Chapter Text

ALLEGIANCES

WINDCLAN

Leader: Tallstar—a black-and-white tom with a very long tail.

Apprentice, Firepaw

Deputy: Deadfoot—a black tom with a twisted paw.

Apprentice, Onepaw

Medicine Cat: Barkface—a short-tailed brown tom.

Warriors:

Mudclaw—a mottled dark brown tom.

Apprentice, Webpaw

Tornear—a tabby tom.

Apprentice, Runningpaw

Ashfoot—a grey molly.

Maplespring—a tortoiseshell molly with green eyes.

Apprentice, Whitepaw

Apprentices:

Onepaw—a young brown tabby tom.

Webpaw—a dark grey tabby tom with amber eyes.

Runningpaw—a light grey tabby molly with green eyes

Firepaw—a flame colored tom with bright green eyes.

Whitepaw—a small white molly with green eyes.

Queens & Kits:

Morningflower—a tortoiseshell queen.

Gorsekit—brown tabby tom kit.

Elders:

Fallowhawk—a light brown molly with blue eyes.

RIVERCLAN

Leader: Crookedstar—huge light-colored tabby with a twisted jaw.

Deputy: Leopardfur—unusually spotted golden tabby molly.

Medicine cat(s): Mudfur—long-haired light brown tom.

Warriors:

Blackclaw—smoky black tom.

Apprentice, Heavypaw

Stonefur—grey tom with battle-scarred ears.

Apprentice, Shadepaw

Mistyfoot—dark grey molly.

Loudbelly—dark brown tom.

Mosspelt—a tortoiseshell and white molly with blue eyes.

Frogleap—a grey tom with a striped tail.

Apprentices:

Heavypaw—a brown tabby tom with green eyes.

Shadepaw—a dark grey molly.

Queens:

Mistyfoot—dark grey molly.

Elders:

Greypool—thin grey molly with patchy fur and a scarred muzzle

SHADOWCLAN

Leader: Nightstar—old black tom.

Deputy: Cinderfur—thin gray tom.

Medicine cat(s): Runningnose—small grey-and-white tom.

Warriors:

Rowanberry—brown-and-cream molly.

Nutwhisker—brown tom with amber eyes.

Stumpytail—brown tabby tom.

Wetfoot—gray tabby tom.

Apprentice, Oakpaw

Littlecloud—very small tabby tom.

Tallpoppy—a light brown tabby molly.

Dawncloud—small tabby.

Brownfur—a brown tom with yellow eyes.

Apprentices:

Oakpaw—a light brown tom.

Elders:

Ashfur—thin grey tom

Brightflower—black-and-white molly.

Brackenfoot—pale ginger tom with dark ginger legs

THUNDERCLAN

Leader: Bluestar—blue-grey molly, tinged with silver around her muzzle.

Deputy: Tigerclaw—big dark brown tabby tom with unusually long front claws.

Medicine cat(s): Yellowfang—old dark grey molly with a broad, flattened face.
Apprentice, Cinderpaw

Warriors: 

Whitestorm—big white tom.

Apprentice, Sandpaw

Darkstripe—sleek black-and-grey tabby tom.

Longtail—pale tabby tom with dark black stripes.

Apprentice, Swiftpaw

Runningwind—swift tabby tom.

Apprentice, Dustpaw

Willowpelt—very pale grey molly with unusual blue eyes.

Apprentice, Brackenpaw

Mousefur—small dusky brown molly.

Apprentices:

Dustpaw—dark brown tabby tom.

Greypaw—long-haired solid grey tom.

Sandpaw—pale ginger molly.

Swiftpaw—black and white tom.

Cinderpaw—dark grey molly.

Brackenpaw—golden brown tabby tom.

Queens & Kits:

Frostfur—beautiful white coat and blue eyes.

Brightkit—white molly with ginger patches.

Thornkit—golden brown tabby tom.

Brindleface—pretty tabby.

Ashkit—pale gray with darker flecks, tom, dark blue eyes

Fernkit—pale gray with darker flecks, molly, pale green eyes

Goldenflower—pale ginger coat.

Speckletail—pale tabby, and the oldest nursery queen.

Elders:

Halftail—big dark brown tabby tom with part of his tail missing.

Smallear—grey tom with very small ears. The oldest tom in ThunderClan.

Patchpelt—small black-and-white tom.

One-eye—pale grey molly, the oldest cat in ThunderClan. Virtually blind and deaf.

Dappletail—once-pretty tortoiseshell molly with a lovely dappled coat.

CATS OUTSIDE OF CLANS

Smudge—a plump black and white tom. Kittypet.

Princess—a brownish grey molly with white and orange spots. Kittypet.

Barley—black and white tom. Lives on a farm near the edge of WindClan territory.

Ravenpaw—small, skinny black tom with a tiny white dash on his chest, and a white-tipped tail. Lives on a farm near the edge of WindClan territory.

PROLOGUE

The distinguishment between a good decision and a bad one is often a hard one to make, especially if one doesn’t have much experience with being forced into a situation where they must decide whether they would do something life-altering, or leave the idea to die and crumble away.

It could be argued that some ideas, especially big ones, never die, and it is up to whoever it is in question that must make such a bold decision whether the idea is dead if it is never acted upon.

While being able to find the difference between a good and a bad decision may seem something that symbolizes wiseness in someone, there was the argument of, “who is to decide where the line between these two opposites lie?”

In reality, this line was fuzzy- perhaps something could be done, and although it has an outrageously good response, there might be someone who is affected negatively by whatever is done, even if is from sort of a long line of reactions, and, truthfully, it isn’t much of the entity in question’s fault if they don’t guess someone completely unrelated to the issue will be affected badly. If one were to bring up the idea that someone who has no relation whatsoever to the issue at hand might be tossed into some disastrous spiral, they would be seen as paranoid.

But in the moment where one must make the decision of taking that risk, all the details enlarge themselves, all the “ what-ifs ” and the “ but-then-whats ” become a tree in the eyes of a termite. 

Oh, and guess what? There is a troubled soul traversing a snowy moor, accompanied by his friend, with this entire storm of questions raging in his mind.

The tom in question, an average-sized, scruffy grey one, kept glancing over nervously at his friend, a skinny and lean black tom.

He had agreed to help out his friend, but at what cost? How would he explain his friend’s sudden absence? Would he have to say that the young tom had perished in a border skirmish? It seemed likely that he would have to do something of that nature if he wanted to keep the whole situation a secret.

But keeping that secret would mean lying- lying to both his friends and his superiors. And what for? The unproven hunch that his friend so persistently insisted on?

Even then, if he did go through with lying, saying it was a border skirmish would result in unwanted tension, perhaps even a need for unnecessary vengeance amongst his Clanmates.

But now it was too late.

The grey tom had already agreed to help out his friend, and there was no going back.

Not if he wanted to stay loyal to one of his few friends in his Clan.

But then- would rumors spread? Would the blame be placed solely on the grey tom for the small, meek apprentice suddenly vanishing?

In the eyes of his Clanmates, all they’d know is that the grey tom and his friend had left camp, gone out hunting, and suddenly the grey tom arrived back alone, claiming that his friend was killed, without having any proof to show that such a thing had happened in the first place.

But it was too late.

Much too late.

And the grey tom knew that.

So, really, what was the bother of panicking over it?

Should he give in, accept the possibility that something bad would happen, and he could do nothing to change it or reverse his actions if such a thing were to happen?

It seemed the wisest decision in that moment. 

“They must have been gone for awhile,” the grey tom spoke up, finally, after a long, tense silence between the two that had lasted for most of their journey. “I can hardly smell WindClan here at all.”

“Hmmm…” The black tom was quiet, seeming in a daze from all the recent events. “One can only hope that nothing awful happened.”

“More awful than what we already know happened, you mean?”

“Yes, yes. Of course.”

The silence returned, and one of the two were grateful for this.

That is, this silence lasted till the black tom spotted a shape in the distance.

“Greypaw,” he said airily to get the grey tom’s attention.

“Hm?” Greypaw asked, following the black tom’s gaze to see the shape he was looking at.

“What do you think that is?”

Greypaw squinted. If memory served him right… “I saw that barn on my way back from the Moonstone. The cat who lives there saved us from some trouble with rats. He seemed friendly.”

The black tom frowned. “Is it worth checking out?”

Greypaw shrugged. “I suppose. There’s plenty of food there, and it’s fairly warm.” When his friend didn’t respond, he continued. “Hey… maybe you could stay there.”

This caught the black tom’s attention. “You think the cat who lives there would let me?”

“No harm in checking to see. I doubt he’d try to attack us.”

And so, that was how the two decided to check out the abandoned barn.

The two trekked the final lengths of the field, until they were just outside WindClan territory, and the barn was right up in front of the two.

While the black tom seemed more hesitant to enter, Greypaw easily padded in, somewhat relieved for the lack of snow and cold weather inside of the barn. His friend followed a bit more tentatively. Greypaw was instantly relieved of how warm it was inside, and as he shot a glance at his friend, it seemed that Ravenpaw thought the same thing.

The two quickly spotted the cat they were looking for; he was fairly plump, chewing on a mouse atop a pile of hay in the corner of the barn. He was mostly white, with some faded black spots and splats on his unruly and dirt-filled fur.

The cat in question also spotted them quickly.

The black-and-white cat seemed to briefly tense, getting up, before recognition flashed in his eyes. “You- your names… I’ve met you two before, right?”

Greypaw nodded. “I’m Greypaw, and this is Ravenpaw. You helped the two of us, Tigerclaw, and our leader, Bluestar, when we were attacked by rats. I believe your name is Barley, correct?”

Barley nodded, jumping down from his perch atop the stack of hay. “Well, what brings you two here? Is there anything Bluestar needs help with?”

Greypaw glanced at Ravenpaw, lifting a brow. He assumed that the small black tom would want to tell his own story.

After a brief moment of encouragement from Greypaw, Ravenpaw began to explain his predicament.

“Well, as you know, I’m an apprentice in ThunderClan. My mentor, Tigerclaw- you’ve met him before- well, I saw him do something. Something… really bad. I think I saw him- he- well, he killed someone . No one believes me, of course, since he’s a senior warrior and really respected… but- but he did do it. And I know he knows that I know he did it. I think he’s planning to do something to me- no, I don’t think , I know.” Ravenpaw paused to breathe. “I think he’s going to kill me if he thinks I’m going to say anything, so I felt… unsafe. Please understand. I… I hate to ask this of you… but I really need to get out of ThunderClan…” he trailed off.

Barley digested this information, before blinking. “You’re asking to stay here?”

Ravenpaw hung his head low, before nodding guiltily.

Barley chuckled at Ravenpaw’s embarrassment, before shaking his head. “No need for the sour look. Of course you can stay here. I have more food than I’ll ever need in this barn, so there's no harm in sharing it with someone. Maybe it’ll mean days will be less boring, too.”

Ravenpaw gaped, seeming confused. “Wait, really? Is- are there any special terms I need to agree to?”

Barley seemed to think to himself, before shrugging. “Yeah, really. And other than, y’know, not hurting me, I can’t think of any sort of terms I’d like you to agree to. This place is plenty big to have more than me living in it.”

Ravenpaw let out a gasp of relief, before nodding. “Thank you, thank you so much. I was worried I’d have to live in the forest as a rogue or something…”

“No need to thank me. Feel free to go and catch something to eat, or find a place to sleep. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Ravenpaw nodded, thanking Barley again, before heading deeper into the barn.

“Now, you, Greypaw.” Barley turned his gaze to the grey tom in question.

“Huh?”

“Why are you here? Would you like to eat something?” Barley sat down, giving Greypaw a curious look.

“Oh. Oh! No, no. I just came here to escort Ravenpaw. I really have to go, actually.” 

“Where, if I may ask?”

Greypaw shifted in the spot where he sat. “Brokenstar- the leader of ShadowClan- drove out WindClan. I’m heading to retrieve them and bring them back.”

Barley seemed momentarily shocked, before letting out a sad sigh. “I was wondering why the moors have been so empty. But… you’re going alone?”

Greypaw nodded. “I left without a word to anyone. Bluestar doesn’t know I’m doing this.”

Barley nodded. “Very well. I’m guessing that’s a no to the meal?”

Greypaw dipped his head. “Yeah, I want to head away as soon as possible.”

“Understandable. However… I believe I can be of at least a bit of help.”

“Hm?” 

Barley padded out of the barn, and Greypaw followed curiously. “I saw them leaving. I thought it was just a large patrol, but I suppose it must’ve been them.” The tom lifted his tail to point in a particular direction. “They went that way. All of them were deathly terrified. I considered checking if they were okay, but they were all gone before I could even approach them.”

Greypaw dipped his head in respect. “Thank you. And… thank you for taking in Ravenpaw, too. He needed it.”

"Of course," Barley replied. "And good luck on your mission to bring WindClan back. You'll definitely need it."

Chapter Text

CHAPTER ONE

Time passed unbearably slow during leaf-bare. Each passing day was filled with little more than wandering around the camp aimlessly, and when asked of them, Firepaw and Onepaw would help with the elder’s ticks, or talk with the other apprentices, or watch the sky and clouds- really, anything to keep the two toms busy.

It didn’t take long for Firepaw to begin twitching in an anxious fervor when he had nothing to do with his paws- having nothing to do felt dissatisfying, so he’d look around for something to do. Sometimes, when he was desperate enough, he’d do something as simple as sorting the rocks in the camp, or putting extra leaves in the barrier around camp.

During the time where he was in punishment, he was filled with an all-too-familiar feeling of being trapped. Although, at least in his home in Twolegplace, he’d usually have a toy to mess around with.

Onepaw seemed to be faring better. There wasn’t as much of an emotional toll on the light brown tom, other than the occasional angry whine about how the punishment was unfair, as they had done something that had helped WindClan, and, “why would Tallstar punish them for making his job easier?” And even when Firepaw tried to explain how Tallstar had completely valid reasons for doing so, Onepaw hardly seemed to listen to his explanations.

Firepaw didn’t do much whining himself- he’d just quietly twitch and stir, anxiously looking around the camp for anything new to hear about, or one of the apprentices returning from a hunt or border patrol.

As the punishment went on, Firepaw realized more and more why Tallstar had done this- even if not to Onepaw, to Firepaw at the very least.

Even if it did seem rather cruel to Firepaw- Tallstar had witnessed firsthand how much Firepaw despised the feeling of being stuck.

Maybe Tallstar hadn’t specifically been thinking of Firepaw and his weaknesses when thinking up the punishment. Maybe it was a standard for apprentices who messed up badly. Runningpaw and Webpaw spoke of it like it was.

Either way, Firepaw really wanted it to be over soon.

It came to a point where Firepaw wondered if it had already been half a moon. It felt like it had been six moons, seven moons. 

Is he dragging this out? Firepaw found himself thinking, Is he that determined to get this message into our minds? To lie about how long we’ve been stuck here?

Surely, it was just Firepaw’s anxious, paranoid thinking that brought him to this conclusion, and, in fact, it ended up being untrue, as Webpaw was able to confirm that only half a moon had passed since WindClan had been brought back.

However, this also meant that his punishment really would be over soon.

In the moment when Tallstar called Onepaw and Firepaw to his den, Firepaw felt a sudden feeling of relief flush through him. Surely he was being called because he would be able to leave the camp.

It was to Firepaw’s dismay when the meeting was simply to check how the two toms were faring, and to say that their punishment would be done soon.

Soon . Soon meant more time where Firepaw would gradually feel himself grow more and more restless as the hours passed.

When Firepaw left Tallstar’s den, his head was hung and he headed straight over to the prey pile, with Onepaw close in toe.

The two toms sat by the pile, and after a moment's consideration, Onepaw pulled out a rabbit for the two to share.

As the friends were eating, Onepaw suddenly spoke up. “Hey, don’t look so glum, Firepaw. We’ll be out of here soon, alright?”

Firepaw paused in his chewing, and glanced away, not meeting Onepaw’s gaze. He swallowed. “But who’s to say how soon Tallstar means when he says ‘soon’?”

Onepaw frowned, continuing to eat his share. “I mean, this sucks, but why are you this perturbed by it?”

Firepaw’s lips downturned. “Being stuck in your housefolk’s-” he choked on his words, before shaking his head. “Being… being stuck unhappily in a Twoleg’s home for so long certainly plays a part in it.” 

A small “oh,” escaped Onepaw, and the brown tom quieted down. 

Firepaw decided to change the subject. “When do you think this snow’ll stop?”

“Who knows,” Onepaw muttered. “It could last for another day, it could last for twenty more moons.”

Firepaw chuckled slightly, despite his still remaining gloom from the interaction with Tallstar. “You’re overexaggerating.”

Onepaw only smiled slightly and shook his head, before the two returned to silently eating the rabbit between them.

It remained like that for some time before there was a sudden loud noise from the entrance, followed by loud, recognizable laughter.

The two looked up, seeing, as expected, Whitepaw bounding into camp, with Webpaw trailing more slowly behind her.

Upon spotting Firepaw and Onepaw by the prey pile, Whitepaw bounded over and dropped the two hares she had caught in the pile, and Webpaw did the same with his own prey, albeit a bit more slowly.

The two sat down, and Whitepaw immediately launched into conversation, as per her usual style.

“Hey! You two!” she exclaimed.

Firepaw blinked in surprise. “Er- yes?”

“When are you getting out of this dreary camp? It’s boring out there- well, Runningpaw is fun, but you know- it’s not the same!” 

Onepaw glanced at Firepaw before responding. “We… actually don’t know. Tallstar said that it’d be soon, though. Whenever that is."

“Lame,” Whitepaw murmured. “Well, it’s your duty to come to me first when you are freed of this place.”

“Right, right,” Firepaw shifted his weight. “So… how have things been outside of here?”

“Cold,” Webpaw spoke up in a disgruntled tone. 

“He’s butthurt since I kicked him into the snow, and now he’s all wet,” Whitepaw said triumphantly, puffing out her chest.

Now that Firepaw looked at Webpaw more carefully, he could see the remnants of melting snow on the tom’s fur, as well as some water dripping from his belly. The orange tabby shot his annoyed friend a pitying smile.

“So, I’m guessing it’s as snowy everywhere else in the territory as it is here?” Onepaw asked.

“Yeah, just about. In a lot of places it’s even worse . Why do WindClan cats have such short fur if the moors are so exposed to snowing?” Whitepaw muttered, shaking some of the remaining bits of snow from her own pearly white fur.

“Well, you know, it’d be kind of difficult to run and catch prey if we were being tugged back by mounds of fur snagging on heathers,” Webpaw reasoned, still grooming himself.

“Whatever. It’s not like other Clans don’t have to run!” 

Webpaw shrugged. “We have a pretty distinct hunting style. We’re the only ones who pursue our prey like we do.”

Firepaw felt the need to disrupt the chatter, as he knew Whitepaw would never let up. “Anyways, let's just hope that me and Onepaw can get out of here soon.”

The others agreed, and that, for the most part, was the end of the conversation.

---

Towards the end of that same day, Firepaw was surprised to be summoned with Onepaw by Tallstar for the second time that day.

The two apprentices wasted no time in padding over to the leader's den, eager to hear news of when they might be able to leave the camp and continue their training.

When they arrived, Tallstar was quiet, waiting for the two to settle in their places in front of him.

“I know the both of you have been very unhappy with your punishment And I did say it would be over soon. So… to get right to the point, your punishment is over, and your training will resume starting tomorrow.”

Firepaw felt as if a stone was taken off of his chest, and let out a sigh of relief. 

The two toms gave their thank-yous, while Tallstar just sat and silently nodded, before the two eager apprentices left the den.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll see the moors, and be able to run on them again. Tomorrow I won’t have to spend another day in this suffocating camp.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER TWO

Firepaw sighed, trailing a few paces behind Tallstar.

The two toms had been outside camp for quite awhile by that point, but now that they were simply strolling on their way back to camp, Firepaw got a chance to properly look around the territory.

As the other apprentices had described, the snow remained deep, covering the moors of WindClan territory. The great white fields twinkled in the sunlight, the sun somewhat shaded away from the clouds obscuring the sky.

The camp itself was growing larger in the distance, appearing as though it were a giant mound of twigs and bristles from how the barriers craned in at the ends. A delicate weaving made by cats that had inhabited the curious place that Firepaw called home long before he had shown up in the first place, kept in place by the following generations throughout the moons.

Firepaw didn’t know too much about Clan history, really. He hadn’t considered it- how did they decide to be in such a society with these specific rules?

He’d heard murmurs from scolding mentors, telling their apprentices not to eat before feeding the elders, he’d heard kits complaining how they couldn’t be apprentices yet, and, perhaps most, he’d heard time and time again how, “the warrior must reject the soft life of a kittypet.”

He’d questioned these rules. While there were exceptions to allow some specific situations, many didn’t make any sense. They created such splits between all the Clans- where was the sense in that?

There were also rules that were apparently not even in the warrior code, but seemed to be held in just as high esteem- like how kits couldn’t leave camp, or medicine cats couldn’t have kits. Why didn’t they just put this in with the others? And even then, some of these rules were somewhat flawed as well.

Was it really in Firepaw’s place to say that, though?

Was it a reflection of his old kittypet life, haunting him? Perhaps a remaining illogical side of him from that time.

Surely.

Did any other cats in the Clans think about this? Had all these rules become such a constant norm among them, that they had refused to settle with anything else? They hadn’t known another life with such different rules and norms, unlike Firepaw, as he had lived a life as Rusty.

Even still, Firepaw supposed he’d have to live with these uncertainties. 

After all, they were expected to be a complete norm for a cat in one of the Clans.

So, in that moment, the thought fled from Firepaw’s mind, and he returned to the moment, where he and Tallstar were getting closer and closer to the entrance of Clan.

Firepaw’s mentor must’ve noticed his troubled expression, from the way he kept glancing back with a curious glance.

Still, Tallstar didn’t say anything.

That is, ‘til they actually entered the camp.

“How was your first day back out training?” Tallstar asked, and although his voice didn’t portray much thought, his eyes were soft.

Firepaw hummed to himself, thinking. “Well, of course, it was lovely,” he began. “The other apprentices kept complaining about how cold it is- and, well, yeah, it is- but I felt it was a nice refresher to being stuck in camp.”

Tallstar nodded. “Well, go warm yourself up. I’m gonna start a meeting soon.” He seemed to finish, till he added, “I trust you’ve learned your lesson.”

Firepaw nodded, dipping his head in respect, before leaving to head over to the apprentice’ den.

Within, he was met with Onepaw laying in his nest. As Firepaw entered, he intended to quietly tiptoe past to his own nest, but as he was doing this, Onepaw groaned and lifted his head.

“Oh. You’re back,” he observed.

Firepaw nodded, sitting down in his nest ungracefully. He began grooming his chest.

“Did you like being out again?” Onepaw inquired.

Firepaw chuckled slightly. “Yeah, of course I did,” he began. “It’s better than to be counting clouds while stuck in camp.”

Onepaw nodded in agreement, sitting up himself. “So, anything interesting going on?”

Firepaw thought to himself briefly, before nodding. “Well, Tallstar said that he’d call a meeting soon.”

“Oh!” The brown tom’s eyes lit up. “That must be the Gathering! StarClan, I completely forgot about it. It really has been a while since our Clan's been to one."

Firepaw blinked, before blinking in realization. “It’s… it’s the first one since we…” he trailed off, and smiled slightly. “Yeah. That’ll take some explanation from Tallstar. We’ll also probably see how ShadowClan has been faring.”

“Ha, you’re mighty hopeful to say ‘we.’ You really think Tallstar’ll let us tag along after such a big punishment?”

Firepaw reflected on it, before growing somewhat downcast. “Ah, I suppose you’re probably right. We can get the news from one of the others, I suppose.”

“Still not the same…” Onepaw muttered.

Firepaw thought briefly over what he might be missing- how the other Clans would react to WindClan finally returning, how ShadowClan had been doing.

“Greypaw,” Firepaw muttered. “I hope he’s been doing alright. Last time we saw him it was, well, you know… with Silverpaw.”

Onepaw nodded, before frowning. “We could ask one of the apprentices going to the Gathering to find him and see how he’s been doing.”

Before Firepaw could think of how to respond, there was a call throughout camp. “Let all cats old enough to catch prey gather beneath Tallrock."

Firepaw and Onepaw nodded to each other, before leaving the den to join the rest of the cats outside in the clearing.

Tallstar didn’t waste time in beginning the meeting. “So, as some of you may know, we have a Gathering with the other three Clans tonight, our first one since we came back from exile. Before I get into announcing the cats who will be going, I want to remind each and every one of you to be on your best behavior, and attempt to be civil with the other Clans. As much as I know you like gossiping, I want to be the first one to tell the story, so all facts are true and clear for the other Clans.” As he said this, his eyes darted over the crowd, not lingering too long on anyone, before he continued.

“The cats that will be going tonight are, of course myself, my deputy Deadfoot and my medicine cat, Barkface, along with my apprentice, Firepaw, Mudclaw, Ashfoot, Maplespring, and their respective apprentices, Onepaw, Webpaw, and Whitepaw.”

Firepaw blinked in confusion. Wait, I’m actually going?

Judging from Onepaw’s expression, the brown tom felt similar in terms of his reaction.

"We will be leaving shortly. To those who are going, take the time to rest before we do so. You are all dismissed." Tallstar finished the meeting before hopping off of the Tallrock and heading over to speak with Deadfoot and Barkface. The rest of the cats began to merge into small groups and head off to the side to share tongues and converse.

“Well, huh. I guess we will be going,” Onepaw muttered, still looking relatively confused.

“ Yes we will!” came a sudden, excited voice from behind the two toms.

The two turned around to see Whitepaw practically bouncing around with excitement. “Oooh, you know what this means?” She purred airily. “My first Gathering is gonna be a super important one! I’ve gotta be well-behaved, and professional .”

Firepaw found himself unsurprised by Whitepaw’s antics. After all, she had been complaining about how it wasn’t fair that the other apprentices could go to the Gathering ever since she had first become an apprentice.

“Do you think that Tallstar will ever allow everyone to go to a Gathering?” Whitepaw asked curiously.

“Er- everyone? Everyone in the Clan ?” Firepaw found himself bewildered at this.

“No, of course not, mouse-brain. All the apprentices. I’m sure that Runningpaw feels left out.”

“I’m quite fine, actually.”

Oh, now it’s Runningpaw appearing out of nowhere. What’s next? The entirety of StarClan’s gonna rain down from the sky?

Whitepaw blinked rapidly for a moment, before looking over at Runningpaw. “Are you sure?”

“Quite,” Runningpaw chuckled. “Just tell me all the cool details, and I’ll be good.”

Whitepaw examined Runningpaw carefully, before nodding. “Well, you better be ready for an entire soliloquy on what went down.” 

“Of course,” Runningpaw meowed affectionately.

“When are we leaving?” Onepaw glanced impatiently at the entrance.

“He only just announced the cats,” Firepaw pointed out. “Try to be more patient.”

Onepaw rolled his eyes. "Fine."

---

By the time Tallstar announced they could leave camp, all the apprentices were antsy to get out of the camp.

Fairly little happened on the journey there- well, that is, unless one could count Whitepaw’s incessant chatter.

“What is it really like?” she kept asking, without seeming satisfied with any answer she was given. “I mean, I’ve seen it through the trees while on patrol, but not the whole place! It must be pretty big , huh? You know, because all the Clans have to fit there.”

