A note from the authoress:

We've been through the three POVs of the story so far, and now back to Hollypaw! The first three chapters were kind of introductions to what each main character will be going through, so from here on out, the story will pick up a little bit. Enjoy!

Warriors: Seasons of Hope

Chapter Four

"Stupid mouse-brain! You've no right to mess with us!" Hollypaw spat furiously at the scrawny WindClan warrior standing before her, ignoring the harsh whispers of her parents and sisters behind her. Her back was arched and every hair stood on end, her lips drawn back as she yowled threateningly.

"Hollypaw!" Bramblestar scolded. "That's enough." He glared at her, and then at the WindClan deputy that stood a few tail-lengths in front of him. "Ashfoot, my intention is not to falsely accuse your Clan of anything, nor do I want to start any quarrels. We've come only to find out what really happened."

Ashfoot, in her usual good nature, replied, "Well, I'm just saying that I don't know anything about WindClan cats sneaking around in your territory. If they did such a thing, then no cat has told me." She turned to the gray and white she-cat beside her. "Furzepelt, have you heard anything about our Clanmates sneaking off?"

"Nothing of the sort," Furzepelt replied, still glaring at Hollypaw. Hollypaw rolled her eyes.

"I'd like to ask you to leave, now," Ashfoot said, with narrowed eyes. Hollypaw noticed the gray she-cat's claws sliding out, and she braced herself for an attack.

"Not until I speak with Onestar," Brambleclaw replied darkly, his voice unwavering.

Furzepelt spat and flexed her claws. "You will not speak to him today. Go."

"No," Bramblestar replied. "This is important." Hollypaw could feel the tension in the air - she felt as though she could slice it with a claw.

Without warning, Ashfoot flicked her tail, and cats erupted from clumps of tall grass. It looked like the whole of WindClan, almost! Hollypaw screeched, and her instinct was to turn and run, but she collided with Cinderheart, who nudged her around towards the battle.

Hollypaw watched in horror for a few heartbeats, but the horror quickly faded to admiration. Lionblaze and Cinderheart were fighting, flank-to-flank, their claws ripping all that was around them. Robinpaw was rolling around with a very dark gray warrior, and even Applepaw was fighting off an approaching enemy that Jayfeather couldn't see coming. If they can serve ThunderClan so bravely, then so can I! With a furious, adrenaline-fueled screech, she launched herself into battle.

Robinpaw was squirming and hissing, so Hollypaw aimed for the dark warrior attacking her. She saw deep blue eyes narrowed in fury, and the warrior lashed out with a forepaw and knocked Hollypaw into the ground before she could even fully reach him. She felt warm blood welling on the side of her face as the WindClan cat approached her, hatred shining in his eyes. Hollypaw was dizzy and couldn't quite find her paws. "StarClan, help me!" The warrior was getting closer and looked ready to kill.

Suddenly, he was knocked backwards by a large and familiar golden pelt. "Lionblaze!" Hollypaw cheered as her father scratched and clawed at the WindClan cat. The two rolled around, as clumps of fur flew everywhere and furious screeching sounded out.

"You filthy traitor!" Lionblaze hissed. "Don't you know who that is?!"

"I don't care!" Spat the WindClan warrior. Hollypaw tilted her head in confusion.

"Crowfeather!" Cinderheart's screech sounded and an instant later, the gray tabby hurled herself at the dark warrior. "I'll never forgive you for what you put Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather through!"

"It was all Leafpool's fault!" He argued loudly. "It's always been her fault!"

Hollypaw's mind was swirling in thoughts. This was Crowfeather, the father of Hollypaw's father. Cinderheart had told her and her sisters about him. Hollypaw looked around for Leafpool, and found her crouched miserably on the ground, her body shaking in torment. Applepaw was treating a scratch with cobweb, but Hollypaw, even as young as she was, could tell that it was not the physical wound that hurt Leafpool so badly. To her, Crowfeather's statement must've felt like a hundred claws in her chest.

Lionblaze hissed, "Don't you ever touch my daughters again."

"Help!" A wail of despair sounded from one of the WindClan cats, a white she-cat who crouched over a black one lying on the ground. All of the cats stopped fighting almost at once as a large amount of blood-scent filled the air, along with another scent that Hollypaw recognized as death.

WindClan's medicine cat was not in the battle, and the white she-cat called desperately to Jayfeather. "Please, help! She's hurt badly!" Jayfeather looked at her, then at Bramblestar. He seemed conflicted, but rushed forward to the injured warrior, with Applepaw following. After looking the fallen warrior over for a moment, he turned to Bramblestar.

"There's no point in this fighting," Jayfeather said. "Lives are being lost for no reason. We don't even have proof that they've harmed us in any way."

Crowfeather shoved Hollypaw out of the way as he rushed forward to the limp black cat. "Nightcloud! Nightcloud, can you hear me? Are you okay?" It was obvious that she was not okay. Her whole right side had been torn open, and her throat clawed badly. She'd already bled to death. Hollypaw shuddered.

