CHAPTER 9

They returned to camp sometime before dawn. Minkfur dismissed them, warning them to be ready to begin training at sunhigh the following day. The camp was just as active as before, Rosepaw noted. The ShadowClan cats seemed to rest in shifts, sometimes during the day, sometimes during the night. The kits were not out any longer, but she could hear them in the nursery.

There was no time to fix the nests, so she shared with Mothpaw again. She was becoming accustomed to the golden she-cat's presence, although she didn't really know too much about the she-cat. She resolved to fix that.

Apprentices were allowed to eat before heading to their nests. Snipepaw snagged himself a small vole off the fresh-kill pile. She waited for him to move off before selecting her own prey.

"Ugh!" Mothpaw groaned, looking through the pile. "Is that a frog?"

Indeed, it was. Rosepaw sniffed at it, not comforted by its foreign scent.

"You eat what you can in the wild," Minkfur's voice, so close behind them, made them both jump. He glared from Mothpaw to Rosepaw. "Especially in leafbare. Would you rather eat the frog, or starve?"

Without waiting for an answer, he snatched up a red-furred squirrel and stomped away. Rosepaw and Mothpaw exchanged a guilty look. "I didn't mean it like that," Mothpaw muttered. "It's just that, we don't eat that stuff in WindClan."

"Nor in ThunderClan," Rosepaw agreed quietly. She glanced around and spotted her mentor eating beside the stone she'd seen the elder at earlier. He was watching them. If they avoided the frog now, he'd know. He might think they were turning their noses up at the prey. There was only one thing for it. "Let's just try it, okay?"

Mothpaw blinked at her. "Only if you try it with me."

They pulled the frog off the pile and padded away. Snipepaw was sitting outside the apprentice's den by himself, and neither particularly wanted to join him. With a wave of her tail, she padded over to her mentor. "Can we join you?" she asked him politely. She realized too late that she had not adopted the deference that was expected of apprentices in ThunderClan. Owning it, she lifted her head even higher.

Minkfur glared at the pair. "What makes you think you're welcome?"

Rosepaw had never felt such a flash of dislike in her life. This cat was her mentor. She was supposed to get to know him, and him her. "Maybe it's because you're so approachable," she hissed. "Like a thornbush."

She expected him to get angry. To yell at her for her subordination, maybe. But he didn't. He narrowed his eyes, stripping off the last of the meat from his squirrel. The tension between them grew strong and while Minkfur wasn't a wolf, she didn't dare look away. Then he rose and said, "Be careful with that attitude, Rosepaw." With that, he left them behind.

Although the air around her warmed from the sudden chill, Rosepaw still couldn't ease the tension within. She lashed her tail in an effort to calm herself. Her eyes scanned the clearing and found Mothpaw's looking at her.

"What?"

"That was cool," she admitted with a smirk. "But is it wise to antagonize your mentor?"

Rosepaw couldn't relax. "I'll tell you what. You don't antagonize yours and I will mine. We'll see who fares better."

"Deal," Mothpaw agreed instantly. "Now let's try this frog."

They sit right where Minkfur was, the ground still warm from where his fur had touched the ground. Giving each other nods of encouragement, they closed their eyes and reached down for a bite. It wasn't all bad. The chewy texture reminded her of what a fish might taste like, though the flavor wasn't entirely different from the large quails that were sometimes brought into camp back in ThunderClan. She imagined that it was like a fishy bird, mild in flavor but rubbery on the palate. If she were starving, she imagined it might taste amazing. Anything would taste amazing if one was starving. But with a range of flavors to choose from, she didn't think frog would be her favorite.

Mothpaw wrinkled her nose. "It's not bad," she said, echoing Rosepaw's thoughts. "Kind of reminds me of water shrew."

"You have water shrew in the mountains?"

"Oh yes," she said excitedly. "The river borders our territory. There's a waterfall up there. Lots of water shrews up that way."

"Was that your favorite?"

"No," Mothpaw admitted. "I like bird best. If I can catch one down here, I'll get you to try it. What's yours?"

"White-foot mouse."

"I'm sure they have that here," she said easily. "It's not too different from ThunderClan, land wise."

Rosepaw didn't answer. It was true that ShadowClan wasn't all that different from the ThunderClan forest. If you didn't include the marshes and the lack of undergrowth, that was. Yet it was entirely different in ways she didn't think she could explain.

It was simpler to expand on the differences between ShadowClan and WindClan.

"It must be very different from the moor."

Mothpaw nodded. "Well, yeah, of course. But also, not." Her face scrunched in thought while she chewed on her frog leg. "I guess it's more open in WindClan. I mean there wasn't any underbrush exactly, but there was a lot of tall grass we were expected to wade through. And the sky was always visible. Snailshine, she's one of our elders, she used to always say the sky is the daily prey of our eyes. Isn't that weird?"

What was weird to Rosepaw was how nonchalant Mothpaw seemed to feel about her former Clan. Didn't she miss them at all? "Do you miss seeing the sky?"

Mothpaw shrugged. "Not really. I can still see the sky here if I want to. It's just better here." Her gaze darkened as she glared across the camp. "Except for him."

Rosepaw followed her gaze. Snipepaw was just finishing his prey, burying it in the mud at the edge of the camp wall. He turned as he finished, and his eyes met Mothpaw's. She gave a sarcastic wave of her tail and his lip curled.

"I was hoping he would choose any other Clan," she admitted to Rosepaw. "We've never gotten along."