Eventually, Firepaw decided it was probably more likely she just wanted to talk without actually having anyone respond. With or without the others responding, the flow of conversation stayed just as consistent.

Firepaw wasn’t quite sure if Whitepaw would be overwhelmed or underwhelmed when she saw Fourtrees.

The tabby tom had other things on his mind- he wasn’t sure how he’d talk to Greypaw, and he really hoped that none of the cats in WindClan or ShadowClan would be aggressive for something already fixed.

Then again, there really was no telling.

Still, even as Firepaw set foot into Fourtrees, he hoped that things would turn out well.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER THREE

WindClan burst into the large clearing of Fourtrees. Firepaw suddenly realized how long it had been since he had stepped paw into the enormous clearing. Seeing the four great oaks towering in each of the corners, as well as the large boulder that the leaders sat on in the center of it, made him all the more excited and happy at being able to leave the camp again.

Glancing around the clearing, as well as making out the scents the best he could, he realized that ThunderClan and RiverClan were already there. Many groups of cats were spread throughout the wide space, talking and gossiping about StarClan knows what. He saw Bluestar and Crookedstar perched atop the Great Rock, while their respective deputies and medicine cats sat around the base of the rock.

Firepaw was so caught up in taking in the sights of Fourtrees that he jumped slightly as he heard Whitepaw's voice from so close to him. "Wow! It's so big!"

"Told you," Onepaw replied. He glanced around the clearing for a moment before adding, "Looks like ShadowClan isn't here yet, so we have some time for ourselves before the Gathering starts."

"I'm gonna go find some other cats to talk to! It's gonna be so much fun! Who wants to come with me?"

After some momentary silence, Webpaw shrugged, glancing around the crowd. “I’ll go. I don’t have much else to do. Usually, before the Gathering begins, we try to find some apprentices from the other Clans to meet.”

Whitepaw nodded, a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. “Well then, let's go! There are so many cats to meet.” She turned to Onepaw and Firepaw. “What about you two?”

Firepaw laughed slightly, glancing nervously out at the crowd. “There’s someone I want to meet with.”

Onepaw shrugged, adding, “Figured I’d tag along with Firepaw.”

Whitepaw nodded. “Well, you two have fun! I sure will!” She giggled enthusiastically, and without any more hesitance, dragged Webpaw out into the crowd of cats.

“So, I’m guessing you want to speak with Greypaw?” Onepaw inquired once the two other WindClan apprentices vanished.

Firepaw nodded slightly, looking around at the loud, bustling group of cats. “Yeah, but I figured I’ll just check around to see if there are any other cats I know first.” He paused. “Although, yeah, eventually I do wanna check up on him.” An image of Greypaw during the ShadowClan raid flashed in his mind, and he frowned slightly.

Onepaw chuckled slightly. “Well, I suppose we should check out the ThunderClan crowd. We don’t really know anyone in RiverClan.”

Firepaw hummed in agreement, padding off towards the scents of ThunderClan, with Onepaw not far behind.

The two spent a bit of time checking around. They could recognize quite a few faces, (to both of their surprise) but none did they know well enough to consider an acquaintance.

That is, till Onepaw nudged Firepaw, pointing his tail towards a pair of ThunderClan apprentices. “Hey, remember them?”

Firepaw squinted, before recognizing the two faces. “Sandpaw and Dustpaw.” He nodded, remembering seeing the two ThunderClan apprentices during the battle with ShadowClan. “We could go speak with them.”

Onepaw padded over to the two, and Firepaw followed his friend. Sandpaw noticed their approach first, and she looked at the two with a flash of recognition before begrudgingly welcoming them. When Dustpaw noticed them, he seemed put off by their friendliness, but welcomed them as well.

“How have you two been doing?” Onepaw asked, sitting down in front of the two, with Firepaw following suit not long after.

“Fine,” Sandpaw replied curtly.

“Well, er,” Onepaw muttered, a bit awkwardly, “how has ThunderClan been since the ordeal with Brokenstar?”

“We have been faring well.” This time it was Dustpaw who replied. “Not too many cats were injured, anyway.”

"What about your Clan?" Sandpaw added curiously. "You guys were affected the most by Brokenstar and his allies."

Firepaw thought for a moment. “We’ve been… well,” he began to continue. “Well, a few cats died when we were forced out- Tallstar will probably mention them during his speaking time in the Gathering- but we’ve been repairing the camp ever since we got back. Leaf-bare is always tough, of course.”

“How would you know that?” Sandpaw suddenly said, a hint of something aggressive in her tone.

“W-what?” Firepaw stammered, confused at the molly’s reaction.

“You’re a kittypet. Or, at least, were, yes?” she said, a hint of accusation in her tone.

“Why does that matter?” Onepaw shot back before Firepaw could say anything in his defense.

Firepaw could see some sort of tenseness incoming, so he gently touched Onepaw’s shoulder with his tail, before turning back to Sandpaw. “Yes, I was a kittypet. I joined WindClan when I was six or seven moons. Why?”

“ Meaning you don’t know a thing about how difficult leaf-bare can be,” she said without missing a beat.

Firepaw made sure to reply before Onepaw could snap back. “You’re right. I had no struggle with leaf-bare during my time in Twolegplace. But I do know how difficult it can be- I was stuck in a tunnel with the rest of WindClan for the majority of this one.”

Dustpaw was the one to speak this time. “It’s difficult for all Clans to survive in these times.”

“And cats shouldn’t be bringing things up that don’t matter as if they’re important,” Onepaw muttered.

“Calm yourself, rabbit-chaser. We’re just making conversation.” Dustpaw sniffed.

“Hey, hey. Come on,” Firepaw attempted to calm down the situation. “It’s good to see you two again. We should just continue being peaceful, right?”

“Right.” Sandpaw nodded.

“Right…” Onepaw muttered with a slight hesitance.

Firepaw sighed in relief, and found himself unsure where to continue with the conversation. “So- er- did Greypaw come to the Gathering?” he blurted, before immediately regretting his words.

“Why?” Sandpaw inquired, suspicion lining her voice.

“I just… want to check up on how he’s doing…” Firepaw mumbled.

“Well, he did come. I last saw him over there.” She pointed her tail at another throng of cats.

Firepaw nodded. “Thank you. I’m gonna go look for him. Onepaw…?”

“I’ll stay here. I might join you later, though,” the brown tom said slowly.

“Right.” He nodded in farewell to the three, before heading towards where Sandpaw had directed she had last seen Greypaw.

It took him a few moments to spot his friend. When he did, he saw that Greypaw was sitting alone towards the edge of the large clearing, grooming himself.  After glancing around, Firepaw approached the grey tom. 

It took a bit for Greypaw to notice Firepaw approaching, but when he did, he blinked in surprise, lifting his head up from grooming himself.

Firepaw smiled slightly at him. “Mind if I sit here?”

“Of course not.” Greypaw nodded at the spot before him.

Firepaw took his place in front of Greypaw. “How have you been?”

Firepaw could remember how distraught Greypaw had been last time they spoke to one another, crouching near Silverpaw, unmoving and refusing to speak. It was a stark difference to how he looked now. Still, though- it was unnerving that Greypaw was just sitting alone, rather than the usual of enthusiastically chatting with his Clanmates.

“I’ve been okay.” There was a certain hesitation before Greypaw responded. “You?”

Firepaw wasn’t quite sure how to respond- of course, he had said he was fine when speaking with Sandpaw and Dustpaw, as he didn’t know the two well, but now that he was with someone who he trusted and considered a friend, he found himself pausing. 

Upon noticing Firepaw’s lack of response, Greypaw smiled somewhat. “Right. Yeah. Leaf-bare has been difficult.”

Firepaw nodded in agreement. “It used to be so easy in Twolegplace,” he realized, remembering Sandpaw’s spiteful words. 

“Must be different from what you went through in the last moon, huh?” Greypaw chuckled, although there wasn’t much humor in the noise.

Firepaw nodded, but before he could think of something to say, he saw a cat approaching in the corner of his eye.

When he craned his head to see who it was, he realized it was Onepaw. Greypaw nodded in greeting, while Firepaw muttered a quick “hello”.

However, by the time Onepaw settled, and appeared as though he was about to speak, there was a loud noise from one of the entrances to the Gathering. ShadowClan cats swarmed into the clearing, with Nightpelt in the lead. 

The Clan looked significantly different from the last time Firepaw had seen them. Most cats seemed less thin, their coats just a bit fuller, their eyes just a bit brighter. 

Nightpelt wasted no time in heading for the leader’s rock. His head was held high, and he showed little hesitance when he took his place beside Crookedstar.

It seemed that the other leaders were impatient in waiting for the Gathering to start from there. Almost as soon as Nightpelt took his place, Bluestar stepped up and let out a yowl to catch the attention of the gossiping cats below.

The bellow immediately forced the crowds into silence. Tentative ears waited for Bluestar to tell her announcements.

“ThunderClan has been faring well during the last moon. Prey has been difficult to find, but that is expected during leaf-bare. Nonetheless, we thank StarClan for the gifts we have been given. There isn’t anything else worth mentioning.” The large molly dipped her head, stepping back to let another leader take her place.

After a few glances among the four cats, Tallstar stepped in front of the three. 

The cats of the Gathering seemed to quiet even more, curious and eager to hear what was going on with WindClan; after all, they had vanished for so long so suddenly.

“I am sure many cats here are curious to hear where WindClan has been during these past few moons. It’s a complicated story, one that I will not go into detail about, but we were driven out of our territory by a patrol sent by Brokenstar.” He didn’t bother pausing, as he didn’t want to give the cats below a chance to interrupt him yet. “We were forced to travel far, far away, and had to stay in a damp, flooded tunnel for an unfortunate amount of time. Thankfully, the ThunderClan apprentice Greypaw came to find us. We were able to come back to our territory. 

“Things have been well enough since then- we have been working to repair our camp, and leaf-bare is especially difficult. However, there were losses. Spiderdapple and Willowspot died in the battle in which we were being forced from our territory, Eaglekit died during a flood in our temporary tunnel camp, and two of Morningflower’s kits died during kitting. Each were a great loss to our Clan.”

Tallstar finally went quiet. The entire clearing was shocked into silence for a good few seconds, before there were numerous loud shouts and yells. Many cats were furious over the violations of the warrior code, others were horrified by the amount of deaths in so short a time.

It took multiple attempts from Tallstar to try to quiet the Clans, and when he finally succeeded, he finished off his report.

“All of WindClan, as well as I’m sure many others in other Clans, will grieve over the loss of these innocent cats. But alas, now that we are back, we hope to return to ordinary Clan life.”

Tallstar stepped back, and thankfully, this time there wasn’t an immediate reaction of bellows and angry shouts from the Clan cats. Crookedstar quickly took the place of where Tallstar had stood.

“It has been difficult for RiverClan in the past moon, but we have been alright. There hasn’t been too much freezing over the river, thankfully. However, I am unhappy to report that one of our apprentices, as well as my daughter, Silverpaw, was killed in a battle. Me and my Clan are still grieving over her loss.”

There was a brief silence among the Clan cats, confusion and sadness settling over the groups.
However, this reflection was short-lived, as Nightpelt wasted no time in stepping up.

“I am sure you were unhappy to hear about Brokenstar’s decision to drive out WindClan. However, he has been driven out by the loyal cats of my Clan, along with his allies. I have taken his place as the leader of ShadowClan. I have yet to take the trip to the Moonstone, however, my name has changed from Nightpelt to Nightstar.”

Firepaw felt a brief flash of confusion at his words- after all, he had been told that StarClan was the one to give that name. However, his feelings of confusion were quickly forgotten as he heard a low growl.

He glanced over, surprised to see Greypaw glaring up at Nightpelt- or Nightstar.

Firepaw had no time to ask what was wrong before his friend stood up and began speaking.

Or, perhaps, spitting was a better word.

“How dare you?” His howl echoed around the clearing, and was met with silence. “Oh, ‘your loyal followers’? I’m sorry, your memory must be failing you! From what I remember, the majority of your cats either fought for Brokenstar, or stood by, watching and doing nothing like cowards! Do you forget about Onepaw and Firepaw, the entire ThunderClan patrol , for StarClan’s sake, Silverpaw ? She gave her life to get that wretch out of the Clans, and she’s being rewarded with what? What ?” He genuinely paused, even if it seemed to be a rhetorical question. No one answered. 

“She gets to be brushed over, forgotten, and given no credit . Was RiverClan even told how she died, or could you not even push away that small of an amount of your fragile pride? Or are you so fox-hearted to completely forget about how a young apprentice threw away her life for your Clan?

“And then you have the audacity to call yourself ‘Nightstar’! There is only one group of cats that can give you such a name; StarClan. It isn’t something self-given! By StarClan, you don’t even have nine lives! Oh, and what is your excuse? You had half a whole moon to take the short trip to the Moonstone! Were you so busy with repairing your Clan that not a single night could be spared? Or did you- did you find it unnecessary to- to -”

Greypaw’s flow of speaking was interrupted, and he shook his head, growling. “You disgust me, Nightpelt .”

And with that, the grey apprentice stormed off, shoving through the crowd to the outskirts of the clearing to where Firepaw couldn’t see him.

Firepaw found himself shocked into silence. He knew that Greypaw was upset by Silverpaw’s death, but he wasn’t aware it was still to the point where he’d belittle a Clan leader in front of a Gathering. 

The other cats in the clearing were similarly silent.

Firepaw felt a strong urge to follow his hurt friend- Greypaw was clearly very upset, and Firepaw could only hope he’d be okay.

However, he wasn’t able to do this.

Bluestar’s voice echoed around the clearing. “I think it is best we end the Gathering. We all are finished sharing information.”

The other leaders agreed, and just like that, the cats below were set in motion, preparing to leave.

Still, Firepaw couldn’t help but desperately hope Greypaw was okay.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER FOUR

The day after the Gathering, Firepaw was awoken early by his mentor. He scrambled to his paws, blinking away sleep and followed Tallstar to the camp entrance curiously, where he saw Mudclaw and Webpaw waiting. The two had been talking to one another about something that Firepaw couldn't quite catch, and they had looked up as Tallstar and his apprentice approached them.

There was relatively little talk during the exchange; Tallstar had nodded to Mudclaw, and Webpaw had muttered a quiet, “hello,” when he saw Firepaw. Afterwards, the four cats headed out of camp into the snowy landscape that was the rest of WindClan’s territory.

"We're going to be doing some battle training today," Tallstar explained to his apprentice as they padded through the bright, snowy territory. "Me and Mudclaw thought bringing Webpaw along would be good practice for the both of you."

Firepaw nodded, not responding aloud. The rest of the way to their training spot was spent in silence, with the occasional low conversation that couldn't be made out to Firepaw from Webpaw and his mentor as they padded beside them.

Eventually the four cats made it a fair distance away from the camp. Tallstar flicked his tail to tell his companions to halt, before he turned around to face Webpaw and Firepaw, who were now behind the two adults.

“Alright,” Tallstar meowed. “We can work here.” Mudclaw nodded in agreement

The area was fairly flattened, with a small clearing from the tall grasses, which was a perfect place for training.

Upon noticing that Webpaw sat down, Firepaw did the same, awaiting instructions from the two mentors.

Tallstar and Mudclaw discussed something that the apprentices couldn’t hear for a few moments, before nodding and turning back to the younger cats.

“You two will spar first, before we get to training you separately,” Tallstar explained. "That way, we'll be able to see what your current progress is like."

The two warriors went to sit by the edge of the clearing, leaving the majority of the space open for the two apprentices to work. Webpaw and Firepaw glanced at each other, before they both got up and went to stand on opposite sides of the clearing.

The two apprentices locked eyes, with an intensity in the both of their gazes. Firepaw waited for Webpaw to make a move, but the dark grey tabby was unmoving, and didn’t seem to intend to start anything anytime soon.

Firepaw realized Webpaw probably wanted him to begin; he had learned over his time working with his friend that he was rather good with parrying attacks, rather than initiating them.

So, naturally, Webpaw wanted to use his skills to his advantage, which was simply no good for Firepaw, but the spar would have to begin soon so this session wouldn’t just consist of the two apprentices staring at each other, waiting for the other to make a move.

Finally, having had enough of their staring contest, Firepaw leapt forward to his opponent, aiming for the tom’s front legs in order to disbalance him.

  Just as Firepaw thought he’d succeed in his move, though, Webpaw jumped up and forward, pushing his paws down on Firepaw’s upper spine and forcing him to the ground.

Firepaw yelped, his face smacking into the dirt and dust below. He struggled for a few moments, before unsheathing his claws and dragging himself through the dirt to get a good loosening on Webpaw’s hold, and rolling away.

As soon as Firepaw regained his balance, he sheathed his claws, before swinging around and hit Webpaw in the flank, pushing him to the right before leaping on his chance of disbalancing his opponent and thrusting himself forward, knocking into Webpaw’s left flank.

Luckily, he did succeed in this, and was able to knock Webpaw to the ground; however, before Firepaw was able to knock his paws into Webpaw’s belly, the tabby tom rolled away, hiding his soft belly.

Firepaw hissed, and leapt forward in an attempt to take advantage of whatever remaining disorientation Webpaw retained from being knocked over. To his luck, he was able to force Webpaw to the ground again.

Not wanting to make his last mistake of waiting too long, he kicked his sheathed hind paws into Webpaw’s belly and climbing on top of him in order to pin him down. His friend coughed for a few moments, before snarling at Firepaw and nipping at his front leg.

Firepaw yelped, wincing enough for Webpaw to kick him off. “That’s not allowed,” he muttered.

Webpaw just shrugged. “I didn’t use my claws, and you’re not bleeding or anything.”

Firepaw rolled his eyes, and while he stood there, he didn’t expect Webpaw to thrust himself at him, spin around, and bite down on his scruff.

“Hey, biting hard isn’t allowed,” Firepaw breathed, struggling under Webpaw.

Webpaw muttered something, but it was muffled by his bite on Firepaw’s scruff. Firepaw was pinned down, with his belly to the ground, and Webpaw’s paws on his shoulders.

Finally, to Firepaw’s relief, the tom above him let his bite in his scruff, and the orange tabby built up enough momentum to roll from under Webpaw, knocking into his paws and disbalancing him.

Well, if we’re allowed to use teeth, I guess I’ll use that to my advantage , Firepaw thought to himself, before sinking his teeth into the lower joint on Webpaw’s right foreleg.

Webpaw hissed, before jolting away, pulling away his leg from Firepaw’s jaws. 

Firepaw snickered, but as he was doing this, Webpaw bowled into him, knocking him off of his paws.

Firepaw sputtered as he hit the ground, and upon feeling a sharp kick from Webpaw connect to his flank, he scrambled away from the larger tom. The orange tabby jumped to his feet, tail lashing.

Webpaw sped forward, rising to his hind feet and pushing Firepaw’s shoulders down so he lost balance and slipped.

Firepaw let out a soft, “oof,” as he hit the ground. Before he could pull himself to his paws, though, Webpaw pinned him down.

“Alright.” The two apprentice’s heads swerved towards Tallstar as he suddenly spoke and padded towards them, as if the two forgot he was there. “Webpaw, get off of Firepaw. I want you two to restart. You can do one more sparring match, and then we will get onto one-on-one training.”

The two apprentices nodded, and Firepaw huffed in relief at the feeling of Webpaw getting off of him. 

The two resumed their positions of standing opposite each other in the clearing. Firepaw was much more wary this time, wide awake from their brief sparring match.

Webpaw crouched, this time seeming as though he had built up enough confidence to initiate the first move.

Firepaw tensed, growing ever more ready to leap out of the way as soon as Webpaw sprang at him.

To Firepaw’s elation, Webpaw slipped up and went too slow so Firepaw could quickly dart to the left. As Webpaw scrambled to regain balance, Firepaw bowled into his flank, forcing him to stumble back a few paces.

As Webpaw shook his head and spun around, Firepaw rushed to bite on his tail.

The grey tom yelped in pain, and Firepaw found himself letting go out of guilt. This, however, allowed Webpaw to turn around and scuff Firepaw in the cheek with his sheathed paw.

“Rude,” Webpaw muttered.

Firepaw gave him an apologetic smile.

Tallstar chuckled, seemingly amused. “Very well. I think you two are ready to begin training with your mentors.”

---

The four toms had been training for quite a bit by that point.

Tallstar glanced at the sky, and upon seeing the faint tinge of orange tainting the sky, he turned his head down to nod at Firepaw.

The leader padded over to where Webpaw and Mudclaw were still training. Upon the two seeing Tallstar approaching, they pulled out of their match and faced their leader.

“We’re done for the day,” Tallstar explained. “You two can go back to camp.”

Mudclaw dipped his head. “Alright, Tallstar,” he meowed, before turning to his apprentice and flicking his tail to beckon him towards the direction that would lead back to camp.

Once the two vanished in the tall grasses, Tallstar turned back to Firepaw. “We should go as well.”

Firepaw nodded, and padded over to his mentor to pad alongside him as they headed back to camp.

After a bit of the two silently walking, Tallstar spoke up. “You’ve been an apprentice here for quite some time,” he meowed calmly.

Firepaw nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed.

“You’ll probably have a hunting assessment in the near future, to see how well you are getting along with your current training. If you manage to pass this, we'll be focusing solely on battle training for the remainder of your apprenticeship."

Firepaw’s ears pricked up in faint alarm, and he frowned. “I hope I do well.”

Tallstar chuckled. “I hope you pass as well, although I’m not worried about it.”

Firepaw swallowed his nervousness, and nodded. “Well, I’ll be waiting for it.” He paused. “I’m excited for how the Clan will be doing in the future.”

Tallstar hummed softly. “Well, we’ve been lucky enough to get out of the slump that was caused from Brokenstar, at least for the most part. We just need to get through this leaf-bare.”

Firepaw nodded, expecting the conversation to be done.

Still, after a few moments of silence, Tallstar brought up a new topic of conversation. 

“How different from warrior life was your kittypet life?” Tallstar asked thoughtfully.

Firestar blinked in surprise, not expecting the topic to be so suddenly brought up. Still, he complied.

“Well, it was certainly easier.” He pondered. “My housefolk- well, you’d call then Twolegs, but back then we called them housefolk- I sometimes wonder what they did after I left. I spent a large portion of my time in the home of my housefolk, although I did go out and wander around the gardens and talk with other kittypets every so often. The food wasn’t good- I’m sure you’ve heard of it- I believe I heard Onepaw calling it ‘rabbit droppings’ once. I guess they weren’t that bad, they just didn’t taste like anything, but they filled you up, so they couldn’t have been too awful.”

Firepaw stopped talking, and upon realizing that the orange tom wasn’t sure what to speak about next, Tallstar spoke up. “Did you have any friends?”

Firepaw smiled slightly to himself. “Smudge was probably my closest friend back in Twolegplace.”

“Who?” 

“Smudge. He was another kittypet that lived nearby,” Firepaw explained. “We knew each other since we were kits. We spent a ton of time together. I remember we’d take trips around the gardens, just talking. When I had to leave, we both were distraught.”

Firepaw glanced up at Tallstar. Upon noticing his mentor wasn’t speaking up or interrupting, he continued. “Other than Smudge, I also knew a few other kittypets around me. There were cats like Henry- we weren’t the closest of friends, but I’m still glad that I knew him.”

“So Smudge was your only close friend?” Tallstar inquired, seemingly curious.

Firepaw slowed slightly as he thought over it. “No,” he decided. “No, I had my elder sister, Princess, as well. We were really close- when me and the rest of my litter were kits, we were forced to separate to be owned by different housefolk. Princess was adopted by the housefolk nextdoor, so I could easily visit her.”

The edge of Tallstar’s lips quirked upward somewhat. “I’m guessing you stayed in contact with her while you were growing up, then?”

Firepaw nodded. "Yeah. I never really knew my family for the most part. Everyone was separated except for us."

“So, you never really got to know your parents?”

Firepaw hummed to himself, gazing at the purpling horizon. “No, not really. My mother, Nutmeg- well, I remember loving her. She was my mother, after all. I never really knew my father that well, but I do remember my mother mentioning his name from time to time.”

Tallstar’s ears pricked. “Do you remember what she said?”

Firepaw’s brows furrowed, trying to remember.

When she had mentioned Firepaw’s father, it had been in a bittersweet tone. He had assumed that Nutmeg and whoever his father was hadn’t had the closest relationship, and that perhaps their owners had wanted them to breed for kits- still, he could guess that they were at the very least friends, judging from how Nutmeg acted when the topic of her kits’ father was brought up.

There had been a good few times that Firepaw heard her say his name- usually it was because one of his siblings would pester her until she told them.

Still, it was so long ago…

“I… I’m not sure…” Firepaw muttered, frustrated that he couldn’t recall his own father’s name. “J…”

“Do you remember what he looked like, or did you see him?” Tallstar asked, noticing his apprentice’ struggle.

Firepaw had only seen him once or twice. All he could remember was a faint vision, his blurry outline. “He was an orange tabby, like me. That’s all I can remember.”

Tallstar’s ears pricked, and for a moment he didn’t respond, before he nodded. “Well, we’re getting close to camp.” 

Firepaw nodded, looking up. He could see the shape of the camp getting closer and closer, so it was only a matter of time before the two toms arrived.

The rest of the way there was fairly quiet- neither of them spoke.

That is, until they arrived into the camp.

Tallstar nodded to Firepaw. “You can go and rest.”

Firepaw nodded, and watched as Tallstar padded away, vanishing into his den.

After a few moments of standing in that same spot, he turned around and headed to his own den.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER FIVE

Just like the day before, Firepaw was awoken early by his mentor. As he got up from his nest, quietly passing by most of the apprentices, he was very confused as to why he was being woken up so early once again until he recalled the conversation he shared with Tallstar at the end of their training the previous day.

Tallstar was waiting for him in the clearing, and after taking a moment to wake himself up, Firepaw padded over to his mentor. Tallstar was silent for a moment, and Firepaw decided to ask, "Are we having my hunting assessment so soon?"

The WindClan leader nodded. "I apologize for not giving you much notice of this ahead of time, but I feel like it's necessary to do this now."

For a moment, Firepaw frowned in nervousness. He hadn’t had any time to properly prepare- he had hoped for at least a week before they did this- but he supposed that his mentor would know what was best for his training. Instead of expressing his worries out loud though, he just took a deep breath and nodded to his mentor.

Tallstar nodded to him, before padding over to the entrance, seemingly expecting Firepaw to follow him out.

The smaller tabby tom followed after the WindClan leader, his thoughts buzzing loudly in his mind. After all- there were so many ways this could go wrong. For StarClan’s sake, he wasn’t even sure what the standards for this test would be!

Still, all he thought to do was to bury these thoughts under a thin veil of assuredness that he would succeed.

The two cats were padding through the tall grasses of WindClan’s outstretching territory, the only noise being the rustle of the swaying blades brushing against their legs. A slight chill was in the air, but nothing that would be too cold or distracting.

Thankfully, it was a fairly nice day, a large contrast to the common snowing. Still, it was leaf-bare, and definitely still cold.

Once the two were farther out into WindClan’s territory, Tallstar slowed to a halt. Firepaw, upon noticing his stop, paused his trot as well.

Tallstar turned around to face Firepaw, studying his apprentice for a few moments before speaking. “I think we are far out enough for me to give you your goal for today.”

Firepaw nodded, nervously awaiting his continuance.

“First, I want you to get as far from the camp as you can without crossing the borders. Once you get to a point where you feel you are amply far enough from the camp, look for prey. Catch as much as you possibly can. Every now and then, make sure to mark borders where you see fit.”

