Songpaw's POV

"Nervous? I wish I was becoming a warrior today!"

Spiderpaw leaped around me in excitement, but I was too terrified to respond. I was actually going to become a warrior that was supposed to fight and kill. Back in ThunderClan, the warriors insisted that I become a medicine cat apprentice. They thought that since I wouldn't have a tom's kits and be terrible at fighting, it'd be the perfect role for me. But I wanted to fall in love, I really did. Even if it wasn't with a tom.

Stormbright knew about how scared I was, and she didn't care. Instead, she constantly obsessed about reuniting with her sister and the Clan that I didn't miss.

Spiderpaw joined us in the final assessment to become warriors, and Stormbright explained our final assessment: a three-part assessment involving swimming across the river and back, a two-on-two fight, and catching one rabbit in the outskirts of WindClan thanks to one WindClan tom.

"Who?" Volepaw hissed unexpectedly. "Who was the WindClan tom?"

"Does it matter?" Stormbright sounded suspicious, and Volepaw looked terrified. Did this tom hurt her?

"She knows something!" Volepaw snarled.

"Knows what?" I whispered.

"Stop!" Sweetcloud finally snapped. "Quit accusing Stormbright."

The mentors split us into pairs: Brownpaw and Spiderpaw, Redpaw and Flypaw, and Volepaw and me. My heart raced knowing that the mentors personally thought that we were best for each other.

"Try not to get in my way." Volepaw growled, still upset about the tom.

"I wouldn't dream of it." I purred, leaning against her. I scolded myself for being so forward, but then Volepaw calmed down and softly blinked at me.

When we got to the river, it was clear that Stormbright was bitter towards all of us; especially me. I was used to getting the rotten treatment, but why was she being rude towards the rest of us? She taunted Redpaw all the time, and now she was scaring Flypaw and Volepaw about some tom.

I couldn't let that distract me, not when I knew that's exactly what she wanted. When I leaped into the raging river, it knocked me off my paws and sent me spiraling underwater. I blindly kicked and clawed for air when I felt someone lift me up by the scruff.

Volepaw placed my paws back on the ground underwater, still holding onto my scruff. I looked ahead and saw Flypaw and Redpaw doing the same thing and smirked at how clever Volepaw was.

We even beat Brownpaw and Spiderpaw in the race to catch fish in the river. Unfortunately, that also meant that we had to fight Redpaw and Flypaw. I got anxious at the thought of Volepaw and her brother fighting, so I leaped at Flypaw at the first chance.

That didn't work out. As soon as Flypaw violently shook me off his back, he leaped at his sister and I panicked, going limp as Redpaw tackled me. Volepaw saw what I was doing and went completely limp in Flypaw's paws.

"Thanks for helping me avoid confrontation with my brother during our final assessment." Volepaw whispered. "Now we can kick tail with those two softies."

Brownpaw and Spiderpaw ran towards us, expecting to win easily. But once Volepaw leaped at Brownpaw, he shrieked like a little kit and fell over. Spiderpaw tried to pull her off, but I swooped in and swatted my tail over her eyes...what? I hate fighting.

We defeated them in battle easily and took off to the WindClan outskirts.

"Listen, this is the most important part. We need to catch that rabbit before that gray tom gets there, he cannot see me!" Volepaw and I ran as fast as we could until I saw the tom approaching Redpaw and Flypaw. "Shit, he's already here! We need to hide!"

I crouched behind a line of bushes and Volepaw, Brownpaw, and Spiderpaw joined me.

"What's happe-" Volepaw growled at Spiderpaw and she stopped talking.

"Stay away, Stormclaw." Flypaw snarled. "You're not my father, you're just some WindClan warrior."

"I...a she-cat told me that you and your sister were becoming warriors." Stormclaw meowed, his eyes full of softness. "Does Amberfern miss me?"

"Absolutely not!"

Volepaw chose to make herself known by leaping out of the bushes with the three of us following her to confront the tom.

"Don't listen to him, Redpaw! He's a liar!" Volepaw snarled.

"I'm your father, Volepaw." Stormclaw said with what seemed like good intent, but I kept my guard up.

"Amberfern is very happy!" Flypaw hissed.

"It's true!" Spiderpaw jumped to face the tom. "She has Clovertalon and their kits!"

Stormclaw flinched and looked away. He seemed to really love Amberfern and their kits, but Flypaw and Volepaw were determined to destroy the relationship they could have with him beyond repair. They must truly hate him. All of us looked and him waiting for him to say something.

"Just...go and hunt your rabbits. I'll be waiting for you back in RiverClan." Stormclaw muttered, gloomily walking to our camp with his tail treading the dirt.

"You're a WindClan warrior!" Brownpaw growled in protest.

"Just let him go." I whispered. "It's up to him if he wants to subject himself to more pain."

I turned around to see that Volepaw was no longer by my side. Oh no, did I say the wrong thing? Did seeing her father bring back horrible memories that I don't even know about? Screw this final assessment, I went to go looking for her.

"Volepaw?" I called out into the forest. "Are you mad at me?"

I barely heard her say no in the distance, and I followed her scent.

