Another chapter! I hope you enjoy it! (Also check out my side series and one-shot's! Also if you want to skip ahead, then read my newest release: Daughter of Fire and Tiger: Dawn!)

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Firepaw awoke with a gasp. She blinked heavily, trying to get rid of the lingering impressions of glowing stars from her eyes, turning to look beside her. Firepaw could just make out the pale shape of her leader, lying beside the Moonstone a few mouse-lengths away.

Firepaw looked up to the opening of the roof of the cavern, as she began to stand up. The moon had passed on, out of sight. All that remained were tiny stars shimmering in blackness.

She stood back where she was previously, watching now as her leader still slept. Oh, what was she going to do about Rock's warning? After more endless moments of waiting, and trying to figure out what Rock meant, Bluestar finally spoke to her. "Firepaw? Are you still there?" Her voice sounded remote and agitated.

"Yes, Bluestar." Firepaw heard Bluestar's pawsteps approaching as she snapped out of her musing. Firepaw stood up at attention.

"We must get back." She ordered. "There is trouble in the Clan. Come now, Firepaw. We have no time to waste."

Bluestar started the trek back up through the tunnel that led out of Mothermouth. Firepaw's whiskers dragged along the walls surrounding them on either side, the cold of the stone ground sending chills up her tail.

She saw the pale outline of the exit from behind Bluestar, and emerged behind her into the light, being temporarily blinded by the change in brightness.

Outside they rejoined the others. Ravenpaw and Graypaw were chattering amongst each other quietly, while Tigerclaw was staring in the distance. Both apprentices fell silent and broke apart as Bluestar came rushing out of the tunnel, Firepaw hot on her paws.

Tigerclaw snapped to attention. Rising to his paws as he sternly dipped his head to his approaching leader.

"Bluestar, wha-" but Bluestar rushed straight past him.

"We must return at once," she hissed as Tigerclaw easily caught up, "There is trouble in the Clan."

"Trouble?" He demanded. When Bluestar didn't give an answer, he looked to Firepaw for one, Firepaw was struggling to keep up, and could barely shrug in response.

"She didn't say, but it seems like it might be bad."

Tigerclaw huffed. "Seems like it."

"Get up! We're leaving. We need to get back as soon as possible." Bluestar shouted over her shoulder at the two remaining apprentices. Graypaw hastily stood up as he and Ravenpaw trotted along with them, they both easily caught up to Firepaw as Tigerclaw padded beside Bluestar, speaking in hushed whispers with her.

"What's gotten into her fur?" Graypaw muttered to Firepaw.

Firepaw shook her head. "She didn't say."

"I'm guessing it's bad to get her tail in a twist like this." Ravenpaw murmured.

"Must be." Graypaw mused. "I've never seen her like this."

O0O0O0

Firepaw was getting tired from the constant pace they kept, all cats in the group having longer legs than her. She found it growing increasingly harder to keep up with everyone.

Ravenpaw seemed to take notice and slowed his pace to match hers. "Do you need a break?"

"We can't afford one!" Tigerclaw growled from the front.

"He's right," Firepaw meowed. "Don't stop on my account. We don't know what awaits us back home. I can manage."

"No." Bluestar meowed, slowing her pace. "It wouldn't be wise to harm an apprentice like this. We need to find an easier way to ThunderClan."

Firepaw also slowed her pace, thankful to at least catch her breath. "Thank you, Bluestar, but I really could manage if we needed to." As if fate had somehow heard them, the group suddenly heard a shout from a distance, one from a cat that was leisurely making their way towards the ThunderClan patrol.

A black-and-white tom with blue eyes boldly approached the group. "Bluestar, it's lovely to see you." He politely bowed his head. Bluestar mirrored the action.

"Hello, Barley. You've met Tigerclaw." The newcomer, Barley, politely nodded his head to Tigerclaw, who in return fixed him with a glare of distrust. "And these are three of ThunderClan's newest apprentices. Ravenpaw, Graypaw, and Firepaw."

Barley seemed to look a little longer at Firepaw than the rest of the apprentices. "I feel like I've seen you before."

Bluestar and Tigerclaw looked on curiously, with a glint of suspicion, while Ravenpaw and Graypaw looked at her with wonder.

Firepaw shook her head. "I'm sorry, I've never made it this far before."

Barley nodded. "I see, well I get a lot of cats through my barn, and having a cat with orange fur isn't uncommon. I must be mistaking you for someone else. Anyway, what are you all doing so far from your territory? Not that you aren't welcome here, of course."

