So, I only got two OC's. Thank you, Nightmarefoxwitch! I still need OC's, a lot of them. So many kits! :D

Anyway, please review. No one answered the QOTC! :( And I know this chapter is shorter than all the others, but it has its reasons!
I will try to update tomorrow, but I am really busy, and if I don't update tomorrow, I definitely can't on Saturday, so sorry to make you wait.

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 5: Mintpaw

(Half a moon after the gathering)

"Mintpaw! You need to twist or you fall flat on your face!" Rowanstem meowed. After Slatestorm had died, the night of the gathering, Rowanstem had become Mintpaw's mentor when he healed from his injuries. He was a horrible mentor. Unlike Slatestorm, he was strict, impatient, and acted like a senior warrior. He woke Mintpaw up at dawn every morning, then worked her until it was dark, with only one break, at sunhigh.

"I know that!" Mintpaw snapped.

"Well you're not acting like you know it!" Rowanstem growled. "Try again."

So Mintpaw tried again. She reared up on her hind legs and twisted around to strike her fore-paws across Rowanstem's back. But he stepped to the side and she fell flat on her face. Again.

"I twisted!" Mintpaw growled, standing up. "And yet, I end up on my face!"

Rowanstem sighed. "You need to prepare for your enemy to move! We've been working on this since I started mentoring you. It's almost as if you're one of those clumsy OakClan cats!"

Mintpaw felt the fur along her spine bristle. "Silverriver and Stormshade are not clumsy! They just don't know how to fight in water yet! Besides, they're your clanmates, you shouldn't talk about them like that."

"I should not be expected to treat cats from the clan we are at war with like clanmates," Rowanstem scoffed. "And, you gave me a great idea. Let's go try this move in the lake, seeing as you can't do it on land."

"The lake!" Mintpaw sputtered. "It's leaf-bare! I'll freeze!"

"Not if you move around, you won't," her mentor replied. "Let's go!" He ran through the trees, leaving Mintpaw no choice but to follow him.

…

"The water is freezing!" Mintpaw complained. She waded in so that it reached her shoulders.

"Just start practicing the move! That way, if you fall on your face, it will be softer," Rowanstem snapped. Mintpaw glared at him. The tom was sitting on the shore, not getting soaked in a cold lake in leaf-bare! If I was Featherpaw, I would argue with him! But she wasn't Featherpaw, so, grumbling, Mintpaw started to practice the move. The first few times, she fell flat on her face in the water, unable to balance her front paws on the penetrable surface. But then she managed to do it once, and she kept doing it, with almost no error, until dusk had come and gone.

"We can go back to camp now!" Rowanstem yelled. Finally! Mintpaw thought. I think I might freeze! I bet it's going to freeze soon, and then he won't be able to make me go in the lake! A smirk appeared on her face at the thought. She bounded out of the water, shivering.

The black she-cat followed her mentor back to camp in silence. Leafstar was standing in the clearing, her eyes glittering with annoyance.

"Where have you been?" she asked when they walked in. Her gaze passed over her soaked daughter. "And Mintpaw—did you fall into the lake or something?" She ran over to Mintpaw and started to lick her fur dry.

Mintpaw shook her head. "Rowanstem made me practice battle moves in the lake," she explained. Leafstar looked up from Mintpaw's pelt.

"Mintpaw," she meowed, her voice cold and her eyes like chips of ice. "Go ask Ivybreeze for something so that you don't get sick. Rowanstem, why don't we talk in my den?"

"Fine," Rowanstem meowed. His eyes flashed angrily. Ignoring him, Mintpaw padded to the medicine den.

"Ivybreeze?" she meowed, padding in. A grey tabby head appeared from behind the lichen curtain that was in front of the herb store.

"Mintpaw! What do you need?" Ivybreeze looked at her wet pelt. "Did you go swimming?" Her eyes widened in shock.

"Rowanstem made me practice battle moves in the lake. Leafstar sent me so that I won't get sick." Mintpaw explained, again, why she was so wet.

"Oh… here." Ivybreeze grabbed a few leaves of feverfew at Mintpaw's paws. "And—" The medicine cat went back into the herb store— "if you do have a fever, this will help." Mintpaw recognized the herb dropped next to the feverfew as borage.

"Thank you," she meowed, eating the disgusting herbs. She was about to leave when Ivybreeze fell to the ground.

"When water goes against wood, the clans will fall… saved only by feather falling on mint…" The medicine cat's voice was mysterious and whispery, as if another cat was speaking through her. A vision? Trying not to freak out, Mintpaw backed out of the den and ran across the clearing to her mother's den. Snow was starting to fall and she shivered. Leafstar was still awake, washing her pelt, but Thunderstrike was fast asleep.

"Mintpaw," Leafstar meowed warmly. "Shouldn't you be in your nest?"

"Well, err, yes," Mintpaw stammered. "But when I was leaving Ivybreeze's den, she started muttering crazy nonsense and fell to the floor."

Understanding and alarm flashed in Leafstar's eyes. "I'll go see her. Go to sleep." She touched her muzzle to the black apprentice's head and left the den. Yawning, Mintpaw padded to her den and curled up in her nest. Featherpaw was fast asleep, but closing her eyes, Mintpaw's mind kept replaying the memory of Ivybreeze collapsing to the ground, and she knew sleep would be a long time coming.

So, yes, it's short, but like I said, it has its reasons.

QOTC

What is Leafstar going to do to Rowanstem?

Come on, answer the question! I want to know. Haha I'm so desperate for reviews :P

And don't forget, I need OC's!

~Hazelflight