I'm sorry if the ooey gooey-ness of the last chapter affected some of your stomachs. (snugs her Tigerstar plushie) Anyways, I'll make this one nice and actiony for you. There. Happy? Maybe next time you'll think twice before you read a fic with the genre Action/Adventure/Romance, eh:P

Wavepaw gave his pelt a couple of quick licks. "Glad to see you moving around, Trickpaw," he murmured. "You had all of us scared for a while there. Maybe next time you'll be more careful."

"Trickpaw, knock it off!" Shadowpaw growled, giving him a nudge with her shoulder to silence him. Wavepaw couldn't help a grin. At the beginning of their journey, Shadowpaw would have tried slamming him into something. Now she just brushed into him. They had all changed, all of them.

No longer did they bicker to the point of a catfight. Their arguments were playful and rarely had to be mediated by Promisepaw. Wavepaw got along with Shadowpaw, who got along with Trickpaw, who got along with every other cat. They were friends, united under one sole intent: to save their Clan.

The silver tomcat gave Shadowpaw a playful nip. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he mewed. "Go nuzzle a badger!" He stuck his tongue out at her.

"You two stop talking. I feel like there's monsters growling around inside my head."

Wavepaw looked guiltily at Shadowpaw. The dark cat shrugged and padded away. Wavepaw turned his green gaze to Trickpaw, who had spoken. He couldn't help a flinch. Trickpaw's face had healed as well as it could, leaving him with four scars across the side of his head and a badly ripped ear. "Ask Promisepaw for something," he suggested. "She's been out gathering enough herbs to heal an entire forest of greencough."

"Oh hardly." Promisepaw appeared from behind Wavepaw. "Just enough to get us through the journey."

"Which would be enough for a whole forest..." Wavepaw continued under his breath. Promisepaw's ears twitched. She'd heard him.

"Only two Clans."

"Which can be a forest in some cases..."

"Forests always have four Clans."

"Not unless they join together..."

"StarClan forbid!"

"On the contrary, I've heard—"

"Wavepaw?"

"Yes, Promisepaw?"

Promisepaw struck him upside the head with her tail. Wavepaw staggered playfully away from her, rolling his eyes comically. He sat down to watch the group's "medicine cat" attend to her "patient." There was no denying the affection in their eyes. They were more than just friends. But Promisepaw was going to be the medicine cat after Seedgrowth. She couldn't...Wavepaw sighed softly and padded off to hunt.

There was a strong scent of rabbits everywhere here. Wavepaw pulled a face. He was way out of his element in these lands. No streams, no brooks, no lakes...this place is awful. The most water I could find was a puddle last night. I can't fish here! I don't belong here. He sighed. Knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

The silver tomcat followed a fresh rabbit trail, leading to a pile of rabbit dirt. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, but kept going. The rabbit was somewhere nearby, and he was going to find it.

The tall grasses rippled around him, bringing back memories of Midnightsky Lake. Wavepaw heaved a soft sigh. But that's over...I belong to PromiseClan now. He shrugged his shoulders as if the weight of his memories were weighing them down. Then the thick scent of rabbit drifted anew over his scent glands, and his stomach growled hungrily. He winced. Ugh...Just what Owlfur always told me: Eyes on the prize and nose on the prey. I have no attention span...

Wavepaw stalked carefully through the grass, straining to keep his eyes and nose trained on the little traces of rabbit. He stiffened, ears pricking and turning into the wind. There it was: the unmistakable noise of the timid lapin gnawing away at something. Wavepaw streaked out, tackling the rabbit to the ground before it could blink. There was a high-pitched squeal, then silence. Wavepaw stumbled back to his Clanmates, the rabbit's body in his jaws.

Promisepaw purred when she saw the catch. She twitched her tail to where Shadowpaw and Sunpaw sat beside a small mountain of fresh-kill. Wavepaw's jaw dropped, and the small rabbit tumbled out onto the ground. "And I'm supposed to compete with that?" he mewed in disbelief. "No fair! They were together! I had to do this all on my own!" He laid a paw on top of the rabbit. "Fine. You guys don't appreciate me, do you?" He stalked away, tail erect.

"Oh come on and have some fresh-kill, you stupid furball," purred Shadowpaw. Wavepaw staggered as a vole collided with the back of his head. The silver tom turned around indignantly.

"There was no need for that," he retorted, hooking the vole with a claw and lobbing it back at Shadowpaw. The dark queen caught it in her jaws neatly. Sunpaw purred.

"Where would we be without you, Wavepaw?" Trickpaw rasped softly, shaking his head. Wavepaw let his tongue pass over the uninjured part of the tom's face. His tail swayed lightly behind him. He winked.

