Ashfur twined his tail with mine as we approached the thorn barrier. Our bodies were pressed together, and he was beaming like a kit about to become an apprentice. I forced myself to smile as we emerged from the gorse, in case some of our clanmates were outside of the hollow.

To my surprise, some of them were. My heart plummeted when I saw what Stormfur and Squirrelflight were back, and they were talking to Firestar. Ashfur shot me a swift warning glare as we approached. I stayed glued to his side.

Firestar gazed over Stormfur's shoulder and blinked in surprise when he saw us. Squirrelflight looked over her shoulder, and her brilliant green eyes stretched as wide as full moons. "Hollypaw…?"

I smiled at her and purred sincerely, "I'm glad you're back. How were things in Riverclan?"

She gave herself a tiny shake and managed to answer, "Fine. I see we missed a lot."

Ashfur growled, and when their eyes met the air seemed to crackle. His tone made me shiver when he spoke, "You don't need to know everything, Squirrelflight."

He stalked towards the thorn tunnel, and I followed him silently. I was too afraid to look back and see the look on the faces of other others.

The next two days passed in such a quick blur, I felt dazed. I didn't really know what had happened, except that the clanmates closest to me seemed to have chosen their sides on the whole Ashfur/Hollypaw situation.

Lionpaw, Cinderfur, and Hazelpelt, my two closest friends and my brother, all seemed ecstatic to see me 'so happy' with him.

Squirrelflight was struggling hard to be okay with it. I could tell she was literally forcing herself to make an effort to be accepting.

I think Brambleclaw disowned me. He hasn't talked me to since the fight. He hadn't looked at me in forty-eight hours.

Jaypaw didn't seem quite keen on the idea, but not even he would dare to tell a she-cat that she had made a mistake in choosing her mate. It just wasn't something that was done.

Today was day three since the official get-together. I had been doing well at avoiding Ashfur, only sharing some fresh-kill with him. Today, though, we had gone on patrol together with Mouseclaw and Spiderleg.

The large tom padded beside me as the four of us entered the camp. Being the senior warrior, he was the one who offered, "I'll tell Firestar that everything was fine."

Mouseclaw and Spiderleg slipped away. Ashfur glanced at me, "We're going hunting at dawn with Graystripe."

I nodded and watched him walk away. When he was out of sight I decided to visit Brackenfur again. Would he be upset with me for this, after I implied I was going to let Ashfur go?

Not like it's me who's holding onto this relationship with all eight claws.

I entered the den to find it nearly empty. Leafpool and Jaypaw already left for the Moonpool. Sorreltail was sleeping by Brackenfur. He was awake, though, and perked his ears when he saw me. "Hey, Hollypaw!"

I sat down and wrapped my tail over my paws. "Hello, Brackenfur. How's your shoulder today?"

He shifted a tiny bit, but smiled. "It's very stiff, but Jaypaw says it's healing fine." He chuckled softly to himself. "Now I know now Cinderfur felt, after she broke her leg."

Cinderfur had earned her warrior name just a moon ago because of the accident with the Sky Oak. Brackenfur spoke again before I had the chance to. "Ashfur came to see me yesterday. He's very excited about the two of you."

I knew I had to publicly play along, so I tried to sound fierce as I defended him. "You never said it was a bad thing if it did happen!"

Brackenfur just purred, brushing my sharpness aside. "I'm happy for the both of you, Hollypaw. I glad you made the right decision."

For once, unluckily, he seemed oblivious to what was really going on. I made myself smile. "Thanks." Waving my tail to him, I trudged out of the den and flopped down in my nest, trying not to notice how hollow my heart felt.

I was scared awake by two excited squeaks and a rumbling purr. I gave a few blinks to clear the haze from my eyes, and drowsily lifted my head. The other apprentices were all awake and surrounding Jaypaw. I asked, "What's going on?"

His sightless blue eyes alight with fire, my brother announced, "Hollypaw, I received my full name tonight! It's Jaywing now."

I sprang to my paws and purred, licking his cheek. Lionpaw's strong voice rang around the den, "Jaywing, Jaywing!"

Foxpaw, Icepaw, and myself joined in- chanting his name with vigor and heart. We all knew how desperately he had wanted to be a warrior, and how much he had to sacrifice for the best of the clan as he walked the path of a medicine cat. He deserved our support.

It made me melt to see how happy he looked, for once. Soon Lionpaw would be that happy, too.

You made the right choice, Hollypaw.

I know I did.

At dawn, Graystripe collected both Foxpaw and myself for the morning hunt. Ashfur, Lionpaw, Squirrelflight, and Brook were waiting by the thorn barrier as we made out way across the camp.

