The sun beat down from high in the sky, making the river shrink down and exposing the shale beneath it. The heat made Grasspaw restless, and he paced back and forth along an open patch of grass a couple fox-lengths away from the river, his tail twitching with pent-up aggravation. When he closed his eyes and tried not to breath in the unfamiliar scents, he could almost imagine for a moment that he was back home on WindClan territory. For a second or two, that thought helped him relax, and his prickling fur lay flat.

The illusion was broken, however, by Waterpaw's exclamations of "I almost couldn't touch the bottom just now! StarClan, was that ever scary!"

Grasspaw turned his head to shoot her a reproachful look. But Waterpaw wasn't even paying attention to him- in fact, Grasspaw wouldn't have been surprised at all if her little comment had been directed at herself as much as it had been at him. At least she's happy, he thought with a sigh. The river here- wherever "here" was- was substantially bigger than the one on RiverClan territory, and Waterpaw had been enjoying herself in it all morning.

"Hey, Grasspaw, look at me," the blue-gray apprentice chirped, standing shakily on two legs to wave her front paws in the air. For a second, Grasspaw almost wished the current would pull her away. "I'm gonna catch a fish now!"

Grasspaw responded with a grunt that he tried to make sound as uninterested as possible, but Waterpaw obviously didn't get the hint. She stood still in the river for a while, and despite not caring whatsoever about any of this, Grasspaw did as she told him and watched her for about the first thirty seconds or so. Then he got bored and dropped his gaze away from her, resuming his pacing. A few moments later, he heard Waterpaw cry out triumphantly, and the next thing he knew he was being splattered with water droplets.

"Hey!" Grasspaw objected, jumping away from Waterpaw with his back arched. "Don't shake your pelt out over here!"

Waterpaw dipped her head, keeping her eyes staring up at him guiltily as she did so. "Thowwy," she mumbled around the fish she'd caught. Despite his annoyance, Grasspaw was impressed by the size of it- there was enough meat on that fish for both of them.

Grasspaw angled his ears toward the fish. "That looks good," he meowed, even though he'd never eaten a fish before and had heard from his Clanmates that they were disgusting. "I haven't been able to catch anything today; would you be willing to share that with me?"

"Hmm?" Waterpaw dropped the fish between them, her dark blue eyes shining. "You really want to share this with me?"

"Of course I do," Grasspaw muttered. "Why would I lie about something like that?"

He sat down in the shade of an oak tree and waited for Waterpaw to take a bite before he did. When she had swallowed her piece- a good-sized chunk ripped right off the belly- he daintily closed his teeth around the edge of a fin and dragged it over to him. Then he ripped a tiny stripe of the fin off and held it on his tongue for a minute before swallowing it. It tasted interesting, so Grasspaw tore off a bigger piece, and soon found that he liked fish better than he thought he would. By the time he and Waterpaw were both done, the bones were the only part of the fish that remained.

"Let's toss these in the river," Waterpaw suggested, gesturing to the fish bones. "We don't want to leave them lying around to attract predators."

"Good idea," Grasspaw agreed. He pushed the bones into the river and watched the current sweep them away. As he watched, Waterpaw sat down beside him, leaning on him a bit more than he would have expected. With a tinge of worry, Grasspaw noted that her pelt felt warmer than usual. "Um, hey," he muttered. "Are you feeling okay? You're kind of… warm."

"No, I'm not," Waterpaw said at once. "I'm just fine. Here; I'll prove it." She stood up and walked around in a circle, showing Grasspaw that the wound on her side was healing nicely. Since they had woken up by the river the previous day, neither of their wounds had reopened again, but they hadn't moved at all form where they'd been then.

Now that Grasspaw thought about it, he was feeling a bit warm himself. "It's probably just the heat," he mewed. "You're right; you look okay to me." he hesitated for a moment, swirling his tongue around the inside of his mouth to lick up the last morsels of fish flavour. "So," he mewed finally, "should we go now?"

For a moment, Waterpaw appeared not to understand. Then a slow clarity arrived on her face. "Maybe we should," she murmured. "Everybody back home must be so worried about us!"

"They probably think we're dead," Grasspaw mumbled. He hadn't thought about his family or friends at all the previous day, but now that he did think of them guilt swarmed his pelt. "Owlwing and Rabbitleap and Seedpelt… even Applepaw and Berrypaw, as annoying as they can be… I don't want them to think I'm dead! They don't need to go through that- especially when it's not even true."

