Disclaimer: I own only Raze and the plot, nothing more, nothing less.

So I changed the summary, I thought this one was better...

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you really motivated me to write this chapter!

Enjoy.

Chapter One

~ It Started With A Blackbird ~

The sunlight was weak on one of the last fairly warm days of Leaf-fall, and the wind brought a slight chill with it as it swept through the forest belonging to ThunderClan.

A slight shiver ran through my pelt as I slowly put one paw in front of the other, my belly fur brushing the ground as I drew closer to the blackbird. It was technically outside the ThunderClan border, but the Clan needed all the fresh kill it could get this close to Leaf-bare, and I was sure Fireheart wouldn't ask me where it came from.

My gaze was fixed on the bird and I blocked my ears to all the other sounds of the forest and I crept even closer, concentrating hard on my prey. Just as the blackbird pulled a worm free from the ground and then took a look around with one beady eye, I leapt. As I jumped through the air I began to let out a triumphant yowl, certain the bird was about to become fresh-kill, but before my outstretched claws could touch it something crashed into me.

I spat black fur out of my mouth as a startled yowl ripped from throat. I heard the alarm call of the blackbird as it rose into the air in a flurry of feathers, taking off into the trees. As I rolled over and over with the cat who had jumped into me I growled in frustration. The already scarce prey was making me a bit more short tempered than usual.

"Hey! Get off me!" I spat as my attacker and I finally stopped rolling. The other cat's weight vanished and I scrambled to my paws.

"Sorry!" the cat who had jumped into me exclaimed, his eyes wide. I stared at him. He had a bold black, short-furred, pelt with one white forepaw, and bright, ice blue eyes. He looked to be roughly the same age as me, for while his fur was short it was also fluffy and probably still kit-soft, like mine. He smoothed down his ruffled fur as he added between licks, "But you did get in the way of me stalking that bird."

I blinked in surprise and shook my fur out. "That was my bird – I was stalking it first," I informed him.

He looked up at me, shaking his head. "No you weren't, that was clearly my bird. I would've caught it too, if you hadn't jumped in front of me."

I narrowed my eyes. "You jumped in front of me! You were miles away from the bird, you wouldn't have caught it in a million seasons," I shot back.

"Well at least I wasn't being so clumsy when I was stalking it that a cat would have to be deaf not to hear me," he returned smugly.

I rolled my eyes. This cat just wasn't worth the effort. "Well the blackbird is long gone now, so there's no point in arguing over it. You'd better get off of my territory," I meow, fluffing up my fur in an attempt to look threatening.

The other cat mirrored my actions, fluffing up his fur as well. "Your territory? This is my territory," he informed me.

"You're just arguing with me for the sake of it now. This is clearly ThunderClan... territory..." I trailed off. Glancing around, I realised the border was behind me.

"See? You're on my territory. So that was my bird, regardless of who would have caught it," he mewed smugly.

"This land belongs to no-one," I argued. "You haven't put any scent marks here, so you can't claim it as yours," I pointed out.

He wrinkled his nose. "Uh, well, yeah, but this piece of land is connected to the Twolegplace, and my father rules the Twolegplace, so this belongs to me – well, it belongs to my father, so therefore it belongs to me as well," he tried to explain.

I just stared at him. "You're a rogue?" I should have guessed he was a rogue, since he obviously wasn't a Clan cat."

"And you're one of those Clan cats. So?" he shrugged, but recognition suddenly lit in his eyes, and we both jumped backwards at the same time.

"Urgh, my mother always told me rogues were unpleasant troublemakers who smelled of crowfood and existed only to cause trouble, and that I should stay away from them at all costs!" I exclaimed at the same time as the rogue expressed his own displeasure at finding himself in my company.

"Urgh, my father always told me Clan cats were vile monsters who smelled of rotting flesh and existed only to terrorise any cat who wasn't one of them, and that I should stay away from them at all costs!"

Then we stared at each other, aware of how similar our outbursts had been. For a moment there was silence.

"You know that rotting flesh is basically crowfood, right?" I mewed eventually. The rogue nodded.

"You don't smell like crowfood though..." he told me. I smiled and stood up slightly straighter. "You smell much worse!" he laughed, and I flattened my ears.

