Edit (10/1/15): Yes, yes, I know. I am currently editing these chapters as I have looked back on them and realizing that oh my god I needed to fix some things. It's be a long time, yes, and I am not promising anything for the future. I have found a bit of motivation after looking back and I may continue. I still have a bit of affection for the story so don't lose all hope!

Rise of the Titan Warriors

Chapter 6: Great New Land

"Hello?"

The black tomcat had opened his eyes to see a vast expansion of land. His ice blue eyes searched for anything, anyone, but to no avail. He realized he could in fact walk, so he began looking for his teammates. "Starfire? I mean.. Sunpaw?" he called out, "Stonepaw? Ravenpaw? Treepaw? Anyone?" He noticed how light he felt compared to earlier… and everything was so.. shiny! Where am I? Robinpaw thought.

As he walked, which seemed like he'd been forever, he noted that this land grew darker. He could feel the ominous darkness closing in as he proceeded forward. He gulped, and his tail bristled, but he kept moving. Robinpaw finally came to a stop when he felt eyes boring into him. He looked around wildly, trying to find whoever was watching him. He looked ahead only to freeze, not even daring to breathe. In front of him were two gleaming amber eyes. They were dark and Robinpaw held his breath. The eyes blinked steadily before sharp teeth came into view, forming into a growl.

Robinpaw felt his instincts surge and they told him to run. When he went to turn away, Robinpaw felt himself stuck to the ground. Pulling with all his might did nothing, but the cat in front of him could certainly move. In a matter of seconds, eyes and teeth became a shadowy body that leapt at Robinpaw. The apprentice couldn't even open his mouth in terror before darkness swallowed him; amber eyes burned into his memory.

Robinpaw gasped as his head shot up. He felt himself shaking as he looked up to see Treepaw.

"Dude, I thought you were never going to wake up. Come on! We're going to be late!" said the brown tabby. He prodded Robinpaw one more time with his paw before turning tail and practically running out of the den.

Robinpaw blinked his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm his frayed nerves. What in the world was that? He thought. He shook his head and sighed. He'd have to tell the others later, but right now, Treepaw was right. He sat up and cleaned his ruffled fur before he realized he was grooming himself. This is so weird… how does Beast Boy do it? Or should I say Treepaw now…

Robinpaw chuckled to himself before he followed after his teammates.

Ravenpaw rolled her eyes as Treepaw hopped from tree root to tree root. "Would you knock it off before you hurt yourself?" She growled to him. He hopped off and began to walk beside her. "What? Are you worried about me?" he asked cockily. The she-cat looked at him confused, "What makes you think I don't worry about any of you? Wait, forget I said that." Treepaw shrugged and started walking normally beside Ravenpaw. Stonepaw was asking Cedarflight about the… Owl Bush or something. Ravenpaw didn't really remember. She had been keeping an eye on her own mentor, Raggedears, who had been silent most of the time. He gave the occasional comment about trespassers and what not, and the Titans quickly learned that boundaries here were important.

Ambercloud, Treepaw's mentor, was currently leading the way. She paused to say, "Now, smell your surroundings… what do you smell?"

Ravenpaw did as she was told, but could only detect cat… and more cat. How she had caught that rabbit, she wouldn't tell, but it certainly wasn't by sniffing it out. So, she stayed silent as her teammates copied her actions. "All I smell are cats," Stonepaw finally spoke up. Everyone nodded in agreement. "I smell a difference between the cats… like um… oh I know! Fish!" Treepaw perked up, ready to show off his enhanced senses to the others.

Ravenpaw looked at him, bewildered, until Stormheart purred, "You're correct! We are near Riverclan boundaries. You will tell the difference once we get there, for they have a distinctive, and fishy, smell. Good work, Treepaw."

Treepaw puffed out his chest as he glanced at Ravenpaw. "See! Animal powers come in handy, huh!"

Ravenpaw huffed and mewed, "Don't get too cocky, and would you quiet down?"

Treepaw frowned, but resumed walking as Cedarflight now took the lead. Sunpaw looked at the area and said, "This looks like the area where we were first found." Robinpaw nodded, for he too noticed the trees thinning out, and the patrol soon came across the pile of boulders.

Raggedears was the one to speak this time, "This is Sunningrocks. Our elders come here to bathe in the warmth; you can't find particularly good sunning spots in our forest."

