Frostpaw's heart hammered in her throat as she sprinted along after the rest of her patrol. Her legs burned as she moved them faster than she ever had before, struggling to keep up with the other cats. Swoopstrike was in the lead, and despite his earlier complaints about the patrol, he now seemed enthusiastic for them to travel through the territory at a break-neck speed. A forest of seemingly endless dark pine trees flashed around Frostpaw, but she didn't have the time to take in their thin, towering silhouettes— she was too focused on keeping her paws moving one after the other at the frantic pace.

Grovepelt was the one to finally slow, slacking his pace and clearing his throat to signal for the others to as well. Frostpaw almost stumbled in relief as she eagerly slowed her paws. Autumnpaw, Pinepaw, and Poolpaw seemed to echo her relief as they too fell back with her with quiet sighs. Swoopstrike, however, only dropped his pace reluctantly, shooting Grovepelt a look from narrowed eyes.

Grovepelt caught his gaze and narrowed his eyes in return at the younger warrior.

"We are giving a tour of the territory remember Swoopstrike? Not just running through it," Grovepelt meowed cooly.

Swoopstrike dipped his head stiffly to the deputy without saying anything, but Frostpaw noticed his jaw clenching.

After Frostpaw managed to catch her breath, she lifted her head to finally have a chance to gaze around at her surroundings. Towering pines framed the world around her. Frostpaw tilted her head back as she traced their trunks towards the sky, watching their branches and thin dark green leaves bristle up at the clouds. The ground beneath them was coated with the pines' discarded needles, which softened the sound of the cat's footfalls, making it seem like their patrol was gliding soundlessly through the forest.

Frostpaw's eyes were wide with surprise as she looked around. She couldn't believe how the forest had transformed during the few moons that she'd been at the ShadowClan camp. The forest she remembered was a world of white. Everything had been coated in snow, and the pines had been frozen in ice, like jagged milky white claws. Even the sky had been grey with snow clouds. Now the world was colored in shades of green and brown and black, and the shimmer of a bright blue sky peeked down in the gaps between the pine's branches.

"Come along," Grovepelt said to the four gaping apprentices, padding along.

Frostpaw jerked and did a little dash to catch up to the deputy. Even though there was little undergrowth to hide behind, Grovepelt's brown pelt still quickly vanished into the deep shadows cast by the pines.

Frostpaw's den-mates quickly caught up too, and Autumnpaw moved to pad along side her.

"Isn't this great!" he said to Frostpaw with a pleased purr.

Frostpaw nodded. She had to admit, she was enjoying the forest way more that she thought she would. The smell of the fresh air in her nose, the soft pine needles under her paws instead of the muddy ground of the camp, the warm sunshine on her back…

"What is that?" Pinepaw gasped, snapping Frostpaw out of her thoughts.

The patrol had suddenly reached what seemed to be a gap in the forest. The pine tree line stopped abruptly, and in front of them was a small stretch of grass for several fox lengths, then a strange strip of what seemed to Frostpaw to be a long black stone which stretched as far as the eye could see left and right, then another stretch of grass, and then suddenly trees sprung up again like there had been no interruption.

Poolpaw started to creep forward across the grass, his eyes locked on the curious black stone.

"Stay under the trees," Fogfur snapped at him.

Poolpaw jumped in surprise at his mentor's harsh tone and scrambled back to the trees and the rest of the patrol.

"This is the thunderpath," Grovepelt explained. "Monsters travel on it, so you always have to be careful not to get too close."

"It doesn't look that dangerous," Pinepaw sniffed.

But, she had to almost immediately eat her words as suddenly a roaring sound filled the air. The ground rumbled under Frostpaw's feet as something huge went hurdling down the thunderpath and past the patrol. There was a wave of foul smelling air, a flash of metallic color, and then it was gone, only a fading echo of a rumble remained to show that anything had past at all.

Frostpaw's fur had brushed out and she looked over at the other apprentices. She was relieved to see that she was not the only one frightened of the monster; they all looked as unsettled as she did, with bristling fur and wide eyes. Frostpaw glanced over at the warriors. They were unruffled, but all of them except for Swoopstrike looked at the apprentices sympathetically.

"You get more used to them," Beeclaw meowed.

"What can you all scent?" Grovepelt asked, continuing on with a lesson like nothing had happened.

"You mean besides the monster?" Autumnpaw said drily.

But, then all four of the apprentices fell silent as they scented the air. Frostpaw's brow furrowed as she tried to extract useful scents from the metallic tang that the monster had left hanging in the air.

