I just realized the Allegiances I posted are a little in the future of the book. :P Oops! Amberwing's kits won't be born until later. Sorry about that! Also, I originally planned for this chapter to be up yesterday night, but I hadn't quite finished when it got too late to continue. :( Well, here it is (finally)! Hope you enjoy!

EradrinSkyleaf: It's the best feeling ever, isn't it? :) Knowing how much you've improved and how much you're bound to improve later on?

ShadowHawk: XD Sootpaw doesn't know that! Well, I guess he'd better figure it out, hadn't he? Also, were you camping or hiking in the mountains or what? I love the great outdoors, personally, though it can get pretty cold at times! Especially now that it's mid-October.

MistClan505: Aw, thanks for noticing! :3 I've also noticed how you've improved with the clarity of your story. Also, since you now *ahem* have less characters to write about, it'll probably help a lot! I actually really do like your story. It's got an interesting plot and the writing's already improving! ;)

Bobbie1776: Here's the next chappie you've been waiting for! And yeah, all of them are generally figuring out what being a leader really means. XD Should be interesting.

Nightfeather: Well, what is FanFiction for? :P I'd advise writing FanFictions that copy heavily. That'll help with your own ideas, I think. It's exactly how I started. And I think it's only fair if I help all of you out, too. :) I remember when I was just starting, I got help from so many people and it really helped me out! Also, you're all supporting me, so why shouldn't I support you in return? ;)

Cinderpaw's POV

I couldn't wait to get out into the forest. It had only been one night and already my paws were heavy with the weight of responsibility. Why did I have to lead an entire Clan? Sure, Sootpaw and Rainpaw could probably help some, but to be honest, they were both too busy mooning over she-cats to take their duties as leader seriously.

Oh, no. I shouldn't have said that.

I mentally kicked myself. Why had I said that about Rainpaw? What if I'd unintentionally sent it to him mentally? What would he think? He was grieving so much over Silverdapple. I couldn't let anything hurt him. I had to protect him.

Well, I could definitely protect him from those scrounging rogues who called themselves NightClan. It was what I was doing now, in fact, with three warriors and another apprentice at my back.

I quickly glanced over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't getting too far ahead of my patrol. It was tough leading cats slower than you! But I needn't have feared. Sparrowtalon, Scorchblaze, and Foxtooth, made a warrior after the battle, were bounding along right behind me, Scorchblaze's new apprentice, Shadepaw, at her mentor's side.

I'd considered whether or not to take Shadepaw on this patrol. She was inexperienced and hadn't even caught her first prey yet. However, I figured it would be good for her to patrol the NightClan boundary as soon as possible to let her know exactly where our enemy was and to prevent her from investigating on her own. According to Mistheart, Shadepaw had always been the most adventurous of her three kits.

Anyway, it wasn't as if she wasn't heavily protected. There was me, obviously the best fighter there, Sparrowtalon, who was almost as good as me, and Scorchblaze, who was decent enough but nowhere near my skill. Of course, I wouldn't dare say that in front of her. She would confront me in the camp and, of course, I'd have to respond in kind. We couldn't have that sort of violence tearing apart the Clan. Foxtooth was pretty good with his claws, too, but was too young to really be of much more use than fighting back any attackers intent on getting at Shadepaw. Even though he was already eleven moons old and older than me, he was still too young to be of much use.

I returned my gaze to the front just as we reached a wide clearing. According to the other apprentices, this was the site of many ancient battles between ThunderClan and ShadowClan and where Bramblestar lost his ninth life. I shivered; the place gave me the chills. Then, I quickly glanced over my shoulder to make sure the patrol hadn't noticed.

I padded cautiously into the clearing, the patrol behind me, the Sunhigh sunlight warming the gray fur on my back. It seemed to be all quiet.

"Come on up, Shadepaw," I murmured, flicking my tail at her. She walked up to my side, eyes wide with awe and, thankfully, fear. I'd been hoping to scare her out of making plans for a NightClan invasion. I really didn't have time to go rescuing her.

