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Amelia(Guest): Thanks! Dustkit/paw is kinda spoiled when compared to Blossomkit/paw, but he isn't trying to be rude, just very impulsive. Nice guess. You'll learn more about Shimmerstar later on in the story.

BREEZE'WALLOW: Here's Chapter 9 :).

Amelia Knight(Guest): Updated.

Continuing with the story…

Blossompaw's POV

"Hey, wake up," I whispered softly to Stormpaw, still curled up, asleep, in his nest. Dawn patrol hadn't even gone out yet. I shook him. Hard. "Don't make me go to the stream and dump water on you."

Stormpaw groaned and opened his eyes. He jumped up in surprise, scrambling to the back of the apprentice den. "EEE—" I slapped my paw over his muzzle.

"Hush!" I hissed at him. "It's me! Blossompaw! Now, can I trust you not to scream?"

Stormpaw nodded, and I slowly took my paw away from his muzzle. "What are you doing so early? No one is up yet!" He yawned and shook out his pelt. "And I don't like that mischievous look in your eyes."

I grinned. "We're going out to slay that fox!" I mewed excitedly. "Remember, the one Streampaw and I scented a few days ago?"

Stormpaw narrowed his eyes at me. "No way. Do you know we could get killed ourselves? And you know how many rules we'll be breaking! Shimmerstar directly forbids us to go out. If we don't get killed, we'll still be in serious trouble! If you are determined to go, ask Streampaw. He's a much better fighter and is basically your trouble-making partner."

I sighed. "Stormpaw, Stormpaw, Stormpaw. Is everything rules to you? You gotta learn how to loosen up a bit. Besides, you know how Streampaw is. He would rather die than get up before dawn patrol. And he is dying internally when he has to get up for dawn patrol too. The fox won't kill us, there's two cats attacking it. Hopefully."

"Hopefully," Stormpaw said flatly. "So I am going to trust my life on a 'hopefully'."

"Well… technically, yes. But please, Stormpaw? Pretty please?"

Stormpaw groaned. "Fine. But if we get killed, I'm pinning it on you in Starclan."

"Deal."

"I changed my mind," Stormpaw mumbled. We had already gone out into the forest, near the river, and the stinky smell of fox was literally everywhere. It was as if the fox had stampeded all around Riverclan woodland territory as if it was to say 'This territory is mine, all mine!' with an evil cackle at the end.

How I hate foxes.

I shrugged. "It's not like you can go back."

"Yes I can."

"I won't let you."

Stormpaw sighed, swishing his tail in the river. "Come on. The fox is just going to gobble us up like a piece of fish. What happened to the little, sweet, Blossomkit who only wanted to please her mother?"

Claws flashed across my mind. Blood everywhere. Crystal blue eyes.

I flicked my tail at him. "If you haven't noticed yet, I am Blossompaw now, not Blossomkit. And who said I don't want to please her anymore?"

"Well, you—"

"— disobeyed the rules," I said boredly, rolling my eyes. "Mother would be proud of me if I killed the fox!"

"Rubbish."

"Let's go check the temporary Twoleg camp," I mewed, turning away from Stormpaw. "I don't think the fox is here."

Stormpaw's eyes widened with horror. "The temporary Twoleg camp?! B-but—"

"No buts," I hissed at him. "Where else would it be? Splashing around in one of the swamp or marshes?"

Stormpaw sighed, but gave a small nod. "Sometimes I think that you think that you are a leader and I'm your follower," he mumbled. "Actually, what happened to sweet, nice, Blossomkit?"

Two of the Twolegs had woken up already, and even though it was green-leaf, it was still pretty chilly. The Twolegs had somehow strangely contained fire in this pile of wood. Strange.

Stormpaw and I were crouched down, out of sight of the Twolegs, and watching the fire carefully. "Interesting," I murmured. "I wonder what they are going to use that for."

"It might be a weapon," Stormpaw fretted. "Or a trap, or a—"

"Calm down, Stormpaw. You know what's good? There are a lot of attractive things that a fox may want here, and there is fox-scent everywhere," I whispered, trying to ignore the delicious smell that wafted from a piece of meat, put between two white flat things, from one of the Twoleg's hands. "As long as we don't get the Twolegs' attention, we should be fine."

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

"Ummmmm…."

"Ooh! I know! We just find the fox, somehow kill the fox without getting killed ourselves or the Twolegs noticing, and if the Twolegs do notice, we just tell the Twolegs 'Hi! We're totally not doing anything freakish or suspicious! You can look away now!" Stormpaw said tauntingly in a high pitched voice. "Bye!"

It took all my self control not to leap at Stormpaw and pin him down.

