Chapter Two:

Rainpaw walked to Jayfeather's den. "Hi, Jayfeather!"

Lionblaze glared at her and walked away.

Hurt, Rainpaw sat down. "Why doesn't he like me?"

"You look too much like our sister-Hollyleaf. She died in a cave-in."

Lashing her tail, Rainpaw looked at her paws. "I can't help that!" she snapped.

"I know. Don't get mad at me." He paused, then mewed, "I can't see you, so you don't seem like her to me."

"You can't see me?"

"I'm blind, Rainpaw. That's why I'm a medicine cat."

She stared at him with large round eyes. "Then how can you tell everything so easily?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Everybody's emotions, their thoughts before their actions..."

"I can't tell yours or Leafpool's. You two built up some kind of immunity to me...I don't understand it. It makes me angry sometimes."

She looked at her paws again.

"Rainpaw, I'm going to ask Lionblaze if I can take you out to pick herbs. You can go hunting and impress Lionblaze."

She purred and jumped to her paws to follow him out.

"Lionblaze!" called Jayfeather.

The large ginger cat stood, his fur standing on end when he saw Rainpaw. "what?"

"I'm taking Rainpaw out with me, don't worry about us."

Lionblaze glared at him shrewdly. "Who says you can-"

"Stop it. She's coming with me. We'll be back by dusk."

Jayfeather touched Rainpaw with his tail lightly and led her to his dock plants.

"I'm going to be picking over here. You go see if you can catch a rabbit or a squirrel or a mouse."

She nodded and scented the air. Quickly catching the scent of a squirrel, she scampered swiftly over to a tree. Rain crept up quietly, but when she stepped on a twig, the squirrel leapt up its tree alarmed. Rainpaw scowled and climbed after it as fast as she could. She climbed branch after branch until she clamped her jaws around the squirrel's neck and made her kill. Dropping it onto the ground below, she scampered through the branches after another squirrel, higher and higher until she got that one too, and looked down. She dropped this squirrel down too, but horror shook her. Up so high-the height frightened her more than anything. She couldn't admit it, but she wanted Lionblaze.

"J-J-Jayfeather!" she cried out.

He came to the base of the tree, scenting the air. "Rainpaw, where are you?"

"I'm up here, in the tree. Please help-I'm scared!"

"I'll be right back!" he yowled, and disappeared into the shrubs.

When he got back, surrounded by a group of young warriors, a pretty one called Cinderheart called up to him, "Just hold still! We're sending a cat up to help you down."

A large tom climbed the tree with ease. In a couple minutes, he had reached her branch. "It's okay, Rainpaw."

"Lionblaze," she whimpered.

"I promise it is okay. Trust me."

She sank her claws in the branch and held on tight.

"Relax," Lionblaze meowed gently, "I promise everything'll be okay." His eyes were wide with fear, but his voice was calm. "Just follow me down, carefully. You're light enough; you won't break any branches. This way. One branch at a time." he stepped down and motioned her to follow.

Rainpaw tried to relax and followed down a branch.

"Keep coming, it's alright." He reached midway down and waited, watching her worriedly.

She slowly reached him, and he smiled encouragingly, relieved.

"Come on. Careful; this one is really thin." he stepped down onto the thin one and suddenly: SNAP!

Lionblaze yelped and fell, but he landed on his paws next to Cinderheart.

"Lionblaze!" she cried out, leaping after him and trying to catch him. She landed painfully on a larger branch and held on.

"It's okay, I'm fine," he grunted. "Can you get down?"

"Yep." She clawed her way down and jumped next to him, "Are you okay?"

She looked at him fearfully.

"I told you I'm fine. Get to camp," he turned with the same coldness he had before and walked away.

Rainpaw stared after him, hurt. "Cinderheart, he..."

The older cat sighed, "I know he cares about you. But he has a poor way of showing it. I think he still is hurting over Hollyleaf."

Rainpaw's tail drooped and hanging her shoulders, she followed Jayfeather back to camp. "I almost thought he cared, Jayfeather. I almost thought he was worried about me."

"He was worried about you," Jayfeather replied surely, "He yelled at me for not watching you close enough. I think he just cares too much."

"How does that happen?" she snapped, walking away from him over to Dovepaw.

"I heard what happened," she gasped, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Rainpaw assured her, "I'm looking for Lionblaze."

"He came in earlier and yelled at Firestar for letting Jayfeather be irresponsible."

"He's not!"

"I know. But he was really worried. He went into the empty den-the one that Jayfeather made for Mousefur to be alone when she was feeling sick."

Rainpaw crept into the empty den quietly. "Lionblaze?"

"What do you want?" he snapped, sitting up surly.

She fought her fear and cowered near the ground. "Lionblaze, I just came to say that...er, thanks."

Rain was quiet, and so was Lionblaze, but neither moved.

Lion seemed to be wondering whether to glare or give her the gentle encouraging look he had in the tree. Finally, he settled on some kind of look in between. "You're welcome. But you need to learn how to climb trees yourself and get down. I'm not going to be around to save your life forever." Then he glared.

She glared back. "When in the world will I ever need to climb trees to save my life?" she snapped, "And why do you care? It's not like you really want me around anyway. If you really cared, you wouldn't be so horrible!" her voice turned shrilly at the end and she stalked away angrily, her eyes hot with tears.