Hello, everyone! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to start writing again sooner, I was not prepared for the amount of homework that came with this new year. Still aren't. Am't. Mmmm.

Thanks so much to everyone who has been reviewing, following and favouriting! I hope this story will be worth you putting up with me as an author :)

Frostpaw padded through the camp entrance, frustration rippling like waves from her pelt. It was nearly sundown, and she had only managed to catch one other piece of prey apart from the lizard.

And technically, she didn't even catch the lizard. As the orange apprentice was silently sulking, she suddenly stopped as a badly-disguised snort sounded from behind her. Instantly, her frustration turned into a simmering rage, and she turned around reluctantly to see Rainpaw's mocking grin.

Expecting some kind of smart remark, Frostpaw watched on irritatedly for a few heartbeats as his expression didn't change. Finally, she broke the silence.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped, glaring at the smug tom.

"Oh, nothing," Rainpaw answered dismissively, letting his features fall for a moment. "Well, your fresh-kill," he corrected himself. The grin returned. "They're both the same anyway."

Frostpaw felt her fur bristle at that, and embarrassment surged through her anger.

"It was my first lesson!" she said defensively.

"On my first lesson I caught way more than that!" Rainpaw countered haughtily. "Ask my mentor."

"Yeah right," Frostpaw snarled, although she didn't have much doubt that the irritating tom wasn't lying. Searching for a good comeback - and finding none - she finally decided to leave with a flippant 'I have better things to do than talk to you', stalking away with her head high.

Not the most mature insult, but Frostpaw was so overwhelmed with animosity that she couldn't have cared less about what she sounded like. She stopped dead in her tracks, however, when she heard one last snide remark from the cat behind her.

"And your father had better things to do than raise you."

Letting out an outraged yowl, Frostpaw whirled around and leapt at Rainpaw, batting wildy at his muzzle without thinking. Seeing red droplets forming on his blue fur, she realised that her claws were unsheathed, and she quickly sheathed them again. In her small moment of guilt, Rainpaw took the opportuntiy to hit back, and the force of his paw slamming painfully against her head was enough to send her flying sideways. A sharp, stabbing pain on her cheek let her know that he had also used his claws out of retaliation.

As a stormy Rainpaw approached her once again, Frostpaw was hit with the sudden difference in size between the two of them. While Rainpaw was both older and bulkier (with some battle training as well), Frostpaw was still small and slender. Regret and apprehension replaced her furious anger, and the orange apprentice dragged herself up to a sitting position, screwing her eyes shut while she braced herself for another blow.

Which didn't come. Instead, indignant yowling was heard and Frostpaw opened her eyes to see a bright ginger tom dragging Rainpaw away by the scruff. She vaugely remembered seeing the tom a few times with Smokepaw, and her mind connected the cat in front of her with the name Redpool. Apart from the fact that he was Smokepaw's mentor, and a warrior of ShadowClan, she didn't know much about him.

With Rainpaw now sat next to him, head low, Redpool leaned down to hiss something in the apprentice's ear. Straightening up, he then addressed the both of them:

"What do you think you were doing?" the ginger warrior demanded, amber eyes narrowing fiercely. After no answer was offered, he let out a low growl. "This is not how a ShadowClan apprentice behaves!"

"He started it," Frostpaw mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else.

"You were the one who attacked me!" Rainpaw retorted.

"You told me-!" the orange apprentice started indignantly, but she was cut off by the warrior in front of her.

"It doesn't matter who did what, Clanmates do not attack each other!" Redpool scolded. Suddenly, his eyes focused on something in the near distance, and his stern demeanour was replaced for a moment with a strangely unreadable look. A heartbeat later, however, the fire in his eyes returned, and he turned back to the apprentices. Just as he was about to open his mouth, a loud yowl sounded from behind Frostpaw.

"What happened to my kit?" A furious undertone was clearly evident in the voice.

Frostpaw turned around to see a bristling Snowfeather, and hoped that she wouldn't make a scene. A few cats were already watching them, most with disapproving looks etched into their faces. The orange apprentice assumed that they were present due to her scuffle with Rainpaw.

"She's bleeding!" Snowfeather gasped, horrified, as she rushed over to Frostpaw and covered her in protective licks. Turning a fierce glare over to Rainpaw, she threatened, "I'm going to talk to Sandstar about this, and you'll be cleaning the elders' den for the next moon!"

"Why?" Rainpaw threw back defiantly. "Because your precious little kit couldn't handle a bit of truth and attacked me?"

"I'm not precious!" Frostpaw cut in indignantly, straining her neck to lean away from her mother.

Rainpaw opened his mouth to say something more, but then Redpool was dragging him towards the leader's den, and Snowfeather was carrying her towards the medicine cat's den. Frostpaw was almost certain that the sulky look on the blue apprentice's face mirrored her own expression. As she entered the medicine cat den, the familiar scent of herbs started to calm her down.

Mudpool was inside, back turned to the entrance, already working on a mixture of goldenrod and marigold. Cloudpaw was nowhere to be seen, although she was nearly ready for her full name.

"First day of apprenticeship, and you've already gotten into a fight," Mudpool tutted, hobbling around with the poltiuce on one pad.

"Rainpaw's a jerk," Frostpaw hissed, resisting the urge to pout.

Letting out a chuckle, the medicine cat wiped the herbs onto a leaf, which he slid over to his patient.

Frostpaw applied the poltiuce to her wounds almost autonomously, muttering a small 'thanks' as Mudpool covered her work with cobwebs. A comfortable silence had settled upon the den by the time they were finished.

"Who is my father?" she blurted out suddenly. The orange apprentice looked up pleadingly as the thought gnawed at her heart again.

Mudpool glanced up and flicked his ears in surprise, a careful expression on his face. He didn't reply for a moment, and seemed to be considering his words thoroughly.

"Someone who made a mistake," he eventually answered.

"What?" Frostpaw asked, annoyed. Talk about cryptic, she thought.

"He was young," Mudpool added, as if that was supposed to explain something. "He didn't know what to do."

"Well how about sticking around?" the apprentice snapped. Immediately, regret swamped her, and she apologised. "It's just . . . " she trailed off frustratedly, "He didn't have to leave the Clan, even if he didn't want a kit. It wouldn't have taken much for him to be a father." Scuffing the ground with her paws, she was surprised to hear Mudpool's next words.

"Who gave you the idea that he left the Clan?"

"N-no one," Frostpaw stammered, taken aback. "I just, assumed, since . . . well, if he was still here, wouldn't I have been able to tell? Snowfeather hates him."

"Snowfeather pretends that he doesn't exist," Mudpool corrected, a small wry smile on his muzzle.

"And you know who he is?" Frostpaw demanded, heart beating faster.

"I do."