"Smell that? Those are the NightClan scent markers."

Shadepaw's nose wrinkled as she drew level with me. I hoped it was, indeed, the NightClan markers and not because my whiskers stank or something. A heartbeat later, though, she nodded, so I assumed it was the former.

"The cats who made these markers were the ones who attacked the camp yesterday," I meowed seriously.

Shadepaw nodded. "Mistheart said that's why you, Sootpaw, and Rainpaw made us apprentices," she meowed.

"That's right," I agreed. "We figured it would be best to promote all the apprentices ready to become warriors and all the kits ready to become apprentices. Those cats were Foxtooth, Rustpelt, Twigpaw, Morningpaw, and you."

Shadepaw glanced over her shoulder toward the camp as I mentioned her brother and sister. "Can we just hurry up?" she muttered, backing away to stand beside Scorchblaze again.

I couldn't blame her. I thought I knew exactly what she was feeling. She must be missing her littermates. Personally, I'd only been separated from my brothers for an afternoon at most. Shadepaw had probably never spent a moment apart from her own siblings, and was missing them.

"Sure thing," I meowed, turning to continue along the border.

"Going somewhere?"

I spun around to come face-to-face with a pair of glistening fangs, bared and seemingly ready to sink into my eyes, blinding me forever. I did the only sensible thing to do. I stayed put, glaring upward at the fully grown warrior. I couldn't show weakness or fear, especially as a leader.

"Not anymore," I growled, trying to spit at his nose. It worked – a glob of spittle landed on his nostrils and he snorted, trying to rub it off.

"Oh, very funny," he hissed, his pale green eyes glinting dangerously. "You think you're good enough to take on me? The deputy of NightClan?"

His last question ended in a screech, but I didn't flinch. I couldn't, not after I'd spat at him. Anyway, beside turning around to see a pair of fangs, a screech was perfectly bearable. So I glared right back at him, blue meeting green in a mental war. "Yes, I think I just might be able to do that," I hissed, my voice quiet but nonetheless echoing around the silent clearing. "I am, after all, the leader of LeopardClan."

Surprise and disbelief flashed momentarily in the tom's eyes, almost instantly covered again, but it was enough to give me a pawhold.

"Surprised?" I sneered, showing my own teeth in a snarl.

"Not remotely," the tom rumbled in a purr that would make most apprentices run for cover. Indeed, I thought I heard Shadepaw whimper a little behind me. I assumed she did, because a moment later, the tom's gaze flicked over my shoulder to the rest of the patrol. "Ah, taking the kits out for a lovely stroll along our borders, eh?" he asked in a sneer of his own. "How nice. Perfect prey for a NightClan warrior."

"Don't tell me you actually eat apprentices?" I asked, trying to sound brave with my stomach twisting in queasiness. I wouldn't put cannibalism past these monsters. What if he was telling the truth?

The tom laughed. "If we do, I'm not going to tell you, kit." He flicked his tail at the trees behind him. I glanced past him and saw, to my utter horror, six or seven fully grown NightClan warriors emerge from the trees behind him. Amongst the crowd, I spotted the reddish she-cat I'd fought yesterday. I was pleased to see that the white markings on her forehead were still covered with the sticky residue of blood I'd drawn.

"See these cats?" the NightClan deputy growled, obviously enjoying the moment. "They're all trained to kill at the slightest signal. If I were to flick my tail forward now, they would all attack, every single one of them. It would be a bloodbath; well, at least it would be a bloodbath for LeopardClan. And I'm afraid you'd join your failure of a father in StarClan while your weak, heartbroken brothers try to keep control."

"No."

The deputy's eyes flashed. "What did you say?" he growled.

"I said no!" I said more forcefully, taking a step forward. "You will never hurt another one of us again!"

"Brave words, little she-kit," the tom murmured in his deep, rumbling voice that was somehow worse than his screech. He lowered his muzzle to my ear and continued in an undertone. "Can you ever fulfil them? I doubt it."