Firepaw nodded once again, letting the information sink in for a moment before he began to sprint away deeper into WindClan territory. After getting further into the fields, he paused as he scented something all too familiar.

A rabbit .

He felt a small buzz of excitement as he realized that this could be his first catch for his hunting assessment.

Without thinking, he darted after the scent, his paws light on the grass-paddended ground. 

He could see the figure of the rabbit begin moving, most likely upon noticing his movement. The small, light brown blur shot away, causing Firepaw to speed up his bounding.

He forgot his surroundings, his only focus being on the rabbit speeding away. 

His surroundings became such an incomprehensible blur, that he failed to even notice the few seconds where he could feel a harder, stiffer surface below him.

Even once the area around him darkened, and the sky was no longer visible- still, he did not give up on his chase.

He refused to give up until he had this rabbit dead in his claws- he couldn’t have the first catch of his hunting assessment be a failed one.

Firepaw continued running for a few more seconds before he heard a shout call his name. He skidded to a halt, which also made the rabbit successfully escape from his pursuit. He glanced longingly at the rabbit for a moment before he turned around to see not only Tallstar calling his name in the distance, but also tall pine trees looming over him and shielding the sky's light from view.

He had stumbled into ShadowClan territory.

Firepaw choked on his breath, shrinking down upon seeing the tall pines stretching upward, and the landscape darkened by their leaf covering. The smell of ShadowClan surrounded him on all sides, and it was extremely strong.

He suddenly realized that there was another cat calling for him, though not by name this time, other than Tallstar.

Firepaw spun around, and realized that he was face-to-face with an entire patrol of ShadowClan warriors.

The cats looked furious, and Firepaw was too terrified to process what they were saying- the words went right in and out of his ears.

Though, to Firepaw’s relief, Tallstar showed up beside the smaller tom. The leader and the warrior who appeared to be the head of the patrol began speaking to one another.

"Tallstar," the warrior said smoothly, "what is your apprentice doing on our side of the border? Are you this incompitent at training your own apprentice?"

Firepaw hung his head, shrinking to try to avoid the glares of the ShadowClan cats. It only seemed like days ago when they were once allies, all teamed up against Brokenstar, but now they looked at him with such scorn and hostility as if they had never done such deeds in the first place.

“I apologize for his behavior,” Tallstar meowed, pulling himself together enough to stay calm in front of the ShadowClan patrol. “He was hunting and didn’t realize he had crossed into your territory.”

“Hunting,” the warrior growled, glancing at Firepaw. “So he was trying to catch prey in our territory? You realize everything about this is against the code, hm?”

Tallstar took a deep breath. "It was an accident. It was on our side of the border first, after all."

The warrior glanced between the two, his eyes still narrowed. After a few moments, the tom spoke once again. “Very well. You may leave, but if this ever happens again, we won’t be so kind to your invasion.”

Tallstar nodded. “Of course.”

Throughout this entire interaction, Firepaw had been too terrified to process what the two warriors were saying, so it took him a few moments to realize that Tallstar was nudging him, and beginning to leave.

Once they were a fair distance away from the ShadowClan patrol, Tallstar turned to Firepaw. "You need to be more aware of your surroundings, Firepaw," he scolded. "It's an important skill in being a warrior, and especially important in hunting, so we don't make mistakes like that.

“What would you have done if I hadn’t been watching? I know for a fact that you sometimes go hunting on your own. Would you have really been able to settle that kind of incident on your own? I understand you wanted to catch the rabbit, but that could have very easily been extremely dangerous. Sometimes you need to know when a catch is too far gone to be caught."

"I..." Any and all words had been caught in Firepaw's throat. He couldn't believe that he had failed his own mentor and Clan leader. He just muttered a small, "I'm sorry," to Tallstar, too dazed to think of anything else to say in the moment.

The two eventually reached the Thunderpath. Hardly any monsters were in sight, so when the opportunity rose, Firepaw dashed as fast as he could across, with Tallstar following not long after.

As the two paused sit down and catch their breath, Tallstar turned to Firepaw once again. "And why would you cross the Thunderpath with such little thought? They're extremely dangerous. You especially should know that, Firepaw."

"I just didn't notice it," Firepaw blurted out, still dazed from the events that had happened so quickly.

Tallstar stared at him, silently urging him to continue.

After a few more moments, Firepaw snapped out of the daze he had been put into from his shock. "I guess I've just gotten used to being around Thunderpaths and monsters. They were super common back in Twolegplace, that sometimes I forget how dangerous they are. They don't really scare me either, since I’ve been surrounded by them since I was a kit. I’ve been in and around monsters more times than I can count… the way I found myself near WindClan territory was because my Twolegs put me in a monster to take me somewhere."

Tallstar blinked, quiet for a few moments. His expression was surprised, at least for a few moments, before turning back to being exasperated. “Still, Firepaw. That doesn’t excuse the fact that you didn’t notice that you had crossed into a completely different territory.”

Firepaw nodded, ridden with guilt. Suddenly, realization hit him; he had failed the hunting assessment.

He leapt to his paws, and began speaking very unlike how quiet he had been only a few moments prior. “StarClan, I’m sorry Tallstar. I really am- does- does this-” his thoughts swam with panic. “Please let me try again at some point- I promise I’ll do better. I know I did really badly, but really, please tell me try again-”

Tallstar cut him off with a flick of his tail, surprised once again. “Of course you will get another chance- one mistake doesn’t mean you won’t become a warrior. You will probably get another test at some point in the future, which can serve as a make-up for this one. Your mistake technically had nothing to do with your hunting abilities, more on your abilities to comprehend your surroundings, which is equally as important in hunting. Still, this test was mainly to measure your hunting abilities on their own.”

Firepaw opened and closed his jaws, before taking a deep breath. He was both surprised and thankful at Tallstar’s lenience. “Thank you,” he meowed earnestly.

Tallstar nodded, before standing up as well. The two then made their way back to camp, with no other words spoken between them on their way back home.

As they entered through the entrance, Tallstar told Firepaw that he was able to have the rest of the day off, before padding off and leaving Firepaw on his own.

Firepaw stood in his spot for a few moments, a feeling of tired dreariness flushing over him. The only thing he could think to do was to head to the apprentices' den.

Once he was inside the familiar den, he could see that Runningpaw, Whitepaw, and Webpaw were already inside, chatting quietly. The three apprentices looked up as he entered the den and laid down in his nest, each giving their own greetings as he did so.

Although Runningpaw and Webpaw seemed fine with letting him do his own thing, Whitepaw wasn’t satisfied- she was clearly very interested in why he was moping.

“What’s up, Firepaw?” she asked, approaching him.

"I'm just tired," Firepaw answered, dodging the question and avoiding their gazes for the most part.

Whitepaw scoffed. "No one's in this much of a bad mood after something like a hunting assessment. Spit it out.”

“I already told you,” Firepaw muttered, turning away from the small white molly. “I’m just tired after the hunting. Nothing interesting happened.”

Whitepaw took a few moments to speak, and for those moments of silence, Firepaw found himself thinking she was done, and sighed in relief.

Of course, he should’ve known better.

“ Firepaw ,” Whitepaw meowed, now frowning. “You’re not doing anyone any good by staying quiet. You don’t act this way, even when you're tired. If you seriously think I’m just going to leave you looking so miserable, you clearly don’t know me.”

“I do not look miserable,” Firepaw responded crossly.

"Firepaw, please, we're your friends," Runningpaw piped up. "If something's bothering you, you can tell us."

“Thank you, Runningpaw. This stupid tom thinks we’re gonna leave him alone.”

Firepaw sighed, shrinking more into his nest, before muttering. “I failed my hunting assessment.”

The others were quiet, prompting the orange tom to continue.

“I was chasing a rabbit, and accidentally crossed the Thunderpath into ShadowClan territory without noticing. I didn’t realize I had crossed into the other territory until I realized Tallstar was calling for me, and by that point, I had run into a ShadowClan patrol.”

Once he stopped speaking, Runningpaw spoke. “Come on, Firepaw. There’s no reason to be so down- you’re going to get another hunting test soon, one little mistake can’t mess everything up.”

“I know that,” Firepaw muttered, not feeling comforted. “Still- I failed Tallstar, and I can’t even blame it on the fact that I was tired or wasn’t trying; because I was trying.”

The others were quiet for a good few moments, before Whitepaw unsurprisingly was the first to break the silence.

“Come on, Firepaw. You should know one test means nothing, and compared to the rest of your time here in WindClan, you have ample time to prove you’re better than that one mistake in one measly test.”

Firepaw sharply breathed in and out, biting his lip. She was right- he knew that- still, the one chance so far he had to truly prove himself, he had catastrophically failed.

“We’ve all made mistakes in our time as apprentices,” Webpaw offered. “I’ve messed up really bad before, so has Runningpaw. Things like this are bound to happen at some point.”

Runningpaw nodded in agreement to what Webpaw said.

Before anyone could say anything else, though, the brown tabby form of Onepaw stumbled into the apprentices den, his bright and cheerful expression largely contrasting everyone else's much more serious or gloomy expressions.

"Hey guys, I-" Onepaw suddenly paused upon taking in the dreary atmosphere. "What's going on? What happened without me?"

Upon seeing his friend, Firepaw shrank down. “I crossed over into ShadowClan territory on accident during my hunting assessment, meaning I failed it.”

“So?” Onepaw asked, raising a brow. “It’s not like this is the only chance you’ll ever have.”

“That’s not the issue. I failed Tallstar- and on my first hunting assessment, too,” Firepaw muttered.

Onepaw went quiet, and Firepaw could only imagine his friend’s disappointment, and he turned away from the brown tom.

Unlike what Firepaw expected Onepaw to respond with, he heard loud, boisterous laughter come from his friend.

Firepaw turned to face the tom again, confused at his sudden loud outburst of amusement.

After a few more moments of Onepaw continuing to laugh, he spoke. “Seriously, Firepaw?” he snorted.

“Come on, Onepaw,” Runningpaw hissed at him. “Stop being so cruel.”

Onepaw shook his head. “No, no, that isn’t what I’m laughing at- but-” he turned back to Firepaw. “Really? StarClan, Firepaw. You’re much more mouse-brained than I thought if you seriously think Tallstar is going to be mad at you for something as inconsequential as this .”

Firepaw stared at Onepaw, a bit confused.

“Do you seriously have so little faith in Tallstar that you believe he’d be angry at you because of this? Come on, you of all cats should know him better than that.” Onepaw continued.

Firepaw felt his spirits lift somewhat, and he nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

“He is,” Whitepaw chipped in. “Now, go to sleep, rest, you mouse-brain.”

The other apprentices seemed to agree, and after the entire conversation they just had, Firepaw agreed as well.

“Alright,” he meowed. “I’ll take a nap. He did say I have the rest of the day off.”

Chapter Text

CHAPTER SIX

Upon waking up the next morning, Firepaw felt good- or, at least, until he remembered the events of what had happened the previous day.

He closed his eyes, discouraged from his failed attempt at the hunting assessment. Suddenly, spending the day training or hunting or anything of that sort didn't seem too appealing- he still wasn't over his failure, after all.

He breathed in deeply through his nose, before opening his eyes and lifting his head. Most of the other apprentices had already left the den, with Onepaw and Firepaw being the only remaining ones in.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, and turned to Onepaw, who was grooming himself quietly in the nest beside Firepaw’s.

“Hey, Onepaw?” Firepaw asked.

Onepaw paused his grooming, and turned to Firepaw. “Hmm?”

“Any ideas for things I could do today?” he inquired. “I don’t think I’ll be appointed to do that much today.”

Onepaw hummed thoughtfully, taking a few moments to think over his response. “You could ask to go hunting?”

Firepaw frowned, and bit his lip. “Any other ideas?”

“You could chat with the elders or queens. I suppose you could also just go on a walk.” He paused to think some more. “I guess you could chat with Barkface?”

Firepaw’s ears pricked up at this particular recommendation, and he nodded. “I can do that one.”

As Firepaw padded out, Onepaw meowed something. “Have fun sniffing at the herbs,” he teased.

Firepaw just rolled his eyes, not responding. He headed over to Barkface’s den.

Upon reaching the entrance, he peeked his head in, and upon seeing that Barkface was indeed inside, he entered himself. The older tom was sorting herbs, carefully pushing the bundles into the cracks in the wall.

Realizing that Firepaw had entered the den, Barkface paused his working. “Hello, Firepaw,” he meowed. "What brings you here? You're not sick or hurt, are you?"

Firepaw shuffled his paws awkwardly. He didn't really know the medicine cat too well, and even though he wasn't even a medicine cat apprentice, it still wouldn't hurt to try and spend some time with him. "No, I'm not," he responded. "I'm just wondering if I can spend the day with you. If that's fine, of course. If you're too busy, then I'll-"

"No, that's fine," Barkface meowed, motioning for the apprentice to come sit beside him. The orange tabby did so, and after a few moments, Barkface asked, "What made you choose to come to the medicine den, though?"

Firepaw shrugged. "I just have nothing else to do."

Barkface took that answer and didn't force him to say any more, which Firepaw was extremely thankful for. The two sat in silence for a while, with Firepaw getting a proper chance to examine the medicine den for himself. The scents of all the herbs blended together made him slightly cringe, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. 

The arrangement of the den was larger and more complicated than Firepaw would’ve thought from his previous glance-overs of the den- there was an organized maze of herbs pushed into cracks in the wall, similar-looking ones in the same spot. There was a small pool near the back, with several piles of moss alongside it, probably used to get water to the elders and queens.

Barkface was gently pushing herbs into the separate slots, with a small unorganized pile next to him, which was gradually growing smaller as he continued to sort them into their separate spots.

Firepaw, of course, couldn’t name any of the herbs- in fact, many of them looked the same to him. 

Still, there was no hesitation when Barkface picked up one of the plants, looked at them, and then pushed it into its respective spot. 

After some more of the silence, Firepaw spoke up. “What’s that one?” He asked curiously, gesturing to the herb that was in Barkface’s paws in that moment. 

It was a bundle of small, fuzzy leaves, gray-green in colour. 

Barkface blinked in confusion, seemingly not knowing why Firepaw would care, but he responded nonetheless. “These are borage leaves, from the borage flower.”

When Firepaw leaned over slightly to sniff the herb, he wrinkled his nose as the sharp, harsh scent hit his nose.

Barkface chuckled. “I usually use these to help cats when their bellies are hurting, but it has some more purposes.”

Firepaw nodded, watching as Barkface pushes the leaves into another crack in the wall alongside other leaves that looked similar.

Firepaw watched with curiosity as Barkface pulled another herb out of the pile, which had grown rather small by this point.

“What about that one?” He asked, peering at the plant- this time it was a bundle of white flowers, with vibrant, yellow centres. 

“Chamomile,” Barkface responded, turning the flowers over in his paws. “It can calm cats down, and also serves as a travelling herb.”

Firepaw nodded with interest, watching Barkface push the flowers into a crack in the wall, again with flowers of similar appearance.

The two cats continued like this, and Firepaw heard several different herb names- chickweed, coltsfoot, daisy leaves- until the disorganized pile was completely gone, all sorted into separate, smaller spots.

Once he was finished, Barkface appeared to be satisfied with his work, before he turned to Firepaw, who was studying the herb storage with curiosity.

“I’m going to go out to collect some herbs,” Barkface meowed, causing Firepaw to shift his focus and turn to the older tom. “Would you like to join me?”

Firepaw’s ears pricked, and he nodded. 

Without another word, Barkface rose to his paws fully and padded out of the den into the open air of the camp. Firepaw was somewhat surprised by Barkface’s brusqueness, but he supposed that the tom usually wasn’t accompanied by other cats when he collected herbs. The young tom rose to his paws as well, and headed after Barkface, who had already gotten to the entrance and was waiting for Firepaw. Once the two were set, they headed out into the territory.

Unlike the previous day, the territory was now covered in a fresh layer of snow.

As the two walked out further into the snowy landscape, Firepaw studied his pearly white surroundings.

Rather than the usual tall grasses, the ground was coated with thick snow- soft and powdery, having fallen from the sky the previous night.

In what had been roughly a moon, the temperature had refused to let up. Even if it wasn’t snowing, it always seemed to be cold. Firepaw could only hope that it wouldn’t last for too much longer.

“Have you smelled any herbs yet?” Firepaw asked, glancing over at Barkface.

Barkface shook his head. “No, not yet. Leaf-bare has been making both prey and herbs more and more difficult to find.”

Firepaw nodded, a feeling of guilt suddenly rising within him. I’ve been so lazy in the past few days , he thought, feeling scorn towards himself. I had the opportunity to go out and be productive, to help the issue of my Clan starving , and instead I go and hang out with the medicine cat.

He glanced over at Barkface, who was lifting his head up, looking over and out at the landscape. What kind of apprentice am I? First I disappoint the mentor that has worked so hard to prepare me for the hunting assessment, and then the next day in my own pathetic sulking I decide to waste time. What good do I provide this Clan if I’m not even doing my work? Especially during leaf-bare.

He didn’t speak up about any of his thoughts, and simply hung his head and continued to follow the medicine cat, who was still looking around, sniffing the air for herbs.

The two remained silent for some more time, before Barkface spoke again. “The lack of herbs could lead to a rise in whitecough and greencough. If that happens… well, one can only hope by then we’ve gotten more catmint by that point.”

“Catmint?” Firepaw asked, desperately pushing away the insecurities clouding his head.

Barkface nodded. “Catmint,” he meowed. “It’s the best cure for greencough- greencough is one of the worst illnesses I have to treat, and it’s very common in the leaf-bare. I’ve had a few cats die from it, even when I do have the cure. Unfortunately, there are only a few places where it grows commonly. Although, thankfully for us, we have a barn near the edge of our territory where it grows.”

“Barn?” Firepaw asked. “I think I saw what you’re talking about when visiting the Moonstone. Tallstar also mentioned that there was a loner who happened to live there as well."

Barkface blinked, evidently confused, before his eyes flashed, and he nodded. “Yeah, there is a loner there. He’s always okay with us taking some catmint. Although, I haven’t properly visited him or his barn this leaf-bare quite yet.” He chuckled. “Barley is his name- I remember when he came. I had quite recently earned my rank as a full-on medicine cat, and while visiting the barn, I was surprised to realize a loner had suddenly appeared inside! He was just a scrap, younger than me, poor thing. Although, it didn’t take him long to adapt to living in there- StarClan knows that there’s a shocking amount of mice living in there.”

Firepaw hummed, curious. “I wonder where he came from.”

Barkface shrugged. “No one but him knows. He was scared of his wits when he saw me, begging me to let him stay there. Of course, there was no sense in refusing and making him leave- my job as a medicine cat is to help others, after all.”

Firepaw nodded. I wonder why Barley was so frazzled when Barkface first found him. The way I’ve heard him described, he sounds just fine now.

Firepaw shook his head, fairly certain that he’d never know.

Wordlessly, the two cats continued to search the territory for the herbs that they could find.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER SEVEN

Firepaw and Barkface spent the rest of the day gathering and sorting any herbs they could find in the snowy territory. He was thankful for the opportunity- it certainly kept his mind off of all sorts of things, and although he had no interest in becoming a medicine cat, he thought the knowledge he had gained by listening to Barkface was interesting and- well- who knows? It could come in handy one day.

As the day came to a close, Firepaw, upon deciding that he should probably get back to his own nest, thanked the medicine cat for letting him spend the day with him and instantly headed for the apprentices' den. He fell asleep not long after.

Firepaw awoke the next day to an empty apprentices' den. He padded outside and immediately caught sight of Onepaw and Webpaw sitting together and talking about something that Firepaw couldn't quite catch. An idea suddenly flashed in his mind, and he padded over to the two other apprentices, who looked up as he approached.

"Hi, Firepaw," Onepaw mewed casually. "What's up?"

Firepaw paused for a moment before asking, "Would you guys be interested in a hunting patrol? Of just the three of us, I mean?"

The two apprentices glanced at each other, and then back at Firepaw apologetically. "Sorry," Webpaw mewed, "we've already got a patrol to go on, and we're going to be leaving any second now."

"You can come join ours if you like," Onepaw chimed in. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind-"

"No, no, it's fine," Firepaw meowed. "I'll think of something else to do, then."

He then heard a call come from the camp entrance, and Webpaw and Onepaw quickly said their goodbyes to Firepaw before rushing off to join their patrol. Firepaw stayed frozen in place momentarily before padding towards the centre of the camp, where he saw Deadfoot sitting and grooming himself. The deputy looked up as the apprentice approached, and nodded in greeting.

"Hello, Deadfoot," Firepaw mewed respectfully, dipping his head. "May I go out hunting on my own?"

The deputy paused for a moment before nodding. "You may, but you must be back at camp before dark."

Firepaw nodded. "I will!"

Deadfoot nodded and returned to grooming himself, and Firepaw turned around.

Firepaw found himself glancing over at the prey pile, remembering how it had been a couple days since he had last had a meal himself.

However, after a few moments of looking at the pile of dead animals, he thought of what Barkface had told him just the previous day;

“Leaf-bare has been making both prey and herbs more and more difficult to find.”

Guilt suddenly hit him, and he turned his face to not look at the prey pile and began to pad outside into the snowy territory.

It was snowy indeed- there was a rather thick layer of the frozen, white substance covering WindClan’s expansive territories. It was colder than it had been yesterday, making Firepaw shiver in the cold air. 

He padded through the cold territory, desperately searching for any prey that he could find. Unfortunately for him, and despite his best efforts, it seemed that most of the prey was hiding or sheltering from the cold.

Or, at least, that was how the majority of the hunt went, until he at last scented a rabbit.

He sharply swung his head up, his gaze swiftly surveying the landscape around him before he spotted the familiar furry creature. As soon as he pinpointed its location, he thrust himself towards it.

His attempt at running quickly and quietly was rather unsuccessful, due to the coat of snow layered on the dirt and grass. Thankfully, the rabbit was acting rather oblivious to the crunch of snow coming from Firepaw’s paws.

Just as Firepaw was sure his paws would land on the rabbit, to his chagrin, the pest slipped out from underneath him, zooming quietly out into the snow.

Firepaw lifted his head, breathing in the cold air, frustrated. He took deep breaths of the freezing atmosphere, watching the air blow out in little puffs of smoke. 

Once he felt he had regained his energy, he looked around, feeling more discouraged about the hunt.

He shook his head. Not like I can give up the entire patrol.

He began heading further out into the territory, sniffing and tasting the air to try to smell any sort of prey- which, to his disappointment, was nothing.

He got lost in his thoughts, heading farther and farther from camp. He hadn’t lost all his senses, though, so he did notice that he had gotten to the edge of WindClan territory. To a small amount of his surprise, rather than being the RiverClan gorge or ShadowClan’s border, it was the very edge of all the territories- right where it would turn to the home of loners, rogues, and any other non-Clancat.

Firepaw looked around, squinting at the vast land, and in the far distance, tall trees.

He could see Highstones in the distance, just a small blur, as well as a twoleg nest looking structure. Upon padding closer, he realized that it was the abandoned barn that rested just along the edges of WindClan's territory.

He suddenly remembered Barkface telling him that there was an ever growing supply of catmint at the barn. Abandoning his current task at hand, he strolled up to the barn, wanting to at least try and help his Clan in some way, even if he had no prey to bring back.

He could guess that the catmint would probably grow around the edge of the barn, so he began scaling the outside of the large structure, attempting to find a leafy green plant.

Suddenly, he saw there was a small area with a thinner, more powdery layer of snow. Inside, there was a few stalks of what seemed to be flowers. He frowned, leaning down to sniff the plant.

The previous day, Barkface had shown him the small supply he had of catmint, and to Firepaw’s triumph, these flowers had the same sweet scent.

He leaned his head down, holding his teeth around the base of the stalk. However, just as he was about to pluck the catmint, he heard a voice.

His head snapped up and away from the catmint, and standing before him was a black-and-white tom of a fairly stocky stature.

“Who are you?” the tom asked. His tone wasn’t aggressive, but still wary.

Firepaw blinked, frozen in his spot. That is, until he realized;

This must be Barley.

Firepaw nodded his head to the loner, still feeling rather nervous. “My name is Firepaw, from WindClan. I only came to try to pick up some catmint for Barkface, since we don’t have much of it. Can I take some? It’s okay if I can’t, but Barkface is worried about cats getting greencough, and-”

He was cut off from a bark of laughter from Barley. "Of course you can, don’t fret. I welcome any cat who is willing to act as a friend.”

Firepaw breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

He lowered his head down, swiftly plucking the stalk of catmint from the ground.

It tasted sweet, to his surprise, much better than the other herbs he had tasted before, which had been bitter.

After he took a few more stalks of the plant, he lifted his head up to see Barley still standing there, waiting patiently.

“Would you like to come inside the barn, to chat for a bit?” Barley offered.

Firepaw nodded after a few moments of hesitation. “Although, I will have to get going soon,” he mumbled through his mouthful of catmint.

Barley nodded. “Understandable.”

As the two cats began padding towards the entrance to the barn, Barley’s step faltered. “By the way, I live with another cat.”

Firepaw blinked in surprise. He didn’t remember Barkface mentioning that, but he nodded nonetheless.

Once the two were inside, Firepaw set down the herbs, sitting down while Barley did the same.

He quickly noticed a cat approaching- a rather scrawny tom, looking of a similar age to Firepaw, with mostly black fur and some white highlights.

“Barley?” the small tom asked nervously, glancing between Barley and Firepaw. “Er- who’s this?”

“This is Firepaw. He was just visiting from WindClan,” Barley explained.

Ravenpaw seemed to deflate with relief, and padded over to the other two to sit down.

“This is Ravenpaw,” Barley meowed to Firepaw, signalling to the tom who had just come.

“Ravenpaw?” Firepaw said, frowning- surely this cat couldn’t be a loner. "That sounds like a Clan name. What are you doing here?"

Ravenpaw took a few moments to respond, trying to think how to do so. “I was dropped off here by my friend Greypaw while he was going to get WindClan back to the normal Clan territories. Um- speaking of, how has WindClan been-”

Firepaw blinked, somewhat confused upon hearing Greypaw’s name. “Greypaw…” he muttered. “I didn’t know he brought you here. I’m rather close friends with him.” After a few moments, he blinked, before turning his head to look at Ravenpaw again. “Ah! I’m sorry. I cut you off. Continue, please.”

"Ah, it's fine," Ravenpaw replied. "I was just going to ask how WindClan was doing since they came back."

Firepaw nodded. “Yes, of course. After we got back, me, Greypaw, my WindClan friend Onepaw, and an apprentice from RiverClan snuck off in the night and went to meet with a ThunderClan patrol to help take down Brokenstar. A few ShadowClan queens and elders ended up joining in as well. All of us combined managed to drive out Brokenstar and his close supporters. Ever since then, we’ve just been trying to return to normal Clan life in the territories.”

Ravenpaw nodded, appearing relieved. However, despite this, Firepaw could recognize visible worry on the small tom.

“What’s wrong?” Firepaw asked, frowning. He hoped he hadn’t said anything upsetting.

Ravenpaw avoided the WindClan apprentice’s gaze. He said something that Firepaw couldn’t quite catch- all he heard was something about a “Tigerclaw.”

“Who’s Tigerclaw?”

Ravenpaw shrugged. “A senior warrior in ThunderClan.”

