This chapter probably could've been out earlier today, but I kept getting distracted by my brand new (early-opened Christmas present) drawing tablet! :D I'm really excited about it and I've already sort of figured out how it works. It's currently my mouse, which is pretty cool. But anyway, I drew a picture of Sootpaw on Gimp and it turned out semi-okay, though Gimp ended up messing up the colors a bunch. If you'd like to see it, the link to my (also brand new) Deviantart account is in my profile. But yeah, I'm going to try downloading Photoshop to draw a picture of one of the new apprentices, Aspenpaw and Alderpaw. Hopefully I can get a new drawing done tonight! :)

Anyway, on with the chapter after these review replies!

EradrinSkyleaf: #TheHobbitisamazing #I'mgoingtoseeitinLondon #I'mreplyingtohashtagswithhashtags XD

ShadowHawk: It's fine you couldn't PM me! I wasn't really expecting any "guests" to reply via PM. :P That would actually kind of weird me out if it happened.

QLKwriter: I read Fablehaven a few years ago. That was a great book series, I agree! And yeah, we get a little bit of snow each year but not quite enough to shovel.

Nightfeather: Okay, fine, since it doesn't affect the plot all that much... Badger met RiverClan as they traveled to their new home. Though she was young, she still remembered which direction they went in and sometimes visited them. And I was sort of planning on skipping over the part where Rainpaw gets rained on because it's just him sheltering under some shelter thing in an alleyway and maybe sleeping, pretty much just boring. I promise I didn't plan it just because of your review! D: And don't worry, it's real, living goldfish. XD Goldfish snacks...

Starfrost515: I know what you mean! There are just too many books to choose from... but is that a good thing? That there are too many good books in the world? :P Bye until NXT review!

Anove00: I know! It's just so hard to choose between them all because they're all just so good!

Rainpaw's POV

We finally made it, sides heaving, to the relative safety of the Twolegplace. Hyperion led the way, expertly navigating through the maze of Thunderpaths and Twoleg dens, following a path he obviously knew, until he finally skidded to a halt in a deserted alley.

"We're safe," he panted. "Or at least, we're mostly safe."

I immediately dropped my hindquarters to the ground, my head hanging as I gasped air into the flaming inferno that was my lungs. Sure, running was fun, but not when it involved running for your life from a bunch of crazy Twolegs and their dogs. It seemed, though, as though we'd finally lost them amongst the winding, twisting Thunderpaths and alleyways.

The other two apprentices, Aspenpaw and Alderpaw, managed to scramble to a stop before they crashed into Hyperion's legs. They stood there, heads bent as they panted for air they probably needed more than me. They were thin and their fur raggedy, as though they'd been stuck in that cage for a few days. As I slowly got my breath back, I looked them over. There hadn't been time to look closer at them before, when we were escaping from the Twolegs, but now I could stare at them all I wanted.

They looked mostly similar, with light brown tabby fur interspersed with splashes of pure white that wasn't actually all that pure after their imprisonment. They had long legs and tails and were lean, though that might just be a lack of food. Though they looked similar, Aspenpaw somehow seemed to take up more space than her brother. Maybe it was just because she seemed to be more the one in charge.

As soon as I thought that, I knew it must be true. I recalled hearing her shouting orders to her brother as we'd escaped, and even now, while her brother caught his breath, she glanced around at their surroundings, making absolute sure they were completely safe. As I watched, her hazel eyes flashed in my direction, passed over me, then returned to stare at me as she caught me looking at her. There was definitely something challenging in her gaze, as though she were mentally asking, What are you looking at? Even though I couldn't hear her thoughts as I could my siblings, I could just tell that was something along the lines of what she was thinking.

I was proven right a moment later as she stalked straight up to me and, pushing her nose into my face, asked somewhat louder than necessary, "What are you doing here? Who are you?"

Bewildered and intimidated, I scooted backward, my tongue fumbling for something to say. I spotted Hyperion looking on with amusement flickering in his eyes. I could tell he wasn't going to be any help. Finally, though, I managed to blurt out, "I'm – I'm Rainpaw. I kn-know Hyperion from when I p-passed through here before."