His last three words rang in my ears. I was on the point of leaping at him and clawing that smug look off his ugly face, of sinking my teeth through that dark brown tabby pelt and ripping out chunks of fur while he writhed in agony beneath me. I knew I could do it. But then I heard another quiet whimper from behind me.

Shadepaw needed me to get us out of this safely. But what could I do?

I glanced around as surreptitiously as I could without giving the deputy free reign to attack, scanning the surroundings. We were in a clearing. Bad. But I seemed to remember there was a stream nearby. Good. If we could make it to the trees, we could climb to relative safety. But Shadepaw couldn't climb and I would have bet the choice pick of the fresh-kill pile that the NightClan warriors could run faster than just about any of us.

Suddenly, the beginnings of a plan formed in my mind. It might work, it probably wouldn't, but it was the best we had. I just had to hope the other LeopardClan warriors could follow my lead without confusion.

"Well, what about your words?" I asked boldly. "You were saying something about them following your every move? Well what if one of them thought they could become deputy by killing you in the confusion of the battle?"

The tom glanced over his shoulder at his warriors. My diversion had worked.

"Climb!" I screeched to my Clanmates, whirling around and leaping at Shadepaw. I grabbed her scruff as I passed, staggering slightly under her deadweight but recovering in time to leap at the nearest tree. Sinking in my claws, I leaped up the trunk like a squirrel, hoping I wasn't scraping the young apprentice too badly against the tree bark.

"No!" the tom screeched. "No! Get the LeopardClan cats!" Right on cue, the NightClan warriors leaped forward in a wave of claws and fur, wide eyes gleaming and teeth bared in snarls of hatred. So it turned out that they did follow the deputy.

I set Shadepaw down on a sturdy-looking branch and quickly glanced around to make sure the others had made it to safety. To my relief, I spotted Sparrowtalon in a tree adjacent to mine and both Scorchblaze and Foxtooth clinging to branches of a nearby cedar tree.

"Ha!" I yowled down at the NightClan warriors. "Not so used to climbing, are you?"

They could only howl at me in reply.

The deputy was standing at the base of my tree, his paws on the trunk, glaring at me as if he wished me nothing but evil. Well, that was probably the general idea of him glaring at me.

"Never forget, kit-leader," he called up, his voice shaking with fury. "Never forget me! I'll always be watching for you. And when we meet again, I will kill you. You hear me? I, Ragingwish, deputy of NightClan, swear to take the breath from your lungs and send you on your way to the stars!"

The tabby cast me one last, burning look, before pushing away from the trunk and beckoning silently to his warriors, melting back into the shadows.

I crouched on my branch, staring silently after him. The scents of eight NightClan warriors lingered on the air, drifting upward to where I perched halfway up the tree. If the three warriors and I hadn't been so coordinated and quick-thinking, blood would have been shed. Those NightClan cats would have completely annihilated us.

I growled softly, sinking my claws into the soft bark. We'd lost too many cats in the last battle. Four cats, all good warriors, all no longer with us. Four may not seem like many, but in a battle with deadly warriors all trained to kill, we needed those four cats more than ever. Only we couldn't get them anymore.

We had to get back to camp. I had to tell Sootpaw and Rainpaw about this. They had to know how hopelessly outnumbered we were. And, as I helped Shadepaw descend the tree again and we set off back to camp, I couldn't help but wonder, for the first time, if we wouldn't lose this war after all.

So the action begins...

I actually have a good idea for a QOTD, so I'll do that and some advice this chapter, okay? :) I'm sure you're all A-okay with that.

QOTD: What was your first idea for a FanFiction?

Ad-OTD (Advice Of The Day): The subject has to agree with the verb. Example: The cars of the businessman were exceptionally dirty. The=adjective. Cars=subject. Of the businessman=prepositional phrase (don't let these confuse you!). Were=verb. Exceptionally=adverb. Dirty=adjective. How to tell if the subject and verb agree is to take out all the words between the two. The cars were exceptionally dirty. That makes sense, see?