Songpaw's POV

The next sunrise made me growl in frustration, wishing that the moon could hang over me and Volepaw forever. I almost wished that we could stay on this island forever.

I had been awake for some time now, enjoying the feeling of Volepaw's head resting on my shoulder. I didn't want to be the one to wake her up, not when I didn't want this to end.

Who was I kidding? Even if Pikestep doesn't like her, some other tom with good taste will. Less than a moon ago, I finally accepted that I was falling for Volepaw. It was pretty obvious why it took me so long to accept it: the fact like she'll never like me back. She'd never be interested in a she-cat, let alone her best friend.

For that reason, I suddenly wanted to wake her up so I no longer felt tortured by these thoughts, but I didn't move. The sun shined brightly over the entire forest, and Volepaw's eyes blinked open.

"Oh, the night went by pretty quickly." You said it Volepaw. "We should probably head back to camp."

Where that crazy tom Pikestep was. I held back a sigh as I got up and lead the way back to camp, the way back to reality.

We arrived back at camp and I approached my mentor Stormbright, more than happy to be distracted with something else to do.

"Can we go with the morning hunting patrol?" I asked. Stormbright shook her head.

"They already left. We can go on the next patrol though." Stormbright replied. "Why don't you hang out with your friends? I'd kill to have my friends back in ThunderClan to talk to."

I knew that my mentor was still bitter about being taken away from our former Clan, and I chose to walk away. While joining RiverClan was the best thing to ever happen to me, Stormbright was probably missing her sister and the rest of ThunderClan terribly.

When I turned around, I saw Volepaw with the rest of our friends. I noticed Flypaw avoiding eye contact with his sister, probably because of Volepaw's resentment towards their mother. I didn't have much else to do besides join them, my heart still aching.

"Hi." I squeaked nervously, approaching. "What're we talking about?"

"How much of a hard time the other warriors gave Pikestep for his mean behavior." Spiderpaw snickered. "Splotchstar isn't punishing him, but a lot of cats are insisting that she does."

Volepaw tried to hide her amusement at what Spiderpaw said, and I hoped that meant she was over Pikestep. I saw Sweetcloud and Brambleblaze coming to talk to Volepaw.

"We're going on a border patrol. Stormbright said you wanted to go on the next patrol as well Songpaw." Sweetcloud reminded me. I nodded with defeat, wishing I could tell her that I wanted to go on a patrol to stay away from Volepaw. At least until I can get my feelings together.

No such luck. Stormbright joined us and the five of us took off to mark the borders. Ever since ThunderClan and ShadowClan attacked, Splotchstar increased the border patrols to almost every day, telling us to keep a sharp eye out.

Stormbright seemed way too calm during this. Did she want RiverClan to suffer because they stole her from ThunderClan? That seemed to be the only answer. I broke away from the group to mark a few trees near the WindClan border when I heard faint sounds of laughter.

"That battle wasn't nearly as bloody in my opinion! No cat died!" I heard a young female whine.

"Maybe we could kill an apprentice or two. Or maybe steal some kits...oh, I think I like that idea a lot." A deeper male laughed darkly. No!

"Wait, Breezepaw! Slow down, I think the apprentice knows we're here." The male voice said before both cats went silent, causing my heart to beat at a violently fast pace...only to hear a different scream.

Volepaw's.

I turned around to save her, only to get knocked over by another cat. I flipped around angrier than ever at the black she-cat smirking at me.

"RiverClan is-"

I didn't let her finish talking as I viciously used one rage-filled blow of my paw to knock her to the ground. I kicked her off my body and let the crazy adrenaline surge through me as I ran faster than I ever thought I could.

My eyes landed on the gray tabby tom and Volepaw locked in a brutal fight with blood and fur all over the forest ground. I slammed into the tom and he yelped before hitting the ground, my claws on his shoulder in an instant. I started losing sense of what was happening, vaguely noticing my paws brutally battering and slashing at the tom's face.