Onestar finally appeared from the tall grass of WindClan territory and forced his way in the middle of the crowd. "This battle is over!" Just as quickly as it'd begun, it had ended.

Crowfeather replied with a mournful yowl. "No! Then ThunderClan will think they can come over and kill our warriors whenever they like!" His eyes were wide, the black pupils seeming to swallow the blue.

"Well, we're not going to surrender," Onestar declared with an angry spit.

Bramblestar stepped forward. "And neither will we, unless we both mutually agree to end this battle. No winner and no loser."

WindClan will be the loser anyway, Hollypaw thought. They lost a warrior today. She did not know the warrior who died, but she felt sadness in her heart, and a little bit of fear. She hadn't realized that a life could be lost so easily.

The two leaders stared each other down before turning and padding off towards their respective territories. They cast angry glares over their shoulders, and their warriors spat and hissed at each other as they separated into their respective parties.

"Let's go, WindClan," Onestar muttered darkly. "Crowfeather, bring Nightcloud's body." Hollypaw watched as Crowfeather grabbed the black cat's scruff in his jaws and began to haul her body away, her hindquarters and tail dragging the ground. The other warriors circled around them as though protecting the already-gone warrior.

Bramblestar meowed to the ThunderClan cats, "Come on." He turned his back and began to stalk away, and Hollypaw's Clanmates followed after a moment of hesitation. Lionblaze padded up to Hollypaw's side and wrapped his tail comfortingly around her flank, drawing her close as they walked. She sighed and leaned her head against her father's shoulder for a moment.

Once the ThunderClan cats were safely back in the shelter of the forest, whispers began to spread among them like the calls and songs of birds through early morning treetops. Hollypaw walked slowly so that she could fall behind the group and walk beside Applepaw and Robinpaw. The tortoiseshell was leaning heavily on the ginger apprentice's shoulder.

"Are you both okay?" Hollypaw whispered.

Applepaw nodded. "Robinpaw's got a sore paw, but no bad injuries. And I'm fine. The better question is, are you okay?" She stuck out her nose and sniffed at Hollypaw's pelt. Hollypaw winced as her sister's whiskers brushed a spot that was scraped raw on her shoulder.

The white she-cat shrugged away, turning her head to avoid seeing the hurt in Applepaw's eyes. "I'm fine. A couple of cuts, maybe." She forced herself to walk normally, despite the urge to limp.

"Who killed that WindClan warrior?" Robinpaw asked quietly, wincing as she hobbled along. Her hackles were still standing in fear of what she'd witnessed.

Hollypaw shrugged, her tail twitching in irritation and uneasiness. "I don't know. I didn't see any cat fighting with her."

"It may have been Snowclaw," Applepaw murmured, lowering her voice so that the white warrior walking in front of them could not hear her. "I saw them fighting, and you know how he loses his temper."

Hollypaw glanced up to see the aforementioned warrior walking beside his father, Cloudtail. Snowclaw's head was hung low, and in the instant that he looked up at Cloudtail, Hollypaw could see unmistakable guilt in his expression. Cloudtail looked troubled, too. "I'm sure that if he did it, he didn't mean to." Her sisters nodded in agreement, and Hollypaw wondered if they all knew that he did it.

Soon, the ThunderClan patrol was back in camp. As soon as the three young sisters entered, Cinderheart urged her them to the medicine den. "Applepaw, you take it easy. Let Jayfeather take a look at you before you work with any other cat. And Robinpaw, you look a little beat up." Her eyes shone with concern.

Hollypaw was beginning to feel dizzy, but she obeyed her mother and followed her littermates to the medicine den. Jayfeather had just gotten back in there, and was laying out piles of herbs, preparing to care for his injured Clanmates. He must've heard the young apprentices enter, because he immediately said, "Applepaw, come here and let me check you out. If you're okay, then you can help me care for the other cats."

He began to sniff the ginger she-cat all over while she whined, "I'm fine, Jayfeather! It's Robinpaw and Hollypaw who need fixing up." She shrugged away from her mentor, then nosed Hollypaw and Robinpaw forward, and Jayfeather set to work on them. Before long, there was a fresh poultice and cobwebs on all of their cuts. It stung, but Hollypaw could also feel it soothing the wounds, and she thanked Jayfeather.

He grunted and then began to pad out of the medicine den. The whole process had seemed to only take a few heartbeats, thanks to Jayfeather's amazing medicine cat skills. "You two are fine. Applepaw, let's go. Bring that cobweb with you." She nodded, grabbed the cobweb, nodded to her sisters, and disappeared after her mentor.

Robinpaw turned to Hollypaw as they followed them out of the den and mewed, "Today feels like such a blur, doesn't it?"

Hollypaw agreed. "Yeah, it does. It almost doesn't feel real." Just as they reached the center of camp, they stopped and let out shrieks of shock when they saw how badly Mousewhisker was injured. The gray and white tom lay on his side in the center of the clearing, breathing hard, with blood gushing out of a cut on his foreleg. Jayfeather and Applepaw crouched over him, working hard.