"We were just traveling to Highstones, do you have a faster way for us to get back home? It's an emergency." Bluestar meowed.

Barely seemed to think it over. His head tilted as he thought. Bluestar and the three apprentices waited but Tigerclaw was tearing at the ground with his sharp claws, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Well do you know or not?" Tigerclaw eventually snapped.

"I'm thinking," Barley meowed. Tigerclaw rolled his eyes. "I think there's a quicker path here, through the cornfield. Not sure if it's quicker, but it's definitely safer. They let dogs out around your usual route."

Bluestar nodded. "I see, thank you, Barley. We'll make sure to keep an eye out."

"Anytime, take care." He meowed as the loner sent them a parting wave of his tail as he padded away.

"Come," Bluestar ordered as she began heading in the direction of the cornfields, ducking under the silver webbed fence. Firepaw craned her neck to try and see around the much taller cats. She was curious to see her surroundings and where they were headed.

There was a ditch off to the side of the cats, Firepaw looked in hesitantly, as she slowed her pace. It was steep-sided and filled with nettles, crowfood also filled her nostrils.

An ear-splitting squeal made her snap her head to where she saw Ravenpaw struggling, clawing at the earth under him, seemingly trying to grab hold of something as a giant brown rat had taken hold on his hind-leg and was dragging him into the ditch.

"Ravenpaw!" Firepaw squeaked, bounding towards him. She bit behind the head of the rat that had grabbed his hind-leg, it squealed as it died, and Firepaw flung its remains into the ditch.

"Rats!" Tigerclaw spat. "Barley sent us into a trap, I knew we shouldn't have trusted him!"

Before anyone could get words out, the group of cats were surrounded by rats. Huge, foul smelling disgusting brown rats had swarmed out of the ditch.

Suddenly one leaped onto Firepaw's shoulder, and a fiery pain exploded within her flesh. Firepaw screeched and flailed around. The small flame-pelted apprentice tried to shake the rat off but it was just as big as Firepaw, if not larger, and when she tried to rollover in order to throw it off all it did was give the rat the upper advantage.

Firepaw scrambled to find a way to get the rat off of her. In the meantime, its buddies seemed keen to join in on the fight. She was swiping, biting, and scratching everything she could hear or see blindly as hard as she could, but more continued to pile on. The jade-eyed apprentice felt as if she were drowning in a sea of rats.

They were hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered. Then something unexpected happened, as Firepaw was thinking that this was it, this was how she was going to die, the terrified squeals of rats being thrown through the air made her ears pin back, and once the rats had been cleared off her her rescuer was revealed to her to be an enraged Tigerclaw, who ferociously hissed at anymore that tried to get close.

"Wha- Tigerclaw?" Firepaw gasped, hardly believing that she had just been saved by the future bloodthirsty tyrant.

Tigerclaw looked down at her, indifference, though perhaps laced with some concern, was in his pale amber eyes as he looked down upon the shocked apprentice. "Are you alright, Firepaw?"

"Uh," she glanced down at herself. "I'm breathing, and I can move."

He nodded. "That's all that matters then."

Their attention quickly drifted away from one another as the most bloodcurdling yowl imaginable made them come to realize that they were still in the middle of fighting. Firepaw took a moment to see where the horrible noise had come from, praying to StarClan that it hadn't come from either Graypaw or Ravenpaw.

Tigerclaw's growl and spat of, "No!" drew Firepaw's attention to a bloody lump of pale blue-gray fur that was swarming with rats. It took Firepaw a moment to recognize Bluestar underneath the brown wiggling bodies. Firepaw's jade green eyes widened in horror. The flame-pelted apprentice scrambled to her paws as Tigerclaw was already flying across the rat-filled stretch of land towards Bluestar.

Tigerclaw is going to save Bluestar! Firepaw thought to herself, but then the ThunderClan leader in a past life remembered where she was, who both she and Tigerclaw were, and the dark intentions Tigerclaw held for Bluestar.

Firepaw went racing after Tigerclaw. Not trusting a single hair on his pelt that she wouldn't find Bluestar dead as Tigerclaw was trying to help their leader. Surely this was an opportunity to take out the ThunderClan leader, one that was too good for the tabby to pass up.