"Wait… it smells strongly like ShadowClan!" Pinepaw meowed.

Frostpaw blinked in surprise, realizing that Pinepaw was right. Frostpaw was so used to the deep, rich ShadowClan scent from being surrounded by ShadowClan cats all the time, she had almost completely missed the fact that the scent again wreathed around her here, almost as strongly as if they were in camp.

Grovepelt nodded.

"Good. We are standing by our scent-markers. They mark the border of our territory," he said.

Poolpaw inhaled deeply, and Frostpaw saw Pinepaw stifle a snicker at Poolpaw's gaping face.

"There is some faint other cat scent too!" Poolpaw declared.

Frostpaw sniffed carefully. The breeze had shifted and now scents were drifting over to them from the other side of the thunderpath. The wind carried the scent of the other cats, but the smell of them was unfamiliar to Frostpaw. Their scent was mustier than ShadowClan's sharp strong scent, with an edge of nuttiness, not unlike that of a squirrel.

"Yes. That's ThunderClan scent," Fogfur rumbled.

"They smell weird," Autumnpaw said, wrinkling up his nose.

"Their territory begins on the other side of the thunderpath," Grovepelt said, nodding at the trees beyond.

Frostpaw studied the trees, realizing that they looked a bit different from the forest on the ShadowClan side. The ThunderClan forest still had a couple of pine trees mixed in here or there, but Frostpaw noticed that the deeper into their territory that she gazed, further away from the thunderpath, the less pine trees there were, and instead there were more leafy ones.

"When I was a kit," Grovepelt meowed. "There was no thunderpath here, and ThunderClan's territory came right up to ours. But, then the two-legs came and created this thunderpath during my apprenticeship, splitting the two Clans' territories."

Frostpaw's eyes went wide. It was hard to imagine that the large, strange black stone of the thunderpath had not always been there. And, that it was actually so recent, it hadn't even existed at some point during the deputy's lifetime.

"I think the two-legs did us a favor," Swoopstrike growled. "At least the thunderpath keeps those mice-munchers over on their side, where they belong."

"The construction of it scared away prey for a season though," Grovepelt mused. "It was new-leaf, when the forest should have been bustling with prey emerging after the thaw, but all the creatures were scared off by the two-legs' racket. That was a hard season for ShadowClan, particularly coming right after a long leaf-bare, not unlike the one we just saw…"

Then Grovepelt shook himself, like he was trying to dislodge the clinging cobwebs of old memories.

"Nevermind that," he meowed. "That was a long time ago now. Beeclaw, re-mark the scent-markings here, and let's keep going."

Grovepelt turned to look down at the apprentices and his wise eyes' sparkled a bit mischievously.

"I have a ShadowClan secret to show you four," he meowed. "But, you have to swear to not tell another cat from any of the other four Clans! I know apprentices like to brag at Gatherings, but this is one secret you must not tell."

"I promise!" Pinepaw meowed, her amber eyes alight with eager delight to hear whatever the secret was.

"Me too!" Autumnpaw and Poolpaw chorused almost simultaneously.

Grovepelt's gaze flickered to Frostpaw's, waiting for her response.

"I—I promise," Frostpaw stammered quickly, feeling her fur flush with embarrassment.

Oh snake-dung, why did I hesitate? Will the deputy not believe me now? Frostpaw worried.

Luckily, Grovepelt either didn't notice or didn't seem bothered by Frostpaw's stuttering. He flicked his tail at the apprentices.

"Follow me," he meowed.

"Er—" Swoopstrike suddenly cut in, padding up to the deputy. "Are you sure showing them it now is such a good idea? Maybe we should wait a little while longer?"

"It's tradition that ShadowClan apprentices are told when they first start training," Grovepelt replied in a calm voice.

Swoopstrike's gaze flickered to Frostpaw for only a fraction of a heartbeat before he looked back at Grovepelt.

"I just think it might be a good idea to wait," Swoopstrike said, his voice becoming firmer. "Just so we know they can be trusted."

Frostpaw felt a hole of blackness opening up inside of her.

He's worried about me. Swoopstrike doesn't trust me.

She heard Pinepaw give a disdainful sniff, and Frostpaw ducked her head, feeling her stomach swirl with dozens of emotions—embarrassment, shame and a bit of anger that Swoopstrike thought she would betray the only home she had.

"Thank you for your opinion, Swoopstrike," Grovepelt said with the faintest hint of sarcasm in his voice. "But, we've trusted more talkative apprentices than these four in the past. I see no reason not to tell them."