"You'd be very bored." Amused purrs broke out from every cat. Wavepaw couldn't help joining in. These were his friends, his fellow apprentice, his confidantes...his audience. He actually belonged with them. The silver tom lifted his muzzle to the wind and sniffed hard.

"Everything okay, Wavepaw?" Promisepaw asked. Wavepaw twitched his ears for silence. He could have sworn...There had to be...

"Trickpaw...what exactly did you say StarClan smelled of?" he asked. The ginger tom tilted his head to one side questioningly. "You did say you'd smelled them before...I remember it was one night in the den. Do you remember?"

"It's a scent you'd never forget in your life...like the coldest winds and snow of leaf-bare...like the empty depths of the star realms...and like cat: the most basic scent of cat you could imagine..." Trickpaw shivered. "Why?"

Wavepaw dashed off through the grass. "Because that's exactly what I'm smelling right now," he hissed. "Come on!" He heard pawsteps behind him and measured the beats. Every one of the cats, including Trickpaw, was following him. He pushed forwards, ignoring the hungry claws in his belly. "Does any other cat smell what I do?" he asked as he raced along.

"I'm picking it up, too," Shadowpaw murmured.

"Yeah...kinda creepy, huh? The scent, I mean," Trickpaw added.

"I've smelled it before," Promisepaw mewed.

"Really? This is new for me," he heard Sunpaw meow. Wavepaw pressed onward. He was excited now. StarClan!

A headwind cleared the thick scent of rabbit from his nose, making it all the easier to track down his warrior ancestors' unique aroma. But something was wrong. No longer could Wavepaw trace the intriguing smell. Instead, his was assaulted with the harsh stench of rats. He skidded to a halt, panting hard.

"I don't see anything that looks remotely like StarClan," he heard Promisepaw mew behind him. "All I see is—"

"Rats! Oh great StarClan we're all gonna die!" Trickpaw cowered behind his female companion. Promisepaw snorted.

"Relax, Trickpaw. They're...too busy to...notice us..." Her voice trailed off as she, too, realized that the rats were not behaving ordinarily. Wavepaw heard a muffled hiss from Shadowpaw.

"Don't eat those rats, any cat. They'll give you the sickness."

Every cat turned to stare at the former SwampClan apprentice. "You...er, eat rats often, Shadowpaw?" Trickpaw mewed. Shadowpaw tossed her sleek head.

"Please! Only when prey is scarce. And toads." Her amber eyes glinted. "Oh, come on, you guys. They're not all that foul once you've tried them a few times."

Wavepaw turned back to the spectacle in the little valley below him. "You keep that hope up, Shadowpaw," he muttered grimly. "The rest of us will be trying to figure out what to do with all these rats."

"You may find the Ratnest, but that's the right way!" Sunpaw breathed. "Trickpaw's song! This must be the Ratnest in the song!" He purred.

"What's the next line? What? What?" Wavepaw found himself prancing around Sunpaw like an annoying kit. He saw the ginger warrior's eyes narrow and kept up his little dance. He could hear amused purrs around him. Sunpaw batted the silver cat away with one swipe of his huge paws.

"You may enter the barn, but only for mice," Sunpaw recited. "I have the whole thing memorized. It's right here," he tapped his head with his tail, "snuggled up next to Dogbark's cryptic advice—which I swear I'll make sense of someday." He looked up. "So, where's this barn we're looking for?"

"I think the rats might know," Shadowpaw mused. "Although how you'll ask them is beyond me." She twitched her tail. Wavepaw was reminded strongly of a water-adder, a poisonous snake that sometimes was found swimming in Midnightsky Lake. He shrugged. Sometimes, he wondered if Shadowpaw was a water-adder, disguised as a cat. She certainly had the temper.

"If you ask my opinion—Trickpaw stay well away from those rats—I think we should try it. You're like a kit! Stay put!" Promisepaw slammed her paw down on Trickpaw's tail, trapping him there. "As I was saying, the song is not very specific about how to find the barn: no direction, no instructions, no nothing."

"Correct grammar: no anything."

"Wavepaw, do I have to beat you upside the head?" Wavepaw shook his head rapidly. "Good. I didn't think so. Anyway—stop it, Trickpaw—we should—"

"Promisepaw! You may want to check up on those rats..." Trickpaw gulped. Wavepaw whirled around.

The rats were not acting like rats should. Rats were supposed to squeak and scurry and run away from cats. Up until Trickpaw alerted them to the danger at paw, the rats had been writing on the ground and hissing like snakes. Now they were all up on their spindly paws, fangs glinting in the low light. Wavepaw spat on the ground at his paws. This was going to be interesting.