But it was near impossible for Firepaw to catch up and once again she was attacked by another rat. But thankfully this one was smaller and Firepaw easily took care of it with a bite to the back of its head. As Firepaw once again turning to go save her leader the appearance of Barely, who was balanced perfectly on the silver webbed fence, took all her attention and she watched as the black-and-white tom jumped down upon the mass of rats and as though he held the power of a full patrol of warriors easily swept away all the rats that were attacking Bluestar.

Seeing the power that the loner held over them. The rats departed back down into their ditch. Firepaw had never felt more grateful to anyone as much as she did for Barely in that moment.

Firepaw looked around, and saw Graypaw struggle to drag himself and Ravenpaw away from the ditch. And Firepaw let out a sigh of relief to know that they had both survived.

Once the remaining rats had retreated, Firepaw looked around for her leader, who she had seen struggling earlier. The flame-pelted she-cat saw Barley scanning the ditch, presumably for any more rats that wanted to test the cats. As her gaze shifted, she saw Bluestar laying in a patch nearby.

Alarmed for her leader's safety, she bounded towards her. "Bluestar!" Firepaw cried. The thick blue-gray fur at the back of her neck was drenched with blood.

The apprentice heard a furious yowl behind her, and turned to find Tigerclaw had pounced on top of Barley.

"You sent us into a trap!" He snarled. Barley withered beneath him. Appearing panicked by Tigerclaw's violent outburst and accusation.

"I didn't know there were rats here, I swear!" He mewed.

"Why'd you tell us to go here, then, when we could've gone the other way?" The dark brown tabby warrior hissed, his tail lashing behind him.

"The dogs!" Barley gasped. "The Twolegs- they untie them at night so that they can guard the nest!"

Tigerclaw looked like he wanted to argue more, but Firepaw spoke up before he could. "Tigerclaw, Bluestar is injured!"

That got his attention. He leaped off of Barley and raced towards where Firepaw and Bluestar were. Barley got up and shook the dust from his fur. Once Tigerclaw reached Firepaw's side, he leaned down to sniff Bluestar's wounds.

"Is there anything we can do?" Firepaw asked anxiously.

After a moment, Tigerclaw stepped back and solemnly shook his head. "She is in the hands of StarClan now."

Firepaw's eyes went wide with horror. Was Bluestar dead? But, she was their leader! Was this what Rock had meant? Some things will always happen. He had said, was this something that would always happen? Bluestar losing a life?

Graypaw and Ravenpaw made their way over to Firepaw and Tigerclaw, horror and grief written all over their faces. They stared into the leaders eyes that were open, but glazed over. Her pelt was riddled with blood.

Ravenpaw eventually spoke up, asking the question every cat was wondering. "Is she dead?"

"I don't know," Tigerclaw shook his massive head. "We shall have to wait and see."

Barley had eventually come to join the small group, but he stayed a bit farther back. It seemed like forever before Bluestar finally stirred, the tip of her tail twitching, and she lifted her head.

"Bluestar?" Firepaw gasped.

"I am still here." Bluestar rasped. "I have lost a life, but thankfully it was not my ninth."

Firepaw didn't know how to take that. Although she was glad that it wasn't her leader's last life, there was still the fact that Bluestar had lost a life in the first place.

Firepaw nervously looked towards Tigerclaw. Garnering his reaction to the news of Bluestar losing yet another life. But Tigerclaw had a carefully guarded look upon his face.

"Right," Tigerclaw's gruff voice called out. "Ravenpaw, go and fetch some cobwebs. Graypaw, see if you can find some marigold or horsetail." The named apprentices quickly ran off to find the needed items at the dark brown tabbies orders.

"Is everyone alright?" Bluestar asked in a hoarse voice.

Tigerclaw solemnly nodded.

He then looked towards Barley, who hadn't left, and was instead looking at Bluestar in awe. "I think you should leave us now." He snarled with an icy glare.

Firepaw nodded at Barley to show their thanks, and he nodded back before padding away, climbing the fence, and out of sight.

Once Ravenpaw returned with cobwebs wrapped around his paw, Firepaw turned to Tigerclaw. "Shall I put them on her wounds?" Seeing Tigerclaw's suspicious glance, she hastily added, "Yellowfang showed me how." After a moment he nodded.

Firepaw took the wad of cobwebs from Ravenpaw and began pressing them firmly against the worst of Bluestar's wounds.

Graypaw eventually came back with some horsetail clamped in between his jaw, which Firepaw took and chewed the leaves, spitting the juice onto her leader's wounds. And watched as Bluestar winced as the juice entered them, but made no complaint. Firepaw knew this would stop any infection, so it was a necessary step in the healing process. But the flame-pelted apprentice still felt awful for bringing her leader any more pain.