Swoopstrike stiffly bowed his head, but Frostpaw could see he wasn't happy about Grovepelt's decision.

Grovepelt turned, and continued forward, walking parallel to the thunderpath under the tree line. The rest of the patrol followed him one by one in a line.

"Here," Grovepelt meowed, ducking behind some bushes.

The apprentices followed him around the bush, but then Frostpaw almost ran smack into Poolpaw's hindquarters when he came to a sudden stop in front of her.

"Where did he go?" Poolpaw gasped.

Frostpaw wrenched her neck to peer around Poolpaw's flank, and she blinked in surprise to see that he was right. The deputy was nowhere to be seen. He appeared to have just vanished out of thin air.

"Over here!" Frostpaw heard Grovepelt meow.

Following the sound of his voice, the apprentices stuck their heads into a patch of nearby ferns.

"Woah!" Autumnpaw said.

Grovepelt's green eyes blinked up at them from a small tunnel, the entrance hidden by the dense thicket of ferns.

"This tunnel leads under the thunderpath," Grovepelt explained from below them. "And, it splits to head into both ThunderClan and WindClan territory. We usually go through it on the way to Gatherings too, so we don't have to cross over the thunderpath to get to Fourtrees."

Pinepaw flexed her claws in and out eagerly.

"That's so cool! We can get on to other Clans' territory without them even knowing!" she said, her voice vibrating with excitement.

"Do ThunderClan and WindClan know about this?" Autumnpaw asked.

"Not that we know of," Beeclaw replied. "That's why it's important this information stays within ShadowClan only."

Grovepelt hopped back out of the tunnel.

"That's right," he meowed, nodding in agreement with Beeclaw.

"Can we explore in the tunnel?" Poolpaw asked, his tail-tip twitching in excitement.

"I don't think ThunderClan or WindClan would appreciate four ShadowClan apprentices gallivanting around on their territory," Fogfur meowed drily, with a faint purr.

"The tunnel is only used during Gatherings or if Sedgestar gives us explicit permission to do so," Grovepelt added in a firm voice.

"Like during battles?" Pinepaw asked, her black fur bristling in excitement and maybe a bit of nervousness.

"Yes," Grovepelt meowed.

The apprentices exchanged wide-eyed looks. Frostpaw was the first to look away, her stomach flipping.

How am I supposed to fight warriors from other Clans? she thought nervously. She felt like she could barely fight a ball of moss, let alone a full sized, battle-trained warrior.

"Let's continue the tour of the territory," Grovepelt said, waving his tail to indicate for everyone to follow him.

The patrol padded off again, at a manageable trot this time, which Frostpaw's legs were grateful for. They turned away from the thunderpath, vanishing under the pines, and Frostpaw let out a quiet sigh as the stinging scent of the thunderpath faded behind them.

The group trekked through the forest in silence for a while. As they walked, Frostpaw began to wonder how the warriors knew where they were going. To her, all the dark pines seemed to look the same.

"Woah! Look at that!" Poolpaw gasped.

The patrol had padded into a small clearing in the forest. In the center of the clearing was an old, dead tree, but it still stood upright, like a withered ghost of what it must have been when it was alive. It was massive, with a twisted trunk, scorched black by some long-ago fire, and only some stubbed, gnarled branches at its crown—the rest of the branches evidently worn away by time or eaten by the fire that killed it. There was no other vegetation in the ring surrounding the tree, besides ferns and moss that made the ground spongy and cool under Frostpaw's pads.

I wonder if the fire that killed the tree destroyed all the trees around it too, and they haven't grown back yet…

"This is the Burnt Sycamore," Grovepelt said.

"You'll all be very familiar with it soon," Beeclaw meowed. "Most of your battle training will be done in the clearing here."

"Cool!" Poolpaw yowled, dashing forward to scramble up one of the twisted roots, his black and white fur bristling with excitement.

He started to scale the side of the tree.

"Stop dashing over to every new thing you see and get back over here," Swoopstrike snapped, scraping his claws against the ground. "Stop acting like a little kit. You are ShadowClan apprentice now, have some dignity!"

At least it seems like Swoopstrike is grumpy with everyone… it's not just me. Frostpaw thought.

Still, Frostpaw felt her stomach twist in sympathy for Poolpaw as he scrambled back over to the ShadowClan patrol, his head bowed in embarrassment.

"We've still got a lot of ground to cover," Grovepelt meowed. "Come on."