Cedarflight nodded and continued, "Right now, however, Sunningrocks is owned by Riverclan. This small piece of land has been fought over for seasons upon seasons between our two clans. It was once an island that only Riverclan could get to, but now the river that separated us from Sunningrocks has dried out, and we have claimed it since it's now attached to our forest."

Ravenpaw squinted and mewed reasonably, "If it first belonged to Riverclan, then how does Thunderclan own it? Surely it's fought over for a reason."

Raggedears growled at his apprentice, "Sunningrocks belongs to Thunderclan and that's final. It does not matter what was in the past. If the river ran dry, it was obviously a sign from Starclan that the rocks were part of Thunderclan territory."

Ambercloud barged in before Raggedears could continue his small rant. "It's true what Raggedears tells you. I understand that you aren't familiar with clan ways, but these rocks provide food for us when we need it most. Riverclan has the river and all of their territory to hunt in. We have our forest, but when leaf-bare comes, all the prey hides in their burrows."

Ravenpaw looked like she wanted to retort something, but stopped herself. She then asked, "Leaf-bare?"

Ambercloud nodded, "Leaf-bare is the coldest season, while Greenleaf is the hottest. Leaf-fall and New-leaf are pretty neutral, but we have the best hunting in Greenleaf."

Stonepaw nodded then said to the others, "So, Leaf-bare must be Winter, Green-leaf must be Summer, New-leaf is Spring, and Leaf-fall is Fall."

Robin nodded, "So if it belongs to Thunderclan, when did Riverclan win it back?"

Stormheart sighed, "about a moon ago, we fought for Sunningrocks again. Riverclan's new leader, Brookestar, is clever enough. She used a trick we never would have thought of. Besides, it seems they're blooming in warriors this season."

"Well, you're right about one thing."

The entire patrol whipped their heads around to see four cats standing at the peak of the boulders.

Cedarflight nodded to the black she-cat who had spoken, "Hello, Darkfang. How's the hunting?"

Darkfang purred in a raspy voice and jumped down near the border. She didn't seem like she was hostile, even though the other Riverclan warriors looked wary. "It's good, as usual. What about on your side of the border?"

Darkfang's patrol had finally climbed down the rocks, and Raven could see they looked very familiar.

Cedarflight replied, "Fine! And we have five new apprentices joining us!" He stepped out of the way for the titans to fully view Darkfang and the other three cats. They naturally huddled closer together after seeing the stony stares from the Riverclan warriors.

Darkfang, however, looked at them with an amused expression. "Yeah, we have a new apprentice ourselves. Bumblepaw! Come over here and stop glaring at them; they're just patrolling."

A tiny black she-cat warily stepped forward. She had narrowed dark eyes and unique yellow stripes. Raven figured it out immediately, and glanced over to Robin whose eyes were opened in surprise. I guess he figured it out too, she thought.

Bumblepaw had stopped beside Darkfang to intently scour the Thunderclan cats with her eyes. She finally sat down beside Darkfang and mewed, "You Thunderclan cats look different than what I thought! And smell different too!"

Darkfang looked ready to smack the she-kit, but was interrupted when Stormheart purred, "I suppose you thought we were scrawny forest cats that smelled like squirrels and dirt, huh?"

Bumblepaw looked embarrassed, and Ambercloud came to the rescue again. "Oh, knock it off, Stormheart. I'm sure our own elders have untrue stories to tell the kits!"

Darkfang rolled her eyes and turned to the five apprentices. "I guess you'll probably be meeting many cats soon enough at the gathering, but these two other warriors are Rivertail and Goldensky."

The two warriors stepped up, and Ravenpaw immediately noticed how the tom, who must've been Rivertail, was very attractive for a cat. He had grayish-blue fur with black stripes and black irises. With sleek fur and toned muscles, he certainly looked like a cat who swam, a lot. Goldensky, on the other hand, was smaller, and had a yellow coat with white markings. Ravenpaw glanced at Treepaw when she, herself, had seen Goldensky's bright blue eyes. This can't be good if these cats are who I think they are. Sure enough, the other titans seemed to be thinking the same thing. Ravenpaw could practically feel their emotions, even though she didn't have her powers.

Rivertail interrupted Ravenpaw's thoughts when he mewed in a smooth voice, "hello."

Goldensky stayed silent, but watched the Thunderclan cats with curiosity.

Darkfang waited for a moment before looking back at the apprentices, "And what are your names?"

