A/N: Two reviewers for the last chapter! Yay! *Gives plushie to warriorcrazy and Lacey* And thanks Lacey for participating in the crunchy contest; since you were the only one as of now, pick a name and I shall use it in a story of mine! (Probably this one, but if not, then in a separate one. ) my birthday is in a couple weeks (August 10) so my goal is to get two chapters done on every story of mine by then. (Except my Maximum Ride Story, which I have mostly given up on.) Ambitious, aren't I? xD Anyway, this chapter is set about an hour after Russetpaw gets back from the Gathering. You can't use the term "hour" in the story, so I am telling you in the Author's Note xP)

A very strong scent of bracken and wild garlic woke Russetpaw from her dream of catching a giant frog. Her eyelids fluttered, but before she could go back to sleep, a familiar, faint voice whispered urgently in her ear, "Russetpaw!" Now her eyes flew open as she recognized the voice. I must still be dreaming... she thought as the cat to which the voice belonged to was not in sight. She began to close her eyes again before she felt claws in her tail and realized that perhaps the voice had come from behind her. She whipped around and found the amber eyes of Tigerpaw.

"What are you doing here!" Russetpaw hissed as quietly as she could while still being audible. How the ThunderClan apprentice had found ShadowClan camp was a mystery to her, but his motives to do so were even more of a mystery. He gave her a strained grin, then nodded to the den exit. With a faint sigh, she got to her weary paws and led the way out of the den. Dawncloud was standing guard, but she was slumped on the ground, fast asleep. Russetpaw shuddered slightly as she thought what would have happened to Tigerpaw if she'd been awake. Every cat in the Clan knew what a fierce fighter the young she-cat was. Even if she was, as Russetpaw expected, pregnant, she had no doubt that she could still fight.

The two apprentice slipped out of ShadowClan camp, and as soon as they were out of hearing range of Dawncloud, Russetpaw demanded, "What did you think you were doing, coming to another Clan's camp in the dead of night? Dawncloud might have killed you!" She tried to glare at him, but relief was still coursing through her at them not being caught. He wrinkled his nose, hurt in his eyes. "I thought I was coming to see you. I asked you to meet me, and you wouldn't, so I came to you. And it worked, didn't it? Who's Dawncloud?" Russetpaw flushed. "I said no for a reason, mouse-brain! And Dawncloud is the cat who was supposed to be guarding the camp." Tigerpaw's hurt expression strengthened. "What reason?" Her green eyes met his, and she said softly, "We're from different Clans. This is against the warrior code. We aren't supposed to meet apart from Gatherings."

Tigerpaw looked at his paws. "I'm sorry. I really am. You didn't want to break the warrior code, and I made you. But you're the only one I can talk to. My sisters, Mistkit and Nightkit, died when we were only a moon old, and my father..." His amber eyes turned brittle as he broke off. Russetpaw was curious, but she wouldn't press him if he didn't want to tell. He must have interpreted the look in her eyes, though, because he continued. "My father was Pinestar, leader of ThunderClan before Sunstar. He left the Clan to become a kittypet!" He spat the last word with disgust. "Kitty-pets aren't that bad, Tigerpaw. He glared at her, fire in his eyes. "Yes, they are! They're soft, depending on Twolegs for their every meal, and they're fat and lazy." She calmly replied, "Have you ever thought that perhaps they know no other life? Pinestar may not have been destined to be a Clan cat. Don't judge things for what they are not." Fire still blazed in his eyes, but he said smoothly, "Yes, perhaps it is possible." She narrowed her eyes. "Don't lie, you don't mean that." He shrugged.

"But really, you are the only cat I can talk to, Russetpaw. My mentor is a bloodthirsty, fox-hearted fool, and my mother would never understand. I'm the only apprentice, and I never have time to play with Whitekit. I'm all alone in my Clan." Her gaze softened, but her words were cold. "We can talk at gatherings, but I will not break the Warrior Code for anyone. I will be leader of my Clan one day, and I'll get there by loyalty and devotion to my Clan. I'm sorry, Tigerpaw, but if you show up in my camp again, I will fight you. I don't want to, but I will." She sped off through the freezing marsh, back to her camp, not looking back.