Firepaw cocked his head. “Well, if there is nothing interesting about him, what’s the issue with him?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Hey, why did you come to collect herbs? Are you a medicine cat apprentice?” Ravenpaw switched the topic quickly, not responding to Firepaw’s question.

"Oh, no, I'm not a medicine cat apprentice. I was just out hunting and had no luck, so I decided to stop by and get some. Barkface'll find this useful anyways."

Ravenpaw nodded, and an uncomfortable silence passed between the cats for a few moments. Firepaw took this as a sign that he should leave.

"Thanks for letting me stay here for a bit," he meowed, picking up the catmint bundle and waving his tail. The two loners meowed their goodbyes and Firepaw padded out into the snowy landscape of WindClan's territory once again.

The chill of the air was a bit uncomfortable compared to the warmth of the barn he was just in, but he shrugged it off and pressed onwards towards WindClan camp. As he made his way through the territory, however, he spotted a dark shape in the distance.

The longer he stared at it, the more it looked like a cat, and soon enough, he realizes that the cat was slowly but surely padding closer and closer. Firepaw decided to take a small break from his return journey and see if the cat was an intruder or not.

Firepaw padded closer and closer, instinctively unsheathing his claws in case it was an intruder. However, as the two cats closed the distance between each other, Firepaw began to feel a sense of familiarity in the visitor.

He squinted at the shape, trying to understand why he had this odd sense- did he recognize the cat?

It was hard to tell, they were rather far away…

She was rather far away.

She?

She was rather large and fluffy, with a mostly brownish grey coat and a lighter part on her belly, as well as orange and brown lining her flank and spine.

She looked very familiar…

She- no-

Firepaw nearly jumped with surprise as it hit him.

Princess!

Chapter Text

CHAPTER EIGHT

Firepaw stared bug-eyed at the molly before him; how was she here? Why was she here? Was this really her, or a scarily identical cat that just so happened to wander onto WindClan's territory?

Perhaps she just happened to be a kittypet, too, like Princess, judging from the familiar, twinkling pink collar, with a small bronze bell dangling from the band.

But if this cat wasn't Princess, then why did he have this sense of familiarity towards her?

Firepaw had been standing in his spot, shell-shocked, for a good few moments. The molly hadn’t noticed him quite yet, but he knew that wouldn’t last for long if he continued to stay in his spot, gaping like a fish.

He took in a deep breath. Whether or not she’s Princess, it’s my duty to confront her.

So he put down his catmint, padding closer to her. It took her a bit to notice his approach- she seemed to hear him first, from the rustle of the grass he was disrupting with his movement, her ears swiveling to face Firepaw.

When she seemed to notice him, she whirled around to face him and get a better view of the possible threat; and so, they stood face to face.

It’s her , Firepaw thought to himself. There’s no denying it .

He remembered her so well from his days as a kittypet, and now that he could see her so clearly, it became obvious he couldn’t act like he had never met her.

“What are you doing here?” Firepaw asked. It was the only thing he could think to say- but he had many more questions.

Princess seemed to fail at recognizing for a few moments. She squinted at Firepaw, tensing up at first when he started speaking.

That is, until she heard him continue speaking.

Her eyes widened the moment she seemed to recognize her brother. She seemed to light up with ecstasy, grinning from ear to ear.

“ Rusty !” she gasped, rushing forward. “I've finally found you! It’s been too long! Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you- you don’t even know how much I’ve missed you! I was so worried, you left without a trace, and with no explanation. For all I know, you could have died! Or your housefolk moved away!”

Firepaw was unable to get a word in as she rambled. The molly seemed to deflate with relief, tension seeping out of her features.

That is, until her expression quickly changed from excited and joyful to angry.

“ You ! How can I be so happy to see you? You terrified everyone! One day, you seemed fine and were acting normal, and the next you vanish without a trace? And you don't even tell me where you went? It seems the only one who knew a thing about your whereabouts was Smudge ! You better have a good explanation for why you decided to disappear!”

Only then was Firepaw given a chance to speak, although now it was under more pressure.

“I- erm- w-well…” he stammered, glancing at his sister and away from her. “I live here now, with WindClan- um- I hunt, patrol the borders, and train to become a warrior. It's a much more suitable life for me, as opposed to when I was a kittypet..." He then realized that Princess hadn't answered any of his questions, and changing the topic, he then asked, "How did you get here, anyways? And why?"

"Oh, I just got the only cat you told where you were leaving to tell me where you were. How else would I have gotten here?” She said this somewhat sarcastically and bitterly, still seeming angry at the fact that he had only told Smudge. “I snuck through the forest in ThunderClan along the Thunderpath, till I reached the moors that Smudge had described, and from then on I just searched around this territory in hopes I’d find someone who could take me to you."

Firepaw didn't respond for a moment, shocked into silence. After a few moments of processing this new information, though, he slowly nodded. "You're lucky I found you first," he admitted.

"I would have found you eventually," Princess replied dismissively. "There's no need to be worried about me." Her expression and tone then shifted into a more serious one, and in a quieter voice, she asked, "Are you really happy here? In WindClan?"

Without any hesitation, Firepaw nodded. "It's a much better place here for me. I'm way more happy than I would have ever been if I had stayed as a kittypet my entire life."

Princess sighed in relief. "That's good."

The two stood there in silence before Firepaw then asked, "So... what are you planning to do now?"

Princess let out a small laugh. "I think it would be best if I stayed with WindClan for a bit. If they'll let me, of course."

Firepaw thought to himself. Would Tallstar allow for Princess to stay in WindClan’s camp? Surely he would- she didn’t pose a threat. Besides, the journey back to Twolegplace would be rather strenuous, and it would be cruel to force her to walk all the way back when she had just arrived.

"Okay," Firepaw agreed. "I'll take you back to camp."

Princess nodded, once again seeming relieved. There was a lot of ways for this stunt of hers to go badly- it seemed she was basing a lot of her plan purely on luck.

Firepaw collected the catmint he had set down before confronting his elder sister, and began padding back to WindClan’s camp with Princess following alongside him.

The journey was mostly in silence, though around halfway to camp Princess spoke up. "So, what are the Clans like?"

Firepaw thought to himself for a moment, before he decided that it was an excuse to get to talk with his sister again. Speaking the best he could around the herbs in his mouth, he replied, “It’s much more complex than I expected, actually. There are four Clans, RiverClan, ShadowClan, WindClan, and ThunderClan. I know you’ve heard of WindClan and ThunderClan. Obviously, this is WindClan, and you saw ThunderClan. You might have seen ShadowClan while walking along the Thunderpath, it’s a pine forest. RiverClan is on the other side of the territories.

“It’s a ranked system- there are leaders, who rule the Clans. After that, there are deputies, who are picked out by the leader to be the successor to whoever the current leader is. There are also medicine cats, warriors, apprentices, elders, queens, and kits. Warriors make up most of the Clan- they hunt and defend the Clan. Apprentices are training to become warriors. Medicine cats make sure everyone in the Clan is healthy. I’m sure you can guess what the elders, queens, and kits are.”

He went on to explain other aspects of Clan life, eager to tell her all about how he had been living ever since he had left Twolegplace.

However, as the two got closer to camp, Firepaw began to grow quieter and quieter, thoughts buzzing through his mind. How would the Clan react to him bringing a kittypet back to camp? They may have accepted him into the Clan, but Princess might not be so lucky…

Then again, who is to say that they wouldn’t question his loyalty after doing this- would they start thinking his loyalty remained with Twolegplace and kittypets?

Firepaw was so lost in his thoughts that he hardly noticed himself slipping through the camp entrance, with Princess right on his tail.

There was a dead silence the moment they entered the camp. Yep- it definitely didn’t look good for him to be casually entering camp with an unfamiliar kittypet right behind him.

A tense blanket settled over the cats in the camp, and a couple hissed and snarled at Princess.

Despite the aggressive attitude of the angry and confused Clan cats, Princess kept her cool. She puffed out her chest, raising her head, and seemed to regard the cats around her as harmless.

In the midst of all the noise, Firepaw saw Tallstar emerge from his den, a confused expression on his face. He looked around camp for a moment before meeting Firepaw's gaze, and then noticing Princess standing beside him. He trotted up to his apprentice and asked, "Firepaw, who is this?" There was no hint of aggression in his voice- only curiosity, which Firepaw was thankful and surprised at.

Firepaw set his pile of catmint beside him, ready to explain everything to Tallstar, but before Firepaw could explain the situation himself, Princess spoke up, seeming annoyed at Tallstar for having asked Firepaw who she was.

“I’m Princess,” she meowed, showing little respect for the older cat. “A house cat- the horror !- I’m Firepaw’s sister, by the way. I came here looking for him.”

Firepaw was rather alarmed at her lack of respect towards the leader, so he nervously spoke up to try and counter her attitude. “I’m sorry Tallstar- can she stay, even for just the night? She needs to regain her strength.”

Silence washed over the camp, and after what seemed like an eternity, Tallstar nodded. "She may."

"Actually," Princess chimed in, "it'll have to be much longer than just a day. I'm expecting kits."

Shocked, Firepaw whirled around to meet his sister's gaze. "You made the whole journey like this? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"It's not important," she replied, rather dismissively.

Tallstar interrupted the two siblings by meowing, "For the time being, Princess can stay in the nursery with Morningflower and Gorsekit. This isn't something we do lightly, so consider this a lucky opportunity." He then turned to Firepaw. "And Firepaw, take that catmint to Barkface as soon as you can. He'll need it."

Princess snorted, glancing back over at Firepaw. 

Firepaw beckoned Princess as he began heading towards the medicine den. She quickly followed him, leaving the tense cats who were in camp staring after her.

Firepaw stepped into the medicine den, dropping the catmint beside Barkface's paws. "Er, I travelled to the barn to get some catmint for you. I hope that's okay."

Barkface admired the herbs that Firepaw had gathered and nodded. "You really didn't have to, but thank you." He then met Firepaw's gaze. "Is there a kittypet with you?"

"Yeah, my sister came to find me and Tallstar's letting her stay for a bit," he nervously responded. "Tallstar will probably explain everything soon." 

He didn’t want to have to continue to stand there, awkwardly explaining why an unfamiliar molly was in WindClan camp, so he ended the conversation. He turned and backed out of the den, standing beside Princess once more.

Thankful that he at least had one burden off of his shoulders, Firepaw led Princess to the nursery, eager to let her settle down. Only Morningflower and her one surviving kit, Gorsekit, lay inside. The two cats looked up as Firepaw and his sister entered the den. Confusion was visible on Morningflower's face, with curiosity on Gorsekit's.

"Hello Morningflower, Gorsekit," Firepaw said, briefly greeting the two cats before gesturing to his sister. "This is Princess, my sister, and-"

"I'm going to be staying here for a while," Princess interrupted. "You don't need to introduce me to everyone, Rusty."

Exasperated, Firepaw just turned to Morningflower and whispered, "My sister came here to find me for whatever reason, and she's also expecting kits. Tallstar is letting her stay here for a while, if that's okay with you."

The suspicion and confusion died down from Morningflower's features, and she nodded. "At least it won't be so lonely in here," she mewed quietly.

Firepaw nodded, glancing over at Gorsekit, who was staring at the cats in the nursery with bewilderment.

His gaze returned back to his sister as she padded over to a nest, laying down in it without a second thought.

Firepaw sighed, still looking at Princess.

This whole situation is a mess.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER NINE

Firepaw stared at the cat standing on the opposite side of the empty clearing. Despite his appearance suggesting that his thoughts were trained in on the other tom, his mind wasn’t quite as focused on what was going on as Firepaw would’ve liked.

Tallstar and his apprentice had been training for a bit so far, and as much as he would have liked to, Firepaw had been struggling to focus on the session for what was basically the entire duration of it. He still had so much to think about and process after what had happened the day before, which still felt a bit surreal to him.

Firepaw frowned to himself. Princess had shown up with no warning- he hadn’t seen her in moons, and she suddenly demanded to stay with WindClan, before casually announcing that she was also carrying kits. Then what? Once her kits were born, would she just leave back to Twolegplace? Would she leave her kits, or take them back with her?

Among many other things, these were the kind of thoughts plaguing the young tabby tom, and they were rather bothersome due to him being in the middle of a training session with his mentor.

I should be focusing on warrior training right now, not-

Firepaw never got to finish that thought. His eyes flashed in surprise when he felt Tallstar slam into him, shoving him to the ground and twisting his legs around so he couldn’t struggle easily.

Firepaw still struggled slightly, but upon realizing it was more painful to bother, he stopped. Tallstar hopped off of him, his gaze fixed on his apprentice. Neither of the cats moved or spoke for a few moments before Tallstar broke that silence.

“Firepaw,” he meowed, eyeing his apprentice with an unreadable expression.

The tom in question’s head shot up, and he fumbled with his words. “E-er, yeah?”

“Are you feeling well?” Tallstar raised a brow.

“Of course, of course. I’m fine,” Firepaw blurted quickly. “What’s the issue?”

“You’ve been distracted this whole time,” Tallstar said. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out you have something on your mind. You’re usually better than this.”

Firepaw took the words as a stinging blow, even if they may have not been intended to be harmful,. Have I really been that awful? He glanced away. “Well, nothing in particular is on my mind…”

Tallstar stared at Firepaw as if he had grown wings. “It also doesn’t take a genius to figure out it’s about Princess, unless there’s some other crazy thing going on.”

Firepaw mumbled unintelligibly for a few moments, his gaze darting to and from Tallstar, who was eyeing his apprentice with an expectant gaze.

After a few moments of this, Tallstar shook his head. “You’re dismissed.”

“W… what?” Firepaw frowned. 

“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere when I’m making you train so soon after something so- well, it seems like it was fairly shocking to you.”

Firepaw nodded hesitantly, not speaking.

“Go on back to camp- try and catch something on the way back if you can.” Tallstar nodded to his apprentice, before turning to pad away.

Firepaw stared at where the leader had vanished, before sighing, deciding he should be grateful for the dismissal. After all, it did mean he could chat with Princess a bit more. Maybe he could even ask her a few questions he hadn't gotten the chance to yet.

After a few more moments of standing in his place, he turned around and began heading towards the camp.

It was a little late in the day, although not enough for the sky to have begun to go pink. The air was still chilly, although thankfully it had not snowed the previous night, so the only sign of snow was the remaining bits of frost from a couple nights ago.

As Firepaw continued on his walk back to camp, the familiar scent of a rabbit hit his nose, and he suddenly remembered Tallstar's request to try and bring some sort of prey back for the Clan. 

He opened his mouth to take a gulp of the cold air, and once he decided he had pinpointed the direction of the rabbit, he shot towards it. 

It didn’t take long for the furry creature to come into view- a small brown blur of fur darting away as soon as it seemed to hear the rustle of the grass.

Thankfully for Firepaw, he was faster than his prey. After a small bit of the chase, Firepaw sprung forward with his hind legs, locking his teeth around the rabbit’s throat and breaking its neck easily.

Firepaw pulled his face away from the corpse to see his catch more clearly. Upon seeing his prey, he grew a little disheartened. It was small and thin, hardly enough to feed one cat.

Prey is prey, he thought in an attempt to encourage himself. I need to take it back no matter how pathetic it is.

It is leaf-bare after all. I should have expected something like this.

Still, it didn't stop him from feeling disappointed with how small his catch was.

So that was what he did- he picked up the scrawny rabbit and continued the rest of the trip to the camp. Other than the occasional distant bird call and the rustle of the grass in the cold breeze, it was silent and calm the entire way back.

Upon arriving back at camp, he found the clearing rather empty as well. I suppose they need as many warriors out as possible to hunt in leaf-bare .

He dropped his meager catch in the prey pile and stared at the pile after he had done so. It had been several days since he had last eaten. Still, his gaze trailed back to his own catch, and upon seeing it again, he decided that the pathetic creature didn’t count enough for him to take food for himself.

After staring at the pile of prey for a few more moments, Firepaw turned and padded towards the reason he was sent back from training so early: the nursery, where Princess was currently staying.

Once he was inside the nursery, it wasn’t difficult to spot her. There weren't many cats in the nursery in the first place- Morningflower seemed to be absent, although she seemed to have left Gorsekit with Princess.

Princess was lounging on the ground, half-heartedly watching the kit who was playing with a moss ball off to the side.

After Firepaw entered the den, Princess’ head shot up and she sat up.

“Princess,” he greeted his sister. “How have you been?”

Princess shrugged. “I’ve been okay. I guess this is a pretty big adjustment from the normal home and bed, though.”

Firepaw nodded, remembering his first few weeks in WindClan and how many changes he had to adjust and adapt to. “Yeah, I remember- it felt awful for me at first.”

Princess nodded. “I suppose I might get used to it in the time I am staying here.” 

Gorsekit seemed to have paused in his playing, watching the two older cats talk. Firepaw was a bit surprised to hear him speak. “What do you mean?”

The two siblings turned to look at the kit, who was sitting up by that point. Firepaw frowned, glancing away as he fumbled with his paws. In contrast to Firepaw’s hesitance, Princess was quick to answer the curious kit's question.

“Neither of us were born here, like you were. We were born in our housefolk’s homes-”

“Um-” Firepaw cut in. “Sorry, Gorsekit wasn’t born here, but other than that, by ‘housefolk’s homes’ she means Twolegplace. Has Morningflower or one of the other warriors told you about it?”

Gorsekit hesitated in his response, but he nodded. “Twolegs. I’ve heard Twolegs. Weird hairless creatures.”

Firepaw nodded. “Exactly. We were born and raised by them. It’s really different there- I got here when I was only a few moons older than you, but Princess got here only yesterday- did Morningflower explain her sudden arrival at all?”

Gorsekit shrugged. “Not really.”

Princess jumped in. “Now you know. I’ll be here for- er-” she faltered.

“Do you have a plan?” Firepaw turned back to her. “That is, once your kits are born.”

Princess shook her head. “No, I don’t- that is, beyond staying here till my kits are born… maybe till they can care for themselves somewhat, as well.”

A thought suddenly formed in the back of Firepaw's mind. Maybe she can stay here permanently...?

He shook his head. That might be a bit too much to ask for. She's much more used to the kittypet lifestyle, and who knows if she'd prefer it in the long run.

“When do you think your kits will be born, anyway?” Firepaw snapped out of his thoughts.

Princess shrugged. “Your medicine cat said it’d probably be in a couple moons.”

Before Firepaw could think of a response, there was a loud rustling of the brambles to the nursery’s entrance, before Mudclaw entered the cramped nursery. 

“Deadfoot wants you for the dusk patrol,” Mudclaw meowed to Firepaw.

The apprentice nodded. “Alright,” he said before he turned to his sister. “Bye, Princess. I’ll try to talk to you later.”

After that, the two toms pushed their way out of the nursery entrance and went to join the patrol.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER TEN

Upon waking up the next day, Firepaw was concerned to hear the sound of wheezing coming from somewhere in the apprentices' den. He hadn’t heard such a sound before, other than the few times his fellow kittypets back in Twolegplace had been stricken with coughs. 

So naturally, he immediately believed that something was wrong.

After a few moments of yawning and stretching out his limbs, he sat up and glanced around at the other apprentices in the den. All of them seemed to be laying peacefully in their respective nests- that is, apart from Whitepaw.

The molly in question was laid down in her nest, but rather than how she usually looked while resting, she was tensely curled up. He could see her chest rising and falling in rapid motion as ragged breaths escaped her.

Firepaw’s eyes clouded with concern as he padded over to his friend, making sure to carefully avoid the other sleeping or dozing apprentices. 

“Are you okay?” he whispered, once he was close enough for him to be able to talk to her properly without being too loud.

She mumbled to herself, before pushing herself up to sit. The molly quickly swallowed, before rapidly shaking her head. “Of course, yeah. I’m fine. Don’t worry. I probably just breathed in some dust or something.”

Slightly unconvinced, Firepaw nodded. “Alright, well, if it gets worse you should visit Barkface.”

“Of course I will,” she reassured him. “Anyway, we did have a hunting patrol to go on, did we not?”

Firepaw blinked, before remembering that the two of them had been assigned to the morning hunt, along with Tornear and Maplespring, Whitepaw's own mentor. He nodded to Whitepaw, before the two each got up to leave the den, being careful to not step on their sleepy clanmates.

As expected, Tornear and Maplespring were quietly chatting near the camp entrance while they waited for the two apprentices. Firepaw had initially expected Tallstar to also join them, but upon seeing him nowhere in sight, he assumed that the Clan leader was just too busy to participate in the patrol.

There was little chat between the four cats before they all exited the camp into the moors. Not long after the patrol left, Tornear stopped and signalled for the others to do the same.

“We should split up to hunt,” the warrior suggested, glancing at the rest of the patrol as he spoke. "Catch as much as you can and meet back here."

Afterwards, the cats set off in different directions. Firepaw hastily began sniffing around for possible prey as he trotted through the grasses. At first, he found himself unable to pick up on any scents- however, after a few more minutes of his searching, he found something.

The unmistakable scent of a lark. He slowed down, and began looking around in an attempt to spot the small bird. 

He was able to find the prey in question with little fuss- the brown bird was picking apart the frosty grass in an attempt to find seeds. So far, he remained successful in keeping the lark oblivious to his presence.

Of course, that wouldn’t last for long if he kept sitting around.

Firepaw tensed up, and after a few more moments of consideration and waiting, he used his hind legs to spring himself upon the bird. 

It desperately flailed and flapped upon seeing him. Still, to Firepaw’s delight, he was able to pin down its wings beneath his paws. He wasted no time in snapping the frail thing’s neck, before picking it up in his jaws. He supposed he could return to the meeting spot, and if no one was there, he could try and catch something else.

As he was heading back to where the four cats had previously spoken, he was distracted by the distinct sound of wheezing and coughing. He couldn’t help but be reminded of the sound he had awoken to, from Whitepaw.

Is she okay? He found himself worrying, and immediately began heading for the source of the coughing. 

As he had suspected, he ran into Whitepaw after a brief search. The white molly was sitting down and facing the ground, the hare she had presumably caught laid on the grass beside her. 

Whitepaw was breathing raggedly, and hoarse coughs escaped her every so often. She was oblivious to Firepaw when he first showed up.

The tabby tom dropped his lark on the ground, and hurried over to his friend. 

“Whitepaw?” he asked, his voice lined with concern. “Are you okay? Should I get Tornear or Maplespring?”

She took a moment to respond, letting out a cough before meowing, “I guess you could- I don’t think it’s that bad, though.”

Firepaw raised a brow, before shaking his head and turning around to search for one of the warriors. Unfortunately, he grew more and more worried as he searched for the warriors. 

What if she’s really sick? He frowned, glancing back at where he had left Whitepaw. Maybe I should just bring her back, it'd take too long to find someone and explain.

He skidded to a halt and immediately raced back to where Whitepaw was still crouched. She looked up at Firepaw as he approached, and the only thing he said was, "Let's just take you back to camp." He didn't have time to explain why.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Firepaw replied, with more force than he intended.

Whitepaw remained silent for a few moments, before nodding to him, appearing less reluctant.

Firepaw only grew more confident in this decision as Whitepaw got into another coughing fit.

“Come on, lets go,” he meowed. “You can lean on me if you feel the need to.”

Nodding, Whitepaw got up and began shakily following the tom.

Thankfully, the patrol hadn’t gone too far from camp, so it didn’t take a very long time for the two to get back to the camp.

There were still few cats around, so Firepaw rushed Whitepaw towards the medicine cat with fairly few questioning looks from his Clanmates.

As the two entered the den, they immediately saw Barkface picking through the piles and shelves that he kept all his herbs in. The older cat’s attention immediately caught onto the visitors, and he raised his head.

“What’s the issue?” the medicine cat asked, glancing over at Whitepaw.

Whitepaw shuffled her paws. “Uh, I think- well, I might be sick.”

Barkface gestured for the two to sit down, before returning his attention to Whitepaw. “Mind if I ask you about your symptoms?”

“Go ahead,” she said, a bit more confidently.

Barkface considered the molly before him for a moment, before returning to speaking. “Very well. Do you experience coughing? Coughing fits?”

Whitepaw nodded. “Yeah. I’m getting that a lot.”

“And what about sneezing? You know, like if you had a basic cold.”

Once again, Whitepaw nodded her head as confirmation. “Yep, less so than coughing, but I have noticed some sneezing.”

Barkface hummed to himself, before padding closer to the apprentice. He touched his paw to her head and neck, and after sniffing the air surrounding her a couple times, he nodded to himself.

“Whitecough.”

Whitepaw blinked, somewhat startled by the bluntness of the revelation. “Huh?”

Barkface clarified himself. “You have whitecough. It isn’t too bad, but you need to stay away from the others and heal in here till you’re better in order to prevent the risk of greencough or getting others infected.”

Whitepaw’s mood seemed to dampen further. “For how long?”

The medicine cat shrugged. “That depends on how fast your body will let you heal. I wouldn’t worry about getting greencough as long as you stay inside.”

“But-” Whitepaw protested. “I have training to do- I can’t be cramped up in her for however long this takes!”

Barkface looked at her with sympathy. “I’m sorry, but I already told you the risks of you not staying in here, and those are risks we simply cannot afford to take.”

Whitepaw stared at the tom with an upset expression for a few moments, before shaking her head. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

Barkface nodded to her. He began searching through his store of herbs, before emerging once more with three small, black seeds- Firepaw could only guess they were poppy seeds.

Barkface looked over at Firepaw, before nodding to him. “You should go and let her rest. Tell the other apprentices, I suppose.”

Firepaw took one more look at Whitepaw, before dipping his head to Barkface and exiting the medicine den. 

Luckily for Firepaw, it wasn’t difficult to find the other apprentices- or at least two of them.

Runningpaw and Onepaw were chatting by the prey pile, having emerged from the apprentices’ den while Firepaw had been in the medicine den.

Upon seeing Firepaw leave the medicine den, Onepaw quickly turned his head to him and eagerly gestured for him to come over. “Hey, Firepaw!” the light brown tom greeted, his words muffled by the bite of rabbit in his jaws.

Runningpaw smiled and flicked her tail in greeting as well, finishing her bite before she spoke. “Hello. How was your hunt?”

Firepaw looked at his two friends nervously. “Er- hey guys. My hunt was okay. I got something." He did feel a bit of regret for having to leave his catch behind to get Whitepaw to Barkface, but he supposed one of the other warriors had found it and brought it back. "But uh- something bad happened.”

The two grew curious, their attention fully focused on Firepaw's next words.

“So I don’t know if you heard Whitepaw coughing this morning, but she started coughing and wheezing while we were hunting as well. After hearing it, I figured I should help get her back to Barkface.” Firepaw paused, glancing back at the den he had just left. As he had spoken, the two apprentices had grown worried. “So he said she has whitecough, and needs to stay with him for awhile.”

The two grew visibly upset.

“How bad is it?” Runningpaw quickly asked. “It’s not like- you know, it’s not greencough or anything?”

Firepaw was glad to be able to shake his head. “No, Barkface said it was pretty mild.”

Runningpaw grew a bit more relaxed at this, but Onepaw remained tense.

“We should visit her. We can visit her, right?” The tom spoke up, tapping his paws against the dirt worriedly. 

“Barkface said she should rest… I guess you could try , though.” Firepaw didn’t want to go against Barkface’s orders, but it seemed unlikely he could convince Onepaw to stay away.

Onepaw nodded, and quickly headed over to the medicine den, with Runningpaw not far behind. 

Firepaw sighed, and followed a few tail-lengths behind the others.

