I don't own Warriors.

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Blackpaw's ears twitched. The scents of the forest surrounded him; he could smell mouse, and…something else? It smelled awful, almost like the old badger home where he had been this morning. It almost made his midnight black fur stand on end.

"What is that?" he asked his mentor, Grayfur.

Grayfur peered into the trees. His dark gray body was tense. "That is the stench of ThunderClan."

Blackpaw nodded, he didn't talk much.

"We should return to camp before a ThunderClan patrol comes to take our territory. We won't be able to take them ourselves."

The two cats crept silently back to the secluded ShadowClan camp. Grayfur was unusually tense, but Blackpaw supposed that was because of ThunderClan. Grayfur was, to most of the clan, insane. Blackpaw respected the old warrior. He had seen more battles than their leader, walked through these forests a hundred more times. Grayfur would have been an elder, had that not been "the easy way out" as he called it.

"ThunderClan tried to kill us," Grayfur wheezed to Moldstar. "We were a good four tail lengths on our side of the border and they call us trespassers! I was a warrior before they were even born! All these new-fangled warrior traditions are horrible! I remember when I was able to walk into RiverClan and say hello to my friends without being called a trespasser or traitor!"

"How nice," Moldstar said, sounding slightly disgusted. The leader never had any patience for Grayfur. He called over his shoulder to an apprentice, "Tell Fishpaw to come out here immediately. I want to train him today."

The apprentice nodded and scurried out of sight.

Moldstar noticed Blackpaw standing beside Grayfur and smiled. "Blackpaw, can I speak to you in my den for a moment?"

Blackpaw glanced at his mentor, who nodded. "Alright," he said.

"You're a good apprentice," Moldstar said after they had seated themselves in his den. "Not many apprentices would have asked their mentor if they could leave before doing so. It reminds me of stories I've heard." Thee leader smiled again. "But that isn't the reason why I asked to speak with you. I wanted to ask if what Grayfur said was true."

"You don't trust your own warrior?" Blackpaw asked quietly.

"I do, believe me, I do. It's just that Grayfur has lost part of his quality to always tell the truth. I don't want to attack ThunderClan unless he's telling the truth."

"We were close to the border," Blackpaw said carefully. "He wanted to leave before a ThunderClan patrol came along and tried to attack us."

"But you never were attacked?"

"No."

"Thank you Blackpaw, for your time. You are an excellent apprentice I've heard."

"I've only been an apprentice for one day," Blackpaw said, confused.

"I bet you were wonderful though," Moldstar smiled. "Well, I expect even Fishpaw is ready by now. I'll see you around, Blackpaw."

Blackpaw's head was spinning. Something was odd about his leader. Blackpaw wanted to get to the bottom of it, and to be honest, he didn't really like Moldstar that much either.

The next chapter will be from Streampaw's POV at the Gathering. All of the main characters will be there, just to give you a heads up.

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