DISCLAIMER: I do not own warriors.

Chapter 4

WindClan

Riverpaw followed Silverpaw as they padded toward the RiverClan border, the top of the HorsePlace just peering up over the grassy hills. Unlike usual, nothing stirred on the moor, and the heat pounded heavily upon the warriors' muscled backs.

"Argh, are we there yet?" Briarpaw groaned; Riverpaw looked behind her, and purred with amusement as Briarpaw attempted to shield her eyes from the sun with her tail.

Ahead, Sunfeather snorted in annoyance. "We'll get there soon enough; be patient!" he hissed. Briarpaw was silent after that, but kept grumbling to herself about stupid rabbits in their shaded dens.

The patrol crested the hill and sped down the other side, stopping at the border with RiverClan; Riverpaw bristled as she saw a RiverClan patrol scenting the border nearby. One of the cats, a ginger she-cat, spotted them and flicked her tail to her patrol to follow her toward the WindClan patrol.

"Stay back." Sunfeather warned, pushing Riverpaw away; Riverpaw craned her neck to see past his broad, golden shoulders. Their own patrol trotted over to meet the RiverClan cats, and Flamefur padded right up to the border; Riverpaw saw the ginger she-cat bristle, and her fur fluffed to twice its normal size. Riverpaw shivered; she recognized Tinypaw behind the patrol, and mustered a wave of her tail. Tinypaw didn't see her, however, and waved to Silverpaw instead.

"You'll be going now, I assume," Flamefur growled, the sun glinting in his amber eyes. Riverpaw's attention snapped back to the task at hand.

The ginger she-cat slit her eyes; the two cats stared at each other for a moment, their eyes unblinking; Riverpaw waited anxiously for one of them to make a move.

Finally, the ginger she-cat turned. "Come on. We've made our mark." the ginger she-cat sniffed, and the tip of her tail smacked Flamefur in the face; he growled, but Sunfeather held him back. He shook his head slowly at the tom, and Flamefur instead angrily stared after the RiverClan patrol as they disappeared behind some reeds.

"Fish muck," Flamefur hissed as the cats began to crest the hill once more. "Lake scum. They think they're so much better than us just because they have HorsePlace now. Why did Tawnystar have to give in at that Gathering?"

Riverpaw nodded her head in agreement. The previous Gathering, Blazestar of RiverClan had asked WindClan to give them HorsePlace; Riverpaw thought he demanded it more than he asked for it, but Tawnystar just stood silently on his perch in the trees and calmly stated that it would be RiverClan's for the time being. Riverpaw wasn't into all of those matters quite yet, seeing how she only knew half of the warrior code and wasn't a warrior yet.

Once they were back out on the open moor, Riverpaw dismissed these thoughts; so what if RiverClan needed HorsePlace; WindClan had plenty of prey in their own territory.

But, as Riverpaw neared the camp, she knew that this statement was far from true.

Once back in the WindClan clearing, Riverpaw trotted up to the fresh-kill pile and gave it a withering look; it was smaller than ever, and what food they had was not fully grown or already halfway to becoming crowfood. Riverpaw eventually decided to take a small bush mouse, and ate it quickly so as not to taste the earthy flavor.

"Hey Riverpaw!" Riverpaw looked up from her kill and immediately looked down again, her ears turning hot; Finchpaw was trotting up to her, waving a greeting with his tail.

"How was the patrol?" He asked, sitting down beside her.

"Fine, fine," Riverpaw grumbled, suddenly interested in her tasteless mouse.

"Silverpaw told me that you met a RiverClan patrol; by the look of Flamefur's face, he almost tore their ears off!" Finchpaw waited expectantly for Riverpaw to answer.

Ever since she first became an apprentice, Riverpaw had had a huge crush on the gray tabby tom; even at eight and a half moons old, she still felt tongue-tied near the handsome tom cat.

"...Yeah..." Riverpaw stuttered, burying the remains of her mouse. "...Flamefur was pretty agitated; he looked as restless as a rabbit stuck in its burrow."

Finchpaw chuckled, and Riverpaw's confidence grew. "In fact," she continued, "he went on to even call them 'Fish scum'!"

Finchpaw and Riverpaw purred with amusement. Once they had calmed down, Finchpaw remarked, "Leave it to Flamefur to come up with curses for everything. We were out on patrol yesterday, and I heard him call a rabbit a 'Quick piece of dung.'"

"What's a quick piece of dung?" Finchpaw stopped laughing as a growl sounded behind him. He turned around and was face-to-face with Flamefur himself.

Finchpaw opened his mouth to reply, but instead covered it with his tail. "I-I..." he was thoroughly embarrassed now, making Riverpaw laugh harder. She grabbed Finchpaw by his ear and shouted, "Run!"

Finchpaw stumbled after Riverpaw, and they ran to the safety of the apprentices' den, a small abandoned fox-den on the other side of the clearing.

"That was close." Finchpaw panted, and Riverpaw cuffed him over the ears with her paw.

"You had to be such a loudmouth," Riverpaw mock-scolded her friend, and Finchpaw mrrowed with laughter once more.

Once they were sure Flamefur was gone, both apprentices padded out of the den and back into the clearing. Riverpaw noticed that, while they were gone, a commotion was starting in the clearing, Tawnystar standing upon Rabbit Stone and calling a meeting.