I jabbed my back paw into the tom's side, causing the tom to scream. When I pulled away, the tom's face was drenched in his own pathetic blood. I swear to StarClan, I wasn't a good fighter most of the time. I would cower and I preferred talking and making peace, but when that tom was beating up Volepaw...

The tom scrambled to his paws and ran back to his camp sobbing. I gave a sigh of relief when I saw that stupid she-cat follow him. Volepaw glanced at something behind me before she stared at me with a lot of...emotion? Admiration?

"That was amazing." I heard another cat gasp. I turned around and saw Sweetcloud and Brambleblaze looking at me in awe. But where was my mentor?

I felt the warmth of Volepaw's paws land on mine, and I turned around to see her beautiful and emotional eyes up close. And as much as I wanted to stare into those eyes forever, the blood dripping down her body was hard to ignore.

"We need to get you to the medicine cat's den." I whispered. Volepaw nodded and got up, her body wobbling before Sweetcloud and Brambleblaze walked on either side of her. We heard a cat running and the two warriors were ready to attack when Stormbright came into view.

"All the borders have been mark..wait, what happened?" Stormbright froze when her eyes landed on the she-cat that I loved. I turned around and glared at my mentor.

"I saved her from ShadowClan apprentices, thanks for coming to my aide." I spat. At least Sweetcloud and Brambleblaze came to help, even if it was too late. But what in the name of StarClan was Stormbright even doing?

We entered the camp where Redpaw and Flypaw were sharing tongues before they turned around and gasped.

"Volepaw, you're hurt!" Redpaw leaped to her friend, but her brother looked away. I knew it was because of their conflict about their mother, but that shouldn't matter right now.

"Songpaw, I think you should become a warrior tonight."

"What?" I turned to Sweetcloud.

"You should become a warrior. I've never seen a young apprentice fight with so much passion for her Clan." Sweetcloud purred.

"Well, um, it wasn't necessarily my Clan that I was fighting for. It was my best friend." I admitted. "And besides, I want to become a warrior with everyone else. And any other time I fight, I fight like a mouse."

"You got all crazy for your best friend? Hah, that's gay." Splotchstar laughed. Oh my great StarClan, I never felt my blood run cold that fast. I prayed that she'd leave it at that, but she walked towards me.

"Listen here, I didn't force you and your mentor to join our Clan just so neither of you could give me kits." Splotchstar growled. "There will be no mating with the same sex on my watch, and I better see both of you expect kits before greenleaf, got it?"

"Splotchstar, if Songpaw doesn't like toms, she shouldn't be forced with one. Remember when you made Crowheart leave? Her entire family left with her and we lost so many warriors." Stonewater explained. "Don't do this to your Clan."

"Fine. I still better see Stormbright with a belly of kits before greenleaf, but you're off the hook for now lesbo." Splotchstar grunted, walking away.

I knew that the real reason Stonewater was defending me was respect to my sexuality, and for that I was extremely grateful. But unfortunately a lot of the warriors were glancing at me weirdly, as if I was a two-headed cat.

"Seriously? You all are so immature." Flypaw growled at the glancing cats. "Songpaw, we don't care if you like toms, she-cats, or foxes. You're still a RiverClan warrior at heart, and that's all that matters."

"Please don't be attracted to foxes though." Brownpaw meowed nervously. "We don't need anyone leading them here."

"Or badgers!" Spiderpaw pretended to gasp.

Redpaw and dear Volepaw both affectionately rubbed me as a sign of acceptance, and I felt my heart soar higher than the clouds in disbelief. Even though I chose not to say anything about my sexuality or my secret feelings of love, I knew that I had true friends with these five cats.

I was weak, and throughout my whole life, I didn't feel like I amounted to anything. But with them by my side, I was bolder than fire. I could accomplish the unthinkable.

And with Volepaw, I could believe in love again.