"Just tell me if you want to be alone and I'll go." She said nothing, and I finally found her leaning her head against a tree trunk with her eyes closed.

"I never wanted to see him again." Volepaw groaned. "He ruined my mother's life by knocking her up and destroying her dream of becoming leader of RiverClan. Do you get why I hate that she's had more kits? I know that she's using Clovertalon as a cover-up. For all I know, she could've slept with Stormclaw again or another tom altogether. He acts like he did nothing wrong, as if he didn't break the warrior code and screw my mother over."

"So you care about your mother more than Flypaw does because you want to protect her." It made much more sense now. Volepaw was passionate to a fault, but that's what I absolutely loved about her. "You're going to be one of the fiercest warriors in RiverClan y'know."

"I think you're giving me more credit than I deserve." Volepaw sighed. "I've been hostile with my words within earshot of her. I may care more than I want to, but I'm also angry that she could do such a thing."

"There's plenty of time to think things over Volepaw, you don't have to forgive her just yet." Truthfully, there was nothing that Amberfern needed to be sorry about. Everyone knew that Clovertalon was truly the father of her new litter, but Volepaw didn't need another cat to shoot her down. Not when she so genuinely believed that she was right. Right now, she needed a friend.

"Thank you, everyone else tells me that I'm being ridiculous. I wish I had a normal family, but maybe I will when I meet the right tom."

Ouch.

"Yeah, we should go back and hunt. And then you get to feel really good about being a warrior." I attempted to encourage her, even though I felt the thorns of her words piercing my heart. "Or you can stay here and I'll try to-"

"No, it's okay. You're right, we should finish the final assessment." Volepaw got up and took off, pursuing a rabbit that was already out in the open. She killed it right away, and we left the moor area to become warriors.

"Voletooth! Songpool! Redblossom! Flyfur!"

We were warriors now, but the pain that Voletooth unknowingly created in my heart ached. And this time, I couldn't keep it to myself. I needed to talk to my second closest friend: Redblossom.

I stood close to Redblossom while she was talking to her sister, and when she turned to me, her eyes blinked in surprise.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"I need to talk to you before the vigil." I whispered, my heart beating fast.

"Oh, well okay." Redblossom said, following me to the dirtplace near the river. "What is it, is it about Stormbright?"

I quickly shook her head. I wish it was about that.

"No, it's...about Voletooth."

"Did she bully you?" Redblossom growled. Why would she think that?!

"No, no!" I gasped. "Quite the opposite...she was really nice to me."

"That's good right?" Redblossom replied.

"I like her." I explained, looking away. Oh dear StarClan, I'm really in for it now.

"We all do, really." Redblossom chuckled. Ugh.

"No, Redblossom." I sighed. "I've liked her for moons now, she makes me shiver just looking at me...but I'm afraid she still likes Pikestep."

Redblossom immediately realized what I meant and her eyes widened. She shook her head.

"No, Pikestep was really mean to her two moons ago, remember?" She reassured me.

"Sometimes she's still upset about it." I replied, shrugging.

"Well, that's cause he's a jerk." Redblossom muttered. "The vigil will be starting soon, we should head back."

"Um, Redblossom?" I meowed. "Thank you for hearing me out."

"No problem." Redblossom purred as we began heading back. "So what do you like about Voletooth?"

"She's passionate and she's real. Kinda like you, but in more of a fierce way, like she'd fight you if you oppose her. She doesn't let down her guard down easy, so when shes does for you, it...makes you feel really special." My heart felt like it was floating in the clouds. "But even if I didn't have to worry about Pikestep, she's only into toms. I just needed to release some of the pain in my chest."

"Songpool, you shouldn't give up so easily. The cats that she's liked have always been toms, but maybe that's because a she-cat hasn't stolen her heart yet." Redblossom explained. "It's not likely, I won't lie. But I really don't think you should give up yet. No tom is going to love her like you do."

Those words felt true in my heart, and I brushed my tail against her back in gratitude for talking to me. Once the camp was in view, I walked towards Voletooth.

"What were you two talking about?" Voletooth asked. Um, does it matter?

"Our future as warriors; she's hoping to get an apprentice soon." I lied. "We were mostly enjoying looking at the river."

"Oh, okay. You know she likes Flyfur right?" Voletooth glanced away. She thought that I had a crush on Redblossom? Should I be clear that I never did or should I tease her a little and see if she gets jealous?

"Um, yeah. I don't like her like that. Our conversation wasn't that private y'know." I sighed, feeling anxious and weak. I was drowning in my feelings for Voletooth, and she was sitting there and watching without even knowing it.

"Oh, sorry. I don't know why I thought that, you two don't talk to each other that much anyway." Voletooth sounded like she was talking to herself at that point. "Um, Songpool? I wanted to thank you for helping me get it together. You're very important to me, more than you probably know. You're the only one I can show my hurt and sorrow to, and I-"

"Vigil's starting! Get to your places!" For StarClan's sake Splotchstar! Now I'll never know what she was going to say!

"Sorry, I'll talk about it some other time." Voletooth brushed her muzzle against my ear and walked away, leaving me dying to know what she was going to say.