The titans stayed silent for a moment until Ambercloud nudged them, which in turn made Robinpaw speak first. "My name is Robinpaw, and this is C..Stonepaw, Treepaw, Sunpaw, and Ravenpaw."

Darkfang nodded her greeting and mewed to Robin, "Well, it seems like Thunderclan has a mini leader already!"

Robin blinked his eyes before backing away, embarrassed. He had forgotten he didn't exactly have to introduce his teammates anymore.

Goldensky had finally mewed in a silky tone, "If there are five apprentices, where is your fifth mentor?"

Cedarflight looked at Robinpaw before saying, "Oakstar is training Robinpaw here, but he was busy this morning. Since we're just showing the territory, we figured we'll let Oakstar off the hook."

Ravenpaw had wondered earlier why Robinpaw's mentor hadn't shown up for their tour, but she had figured that since he was leader, he probably had stuff to do. But then again, if Oakstar was a busy cat, surely he wouldn't have given himself an apprentice. Maybe it was the illness Ravenpaw had scented when she had gone past Oakstar's den. It hadn't been horrible, but the air didn't seem as clean as the rest.

The cats of both clans shifted nervously as the conversation grew more forced. Raggedears was the last to speak, "We should be going. We have a long day ahead of us if we are to show our boundaries, and what should be our boundaries."

Darkfang narrowed her icy blue eyes at Raggedears's subtle remark, and replied icily, "Yes, I suppose we should get back to camp, as well. Brookestar will wonder why it's taking us so long." Without another remark, Darkfang turned away and Rivertail and Goldensky followed suit. Bumblepaw hesitated, and glanced in the direction of the apprentices before turning away to follow her clanmates.

Ravenpaw looked over to Stonepaw, who was staring intently at where Bumblepaw had left. She knew she had been surprised herself, so for Stonepaw, it must've been a real shock.

It had been a long day patrolling the borders. Raggedears had decided it would be better if the apprentices had been shown the entire territory in one day instead of splitting it up. Treepaw felt like his paws were going to fall off. Poor Ravenpaw, she had to deal with that rag-tag from now on.

Treepaw chuckled silently until the old rag-tag himself glared at the apprentice and growled, "and what do you suppose is so funny?"

Treepaw sat upright and squeaked, "Nothing, Raggedears!"

He sighed as Raggedears just huffed and kept moving.

The others seemed to have not heard the commotion, or if they had, decided to ignore it. As of now, the cats were heading home. They were walking along the road –or Thunderpath- near Shadowclan borders, and were soon going to turn to a path that would lead them straight home. Treepaw noticed how Ravenpaw didn't stop looking at the pine trees and dark woods across the Thunderpath. He looked to where she was staring, but he couldn't see anything. Shrugging, he decided not to delve too much into it.

They hadn't seen another patrol, but Ambercloud reassured them that they would see plenty of cats when they eventually went to the gathering.

Robinpaw turned to her when she mentioned this and asked, "I keep hearing about the gathering… what is it? And when is it?"

Ambercloud chuckled, "The gathering happens once every month on the night of full moon. Cats from all the clans gather peacefully at Fourtrees to give news about the clan. Now, I don't know if you'll all go for sure, but Oakstar is sure to bring one of you, you know, to represent that we're growing stronger. If you do get to go, though, be sure not to tell anyone how you arrived. I'm not positive if Oakstar will mention it, but you should play it safe."

After that, the cats slowly made their way home. Treepaw panted, "I'm exhausted!" His feet were clearly dragging now, and the others were no better. Stonepaw nodded, "You said it, bro."

Cedarflight and Stormheart shared a look of confusion before Raggedears growled, "Well then I'm sure you'll go to bed early. Besides, you'll want to be up at dawn if you want to start training. You have to earn your way to go to the gathering, if you can last in the clan until then, of course."

Robinpaw had kept silent, and was doing his best not to show how tuckered out he was. Even with all his years of training, he could still get tired. At the same time, he didn't believe he would get much sleep tonight. Would the dreams he had return to him? Were they even dreams? They had been told that cats could be contacted through their dreams by Starclan… but wasn't that for medicine cats only? Robinpaw glanced over at Raven. If anyone were to receive messages through dreams, it would be her. I'll have to ask her about it, though maybe it was just a dream. They had just arrived in this strange place; surely he would have strange dreams to accompany it. With a silent nod, the tomcat decided he'd see if he got the dreams again. Tonight, at least, he hoped he could just have a good night's sleep.