Here's the chapter, guys! Sorry for the wait. (It was really funny reading all your sarcasm about Cloudpaw!)

Cherrynose: LOL, you always like the bad guys. :P

Zestia240: I will! :D

California Rain: I'll fix those. And yes, you are the boss. :P

Spottedfire98: Indeed, indeed she is. :P

Smurflover: Yeah, it works. And thanks!

Kitty Cat: Thank you! :D

SakuraFlutist: Yep! :)

Phoenixwing of WingClan: Why, thank you! :D

Random Falcon: Well, here's the chapter. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors.

Chapter 5: Stumble

Branchstar clears his throat, a clear signal telling the whispers to stop. They stop, but I know there are still some curious questions bouncing around in LeafClan cats' heads. I'm wondering, myself. Was it a sure resolution or a split-second decision? The deputy, after all, of a Clan, is practically a leader, but without the nine lives or as much power. And when the leader dies, the deputy will become the leader instead.

Falconflight, a strong-looking dark gray tabby tom, bounds onto the Hightree. The branch he lands on shakes for a moment, then steadies. "Falconflight,you are ready to take on a second apprentice. You will be the mentor of Amberpaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know to her."

The deputy of LeafClan nods, and he leaps back off the evergreen. I follow him, landing awkwardly on one paw, an action that sends a flash of pain shooting up my leg. I stumble, hearing a quiet snicker—Cloudpaw's, no doubt—but regain my balance, gritting my teeth. It's no big injury, and so I ignore it. Falconflight sits beside his mate, Ivyrain, and I go back to Lilacpaw and Petalpaw, limping slightly, but trying hard not to show it.

"This meeting is now over," Branchstar concludes, and bounds off the Hightree, disappearing to his den. The cats assembled start to break up, assembling into hunting patrols or gathering to talk.

"Your mentor's the deputy; that's so cool!" Petalpaw squeals to me. Darkpaw, Ashpaw, Graypaw, and Tigerpaw crowd around us to join in the excited conversation of Falconflight being my mentor. As the only apprentice left, Cloudpaw has to join the circle to not look like a left-out kit, though she has a frown on her face.

"What did you do, bribe him?" she sneers.

I'm ticked off by her rudeness. "No, nothing," I answer honestly. I don't feel like repeating my reasoning of how Falconflight was practically the only choice left, so I conclude my answer with a shrug.

Cloudpaw snorts. She obviously doesn't believe me. But Tigerpaw opens his mouth to add something in.

"Branchstar must think she's better than any of us," he says, "if he chose the deputy to be her mentor." There's no definite tone in his voice. I look at him, surprised, searching his face for any sign of sarcasm—but there isn't. Instead, there's an inscrutable expression on his face, one that I can't decipher.

The white apprentice looks taken back for a moment, shocked at the fact that someone would stand up for me, against her, but then composes her expression. "Oh, really? Then what did you do, that was so better than what we did?" Her voice drips sweet venom.

I open my mouth to reply, all the while frantically searching my mind for a scathing riposte. Um… Then I'm saved by Falconflight's voice.

"Amberpaw!" he calls. "I'm taking you out for our first training session!"

I spin quickly on my heels, shooting out a quick "Later" at the others, and join Falconflight, who's waiting by the bramble infested entrance. As I pad out of the camp with my new mentor by my side, trying to ignore the sharp pain in my right front leg, I hear Cloudpaw hiss, "See, she thinks she's so great." I growl softly under my breath as I step out into the rest of LeafClan terrain, while Falconflight looks at me, puzzled as to why I am growling.

But what I don't hear as Falconflight and I walk off into the cold leafbare air, is Tigerpaw snarling back venomously, "Put a mouse in it, Cloudpaw."

Falconflight leads me along the LeafClan border, familiarizing me with the scent of the CreekClan and StoneClan territories. CreekClan smells fishy, while StoneClan smells…stale. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Just a bleak, empty scent. Like nothing at all.

"StoneClan smells weird," I tell Falconflight, who just laughs.

"That's exactly what I told my mentor when he first took me out here," the deputy says lightly.

I'm curious at that, and I can't stop myself from asking, "And who was your mentor?"

"He was…." Falconflight hesitates, a misty nostalgia sweeping over his eyes. "He was called Fireblaze." Was. From the hitch in Falconflight's voice, Fireblaze and he must have had a strong connection. A memory tickles my mind, and I seize upon it. Everyone's heard of the brave warrior, with a flaming ginger pelt and bold amber eyes. He once fought off a huge dog, all by himself. But then, one fateful day, he was killed by a falling tree, having flung himself into the way while knocking his mate, Mousetail, out of the way. The entire Clan mourned him for moons.

That's what I recall from the elders' stories, told on rainy evenings when we kits were all bored to pieces and had nothing else to do.

"Fireblaze was your grandfather, you know," Falconflight says suddenly. I look up, surprised. Really? Mousetail, Fireblaze, and my mother, Blazepelt, were and are the only ginger cats in LeafClan. Except for me.