"What if they're sitting vigil for us right now?" Waterpaw wailed. "Shellpaw and Oakpaw and Mallowpaw and everybody must all be so sad… and Smokefur and Patchfur too… not to mention Minnowleap!" She titled her head back and let out an even louder wail; this time there seemed to be a strange hint of fear mixed in. "Minnowleap must be absolutely devastated; she just has to be!"

Seeing Waterpaw so distraught was upsetting to Grasspaw in a way that he didn't quite understand, but in that moment he knew he had to cheer her up. "It doesn't matter," he announced, doing his best to stand up straighter and deepening his voice just a little bit. "That's just more motivation to get home more quickly! The owl couldn't have taken us that far away, so if we can just figure out which way to go, we'll be home before you know it!"

Waterpaw nodded, all emotional outbursts completely forgotten. Her face now was that of a confident cat. She pointed her muzzle in the direction the river was flowing. "I think if we follow that river we'll get back faster," she mewed. "Like you said, it can't be too far. Let's go."

Several hours later, home or anything remotely resembling it was nowhere in sight. Waterpaw tried her best not to feel discouraged, but Grasspaw wasn't even trying to stay positive, and every time he made a pessimistic comment Waterpaw's own spirits dropped a bit.

The river meandered through the woods, which all looked the same- mostly deciduous trees with a few coniferous trees mixed in; the occasional clump of ferns or bramble patch; a few prickly plants that Waterpaw swerved around whenever she saw them. In a few spots she noticed plants that would soon have berries growing on them, but it was too early in newleaf for there to be any berries yet. Prey scents drifted through the air, but there was no time to stop and hunt. They'd be home soon; they could eat then.

Next to her, Grasspaw trotted along, keeping his eyes trained ahead. Waterpaw thought he looked a bit tired, but she didn't want to say anything about it in case it offended him- which, knowing him, it probably would. Waterpaw was tired too, but she wouldn't complain either. Home had to be close. They'd already been following the river for quite a while. How big could this forest possibly be?

"It's a pity the owl was flying so high up."

Waterpaw was startled by Grasspaw speaking up out of the blue after walking in silence for so long. "…Why's that?" she inquired, almost afraid of the answer. He looked so serious! Then again, she thought, Grasspaw always looks serious.

"I- well, we- can't pick up its scent because it was so high in the sky," Grasspaw explained. "Since we can't follow the owl's scent, we have no way of knowing that we're even going the right way."

Waterpaw hadn't thought about it that way, but now that she did, she didn't enjoy thinking about it very much. "It doesn't matter," she meowed confidently. "We're going the right way."

"How can you be sure?" Grasspaw challenged, pressing his ears back. Waterpaw didn't like the edge that was in his voice; she hoped he wasn't trying to start a fight with her. "How can you really be sure that we're going in the right direction right now?"

"We have to," she reasoned. "If we were going the wrong way, StarClan would have sent us a message telling us that, or something."

Grasspaw snorted contemptuously, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, what was that for?!" Waterpaw demanded, offended by Grasspaw's dismissive reaction. "You know it's true! StarClan needs me, okay? They wouldn't let me stay lost."

"They don't need me, though," Grasspaw pointed out. "What if we get into danger or something, and they help you survive but let me die?"

"That won't happen," Waterpaw said adamantly. She knew that StarClan cared about every cat; they just cared about her more. "And if it does, I'll protect you."

Grasspaw didn't reply. Waterpaw kept expecting him to try to get one last comment in, but he never did. The argument was over.

A few minutes later, it started to rain. At first it was only a drizzle, so Waterpaw didn't mind, although Grasspaw clearly did mind quite a bit. Then it started to come down harder. Waterpaw picked up her pace significantly, hoping to outrun the worst of it.

"You know," Grasspaw called from behind her as she hurried past him, "I heard that if you run in the rain, you actually get wetter than if you walk."

"But if I'm running, I'll get out of the rain sooner," Waterpaw objected. "So it's better to go as fast as you can."