"We should rest here while Bluestar recovers." Tigerclaw suggested.

"No," Bluestar insisted, standing up on shaky legs. "We must return to camp." There was pain in her eyes, but also a glint of determination. "Let's go."

The ThunderClan cats all walked silently behind her, until Tigerclaw padded up next to their leader. "It's been a while since I've seen you lose a life." He murmured, loud enough for only Bluestar and a very attentive Firepaw to hear. "How many have you lost?"

Bluestar was silent for a while before responding, "that was my fifth."

Liar! Firepaw thought in her head, but was glad that her leader had the forethought to lie to a cat like Tigerclaw. He'd take advantage of how depleted on lives Bluestar currently has.

The patrol once again set a fast pace as they hurried home. Firepaw's paws felt as though they were burning until they fell numb, the flame-pelted she-cat hadn't run so fast in such a long time, especially in such a small body.

Everything was a blur to Firepaw except for the backs of her leader and Tigerclaw. Firepaw hardly even noticed when they crossed the Thunderpath or skirted their way through WindClan territory and crossed their own scent markers. No, Firepaw's attention was trained solely on following her leader.

So focused on her leader, Firepaw nearly tripped all over herself when Ravenpaw suddenly stopped. "Can you hear that?" he mewed in a hushed voice.

Firepaw also stopped and strained her ears. At first she heard only the familiar sounds of the forest--leaves rustling, a pigeon calling. Then her blood ran cold. In the distance she could hear battle-hungry yowls, and the shrill squeal of terrified kits.

"Quick!" Bluestar howled. "It is as StarClan warned me. Our camp is being attacked!" She tried to leap forward, but stumbled. But Bluestar pushed herself up and limped onward.

Tigerclaw and Firepaw pelted forward side by side. Graypaw and Ravenpaw followed, their tail fur bristling to twice its usual size.

Firepaw forgot everything else. Her conversation with StarClan. Bluestar dying. Even Tigerclaw.

Her only concern was to protect the Clan.

O0O0O0O0O

Fun Facts:

My Beta wrote this and I'm adding it to the Fun Facts and nobody can stop me!!!

-Southern!Barley has entered the chat- (change back later) "Yep-ah," a strange cat sighed out, from the piece of wheat hanging from his mouth. He dipped his cowboy hat in return. "Just what I thought, a couple of ThunderClan cats. What's the likes of you doing around these parts? Not that you're not welcome, of course."

Bluestar dipped her head respectfully. "Hello, Barley. We're traveling back from Highstones, and we could use a shorter way back to ThunderClan territory."

The newcomer, Barley's, eyes widened. "Well I'll be damned, Highstones is an awful long way from the forest. No worries, we can just cut through this patch over here." He waved his tail to signal for the cats to follow.

Tigerclaw eyed Barley with distrust. "And why should we trust you?"

Barley spat out his wheat piece. "Never said you had to, but the lady asked for a shorter way home and I'm providing it. You can choose to come with me or not."

The pale-amber eyed warrior looked ready to argue more, but Bluestar shook her head. "We need to get home quickly, Tigerclaw. Barley is offering a way, and I have not had a reason to not trust him in the past, so I say we go for it."

The apprentices all looked to each other, as if silently asking whether they actually should. At last, Graystripe shrugged and padded along behind Bluestar and Tigerclaw, and Fireheart and Ravenpaw followed behind, Ravenpaw … a little more hesitant. -End Southern!Barley-

And yes the cat Barley was talking about was Jake, Firepaw's father!! -Ashe

I had been struggling to write this chapter since my last one. I have been meaning to finish this chapter for the longest time and if it hadn't been for my Beta I still wouldn't be able to finish it! I am so happy to have finished this chapter that I could just cry from how happy I am!! I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I enjoy publishing!!!

Yes. Tigerclaw protected Firepaw. If you haven't caught on to why yet…well you can always catch up as Firepaw does!

I promise to have more chapters out soon. And thanks to my Beta that actually might happen! Also more Fire x Tiger moments as well as some friendship is magic from both the young generation and the old!!! (Tiger x White x Spotted are a friend trio and nobody can tell me otherwise!)

I'm writing a ton of AU's at the moment so if you want to check those out I advise you too! Also look at some of my one-shots because some of them are important to some of the stories!