Russetpaw groggily lifted her head. The den was bright with shafts of light from the holes in the den roof. It was nearly sunhigh! She scrambled out of her nest, accidentally stepping on Oakpaw on her way out. Hollyflower was eating some fresh-kill, and the ginger apprentice's tail drooped. Her mentor had probably been waiting for her since dawn! "Hollyflower, I-" the gray and white she-cat cut her off. "It was your first Gathering; you were bound to be tired." She nodded mutely, not revealing all that she had done the previous night. "I hope you're up now, though, because we're doing battle training with Foxpaw and Raggedstar. You'd best show him that I'm not a bad mentor!" she saod. but she was smiling. Russetpaw swallowed nervously, but gobbled down a small mouse from the fresh-kill pile before setting off for the dry place that apprentices practiced fighting with Hollyflower.

They walked quickly to the training place, and quite unexpectedly, Hollyfower whipped around and pinned Russetpaw down. "What are you going to do now? Claws sheathed. Use your instincts." her mentor said. Raggedstar and Foxpaw watched curiously. Hollyflower was bigger than her, but perhaps not as quick. She batted at Hollyflower's stomach hard, knocking the breath out of her. She quickly snaked out of her grip and tackled her. After a moment of triumph, she got off. Hollyflower narrowed her eyes and turned to Raggedstar. "Do you think we can make a decent fighter out of her? It'll be hard, but..." Raggedstar looked Russetpaw over with a critical eyes that made her blush furiously and considered, "Well...I suppose it's possible." It wasn't until Foxpaw let out a snort that she realized they were teasing her. She scowled and sat on her paws.

"I'll take her on!" growled Foxpaw playfully and sprinted at her sister. Acting quickly, she dodged and saw with a gleam of satisfaction that she hadn't changed Foxpaw kicked back her hind legs, catching her sister in the chest, throwing her backward. Russetpaw slammed into the ground, but picked herself up quickly and sank her teeth into Foxpaw's scruff, shaking her violently. The bright ginger she-cat twisted in mid-air and sliced her claws down Russetpaw's face. With a rush of anger, Russetpaw thought, She's supposed to keep her claws sheathed! She tackled the she-cat into the dirt and reared up on her hind legs before crashing down onto her.

Russetpaw darted away, leaving her sister breathless, and tried to blink away the blood that was trickling into her eyes. That scratches stung fiercely, but she kept her face a calm mask...A mask covered in blood, that is. Foxpaw got to her feet and looked in astonishment at Russetpaw. "Oh StarClan! I hurt you! I'm sorry, I was just so..." The darker ginger she-cat walked over to Foxpaw, whose tail drooped sadly, and licked her shoulder. "I know you didn't mean to. I'm not mad." Hollyflower, on the other paw, was. She glared at Foxpaw. "She'll have a scar forever now!" Russetpaw bristled and stood in front of her sister. "I'm fine! She didn't mean to do it, and scars aren't going to make me any different, except in appearance." Raggedstar spoke smoothly. "Foxpaw, you must try harder to focus during battle, and remember who you're fighting and why. Hollyflower, take Russetpaw back to camp so Yellowfang can take a look at her." Russetpaw let out a low growl. "I want to keep fighting. And anyway, Runnningnose is the medicine cat." Hollyflower slapped her tail on Russetpaw's mouth and glared at her. "Are. You. Crazy? Raggedstar is ShadowClan leader! Shut up and get moving!" She said so only Russetpaw could hear, then shuffled her along.


Back in camp, Russetpaw fumed in the medicine den, muttering angrily as Littlepaw treated her scratches. "I was fine, I could've kept fighting all day! Now I've missed battle practice, and Foxpaw's going to be better than me..." Littlepaw rolled his eyes, but asked her curiously, "What do you like about fighting so much that you'd rather stay and practice it with dirt and bugs getting into your wounds than come back here and wait for them to heal? I'm sorry, I just don't understand it." Russetpaw thought for a moment. "It's not so much fighting itself that I want to do, it's learning how I can keep my Clan safe. Or fed. If we'd been hunting, I would have felt just the same. But Littlepaw, why did you become a medicine cat? I don't mean to offend, but it just seems like you'd be missing out on the exciting parts of Clan life."