Grasspaw muttered something in reply, but he, too, picked up his speed, catching up with Waterpaw in a matter of seconds and running alongside her for a while. Eventually he began to edge ahead of her, and although Waterpaw wasn't too surprised- he was a WindClan cat, after all- she did do her best to keep up for as long as possible. The rain made the grass slick and slippery, so Waterpaw unsheathed her claws as she ran so she could grip the earth better. It slowed her down somewhat, but it was safer, and that was more important.

Somewhere far away, lightning shot down from the sky. The sight made Waterpaw's fur stand on end. Thunder boomed a moment later. Ahead of her, Grasspaw had stopped to catch his breath, and Waterpaw caught up to him, where she, too, stopped to collect herself for a few seconds before they both took off running again.

The river was getting scary in the storm; the current was strong as it raged over the rocks, turning the water frothy white. The ground began to slope gently down beneath Waterpaw's paws, and for a moment she found herself slipping and sliding on the wet grass, out of control as she skidded down the hill. She squeezed her eyes shut, terrified, as she tipped over and rolled the rest of the way down. Her ears were filled with the sounds of her own heartbeat and her own wild screeches, drowning out all other noises. Once she reached the bottom, she jumped back to her paws and continued running, keeping a close eye on Grasspaw as he grew dangerously close to the river. For one horrifying moment it looked like he was going to fall in, but he veered away just in time.

Suddenly Grasspaw halted, and Waterpaw didn't know why at first until she tasted the air and was met with the acrid stench of the Thunderpath. There were no twoleg monsters there at the moment, but the smell of them still clogged the air, making Waterpaw gag as she slowed to a stop next to Grasspaw.

She stared at the strip of shiny black ground, unsure whether to put her paws on the stuff. It stank, but it would probably be best to cross it now, before any monsters came along…

Grasspaw must have seen her staring, because he nudged her gently in the side and angled his ears to the slick black surface. "It's a Thunderpath," he explained.

"I can see that," Waterpaw meowed indignantly. How fish-brained did Grasspaw think she was?! "I'm not a kit, you know. In fact, I'm over a moon older than you."

"Sounds like something a kit would say," Grasspaw muttered, but there was an almost playful edge to his voice. Waterpaw realized he was just trying to get a reaction out of her, and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction, so she kept her jaws shut. When Waterpaw didn't make a retort, Grasspaw sighed. "You're getting smarter," he told her. "I said that to Applepaw the other day, and she got so riled up. You should've seen her- I thought she was going to rip my pelt off!"

"Really? My friends would never get that mad at me," Waterpaw purred. "It must be awful having littermates like that!"

"Oh, believe me, it is," Grasspaw agreed. "You're lucky you were the only kit in your litter."

"Well…" Waterpaw stared down at her paws, contemplating whether or not to tell Grasspaw about her dead littermates. He didn't really need to know about that, did he? Then again, even if he didn't need to know, maybe he deserved to. "I wasn't always an only kit. I had two littermates once."

Grasspaw's gaze darkened. "Oh… I'm sorry, Waterpaw. I didn't know, honest." He bowed his head apologetically before mumbling, "What were they like?"

Waterpaw was caught off guard by the question. Grasspaw was the first cat she'd ever told about her littermates, because he was the only cat from outside RiverClan who she could really call her friend. She'd always assumed that Shellpaw, Oakpaw, and Mallowpaw remembered them as well- or at least they remembered Splashkit, because he'd been alive when they'd been born. It had always seemed to Waterpaw that every cat either automatically knew about her family's history or didn't need to know, but Grasspaw didn't fall into either of these categories. He was a cat who hadn't known, but was now finding out. Such a small thing might not have meant much to most cats, but to Waterpaw, it was confusing. If there was an exception to this rule, what if there were exceptions to all rules- like that every cat with a prophecy about them was special, or that your kin had to love you?

It would be hard to explain all of those things to Grasspaw, though, and he was still looking expectantly at Waterpaw, so she decided to tell him the whole story.

"I was the biggest kit in my litter," she began. "My sister Echokit was the smallest, and she was named that because she looked just like my father, Ripplefoot. Maybe that's why he seemed to like her best, and maybe it's why he took it so hard when she died. Mossnose said that she was weak from the start, and it would have been a miracle if she'd survived much longer than she did, but Minnowleap took it as a sign that I was the only kit of hers who was important in StarClan's eyes."

"Something she still believes today, no doubt," Grasspaw interjected. Waterpaw was slightly miffed by his comment, but she brushed it off and continued her story.