"Could we just go home now? Please?" Stormpaw mewed weakly. "Please?"

I spun around, frustration trying to bust out of me. "Don't you know how important this is?" I growled at Stormpaw.

Stormpaw froze. "Maybe?" he squeaked.

"Well, you better make that a yes. We're already out here. It isn't like we can go back to camp now." I resumed watching the Twolegs.

Things were awfully silent for a while, and I was wondering if I should apologize to Stormpaw when he said, "Um, Blossompaw? Have you noticed that the fox-scent is fresh around here?"

He was right. The fox-scent did seem to be fresh. "That's really good," I mewled excitedly. "That means the fox is close by." Well, counting that the fox doesn't kill us, but it's two cats versus one fox, so it should be easy, right?

One of the Twolegs suddenly pointed at something, whispering something under its breath and then pulling the other back a few steps, a flash of fear crossing its eyes.

Of course, I can't read Twolegs, but I think it was a flash of fear. Maybe ninety-five percent sure?

A fox, fairly small and seemingly a female, emerged from the shadows, its eyes fixed hungrily on the thing in the Twoleg's hand. This should be easy, I thought.

"Uh, Blossompaw?" Stormpaw whimpered softly. "You still can change your mind—"

I leaped at the fox, plunging out into the clearing. Stormpaw, with some hesitation, trudged after me. Taking the fox's focus on the piece of meat, I leaped on the fox and scoured my claws across her pelt.

It only left a few small scratches on the fox. She barked angrily, and shook herself wildly. I flew off her, and in midair, slashed her claws across my pelt in revenge, leaving considerably deeper scratches than I had left on her. I landed with a thump on the ground, the impact knocking all the breath out of me, wincing as my wounds scraped the ground. Okay, maybe not so easy…

The fox loomed closer to me, her eyes shining with malice and its teeth bared. "Stormpaw?" I whispered. "Now may be a great time to start attacking."

There was a muffled sigh from behind the fox, and Stormpaw dashed underneath the fox, dug his claws deep into the fox's underbelly, and drew his claws across the fox's underbelly, before slamming his spine up into the fox. She howled, and stumbled back a few steps.

Clearly he was better at fighting than me. I stood up and fluffed my pelt out, trying to make myself look as big as possible. Bad at fighting, bad at hunting. How useless was I?

But even Stormpaw's attack didn't have a big effect on the fox. Stormpaw screamed as the fox grabbed him in her jaws and tossed him aside like a piece of prey. As I lunged at the snarling fox, who obviously had set its sights on me, in the corner of my eye I saw the two Twolegs staring at us intently, whispering about something, then started shouting.

The shouting drew the fox's attention away from me for a split second. I took the advantage and clasped onto the fox's back, desperately clawing over the small scratches I made before. Stormpaw clamped his jaws over the fox's tail and the fox howled in rage, her attention fully back on us again. She shook violently with rage, and I held on for dear life.

Oh dear Starclan. This is probably the end of the fox killing adventure idea that had stupidly found its way up my head, I thought. I yowled as the fox's teeth clamped across my pelt. White hot pain flashed through me. Stormpaw hissed as the fox's claws tipped his ear. And most likely our lives.

Well, at least we tried. And I guess to make up for it, Stormpaw gets to blame me in Starclan. Though that isn't a good trade, life for blaming rights. My vision started to go black, as hard as I tried to keep them open.

I really am pathetic, falling so quickly in battle, with basically only a few wounds.

"Oh Blossompaw!" I heard Stormpaw snarl frantically in the distance. "Don't die on me now! I don't want you to die!"

Then, one of the Twolegs waved the food in her paw at the fox. The fox's nose twitched, and she let go of me. I watched as Stormpaw push the fox with all his might, and the fox stumble back, her tail sweeping to keep her balance and—

—swooshing over the fire the Twolegs contained so nicely.

Screams of horror. From the Twolegs, from Stormpaw, from the fox. A burning smell filled the air. I would have screamed too, but I was too weak. Hmm, this feels familiar. Fainting on the ground from pain. Hmm. Inside my mind, I gave a hoarse laugh. I watched as a burning branch from a nearby tree snapped off and hurtled toward me. It felt like the branch was falling in slow motion just to tease me.

Time to say hi to Starclan, I thought.

The last thing I knew before I passed out (Or was it before I died? Most likely) was a body slamming into me, and a scream of utter pain shook me to the bone.

Dustpaw's POV

I woke up to Streampaw shaking me wildly. I groaned and pushed myself up into a sitting position, and glanced dully at Streampaw. I became fully awake (which is kinda rare for me this early these days. Did Streampaw influence me into the sleeping mode?) when I saw the fear in Streampaw's eyes. Snapfrost had come too, and was also looking worried.

