I limped back to the apprentices den. I could now walk on my own. Sadly, my father was able to walk on his own for a while and the other three apprentices had their assessment today, so they were made warriors. The apprentices den was almost like my den now. My very own horror den in my new home. My new home that started out being my escape, but it didn't last long.

I laid in my den, waiting for my father. I have the den to myself now, of course he'd use that to his advantage. All too soon, he came strolling in. He smiled at me, eyes gleaming with a thirst for blood. My blood. He redlined open a few of my wounds, and I was forced to hold back my screams. He left. While I layed there and bled. I just stayed where I was and fell asleep

I felt someone softly shaking me. I opened my eyes and saw a concerned look on his face. I had forgotten about my wounds. He looked at my side, then back at my face. I leaned over and saw the blood on my side.

"What happened?" he asked.

I shrugged. Hopefully he'll think that they broke open in my sleep.

He sighed, "Come one, let's go get Amberfeather to take cars of them."

We walked over to Amberfeathers den and she chewed up some marigold right away, then put it on my wounds, adding two layers of cobweb over it.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" she asked.

I shook my head. I only feel the pain as I'm getting the wounds. I saw Timberleaf frown when I shook my head. I smiled at him reassuringly. I am okay. I think. I'm okay if it's normal to be terrified of your father. In other words, I'll pretend I'm okay as long as it keeps me alive.

When Timberleaf and I got out of the medicine den, my father came up to us.

"Quietpaw, do you want to go on a walk with me? I'm pretty sure you know the territory, you could show me around."

I nodded. We walked out of camp and into the forest. Just him and I. Timberleaf is probably talking to my brother.

"Lead me as far as you can get from camp." my father ordered.

I led him to the Shadowclan border, not really caring about if it's farthest or not. He smiled when we got there.

"Rain, I got tired of not hearing your screams. You have no clue how much I love your screams of pain."

"I'm pretty sure I do." I mumbled.

He hit my face and knocked me over. He slowly dragged his claws down my side. Just as he asked, I let out my screams of pain. I wasn't allowed to hold them in. No matter how much I wanted to. He didn't hurt me as long as I expected him too, though. I turned to him when he suddenly stopped.

"Put some bad wounds on me." he ordered.

I did as he said and dug my claws deep into his flesh, slowly dragging them down. Once he was too covered in blood, we went back to camp. The cats gathered around us and gasped. Timberleaf ran up to me with worry in his eyes.

"What happened, Quietpaw?"

"Shadowclan." my father meowed simply.

Blizzardflame walked over, "How do you know the difference between each clan?" she questioned.

That's an easy one.

"My mate is from Thunderclan. She only ever talks about the clans."

"What's her name?"

"Featherwing."

I heard quite a few gasps. He had just mentioned the medicine cat that left Thunderclan. I shuffled my paws while looking down at them. When I glanced up, Timberleaf was staring at me with worry. Amberfeather came over and my father acted good by insisting that she heals me first. She came a put herbs on my wounds after Timberleaf had cleaned the blood off of them.

When Amberfeather finished mine, she moved on to my father. Timberleaf helped me to the far side of camp. We just sat by each other in silence for a while.

"Was it really Shadowclan?" he asked.

Crap! I didn't want to lie to him, but I also didn't want him to find out. I nodded my head sheepishly. He gave me a disbelieving look, but didn't question me any further. He had almost found out my secret. Thankfully, he didn't. I leaned against Timberleaf and slowly drifted to sleep. He woke me up a while later.

"Let's get you to the apprentices den." he whispered.

I nodded back sleepily. He laughed and brought me to my den. I then remembered that is be alone tonight. My father would be waiting for Timberleaf to leave. I curled up in my nest and stared at Timberleaf. He started to leave but I whimpered. I signaled for him to stay.

"Quietpaw, I should really head to the warriors den. You need to sleep."

I shook my head. He just had to stay. I didn't want my father to come in tonight. He looked at me sorrowfully.

"Alright, I'll stay."

I smiled and he curled up a fox length away from me. I closed my eyes, knowing that he actually would stay. When I woke up, I saw him sitting in the corner of the den, watching me. He smiled when he saw that I was awake. I smiled back and slowly got up. When I almost fell, he ran over and helped me up the rest of the way. We walked to the prey pile right away. I grabbed a usual small mouse and Timberleaf surprised me. He grabbed two big mice. We walked to the edge of camp and I finished eating while he only ate half of his first mouse. He pushed the other mouse towards me. I tried shoving it back, but he intercepted.

"Quietpaw, you need to eat. Ever since you got here, you only ate small mice. You will eat at least half of this one."

I nodded. I was hungry. After my father started abusing me, he told me not to pick the big pieces of prey. I listened because I'm afraid of him. I slowly ate the big mouse. I surprised myself by eating the whole thing.

Timberleaf looked at me pointedly, "So how'd a mouse and a half taste?"

Well I guess it's normal to count a small mouse as half a mouse. I smiled and nodded.

"Good."

I looked over and saw my father glaring at me. He was mad that I ate. He quickly looked away when Timberleaf looked over. I looked at Timberleaf and smiled. He's a good friend. He could choose to be with Silverbreeze who's constantly mooning over him and can talk to her and know that she'll respond, but instead, he's with me. I've thought about talking to him a few times, but I didn't know what I could say.

He jerked his head towards the camp entrance and I nodded. We walked out into the forest. We walked along the borders, rather than off into the middle of the territory. He looked lost in thought the whole way, but I knew he was alert.

"Why was your father glaring at you?"

I froze. That meant that my father didn't look away in time. I looked down and shuffled my paws uncomfortably. Timberleaf turned to face me.

"Quietpaw, why was he glaring at you?" he asked again.

I knew that I had to talk now. There's no way I could answer him with nodding or anything like that.

"H-he th-thinks it's greedy when s-someone eats too much prey." I whispered hoarsely.

He looked pleased that I talked, so I know that he knew I could talk all along.

"Is that all?"

I shook my head but didn't say anything else. Timberleaf frowned. I started walking again and so did he. We didn't say another word, the rest of the way back. We silently walked to the edge of the clearing and laid down. Not another word said between us that day.