Onepaw immediately went over to Barkface, with Runningpaw catching up and falling beside him soon after.

“Can we visit Whitepaw?” Onepaw asked him, with Runningpaw nodding beside him.

Barkface looked back and forth at the two younger cats. “It’s best if you don’t. She needs to rest.”

"Please?" Runningpaw then asked. "We just wanna make sure she's okay."

Barkface glanced behind him, where Firepaw could assume that Whitepaw was sleeping. “Fine, but please don’t touch her or wake her up.”

Onepaw eagerly nodded, and as soon as Barkface stepped out of the way, the young tom immediately started asking questions about how Whitepaw was doing. Runningpaw, on the other hand, padded to sit beside the peaceful sleeping figure of Whitepaw.

Firepaw looked between the two, before deciding it’d be best to leave in order to not crowd up the medicine den.

After one more glance at his sleeping friend, he began to leave the den.

I hope she'll be okay.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER ELEVEN

    Firepaw padded into camp, a decently sized rabbit clamped in his jaws. The other cats who had been in the same patrol dropped off their prey and dispersed. The sun was still high in the sky, with various clouds shielding most of its light. The patrol had returned rather early for the day.

    When dropping off his prey in the prey pile, he noticed Onepaw and Webpaw chatting and sharing some prey nearby. The two had not noticed Firepaw quite yet.

    They did spot him when he got closer to the prey pile to drop off his catch, though, Upon noticing Firepaw, Onepaw spoke. “Hey, Firepaw! Eat with us!” Webpaw nodded in agreement.

    Firepaw looked between the two for a moment, before shaking his head. “No, I’m not hungry- I don’t want to waste any of the prey we have.”

    Onepaw narrowed his eyes, but shook his head and dropped it nonetheless. Webpaw didn't press him either, much to Firepaw's relief.

    Firepaw sat beside the two apprentices. “Where’s Runningpaw?” he asked, remembering that the molly had been in camp as well before he left. Either she was on patrol, or...

    "She left to visit the medicine den earlier," Webpaw replied, shooting a glance in the direction of said den. "Visiting Whitepaw, I'd imagine."

    Firepaw nodded, relieved that one of his ideas was confirmed. All of them had been constantly visiting their friend as soon as the news of her getting whitecough had dropped, especially Runningpaw, due to the two mollies being close friends.

    Before Firepaw could think of a response, Webpaw’s eyes lit up with curiosity and he returned his attention to the tabby tom.

    “Did you ever get sick? When you were a kittypet?” Webpaw suddenly asked, the tip of his tail flicking back and forth with interest. “I mean, I don’t think you had some sort of medicine cat back there.”

    Firepaw nodded, somewhat amused at the question. “Of course I got sick. Why?”

    “But you didn’t have a medicine cat…” Webpaw muttered, still confused. "How did you, y'know, get better?"

    “Well, uh- there was this Twoleg that we would call a “cutter.” Our Twolegs would take us to them every now and then, as well as when we were sick.”

    Onepaw snorted. “A cutter ? What kind of name is that?” he blurted. “Sounds like they were doing more harm than healing.”

    Firepaw hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t know for sure how us kittypets gave them that nickname. It probably came from something that I remember they used to do, though…”

    This only succeeded in making the listeners more confused, so he continued.

    “When we were old enough, our Twoleg would take us to the cutter for some sort of appointment- or at least that’s what happened to the older kittypets there. I don’t know what they actually do, but I noticed it makes the cat a lot more… lazy. I wasn’t old enough while I was there to have it happen to me, though.”

    The two toms seemed somewhat horrified.

    Firepaw laughed nervously. “Uh, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, whatever happened.”

    Onepaw raised a brow, but Webpaw spoke up before he could, still appearing to be curious about Firepaw’s kittypet life. “What was your name?”

    Firepaw blinked in confusion and surprise. “My name when I was a kittypet?” He was surprised to be getting all these questions about his past life. That had been moons ago, and he certainly wasn't used to getting asked all this.

    “Yeah. You were named Firepaw when you joined the Clan, but you’ve never mentioned your old name.”

    “Uh, it was Rusty.” The name sounded weird to him by that point. 

    “ Rusty ?” Onepaw blurted, eyes lighting up with amusement. “Were all kittypets named like that?”

    Firepaw rolled his eyes. “Come on, it's not like I gave myself that name. It’s not my fault.”

    Onepaw seemed to be trying to think of a retort to what Firepaw said, but before he could, they were interrupted. Princess padded over to the group of apprentices, her attention fully fixed on Firepaw.

“Rusty, huh?” Princess remarked. “Didn’t you drop that name when you joined this Clan?”

    “Yes, I did.” Firepaw muttered, shooting a glance at his sister. “Why does it matter, anyway?”

    Princess studied her younger brother for a moment with an amused expression before replying. “Can I call you Rusty still?”

    Firepaw stared at her blankly, not quite knowing how to respond to her inquiry. “Why?”

    Princess shrugged. “I’ve always known you as Rusty. It sounds more familiar.”

    Firepaw was reluctant to accept, but he decided that there wasn’t a point in saying no. He knew how hard convincing his sister was, after all. “Alright, fine. I don’t want the entire Clan to start calling me Rusty, though.”

    Onepaw snickered at this, which caused Princess’ attention to suddenly shift to him. She looked between Webpaw and Onepaw, her gaze suddenly stern and serious. “You two.”

    “Huh?” Webpaw asked, confused at her sudden shift in tone. Even Firepaw was taken aback by her sudden seriousness.

    Princess grew more stern as she looked at the two younger toms. “Is your life here good?”

    The two toms stared at her, confused. She waited for their response.

    “Uh, I guess so?” Onepaw muttered, glancing over at Firepaw.

    “How well do you two know Firepaw?”

    Before either of the toms thought up of a satisfactory response, Firepaw chuckled nervously. “Princess- uh- lay off them, huh? They aren’t bad cats. I’ve known them for moons, and they're good friends too. You can trust them.”

    Princess looked over the three apprentices, before begrudgingly nodding to Firepaw and relaxing her posture. Webpaw and Onepaw looked somewhat relieved, and Firepaw breathed a sigh of relief as her tense questioning stopped.

    Before any of the cats could go back to conversing, Firepaw spotted Runningpaw exiting the medicine den out of the corner of his eye, her expression seeming to be upset. Firepaw beckoned her over, and the molly nodded to him before padding to sit beside the others near the prey pile.

    “Why were you in there?” Princess asked once she sat down, gesturing towards the medicine den.

    “I was visiting Whitepaw. She’s sick right now, so I wanted to check up on her.” Runningpaw frowned, glancing back over to the entrance of the den.

    “Is that… normal?” Princess cocked her head, tail flicking with curiosity. Firepaw supposed she hadn’t really seen any examples of the Clan cats getting sick during her currently short time staying in the Clan.

    Onepaw shrugged. “Well, considering it’s leaf-bare, yeah. The colder weather usually makes more cats sick, so we can only expect more to need to stay with Barkface.”

    Princess nodded in understanding. Firepaw already knew the way that kittypet and Twolegs dealt with sickness was much different, so he could understand what she was thinking- he could imagine he had been confused as she was when he first came.

    “How is Whitepaw doing, anyway?” Webpaw turned to Runningpaw. "Is she getting better?"

    Runningpaw sighed, avoiding any of the cats' gazes as she spoke. “Well, I spoke with Barkface about it. He says she’s getting worse.”

    Worse ? Firepaw pondered to himself. Barkface had insisted it was really mild, at least when I first brought her in…

    Firepaw's heart sank the more he thought about it. Is she going to get greencough? he couldn't help but think.

    And judging from the expressions of his friends, they were thinking the same thing that he was.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER TWELVE

A few days had passed since the conversation between Firepaw, Princess, and the other apprentices (besides Whitepaw). The apprentices were still constantly checking in on Whitepaw's condition, Firepaw included, with Barkface mostly giving vague reports about her condition for the time being. Last time he had visited the medicine den, he heard that Whitepaw's condition was only worsening, which made Firepaw all the more worried about his friend with each passing day. He couldn’t help but worry about the possibility of greencough.

Firepaw exited the apprentices den, the light of the morning sun illuminating in the distance. The camp was relatively quiet, bathed in the rosy sunlight. Most of the cats were probably still asleep or on a dawn patrol.

After looking around the camp for a few more moments, his gaze traveled in the direction of the nursery. Princess and Morningflower were resting in front of the entrance to the den, while Gorsekit ran around in the dirt by their paws, hitting a moss ball around. The two queens didn’t notice Firepaw when he first left the apprentice’ den, but they did spot him when he began to approach the two.

Morningflower turned her head to face Firepaw, flicking her tail in greeting. Princess did the same. Gorsekit failed to realize that Firepaw had padded over till he ran into the tabby. Gorsekit acknowledged him with a small smile before returning to his game.

“Hey, Firepaw.” Princess nodded to him. “Would you like to eat with us?”

Firepaw glanced down at the space between the two queens, only then noticing the rabbit they appeared to be sharing.

Firepaw shrugged, shaking his head. “No, sorry. I’m not really hungry.”

Princess nodded, before turning back to Morningflower. “Your loss.”

Morningflower turned to speak to the younger Clan cat. “How have you been lately? I’ve only seen you between your patrols and when you are in your den, for the most part.”

“Oh, uh-” Firepaw hadn’t really been keeping track of his recent activities. “I’ve been fine, I suppose.”

Morningflower nodded. Firepaw noticed that the usually cheerful molly seemed to be somewhat upset. 

After thinking over what could possibly be upsetting her, Firepaw remembered that Morningflower was Whitepaw’s adoptive mother.

He realized that the queen had probably been visiting her daughter quite often. It was rather curious that he had never run into her while visiting Whitepaw himself, but he considered that maybe she was just visiting her when it was less crowded.

After a bit more of the silence. Firepaw spoke up. “Hey, Morningflower?”

She turned her head to look at him again. “Hm?”

Firepaw glanced over at the medicine den, before looking back at the queen and nodding to her. “She’s going to be okay. Barkface will help her.”

Morningflower seemed somewhat startled by his mention of Whitepaw. “Oh.” She muttered, before nodding. “I hope so…”

Before the conversation could go anywhere further, Firepaw heard the familiar voice of Onepaw.

“Hey, Firepaw! Come over here!”

Firepaw shot one last reassuring look at Morningflower, before flicking his tail in farewell and padding away to join Onepaw.

When he turned around, he realized that Webpaw and Runningpaw were also there. The three apprentices were laying down, waiting for the tom to pad over.

“What’s up?” Firepaw asked them once he was close enough to them.

“We wanted to go on a hunting patrol- with just us apprentices,” Runningpaw replied. “Want to join us?”

Firepaw began thinking it over. They did need as many patrols out as possible, and it would be nice to spend time with his friends again. Besides, he didn't have much else to do for the day anyways.

Firepaw nodded. “Yeah, sure. I assume we need to check with Deadfoot?”

The others nodded, and the four headed over to the Clan deputy to ask about their patrol idea.

The older warrior was sitting outside the warriors’ den, grooming his fur. He quickly noticed the four approaching apprentices, and he nodded to them. “What is it?”

“We wanted to go out hunting,” Onepaw replied, while the others nodded in confirmation.

Deadfoot thought it over for a moment, before nodding. “Sure. Just be careful, and get back before it is too dark. I trust that none of your mentors said you’d have something to do today?”

They each nodded- Firepaw couldn’t remember Tallstar ever specifying that he would have to do training that day.

“Very well. Go ahead, then," the deputy replied, waving his tail dismissively.

The apprentices nodded to him, before excitedly setting off. They were quick to leave the camp. The weather was rather peaceful, thankfully no snow or harsh winds, making it perfect weather for a casual hunting patrol.

As they were a few fox lengths from the camp, Webpaw abruptly stopped, and the others did the same once they noticed. 

“Why’d you stop?” Firepaw asked, raising a brow.

“Smell the air,” Webpaw replied.

Once Firepaw did so, he could recognize why Webpaw had stopped in his tracks. Already, the smell of a hare not far away.

They silently nodded to each other, and grew quiet as they headed closer to the scent.

Runningpaw stuck out her tail to gesture for them to stop. “Over there,” she whispered, gesturing towards a small patch in the grass.

As expected, a hare sat sniffing in the grass. Luckily for the apprentices, they were downwind of the mammal.

“Can I go for it?” Onepaw whispered.

“You can go around it, one of us can scare it in your direction.” Runningpaw decided.

“But what if it notices me before you can scare it? I’ll be downwind of it,” Onepaw muttered, squinting at the hare.

“We’ll be quick about it,” Firepaw said dismissively.

Onepaw raised his brow skeptically, but muffled his snicker and began doing as was planned by going around the hare. 

“Wait, who’s gonna scare it?” Webpaw whispered urgently.

“Runningpaw came up with the idea, shouldn’t she do it?” Firepaw replied, turning his attention to the grey molly.

“It doesn’t matter!” she hissed quietly. “The hare is going to pick up on Onepaw.”

“I’ll do it,” Webpaw muttered.

“I thought you said that Runningpaw would do it?” Firepaw frowned.

Webpaw turned his gaze to Runningpaw, and she huffed. “Yeah, I’ll go do it.” 

Before Runningpaw could go to scare the hare, it shot towards the three- presumably having caught onto Onepaw’s scent. After a bit of tumbling, Webpaw was able to pin it down and bite it’s neck.

Onepaw padded over, snorting. “‘We’ll be quick about it’, you said. What in StarClan were you doing in the first place? I gave you so much time!”

Firepaw whacked Onepaw with his paw. “You should’ve signalled that you were ready,” he retorted.

“I did !” Onepaw laughed. “I assumed you saw it!”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s dead, right?” Runningpaw gestured to the prey that was still beneath Webpaw’s paws.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Onepaw rolled his eyes, and began digging a hole for them to bury it in to retrieve later. “How about we don’t follow Runningpaw’s ideas again?”

“It’s not my fault!” Runningpaw protested, shooting a small mock glare at Onepaw. “These flea-brains were arguing over who was going to scare it.”

“Mhm, well, just bury it.” Onepaw nodded to Webpaw.

The two stopped their bickering, and the four continued in their hunt. Before long, they were able to catch a field mouse, a rabbit, and a couple larks with less trouble than what came from their first attempt. 

Once they had finished catching another prey and buried it, Webpaw spoke up. “Hey, we should rest for a bit. We’ve caught a lot.”

“We can thank StarClan for such nice weather, I suppose.” Runningpaw nodded. “But I agree, it’d be good to sit down for a bit.”

After a momentary pause, Onepaw's eyes lit up. "Why don't we go by those rocks near the gorge we hung out at moons ago?"

Only then did Firepaw notice how close they had gotten to the RiverClan border. The gorge was within eyesight- Firepaw could only assume that the aforementioned rocks couldn’t be too far away.

The apprentices agreed to return to that spot- it seemed like that last visit had been a long time ago.

After they had been padding along the side of the gorge for a short while, Webpaw’s head shot up.

“Oh, there it is! It’s close.” They nodded to the others, and they all began heading for it.

“It was fun when we last visited,” Firepaw remarked as they came up upon it.

They all wasted no time in climbing on top of it. Firepaw once again felt grateful for such nice weather, in the midst of leaf-bare especially.

It was rather quiet. Most of them were sitting up and looking over the rippling meadows of WindClan territory, but Firepaw was laid down, glancing every so often at the gorge.

The more time they spent time there, the more Firepaw was reminded of their last visit to this place.

Firepaw, Onepaw, Webpaw, Runningpaw, and… Whitepaw.

Except this time, Whitepaw was unable to show up. She was cramped in a dark den, her conditions only getting worse as the days went by.

Needless to say, it felt... strange without the usually upbeat apprentice's company.

It felt like there was a part missing… not only was it a lot quieter without her, her cheerful energy also left an empty space. 

Firepaw couldn’t help but wonder if the others were thinking the same thing. 

It was hard to tell, but judging by the feel of faint tension in the air, it was occurring to at least some of the others.

There wasn’t a sound between the four apprentices- not their usual banter, nor polite chat. 

I suppose it’d be weirder if we were having just empty chat… that’s never been our forte, Firepaw thought to himself. Then again, it isn’t usually completely silent like this, especially considering what a sweet day it is.

Firepaw stole a look over his shoulder at the others. They were all still in their same spots, looking over WindClan territory. Firepaw could only guess what exactly they each were thinking about.

Firepaw couldn’t get the depressed thought of Whitepaw out of his head. His subconscious had always been worrying about his friends’ worsening conditions, but now in this somewhat tense silence, he couldn’t distract himself from his intrusive thoughts about his fears for his friend.

She’ll get better. Firepaw ensured himself. She has to. Barkface knows what he’s doing. He’s been doing it for more moons than I even know.

Still, nothing he reasoned with himself could remove the pestering idea of Whitepaw getting worse and worse. 

But that’s the truth, isn’t it? That is what’s happening. Barkface is doing his best, but his best isn’t-

“We should get back to hunting.” Webpaw suddenly meowed, sharply turning his head to the others.

Firepaw stood up and turned around, nodding in agreement. He just wanted a distraction. The last thing he needed was his worries building up. This would happen every so often when he was trying to sleep, but it was worse when he was in broad daylight with his wide awake friends sitting right nearby.

After a few more nods, they all resumed their hunting, leaving the giant rock behind them, outlined distinctively in the open sky.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Firepaw padded back into camp with a rabbit in his jaws, just returning from a hunting patrol. It had been a few days since he and the rest of the apprentices had their little patrol, and each day was still a reminder that Whitepaw was still sick with whitecough.

Firepaw quickly placed his prey down in the prey pile. He didn't take anything for himself, and instead sat near one of the camp borders, looking around camp for something he could do to pass the time.

His gaze then rested on the medicine den. He had to admit, it hadn’t been too long since he’d visited his friend, but his worry only continued to bubble up over time. After staring at the entrance of the den for a few more seconds, he sighed and got to his paws.

He headed over to the entrance of the den, poking his head through the opening and cringing as the burrs dragged at his fur. 

He saw Barkface dipping his paws into the small pool of water inside the den. The older tom hadn’t noticed Firepaw quite yet, most likely due to how attentive he was on his work.

“Barkface?” Firepaw asked, pushing himself fully into the medicine den. “Uh, may I see Whitepaw?”

The medicine cat in question turned his head to examine Firepaw, his expression unreadable. 

“No,” he said after a moment of silence. “It’s best that you leave her be.”

Firepaw supposed he shouldn’t be alarmed… perhaps Barkface was getting sick of all these visits from all the apprentices. However, that didn't stop him from asking his next question.

“Well, is she… better, at least?” He hoped that Barkface would give him a straight answer.

Barkface pulled his paws out of the pool of water, and turned to properly face the apprentice. “It’s complicated…” he muttered. “I’m not sure if you want the full answer.”

Firepaw frowned, sensing something was wrong. It was a yes or no question. How complicated could it be?

“I am asking you if she has gotten better lately. I want to know if she is okay,” Firepaw clarified. After a small pause, he added, "Is she?"

After a beat, Barkface shook his head. “No. She has not gotten better. Her whitecough has turned into greencough.”

Firepaw’s fur perked up in alarm. “Really? Is she going to be okay?”

“I will do what I can for her, I promise you that. But part of her fate relies on StarClan.”

Firepaw narrowed his eyes. “If part of her faith relies on StarClan, surely she should be fine. Why would StarClan want her to get worse?”

"StarClan works in mysterious ways that we can't control,” the medicine cat admitted solemnly.

“Nonsense,” Firepaw muttered, before realizing his tone and swiftly changing the topic. “Can I visit her? Please? I know what you said earlier, but I want to see her.”

Barkface glanced behind him, in the nook where Whitepaw was presumably sleeping. “Firepaw, I understand your worries, but I think it’s best if you stay away from her. She’s contagious right now.”

“I know that,” Firepaw continued insistently. “But surely nothing bad can happen in such a short period of time?”

Barkface took a deep breath, clearly thinking it over. “Fine.” He let up. “Only for a little bit, though. And don’t touch her.”

Relieved at having finally convinced the medicine cat, Firepaw quietly padded over to the small nook in the den where Whitepaw was lying unconscious in a nest of moss. He had seen her many times within the past who-knew-how-many days, but each time he had visited, her condition seemed to be getting worse and worse.

He pressed his ears to his head, feeling remorse upon seeing her condition. Without warning, the small molly began quickly wheezing and gasping for air. Firepaw took steps forward, alarmed and ready to help his friend.

Before he could get over to her, though, Barkface spoke.
    “Stop, don’t touch her,” he said, putting his tail in front of Firepaw to prevent him from going further. “This is normal.”

“Normal?” Firepaw asked, looking up at the brown tom. “How is this normal? She’s struggling to breathe!”

“That’s unfortunately a part of the sickness. I recommend you go now, perhaps tell your friends about this. Please don’t send a big storm of them all at once.”

Firepaw sighed, and nodded. He dipped his head to Barkface, and took one last glance at Whitepaw before leaving the den. 

Once he was out, he glanced around the clearing for any of his friends. His eyes landed on the nursery, and for a moment he considered telling one of his friends first, before remembering that Morningflower was Whitepaw's adoptive mother. She would want to hear this news as soon as possible, no matter how bad it was.

He quickly padded across the clearing to the nursery. Once he could see inside, he spotted the two queens conversing, as well as Gorsekit dozing near Morningflower. The two queens looked up as Firepaw entered the den.

Morningflower nodded to him in greeting, while Princess spoke.

“Oh, hey Rusty. What’s up?” 

Firepaw was somewhat taken aback by her use of his old name, but quickly remembered their recent conversation. "I wanted to tell Morningflower something," he admitted, shooting a glance at the queen in question.

Morningflower blinked in surprise, before her expression changed to one of understanding. "Is this about Whitepaw?" she whispered.

Firepaw nodded. "We can talk outside, if you like."

Morningflower took a glance at her son’s sleeping figure, and nodded. She rose to her paws, careful to not awaken Gorsekit.

    The two cats headed outside of the nursery and settled around a tail length from the entrance. "What is it?" Morningflower asked, clearly expecting bad news. "Is she..."

    Firepaw shot a glance at the medicine den, where Whitepaw was currently residing. "She's gotten worse," he forced out. 

    Morningflower’s eyes widened. “She isn’t- she can't be-” She paused. “Is she… gone?”

    Firepaw fluffed up in alarm. “No! No! She’s alive,” he reassured the queen. “She has greencough. Barkface told me.”

    The queen shook a little bit, before closing her eyes and sighing, processing the information. The molly suddenly seemed alarmingly tired, and she opened her eyes to look at Firepaw again. “Very well.” 

    Before awaiting a response, she turned and quickly headed over to the medicine den. Firepaw could only imagine the confrontation between Barkface and Morningflower.

    He watched the queen enter the medicine den for a few moments before turning back around. He should probably tell his friends the news now- it was bound to spread around camp, anyway.

    He couldn’t spot any other apprentices in the camp, so he padded over to the apprentice’s den in hopes of finding any of his friends.

    Once inside, he quickly scanned the den for anyone. Runningpaw and Onepaw were laying in their nests.

    Onepaw noticed Firepaw enter the den, and he rolled over to face the tabby tom. “Hey, Firepaw.”

    Upon hearing Onepaw speak, Runningpaw sat up. Firepaw looked between the two of them nervously.

    “Where’s Webpaw?” he asked, as the dark grey tom was nowhere in sight.

    “Out hunting,” Runningpaw replied.

    “Oh- I suppose someone will tell him later, then,” Firepaw muttered to himself.

    “Tell him what?” Upon hearing Firepaw speak, Onepaw rose into a sitting position as well. 

    “It’s about Whitepaw.” Firepaw found that once again, this information would be difficult to tell. He just hoped that his friends wouldn’t assume the worst, as Morningflower had.

    Runningpaw’s ears perked up hopefully. “Is she doing better? Should we visit her?”

    Firepaw didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but it was better they just get told the blunt truth now instead of the sugarcoated one, only to learn what was going on from someone else.

    “She has greencough. I went to visit her, and Barkface told me.” 

    Runningpaw gasped, and without a word, shoved past Firepaw to presumably visit Whitepaw.

    Onepaw seemed ready to do the same, but Firepaw blocked his path. “You should see her later. Morningflower's already there, and Barkface wouldn't appreciate more cats crowding her."

    Onepaw’s eyes clouded with concern, but he nodded in understanding. “I’ll try to visit her later today.”

    Firepaw smiled thankfully to his friend, and once Onepaw had returned to his nest, the tabby exited the apprentice den. 

    Upon leaving the den, his gaze ventured to the attention outside the nursery.

    Princess was playing with Gorsekit. Firepaw wasn’t close enough to hear the two, but they appeared to be passing a moss ball to one another. Firepaw could only hope that Princess wouldn’t be a bad influence to the kit.

    He considered going to eat, but instead began to walk over to Princess. Surely she would be curious about what Firepaw had told Morningflower, especially considering it concerned Whitepaw. 

    Princess paused in the game upon noticing Firepaw approaching. Gorsekit, on the contrary, thwacked the small ball towards Firepaw, grinning mischievously. 

    Firepaw took a moment to register what the kit was doing, before batting it back. 

    Princess spoke up. “Hold on, Gorsekit,” she said gently. “I need to speak with Firepaw for a moment.”

    Gorsekit deflated a little bit in disappointment. Before he could speak, though, Princess nodded.

    “See over there?” she indicated a small black beetle crawling on the ground with her tail. “Try and get that while you wait!”

    Gorsekit brightened again. “Will do!”

    Once the kit was distracted, Princess turned to Firepaw. “What’s wrong?” she whispered. “Is Whitepaw okay?”

    “No,” Firepaw meowed. “Greencough.”

    Princess’ brows crinkled in confusion, before her eyes flashed with recognition. “Greencough… Morningflower mentioned it before.” She nodded in understanding. “I hope she gets better.”

    “I hope so too,” Firepaw said earnestly. Once the conversation was done, Princess returned to the tom-kit, who now had the beetle in his jaws. 

    Firepaw observed the two return to their game, before turning away. 

    Why should we have to rely on StarClan? Why do their ‘mysterious ways’ get cats killed?

Chapter Text

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Sure enough, the news of Whitepaw's greencough eventually spread throughout camp by the time night rolled around. A few more cats had gone to visit the sick apprentice, and Barkface was still urging them to not stay near her for too long.

It wasn't just Whitepaw that was sick now. Mudclaw, one of the warriors, was beginning to show early signs of whitecough and had to stay with Barkface for a bit as well.

Firepaw found it hard to sleep that night. Worries and anxieties about not only the condition of his friend, but also the possibility of any more of his friends getting this horribly sick plagued him. After all, so many cats were visiting Whitepaw, and he had to admit- it could cause trouble due to the fact that she was contagious. He did eventually fall asleep well into the night, but it wasn't an easy task.

Early the next morning, upon remembering the news from yesterday, Firepaw decided he should try to distract himself from the horrible news. Along with that, he was disappointed to admit he hadn’t gotten much proper work done the previous day. He felt that hanging out with his friends for now would only remind him of Whitepaw's grim fate, especially considering how insistent everyone seemed on discussing Whitepaw. Instead, he decided to try hunting on his own for the time being.

Not only would it distract him, but it would also nice to catch some things for the Clan. It was still well into leaf-bare, after all, and newleaf wouldn't bloom into existence for around another moon or so.

Firepaw padded over to his mentor's den to tell him where he was going. After all, he didn’t want to risk causing confusion. He called into the den, awaiting permission to enter. 

