Chapter 4: Beetlepaw

A/N I just want to say a special thanks to BrightSun03 an for reviewing and following! Great job on your story, too, BrightSun03. I'm sorry about all the errors; I'll try to be better about them!

Today was finally the day when he would become apprenticed.

The Clan had been mostly avoiding him, they were unsure as how to treat the young black kit. The did not realize that they shouldn't treat him any different from normal. However, Fernkit would always tease him, saying that he'd never be a warrior, that he was as useless as a beetle, all of those. Nightkit stuck up for him, and told him that he should ignore their sister, and the two did.

Beetlekit and Nightkit were playing moss ball together when Fernkit shoved him to the side then caught it.

She then shouted, "Over here, Nightkit! It's no fun playing with him, let's play over here." She then tossed it back to Nightkit, who ignored her.

"Here you go, Beetlekit." He said when he shoved it to his brother.

"Have you got cobwebs in your ears, or are you just blind?" Fernkit yowled. "I said over here!" Recently, she has been acting as if everyone should worship her because she exposed Beetlekit's inability to smell.

Nightkit rolled his eyes and yowled back, "I am playing with Beetlekit! You can't just come over and shove him out of the way and expect me to play with you instead!"

"Why should you play with him? He is just a worthless waste of freshkill." Fernkit scoffed, smug, as usual.

"And who said you were worth any freshkill? Last I checked I had the best hearing, and the best hunting crouch; while Nightkit was the best with battle moves." Beetlekit defended himself.

Fernkit hissed and Beetlekit than ran to the nearest warrior, who happened to be Robinwing. "Beetlekit is insulting me!" She cried. "Can you believe it? He is insulting me? The nerve! He was being mean as usual, it's not my fault he can't smell anything. Why take it out on his only sister?" Fernkit said in her smug innocent voice.

This cause Robinwing to scowl at Fernkit, him having seen everything. Fernkit cast Beetlekit a spoiled look, thinking that Robinwing was scowling at him. Robinwing then went over to talk with Mistystar about Fernkit.

"Hah! See? Another warrior going to tell Mistystar that you don't deserve to become an apprentice." Fernkit trotted over.

Nightkit and Beetlekit glanced at each other then rolled their eyes. "I think you should check again, Fernkit," Beetlekit said, "Robinwing is just telling Mistystar how spoiled you are acting – again." Fernkit had been doing this a lot, lying to a warrior that Beetlekit was being mean when it was actually her who was doing to insulting. This almost always resulted in the warrior going to tell Mistystar, and Fernkit believing that they were on her side.

"There you do it again. Will I have to tell yet another warrior of how you are acting?" She scoffed.

Beetlekit mewed in a sarcastically scared voice, "Oh no! Not another warrior! What will happen next? Oh, am I to be punished again?" He rolled his eyes.

Fernkit smirked at this, not necessarily realizing that Beetlekit was faking his fear. "Now that's better. You should be careful. You don't what me to slip something important that may through your chances of becoming a warrior off even more." Fernkit believe that she knew every one of Beetlekit's secrets, but she didn't know anything. For moons, Beetlekit had been having strange dreams of the voices of cats we was absolutely sure were on their way to the lake. He was also sure they meant trouble. He had only shared these dreams with Nightkit.

"All cats old enough to fish, gather to hear my words!" At Mistystar's call, the three kits raced over the where they should stand for their apprentice ceremony.

"These three kits have reached that age of six moons. StarClan, I ask you to look down on all of them as they undertake their journey to become a warrior. Mintfur, you have proved yourself a noble warrior many times, I hope you teach respect to Fernpaw." The warrior nodded and touched noses to his apprentice. "Pebblefoot, you are a strong warrior and have taught Rushheart well, I believe you are worthy to teach Nightpaw, as he is a worthy apprentice of you." The two then touched noses, the same as Fernpaw and Mintfur. "Grasspelt. You are very skilled. Now, just because he may not be able to smell does not mean that Beetlepaw cannot hunt. He has already demonstrated his ability to learn, and his wonderful hearing. You two shall match each other well." Beetlepaw happily touched noses with his mentor. He was happy to see Fernpaw's scowl as she praised Beetlepaw and did the opposite for her.

"Fernpaw, Nightpaw, Beetlepaw! Fernpaw, Nightpaw, Beetlepaw!" The Clan cheered for the new apprentices.

"Now, go pick out a nest in the apprentices' den. We shall tour the territory tomorrow." Grasspelt said.

Beetlepaw nodded and scampered off with Nightpaw, Fernpaw not to far behind. The brothers chose a warm place at the back of the den together.

"Hey, Beetlepaw! That's my spot."

"I got here first."

"Ugh, Nightpaw, aren't you afraid you'd get fleas from that?"

"Fernpaw, we've been sharing a nest all our lives. Beetlepaw does not have fleas." Nightpaw remarked as the three fell asleep, Fernpaw on the opposite side of the den.

Beetlepaw awoke into the usual dream. This wasn't one of his usual dreams, he knew. This dream showed the vague shadows of cats crossing the mountains. Fearfully, Beetlepaw knew that the cats were getting closer. The voices were also cleared. Beetlepaw realized that the closer the cats got to the lake, the clearer the dream would become.

Beetlepaw saw the scene shift and found himself in a clearing by a river. A brown tom sat in front of him.

"Greetings, young Beetlepaw, I am Mudfur." The StarClan medicine cat explained.

"You were once the RiverClan medicine cat?" Beetlepaw asked. When Mudfur nodded, Beetlepaw continued. "Can you explain my dream? I have been having it for moons!"

Mudfur sighed. "They are angered by a broken promise. Some don't even care about the promise; those just come to harm the Clans." Beetlepaw bristled at this. "You have great power, young Beetlepaw, have you noticed your lack of smell has sharpened your hearing? You shall be a fine warrior."