"Well at least I don't smell like a piece of rotting flesh that's been wasting away in a Twoleg dump for the past season," I sniffed, turning away from him as though his odour upset me.

Instead of making some sort of sly remark like I expected, he just grinned evilly.

"You want to know what I really smell like?" he asked.

I frowned. "What-" I began, but he was already running towards me.

"Go on then, smell my fur! Take a deep sniff!" he called. I turned tail and ran along the stretch of land between the forest and the Twolegplace, which was dotted with a few trees and bushes but not many.

"Phaw, you stink!" I yowled over my shoulder at him as I ran. I completely forgot about ThunderClan and that I was supposed to be back at camp with some prey before dusk.

"Not as much as you do," the rogue called back. He sounded nearer than I thought he was and I turned my head to look at him as I ran. For such a small cat (he was only slightly bigger than me, which wasn't that big), he sure was fast. I wasn't looking where I was going when I was checking his progress, and so I stumbled on a twig, giving him the chance to catch up to me.

The rogue pounded on me, sending us both tumbling down a grassy slope and into a pile of leaves at the bottom which all flew up as we landed in it and soon became buried. I spat out a dead leaf and popped my head up through the leaves to see several leaves still floating back down. The rogue jumped out of the leaf pile and shook himself, checking his pelt for leaves. Then he looked at me, and for some reason started laughing.

"What?" I asked defensively. "What's so funny?"

"You..." he gasped, "You have a leaf... on you head!" he spluttered, collapsing on the ground as he laughed.

My expression was not amused as I bundled out of the leaf pile and shook the leaf from me head. "Hey, stop it!" I told him. "It wasn't that funny!"

But he continued to laugh, and try as I might to resist it, his laughing was infectious. "You were just... sitting there, with only your head... visible about the leaves, and... you looked so solemn... and then that leaf just... floated down and landed... on your head!" he was laughing so hard as he explained that he began choking.

That was the last claw for me, I began giggling, which soon turned into laughter.

It was some time later when we both finally managed to calm down. It was beginning to get dark and as we both lay there, taking calming breaths, I suddenly remembered that I should have been back at the ThunderClan camp before dusk.

"Mousedung!" I exclaimed, jumping to my paws. I looked around, unsure of the way back to the ThunderClan border.

"What's wrong?" the rogue asked, also getting to his paws. "That was fun, I want to do it all over again now," he grinned, his ice blue eyes shining.

I hesitated. "I was supposed to be back at camp ages ago," I admitted. "Do you know the way back to the border?"

"Yeah, it's that way," the rogue told me. "But... wait!" he called after me as I took off in the direction he had pointed me in.

"Thanks! I had fun too," I called back.

"What's your name?" he ran after me until we reached the border. I turned around to look at him.

"Cinderpaw... what's yours?" I asked curiously.

"Raze," he smiled. "But Cinderpaw sounds weird."

I glared at him. "Cinderpaw is my clan name," I declared. "I bear it with honour."

Raze shrugged. "It's still weird. I'll call you Cinder."

"I suppose it doesn't matter what you call me; it's not like you're ever going to see me again," I conceded. "Bye Raze." I trotted over the border.

"Wait – why won't you see me again?" he called after me, but I just waved my tail in reply before running all the way back to camp.

Despite knowing Fireheart was going to scold me for coming back so late and without prey (and separately from Brackenpaw, since we had been told to hunt together), my paws flew over the ground and I couldn't stop smiling as I thought of the time I had spent with Raze. It had been brief, but I still felt my paws tingling and happiness lingering in my eyes.

I thought it was just a shame I wasn't going to see him again, because the Warrior Code forbade it. Great StarClan, how wrong I was.

Author's Note: Eh, I'm not sure how good my characterisation of Cinderpaw was in this chapter. She seems like quite a light-hearted cat to me, and she's also still quite young - only a moon or so into training. If you're wondering, this chapter takes place soon after Graystripe met Silverstream during Fire and Ice, before Cinderpaw had her accident on the Thunderpath.

So did you like it? Hate it? Have any questions about it? Feel anything for it that might motivate you to review? Anything at all?

Who can guess who Raze's father is?