It took a moment for Tallstar to respond, but it gave Firepaw the permission he was seeking. Once he had entered the den, he nodded to the Clan leader.

“Firepaw,” Tallstar greeted. “How can I help you?”

“I wanted to know if I can go hunting- on my own, that is.” Firepaw found himself unable to discern what Tallstar was thinking, judging on his expression.

Tallstar raised a brow. “Why don’t you want to go with one of your friends? Or at the very least with another warrior?”

Firepaw chuckled nervously. “I’d just… rather be alone right now. To clear my head.”

Tallstar nodded in understanding. “Don’t be out too long. Tell me when you’ve returned. I want to have a training session once you are back.”

Firepaw dipped his head to Tallstar. “I will, thank you.”

The orange tom swiftly turned around and left the leader’s den into the clearing. He quickly glanced over the clearing- most cats seemed to be out hunting and patrolling. Of course, this was only natural- the small prey pile was a good indicator that the Clan needed as many cats working as possible.

Before he left camp, Firepaw quickly padded over to the nursery to check on those who were inside. He poked his head inside the den to see Morningflower, with Gorsekit lying beside her, and Princess not far away from the two. They were all still sleeping.

I hope they'll be okay.

Firepaw's eyes darted towards his sister. He especially wanted his sister to be safe. He didn't want all her efforts of finding him and staying in WindClan's camp to give birth to be wasted.

She really was risking so much coming out here in leaf-bare.

Firepaw quickly turned away from the nursery and headed towards the exit of the camp, padding outside. The air was chilly, making him shiver somewhat with each gust of wind. Still, at the very least it wasn’t freezing.

He wasted no time stalling, and quickly got going in the fields. Even with the cold blasts of wind, he couldn’t deny the thrill of being able to run on and on in these endless fields lasted even in such depressing times.
    Even when he was throwing himself across these meadows, he stayed attentive. The moment the sharp scent of a hare hit his nose, he stopped short. His ears craned to hear the prey.

Despite his zeal just moments ago, once he stopped running, a few of his worried, pestering thoughts began returning.

I can’t give up on this catch just because of my own worries.

In his moment of distraction, the hare had skittered to a spot where it would soon be able to see Firepaw.

Alarmed, Firepaw shot forward. The hare immediately picked up on him, darting to the side. Luckily, Firepaw was able to quickly change course and cut it off as it tried to escape.

He quickly pinned the prey down with his paws and nipped it’s neck, successfully killing it.

I need to be more careful , he thought, somewhat scornfully. I almost let it get away.

He quickly dug up a hole and buried the hare to retrieve later. Perhaps this wasn’t the best place to hunt- maybe changing his location would help him. 

As he began heading away from his previous spot, he started brainstorming possible places to go. Near the ShadowClan border was a no-go- he remembered his last time attempting to hunt close to it, only ending in failure and an angry confrontation. Near RiverClan's border might not be the best choice either- a large gorge stood between the two Clans, and due to that, hunting near the border seemed to be a last resort anyways.

Fourtrees?

Firepaw shot a glance in the general direction of where the heart of the territories laid. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try , he decided. I just need to be careful to avoid ThunderClan cats. It’d probably be best if I stay out of the actual gathering spot, too. It would certainly raise suspicion of WindClan scent being so close to the heart of Fourtrees.

After finally pinpointing the direction he intended to go, he quickly started heading there. He stopped to taste the air every so often, failing to scent anything on the way there.

The tall, commanding namesakes of Fourtrees got larger and larger as he got closer. Once he was close enough, he could peak through the bramble border of the meeting spot to see the giant rock inside.

I wonder if I’ll make it to the next Gathering , he wondered to himself.

After another moment of looking at the unusually empty clearing, he steered away from the location to try and find something to hunt. Sure enough, after taking a moment to look around and scent the air, he spotted another hare hopping along the frost-tipped grass a few fox lengths away. He was lucky he hadn’t frightened it away when he was approaching earlier.

Firepaw readied himself to go for the hare, pressing his ears forward to pick up on any movement.

He shot forward. Unfortunately, the hare noticed him earlier than he had intended, and shot away. Somewhat disgruntled, he continued shooting after the small mammal. It was quick, so he knew he needed to be quicker.

Before long, he was able to grab its spine in his teeth. He swiftly snapped its neck with his paws, ending its life. As he looked up, he noticed how dangerously close he was towards the ThunderClan border, to the point where he could clearly smell the enemy Clan's fresh scent marker. A patrol must be nearby, he realized.

He considered quickly taking his prey and running away, but he felt that sudden commotion would cause suspicion- and the last thing WindClan needed was more tension with enemy Clans.

Unsure what else he could do, he buried himself under one of the bushes lining the border, hoping to be as inconspicuous as possible. He was still in WindClan territory, so hopefully they wouldn’t suspect that he was there due to all the other scents of WindClan cats.

I can just wait till they pass, he reassured himself. Then I can go without any sort of risk.

The cats came into view, and he slowed his breathing when he realized he could faintly hear them. I suppose they shouldn’t be so close to the border either, to be fair.

He cursed his bright orange pelt, and inched a bit further under the shrubbery.

“... think we should split up,” one of the voices said. “Be careful with the border.”

They’re splitting up? He realized. That can be a good thing, or….

He cringed away as he realized one of the cats from the patrol was getting closer to his spot. They can’t leave their territory. I’m fine. They won’t see me.

The approaching cat came into view, and he squinted as he realized how they were familiar. A thick grey coat… bright yellow eyes... 

Greypaw! He breathed a sigh of relief. 

After sniffing the air to see if the other cats in the patrol had cleared away, he pushed himself out of the bush, huffing as the twigs dragged at his thin fur.

Upon hearing the commotion of the bush, Greypaw whirled around, his face alight with alarm. He opened his mouth to say something, but instantly relaxed the moment he saw Firepaw emerge. "Firepaw!" he called, though not too loudly to alert his Clanmates. "What are you doing so close to the border? I mean, like, it's good to see you, but-"

"I was just hunting, don't worry," Firepaw reassured his friend, gesturing to the hare at his paws. "I didn't mean to get this close." Deciding to change the subject, he added, "How are you?" His thoughts wandered back to the last time he and Greypaw had had a conversation, where Greypaw had not been in the best mood during a Gathering and went as far as to publicly snap at a Clan leader.

Greypaw seemed to be thinking of the same thing. “I’m fine.”

Firepaw furrowed his brow. He didn’t like when his friend seemed upset. “Really?”

Greypaw glanced away at the spot where he had come from. “I might need to go soon, so I catch something before I return to the patrol.”

“Greypaw,” Firepaw raised his head to meet his friend’s eyes.

After nervously looking to and from Firepaw, Greypaw sighed. “Firepaw- you know I can’t get over Silverpaw's death so quickly, right?”

Firepaw blinked in alarm. He didn’t know if it was a good or a bad sign that Greypaw was being so direct about his grief. “Of course. I just want to know how you’re doing. I don’t see you often- it’s worrying.”

Greypaw nodded. “Right. Well, I suppose… I can say I’m getting better.”

Firepaw smiled at the tom. “That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Greypaw glanced back towards the rest of ThunderClan territory. “I need to get back soon, so I should probably go ahead and catch something- but… I hope I’ll see you at the next Gathering.” Greypaw offered him a smile.

Firepaw nodded enthusiastically. “I hope so, too. Good luck on your hunt, by the way.”

Greypaw shot Firepaw a thankful glance, before vanishing into the shrubbery and trees of ThunderClan's territory. 

Once the grey tom had truly vanished, Firepaw picked up his hare and turned away. He thought it best that he left quickly, in order to not risk another cat from the patrol spotting him.

On his way back, he caught a field mouse, as well as picking up the hare he caught earlier. 

Three catches, he thought pridefully. That’s pretty good, considering I’m on my own.

Firepaw stepped into the camp with his catches, immediately heading towards the prey pile. As he was placing his catches down, he heard pawsteps approaching him, and turned to see Webpaw. "Hey, Webpaw."

"Hi, Firepaw." Tilting his head in confusion, he asked, "Where have you been?"

"Just out hunting." The sun was still high in the sky, but was also starting to gradually sink as time passed. He also needed to tell Tallstar that he was back to start the training session he was planning before it was too late, he remembered.

"It's been a while since you left camp. Are you sure you-"

"Prey's just rare because of the weather," Firepaw replied, not intending to cut his friend off. He desperately hoped they wouldn't find out about his encounter with an enemy Clan apprentice- WindClan didn't need drama with ThunderClan.

"Alright, well, I just wanted to tell you that Deadfoot assigned us to the dawn patrol tomorrow," replied Webpaw, changing the subject.

Firepaw nodded, flicking his tail as a goodbye to his friend before quickly turning around to head to the leader’s den. 

Chapter Text

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When Firepaw woke up early the next morning, he instantly concluded that something wasn't right.

    It wasn’t superstition or anything similar. Instead, his head was aching, and he couldn’t get rid of a sour taste in his mouth. It was as if he was sick- once he had gotten to his paws, he swayed a little bit from left to right before gathering his senses and straightening his posture.

    It’s probably nothing, he thought to himself. I can’t let this distract me- I have a dawn patrol, after all.

    He glanced around the rest of the den. Runningpaw and Onepaw were fast asleep, silent as they dozed, apart from their quiet breathing. Webpaw, on the other paw, was nowhere in sight- his nest was vacant, still fresh with his scent.

    Firepaw was somewhat confused at first, before he remembered from their conversation yesterday that he was a part of Firepaw's patrol. Upon remembering this information, the flame coloured apprentice turned and slowly padded out of the den to meet up with the other cats in the patrol.

    It took him a bit longer than normal to locate the entrance of the camp, but when he did, he saw Deadfoot and Webpaw waiting there, both looking expectant. The sun was slowly making its way up the sky, so Firepaw headed over as quickly as he could to not waste time. He faltered in his steps a couple of times, and he even had to stop for a moment to catch his breath at some point.

    I’m just tired, he reasoned. Once I get used to being awake, I’ll be fine.

    As Firepaw neared the two cats he was to patrol with, Deadfoot and Webpaw both turned to face him with a confused yet concerned look. "Firepaw?" the deputy asked. "Are you well enough to go on this patrol?"

    "Uh..." Firepaw faltered with his words for a moment before nodding vigorously. "Yep. I'm fine. Don't worry about me." He didn't want anyone to know that no , he definitely wasn't feeling like his usual self, but he also didn't want to admit that something was wrong. He also had a duty for his Clan, and what was a bad day like this going to do to stop him?

    "Are you sure you don't need to see Barkface or anything?" Deadfoot still clearly wasn't convinced from Firepaw's seemingly forced response. "I can get Onepaw or someone else to-"

    "No, no, it's fine!" exclaimed Firepaw, trying his best to put on a more energetic exterior. "I'm just tired, that's all. No need to bother Barkface or any of the other apprentices."

    After another inquisitive look at the apprentice, Deadfoot nodded and turned around. "If that's what you say, then let's go," the deputy said, leading the two other apprentices out of camp. Firepaw breathed a sigh of relief at having convinced the deputy to let him still attend the patrol.

    Firepaw trailed slightly behind Webpaw as they left the camp. As they were now out in their territory, Webpaw turned to him and muttered in a voice low enough for Deadfoot to not hear, "Are you sure you're okay? You're not usually like this..."

    " Yes , I'm fine, honestly," the apprentice in question responded. "Come on. The sooner we get this patrol out of the way the better."

---

    The patrol was uneventful, with nothing particularly exciting to report. The sun was high in the sky by the time the three cats arrived back at camp, each with a piece of prey that they had managed to catch on the way back. It wasn't meant to be a hunting patrol, but during a time like this in leaf-bare, it was practically impossible to pass up on some extra prey for the Clan. After all, the more food for everyone, the better.

    Firepaw himself had a rather small rabbit in his jaws. It certainly wasn't much, but it was one more thing the Clan could eat tonight. It definitely took a lot more effort than usual, though- he had found it difficult to focus while out in WindClan territory, and he still had the same aches and bad feelings from when he first woke up. Each of these little inconveniences constantly reminded him that something was wrong with him, as much as he tried to deny it.

    However, he had still caught the prey, and he had still made it back home safely. That was all that mattered in the end.

    Deadfoot turned to the two apprentices, momentarily dropping his prey, a lark, in order to speak. "You two should go eat and rest now," he advised. Then, picking up the lark again, he turned and padded off elsewhere in camp, presumably to talk to Tallstar.

    "Well, you heard him," Webpaw said, shooting a glance at Firepaw. "Come on."

    The two apprentices deposited their catches in the prey pile before Webpaw took out a thrush from it. "Wanna share?" he offered, looking the bird over. "It should be big enough for the both of us."

    "Er, no thanks," Firepaw mewed.

    "You sure?" Webpaw's voice had a hint of concern in it.

    "Positive."

    Firepaw smiled at his friend, attempting to look reassuring as he could. Webpaw remained somewhat unconvinced, but he nodded and returned the smile before seeming to drop the topic.

    Firepaw didn’t necessarily want to go back to sleeping, so he figured that he could just stay with Webpaw for a bit.

    As he looked around the rest of the camp for any movement, he spotted Princess and Morningflower chatting not far from the nursery. Just nearby, little Gorsekit was attempting to dig a stone out of the ground. 

    They must have left the nursery when Firepaw was out patrolling, since he remembered that the camp had been quite still before he left. The two queens were bathed in the morning light, while Gorsekit was sheltered from the sunlight from Morningflower’s shadow.

    He couldn’t hear what the mollies were talking about, but at the very least they seemed peaceful.

    As Firepaw was watching them, he felt his throat catch and get stuck. He coughed sharply, faintly touching his throat with his paw as he coughed a few more times.

    Webpaw had risen to his paws and padded over to him, and his tail was gently placed on Firepaw’s shoulder.

    Once Firepaw had seemed to stop coughing, Webpaw spoke. “Are you okay? That didn’t seem good.”

    Firepaw turned his head to face Webpaw, swallowing. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I just caught something in my throat.”

    Webpaw remained hesitant. “Firepaw, I want to know if you aren’t feeling good.”

    Firepaw rolled his shoulders back, attempting to sit a bit taller. “No worries. I’m fine, I promise.”

    Webpaw kept his gaze fixed on Firepaw for a few more seconds, before removing his tail from his shoulder and padding back over to his prey.

    Firepaw didn’t want his friend worrying over him like this. It, along with whatever bad feelings he was experiencing that day, reminded him all too much of Whitepaw and her symptoms.

    Hers were and are more severe than mine, though, he remembered. Plus, it's just one bad day. I'm fine.

    “Hey, when will you be appointed as a warrior?” Firepaw looked over at Webpaw, deciding to change the topic.

    Webpaw chewed and swallowed the bite of thrush in his mouth, before appearing thoughtful. “I’m not sure. I guess it depends on my training, but probably at some point in the next moon.

    Firepaw nodded, and in that moment he noticed something small and sharp hit against his fur. He tried to look up to see what it was or where it was coming from, but the rate at which it was falling was rapidly growing, and he had to close his eyes and face another direction to avoid getting pelted with whatever it was.

    As alert as he could get, he turned to Webpaw, who also had the same shocked and confused expression as he bore. "What's going on?" The weather was getting colder and the winds harsher, sending chills through Firepaw the longer he stood in place. More and more clouds began to cover the sky, making the general atmosphere a lot more gloomy.

    Now that he thought about it, he had noticed a slow drop in the temperature over time- but he hadn’t expected whatever this was.

    He tried to cover his head with his paws as it got quicker. Webpaw appeared to be doing the same.

    “Let’s get inside a den!” Webpaw yelped, running over to Firepaw before beginning to lead him to the nursery, due to it being the closest to them.

    The two toms quickly ducked inside one after another, desperately escaping the unfamiliar pellets coming from the sky.

    The two queens, along with Gorsekit, were already settling inside, and they looked up as the two apprentices rushed in. 

    Once the two were inside, they both sat down. Firepaw quickly began grooming the pieces caught in his pelt.

    Webpaw looked over at the queens. “What’s happening?”

    Princess looked unsure, but Morningflower spoke up. “It’s hail. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s pesky when it does happen. It’s probably pretty windy outside- I advise you two stay inside for a while.”

    Firepaw lifted his head up again, looking around the nursery. I wonder if I’ll end up sleeping in here tonight.

    Gorsekit, meanwhile, was pawing at some of the bedding that he and Morningflower shared. The hyper kit was getting visibly frustrated with the situation.

    “Gorsekit,” Morningflower said to her son, a warning in her tone. 

    “How long will we be stuck in here?” Gorsekit replied stubbornly, looking up defiantly at his mother.

    Morningflower shot a glance at the den entrance, watching the hail loudly pattering against the hard ground outside. “I can’t say. We can just hope to StarClan that it won’t be too long, but for now please just rest.”

    The nursery was rather crowded with the two apprentices inside, so Firepaw could understand Morningflower’s impatience with her kit.

    Firepaw decided to seize this opportunity to talk to his sister. “Hey, Princess- what have you been up to lately?”

    Princess turned her head to look at her brother. “There isn’t too much to do in camp- for the most part I’ve just been chatting with Morningflower to pass the time, or playing with Gorsekit.”

    The two queens exchanged a glance, before Princess returned her attention to Firepaw. The orange tabby was somewhat confused. “Why don’t you go on walks outside? That could be nice.”

    Princess shrugged. "Eh, I doubt most of this Clan is comfortable with me leaving camp alone. I’m still somewhat unfamiliar to them, after all.” 

    Firepaw frowned. He was reminded of his own experiences when he still hadn’t been in the Clan for long.

    Before Firepaw could come up with a response, Firepaw coughed in succession. He tried to swallow away the tickling feeling in his throat.

    Princess definitely seemed to notice it, though. “Rusty! What’s wrong?”

    Firepaw tried to wave her away with his paw. “I’m fine, I’m fine- I’m sorry.”

    Firepaw could see that Webpaw was visibly concerned as well, and he sighed. “Don’t worry, any of you. I’m just fine. There’s nothing wrong.”

    Princess narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you're not sick? You mentioned sickness was more common during this season for Clan cats."

    Firepaw nodded. “Yes, of course I’m sure. I wouldn’t lie about this.”

    Princess’ expression remained suspicious, but she nodded. 

    Firepaw was once again reminded of Whitepaw's symptoms, as well as the way she too had said similar things when he and his other friends were sure she was sick.

    But hers were much worse, the apprentice reminded himself. I'm going to get over this. Surely it can't be that bad.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

    Firepaw and Onepaw were padding alongside one another, pushing their way through the exit of the medicine den. The two had been visiting Whitepaw as usual. To their relief, she hadn’t gotten worse- but she still remained very sick.

    The camp was bustling, with cats making their way through camp to get with patrols. Others were chatting and sharing tongues. The sun was high up in the sky, so it seemed a good time for cats to be out and about.

    Despite it being the middle of the day, it was rather cold nonetheless. It wasn’t one of the warmer days in leaf-bare. Grey clouds obscured most of the sky, making it somewhat gloomy. The cheerful and energetic vibe from the camp was a large contrast to the weather.

    As Firepaw was picking his way around cats through camp, he stumbled and faltered on his paws, and his focus wasn't as sharp as it usually was. He nearly bumped into a warrior padding to the camp entrance, but luckily managed to swerve out of the way at the last minute. Onepaw, who was still padding alongside him, paused.

    “Firepaw?” the concern was clear in the apprentice’s voice. “Is everything alright? Are you okay?”

    Firepaw backed away from the other cats in camp, and attempted to regain his balance and clear his head. Once he wasn’t as dizzy, he turned to Onepaw.

    After blinking at his friend for a few seconds, thinking of what to say, he spoke. “Yeah… yeah. I’m fine. I just was being clumsy, is all.”

    "We were just in the medicine den," Onepaw pointed out, not entirely convinced at Firepaw's words. "If something's wrong, you should have told Barkface."

    Firepaw shook his head. “No, I’m fine- I don’t need herbs or anything. The others need it more than I do.”

    “Firepaw, if you’re sick, you need it. Just as-”

    “No,” Firepaw repeated. “I’m fine. I just need to get out for a bit. Do you want to go on a walk or something?”

    Onepaw took a moment to respond, as he seemed to be debating whether to press Firepaw further. “Alright, alright. Sure. Where do you want to go?”

    Firepaw began heading towards the camp entrance, with Onepaw following him a little bit behind.

    “How about the RiverClan border?” Firepaw offered.

    Onepaw nodded, and sped up somewhat to pad alongside Firepaw. Once the two were out in WindClan territory, they quickly began heading for the RiverClan gorge. 

    It was relatively silent, considering how usually the two apprentices would banter between themselves as they walked. Firepaw would occasionally stumble in his steps as he walked, something unusual for the apprentice, considering how he was so used to his own territory.

    It didn’t take long for them to be near the gorge. There was no RiverClan patrol in sight on the other side, only the relatively fresh scent of the enemy Clan’s marker.

    Onepaw didn’t seem to be focusing on RiverClan territory. Instead, he seemed to be somewhat distracted, looking out over WindClan’s territory.

    “Something on your mind?” Firepaw asked his friend, turning his head to look at him.

    Onepaw startled a bit when Firepaw talked, but he quickly looked over to meet Firepaw’s gaze. “You could say that,” he muttered, glancing away.

    Firepaw cocked his head, prompting an answer.

    Onepaw remained quiet for a few more moments, before he sighed and looked back over at Firepaw. “I have a question for you.”

    “Hm?”

    Onepaw hesitated somewhat. “When was the last time you’ve eaten a meal? Like, a hare or something.”

    Firepaw blinked rapidly at Onepaw, somewhat surprised at his question. He opened his mouth, but upon realizing he didn’t know the answer, he frowned and avoided Onepaw’s stare.

    “Firepaw-”

    Firepaw glanced over at the sun. It was nearly directly at its midpoint in the sky, practically making it sunhigh. “You have a patrol soon, don’t you?”

    Onepaw looked over at the sun as well upon it being pointed out. “A patrol…?” he was confused, before shaking his head and looking back at Firepaw. “I know that, but I’m worried.”

    Firepaw stopped. “I’m fine. I don’t want you to be late for your patrol. If you don’t head back, they might leave without you.”

    Onepaw sighed. “Can you walk back with me, at least?”

    Firepaw shook his head. “I want to get some sort of prey out of this. I’m not confident we’ll run into anything on the way back.”

    Onepaw glanced behind himself to the direction of the camp. “Are you… sure?”

    “Of course,” Firepaw reassured him. “I don’t want you to get in trouble because of this. You need to get back.”

    Onepaw looked once again at the sky. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to stay out on your own, though- there’s clouds rolling in.”

    Firepaw could see the dark clouds coming in from the horizon. “I’ll quickly get something, and be right back. You need to get back and help your patrol.”

    Onepaw seemed hesitant, but alas he nodded. “Get back to camp soon. I assume you’ll be there before I return from my patrol.”

    “I should be there by then. Now go on, you don’t want them to wait for you.”

    After one last nod to Firepaw, Onepaw turned around and began heading back to the camp, away from Firepaw. Firepaw watched as his figure got smaller and smaller, until it eventually blended in with the grass and wasn’t visible. 

    I should get to hunting now. He glanced up at the clouds gathering above. I just hope the weather won’t be too awful.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

    Firepaw hardly noticed the white flakes of snow beginning to fall from the clouds as he stared after Onepaw's disappearing figure. The green grass underpaw was slowly turning to frosty white, but Firepaw paid no mind to the change in weather. He had hunted in the cold and snow before, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue for him.

    Regaining his composure and whatever focus he had left within him, Firepaw set off towards the heart of WindClan's territory once again. He had promised Onepaw he was going to hunt, and that was what he was going to do.

    And I’ll get back to meet him later, too. 

    He could only hope he’d be able to quickly scent some prey. They would probably begin retreating to their dens due to the sudden snowstorm, so he figured he should get hunting quickly to not risk all of the prey hiding.

    So far, though, he struggled to smell anything. It was most likely a mix of the snow masking their scent, as well as the prey going to hide. 

    He refused to stop, though. The ground was becoming completely coated in thick snow fairly quickly. Before long, the sound of his paws crunching in the freshly laid snow was ringing in his ears. The snowflakes clung to the tips of his fur, melting and causing his wet fur to lay flat. 

    The chilly water caused him to shudder, and he rubbed his ears to get some warmth into them. 

    He sneezed sharply, but quickly recovered by shaking himself and continuing his walking.

    I just need to smell something - once I catch at least one piece of prey, I’ll be fine with going back… but I can’t go back empty-pawed. I’d only be helping the Clan starve by doing that.

    Despite the harshly growing cold, Firepaw pressed on. Just as he was about to turn to go to Fourtrees to see if he could find something there, an all too familiar scent hit him.

    Field mouse! he thought, growing somewhat relieved.

    He crouched against the ground, shivering as the icy snow brushed against his belly. It was difficult to pick out exactly where the scent was coming from. The fresh scent of snow overwhelmed his senses, and it became increasingly difficult to focus on anything else.

    Upon being able to pinpoint a solid trail for the field mouse, he began inching closer. It was difficult to stay quiet while pushing through the mounting snow, but he was able to spot his prey after following the trail for a little bit.

    The field mouse seemed to be struggling as well, too small to push through the snow properly. It was relatively small, probably not quite an adult yet. 

    Firepaw squeezed his eyes shut for a few moments. Stay focused. It doesn’t matter what it looks like.

    Without another thought, he used his haunches to boost himself forward upon the field mouse. 

    To his ultimate dismay, he overshot it and his paws landed next to the field mouse. Firepaw growled as it quickly shot away, skittering over the snow with a speed he already knew he wouldn’t be able to match considering his condition.

    Firepaw watched the mouse dash away longingly, wanting to go after it but also knowing there was no way he'd be able to catch up with it.

    One piece of missed prey is nothing , he reassured himself, still determined to find something to bring back for the Clan. It was small anyway.

    He ignored the disappointed pit in his stomach, willing himself to continue his hunt. He quickly began padding around again, sniffing the air every chance he got.

    He puffed air out of his nose, shuddering and wrinkling his snout upon realizing how cold and icy the air had gotten. 

    As he went on, the snow only began to get worse. He couldn’t help but long for his nest back in the apprentice’ den, with his friends surrounding him while the only sign of the snowstorm was the sound of the wind outside.
    Did Onepaw’s patrol still end up going out? He found himself wondering.

    The snow only got worse, the cold whipping into his face and making him squint. Every so often he’d stop to lick out some of the snow caught in his fur. 

    He sneezed again, hardly registering the fluid dripping from his nose. His ears were somewhat numb.

    At this point, he had settled with the fact that he had whitecough. The signs were very clear, considering how he’d seen other cats with it. He hadn’t let that stop him, though- other cats were dealing with greencough. He had the luck of it being mild, so he wouldn’t let it stop him from helping the Clan.

    They say to prioritize your Clan over your life, anyway.

    He grew increasingly frustrated at the lack of prey- he hadn’t scented anything since the field mouse. Surely there had to be some things still out and about.

    Noticing himself getting more wobbly, he looked around for a place to rest for a little bit. Not too far away, he could see one of the rare low-hanging trees in WindClan’s vast territory. 

    He stumbled over, before sitting down. It was a little more peaceful- the trunk thankfully blocked him from the wind and freezing temperatures.

    He looked out over the white landscape. The scent of WindClan was a lot less clear due to it being covered up by the thick snow. He hadn’t been a snowstorm as fierce as this in a bit- the last time he had experienced one was when he and his Clanmates were forced out of their territory.