"Why?" While Rosepaw hadn't been friends with everybody in ThunderClan, she couldn't imagine sharing the animosity that seemed to be between Snipepaw and Mothpaw with any of her Clanmates. How could they function as a Clan if they hated each other so much?

"He's always been a bully." Mothpaw turned her back on Snipepaw to face Rosepaw head on. "When we were in the nursery, he put burrs in the youngest kits bedding, then blamed our other Clanmate. I don't understand how the queens believed him, but they did. Adderpaw was cleaning bedding for a moon after that! I've hated him ever since."

For a moment her gaze was distant. Lost in her own thoughts, she said nothing more while they finished the last of the frog. It was only when they were burying their remains that she seemed to remember their conversation.

"Do you miss ThunderClan?"

It was a trick question, asked only out of politeness. There was a prescribed answer, and Rosepaw had a feeling that if she didn't give that exact response, it would not go over well. Maybe only one day in, it wouldn't be a stretch for her to still miss her former Clanmates. But most apprentices should be adjusting to their new Clans by now.

But I'm not most apprentices. The thought nagged Rosepaw like a thorn in her pad. She'd had enough experience with that in ThunderClan to recognize the sensation. Alderheart had told her that she could belong in three Clans equally well. Rosepaw had been convinced before that he was wrong, that she'd never have belonged in ThunderClan if she couldn't hunt there. But could she really fit in here, where Clanmates hated one another, and the deputy was barely a warrior?

It doesn't matter. You chose ShadowClan. Get over it.

Mothpaw was still waiting for an answer.

"No."

True to his word, Minkfur fetched them at sunhigh. "Hollow." Was all the instruction he gave them. He didn't wait for them to wake up properly. Thank StarClan that was something that ThunderClan had trained into her. Rosepaw did not need time to stretch or eat a morning meal. It wasn't even morning. Pride flashed in her pelt as she realized how fast she was adjusting to the new ShadowClan schedule.

It transpired that in WindClan, they did have a morning routine. Mothpaw was still blinking sleepies out of her eye, and even Snipepaw screwed his face up against the sun. They made their way down the muddy embankment to where Minkfur had shown them the night before.

All of them were instantly alert when they spotted Beetledust. The deputy was pacing in the clearing. He turned when they entered the clearing. His eyes brightened. Yet he said nothing. It was Minkfur again who stepped forward to address the apprentices.

"Today you will begin your training." He looked at each of the apprentices. "It will be my job to teach you the basics in hunting and fighting techniques."

"Your job?" Snipepaw sniffed. He eyed Minkfur's youthful features, clearly unimpressed. "What about our mentors?"

Rosepaw glanced at Beetledust, expecting him to scold the apprentice's brazen attitude. The deputy was expressionless, looking from warrior to apprentice and back again. Isn't he going to say anything?

"Apprentice!" Minkfur snapped. "You will wait until I finish speaking to ask questions."

Snipepaw sneered but didn't argue. Her mentor had made it painfully clear the night before that they were not friends, no matter how friendly he seemed. But Rosepaw couldn't help the flash of pride that warmed her fur. It was petty, really. It wasn't her who had put Snipepaw in his place, so why did she feel so smug about it?

Minkfur continued. "Your training will be completed in three stages. You will train together until your first assessment, at which time you will begin to train one-on-one with your mentors."

"What about the others?" Mothpaw looked around. "I don't see Toadpaw or Lilypaw anywhere."

If he was upset about the second interruption, Minkfur didn't show it. "The ShadowClan born apprentices will have an advantage over you in battle training and hunting," he explained. "They will be training together but evaluated separate from you."

As if he decided that now was his time to speak, Beetledust approached the group. "Minkfur will be your primary trainer for the first part of your training, but I will be overseeing all aspects of your training." His cold eyes glanced them over. Beside her, Snipepaw sat up straighter, as if wanting to seem impressive. It was impossible, given his short legs. Beetledust didn't seem to notice. "In ShadowClan, you give everything you have to the Clan. You fight until you can't fight anymore. You hunt until every cat is fed. You will know every herb, even if you aren't trained properly in using them." His lip curled. "And all intruders will be chased out, no questions asked. We are not cowards like ThunderClan. We will not give away to the Clanless what rightfully belongs to ShadowClan."

Now it was Snipepaw's turn to be smug. She could feel it emanating off his fur. It was this that fueled her stupid instincts to defend her birth Clan. "ThunderClan aren't cowards for giving out what they have to those in need. It takes courage to put others before yourself."

An unnatural hush came over the clearing. Beetledust turned to her slowly. "You think ThunderClan is being selfless by giving away their herbs to stinking rogues?"

It had seemed obvious to her before, but the question made her pause. Don't let him see you're confused. "Of course."

He snorted. "It's not selfless. If anything, it's more selfish to give away their stuff. Every year during leafbare, they inevitably give away all of their herbs. They end up begging the other Clans for supplies. Every year, cats die because there aren't enough herbs to go around." His eyes, cold like frost, sharp like flint, penetrated straight through her skin. "If I recall correctly, your father died from greencough last leafbare."

He took a step closer to her; his voice got quieter. "When the stars come out tonight, I want you to look at them. Figure out which star is him. I want you to see your father in StarClan. Tell me then how selfless ThunderClan was giving away the herbs that could have saved his life."

Rosepaw didn't answer. It felt like a paw had clawed through her chest and hollowed her out; she no longer had any substance. She didn't even care that Snipepaw was absolutely grinning at Beetledust's words.

The deputy leaned in to whisper in her ear. "I'll be watching your training very carefully, thunder-cat."