Chapter 11

Sorry for yet another extremely late update. I'll decide in the morning that I'm going to write sometime, but when I actually get to it, I decide not to. I'm lazy. :P Well, I obviously started writing, so here's the final product. And it's finally from Firepaw's point of view again!

Niah-Miyoki - LAWLBADGER? XD Yessers, Nighty's got herself a date with Breezepaw. Poor Nighty. D

Shadowed Horizon - Lol, yeah, I loved writing them. I think every time I write about those two, I'll include some odd argument between them, since they're both pigheaded.

AliKatNyah - o.o, I wasn't planning to kill them anytime soon… but now I don't ever want to! XD

Foxstar24 - Yup, exactly why I put them together. :P Their whole relationship will probably be hilarious, since they're both extremely stubborn and cocky. And one is evil. XD

Lillyrod(of ThunderClan) - Hehe, yeah. They were mentally laughing their heads off. And I'm definitely killing Bramblestar in a Scourge-like fashion. Except slightly worse. Mwahahahaha!

Firepaw's fur was tingling with dread as the blurry silhouette of the island drew ever closer. The ginger tom was an extremely anti-social cat, and the thought of being around so many other cats unsettled him. As well as that, the warriors were often telling the apprentices about the savagery of the Clans when they were around one another. Apparently, they would always start up some petty argument, which would lead to a fight. Many believed StarClan had given up on stopping them.

The night was chilly, despite the fact that it was late newleaf. A thick fog was shrouded across the lake's surface, and the full moon was merely a dim circle of light, shining weakly through the thick cloud cover. Everything was quiet, and even though the mist swirled about the cats' paws, not even the slightest breeze disturbed the still atmosphere.

Beside Firepaw padded Nightpaw, and on her other side was Breezepaw. Blackpaw had not been chosen to come because he still felt somewhat unwell. The marshy ground sucked at their paws and dragged at their fur as they approached the log. Breezepaw jumped on first, followed by Nightpaw, and then Firepaw.

The moment he set foot on the bridge, the young apprentice's claws unsheathed and lodged themselves in the wood. It was quite slippery, and it's surface was coated in moss and lichen. He began to proceed forward cautiously, his entire body trembling.

"Hurry up," Owlwhisker spat irritably from behind him. "You're holding up the line."

Craning his head around carefully, he saw that the rest of the BrambleClan cats had stopped, and were glaring at him. Even Ashfur, his own father, seemed annoyed. But then again, the gray tom had always, even before he and his siblings could speak.

Taking a deep breath, Firepaw turned back to the task at hand and began to pad forward, quicker than he had before. He was nearly at the end when his paws hit a particularly damp spot, and he slipped.

Before he could realize what was happening, the tom was in the lake, the freezing water soaking into his skin. He tried to paddle, tried to get his head above water, but it was no use. He had no idea how to swim.

He was still struggling when he felt a pair of strong teeth latch into his scruff, and someone began to drag him towards the shore. As he was pulled onto the bank, gasping for breath, he saw that his saviour was only a young tom like himself.

"Who're you?" Firepaw asked quietly once he had regained the ability to speak.

"Owlpaw," the strange cat replied gruffly. Standing at his shoulder was another apprentice, a silver she-cat. Owlpaw motioned towards her with his tail. "That's Minnowpaw."

"Oh," the ginger tom meowed, hesitant to speak to the HawkClan cats. "Well, thanks."

Owlpaw blinked, and he looked strangely bewildered at the thought of someone thanking him. "Er, you're welcome."

He blinked again, and his next words ruined the moment. "I don't see why you couldn't have gotten out yourself. The water wasn't even moving until you started thrashing about."

"Owlpaw, don't be so mean," Minnowpaw meowed reproachfully, cuffing him gently over the ear. "You're starting to act like one of Hawkstar's supporters."

Owlpaw snorted, his eyes flaming. "I would never follow that filth!"

Firepaw wasn't even paying attention to their conversation. He was gazing at Nightpaw instead, who seemed to be locked in an argument with Breezepaw. It wasn't this that made hurt clench at his belly, but the fact that his sister hadn't even moved a muscle to save him.

He blinked, drawn out of his reverie as Minnowpaw spoke to him. "Come on," she meowed. "I'll take you to meet my brothers."

Firepaw looked hesitant at the thought of talking to even more cats, but Minnowpaw urged him forward with her tail, Owlpaw trailing on his other side.

"Don't worry, they won't bite," she grinned at him. Owlpaw snorted disbelievingly.

"Pouncepaw will."

Minnowpaw glared at him. "Just because Pouncepaw follows Hawkstar doesn't mean that he would hurt any of us."

Owlpaw raised an eyebrow but said nothing. As the three young apprentices padded through the large crowd of cats, Firepaw felt his heart pound nervously in chest. Meeting a bunch of new cats was bad enough - talking to a supporter of Hawkstar was even worse.

