but there was no sleeping for him tonight. And the shifting noises and grunts from the direction of Shadowpaw's nest told him the dark gray she-cat felt the same.

I can't help wondering...Promisepaw's prophecy...Hope and Shadows...Fire and Water...Call me crazy, but I think something's starting to make sense...The sun is the flaming mane of LionClan...and I'm Sunpaw...Maybe...could I be...the Fire?