Hello, my dear readers xD all of your comments and support make me smaile so, so much everyday… you guys have no idea how much I rely on you all to keep this story going forward! I actually had a dream last night, that you guys all just stopped reading, and I just gave up and killed all of the characters…

ya, I can promise you THAT won't happen, but it's true, that I need your support to make this thing happen :)

A SPECIAL THANKS TO BRIGHTSUN03 FOR TELLING ME THAT I HAD ACCIDENTLY COPIED LAST CHAPTER ONTO HERE! in my defence, I am realllyyy tired xD

okay, enough with the sappy crap, enjoy the chapter:

You are nothing, Emberwing. You don't even deserve that warrior name of yours. You don't deserve to be a warrior. You don't deserve to serve Riverclan. You don't deserve to be ALIVE. You should do every cat a favor and just go—

Emberwing shook herself out of the ever reoccurring dreams with a pained gasp. Usually, the only thing that woke her from the Voice was her pains, which were- thank Starclan- becoming less so, but still strong enough to wake her.

The sky outside was a dark grey, and the cold snip in the air didn't help her hunger, pains, and the almost empty fresh-kill pile. Emberwing guessed she would go out and hunt; maybe see if there was a break in the ice that covered the slow moving river where they caught almost all of their fish. She was about to push herself out of the entrance when a familiar scent caught her and made her turn around with a rare smile. There stood Troutclaw, padding over with a kind smile and a happy trot.

"Hello, my beautiful mate!" Troutclaw, like herself, still seemed to be having a hard time wrapping their head around the fact that they were now mates.

Ducking her head to hide her growing smile, she replied with a smooth "Hi,"

The two cats awkwardly made their way towards the river, when Emberwing had a flashback of their first time out into the territory. Back when Beetleeyes hated her and Troutclaw was… well, mostly the small, except smaller. The clan was starving, and there was an old twoleg nest full of warm, plump mice…

"Troutclaw, do you think if we go to the abandoned twoleg nest, we could catch some mice?" catching mice was natural for Emberwing, although she blamed that on the fact that she had been born and partially raised in Thunderclan, while Troutclaw and Beetleeyes still had to be taught, and are nowhere near as good as her.

"Good idea! I know Riverclan isn't fond of mice, but how skinny and hungry we all are, I don't think they'll mind much.

Emberwing was about to reply to his enthusiastic response with a purr when the stench of Windclan overwhelmed her senses.

"Is Riverclan really as desperate as to eat mice?" The voice belonged to a large white tom from the other side of the border that they shared with the rabbit-chasers. He was with two other cats, apprentices. The two smaller cats seemed to just have left the nest; they had large looks of wonder plainly on their faces and they looked more than fearful at the sight of Troutclaw and Emberwing.

"I don't know, is Windclan stupid enough to pick a fight with two barely-apprentices cowering behind his one warrior," Troutclaw spat, his fur raising along his spine, and his tail already fluffed up to twice it's normal size.

The warrior hissed, clearly annoyed at his current disadvantage, but he seemed to understand that he had no chance of winning.

"Fine, but just remember, even if you're about to die, don't you dare try and steal from Windclan territory." As much as Emberwing respected this tom for understanding his disadvantage and choosing to not get his two apprentices injured, her darker side couldn't help but be disgusted; if he was a part of the Darkforest and said that… Emberwing didn't even want to think what Fall and Silverdust would do to a cat that backed down from a battle.

"You don't have to worry about Riverclan eating your precious bile-on-legs. I'd rather eat squirrel before that," answered Emberwing, closing the conversation and gently guiding Troutclaw away with her tail.

"Thanks for that," he breathed after a while.

"I didn't do anything…?"

"I mean, for taking over there. I panicked when I saw him… I was worried about your safety, that's all."

For a moment, Emberwing felt like she would collapse from how heavy her heart had become.

"I can protect myself, you know," she said, purring, amused. She flicked Troutclaw's nose with her tail, and ducked out of the way from his slow, sheathed swipe.

"I bet I can beat you to the abandoned nest," Troutclaw challenged, his eyes narrowing in fake anger as her chased her around the small clearing they were in. She easily dodged his feeble swipes, and upon hearing his challenge, darted away in what the direction of the nest.

"Okay!" she called out from behind her, laughing when she heard his yowl from dismay from behind her.

"Hey, you cheated!"

"What, do you think you can't beat me?" she called back, and almost tumbled over as she saw he was almost upon her.

"Hey, that's not fair, you have longer legs than I do," Emberwing protested, a pretend face of hurt on her face.

"Well, you had a head-start so we're even!" he called, now a few fox-lengths ahead of her.

Cursing her shorter legs, she pumped them as hard and fast she could, dodging shrubs, undergrowth, and the occasional tree and boulder.

"I win," Crowed her mate, hopping around the twoleg nest like a frightened frog.

"But—

Before she could protest and come up with an excuse, Troutclaw pounced on her and tackled her to the ground. His claws were sheathed, but he was too heavy for her to push off. Her darker side ran through all of the moves that she had been taught that would get her out of these types of situations, but almost all included unsheathed claws; she instead went limp.

"Hah, give up already?"

Feeling Troutclaw letting up, she twisted her body to flip him underneath her, so she was the one holding him down.

"Nope," she giggled, and started gliding her fluffy tail down his hind legs, struggling to keep him still as he laughed.

"S-stop! Tha-that tickles!" Troutclaw struggled some more, to no avail.

"Not until you surrender," chided Emberwing, smirking as he struggled to escape again.

Another swipe of her tail, and he looked like a fish flopping out of the water.

"O-okay! I surrender, you win!"

Pausing a moment and smirking into his joy-filled eyes, she leaped off of him and licked his cheek lovingly.

"I'm so thankful you're my mate," Troutclaw breathed happily, closing his eyes and leaning into her licks to his ears and cheeks.

Emberwing's chest was almost overflowing with warmth, and she gave one last lick to him, this time between his eyes, and led him darker into an outcropping of trees with a happy smile.

Yay! I tried to add a bit of sappy love stuff in here… you guys like? xD I hope so!

*no offence to any of my Windclan readers, of course*

QUESTION OF THE DAY: what do you think is going on with Stripefang and Nightmask…? ;D

Until next time,

EmBeRfAlL *haha… that looked like emberfail… xDD*