"Pouncepaw, Pebblepaw!" Minnowpaw chirruped as they approached two toms who were talking to Honeyfur. "This is…"

She turned to Firepaw, a sheepish look in her eyes. "What's your name?"

"Firepaw," he replied quietly. Minnowpaw grinned at him then turned back to Pouncepaw, Pebblepaw and Honeyfur. "Firepaw!"

Firepaw and Honeyfur smiled hesitantly at one another. Both were probably just as surprised to see each other talking to other cats. The two of them were extremely shy.

"This is Honeyfur!" Pebblepaw meowed cheerily, motioning towards Firepaw's Clanmate. It was easy to see how he and Minnowpaw were related. Both seemed extremely bubbly, and they looked about the same as well.

Before any of them could another word in, a loud yowl sounded from the branches of the Great Oak. Firepaw turned to see a large, muscular dark tabby tom glaring at the crowd. The sight of him nearly made the ginger apprentice gasp in shock. He looked almost exactly like Bramblestar.

"That's Hawkstar," informed a voice proudly in his ear. He turned to see Pouncepaw, the one who followed Hawkstar, sitting beside him.

Hawkstar's sharp blue eyes surveyed the clearing once, and the look in them seemed to have an effect on every cat watching. While half the cats began to shift uncomfortably, the other half straightened up, as if trying to impress the tom.

"HawkClan has fared well this moon," he began in a deep voice. "Icewing has given birth to four healthy kits, Beetlekit, Pricklekit, Petalkit and Grasskit, and Snowbird has joined the queen's den. Appletail was caught meeting a gray tom by horseplace. She was killed for disloyalty, and the possibility of mating with an outsider. The prey is plentiful, and we thrive with our new territory."

The last part of the speech was spoken with a mocking ring to it. Bramblestar turned fierce amber eyes on his half-brother, and Firepaw could see that his claws were unsheathed.

"The moor belongs to BrambleClan, Hawkstar, and you know it," he growled. "We have barely any territory left."

"Well, I'm so very sorry about that," Hawkstar replied, his voice falsely regretful. "But I do believe HawkClan won the battle, and that means the territory is rightfully ours."

Bramblestar snarled furiously, and he suddenly sprang at the almost identical tom. Hawkstar's claws unsheathed, and he met the challenge head-on. As the two leaders met on a single branch, it cracked under their weight, and they tumbled to the ground.

Luckily, they had been on a low branch, and neither even seemed to notice the fall. As the fight between them continued getting fiercer and fiercer, the two Clans began to get angrier and angrier. Finally, as if on some silent signal, they sprang at each other.

Firepaw felt himself being jostled between dozens of moving bodies until he suddenly came face to face with a ginger HawkClan apprentice. Without even a second glance, she leaped at him, her paws outstretched.

The she-cat tumbled straight into him, knocking him into the grass. Without any hesitation, she pinned him and her sharp teeth came straight towards his throat. Instinctively, Firepaw, who had been frozen in fear not even a heartbeat before, raked his claws down her belly, digging them in deep.

She stumbled backwards, her eyes wide with pain, and walked straight into Dustpelt. Blackpaw's mentor whipped around, his eyes alight with bloodlust, and at the sight of the HawkClan apprentice he sunk his teeth directly into her shoulder.

Firepaw watched, horror struck, as Dustpelt tore furiously at the unfortunate apprentice's pelt. She landed a few blows on him herself, but he was much bigger than her, and she was at a great disadvantage. Finally, blood staining her orange pelt red, she turned tail and fled into the crowd.

"STOP!"

At the furious voice, the noise on the island ceased, and in a split second everything went dead silent. Firepaw turned, and was surprised to see Kestrelwing sitting in the Great Oak, Mothwing at his side.

"This must stop!" Kestrelwing cried. "Cats are being hurt for nothing tonight. Have we all forgotten StarClan? What would they say?"

Murmurs of discontent rippled throughout the Clan cats. They all remembered StarClan - but did StarClan remember them?

"If you absolutely must fight, then can you at least not fight on the night that is supposed to be sacred? Are we all forgetting the ancient ways?"

"Fine!" Bramblestar yowled from somewhere in the center of the crowd. "We will come here in two nights time. Then we will see who really owns the moorland!"

Bramblestar and Hawkstar were glaring at each other furiously now, and there was such hatred in those eyes that a stranger would think they weren't related at all.

A/N: Sorry about the extreme shortness of the battle, but I'm no good at writing that kind of stuff. The battle in the next chapter will probably be longer, but the chapter will mostly focus on one extremely important part of the story.

Yes, I know the names of Icewing's kits were terrible, but those are their actual names in the Outcast allegiances. No, I do not have a special early edition of Outcast or anything. In the Erin Hunter AuthorTracker for this month, there was a link to a sneak peak of the book, so that's how I know.