"RUN!" yowled Promisepaw, streaking away from the scene like white lightning. Wavepaw and the others hastened to obey. They ran as one unit, ducking and weaving to keep together. Wavepaw cast a glance over his shoulder. The rats were still running after them. His tail bristled fearfully.

"Let's MOVE!" he cried, pulling up to race beside Sunpaw. His green eyes were wide with terror. "The sooner we get away from the rats, the better!"

"The problem is that—if they—have—the sickness," Shadowpaw panted, "—then they—won't—stop—running—until—they—die!"

"We have to keep going!" Promisepaw meowed loudly. "We can't afford to get hurt now! We're so close! We can't let our Clan down!" She gave Trickpaw's face a gentle lick. His scratches from the badger had come open from running, and blood trickled down his furry face. Wavepaw cursed his rotten luck. This was not going to turn out well.

"Wait, you guys! I see something!" Sunpaw yowled. "Up ahead, over the next rise! It looks like...a barn!"

"What's—a barn,—exactly?" Shadowpaw asked.

"They're Twoleg nests, but they're used to house horses and the occasional monster," Sunpaw replied. "A horse is a big...well, they're this sort of..." He shook his head. "Maybe you'll get to see one. Twolegs ride on their backs."

Wavepaw strained his eyes until he, too, could make out the dim outline of some building on the horizon. But it looked so far away...he could hear Shadowpaw's ragged panting and smell Trickpaw's blood. Can we make it? he wondered.

"The rats are still chasing!" Trickpaw reported with a swift glance behind him. Wavepaw moaned.

"Well, if we're gonna die now, I guess I should come clean," he mewed. "Shadowpaw, I really, really—"

He broke off as he tripped over something. A mouse. The gray creature gave a squeal and zipped away. The silver apprentice shook his head. That was one piece of fresh-kill he wouldn't have let slip past him under normal circumstances. He shoved himself back onto his paws and kept running, ignoring the throb in his muzzle. "Wavepaw, look out!" Shadowpaw shrieked. Wavepaw let out a caterwaul as something chomped down hard on his tail-tip. But pain was nothing to him now. He ran, legs a blur of motion.

The barn was coming into focus rapidly now. Wavepaw could see a stack of hay bales that led up to a small window. He purred. "The window!" he shouted. "Get up to the window and climb up something!"

The distance to the barn was one that Wavepaw would have raced another cat in a playful act. But with the threat of the diseased rats and the pain in his snout and tail, it was the journey of many moons. By the time he reached the structure, his was in sheer agony and ready to collapse. But something kept him going, some internal flame burned in his heart. The silver tom pounded up the hay bales and streaked through the window. He sunk his claw into the wood of a large loft and waited.

Promisepaw landed neatly on the ledge. Trickpaw thudded down beside her in a confused heap of paws and tail. Shadowpaw and Sunpaw leapt at the same time and made identical landings. The ginger tom bent down and snapped something from Wavepaw's tail. The tired he-cat looked up blearily and saw a young rat dangling from his jaws. "Ugh. Thanks, buddy."

"Sure thing." Sunpaw tossed the rat deftly out the small window. "Well, here we are. And do I wish we were back on the moor. We left all that fresh-kill behind! Now the foxes and scavengers will get it all!" He moaned and buried his nose in his chest fur. Shadowpaw swiped her tongue over his ear.

"Lighten up, Sunpaw," she soothed in a tone of voice that Wavepaw would have expected from Promisepaw. "It was either the prey that's fresh-kill, or it was us. Which would you rather?"

"Whichever option gave me a full belly!" Sunpaw flopped down on his side and moaned again. Who died and made him leader of DramaClan? Wavepaw wondered tiredly. Heh. DramaClan. I should tell some cat that one. DramaClan. Wonder what its leader's name would be. Something like Tragedystar. DramaClan. Tragedystar. His stuck his tongue out. I must be sick. What am I thinking, for StarClan's sake?

"Let me look at your tail, Wavepaw," Promisepaw ordered. "We can't risk any infection. Ohh! I left all those herbs with the fresh-kill! Now I don't have anything!"

"We can help you..."

Promisepaw turned, tail twitching curiously. "Who's there?" she asked.

"Only us..."

"...Who are you?" Promisepaw was clearly getting nervous.

"We are who we are..."

"And who is that?"

Something long and brown slithered out from a knothole in the wall. Wavepaw blinked curiously. Odd...what a funny-looking kitten. Such a long body...little dark eyes...fluffy tail...that wedge-shaped head...Curious...

"We are who we are," the strange creature hissed. "And we are Stone-Moss-Yis."

"Stone...Moss..." Wavepaw sighed dreamily and let the dark tide of sleep crash over his mind, the ebb and flow soothing away all his pain.