"So? How am I supposed to same my Clan? All of the Clans?" Beetlepaw asked.

"Do not worry, you shall not be alone. There are others who remember. And another group of cats on their way."

The scene shifted again to the mountains, but to a different set of cats in a different location, closer or farther to the lake. Then everything began to fade. "Wait! What do you mean by others who remember?" Beetlepaw called to the darkness.

"Wake up, Beetlepaw! Our mentors are taking us to explore the territory." Nightpaw mewed happily. He then saw Beetlepaw's worried expression and asked, "What happened? Another dream?"

Beetlepaw whispered, "I'll tell you later."

Nightpaw nodded and the two brothers went out to meet their mentors.

They heard Mintfur calling, "Fernpaw! Wake up already, what are you a dormouse?"

The two exited the den to the clearing. "I don't want to get up so early! You should let me sleep in." Fernpaw complained.

"Alright, then I won't have you do a tough job until you fully wake up." Mintfur responded, annoyed.

Fernpaw smirked. "Good, and while you're at it, I will also need free time to do my own training."

Mintfur bristled at Fernpaw and lead her away, most likely to clean out the dens, as they were headed towards the elders' den.

The Nightpaw and Beetlepaw snickered, while Grasspelt exclaimed, "Mintfur has her paws fur. I hope Fernpaw learns quickly."

The mentors and apprentices then headed out into the territory. They soon came across a large mass of water.

Grasspelt was the one who spoke. "This is –"

"The lake! I remember Pouncetail talking about this!" Nightpaw interrupted.

Pebblefoot shared a glance with Grasspelt. "Well, I guess we don't have to tour the territories, as you already know it." He teased.

"No! No! We still need to see all of it. Please continue." The two apprentices exclaimed.

Pebblefoot purred. "Well, then maybe if you're quiet, you might learn something."

They began walking until they reached the thunderpath.

Grasspelt was the one to tell them about it, again. "This is the border with ShadowClan. Currently, all the Clans are at peace, friendly, even, ever since the Great Battle."

Beetlepaw and Nightpaw looked on in awe as they followed their mentors through the territory, each explaining the different landmarks when they came to the WindClan border.

A cat called, "Hello there!" And the patrol looked up to see four cats streaming towards the border.

"The dark tabby tom with amber eyes is Leaftail, while the gray tome with the two dark paws is

Emberfoot." Pebblefoot explained. "While believe those are their apprentices.

The WindClan cats stopped at the border, seemingly unfazed by the run.

"Greetings, Grasspelt. It is good to see that RiverClan is doing well. I assume these two are new apprentices, that this would be their first time out of camp." Leaftail said as he peered down at Beetlepaw and Nightpaw.

"Indeed they are." Grasspelt replied. "This is Nightpaw," he pointed to Nightpaw, "and Beetlepaw," he introduced Beetlepaw.

Emberfoot nodded. "These are Eaglepaw and Harepaw." He said as he pointed to a light brown tom with white paw and yellow eyes, then a light brown tom with golden eyes and a short, white tail.

Eaglepaw stared at Beetlepaw. "Your eyes are weird."

Nightpaw hissed. "Well, maybe you are weird!"

Eaglepaw glared at Nightpaw. "No! RiverClan is weird."

"WindClan is weird."

"WindClan is better!"

"No, RiverClan!"

"WindClan!"

"RiverClan!"

"WindClan!"

"RiverClan!"

Beetlepaw and Harepaw both rolled their eyes at their quarreling brothers. "Ugh, Eaglepaw is always like this!"

"I know right? Nightpaw and his pride." Beetlepaw responded before finding himself staring worriedly toward the mountains.

"You worried about the rogues, too?"

Beetlepaw blinked at Harepaw. "What?" He whispered.

Harepaw glanced at the mentors and the arguing apprentices before leaning closer and whispering, "Don't worry, I've been getting those dreams, too. Meet me here at moonhigh to discuss them." He then stepped back and acted like he just hadn't discussed something that was threatening the Clans.

"Would you two knock it off?" Pebblefoot exclaimed. "Seriously, haven't we determined that they are both better? After all, if they weren't then they wouldn't be here."

Beetlepaw and Nightpaw blinked, and then they stepped away from each other.

"Well, it was good to exchange greetings, see you around," Emberfoot mewed to the patrol before continuing on. With the RiverClan patrol padding back to their camp, as well.

When they had entered camp, they were met by the sight Mintfur and Fernpaw with fur puffed out with anger. They were snarling at each other.

"How dare you make me clean the elders' bedding!"

"You needed to learn respect!"

"I have do know respect! I respect only my clanmates who deserve it. You have no right to make me clear the elders' bedding! You should be the one doing it."

"I'm your mentor!"

"So? Do you have any idea who I am? I deserve to have the tour of the territory before that worthless Beetlepaw!"

"You shall not leave this camp until you learn to respect you clanmates."

"I do respect them! Beetlepaw doesn't deserve it!"

"Hey! Hey! Let's calm down, okay?" Pebblefoot interrupted. "It's getting late. How about we all get something to eat and go to our dens. Tomorrow is a new day, right?"

The mentor and apprentice shot one final glare at each other before each grabbing their own fish from the freshkill pile and going to opposite sides of the clearing.

Pebblefoot sighed. "Why don't you two get something to eat, as well? Then you should go to your dens. We will be hunting tomorrow."

The brothers nodded and took a trout to share. They began eating the fish outside the entrance to the apprentices' den.

"So, what was different about this dream?" Nightpaw asked quietly.

Beetlepaw glanced around. "Not now," he hissed. "At moonhigh, follow me out of camp where we can talk.

Nightpaw nodded and they finished their prey before getting some sleep before moonhigh.