    Still, it was a whole new experience seeing all of this change on his Clan’s own territory. He hoped it wouldn’t last too long.

    However, it seemed as if StarClan had no intention of stopping the storm anytime soon.

    The StarClan cats have power over this, don’t they? Why do they want us to suffer? This is just causing more cats to get hurt.

    He began licking his fur, trying to warm himself up. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the thickest fur, so he was rather weak when it came to the cold.

    After he had warmed up somewhat, he convinced himself to continue his hunt. He didn’t want to waste time- this weather would only get worse, after all.

    What Firepaw failed to realize as he continued was how his condition changed. His movements got slower and more sluggish the longer he walked.

    The snow is just slowing me down, he reassured himself.

    He felt a gentle ache in his stomach, telling him that he was hungry. It wasn’t too bad- it went rather unnoticed beneath the numbness of the cold.

    I can’t eat yet, anyway. I haven’t caught anything.

    He began to feel somewhat hopeless- he couldn’t smell any sort of fresh prey anywhere nearby. He just needed to get one thing , and then-

    Firepaw’s thoughts were cut off as he heard a distant sound. He strained his ears, glancing around. Maybe it’s prey?

    As the sound continued, he realized that someone was calling his name.

    “ Firepaw ! What are you doing?!”

    He looked around, squinting his eyes to see who was addressing him. His gaze landed on the shape of a cat getting closer. As the shape got bigger and bigger, he began to be able to make out some of it’s details.

    Tallstar, he realized.

    The tom had gotten a lot closer, and was standing in front of his apprentice.

    “Tallstar?” Firepaw meowed, blinking blearily.

    “What is wrong?” Tallstar asked, concern in his amber eyes. “Are you okay?”

    Firepaw attempted to stand taller. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just trying to catch something.”

    Tallstar squinted at his apprentice, before shaking his head. “Why would you do that? It’s awful out!”

    “Why-” Firepaw coughed sharply. “Why are you out right now?”

    “I’m on a patrol. But it’s nonsensical to go out on your own when the weather is like this,” Tallstar scolded.

    “It wasn’t bad when I first went out,” Firepaw muttered.

    “That’s not an excuse. Surely you saw the incoming clouds?” Tallstar pointed out.

    “Yeah, but I needed to catch something,” Firepaw said insistently. “I didn’t want to go back empty-pawed.”

    Tallstar frowned at Firepaw, before sighing and shaking his head. “You’re going back to camp. Now.”

    Firepaw furrowed his brow, his eyes widening somewhat in surprise. “But- but I haven’t caught anything! I don’t want this to be a waste.”

    “You’re clearly sick. If you’re completely debilitated, you won’t be able to catch anything any time soon. Now go back. That’s an order.”

    Firepaw opened his mouth to protest again, but quickly put his head down and nodded. Firepaw shot one last desperate glance at the snowy fields, before turning to head towards camp.

    Tallstar watched his retreating shape for a small bit, before quickly running over to catch up.

    Firepaw shot a questioning glance at the older tom.

    “I don’t trust that you’re strong enough to get back on your own. I’m going to accompany you on the way back,” Tallstar explained.

    As the two walked, Firepaw grew progressively more dizzy and blurry-eyed. He pressed his ears against his head, trying to push out the sharp whistling of the wind.

    Firepaw paused, growing too dizzy-headed to continue walking. He raised his head to look over at Tallstar, who had stopped as well. Then, his legs buckled from beneath him, and everything went dark.

---

    Firepaw’s head was pulsing with pain. The only thing he could feel was a dull ache. His eyes were screwed shut, and it took him a little bit to be able to open them wide enough to be able to see something.    

    Everything was blurry, but he was able to register a few distorted shapes and distant voices.

    Firepaw wanted to call out to ask what was going on- he couldn’t remember where he had been last, and he didn’t know where he was now.

    The voices sounded far away, yet they echoed in his ears.

    He was hardly able to register what they were talking about, or what the words meant.

    “ What’s wrong with Firepaw? ”

    “ How long has he been like this? ”

    “ How bad is it? ”

    “ If he has greencough -”

    Firepaw squeezed his eyes shut once more.

    Greencough ?

Chapter Text

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The sounds of muffled speaking were the only things that stood out to Firepaw as he laid with his eyes shut. However, they weren't the sounds of other cats- they were of Twolegs, and he could vaguely make out the sound of his name being called.

Rusty.

Rusty grumbled, pushing his nose into his fur. He was tired, and just wanted to remain sleeping. What could be so important, anyways?

Despite his wishes, the calling persisted. After laying still for a bit longer, he blinked open his eyes and stretched out his paws, pushing himself into a sitting position. He flexed his claws, digging them into the soft bedding beneath him. He took a few rapid licks at his belly, before fully rising to his paws.

The soft morning light filtered through the window, bathing the room in a gentle golden glow. His housefolk were waiting for him- they had fallen silent by that point, presumably figuring he was on his way.

Rusty made his way towards where they were waiting, taking his time and licking his fur every so often. The bell around his collar jingled with every step he took, which only seemed to alert his housefolk more. He saw his owner waiting in another room, and let out a meow towards them in greeting. His housefolk leaned down, rubbing him under the ear before indicating towards his food bowl, mumbling something. The steel bowl was filled with his usual food- small brown pebble-like pieces.

He debated whether to eat or not- there was a slight ache in his stomach, but he shrugged it off. He could eat later.

He watched his housefolk leave the room, before padding across the floor to the cat door. To his delight, it easily slid open, indicating his housefolk had unlocked it.

As soon as he was outside, he purred in satisfaction upon feeling the morning sun’s warmth upon his flank. It was a pleasant temperature, with everywhere he could see lit up in the yellow dawn. A light breeze stirred his pelt and his surroundings.

The town was starting to wake up- cars were starting to go on the road, cats were leaving their homes, housefolk were out along the streets.

He picked his way through the garden, being careful to avoid ripping anything apart. He didn’t have a fond memory of the last time he had done such a thing…

He boosted himself atop the white fence outlining the garden, giving him a better view of what was going on. His gaze quickly landed on another feline perched on a fence not too far from the one he was on.

He ran along the fence, expertly balanced on the tall wooden stakes. The cat he had seen quickly became more visible.

Before long, he realized it was Princess he was looking at. The molly was grooming herself, seemingly soaking up the warmth of the morning.

Rusty jumped over onto the fence she was perched on, landing next to her. She glanced over at him, smiling at him once she realized who it was that had entered her garden.

“Hey, Rusty,” she meowed in greeting, flicking her tail in his direction.

“Princess,” he replied. “How are you? Did you sleep well?”

She nodded as he asked his questions. “I’m well. I hope something interesting happens today. I heard that your housefolk are planning on taking you to the cutter soon? Is that true?”

Rusty shrugged. “I don’t know. If I do, it’ll probably just be one of those basic checks. I never noticed anything indicating that in particular, though. Where did you hear that?”

“I heard Smudge gossipping about it,” she purred. “I’m not sure where he heard it.”

Rusty glanced over at the sudden gathering clouds on the horizon, and Princess followed his gaze. Her eyes squinted with distaste upon seeing.

“Well, that’s just plain annoying,” she muttered. “It seemed like it was gonna be such a nice day.”

"Yeah," Rusty responded, before suddenly the small sick feeling from earlier came back, except a lot stronger than before. It was as if there was a knot inside his stomach. Phlegm gathered in his mouth, and his throat felt sticky and tasted sour. 

Princess frowned when she saw his sudden change in attitude. “What’s wrong?”

Rusty choked somewhat, glancing over at her with a pleading expression. Before he could properly respond to her question, though, he felt his weight stagger.

Princess quickly responded by helping him down from his point on the fence to avoid him falling off. Once he was down, he began convulsing while Princess looked on with a confused and concerned expression. 

Without warning, he spat out a glob of vomit on the grass below. Princess mewed in alarm. “What- are you sick? I should get you to your housefolk-”

Rusty found himself unable to respond as his convulsing and heaving continued. When he tried to open his mouth to formulate a response, he’d just end up choking on his words or spitting out more vomit.

He squeezed his eyes shut, cringing at the rancid taste. His stomach burned with the acid, and his nose wrinkled at the smell.

He opened his eyes again, hoping to see Princess standing near him. When he opened his eyes again, though, his sister had vanished. He stared at the spot where she had once stood desperately, trying to call out her name, but no words came out, and his heaving and gasping still continued. 

The pleasant warm feeling he had felt earlier was gone, replaced with chills and a feeling of stickiness all over him. At the same time, his insides felt like they were burning.

He struggled to stay on his paws. He hooked his claws into the grass- no, not grass- all he felt was cold stone beneath him by that point.

---

    His eyes burst open, and in that moment he spat out one more glob of vomit on the ground. Rather than the grassy yard, it was just moss and stone. 

    Rusty- no, Firepaw - began shaking uncontrollably, trying to push down the pain in his throat and chest. He longed to refresh his mouth with water.

    He couldn’t register where he was. Everything was blurry and dark- the only thing that was clear to him was the taste and smell of vomit, as well as the immense burning he surging through his body.

    Firepaw tried to still his shaking. He could hardly move, only inch his face to look around.

    He opened his mouth, desperate to call for help from someone. He didn’t know what was going on, but he desperately hoped someone nearby could help him.
    As he moved his mouth to speak, he realized nothing but air was escaping his throat. He tried to call out again, more forcefully this time, but all that he managed to get out was a thin whistle.

    Upon realizing he had lost his voice, his head got dizzy and began to pulse painfully. What if he was in danger? What if he’d be hurt further? Was something bad happening with WindClan? Could this maybe be his last moments?

    When his head began to throb, he returned to his shaking. He couldn’t tell if his shaking was caused by his panic and fear, or by the chills that kept going through him- perhaps both.

    He tried to see better. He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to pick out the blurry shapes that he was able to see. He squinted at one in particular.

    Upon looking at it more, he realized that it had to be a cat. He couldn’t hear anything, and he couldn’t tell if their mouth was moving, but he hoped they were there to help. 

    He returned to his attempts at yowling for help, but once again all this succeeded in was making his throat hurt worse. 

    Firepaw stared at the shape with a desperate pit in his stomach. 

    Help me, he begged silently. Please .

    His immense drowsiness suddenly overtook his panic, forcing his eyes to slowly close. 

    As soon as his eyes settled closed, he slipped into unconsciousness once more.

---

    The next time Firepaw woke up, he felt similarly awful. His head was still throbbing with pain, and he felt like he was burning and freezing at the same time- if that was possible.

    This time, though, he found comfort in the fact that he could make out shapes somewhat better. 

    There was another cat by his side. From what he could tell, it wasn’t the same one as last time.

    This one was significantly smaller. They had a brilliant white coat, and hadn’t seemed to notice he was awake.

    Firepaw opened his eyes further, trying to make sense of the cat in front of him. He had lost most hope in trying to call for help,

    He blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the blurriness in his eyes. After his vision cleared up somewhat, he realized who exactly it was who was standing by him.

    Whitepaw ?

    He was relieved to see such a familiar face, but was also overcome with questions concerning the little molly.

    After all, from what he could remember, she had been sick the last time he had seen her, right? What happened? She seemed well…

    Overcome with curiosity and confusion, he opened his mouth to ask some of his questions, before quickly being reminded that he couldn’t speak. When he began moving his mouth, though, Whitepaw seemed to get a lot more excited. He could hear distant, energetic talking.

    He couldn’t make out any of the words, though. Everything was too hazy.

    Firepaw stared up at the molly standing above him. He still didn’t know what was going on, and he didn’t know how to figure it out.

---

    The same thing happened a few more times. Most of them Firepaw forgot about them the moment he fell back asleep. After recognizing Whitepaw, he had been unable to tell apart anyone else who was with him.

    Firepaw just wanted these things to end- he had no concept of how long it had been happening, but it seemed to drag on for moons and moons.

    Each time he awoke, it was all dark and cold and blurry. He couldn’t tell where he was. 

    Eventually, he started picking up on faint smells of herbs- which at the very least gave him the indication that he was in a medicine den.

    Firepaw was left staring out into the empty, dark space. No one was with him at that moment. Often, he’d be frustrated when other cats were visiting, due to his inability to ask them anything.

    But now, he just felt lonely and cold. He desperately wished someone would sit beside him.

    He breathed shakily, closing his eyes again, succumbing to the grip of exhaustion.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER NINETEEN

All was quiet, apart from the faint yet sweet chirp of birds and the gentle whistle of wind going through grass and bushes. The sun was still rising in the distance, casting a warm glow on the territories.

It was a pleasant morning. It smelled of wet grass and leaves, indicating that it had rained during the night. All that was left of it was the drip of dew from the ceiling of the medicine den.

In fact, this is what Firepaw awoke to. Droplets hit his fur, alerting him into consciousness. 

Upon being woken, he flinched, ever paranoid. Upon realizing it was because of a leaking roof, he calmed down and settled back in his nest. He wanted to go back to sleep- it was all he had been doing for StarClan knew how long.

He knew that Barkface would be visiting soon, and just from his recent interaction from the medicine cat he was very reluctant to talk to him. Still, Firepaw had the feeling he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

Firepaw had a feeling Barkface’s visits were gonna be less frequent, though. He had been getting much better. Barkface had even reported he’d probably be able to be out and about fairly soon.

Firepaw had difficulty recalling much of anything that had happened in the time he was sick. All he could remember was waking up to unfamiliar faces and the stench of sickness.

He was happy that it’d almost be over. He didn’t even know how long he’d been inactive for.

Firepaw glanced at the entrance to the medicine den, recalling upon his recent interaction with Barkface.

Firepaw sipped at the wet moss that Barkface had brought him, eagerly getting all the moisture he could. It was a relief he could drink on his own by that point.

As he drank, Barkface sat a few steps away, watching him patiently. The brown tom appeared to be waiting for Firepaw to finish what he was doing.

After seeing this, Firepaw finished drinking from the moss extra fast. He was curious as to why Barkface was waiting for him. Maybe it’d be good news. Maybe he'd be able to leave the medicine den at some point in the very near future.

Firepaw lifted his head and looked over at the older tom, cocking his head. Barkface nodded to him, settling down in his spot.

“I have a question, Firepaw,” Barkface explained why he had been watching the apprentice. "And I want you to answer truthfully. It's very important."

Firepaw blinked, somewhat surprised. What could this be about? He only hoped it wouldn’t mean anything bad for him. “Go on.”

“How did you get to this point?” Barkface asked bluntly. “To get sick, I mean. Almost all of the cases I deal with start out with whitecough. You were suddenly brought to my den knocked unconscious with pretty bad greencough. What happened?”

Firepaw felt as though there was a pit in his stomach. He didn’t really want to answer this. How could he, after all? The weeks before he had gotten to the point of collapse had been so dizzy and confusing.

As he thought it over, Barkface was watching him expectantly. Still, Firepaw’s mind ended up blank every time he wished to open his mouth.

Firepaw thought it over further. He did know why it had happened- he knew that in the end, it was his fault. That he had been foolish. But how was he to admit all of this to a cat he didn’t even know super well?

Is this really necessary for my recovery? He found himself wondering as he looked evenly at the cat before him. I shouldn’t lie to him, though. That’s what got me into this spot, wasn’t it?

Firepaw took a small breath before beginning. “Well, I did have a pretty good idea that I had whitecough. I was getting the symptoms fairly often, and other cats were telling me to visit you.” He expected Barkface to interrupt, but the medicine cat remained silent. “Besides that… I guess I stopped taking care of myself for awhile. I don’t know how long I went between eating. I just- I just didn’t want to waste any food, since it was leaf-bare. I guess I underestimated how bad my sickness had gotten over time. Next thing I knew, I was out in a snowstorm, and Tallstar was demanding I get back to camp.”

Firepaw went silent, assuming that was the long and short of it. Barkface waited for a few moments to confirm whether or not Firepaw was finished speaking.

“Very well,” Barkface nodded. “I think any of my scolding will hardly do anything, considering what has happened because of your actions. I think you know better now. Still…”

Firepaw frowned when the medicine cat trailed off. It seemed as though he hadn’t finished his thought. Perhaps-

“Take care of yourself in the future.”

After that, the medicine cat had promptly left, leaving Firepaw alone with only himself and his thoughts. Rightfully so, too- during the times when he was actually able to think straight, he had gone over his predicament one too many times to count, as well as constantly replaying Barkface's words over and over again in his head. Not that he had much else to think about, though.

Firepaw straightened himself into a sitting position. He could hear Barkface talking outside of the den, which meant he would probably be visiting soon.

He quickly pressed down his fur. While he was doing so, Barkface padded into the den as he had predicted.

Firepaw dipped his head in greeting to the tom. Barkface returned the same gesture.

“I trust you are doing well this morning?” Barkface asked, padding over to sit beside Firepaw. 

The apprentice nodded. “I suppose you could say that.”

Barkface nodded. “Well, I am happy to inform you that you may leave this den to go around camp. You aren’t contagious or dangerously ill anymore, so I think I can trust you to make your way around camp- take a visit to your den, check up on your friends.”

Firepaw's eyes widened in surprise. He certainly hadn’t been expecting this. “Really?”

“Of course. I have a feeling you want to be out and about, so go on,” Barkface meowed warmly. Tone suddenly turning more serious, he added, "And please, Firepaw. I'm telling you as your medicine cat that if you're injured or sick in any way, visit me as soon as possible. I have this job for a reason, and I can't stand by watching innocent cats do things like this."

Firepaw glanced down at the ground, guilt flooding through him. "I... I understand, Barkface," he mewed.

Firepaw glanced up again to see Barkface nodding and heading deeper into the den. Firepaw took this as a sign that he was free to go, so he slowly padded out of the medicine den.

He cringed at the light that suddenly flooded his vision, still so used to the medicine den's gloomy interior. The weather was also noticeably warmer than it had been last time he had been outside, and not a single trace of frost or snow was visible. Small flowers near the camp borders were also beginning to bloom.

How long had he been stuck inside? So much had seemed to change while he was ill.

As he was getting used to the surroundings and light around him, Firepaw heard a loud voice call his name from across camp, and then moments later, pawsteps dashing towards him. 

Firepaw yelped in alarm upon seeing several shapes barreling towards him.

Runningpaw, Webpaw, Onepaw, and Whitepaw stopped just before they hit into Firepaw, who was looking over all of them, somewhat dazed.

“Firepaw!” Onepaw purred. “You’re out of the medicine den! Does this mean you can walk around freely now?”

All four of the apprentices were staring expectantly at Firepaw, awaiting an answer.

“Er- yeah- Barkface just told me I can leave the medicine den,” Firepaw explained sheepishly.

Firepaw examined all of his friends’ faces. They seemed as if they wanted to say something. “What? Am I missing something?”

Firepaw’s attention was brought to Runningpaw when she began speaking. “Well, you did miss something,” she paused. “Me and Webfoot are warriors now.”

Firepaw felt himself go bug-eyed. “You what ?” He exclaimed, furrowing his brow. “Web- Web foot ? Why didn’t you tell me about this when I was first able to hear what you were saying?”

Web foot spoke this time. “At the time, we felt that it didn’t matter much with your situation. We didn’t want to distract you from getting better, so we figured we’d wait until you got better.”

Upon hearing this, Firepaw understood more. He couldn’t help but remain feeling somewhat hurt, though.

“What about you?” he asked Runningpaw.

“I’m Runningbrook now,” she meowed proudly. “We were made warriors during the same ceremony.”

Firepaw looked between the two, quickly memorizing their names. Webpaw and Runningpaw. Webfoot and Runningbrook.

“Come on,” Onepaw indicated his tail to the prey pile. “We should eat something.”

The group shuffled to sit by the prey pile. “You’ve all hunted, right?” Firepaw asked.

They all nodded. Firepaw frowned. “I haven’t yet, though…”

Whitepaw rolled her eyes, tossing him a small hare. “You’ve been sick for a moon. I’m sure it’s fine.”

Once again, Firepaw’s eyes went wide with shock. “A moon ?!” he gasped incredulously.

Whitepaw appeared confused. “Barkface didn’t tell you?”

“ No !” Firepaw yelped, before quieting down. “If I had known it’d been a moon, I’d have been more reluctant to stay inside the medicine den when I was getting better! StarClan!”

Whitepaw snickered at his reaction, and Onepaw quickly joined her. The two were quickly cut off, though.

“What’s going on?” Princess asked, appearing at the mouth of the nursery. 

Her gaze landed on Firepaw, and she blinked a couple of times as though she was trying to tell whether or not it was actually him.

After a few more moments of silence, she rushed over to her brother, and pressed her muzzle to his ear. “You’re out of the medicine den!” she cried, her voice muffled.

Firepaw smiled warmly at his sister. During the last moon, it seemed as though she had gotten closer and closer to kitting. Her belly had gotten a lot bigger over time, as well.

“Does this mean you’re better?” Princess asked, examining him.

“Better enough to go around camp,” Firepaw replied.

“This isn’t temporary, right? You’re allowed to be out? You don’t have to go back in a few minutes?”

“It isn’t temporary,” Firepaw clarified.

Princess sighed in relief, sitting down next to her brother. Once her frantic frenzy was done, Firepaw was again reminded of what he had just been told by Whitepaw.

That meant…

Firepaw quickly got up. “I need to go visit Tallstar. I’ll keep catching up with you all when I’m done.” He glanced at the hare he had left lying on the ground. He hesitated for a moment. “Save that hare for me. I’ll eat it when I get back.”

Without another word, he quickly turned around and rushed over to the entrance of the leader’s den. He could hear a couple of his friends protesting behind him. Firepaw ignored them.

“Tallstar?” Firepaw called into the den. “May I come in?”

Almost immediately, there was a response. “You may.”

Upon entering, Tallstar quickly gestured for him to sit down. Firepaw complied.

“Firepaw,” Tallstar greeted, relief lighting up in his eyes. “I am happy to see you out of the medicine den at last. I trust that Barkface let you out.”

Firepaw nodded, and Tallstar continued. “So, why are you visiting? I doubt that you are here just to say hello.”

"Uh, well it's been a moon and all since I've been sick... I was just wondering when my training was going to resume," the apprentice replied. "I missed a lot during my time in the medicine den, and I don't wanna fall behind or anything..."

Tallstar hummed, looking Firepaw over. “Well, how are you feeling now?”

Firepaw was taken aback at this question. “I’m doing a lot better. I feel good.”

Tallstar smiled, and nodded. “Well, that means you will return to your training soon.”

Firepaw breathed a sigh of relief at his mentor's words, yet another spark of worry flooded through him. "Will my warrior ceremony be delayed because of this?"

Tallstar paused, seemingly thinking over his apprentice's words carefully. After a few moments of silence, the older tom responded with, "It all depends on how your training is going to go. If you progress fast, it will happen sooner, and if you progress slow, we'll need to work more on your training."

Firepaw thought over his words carefully and nodded, satisfied.

Tallstar nodded as well. Firepaw, taking this as a sign of dismissal, padded back over to the prey pile to join the rest of his friends again.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER TWENTY

The rest of Firepaw's first day out of the medicine den consisted of him and the rest of his friends eating and chatting around camp. He was still getting used to not being cramped up in a gloomy den as he had been for the past moon. As time passed, he grew more and more excited at the prospect of finally being able to leave camp and return to training once again.

He was also undoubtedly overjoyed at being able to finally sleep in the apprentices den again. No longer was he confined to the interior of a roofed den; he was finally able to sleep under the open sky alongside his friends once again. He ended up falling asleep while lost in his thoughts over this fact.

Being able to get into this more normal routine felt comforting for Firepaw. He had been longing to run free across the moorlands since he had been conscious enough to think clearly. He could only pray to StarClan that Tallstar would be willing to return to their ordinary training very soon.

The next morning, Firepaw was somewhat surprised to see how bright it was. It took him a moment to remember what had happened the previous day, but he promptly relaxed once the facts hit him. I'm finally better.

His other friends had already cleared out of the apprentice’s den when he woke up. He supposed that all the time he spent sleeping in the medicine den had messed up his internal clock. He shot a glance at the sky, and saw that the sun was slowly reaching its midpoint. He huffed to himself, wishing one of the other apprentices had woken him up.

Suddenly remembering his training, he exited the apprentices' den and began quickly making his way over to his mentor's. I hope I didn't oversleep. He gave a greeting call as he neared it, and once Tallstar gave him permission to do so, Firepaw entered the den.

Once Firepaw had sat down, Tallstar nodded to his apprentice. “What is it?”

“I was just wondering if I’d be returning to my training today,” Firepaw answered hopefully.

Tallstar glanced away, his expression thoughtful. “You still feel well?”

Firepaw nodded eagerly. “I do!"

Tallstar nodded, considering his apprentice’s words. “Very well. We may return to light training today. However, if you experience any discomfort during our time training, tell me.”

Firepaw breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought that Tallstar would postpone the training further. He was happy to get back to training, even if it was light.

Without warning, Tallstar rose to his paws and began padding to the entrance of the leader’s den. Firepaw blinked in alarm.

“Come along.” Tallstar took a quick look at the younger tom. 

Firepaw hadn’t expected the session to be right that minute, but it wasn’t an issue. If anything, it made him even more eager to get out of camp. The tabby quickly rose to his paws, skittering after Tallstar. The Clan leader was already out in camp.

While the two were heading through camp, Firepaw spotted Webfoot and Whitepaw chatting by the prey pile. He shot the two a glance. Once they noticed him passing, he waved his tail in greeting before returning his attention to Tallstar.

"Ready?" Tallstar asked. When Firepaw nodded, the WindClan leader swiftly bounded out of the camp, with his apprentice not far behind.

The moment the pair exited the camp, Firepaw felt a great feeling he could not describe flood through him- it was as if a weight had been lifted. No longer was he confined to camp or a gloomy den- that had already happened twice during his time in the Clan, and he desperately hoped that nothing like that would happen again. It felt wrong.

It was quite a lovely day- he couldn’t help but notice the warm temperature. As he looked out over the sun soaked fields, he realized other things.

Little flowers were budding in the grass, lighting the normally pure green fields up with pops of color. The sky was a brilliant blue, without a single sign of a storm- just the normal puffy clouds decorating the blue.

It was almost comical. It felt like such a huge contrast to the last time Firepaw had been out of camp. He struggled to even imagine that long day- he had forgotten a good portion of it, anyway.

When Firepaw took a deep breath of air, he felt calmed. The smells of pollen and grass overflowed his senses, making him serene.

As he picked up on all these differences to the last time he had been out, he began wondering to himself: what really had changed in his time stuck in the medicine den?

Of course, it seemed as though leaf-bare had passed into new-leaf. Webfoot and Runningbrook were made warriors, too.

He could only hope that nothing extremely important had happened.

Firepaw was too lost in his thoughts while walking, so when Tallstar stopped short, he nearly ran into him. Luckily, Firepaw was able to pick up on their stop before he bumped into his mentor.

Tallstar indicated for Firepaw to stand before him. Firepaw obeyed, glancing around at what they had stopped at. The grass was pressed down and shredded- he recognized it as the usual spot for WindClan apprentice training. He wondered if they’d be battle training.

Tallstar met his eyes. “Firepaw, I want to ask you again- are you completely sure you are well?”

I suppose this is expected- I’ve been lying for so long. “Of course. I feel good.” After a short pause, he added, "I promise."

Tallstar studied him for a few moments, before nodding. “Very well. We will be working on hunting techniques.”

