"Frostpaw wake up! It's time to go training!" Dewfang called to Frostpaw.
"Okay I'm up." She grumbled back.
Frostpaw got up and went into the clearing to look for her mentor. She glanced around and saw him talking to Fallenstar and Mistrise. Frostpaw went closer, so she could hear what they were saying.
"I don't think she's old enough to be an apprentice." Dewfang told Fallenstar.
"I got permission from Starclan."
"Yes I know."
"If you don't want to be her mentor, Mistrise can."
"Fine!" Dewfang stormed back to the warriors den, passing Feostpaw.
"Why doesn't he want to be my mentor? Did I do something wrong?"
"You killed Rainstar." Growled a voice behind her. She turned around to see Mudclaw glaring down at her.
"I-I didn't mean to."
"Mudclaw! Go make yourself useful and join a patrol!" Fallenstar snapped at him.
Mudclaw left to join Dewfang. Fallenstar looked at Frostpaw and meowed to her,
"Don't listen to him. Dewfang doesn't want to be your mentor because he thinks you're too young. So until you're a warrior, Mistrise will be your mentor.
"Okay."
"Why are we sitting here talking about it? Let's go training!" Mistrise chimed in.
"Yeah!"
Frostpaw raced after Mistrise as she led her towards fourtrees. They soon came to a sudden stop.
"This is fourtrees Thunderclan will be coming here next gathering. Let's go see sunning rocks."
Again they raced off to a familiar place to Frostpaw. They were running by the river. Frostpaw stopped and stared at the river horrified. Mistrise looked back and saw that she was scared so she walked to Frostpaw.
"What's wrong Frostpaw?"
"It's-it's nothing. I think. I hope. I don't know." She stuttered.
"Frostpaw, the past is the past, you need to focus on the present."
"I know, it's just, I almost died the last time I was over here, and Rainstar did die."
"Frostpaw, you need to get over that and focus on your training."
"Okay. Let's keep going."
Mistrise led the way, but this time she walked instead of run. Frostpaw was right behind her thew hole time, just staring at the river like she expected something to happen to it. Soon Frostpaw ran into Mistrise.
"Frostpaw, this is Sunning Rocks."
"Woah! They're huge!" She exclaimed, amazed.
"Yeah they look big now. Soon they'll look just the right height, to you."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Cool."
"Do you want to stay here for a while? There isn't really any animal out by Sunning Rocks that would eat cats and I assume you know your way back to camp. If you were to stay here, you'd be alone."
"Okay, I'll stay here. I know my way back to camp."
"Okay, I'll tell Fallenstar. He might get mad at me and come out here to get you, but you should get the chance to get used to being alone once in a while."
"Bye!"
"See you back at camp!"
Mistrise raced off into the woods and before long, Frostpaw was completely alone. Or she thought she was until she heard a cat meow behind her,
"Fallenstar? When did Rainstar die? How'd you kill him?"
Frostpaw whirled around to see Emberpaw, of Riverclan, behind her on Sunning Rocks.
"He died a half moon ago. I-I'm not aloud to tell how I killed him." What she said was only half true. Nobody said she couldn't tell, she just didn't want anybody else to know.
"Oh. Well I'm sorry for Thunderclans loss."
"That's why I wanted to stay out here alone. All the other cats are mean. Mistrise wasn't my mentor in the first place, it was Dewfang."
"Oh, then I'm really sorry about whats going to happen next."
"What do you mean?"
Just at that moment, Riverclan cats started walking out of the bushes, surrounding Sunning Rocks. Frostpaw had no chance of escape.
"Young Frostpaw. Looks like you'll never get the chance to be a warrior. You can join Rainstar now." Blossomstar hissed at her.
Frostpaw started to back away right as Blossomstar started lifting a claw to her throat. Not long after that Frostpaw heard Fallenstars battle cry.
Mistrise knew they were here and left me to hold them off while they got battle patrols. I must hold her off before she can order her clan!