The patrol padded off again. Frostpaw's legs were starting to get tired from all the walking, but she didn't dare slacken her pace. Not with Swoopstrike only a few tail-lengths away, watching her like a hawk.

Frostpaw noticed the composition of the trees around her beginning to change. They shifted from mostly evergreen pines to large sycamores which were less dense, like every tree needed more space to spread their massive crowns. The ground under Frostpaw's feet squelched as it turned more damp, and around her tall grasses started to crop up, surprising Frostpaw, since the rest of the territory she had seen contained little undergrowth. Frostpaw's ears pricked at the trickling sound of running water, but she saw no stream in sight. The pale green grasses around them became quite dense, and they stretched far above their heads, obscuring the path forward even as the patrol continued on. Frostpaw took another step forward, and suddenly the grasses parted, revealing a stream roughly three fox-lengths across.

"This water travels here all the way from RiverClan territory. It also goes through ThunderClan territory and is a part of the same river that forms the borders of RiverClan with both ThunderClan and WindClan," Grovepelt meowed over his shoulder to the apprentices, as he stood at the very edge of the stream. "But, don't worry. The stream here is much more shallow and slow-moving than the river by RiverClan."

"You should get a drink if you like. We have more to go," Fogfur said in his deep, rumbling voice.

Frostpaw padded forward and took a moment to lap up some of the pure, cool water. When she raised her head, she saw Grovepelt nodding his head, gesturing across the stream.

"Let's go," he said.

"We have to walk through the river?" Autumnpaw said incredulously, his eyes wide.

"You can't be a ShadowClan cat and expect to always keep your paws dry," Beeclaw said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "Half the territory is marsh, and the other half is mud."

"Aren't there any places with stepping stones or fallen trees?" Poolpaw meowed hopefully.

"Yes, but they are out of our way," Swoopstrike snapped, tail twitching irritably. "Just do as the deputy says."

"You won't have to swim," Grovepelt reassured. "Follow me."

Grovepelt slipped into the water, but as he padded across, even at the deepest point, the water only reached half-way up his sides.

"See?" he said over his shoulder.

The rest of the cats followed. Frostpaw winced at the water soaked into her belly fur, but she didn't say one word of complaint as she padded across. On the other side of the stream, the marsh continued on for a bit, but as they got farther from the river, the pines reclaimed their hold on the forest.

They walked and walked for so long, Frostpaw was sure that they must have padded through the whole forest. Then, she was startled to realized that she was right. The trees around them began to thin, then they suddenly stopped, and nothing but rolling golden fields stretched out in front of her. Frostpaw sniffed the air, she could smell the strong markers of ShadowClan scent again, but also the scents of different cats. Unlike the musty, nutty ThunderClan scent, this one was more sour with an edge that smelt of rabbits. Or, was the scent of rabbits just drifting over to Frostpaw on the breeze?

"This must be WindClan territory?" Autumnpaw asked.

"Yes," Beeclaw replied with a nod.

Frostpaw gazed out at the expanse of fields before her and gave a small shiver. Just looking out there made her feel so exposed. There was no where to hide on the empty moor.

"Why would a cat what to live somewhere with no trees?" Frostpaw muttered, half to herself.

"That's because WindClan cats don't think like normal cats. Their heads are filled with cotton," Swoopstrike said with a disdainful sniff.

Frostpaw looked over at Swoopstrike in surprise, caught off guard by the fact that the warrior had managed to say something to her without growling it out through clenched fangs.

Swoopstrike's gaze met Frostpaw's, and he seemed to suddenly remember who it was he was talking to. Swoopstrike's ears flattened, and he looked away from her.

"Have the apprentices seen enough?" Swoopstrike snapped to Grovepelt. "We've been up and down and across the territory all day, and my stomach is yowling with hunger."

Grovepelt rolled his eyes.

"By StarClan, Swoopstrike, you've been complaining more than the apprentices all day," Grovepelt said.

Swoopstrike muttered something under his breath about not even wanting to go on this patrol in the first place. Grovepelt continued, ignoring him.

"The sun is heading down, so we will head back to camp, although I wanted to stop by the carrion-place first," Grovepelt said.

"It's on the way back, so I'm sure that shouldn't be a problem for you, right Swoopstrike?" Grovepelt added with a sarcastic edge to his voice.

"Fine," Swoopstrike said in an audible voice this time.

Grovepelt turned and with a wave of his tail padded back into the trees, the rest of the patrol following him.

The sun was dipping towards the tops of the trees and their shadows were stretching long behind them by the time the group made it to the carrion-place. As they walked, the ground had grown more marshy again, and Frostpaw's nose wrinkled as she felt her paws squelching in the mud.