Aspenpaw seemed to press closer somehow. I shrank back into my fur, wondering feebly if she was going to claw me and yowl that I lied. But after several tense heartbeats, she stepped back and finally lowered those intense hazel eyes. "I'm sorry," she muttered, curling one paw around a stone on the ground in what I assumed was embarrassment and glancing at Alderpaw. "It's just that I wanted to make sure you weren't going to hurt Alderpaw, is all. Sorry."

"No, it's fine," I said, my voice halting slightly and proving my words to be, ironically, a lie. "Um, does Alderpaw need protecting that much?" I thought that maybe Alderpaw and Aspenpaw were a little like me and Cinderpaw; Cinderpaw was always trying to protect me.

"No, I don't!" Alderpaw appeared to finally have recovered from his run. He glared up at his sister, his pale blue eyes annoyed. "She just thinks I do," he explained to me without taking his eyes off Aspenpaw.

Aspenpaw rolled her eyes, though so that Alderpaw couldn't see. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered, turning away. "Sure you don't."

Again, I was forcibly reminded of myself and Cinderpaw in these two apprentices. I felt a sharp pang of loneliness in my heart as I thought of Cinderpaw, making her way alone to RiverClan territory. At least I had Hyperion to help guide me though the Twolegplace, and from there it was only about a two-day journey to the forest, provided there weren't any rainstorms as were common around this time of year. Leaffall was setting in fast and the rains would be coming soon. The thick clouds above in the sky were proof enough of that.

As if I'd spoken my thoughts aloud, Hyperion glanced skyward and finally broke in. "It looks like it'll rain soon. How about we try to find something to eat and then hole up in a sheltered alley somewhere?"

"Sounds-" Alderpaw tried to meow.

"Sounds great," Aspenpaw interrupted. "Let's get going." To illustrate her words, she bounded off to the far end of the alley.

"Okay," I meowed, noticing Alderpaw's glare directed at his sister and attempting to break up an argument before it began. I beckoned with my tail to Alderpaw, and together we followed Hyperion to the end of the alley and Aspenpaw.

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It took quite a bit of searching, but eventually we found a clearing of sorts surrounded by high stone walls containing what seemed to be about a hundred pigeons. My mouth watered just at the sight of them.

"See, pigeons generally tend to cluster together like this," Hyperion whispered to us. "It's rare to find a pigeon all by itself here. It must be some sort of survival tactic. But what it does for us is allows us all to catch one at once. It seems to work for most of them, though, because once four of them are down, the rest take to the sky and survive another day."

I nodded, watching as about five pigeons glided down from a ledge on one of the stone walls into the clearing, where they joined the mass of white feathers and bobbing heads. Though Hyperion hadn't told me this, I deduced that if one of us didn't manage to catch a pigeon, we'd have to ask another to share theirs. Which meant I had to catch one of these pigeons. I just had to.

The four of us crept into the clearing along the edge of one of the stone walls. I made sure to use all the hunting tactics Hyperion taught me: eyes narrowed to keep from reflecting light, muzzle angled downward in case I had bad breath, ears half-flattened to pick up noise but still keep from being too obvious, and claws half-sheathed so they wouldn't scrape the ground but would also be easier to unsheathe when I finally leaped. I took a deep, silent breath. I could do this. I could hunt this pigeon, whichever one out of the sea of bobbing heads I chose.

Aspenpaw twisted around and hissed in the merest whisper I could barely hear over the constant deep, throaty cooing of the pigeons. "Alderpaw, look!" She nodded toward an odd structure that was sort of like an elevated platform except that one side was raised twice as high as the others, stretching high above the narrow platform. Underneath crouched a solitary pigeon. "You can catch that one!"

Alderpaw flattened his ears against his head, his chest swelling as a soft hiss escaped from behind his parted fangs. His eyes were pale blue infernos, their heat directed at Aspenpaw. "No," he growled under his breath. "You can get that one."

"But it's easy enough that you can get it!"

Alderpaw angrily kicked at the ground. I hurriedly moved a pawstep forward to block him from the views of the pigeons; any sudden movements on our part could catch their attention and send them scattering for the top of the nearby walls. "Why do I always have to get the easy ones?" he spat. "I can hunt perfectly well by myself! I'm just as old as you, so you can stop treating me like I'm your kit!"