At that moment Frostpaw ran and swerved right under Blossomstars belly and tripped her. Then Frostpaw started scratching her belly. Not long later, she was surrounded by battling cats. Frostpaw fought as fiercely as she could, without using her teeth. Then she was being dragged off of Blossomstar by someone. She yanked out of the grip, taring the skin and fur off of her scruff. She turned around blood dripping from her, to see Emberpaw.
"I'm sorry Frostpaw. I listen to my leader, I have to do this."
He jumped onto her back and knocked her over. Then she rolled and Emberpaw squirmed out from underneath her and started clawing her belly an looked up, he was about to bite her throat when she flung him into the river.
"Go back to where you belong, fish face!"
A moment later she saw him go under. Frostpaw panicked and she didn't know why.
"Emberpaw?" She called hopeful to hear his meow.
Another moment later, more claws were dragging her back. When she turned around, nobody was there. She started to get dragged back again, towards the river. She started trying to go the other way but it was too late. She fell in the river.
"Have fun landcat."
"Help!" She wailed. "I don't want this anymore!"
Then she heard another splash come from behind her. She tried to turn but she couldn't. Then she remembered what Emberpaw had taught her, she started kicking her legs and turned herself around. She saw Dewfang, she thrust herself towards him and grabbed his scruff. She started to drag him towards the Riverclan bank. As soon as they were on land he started coughing up water. He looked up and saw Frostpaw,
"I underestimated you, Frostpaw" he meowed in between coughs.
"Don't speak. We need to get you to Blizzardrain. I'm going to grab your scruff again and we're going back into the river."
Before he could answer, she grabbed his scruff and brought him into the started swimming forward for a while and then brought him to the Thunderclan side.
"Can you walk?"
He tried to get up, but he couldn't.
"I'll be right back with Blizzardrain, but first I'm going to hide you."
She grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him under a bush.
"You should be safe here."
She darted off into the woods, down the ravine, and into the camp entrance. Everyone left in camp looked at her horrified, thinking they had to go out.
"I. Need. Blizzardrain." She meowed in between breaths.
Blizzardrain ran out of her den after hearing her name.
"What is it?"
"Dewfang, got pulled into the river after me and I saved him, but he's soaking wet and out of breath."
"Where is he?"
"Follow me."
Frostpaw led the way, to the bush she hid Dewfang under.
"Here he is."
"Okay. Go back to the battle. I'm sure there's more cats being pulled into the river. Save them! I've got it from here."
"Okay."
Frostpaw started running alongside the river, watching it the entire time. When she soon heard Fallenstar call out.
"Thunderclan retreat!"
The Thunderclan cats started running along the river, back to camp. Fallenstar signaled for the patrol to go a different way, so the Riverclan cats couldn't follow them. He ran to Frostpaw when he saw her.
"Have you seen Dewfang or Mistrise, they went missing during the battle."
They soon heard a cat wailing.
"Help!"
"Mistrise!" Fallenstar was about to jump into the river, but Frostpaw shoved him to the side and jumped in instead. She swam as strongly as she could, towards the current and grabbed Mistrise by the scruff. Frostpaw turned around towards the Thunderclan bank and pulled her up to the shore.
"Where'd you learn how to swim?"
"During the Shadowclan attack. Emberpaw taught me. And yes I saw Dewfang. I saved him, towards the end of the battle, starting with me, they started dragging cats into the river, Dewfang was right behind me so I saved him. He's farther downstream with Blizzardrain."
"Good work! Let's bring Mistrise to Blizzardrain now."
The two cats grabbed Mistrise and started to drag her upstream. They finally ran into Blizzardrain while she was finishing with Dewfang.
"Is the battle still going on?" She asked
"No I had Thunderclan retreat. Then I ran into Frostpaw who told me they started dragging us into the river and that's when we found Mistrise. Blizzardrain after you check Mistrise, I want you yo check Frostpaw,"
They both looked at her and saw that her fur was turning blue.
"She's getting frostbite, but again just like when she was a kit, she's not getting the normal side effects like Dewfang did. See."
She moved out of the way and Fallenstar looked at Dewfangs leg then quickly looked away with disgust. He looked worriedly at Mistrise.
"She won't get the same effects because she hasn't stayed in the cold air long enough."
"Okay."
