All right, I'm back! (Cheesy music plays) This is the final chapter that will introduce the cats and then I'll be getting to work on the actual plot line. Oh, and one more thing. I have a little competition going on. Whoever can tell me when Cats of the Clans comes out can create a cat that will show up later in the story and help our heroes out! Just private message me and the first correct message I get is the winner! Now, on with the show!

Disclaimer: Don't own Warriors, but I do own this fic and all the kitties in it. I'm pretty sure I own myself as well.

Speckledpaw

Speckledpaw snorted as she watched Birdpaw walk off. 'Why does she get praised and supported?' the she-cat thought angrily. 'Just because she's blind doesn't mean she should get any special treatment!' To Speckledpaw, the blue-gray apprentice just acted mature and pretended to try just to get attention. Whether she thought this out of jealousy or resentment, she didn't know. What she did know was that she had to be better than Birdpaw as an apprentice and eventually, as a warrior.

"Speckledpaw!" Speckledpaw turned around at the sound of her name. Coming towards her was Lionfang.

"Yes?" she replied as the deputy stopped in front of her. She couldn't possibly know what he wanted now, for they just got back from battle training.

"Tomorrow you and I are going to go on the dawn patrol, all right?"

The spotted tabby immediately brightened up. If there was anything she loved doing, it was going on patrols. "Okay! Who else is going?"

"Crookedtail, Birdpaw, Eagletalon, and Windfang."

Speckledpaw's tail fell when her mentor mentioned her den mate. "Oh, all right. I guess I'll go get some rest, then."

She saw Lionfang cock his head in confusion as she turned tail and stalked off to the apprentices' den. He was clearly confused why she had changed moods so fast. As she settled into her nest, the last thing she thought was the quote she thought Birdpaw used to attract attention.

"Why me?"

"Speckledpaw! Wake up!" Speckledpaw awoke to something poking her in the side. Opening her eyes, she saw Birdpaw attempting to wake her up.

"What?!" she spat.

The blind apprentice recoiled, as if hit with an unsheathed paw and replied, "Lionfang told me to wake you up. It's time for the dawn patrol."

In an instant, Speckledpaw shot up. She had forgotten she was going on the patrol! She shoved past Birdpaw and made her way to the entrance of the den. Unfortunately, she didn't notice that Tallpaw had stretched out his long tail in his sleep. The moment, she stepped on it, he let out a loud yowl.

"Ow! Speckledpaw!" the tom glared at her and pointedly wrapped his tail around his small form.

"Sorry," she muttered as she walked out. Tallpaw would probably either forgive her or just forget it happened all together. She swore to StarClan he had the memory span of a butterfly.

"There you are," Lionfang calmly mewed as she came over.

As she flicked her ears apologetically, Birdpaw walked out and stopped at Speckledpaw's side.

"Tallpaw is muttering about you. He sounds angry." Birdpaw said as if to break the silence.

"Like I care!" she snapped as she walked over to Lionfang's side when they started moving out. The ginger tom flashed her a warning glance when she fell into step with him.

For the first half, the patrol was uneventful. The only thing half interesting that went on is when Lionfang stopped to speak to Miraclepool, who was leading a TreeClan patrol. Speckledpaw took this chance to rest and give herself a quick cleaning. While she was doing this, she couldn't help but notice how friendly TreeClan and MeadowClan were to each other. As a matter of facet, the apprentice noticed that there hadn't been any tension between the two Clans for almost four moons. That was how she liked it, though. Peaceful, friendly, and no bloodshed.

"Speckledpaw, we're leaving," A voice interrupted her moment of tranquility. She spun around to glare at none other than Birdpaw.

"I know that!" she hissed, although she really didn't.

"No you didn't" the she-cat replied, as if reading Speckledpaw's mind. "Now come on. Silverstar wanted to assess me when got back and if I miss this, it might interfere with me becoming a warrior."

Speckledpaw snorted. "You won't become a warrior anyway! I mean, whoever has heard of a blind warrior? You couldn't lead patrols and you would be practically useless in battle. As a matter of fact, you would be practically useless at everything!"

The golden tabby was about to walk away, put stopped and stared in pure shock as Birdpaw unsheathed her claws and ran at her. Before any of the warriors could do anything, the two apprentices were a blur of teeth and claws. Speckledpaw growled in satisfaction as she scratched her Clan mate in the shoulder, but soon screeched in pain and frusturation when Birdpaw (To Speckledpaw's surprise) gave her a harsh blow to the head. In pure desperation not to be beaten by a blind apprentice of all things, Speckledpaw managed to bite down hard on the scruff of her neck and refused to let go.

"Both of you stop it for StarClan's sake!" she heard Eagletalon yowl. She watched as the brown tom, along with Windfang, pulled the two apprentices apart.