I look down at my injured, ginger-colored paw, lifting it off the ground while mulling over my thoughts. How could I have not made the connection before? But Mousetail had never said anything about my littermates and me being her grandkits. Searching my memory, I remember another piece of information from Treefall's stories: Mousetail and Fireblaze had had only one kit. We'd never been told who, though. I hadn't cared, either, on those rainy, boredom-filled evenings. It had seemed like ancient history back then.

But now I know that my mother, Blazepelt, was that one kit, and that my siblings and I are the grandkits of one of the bravest warriors LeafClan has ever had.

"Are you done scenting the air?" my mentor asks crisply, breaking into my realization. I set my right paw down gingerly, trying not to wince as the hurt paw touches the ground. Then I look back up at the cat who my grandfather mentored, and who is now mentoring me.

"Yes," I say, and we set off once more.

We've made our way around the entire border of LeafClan, traveling in silence, when Falconflight announces, "Let's go back to the camp now."

I stop, surprised. I'd known that we'd finished scenting the two other Clans, but I hadn't prepared to go back just yet. "But…" I begin, and then falter. I probably sound very impudent, like a whiny little kit.

"But what?" Falconflight's voice is patient, and his tone feels reassuring and trustful. And so I try again, taking a deep breath.

"Could we…could we possibly try hunting first? I…I really want to." Great StarClan, now he's never going to say yes, I scold myself in my mind. I hate myself for sounding so weak and puny, but Falconflight is intimidating, at least to me, and I've never talked to him before. Plus, he's the deputy. That's about as frightening as talking to the leader is. And learning that his mentor was my grandfather only makes it more scary trying to converse with him.

"Alright." He said yes! I hesitate for a few moments, still surprised over his agreement, but Falconflight's already taken a few steps forward and is now looking at me, puzzled.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go."

"Nothing," I reply, and follow him to a secluded clearing in the center of a circle of evergreens, just like the ironically named Hightree. The dark gray tabby tom teaches me how to pounce, and I try to follow his movements. However, every time I land, my injured paw sends a throbbing pain jetting up my leg, and I have to hide my hisses of pain.

I finally manage to land on the stick that's masquerading as a vole, and Falconflight congratulates me. We work more on that before he suddenly turns his head, hearing something.

"I think I hear a whole nest of mice somewhere," Falconflight says. "Is it okay if I leave you here for a few moments to check it out?" He means, of course, "Could he go off for a while and actually catch some prey while I worked on my pouncing?"

I nod, and my mentor disappears through the trees, promising to be back soon. I turn back to my pouncing, trying and retrying again and again. I get to the point where I'm landing squarely on the twig every single time, which is when I switch the stick for a berry. The shriveled fruit, the last of the berries that a bush has bore for the winter, will be harder to land on and will help me to control my pouncing. Real prey won't stay still like a stick, and so this will assist me better until Falconflight comes back or I get to try catching actually prey.

My pouncing is going pretty good, when suddenly a cardinal swoops out of a tree with a harsh cry, startling me just as I leap into the air. Involuntarily, my head turns to the right where a bright dot of red is disappearing into the leafbare sky, and I come down hard on my right front paw. My right front injured paw.

I can't stop myself from releasing a loud and strangled, "Ow!" I try to get up, but every time I try to scrabble to my feet, a sharp pain inflames my paw and I collapse on the ground again. "Falconflight!" I yell. No answer. I call again, all the while trying to stand up and failing, but there's nothing. Falconflight should have heard my yelling by now, but I don't see or hear any sign of him.

"Great StarClan," I grumble under my breath. Then I hear pawsteps running closer. I lift my head and sit up, expecting Falconflight with a bunch of mice hanging from his jaws, but instead it's Tigerpaw, and his mentor Ravenwing.

"Amberpaw?" Tigerpaw stops in his tracks, surprised. "Was that you calling?" I nod my head, then hiss in pain when my paw, which I'm holding up and trying to keep off the ground, accidentally bumps the dirt.

Tigerpaw bounds closer. "Are you hurt?"

"Yes." My pain makes my tone icy, but Tigerpaw seems unaffected.

"Where?"

"My leg." I watch his expression as he remembers me stumbling as I jumped out of the Hightree after the apprentice ceremony. Ravenwing also steps closer to me. "Where's Falconflight?" she questions.

"Off catching mice," I say in a deadpan.

The black she-cat makes a decision. "I'll go find him and then get Whispersong," she says. "Tigerpaw, you stay here with Amberpaw."

Tigerpaw nods and settles down next to me while Ravenwing dashes off to find Falconflight and Whispersong. "Don't worry, you'll be okay," he whispers, his breath making a cloud of visible air in the frosty leafbare cold.

I want to protest, to say that I'm actually not worried at all, that it's just my leg. Why's Tigerpaw trying to reassure me, anyway? But I don't feel up for being snarky, and so I hold back my grumpy retort and lie down, flopping my head on my paws and being careful not to put any pressure on my right paw.

Oh, and I didn't even land on the berry. Figures.

Yay, Tigerpaw defended Amberpaw! :D But now she's hurt 'cause she didn't want to go to the medicine cat. Boo. :(

Review, please!

~Ponyiowa