A slow smile lit the small tom's face. "I think you know the story of how me and Blackfoot were brought here, right?" This struck Russetpaw. What did he mean, brought here? She shook her head. Slightly surprised, he asked, "Really? Well, let me tell you. When Cedarstar was coming back from the Moonstone after he'd gotten his name and nine lives, he passed through FourTrees, because it was unsafe to go the quick way near Carrionplace; too many rats. And as he was passing through, he found us, abandoned, by one of the Great Oaks." A glimmer of sadness showed in his eyes, "We would have died if Cedarstar hadn't brought us back to ShadowClan. Poolcloud nursed us and mothered us, but I still think of Cedarstar as my father." Russetpaw remembered when Hollyflower had said that Cedarstar "brought" them to ShadowClan... Now she understood.

"Anyway, I was never a real good fighter, but somethign about healing..it drew me in. I spent a lot of time in Runningnose's den, despite how grumpy he can be. And to think, I could finally find out who my real parents were, from StarClan. Surely they would know. But mostly, I became a medicine cat for the same reason you're becoming a warrior; to serve my Clan as best I can." he concluded, but his gaze had darkened. "So, did you find out who your parents are? Were? Who are they?" she sounded like a curious kit, but she wanted to know so she could rip their fur off. How could they leave two kits to die, especially two talented toms like Littlepaw and Blackfoot? "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Russetpaw. One day you'll know." That made her even more curious, but she just shrugged, knowing not to push it.

"There! Now I expect you'll want to take those cobwebs off early to show some scar, but the absolute earliest is by tomorrow morning. though you should probably leave them on for two suns, maybe a little more." She grinned. "And lose my first battle scar? You know me too well for that, Littlepaw. But I'll leave it them on until sunhigh tomorrow. Maybe even moonrise, if you're lucky." She winked, glad to have him as her friend. Yellowfang came into the den, her squashed-face glowering at Russetpaw. "You're all patched up, aren't you? Now shoo, you're crowding up the den!" Russetpaw blinked, and looked around the large, mostly empty den, but turned to leave anyway. As she padded out of the den, she heard Littlepaw bickering with her, "As your fellow medicine cat, I'm telling you that you should be a bit kinder to patients!" he pressed, and heard her snappily reply, "I'm older than you, Littlepaw, so don't go around telling me what to do!" Russetpaw barely caught Littlepaw's response, but it made her snicker all the same. "You might be an amazing two seasons older than I am, Yellowfang, but I've been training to be a medicine cat moons before you even joined this Clan! So I'll tell you how to be a medicine cat as much as I want, since I obviously know how to do it better than you!"

Runningnose padded over to her from his spot in the shade, between the medicine den and where she was standing, and muttered, "Those two fight like kits over a bit of moss." She chuckled and he looked at her cobweb-covered face. "So what happened to you?" he asked brusquely. "Just some scratches." He tilted his head. "Was there a border skirmish?" he asked curiously; since the Thunderpath separated ShadowClan from the other three, border skirmishes were few and far between, unless it was ShadowClan starting them. Their territory was not always as prey-rich as the other Clans, and they sometimes had to use territory to feed themselves. But the other Clans always got it back when ShadowClan could depend on their own territory for food. "No, no. Foxpaw and I were battle training and she got a little carried away." she admitted. Runningnose nodded sagely. "Mind you, I might have clawed her right back, were I in the same situation."Russetpaw shook her head again. "Not if she was your sister." He shrugs and answers gruffly, "Never had brothers or sisters, but I think you have enough for the both of us, huh?" His voice seems tinged with sadness, so Russetpaw lies her tail on his shoulder for a brief moment before flicking it away again.

"Would you like to share some fresh-kill?" She asks hesitantly, but the usually surly tom reverts back to his usual cross self, and Russetpaw wonders which side of him is the act as he growls, "Already ate." And he shambled back to his den, where muffled insults could still be faintly heard as she picked through the pile, not really hungry.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter was a bit lame; it's five in the morning and I haven't gotten to bed yet. I really need to revert to my diurnal self in the coming weeks, or going to school next year is really going to mess me up. Though given that I'm going to be a freshman, it will undoubtedly mess me up anyway, just in a different way. xD R & R guys.