After a few moments of just the sound of Speckledpaw and Birdpaw's hard breathing, Speckledpaw put her ears back in shame when Lionfang yowled, "What would possess you two to do such a mouse-brained thing?!"

All Speckledpaw could think to say was, "She deserved every bit of it."

"Same with her!" Birdpaw snarled, her sightless eyes seeming to glitter with fury.

Speckledpaw's heart skipped a beat when Lionfang said, "Silverstar will need to know about this."

Tallpaw

After getting a few more moments of sleep after Speckledpaw had stepped on his tail at dawn, Tallpaw yawned and stretched. His tail was feeling a lot better than it had been after his Clan mate stepped on it. Walking out of his den, he came to a halt when his mentor, Burntpelt walked up to him.

"Good morning, Tallpaw," the dark ginger she-cat mewed in a friendly tone.

"Good morning," he replied, his tail calmly swishing back and forth. It had a tendency to do that when he was content or hard at work.

"I need you to get fresh-kill for Firestorm and Swiftstream. After that, come find me and we'll practice a bit on your hunting skills."

Tallpaw inwardly sighed. He had only been awake for a few minutes and he already was being but to work. "Yes, Burntpelt."

He walked away from the she-cat and grabbed a vole for Firestorm and a thrush for MeadowClan's only elder, Swiftstream. Stifling a quick yawn, he made his way over to the nursery. Making his way through the ferns that shielded the entrance, he stepped in and looked around for the queen and her kits, Sunkit, a light ginger tom, and Rainkit, a light gray she-cat. When they noticed that they had a visitor, the two litter mates lunged at Tallpaw.

"Tallpaw!" Rainkit mewed.

"We've been waiting for you to come back for moons!" Sunkit picked up where his sister left off. "You have to finish the story about the one time you caught a pheasant!"

Tallpaw couldn't help but purr with amusement. "Sorry, you two. I can't finish today, after this, I have to train with Burntpelt."

As the two kits pouted, their mother, Firestorm, mewed, "Maybe he can tell the rest when he's done training. Now get off of him, all right? You two are getting far too big to be ganging up on Tallpaw."

They nodded reluctantly and scrambled back over to the ginger and black she-cat. Tallpaw nodded thankfully and dropped the vole by Firestorm. "Burntpelt told me to bring this to you three. I hope it's big enough. There wasn't much in the pile."

"It's fine," Firestorm mewed and flicked her tail dismissavely. "Thank you very much, Tallpaw."

"No problem," he replied as he picked up the thrush and padded out of the nursery, quickly heading towards the elder's den.

"Ah, Tallpaw!" A gray and white tom greeted him as he padded in. "Finally decided to come and visit, huh?"

"Sorry I haven't come in a while," he mewed to his grandfather. "Burntpelt's been keeping me really busy. I brought you some food."

Swiftstream nodded, his eyes full of understanding and quickly tucked into the thrush. "Thank you," he finally said as he licked the remains off of his snout.

Tallpaw nodded and sat down. He and his kin talked for a while before the black and white apprentice left to begin his busy day of training. As he walked over to Burntpelt, who was sharing tounges with Stonepelt, the dawn patrol returned. Turning to see if Speckledpaw and Birdpaw had finally decided to get along, he stared in horror as the two apprentices came in, various wounds dotting their pelts. He barely noticed it when Burntpelt and Stonepelt ran over to Lionfang and spoke to the deputy as the two she-cats were led to Silverstar's den by Windfang and Eagletalon.

Shaking his head so he could snap back into reality, Tallpaw dashed over to his mentor and yowled, "What happened? Were they attacked? Why are only Birdpaw and Speckledpaw hurt?"

Burntpelt flicked her tail across his mouth to signal silence and quietly mewed, "They did it to each other. While on the dawn patrol, they apparently got into a fight. A bad one, too."

"What?" Tallpaw said, dumbfounded. "But, they're Clan mates! They shouldn't be fighting!"

His mentor sighed, sadness glittering in her amber eyes. "I know, Tallpaw. Come on, let's go and hunt. That should take you mind off of it."

Unfortunately, hunting didn't take his mind off of it. As a matter of fact, he was thinking about it so hard and so much that he missed a mouse, almost missed a thrush, and didn't even realized a vole had dashed right in front of his paws. When they came back with his meager catch, he couldn't help but bow his head in shame.

"Don't worry about it," Burntpelt mewed. "Go and check on your friends."

Tallpaw nodded, dropped his thrush on the pile, and dashed over to where Birdpaw and Speckledpaw had just come out of Silverstar's stone den. "What happened? What did he say?" he asked when he had reached them.

He stared in shock as Birdpaw looked at her paws and Speckledpaw put her ears down and muttered, "He's making us wait until we're thirteen moons old to become warriors."

Well, there it is! Hope you like the final introduction chapter! And those who are going to do the competition, good luck!

AliKatNyah