Aspenpaw flicked her tail angrily. Luckily, though, she managed to hold in her physical movement beyond that. "I was trying," she meowed in a dangerous sort of tone that made me want to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction, "to let you off the hook for once. Do you want it to be hard all the time? I could make it hard all the time!" Her voice had begun to rise in volume. Hyperion backed up to whisper in her ear so quietly I couldn't hear a word of it. It seemed to calm her down, though, because she looked down, flattened her ruffled fur, and closed her eyes, taking a deep, silent breath like the one I'd taken only moments before.

"Sorry," she whispered. I wasn't quite sure if it was aimed at Hyperion or Alderpaw, but it seemed like both took it to be aimed at them. Hyperion nodded once and padded back to the lead of the small group, while Alderpaw looked down and, after a moment, replied, "That's okay."

We moved on, scouring the mass of pigeons and the areas around the walls for an ideal spot to hunt. Finally, after about a minute of tense, silent movement, during which I managed to almost kick seven small, noisy rocks and we ended up backtracking several times, we found the place. Turns out, it was the strange object under which the pigeon had been resting before, the source of Aspenpaw's and Alderpaw's argument. The pigeon had gone, though whether this was a good or bad thing, I wasn't sure. There wouldn't be another argument, but there also wouldn't be an easy catch for someone.

We scanned the pigeons. My eyes focused on one standing somewhat far away from the crowd. It was nice and fat, probably the juiciest bit of prey I'd have had since the lake. I licked my lips, crouching into the perfect hunter's crouch Hyperion taught me.

"Ready?" Hyperion breathed. I glanced around and saw him looking at us. I nodded and returned my gaze to my prey. "On three."

But to my surprise, I didn't hear Hyperion count to three. Instead, I felt his tail plus two others join mine in the center of our little semicircle, each of us facing our prey. What I guessed was Hyperion's tail lifted above the others, then dropped down on top of them. One. Hyperion lifted and lowered his tail again. Two. Hyperion raised and dropped his tail for a third time and the four of us exploded out into the clearing with yowls of triumph and much panicked humming from the pigeons.

I leaped straight at my pigeon, but as I felt it crumple underneath my paws, another pair of claws unsheathed from one brown paw and one white paw. With one twist of the white paw, the pigeon fell limply to the hard, cold stone as the rest of the pigeon sea burst into the air in a wild swarm of feathers and talons. Ducking, I glanced up and saw Alderpaw standing over the pigeon I'd sought out to be my catch.

Aspenpaw and Hyperion padded over, each carrying their own pigeon. When they saw the two of us, both with our claws in the pigeon, they burst into amused purrs. "You both went for the same one, eh?" Hyperion asked, smiling so widely he nearly dropped his own catch. "Well, I guess that would double your chances of catching it."

"Here," Alderpaw muttered, pushing the still-warm carcass toward me. "It was yours. You saw it first."

"How can you possibly know that?" I asked incredulously, shoving it back at him. "Here, you definitely need it more."

"Nah, your stomach's been growing all afternoon. You take it."

I suddenly became aware once again of my own nearly-crippling hunger. It was almost as bad as it had been as I stood before the strange, magnetic meat. Still, I pushed it back at him just after he'd tried to give it back to me. "No. You went without food longer than me; you need it much more."

Alderpaw gave me an uncertain sort of look. "But then what'll you eat?"

"I'll share with Hyperion," I said confidently, turning to the golden tom, who nodded. "I'll be fine."

Alderpaw's face broke into a smile. "Oh. Okay then. Thanks a bunch, …um, what's your name again?"

"Rainpaw."

"Thanks a bunch, then, Rainpaw."

We exchanged smiled before Hyperion broke in. "We really need to get going, you two," he said warningly, glancing at the sky. "The rain's coming down fast on us and we need to get to a suitable shelter before then."

"Right," I said, getting to my paws. "Let's go."

So how did you like this chapter? Do you think Aspenpaw and Alderpaw are good characters to add in? (I'm adding them in whether or not you think so, but I'd make a conscious effort in future chapters to make them better if you think they're not that great)

AOTD: Eh... why did I have to ask this question to myself? Ummmmm... Harry Potter, the Mortal Instruments, and Seven Realms I guess. They're all great series! (and yes, I'm pretty sure the plural of series is series!)

Okay, so this QOTD isn't really part of the story, but...

QOTD: Would you rather me draw Alderpaw, Aspenpaw, or both of them in one?