"What's wrong?" I asked Streampaw immediately. Streampaw sniffed.

"Blossompaw and Stormpaw are missing," Snapfrost answered for him. "Lakepaw noticed first. Their scents are stale." He gestured toward their nests. Their scents were still a little fresh.

"Then what are we waiting for?" I mewed, shaking out my pelt.

"For you," Snapfrost said shortly. He trotted out of the den, waving his tail at me and Streampaw. We trailed after him, Streampaw still sniffing. "You and Streampaw are in my searching patrol, with Shadeflower, Lightningstrike, Sweetthistle, and Leopardpaw. We're searching in the woodlands area. I can't believe that two apprentices would disappear now. I thought the rogues were gone. But I guess I don't know if they were taken by rogues," he mumbled to himself.

As soon as Snapfrost turned away, Streampaw let down his sad look and made a face at me. "I can't believe that Blossompaw would not take me with her!" He whined quietly to me. "Instead, she took Stormpaw, of all cats." He nudged me hard, almost making me trip.

"Don't blame Blossompaw's motives on me!" I protested. "It's not my fault she left you." Also, you still have to apologize to her… the voice whispered.

"Hurry up!" Snapfrost shouted at us. I pricked my ears. Snapfrost wasn't known for being impatient.

Though it might have just been that we were pushing his limits.

"Coming!" I shouted at Snapfrost. "Just comforting Streampaw over here." On cue, Streampaw let out a sob, but then glared at me, as if saying you dare blame this on me?

"Come on," I pushed Streampaw forward. "I haven't seen Snapfrost's 'run out of patience' side yet, and I am not willing to see it now."

"Blossompaw! Stormpaw!" we called out into the woodlands. "Blossompaw! Stormpaw!"

Streampaw was starting to really look worried. I inhaled, hoping to catch either Blossompaw or Stormpaw scent. As much as Blossompaw and my rivalry burned, I still wasn't going to allow my friend to go into distress.

Stormpaw's scent, mingled with a little of Blossompaw's scent and another weird scent, hit my nose. "This way!" I meowed. I turned right and started to follow the scent.

"Weird," Sweetthistle mewed quietly. "This leads to the Twoleg's temporary settlement. Why would they be there?"

Shadeflower froze, taking another long sniff at the air, her ears flattening and her pupils constricting. "Fox," she growled. "They must have gone after the fox!" she cursed under her breath and started running. "We have to hurry! Two apprentices can't beat a fox!"

I picked up my pace, and Streampaw pulled up beside me. He seemed to look half-scared, half-indignant now. "She should have brought me along," he whined again. "Two apprentices may not be able to beat a fox, but three definitely can!" Then he quietly admitted. "I hope she's not hurt."

"Me too—"

"Get back!" Snapfrost shouted.

A burning smell filled my nose. I skidded to a stop in horror in front of a burning Twoleg camp. Green meadows had turned crisp black, and the Twolegs seemed to have abandoned their camp in a haste.

But that wasn't what horrified me most.

In the middle of the rage was Blossompaw and Stormpaw. Blossompaw laid down motionless in the clearings, her fur singed by the fire and, hopefully, unconscious and not dead. Streampaw shrieked in terror and ignored Snapfrost's warning, running to Blossompaw's side and gently nosing her. "Wake up! Please wake up, Blossompaw!"

But Stormpaw…oh Stormpaw. Leopardpaw stared in horror at the body of his brother, lying under a burning branch.

The sight was too much to bear. Time seemed to slow down. Leopardpaw let out a scream of desperation. It started raining, as if Starclan was crying out tears of its own, extinguishing all the flames and leaving smoke lingering in the air, a blessing and a curse. Instantly, we rushed over to the two apprentices.

"Is Blossompaw okay?" Shadeflower asked Streampaw urgently. He raised his muzzle from her fur and nodded gradually.

"Stormpaw's alive!" Leopardpaw mewed, with a tint of hope in his voice.

"But in a dire situation," Snapfrost mewed, pushing the branch off Stormpaw's body. "Both of them. We need to get them to Rootsong. Now." He said all of this in a firm voice, trying to conceal his worry, but it still made his way into his voice.

As the days went by, to Streampaw relief, Blossompaw was slowly recovering. But Stormpaw…

I could only hope, alongside the rest of the clan, that Stormpaw would survive.

A/N: Even though I already know the outcome, I'm going to hope alongside Dustpaw and the clan that Stormpaw will survive. Next chapter contains Blossompaw, Dustpaw, and Lakepaw's POV.

See you!

Ravenyfrost.