Ivypool had heard the commotion and was rushing out of the nursery. Her belly was quite large already, and she looked too pregnant to be running around like she was. "Mousewhisker!" She yowled. Dovewing and Daisy shot after her, calling her name and trying to pull her back.

Hollypaw cast a nervous glance at her sister, and the two apprentices decided to sneak off to the nursery. Hollypaw assumed that the kits were probably scared by all of the blood-scent in camp.

It still felt like home inside the nursery, but it felt so cramped compared to the apprentices' den, even though it hadn't been long since Hollypaw slept in the nursery with her sisters and mother. Stormkit and Aspenkit were crouched in the back of the nursery, huddled together with wide eyes.

"Hollypaw? Robinpaw?" Stormkit mewed. "Is that you? Are you two okay?"

Hollypaw stepped forward and licked Stormkit's gray head, then Aspenkit's. "Yeah, we're fine. How about you two?"

Aspenkit answered this time. "We were scared. We were asleep when we heard all of ThunderClan talking about a battle, and then we smelled blood. Ivypool went crazy and ran out of here, yowling, and Dovewing and Daisy went after her." He looked completely bewildered.

Hollypaw purred, trying to comfort the kits, who were also her best friends, aside from her sisters. "Try not to worry. Everything will be just fine." She was trying to convince herself, as well as the kits.

Stormkit squeaked, "Did anyone die?" His voice broke a little.

Robinpaw shook her head and replied, "Not in ThunderClan, but WindClan lost one warrior."

Stormkit's amber eyes grew wide. "I can't wait for my first battle!" He seemed to have suddenly forgotten about being scared, and was now in a playful mood. "Today was you two's first battle, right?! How was it?"

Hollypaw purred in amusement. "It was actually pretty scary," she admitted. "Everything seemed so fast, and I couldn't tell what was going on. I don't think I got any good scratches in on anyone."

"But," Robinpaw cut in, "We haven't had a lot of battle training so far, and this battle was unexpected."

Aspenkit lashed his tail in excitement. "What started the battle, Hollypaw?" He scooted closer to sit by the white apprentice's side, and Hollypaw wrapped her tail around his back. She was amazed for a moment at how big the four-moon-old kit was - already almost as big as her!

Hollypaw meowed, "Well, Toadstep said that he woke up one night recently and couldn't go back to sleep, so he went for a walk in the forest, and he saw WindClan cats sneaking in our territory, very close to camp. And when he told the rest of ThunderClan, most of the cats thought that WindClan was planning a sneak attack on us."

Stormkit flexed his claws. "I wish I could've gotten my claws on them! I'd shred their fur!" He let out a hiss that was probably meant to be very fierce, but only sounded mildly intimidating. Hollypaw almost made a snarky comment back, but the queens were coming back to the nursery. Dovewing squeezed in first, coaxing Ivypool in with her tail. The queen's large belly almost got stuck in the entrance, but Daisy helped nudge her along from behind.

Dovewing dipped her head in greeting to the apprentices. "Thank you for sitting with them." She flicked her tail to call her kits back to their nest. "Come on, you two. You need a nap."

"Dovewing!" Stormkit argued, "We're too old for naps!"

Aspenkit only yawned. "I don't know, Stormkit. I'm pretty tired." Hollypaw shook her head fondly at the tabby kit, and then led her sister out of the nursery, leaving the tired cats to get some sleep.

Hollypaw asked Robinpaw, "What should we do now?" But her sister wasn't listening. Hollypaw followed Robinpaw's gaze and saw that her sister was watching where a group of cats were sitting beneath Highledge, talking in quiet voices. Hollypaw strained to hear what they were saying.

First, she heard Bramblestar. "Are you sure it was accidental, Snowclaw?"

Then, she heard Snowclaw let out a snort. "Of course! I'd have no reason to kill her on purpose!"

Cloudtail lashed his tail angrily and hissed at his son, "But still! Now WindClan has a reason to start trouble with us, and you know they won't let up soon!"

Squirrelflight touched her tail-tip to Cloudtail's shoulder. "It's not his fault. I honestly think he didn't mean to do it; I saw him fight. If anything, he did it in self-defense. Nightcloud looked like she wanted to kill him."

Cloudtail looked up with fury in his eyes. "Are you sure you're not just defending your traitor sister? I'm sure she wanted Nightcloud dead." Hollypaw could almost feel the anger sparking between the two warriors, before Bramblestar stepped between them.

"Enough. It's in the past now, and it doesn't matter which of them started it, or why it had to happen like this." Hollypaw couldn't hear the rest of the conversation, because Cinderheart padded over to them and curled herself around them, covering their ears in comforting licks.

Hollypaw leaned against her mother's flank and sighed. "Is WindClan gonna be really mad at us now?" She asked.

Cinderheart shook her head. "I don't know, Hollypaw. They can be as mad as they want, but that doesn't mean that we're in danger." She nuzzled her daughter's cheek. "We've got more warriors than any other Clan. We'll be fine."

"I hope so," muttered Hollypaw. She'd barely been an apprentice, but she could've sworn that already, the weight of the entire world was weighing on her shoulders. It was so much easier being a kit. What if I'm not cut out to be an apprentice?