"I've got it from here. You two can bring Dewfang to my den, Matigoldkit will know what to do. She's been spending a lot of time in my den lately."
"Okay. Let's give Frostpaw."
The two cats picked up Dewfang and carried him back to camp. His breathing was shallow so it looked like he was dead. When they got back to campy the clan stared at them.
"Is he-" started one cat.
"Dead?" Finished another.
"Frostpaw killed him!" Shouted Mudclaw.
"No she didn't. He's not dead either. Riverclan started with Frostpaw and was dragging us into the river one by one. Frostpaw knew how to swim from when she went to get Riverclan during the Shadowclan attack. Frostpaw saved him and Mistrise."
"She's a hero!" Shouted Cloudkit who had never even referred to her as a friend.
"We need Marigoldkit. Blizzardrain said she'd know what to do."
Marigoldkit ran over with a bundle of herbs.
"Go get Mistrise and Blizzardrain." She ordered Fallenstar and Frostpaw.
The two cats ran back out into the woods and saw that Blizzardrain had already started bringing her back.
"Let us help." Fallenstar meowed but when he got closer he saw scratches on Blizzardrain.
Frostpaw and Fallenstar rushed over to help her.
"What happened?" Frostpaw asked, even though she had a clue on what happened.
"Riverclan." Blizzardrain growled.
"Frostpaw! I'll help Blizzardrain and you guard us."
"Okay."
Frostpaw waited for them to pick Mistrise up and then followed close behind them. Soon they were back at camp with the cats circled in the center of the clearing.
"What's going on?" Fallenstar asked.
Mudclaw broke away from the cats to talk to Fallenstar.
"Dewfang died while you were gone."
"Riverclan is out of control. While we were away from Blizzardrain, they attacked her." He growled.
"They need to be taught a lesson." Mudclaws gaze slid towards Frostpaw. "Maybe her. She could attack a warrior important to them."
"Me! N-no I can't, I won't." Frostpaw started backing away slowly.
"Mudclaw, you know we can't put her through that again. She still hasn't completely got over what happened with Rainstar."
"Fine! But we need something."
Mudclaw walked back to where the rest of the clan as Fallenstar turned towards Frostpaw.
"Frostpaw I won't make you do that. If you want to, that's another option. But, nobody's forcing you to do anything."
"Okay. I'm not doing it. I don't want to."
"Alright. Let's go mourn Dewfang."
"Dewfangs dead? I didn't hear that I was busy helping Blizzardrain."
"Yes he is." Fallenstar looked at her and then saw the crusting blood on her pelt. "What happened to you? Are you okay?" He started licking the blood and saw the huge gash on her scruff. "Blizzardrain! Come over here quickly! Frostpaw why didn't you mention it before?"
"I was busy helping my clan."
"What happened?"
"When I was attacking Blossomstar someone grabbed me so I ripped away from them to see who it was."
"Who was it?"
"Emberpaw." She meowed quietly.
Blizzardrain brought a bundle of herbs over to Frostpaw. She started muttering as she was healing her.
"Marigold...Cobwebs..." And she kept going.
Eventually she stopped.
"All done, Frostpaw."
"Okay, thank you."
Frostpaw hurried away to find Fallenstar. She found Fallenstar and signaled for him to come towards her. Fallenstar broke away from the crowd and walked up to Frostpaw.
"What is it, Frostpaw?"
"I want to do it."
"Do what?"
"Mudclaws idea."
"Why'd you change your mind?"
"Riverclan attacked Blizzardrain, tried to drown us and killed Dewfang. They need a punishment. I won't kill anyone but I will injure badly."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Then I will check if the clan agrees."
Fallenstar ran up the high rock and summoned the clan.
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather here!"
The clan walked past Dewfangs body and looked at Fallenstar.
"Mudclaw believes that Riverclan needs to be punished! Mudclaws idea is that we have Frostpaw attack their most important warrior!"
Howls of approval erupted all over the clan, meanwhile Frostpaw sat in e back, quiet and shaking. She heard a voice behind her,
You can't hurt the most important warrior, you need him.
When Frostpaw turned around, nobody was there.
Later that night Frostpaw was curled up in her nest dreaming.