"Cats of WindClan," Tawnystar began when everyone was seated. "there has been an unnatural depletion of prey out on our moors lately, and with leaf-fall coming so close now, we must take extra care." Everyone started whispering worriedly; Riverpaw, so close to the queens, heard their worries.

"-what to do about our kits," Spottedtail was saying. the other queens nodded, curling their tails around their kits small bodies. Stripekit squealed, trying to get out of Spottedtail's tight hold on him while looking at Tawnystar with unblinking green eyes.

Tawnystar continued, "This problem is a mystery, as rabbit remains have been found along our moors..." as he said this, all of the warriors yowled and roared in disapproval, making many pointless accusations. Riverpaw flatted her ears against her head, and Finchpaw unconsciously wrapped his tail around her form.

Once the din had subsided, Tawnystar growled, "We will keep scouts now, outside and inside camp; these scouts will be decided over the next couple of sunrises, depending on the performance of our warriors and apprentices." It seemed as if Tawnystar was trying to raise the Clan's spirits with a challenge, which Riverpaw had no doubt would become the main topic in the apprentices' den that night.

"Every mentor and warrior will be watched by myself and Nightshadow, and then we shall discuss the possible contenders." Tawnystar hopped off of Rabbit Stone, and the meeting dispersed.

Riverpaw thought it was strange how their lack of prey so near leaf-fall was so shrouded in suspicion; for moons WindClan was peaceful, with the Clans and within their own. Now it seemed as if the entire of the Clan was uncertain about everything.

Riverpaw hated the feeling of dread that crept up her throat like bile whenever she thought of rabbit remains; but she decided not to worry about it. Tawnystar didn't seem worried, so neither should she...right?

In the apprentices' den that night, everyone was talking and chattering excitedly about the scouts.

"I wonder who they'll pick?" Briarpaw wondered aloud. Silverpaw puffed out his chest, making himself even bigger than he already was.

"No doubt he'd pick me." Silverpaw boasted. Applepaw, Riverpaw's sister, turned red as Silverpaw turned to her, and Gorgepaw rolled his eyes toward Riverpaw.

"What makes you so certain your the only one he'll pick?" Gorgepaw chimed in, fluffing his fur out indignantly. "We're just as good as you."

"Well, I'm the one with most battle experience." Silverpaw mewed pointedly, "and I've been an apprentice longer than any of you."

"That doesn't necessarily mean you're the most mature and up to the job." Finchpaw mewed, and he exchanged a glance with Riverpaw, who avoided his gaze.

"Oh yeah, well you're not that mature either." Silverpaw sputtered, slightly taken aback by Finchpaw's certain tone.

"I'm a much better hunter than all of you!" Applepaw mewed suddenly, "especially better than any of you toms could be."

"Well, I stillthink that Tawnystar would pick us all for all of our skills." Riverpaw tried to make equality within her friends as she saw that Finchpaw, Silverpaw, and Gorgepaw were angrily staring at Applepaw.

"Yeah." Briarpaw joined in, and Riverpaw blinked at her gratefully. "And overall, it doesn't matter who he picks, 'cause we'll all be helping anyway."

Gorgepaw seemed uncertain, but he nodded; Finchpaw shrugged indifferently.

But Silverpaw still wasn't convinced; he slit his eyes at Briarpaw, and Riverpaw remembered their fight at Lionflower's vigil. Silverpaw and Briarpaw had gotten into a terrible argument about Silverpaw's mentor's death, with Briarpaw saying that he could find a new mentor soon, without worry. It seemed as if they still hadn't fully forgiven each other.

"You would know, Briarpaw. You always think things don't matter, especially death." Silverpaw growled, and Briarpaw's eyes blazed with anger.

She stood up abruptly, her tail lashing. "Well, you always make a big deal of your best friend's comforts; turning them around and lashing them back at her!"

"Guys, settle down," Riverpaw pleaded, but she saw with despair that Silverpaw and Briarpaw were still throwing insults at each other.

"You shouldn't be talking, Briarpaw. You never had any skill to begin with."

"Oh yeah, well at least I don't brag about my skills, even if their not top-notch! You strut around like a barn rooster, always clucking and jeering that you have the most experience when you're hardly older than us!"

"I'm the barn rooster? Who just said this morning that you thought you had great hunting skills?"

"Please! At least I'm not as conceited as you are when it comes to it. Don't even get me started on your admiring of your reflection at the lake."

This comment made Silverpaw shut up. He glared angrily at Briarpaw. Finchpaw exchanged a look of dismay with Riverpaw, unsure of what to do.

"Apprentices." All of the apprentices looked at the entrance to the den, and the shadowed form of Silverleaf appeared. Riverpaw was relieved; she had come just in time.

"You all should be getting to sleep; it's almost moon high, and you all have training tomorrow." Silverleaf warned. She was looking at Briarpaw and Silverpaw with disapproval, and Riverpaw knew that she had been listening to their shouting. Silverleaf waited as everyone curled into their nests in silence; Silverpaw moved to a nest the farthest away from Briarpaw, who did the same. Both glared at each other once more, then curled away from the other.

As Riverpaw curled around herself, she wondered what this small bicker would've turned into if Silverleaf hadn't come. I just hope none of us is still upset.

Even as she thought this, she could hear the quiet sobs of both cats echoing into the night.

Please review! All are appreciated, except flames can hurt sometimes. This chapter was hard to work on, but it's over, yay! *does dance* Happy Thanksgiving as well, people! Hope you all have a nice holiday...