Cherrypaw had been an apprentice for officially four moons. She needed to wait around two moons more before she could become a warrior.
"Cherrypaw, we need to go hunting, now. It's very cold, and all of the prey is going to go into hiding soon." Thunderstar told her. Cherrypaw nodded.
The two dashed into the forest and split up.
Cherrypaw spotted two birds up on a tree. They looked like they were about to leave to go south. Perfect! She said. Cherrypaw slowly got onto the tree and started to climb up to them. Once she was up close to them, she launched at them. One was able to fly away, but it look like it landed at another tree nearby. Maybe Thunderstar would get that one. The other one was stuck in Cherrypaw's hold. She bit the bird's neck and then watched as it's heartbeat went down to nothing.
Cherrypaw leaped down, and dug a hole to place it in. She then went over to find more prey.
Night soon rose to the sky. Cherrypaw had caught a bird, a squirrel, and a rabbit, while Thunderstar caught two birds and two squirrels.
"We'll be all set for a few days." He said.
Cherrypaw nodded. "Good night, Thunderstar!"
Later that night, Cherrypaw got cold, so she awoke. She saw it was snowing, and she smiled. She looked up as the falling snow got on her pelt. This is really cold, but really fun! She said to herself. She started rolling around in it, until she came across pawsteps in the snow.
The she-cat started to follow them. They led to the ShadowClan territory.
As Cherrypaw kept walking, she heard someone running. She unsheathed her claws and looked around. She saw her favorite white tom heading towards her.
"Blueberry! What are you doing here?" Cherrypaw whispered.
"There were pawsteps, so I was following them. I saw you and decided to come over." He looked down at the pawsteps she was following.
The two shrugged and continued on.
They stopped once they saw Shadowstar and Thunderstar laying with each other. Then Shadowstar got up and threw snow at him. They started playing around until Thunderstar fell down. He got up and the two cats licked each others cheeks and murmured "I love you"
Cherrypaw and Blueberry silently gasped. "Thunderstar and Shadowstar are mates!" Cherrypaw whispered.
Blueberry looked at her. "What are we gonna do? How long was this for?"
Cherrypaw shrugged. "I just found out today, Blueberry!"
"Sorry!" Blueberry whispered back, a tad to loud.
The leaders stopped playing around and searched around. They spotted Blueberry and Cherrypaw, who were already running off. "Rogues!"
The leaders started to run, heading towards the two cats.
Cherrypaw and Blueberry got their pawprints into the other trails of pawprints so they'd confuse the leaders.
The brown pelt apprentice looked back up at the white fur warrior. "We should just tell them." The apprentice said. She sat down. Blueberry sighed and sat next to her.
Thunderstar and Shadowstar came running up to them, claws unsheathed, until they saw that it was Blueberry and Cherrypaw.
"Oh..." Thunderstar gulped.
"They would find out sometime anyways, Thunderstar." Shadowstar sighed.
"I suppose you are right, Shadowstar." The gray tom said.
The apprentice looked up at the gray leader. "Why couldn't you just tell me, Thunderstar? I wouldn't have told anyone, I would have completely understood!"
Thunderstar sighed. "We just didn't want to get it awkward like what happened with Riverstar and Windstar at the gathering."
The she-cat rolled her eyes. "Like I would have told anybody!" She yelled, then stormed off.
"Cherrypaw, wait!"
The white tom zoomed after her.
The gray tom sighed as the two younger cats ran away. "I should have told her. What was I thinking, Shadowstar?"
His mate licked his cheek. "She'll forgive you in no time." She said in a soothing voice.
Thunderstar smiled. "I really do hope so, she's always so happy and energetic, I couldn't see her upset and lazy." He told her.
Shadowstar stood up. "The snow is falling harder, now." She said, looking at the white pieces of snow falling from the sky. They seemed to be going down as fast as she could run, maybe a little faster.
"We have to find them and get shelter, we can't stay out here for too long." She told him.
"Good thinking." Thunderstar said, as he dashed in the direction of the two cats.
Cherrypaw looked around for Blueberry. She watched as the tom ran over to her. "Cherrypaw, it is too cold to start drama like this. We need to find shelter right away."
The apprentice smiled. "I'm heading to ThunderClan." She told him.
Blueberry glanced over at her and gave her a jokish grin. "You are sure you know where it is?"
Cherrypaw snorted. "Of course I do. I'm not stupid anymore."
"You never were," He purred.
The apprentice blushed. Does Blueberry like me? That'd be kind of weird, because Thunderstar is like a father to me, and he's mates with Shadowstar...but I have to admit, I do kind of like him as well, if he likes me.
"Let's go." He said.
Cherrypaw lead the way back to camp, Thunderstar and Shadowstar not far behind Cherrypaw and Blueberry.
The apprentice headed over to the faint scent of the prey-pile. She dug through the snow until she found it. "Ugh, the prey is all soggy now!" She sighed. She took the prey out and dragged it into the apprentice's den.
Blueberry followed her.
The two shared Cherrypaw's nest, due to how cold it was, and also shared a squirrel from the pile. "This is really damp." He said.
Cherrypaw growled. "Do you want us to hunt right now?"
Blueberry shook his head. "No way!"
The apprentice smiled. "Then this is the best you are going to get, got it?" She asked him.
The tom nodded. "Yeah, whatever."
The leaders looked around camp and noticed the two. They jumped into the spare nest in the Apprentice's Den and warmed up. The cats started to talk, but soon, the chatting died down and everyone went into a deep slumber.
Author's Note: Twenty Chapters! :D I am so excited. Stick tune for more, the whole plot has barely started yet!