Hello again, my amazing readers!

So, in this chappie, there will be a couple of introductions to reader-based cats! Woo! I'm sorry it took a while for them to make an appearance, but it's harder than it sounds to add in something that you yourself didn't come up with :-*

Onto the new chapter! xD

That night, their training was easier than usual. They were tonight training in the blood river, which usually empty except for the usual cat that was dared to jump in. Emberwing, not wanting to be covered in the think, slimy, foul-tasting blood, had never been fish-brained enough to jump in, but the cats who did claimed it was bottomless.

The blood river was about five fox-lengths across, about the same size as the river in Riverclan at its widest point. It was slow-moving, with little in the ways of rocks and branches in it.

Fall was taking over today's lesson, which was simple for Emberwing to follow, coming from Riverclan; they had to fight in the river, while keeping their heads above the wa-blood. Emberwing had already been taught this as a part of her warrior training, held no complaints besides crawling into the cold blood.

She was paired up with a tom by the name of Shard, and to be honest, he made the fur crawl. He was an unusually marked cat, with a dirty white fur and these black patches that seemed to have no pattern, and they all ended off with rough, spikey ends that didn't look comfortable in the slightest. He had claws that were exactly like his fangs: sharp and hooked.

For the training, Emberwing had to push Shard under the river of blood for five heartbeats. He was slightly bigger than her, but his claws made her think twice about going at him. The blood tugged her fur, and her paws felt disgusting, treading the liquid with a hidden grimace. Shard, at least, didn't look too comfortable, either.

Fall had already called for us to begin, but most cats were struggling just to stay afloat, and some cats, like Emberwing and Shard, were sizing each other up; him how to escape her claws, and her to place –and keep- him under.

The first signs of struggle and fights broke out as some of the fighters got a rhythm going. Emberwing was still thinking, at a loss, on how to take on this massive tom without getting her fur shredded, when she had an idea. Shard didn't know she was Riverclan, so he didn't know how good at swimming she actually was. All she had to do was pretend to struggle, and…

"Are you okay," he muttered gruffly, not really caring, but he was growing bored as Emberwing copied the looks of horror of some cats, who's heads were barely above the flowing blood all around them.

Emberwing took a final breath, then sank under the water in what she was sure was an impressive show of struggle. Once completely submerged, she opened her eyes, regretting the choice, but still satisfied that she could see… but barely.

Slowly, she found her orientation and Shards' legs. Her chest was starting to twitch, but she had held her breath for much longer than how long she was planning to now. Pushing out her strong hind legs, she streamed over to his steady forepaws and gripped on in her jaws, clamping down, wincing as the iddmeadate struggle made her teeth sore. Trying not waste time as now her chest was whimpering for air, she yanked downwards with all of her might and squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. Shards' surprise was now gone, and he seemed to have a slight grasp of the situation as he started pumping his three free paws towards where Emberwing guessed the air was. Wincing as her teeth were again torn in her jaw, she fought against him and pulled him further under.

Her chest was now yowling for air, so she gave one last yank before letting go and pushing to the surface, praying that his head had been under for more than five heartbeats. Her head finally broke the surface, and she gasped in air and blinked her eyes against the droplets of blood from her fur that was falling into her eyes. She swam to the bank, collapsing into the dead grass on the edges and began the long task of grooming her blood soaked fur.

"Good job, Red! That was impressive how you pretended to be struggling to surprise Shard! He's, like, super mad right now!" Emberwing heard a voice from behind her, and she turned to see a silver she-cat with pure black eyes, like a snake's.

"I'm Soul," the cat, Soul, introduced.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Red."

"Oh, I already know that, mouse-brain! You're one of the strongest elders in the whole Darkforest! I really don't think there's a cat out here that doesn't feel fear or respect the sound of your name!"

Emberwing was amused at this she-cats declaration. "Oh? And which one do you feel?"

"Well, I don't have to tell you, now do I?"

"Yeah? Well how about I…" Emberwing trailed off as she looked into he forest, and saw a white glowing form…

"Uh, hello, Red..." Soul was calling her name, but Emberwing barely heard her.

"I have to go… uh, to the dirtplace…Bye." And with that, Emberwing sped off towards the glowing form. Usually, she wouldn't even think about bothering Silverdust, but now something was different as she raced past the stunted trees.

That glowing cat wasn't Silverdust.

The glowing cat seemed to be lost or confused, so Emberwing took this moment to take cover behind a large boulder and peek at this strange cat. The cat was obviously a she, with her lean, small-ish body and light brown, almost honey colored fur. She had a white underbelly and darker brown spots on her spine and the base of her tail. Before Emberwing could pull her head back, two sets of green eyes met.

The glowing cat hissed and took a step back. Emberwing didn't mean to startle the she-cat, but taking a moment to access the situation, Emberwing considered that if she saw a blood stained cat peeking at her from behind a rock, she would probably freak, too.

"Who are you," she hesitantly called out, trying to look as non-killer of a cat as she could, which was kind of hard considering she was dripping in blood.

"I-don't kill me!" the she-cat seemed to cower, shrinking and looking as if she wished she would disappear.

"Don't worry, I won't, but... Who are you?"

"I am Fawnleap."

As much as it helped to know this strange cat's name, she had been trying to ask why she was glowing without being rude.

"Okay, what are you?"

As expected, Fawnleap looked indignant, almost offended. Well, at least Emberwing could claim she had tried to me nice.

"Are you kidding with me? You expect me to believe that you can't recognize me?!"

Emberwing shuffled. "Uh, yes?"

Fawnleap huffed. "Fine, but you better not make this mistake with others; I'm not as the others."

Emberwing was lost.

Completely.

"I am the Starclan Windclan leader."

Ohh! You guys like? xD Soul WILL be back, I promise(:

Okay, so in the future I'm going to explain this now so it won't be confusing in the future:

~~~ In Starclan, like you've read from Smokeclaws how you just… appear in different places every day when they wake? Well, there are the four oldest Leaders from the five clans, (Skyclan included) that basically rule the cats in their respective clans when they die, and they can call any cat from their own clan to appear before them, and in their word, they can stay in that one place as long as their leader needs them.

CONFUSED? If anyone is, ill explain it again a bit longer in the next chapter! COMMENT IF YOU WERE CONFUSED!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: besides how Emberwing did it, how would YOU have tackled Shard? xD I look forward to your replies, MAKE 'EM CREATIVE!

LOTS OF CAPS!

~~Emberfall