Lionpaw fell in step with me in the back of the little herd as we made out way into the forest. His entire body was tense, and his eyes were darting from side to side. Even though we were walking, his steps were very jittery. I asked, "What's got ants in your fur, Lionpaw?"

His fierce amber eyes narrowed and he shook his head, whispering to me, "I just have a bad feeling is all."

I was instantly wary, after hearing him say that. Lionpaw's 'bad feelings' almost always led to bad events. It was like a sixth sense of his or something. I glanced away from him, looking to see if the rest of the hunting party was as tense as he was.

Brook and Graystripe were getting along just fine, as my mentor usually did with his son's mate. Foxpaw was just slipping into the bushes in pursuit of a shrew. Squirrelflight and Ashfur, on opposite ends of the patrol, were glaring absolute murder at one another.

I didn't have time to dwell on that before Foxpaw darted back over to us, his fur fluffed out. He yowled, "Windclan!"

A heartbeat later the enemy warriors tore out of the forest and swarmed us. I didn't see how many there were- but there were more then there were of us! I actually didn't get to see a lot, because before I could register what was going on, Weaselfur landed on top of me and bowled me off my paws.

His heavy weight pinned me down, and his sharp needle-like teeth tore into my shoulder. I screeched in fury and raked my back feet down his stomach. He yowled and sprang aside, but didn't flee. The moment I was standing again, his heavy paw struck the bridge of my muzzle and ripped it right open.

I flinched, hissing as droplets of my blood splattered his already-ginger fur. Anger and adrenaline rushed through my veins as my warrior instincts kicked in. With a furious caterwaul I flattened Weaselfur into the brambles, ignoring his squeals as the thorns tore into his back. I clamped down on his foreleg hard enough to taste the blood before I released him and watched him run away.

The breath was knocked out of my chest when Tornear slammed into me and knocked me off my paws. The experienced warrior jammed his paws into my stomach and my throat, choking me as I struggled for freedom. His teeth flashed and I pinched my eyes closed. It was all over!

I felt his hot breath on my throat, but a fraction of a second later his weight was lifted right off of me. I flickered my eyes open in time to see Ashfur slam Tornear against the ground. The two of them rolled around in a fierce, howling circle of ripping fur and flying blood. Several seconds later Tornear staggered back towards the Windclan border, and Ashfur stood heaving for breath.

A furious battle cry echoed through the air as several of our strongest warriors clamored into the fray. Brambleclaw, Cloudtail, Thornclaw, Stormfur, and Mouseclaw. It was the morning patrol- luckily having been passing close enough to hear our battle noise I suppose.

The remaining Windclan warriors turned tail and fled before our reinforcements even made it over to us. Thornclaw and Stormfur stayed in pursuit, but the others all halted when they reached us. Brambleclaw darted over to Squirrelflight, his fur fluffed out with worry.

My attention was taken elsewhere when Ashfur shoved his face against mine. I surprised myself by purring at the sight of my new hero. Ashfur fretted, "Oh, Hollypaw, I thought I was going to lose you!"

I bit back a complaint when he started licking my wounded shoulder. Nudging his cheek I laughed shakily- not fully recovered from the shock of almost permanently losing that fight- "You flayed Tornear! I've never seen a warrior fight like that before, Ashfur."

Ashfur's blue eyes met mine and he purred intensely, "Anything for you, Hollypaw."

I felt a prickle of unease when I noticed that Mouseclaw was watching us, and his face was contorted with unmasked jealousy. I looked away from him, and my eyes landed on a heap of unmoving golden fur.

With a gasp of horror, I darted over to the bracken, shoving the plants out of the way to uncover my brother's body. He was torn to shreds and covered in blood. I nudged him and wailed, "Lionpaw!"

Brambleclaw snapped, "Mouseclaw, go get help!" The young warrior sprang to his feet and streaked out of sight a second later. Brambleclaw sprang over to my side a moment later. He demanded to the other warriors, his voice laced with a snarl, "Who did this to him?"

Wide-eyed, Graystripe reported, "He was doing well when I had the chance to look."

Foxpaw offered hesitantly, "He pulled Breezepaw off of me, and he seemed fine then."

Brook alone remained calm. Having lived through the Sharptooth, she was used to horror and injury. Her accented voice revealed, "Just before you arrived, he was under Onestar and Whitetail. He was already hurt, but I couldn't get to him. Ashfoot was in my way."

Before anyone could respond, Jayfeather returned to the scene, his jaws full of herbs. He shoved Brambleclaw out of his way and dropped the plants. He asked me sharply, "Hollypaw, is he breathing?"

I didn't see his ribs moving. His chest fur was too matted and wild to tell. The blood on his muzzle masked the scent of any breath he might have exhaled.

A thrill of icy terror ran along my spine as I choked out my answer. "I don't think so."