Like the thunderpath, Frostpaw could smell the carrion-place before she could see it. It reeked in a different way than the thunderpath did. While the thunderpath smelt sour and metallic, the carrion-place smelt rotten. As they padded out of the trees, Frostpaw's eyes widened at the strange sight before her. There was a small stretch of marshy grass between the trees and a tall web of a woven silver material in front of the patrol that stretched to the left and to the right.

As Frostpaw followed the web with her eyes, she could see that it encircled the entire carrion-place. It looked like to get in, the cats would have to either climb over it or dig their way under. The carrion-place itself was filled with piles of strange things. Some looked unnatural. They were shiny and metallic like the web or the pelt of the monster that they saw earlier. Other things Frostpaw could spot looked like rotting plants or rotting meat. But, mixed in with the rotting, there was a hint of a scent of good meat, a pervasive reek of rat, and a breeze of two-legs.

"There are so many things and weird scents. What is this place?" Autumnpaw meowed in confusion, echoing Frostpaw's thoughts.

"Two-legs come here every so often to leave things that they don't want in those piles," Beeclaw explained.

"We generally stay out of the carrion-place," Grovepelt said, shooting the apprentices a sharp look so they knew he was serious. "There are dozens of rats that live there. And, since two-legs are here sometimes too, it can be dangerous. There are also sometimes diseases…"

Grovepelt shook his head like he didn't want to think about it.

"Anyways, none of you are allowed to go in. No one is without special permission from Sedgestar. We avoid it if we can. But, it can be useful during starving leaf-bares when there is no prey in the forest because there are always rats and two-leg food to be found here. Luckily, we haven't had a bad enough leaf-bare to have to use it in seasons though," Grovepelt said.

The deputy turned and waved his tail for everyone to follow him.

"But, now let's head back to camp," he meowed from over his shoulder. "You've seen the landmarks of the territory, and you will become increasingly familiar with it through patrols and hunts."

Frostpaw cast a final look at the carrion-place, and when she turned around, she had to pick up her pace to catch up with the rest of the patrol. As the group padded through the quickly darkening forest, Frostpaw sighed in relief when she saw the thorn barrier that surrounded camp come into view. Her paws were dragging with tiredness, and her stomach clenched in hunger from not eating all day. The group brushed through the thorn tunnel and quickly fragmented, each apprentice splitting off with their respective mentor. Frostpaw hesitantly turned to Swoopstrike, waiting for his orders.

Swoopstrike wasn't even looking at her. He just stared off at something in the middle distance, his gaze and face blank.

"Go eat something, then get to your nest," Swoopstrike said in a flat voice. "Training starts at dawn."

Frostpaw nodded, but he was already walking away, scowling faintly to himself. Frostpaw's stomach flipped nervously as she watched him go. She sighed quietly, a feeling of despair settling over her.

How am I going to put up with six moons of this?

Author's Note:

Hi everyone! It feels great to be writing again and working on a new Warriors Fanfiction. As those of you that have been following my other stories know, Lightning's Destiny is complete. And, after taking a while off after finishing it to focus on other things and stuff in my life (I moved! Which has been stressful but also fun lol. And I've been working on other projects like a Brambleclaw/Squirrelflight animation that I hope will be finished sometime soonish.) I'm ready to start seriously working on Frosted Heart (it and the animation I mentioned are my two big creative project focuses now.) And, I'm excited to really get into Frosted Heart. I'm sort of all over the place with it right now, since I'm writing the most exciting sections of chapters first, then going back and filling in the in between parts to make a cohesive chapter. So, it might be a little bit before I get myself on a consistent chapter release schedule, but I'm definitely working away on the story! Anyways, thank you all for reading, and an extra thank you to everyone who leaves reviews. I love hearing your thoughts on the chapters or characters.

See you next chapter!

Reviews:

Brian.H.H: Hi! It has been a while haha. Thank you! I'm excited to be getting into this story. And, yeah, Sedgestar definitely didn't give Frostpaw Swoopstrike as her mentor just to be mean, but (in the beginning at least) their pairing will be a bit rough. Personally, if I was leader, I'd probably not have done it, but Sedgestar is the one in charge not me haha.

BrightMind: Hello again! It's nice to see you back as well! And, yeah, we'll have to wait and see how their mentor-apprentice relationship progresses. But, you're right in that Swoopstrike may be grumpy and difficult sometimes, but he's not a bad guy.