Chapter 6

Faithpaw padded into the dark camp. He groaned as he saw that the horizon was pink, the sun just moments from rising.

Earthpaw, Silverpaw, Sunpaw and Duskpaw raced up to him.

"Faithpaw!" They all exclaimed at the same time. More babbling followed, things like 'we were so afraid something had happened!' and 'where were you? Are you alright?' Finally, he managed to push away from them and get to the den. Instantly, he was asleep.

…unfaithful…

"Wake up!"

Faithpaw's eyes fluttered open, and he saw a black face above him.

"Hello, I'm Moonfeather, as you probably already know. I'll be your mentor for today."

Faithpaw got to his feet, sighing. Oh, how he wished he could be trained in the real way.

As soon as they were out of the camp, Moonfeather turned to face him as they walked. "Under Brightstar's command, we aren't aloud to teach you real warrior training stuff, and instead have talks about your feelings to she-cats and to inspire you to mate. However, I think that that's really dumb, and if anyone needs good warrior training, you do. I'll train you the real way."

"What?" Faithpaw could hardly believe it. "You'll train me the real way? I mean thank you! Thanks so much!"

"It's nothing." They had arrived at the training hollow. Moonfeather stopped and turned to face him. "We'll start with fighting today. Attack me."

Faithpaw got to his paws, wondering what a good move would be. Deciding to dislodge her from the shoulders, he hurried foreword and jumped.

Moonfeather slipped aside. "I see you have a long way to go. Try jumping at me from a distance, and throwing your weight onto me."

Faithpaw nodded. He back up and tried again, leaping hard and far. His paws scathed her fur before she moved aside.

"Better. Now try slamming into my shoulders. But be ready to try a different move if I dart away."

"Alright." This time, Faithpaw lunged at her, trying to knock her down from the shoulders. She dodged down. He instantly brought his paws down and he barreled into her, throwing her over.

"You got it! But there's more to learn, because the circumstances are always different."

Moonfeather trained him way after sunhigh. Only when the sun was a little before setting did Moonfeather finally say that they had had enough.

Faithpaw was exhausted, and unused muscles whined in protest as he padded back to camp.

"Why don't you use this time to explore the territory?" Moonfeather asked him, "I'm sure you never got a tour."

"I didn't," Faithpaw said, and he started to leave the hollow. Suddenly something occurred to him, and he turned around. "Thanks."

"It was nothing. Apprentices are supposed to be trained to be warriors, aren't they?" Her whiskers twitched and she bounded away.

Faithpaw smiled as he left in his own direction. He was going to enjoy the days Moonfeather taught him. To bad she could only teach him like once a week.

He sat down, trying to think of a good place to go. The borders were always fun to patrol around, but he didn't want to bump into Clockpaw at the WaterClan border again. Instead he headed for AirClan instead, padding through the dark forest as quick as he could. Soon the trees thinned and became short pines. He emerged from them and stood beside a stream, the border between MidnightClan and AirClan.

He stared out, wanting someone to appear. And, if luck would have it, someone did. And not just anybody, but...Siftpaw.

She was chasing a rabbit that she pounced on and killed grotesquely on the dry grass. She washed her paws off in the river, then looked up and saw him sitting there.

"Hello, Faithpaw," She said in her dreamy voice, a slight smile on her face. She shook her silver-grey paws out and then padded foreword until she was right at the edge of the stream.

"Hello, Siftpaw," He mewed.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Nothing much. I was aloud to patrol the territory. I was trained by Moonfeather today-you probably don't know her- but she's giving me real training while everyone else is just talking about she-cats, my feelings about them and whatever. Moonfeather's really helping, already. She taught me fighting."

"That's good." Siftpaw said.

There was a long, awkward silence then:

"We only saw each other yesterday," Siftpaw said.

"I know." Faithpaw shrugged. "It doesn't matter, though, does it?"

"Maybe," She mewed, "Maybe not."

At that moment, there was a scream from behind Faithpaw. He whirled around.

"What was that?" He asked.

"I'm not sure," She mewed. "Come, on let's find out." Carefully, she moved into MidnightClan territory and together they bounded through the trees. The screams continued, getting louder, coming from WaterClan.

They slowed down as they neared the WaterClan border. Faithpaw peered through the trees. A cat seemed to be writhing underneath something else he couldn't see.

"It's Clockpaw!" Siftpaw yowled, "We have to help her!"

Please review! Thanks to all who did. Oh and to clear something up, on my reviews page it looks like I reviewed myself, but that was actually my brother, was read my story and was too stupid to log me out and review anonymously. Don't worry, that wasn't me because I think reviewing your own story is just pointless.