Firepaw was surprised. Why had they bothered to come to this spot? “Why did we come all the way here for hunting?”

Tallstar shrugged. “It’s as good a place as any to start, and I reckon that the spots closer to camp have already been wiped clean of prey.”

Firepaw slouched somewhat, furrowing his brow. “Are we doing hunting techniques because you think I’m too weak for battle training?”

A deadpan expression fell on Tallstar’s face. “Of course that’s why.”

Firepaw felt a protest building up in his throat. Tallstar countered him before he could speak, though.

“Don’t forget, Firepaw: your own stubbornness is what got you to this point in the first place. Learn from it. We’re getting back into this slowly. Besides, it's been a moon since you've hunted, and I want to make sure you remember everything.”

Firepaw pushed away his protest, understanding moreso. “Alright. What should we do?”

Tallstar considered it. “Well, try to scent something first.”

Firepaw closed his eyes. This was an exercise he had been doing since day one of his apprenticeship. He opened his mouth, taking a taste of the air.

After considering and pulling apart all of the scents wafting towards him, he opened his eyes again. “I can smell a rabbit and a thrush. Fairly close. The thrush moreso.”

Tallstar nodded. “Good. I assume you want to go after the thrush first?”

Firepaw nodded, and quickly headed after the trail of the bird. Upon realizing that it was leading up to one of the rare trees in WindClan, he frowned, looking over at his mentor. “Should I still go after it? We haven’t done much training for this situation.”

“It’s on a low branch. I think you can do it,” Tallstar reassured him.

Firepaw returned his attention to the hunt. As the tree got closer and closer, he spotted the bird perched on one of the branches.

Firepaw shifted over, making sure he was downwind of the bird. He crept through the grass carefully- usually with rabbits and hares, he’d rely on blunt speed, but he knew the bird could just fly away if he tried that.

He estimated whether he could easily make the jump up from the spot he was crouched. He shook his head to himself, and hooked his claws into the tree trunk, carefully pulling himself further up the tree.

Luckily for him, the bird was perched on a low branch, so he didn’t need to climb very high.

Unfortunately, the branch was fairly thin, so he knew if he stepped on it that it would wobble and the thrush would be alerted of his presence.

He readied himself to make the jump towards the bird, shifting around on the trunk. Eventually, he used the trunk to propel himself towards the thrush.

Firepaw quickly slammed his paws on the bird. It was knocked out of the tree, and Firepaw had to struggle to stay on it as well. After the wobbling stopped, he jumped down the tree from branch to branch till he was on the floor.

The bird was still alive, struggling. He quickly nipped its neck, putting it out of its misery.

Tallstar nodded approvingly, and Firepaw exhaled in relief. He had been worried he would make a fool of himself.

Firepaw wasted no time in burying the thrush. The two quickly returned to hunting afterwards, for the most part being successful.

After their training had gone on for a little while, Tallstar turned to Firepaw upon seeing him bring back another piece of prey. "You may have a break for now," he said, to which Firepaw nodded and sat down beside his mentor. "You're doing well for your first day back out of camp."

"Thanks," Firepaw replied. Remembering his thoughts from earlier while the two were making their way to the training grounds, he asked, "Has anything... important happened while I was in the medicine den? Aside from it being new-leaf now and Runningbrook and Webfoot becoming warriors, I mean."

Tallstar shrugged. “Nothing substantial, really. Just the usual- nothing completely different happened during the last Gathering either."

Firepaw shot a glance towards the general direction of Fourtrees at the mention of this. He had missed the last Gathering, an event he always looked forward to every moon... "When's the next one?" he asked, turning back to face his mentor.

Tallstar shrugged. "In a few days."

Firepaw nodded. After taking a few more moments to rest, Tallstar stood up once again. "Let's get back to our training, shall we?"

---

A few days had passed since Firepaw had returned to his training. He and his mentor were slowly moving back into techniques that had to do with fighting, which Firepaw was grateful for, to say the least. He didn't want to fall behind on any more of his training, especially if it had to do with battle training.

He had also been excited for the upcoming Gathering ever since Tallstar had told him about it. He couldn’t help but hope that Greypaw would be there, as well- that is, if Firepaw himself would be going at all.

The sun was slowly sinking below the horizon, and the full moon could be seen rising well into the distance. It was the night of the Gathering, and Tallstar would be announcing the attendees for it any moment now.

Firepaw, Whitepaw, and Onepaw were resting in the apprentices' den, talking about something inconsequential to pass the time until Tallstar called the meeting. In the midst of it, the WindClan leader's usual summoning call alerted the cats of the Clan, all three apprentices included.

"Come on!" Onepaw called to his friends, hopping to his paws and racing into the open clearing. Firepaw quickly followed, with Whitepaw not far behind.

The rest of the Clan was beginning to gather around the Tallrock as well. Tallstar himself was perched neatly on top of it, with Deadfoot sitting on the ground close beside it. The three apprentices made their way to the edge of the crowd and sat down, waiting for Tallstar to begin.

Once the majority of the Clan had gathered, Tallstar began the meeting. “I’m sure you all have been waiting for my announcement regarding the Gathering,” he began. “I’ll be telling you who will be going now.”

Firepaw watched as Tallstar quickly surveyed the cats below him, and felt his pelt prickle with worry. He hoped his recent sickness wouldn’t stop him from going. He had already missed the last one, and he didn't want to be left out again.

“Mudclaw, Ashfoot, Runningbrook, Webfoot, Firepaw, Whitepaw, and of course Barkface and Deadfoot will be going. We will be leaving soon. I encourage everyone who is going to get ready.” With a flick of his tail, Tallstar dismissed the crowd, before jumping down from the rock.

As he heard his name being called, Firepaw felt a sense of relief flood through him. He would actually be going!

"Welp," Onepaw said as the crowd began to disperse, turning to face Firepaw and Whitepaw. "You guys better have fun. And you better tell me all about what happened when you get back."

"Oh, we will!" Whitepaw mewed cheerily. Turning to Firepaw, she added, "Let's get ready."

Firepaw nodded, and began to head over to the prey pile. With it no longer being leaf-bare, the prey pile was more well stocked than ever before. Firepaw chose a decently sized mouse and quickly gulped it down. He padded over to the growing crowd of cats beside the Clan entrance once he finished, finding the prospect of finally returning to Fourtrees all the more exciting the longer he waited.

After what felt like moons, Tallstar surveyed the crowd and then flicked his tail, signalling for the cats to leave.

Never before was Firepaw more excited to be attending a Gathering.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

    The large WindClan patrol padded through the vast moorlands that made up their territory. They were heading in the direction of Fourtrees, as most likely were the other Clans. The stars glittered in the night sky overhead, and the full moon was fully visible in the velvety dark atmosphere.

    Firepaw padded beside his friends near the back of the crowd of cats. He felt an urge to dash ahead of the patrol and enter the large hollow that hosted the Gatherings, but he had to stop himself from doing so. The longer the patrol took to reach Fourtrees, the more excited Firepaw got.

    He turned toward his friends in an effort to distract himself. "Did anything... important happen during the last Gathering?" he asked, breaking the silence in the chilly nighttime atmosphere.

    "I wasn't there, so..." Whitepaw replied, shrugging. "But these two were." She gestured to Webfoot and Runningbrook, who were padding alongside the two apprentices. "And they told me-"

    "That nothing important happened," Webfoot chimed in, finishing Whitepaw's sentence for her. The small apprentice shot the new warrior a small glare, but it was all in good fun.

    Firepaw felt a small rush of relief upon hearing this. He had worried he had missed something substantial. I guess they would have told me earlier on if something super out of the ordinary happened...

    "Hey, at least we're all going together," Runningbrook said.

    "Well, except Onepaw," added Whitepaw, seemingly amused at him being the only apprentice left behind.

    "Maybe something interesting will happen,” Webfoot piped in hopefully.

    Whitepaw nodded. “We should pretend something really weird happened, and refuse to tell Onepaw.”

    Firepaw raised a brow, before snickering and returning his attention to the figure of Fourtrees. It was getting larger and larger as they got closer, the details getting clearer and clearer.

    After what seemed like an entire moon, the WindClan patrol slowed to a halt in front of the massive hollow. This was it- the moment when Tallstar would give the signal for the rest of the cats to enter. From his position, he couldn't quite tell the amount of cats that were already inside, but from the scents he could pick out, it seemed as if at least one Clan had already made its way to the hollow.

    At long last, Tallstar gave the signal, permitting the rest of the patrol to flood into Fourtrees, and they did just that. Firepaw dashed alongside the rest of his Clan, halting the moment he stepped foot inside the sacred Gathering place.

    He took in all the details. It was as breathtaking as ever- as WindClan cats poured into the clearing, they quickly began mingling with the cats already there. Firepaw could see Crookedstar sat atop the great rock in the centre of the hollow, and Tallstar was quick to join the RiverClan leader. 

    Firepaw realized that his friends had continued walking while he was taking in the scenery. He quickly sped up to walk with them.

    Runningbrook quickly noticed Firepaw joining them. “This is Webfoot’s and my first Gathering as a warrior,” she purred, her eyes glimmering with excitement.

    “Congratulations,” Firepaw nodded to the two warriors.

    “Hey, Firepaw,” Whitepaw greeted him. “Wanna go talk with some of the RiverClan cats?” she offered.

    Firepaw considered it, before shrugging and shaking his head. “I’m good for now.”

    “Your loss, then,” Whitepaw purred, before turning around and padding away towards a group of RiverClan cats. Runningbrook followed close behind.

    “I’m gonna go chat with some cats, too,” Webfoot said after Whitepaw and Runningbrook had left. “I’ll leave you be. Feel free to join any of us, of course.”

    "Mhm," Firepaw replied, and Webfoot headed off, leaving Firepaw alone. After a moment of standing idly in place, he decided to find a place to rest until the Gathering began. He looked around for a few moments, before locating a small, isolated bush near the border of the hollow. He padded over to the bush, and sat down beside it. Just as he did so, a new scent caught his nose, and he looked up to see a patrol of ShadowClan cats entering Fourtrees.

    Seeing Nightstar at the head of the patrol made him remember the last time he had properly seen the ShadowClan leader. The last Gathering Firepaw had been to had been a dramatic one, and Firepaw hoped that the more recent Gathering had given the Clan tensions a chance to cool off.

    The majority of the ShadowClan cats seemed to be staying away from the other Clan cats, but a few of them were being more friendly. Nightstar quickly headed over to join the other leaders, sitting a few tail lengths away from them.

    The ShadowClan cats were hardly given a chance to fully settle in before ThunderClan arrived.

    Bluestar led the patrol, before they all quickly dispersed, and the ThunderClan leader made her way through the crowd to the other leaders.

    Firepaw looked over the entering cats. He squinted his eyes upon seeing a familiar face. Greypaw was making his way through the groups, chatting every now and then. 

    Firepaw pushed himself out of a sitting position, and began weaving through the cats in order to meet his friend.

    “Greypaw!” he called to his friend, getting his attention. The thick-furred tom turned to him, before nodding and padding over to meet up with Firepaw.

    Firepaw could notice Greypaw seemed somewhat surprised to see him. Firepaw’s fur tingled somewhat as he remembered their meeting prior to Firepaw getting sick. 

    “It’s good to see you,” Greypaw greeted cheerfully, sitting down once he was next to Firepaw. “I missed you during the last Gathering.”

    Firepaw frowned, somewhat surprised that his friends hadn’t told Greypaw about what had happened to Firepaw during the last moon. Perhaps it had been foolish to assume they would- Greypaw was a ThunderClan cat, after all.

    “I’m sorry,” Firepaw sat down as well. “I’ve been sick for the last moon. I wish I could’ve gone.” Firepaw decided not to elaborate on it.

    Greypaw's expression turned sympathetic. "You're doing better though, right?"

    "Well, yeah, why else would I be here?" Firepaw replied, a hint of humor in his voice.

    “Fair enough,” Greypaw chuckled. 

    “What about you?” Firepaw asked, switching the topic. “How have you been during the last moon?”

    Greypaw seemed to consider Firepaw’s question. “I’ve… been getting better.” Firepaw was glad to hear this. “I’m also probably going to be a warrior soon,” Greypaw added on.

    Firepaw purred softly, wondering when he’d be a warrior himself. I hope I’ll be a warrior by the next Gathering.

    The conversation was cut off as a yowl echoed throughout the clearing. The two chatting apprentices’ heads snapped over to see Crookedstar getting the attention of the cats below.

    Once the clearing had gone quiet, Crookedstar stepped back and Nightstar replaced him. 

    “Things are going well in ShadowClan, thanks to StarClan,” Nightstar began. “Prey has been plentiful. It will be a good new-leaf.” Nightstar’s tone shifted. “However, one of my patrols picked up on some WindClan scents in our territory.”

    As he spoke, the atmosphere grew more tense. Firepaw was confused- would any of the cats in WindClan do that? They certainly wouldn't go as far as to provoke the same Clan that ended up driving them out of their own territory moons ago. Nightstar had to be lying…

    “I am going to have to ask you to control your warriors, Tallstar,” Nightstar turned to the WindClan leader.

    Tallstar nodded in response, his emotions masked.

    Crookedstar broke the tension as he replaced Nightstar’s spot, gaining the attention of the cats below. “The river has been plentiful in fish, and we haven’t faced any severe hardships in the last moon,” Crookedstar dipped his head. “I thank StarClan for a good moon.”

    Crookedstar stepped back. Tallstar and Bluestar discussed amongst themselves for a few moments, before Tallstar nodded and stepped forward.

    “WindClan has been well. We are happy to be getting out of the hardships of leaf-bare,” Tallstar surveyed the cats gathered below. “In other news, two apprentices have now joined the warriors among their ranks. Runningbrook and Webfoot are now Warriors of WindClan."

    There were cheers throughout the clearing from the ThunderClan, RiverClan, and WindClan cats. Very few ShadowClan cats joined in, which Firepaw took note of. Once the cats had quieted down, Bluestar had already stepped forward to tell her news.

    “StarClan has gifted ThunderClan a happy moon. The forests have been full of prey. There is nothing else to report.”

    The leaders exchanged a few words amongst themselves, before they each nodded and Bluestar turned back to the crowd. “That is all the news we have to tell. This Gathering is adjourned.”

    The groups of cats began to make their way over to their respective leaders. Firepaw turned to Greypaw as they were about to part ways. "See you at the next Gathering," he said, before adding, "Maybe you'll be a warrior next time I see you."

    "Maybe you'll be one, too," the ThunderClan apprentice replied. Firepaw shot his friend a smile before turning away to begin pushing through the crowd to meet up with his friends again.

    It didn’t take him long to spot Whitepaw, Webfoot, and Runningbrook, since they had already regrouped. He quickly greeted the group, before turning to wait for Tallstar to direct the Clan to leave the clearing.

    Once Tallstar had made his way to the exit of Fourtrees, he flicked his tail to signal for the cats to leave, before the crowd of WindClan cats began pouring out of the hollow.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

A few days had passed since the Gathering, and ever since then things had gone as normal. The usual routine developed, and each morning seemed similar. Firepaw was easily falling back into his usual warrior training, and Tallstar was starting to ease back into more battle training as the days went on.

Thus, Firepaw was not surprised when he was summoned to speak with Tallstar. 

Firepaw felt a gentle nudging at his flank early in the morning, and after resisting for a few moments, he looked up at his agitator. 

Webfoot sat down once Firepaw opened his eyes. It appeared to be early morning- the recently risen sun clear on the horizon. Immediately, he figured he was being awoken for a patrol. Perhaps he had to fill in for someone who couldn’t make it.

Firepaw rubbed his eyes with his paws, before pushing himself up into a sitting position. He quickly took a few laps at his chest to smooth down his fur.

While he adjusted to being awake, Webfoot spoke. “Tallstar wanted to talk with you. I was told he wants you to go to his den.”

Firepaw blinked a few times, somewhat surprised at this. He must want to just go training, I guess. It was still odd that Tallstar himself wasn't the one personally summoning Firepaw to his den, but he supposed his mentor had his reasons.

Firepaw quickly thanked Webfoot for telling him. Without a second word, the warrior nodded and padded out of the den.

As Firepaw quickly groomed his fur, he noticed that the other apprentices were still sleeping. Shooting a glance up at the sky, he realized that it was still early in the morning, and a faded pink still showed on the horizon from where the sun was still rising. Must be really important for me to get up this early, then, he mused to himself.

Once he decided he had neatened his fur enough, he rose to his paws and quietly left the den in order to not awaken his friends.

The camp wasn’t too lively either- the only cats that were out and about were the ones that made up the dawn patrol, as well as the warrior guarding the camp entrance. He could only assume that the camp would quickly become a lot more lively once everyone started waking up.

Wasting no time, Firepaw padded over to the leader’s den. He poked his head inside to see Tallstar sitting on his nest. Once the leader shot Firepaw a nod, the apprentice pushed himself through the entrance and sat down once inside of the den.

“Firepaw,” Tallstar acknowledged him. “How did you sleep?”

Firepaw still felt a little unnerved- why would Tallstar summon him to his den this early? Did he do something wrong? “I slept well.” Firepaw dipped his head. “Thank you for asking.”

Seemingly sensing Firepaw's uneasiness, Tallstar gave him a reassuring look. "Don't worry, I didn't call you here for a bad reason." Before Firepaw could respond, his mentor continued speaking. "You may remember that you failed your first attempt at the hunting assessment. I feel like it's been a long enough wait for you to be able to redo it. Besides," he added. “It’d be good to see how your skills are, considering the pause in your training.”

Firepaw didn’t know whether to be alarmed or relieved at this new information. This meant he could prove himself again, considering his embarrassment from his latest attempt. On the other hand, there was still the possibility of him being a little rusty with his hunting and fighting, considering how much of a delay there was in his apprenticeship. If he failed again, then what? How long would he have to wait until being a warrior if he messed up again ?

"You're a fast learner, Firepaw," Tallstar mewed in an attempt to reassure him. "I'm positive you'll do even better during this attempt."

Of course I’ll do better, Firepaw thought, somewhat bitterly. Last time I ran straight into ShadowClan territory. What could I do to beat that ?

Firepaw swallowed his thoughts, and nodded to his mentor. “Alright. Will we be going now?”

Tallstar rose to his paws, nodding his head in confirmation. The older tom quickly exited the den, and Firepaw scrambled to his paws and followed him out. 

Tallstar led the way to the camp entrance, with his apprentice following close behind. Briefly nodding an acknowledgement to the warrior guarding the entrance, the two cats exited the camp and out into the wide stretch of moorlands that was WindClan's territory.

The two hardly spoke as they padded across the grassy land. To Firepaw’s relief, it seemed to be good weather for hunting- pleasantly warm, with a gentle breeze sweeping across the tall grasses and flowers.

Still, the closer and closer the two got to wherever Tallstar was leading them, Firepaw grew more nervous. He felt a jump of anxiety at the thought of failing this assessment for a second time- what would happen then? If he screwed up that badly, would he ever become a warrior? Last time, Tallstar had pitied him enough to let him off, but if he did something stupid again, would Tallstar be willing to lend him such kindness?

He found himself unable to quell his fears as they both made their way across the territory. Firepaw was thankful that Tallstar didn’t seem to be up for much conversation, as he didn’t think he could handle talking with his mentor very well at the moment.

It was somewhat of a relief when Tallstar finally stopped. The longer the two had walked, the more nervous Firepaw had gotten. I just want to get this over with .

Tallstar turned around to face his apprentice, and Firepaw strained himself to slow his breathing. It probably won’t even be that bad once I start.

“I will be leaving you alone momentarily,” Tallstar began explaining. “Once I am gone, you will have to find and kill as much prey as you possibly can, before I come out again and tell you the assessment is over. You will be scored based on how much you can catch, as well as the efficiency of the catches.”

Firepaw nodded, replaying Tallstar's words in his head over and over again. They were practically the same rules as his last attempt, so they shouldn't be too hard to remember. He was somewhat glad that it wasn’t a more strict rule-based assessment.

Firepaw dipped his head, and Tallstar spoke once more. “Very well, I wish you luck.” The tom quickly turned around and vanished in the tall grasses, presumably to begin watching Firepaw.

Firepaw took a deep breath, before beginning to move again. Firepaw briefly paused, looking down at the ground, to gather himself and his focus before he began to start.

Looking back up, he briefly shot a glance in the direction of the ShadowClan border before quickly turning away. No, he thought, turning away from the general direction of it altogether. Last time I tried going near the border I messed up the entire assessment.

So, staying away from it should save me all the trouble.

Firepaw began to pad in the direction opposite of ShadowClan's territory before abruptly stopping as he picked up on an all too familiar scent. Locating it with ease, he was able to spot a hare hopping around in the grass nearby, occasionally stopping to nip at the grass stalks surrounding it.

The catch shouldn't be too hard; after all, he had caught plenty of hares during his time as an apprentice, and this one didn't seem any different from the others. It was just his nerves making this one seem more intimidating. Slowly making his way towards it, he paused for a moment to ready himself, before breaking into a run.

Noticing his loud pawsteps, the hare looked up, beginning to dart away, noticeably in the direction of ShadowClan's territory. Putting on a burst of speed out of desperation, Firepaw was able to catch up with it and pin it down. With a quick snap of its neck, the hare lay lifeless on the grassy terrain.

Firepaw paused for a moment to catch his breath- not just from the run he had just had, but because of his ever growing anxieties about the situation. Shooting a glance up, he realized he was fox-lengths away from the ShadowClan border. Just as he was burying his catch to pick up later, a movement in the corner of his eye made him look up to see a patrol-sized group of ShadowClan cats padding along the very edge of the border.

Aren’t they a little too close? Firepaw frowned, finishing burying the hare. He was definitely too far away to tell from where he stood, and he knew better than to confront an enemy patrol on his own. He just hoped that Tallstar had seen them as well.

Maybe I can tell him myself once I'm finished.

Firepaw pushed away the thought, deciding to focus back on the assessment. Turning around from the ShadowClan border once again, he decided to focus his attention on staying away from it as often as possible. He was lucky to not get even closer to the border while chasing that hare.

As he was padding through the territory, he passed nearby one of the rare trees and momentarily paused. Perhaps a bird was perched somewhere on it? He wasn't the most skilled at hunting birds, but he had to prove himself to his mentor one way or another. His last attempt at catching a bird had been successful, too.

Besides, he couldn't only catch things that were just rabbits or hares or mice. Tallstar did mention he would be scored based on how much he could catch, and having more variety would be good to see.

Opening his mouth to catch the nearby scents, he deduced that yes, there was a bird in the nearby tree. It took a moment for him to spot it, but he eventually saw it perched on one of the lower hanging branches, completely oblivious to its surroundings.

Firepaw snuck through the grass, carefully avoiding getting in the line of sight of the bird. He could thank his bright orange pelt for being somewhat obvious in the yellowy green grass.

Firepaw slithered his way up the tree, careful to get good clawholds in the bark. He swiveled his head to look at the bird- now recognizable as a lark. Firepaw took tentative steps onto the branch, careful to avoid causing it to sway too harshly.

The bird startled as the branch shook slightly, to Firepaw’s dismay. The bird stood in place for a few moments, and Firepaw did the same, crouched low. In a heartbeat, the lark fluttered into the air. Firepaw sprung himself forward, desperately reaching his paws at the airborne bird.

To his luck, he snagged his claw in its wing, causing it to sharply falter in its flight. Seizing his opportunity, Firepaw used his other paw to secure the bird between his claws. He quickly slit its neck, bringing it to himself.

He steadied himself on the branch- he was lucky that it was a rather thick branch. After securing himself, he picked up the bird in his jaws and quickly jumped from branch to branch down to the ground. 

Firepaw’s adrenaline settled down, and once he was on the ground, he began digging a hole for the bird. Two catches already, he noted, rather proud of himself. I wonder how many more I'll be able to make before it's over.

As the assessment continued on, Firepaw found himself just growing more confident in his abilities. His anxiety wasn’t completely eliminated, but he felt better about how it was going.

The next few catches- a rabbit and a field mouse- were quick and clean, much to Firepaw’s joy. 

Once Firepaw had delivered the killing blow to the field mouse, he got started on digging up a hole. However, before he could finish, there was a rustle in the grass behind him. Firepaw glanced behind himself, somewhat alarmed. His fears were quelled once he saw Tallstar,

“Your assessment is finished,” he nodded to Firepaw. “You are done now. We should go around and pick up what you’ve caught.”

Firepaw sighed in relief, and dipped his head in understanding. He picked up the field mouse, giving up on the hole he had been digging.

As the two walked along the fields, Firepaw could recognize a thoughtful look on Tallstar’s face. Maybe he’s thinking about how I did, Firepaw squinted, trying to make out the details of his mentor’s expression. I can’t tell if he seems impressed or disappointed.

Firepaw was unable to speak as they walked, considering he was just picking up more and more prey to carry. Tallstar offered to take some, but Firepaw insisted that they were his catches, and therefore his responsibility.

When the two went to pick up the hare that Firepaw had buried, the apprentice was reminded of the ShadowClan patrol he had seen close by the border- or, at the very least, what he assumed to be a ShadowClan patrol.

Firepaw placed down his prey, beginning to dig up the hare. Taking this chance to speak, Firepaw glanced over at Tallstar. “When I came over here… well, did you see the patrol?”

Tallstar looked over at the nearby pine trees of ShadowClan territory, scanning the area. “I do not recall seeing anything. What did you see?”

Firepaw finished digging up the hare. He turned to Tallstar, shrugging. “I just saw a group of cats. They seemed pretty close to the border, but that might have just been me imagining things…”

Tallstar seemed to consider what Firepaw said for a few moments. “Very well. I’ll tell Deadfoot to tell his patrols to keep an eye out for ShadowClan.”

Firepaw felt somewhat relieved, glad that he could possibly be helping out in the safety of his Clan in more ways than just hunting. Unprompted, Tallstar picked up the hare that Firepaw had just dug up. Firepaw opened his mouth to protest, but quickly just turned around to pick up the other prey. There wasn’t a need to get upset at Tallstar for trying to help.

Without another word, the pair began heading back to camp. Firepaw was glad that he wasn’t as nervous as he had been on the way there. Still, he could only hope that he had done well.

He had done pretty well, at least in his eyes, though. He hadn’t expected to catch four pieces of prey- especially considering how he hadn’t trained that much since his ailments. He had been worried that the first two catches had just been a brief streak of luck. To his fortune, though, that hadn’t been the case.

As soon as the two returned to camp, Tallstar dropped off the hare and turned to Firepaw as he was doing the same. “You did well,” Tallstar complimented Firepaw. “I’m proud of you. Your recent sickness most likely won’t be too much of a setback, considering how things are going.”

Tallstar quickly left afterwards, and Firepaw was left sitting by the prey pile. He felt better now- perhaps this meant that he truly was getting better.

Firepaw’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard a voice calling his name. “Hey, Firepaw!”

He turned to see Onepaw padding over to him, smiling in a friendly manner. “Hey Onepaw,” Firepaw greeted his friend.

Onepaw sat down beside Firepaw. “What were you out for? You were gone when I woke up.”

“Tallstar summoned me pretty early for a hunting assessment,” Firepaw explained. "To make up for my last failed one."

Onepaw seemed to remember Firepaw’s last assessment, before speaking. “Good luck, I hope this’ll reflect well for you. You think you did well?”

Firepaw glanced over at the leader’s den, where Tallstar had vanished into. “I hope so.”

I really do.