"Splashkit looked a lot like me in terms of colouration, although his fur had must less of a blue tint, but his build couldn't have been more different. He was very chubby, and after Echokit died, Minnowleap began encouraging him to eat less so he'd be slimmer. She didn't want to lose all her kits, and she thought that if he could get in better shape, it would mean he'd be in better health too. One day, I snuck out of camp with him, and we went swimming. We got caught and sent back to camp, but not before Splashkit got a nasty chill. He ended up dying as well, and Minnowleap was devastated, but not half as devastated as Ripplefoot. He fell into a deep depression and was found dead a few days later. It was unclear how he died, and some cats speculated that…"

Waterpaw trailed off, suddenly afraid that she'd shared too much. She didn't dare to look at Grasspaw for fear that he'd be looking back at her with pity. She didn't want or need any pity. Even if she'd lost some of her kin, she could hardly remember them now anyways. And besides, she didn't need littermates; she had all the friends she needed. Her life was perfect just the way it was.

Waterpaw had fallen silent. Grasspaw wasn't sure if she was going to say anything else, but he decided she'd probably told him more than enough already. She didn't need to say any more.

He gently rested his tail on her back. "It's fine," he murmured. "You've told me everything I wanted to know."

The rain was still beating down around them; lightning cracked somewhere in the distance, illuminating Waterpaw's hunched figure. Grasspaw couldn't tell if she was trembling, or if it was just the rain hitting her pelt that created the illusion of movement around her.

"We should cross the Thunderpath now," Grasspaw suggested. "We're never going to get home if we just sit in one place for hours on end."

Waterpaw nodded and rose shakily to her paws. Grasspaw couldn't help but think how brave she was to share such a private story- and how lucky he was not to have gone through anything like that himself. However often he wished that Applepaw and Berrypaw would disappear, he never really meant it, and he couldn't even begin to imagine life without them.

The Thunderpath was wide, with white lines accompanying the usual yellow line down the middle dividing it into four sections. Grasspaw checked in both directions for monsters before hurrying across the slick black surface. It felt kind of like walking on rocks. Waterpaw trailed along behind him, her head still hanging low, until thunder sounded in the distance and she straightened up, her ears pricked.

"There's a monster coming," she hissed.

"No, there's not," Grasspaw meowed dismissively. "That was just thunder. It's raining, if you haven't noticed."

It was only after he'd made his rude remark that he realized he was wrong. The low rumbling sound was lasting a lot longer than thunder usually did, and it was getting louder every second. A few seconds later, a monster rounded a bend in the Thunderpath and came into view, washing Grasspaw and Waterpaw in bright yellow light.

"Run," Waterpaw hissed, shoving Grasspaw forward when he froze in fear.

The two apprentices scrambled to get to the other side as the monster bore down on them. Waterpaw made it first, and Grasspaw was almost there when his paw fell into a hole in the Thunderpath and he tripped. He flipped over onto his back and lay winded on the hard black surface for a moment before the roaring of the monster filled his ears and he had to scramble to his paws before it could crush him with its giant black paws.

Grasspaw made it out of the way of the monster just before it roared by. He stopped to catch his breath, not noticing the loud honking noise that was coming up behind him. When he raised his head, he saw something approaching that he'd never seen before. It was like a monster, but it was shaped differently and it was a lot smaller. Rather than being trapped inside, a twoleg was sitting on top of it- maybe this breed of monster had been tamed by the twolegs? Grasspaw stood still for a moment, confused by the contraption, until it made another honking noise and he jumped out of the way.

The small monster zipped by shortly after Grasspaw joined Waterpaw on the other side of the Thunderpath.

"Great StarClan, that was scary," he muttered. "I've never seen anything like that thing before."

"Me neither, but I've seen something like it at the greenleaf twolegplace," Waterpaw meowed. "The ones I saw were skinnier, and the paws were less like monster paws. They're not as fast as monsters, but we still have to watch out for them- especially since they're not confined to the Thunderpath."

"They can leave the Thunderpath?!" Grasspaw exclaimed. "You mean one of those things could come after us at any time?"

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Waterpaw mewed. "Right now we should just be thinking about getting home."

Grasspaw muttered an agreement, but secretly he thought that he'd been given too many other things to think about today.