Dawnpaw slipped into a hunting crouch, her paws easily falling into position. She wiggled her behind, tail lashing as she prepared for the pounce, and leaped at a fat rabbit. It squealed and the sound was abruptly cut off as Dawnpaw bit into it.

She trekked back to camp triumphantly and carried it to where Crowpaw was sitting. The two began to eat, ripping into the soft skin and munched on the juicy meat.

Dawnpaw had noticed that her feelings for Crowpaw weren't just friendly. She had butterflies whenever she was around Crowpaw, and always found herself blushing when she looked into the tuxedo she-cat's eyes. If Dawnpaw were to get a mate, she would want it to be Crowpaw. But she knew that would never happen. Dawnpaw could only have a mate that was a tom, because that was what every other she-cat did, and there were no defying the Clan's rules.

And Dawnpaw was sure that Crowpaw didn't feel the same way.

"StarClan, that was a good catch!" Crowpaw exclaimed as she finished chewing another piece.

"It was nothing," Dawnpaw replied bashfully, trying to impress Crowpaw.

"Oh, I would expect that from you," Crowpaw meowed. "You are such a good hunter! You'll probably be the first to become a warrior! "

"Maybe, but you are great too!" Dawnpaw mewed instinctively, as she lowered her head, trying to hide her red ears.

Suddenly, there was a shriek.

"I can't believe this is happening!" Needlepaw fumed as she ran out of the leader's den.

Oakpaw followed behind her and ran to Crowpaw and Dawnpaw.

"What happened there?" Dawnpaw asked, looking questionably at her brother. Crowpaw was silently giggling, basking in her sibling's anger.

"Ashstar told her that she will be held back from the warrior rank for three or maybe even four moons!" Oakpaw mewed, shuffling his paws. "And it's kinda my fault...." he trailed off.

"How so?" Dawnpaw asked, intrigued.

"Well she asked me if I wanted to hunt in the GoldenClan territory, and I said no. But she convinced me. Then Riverstorm overheard her and took us to Ashstar, and I blamed Needlepaw-"

"What do you mean by blamed?" Crowpaw interrupted. "She is the one who was convincing you to go!"

"I know but -"

"But? There is not but, she is to blame and that is that!" Crowpaw yelled, and Dawnpaw was taken aback. Crowpaw was usually very quiet, but it was obvious that she despised Needlepaw.

"Thank goodness she is getting in trouble, she deserves it!" Crowpaw continued, but suddenly got very quiet.

"Oh, h-hey Needlepaw" she stammered.

"What do you want!" Dawnpaw growled, standing up to guard Crowpaw.

"Don't listen to Oakpaw! All he's doing is lying!" the angry black-and-white she-cat snarled.

"Yeah right! Like we should believe you!" Dawnpaw shot back.

"Whatever," Needlepaw fumed and ran away, her tail lashing.

*leaf-bare*

Ignoring the jostling that Needlepaw and Oakpaw were doing on her left, Dawnpaw whispered, "Are you ready?" to Crowpaw, who stood next to her, getting into the mindset for their third-to-last assessment.

"Not one bit! But it's our only chance," The tuxedo she-cat replied.

"You'll do great!" purred Dawnpaw, trying to comfort the pretty she-cat.

Gingerpaw and Leafpaw approached them, giggling with their tails intertwined.

"Hi! Sorry we're late, we..er...had some stuff to finish," Gingerpaw said and stood next to the other four.

Ignoring her suspicions about what 'the stuff' was, Dawnpaw and the others got into a running stace and started off into the woods. They were following their mentor's scents in order to get their next task for the tracking assessment.

Dawnpaw lowered her neck so that she could sniff the ground and easily caught the scent of her mentor. Feathershine smelled like berries and catmint, along with the scents of SilverClan and other Clan cats. Dawnpaw followed her winding scent path, careful not to let dead leaves crunch under her paws.

She finally stepped into a small clearing and saw her mentor, a fluffy grey she-cat, waiting for her.

"Finally, come forward to receive your task," Feathershine meowed with mock moodiness.

"Yes, Feathershine," chuckled Dawnpaw.

"GoldenClan scents have been found on SilverClan territory, and you must find the reason for the marks. Understand?"

"Yes!" Dawnpaw replied, eager to start her task.

"One more thing," Feathershine interjected. "Make sure you don't see any rouges, we want to make sure they stay true to their word."

There had been a battle a moon ago, the rogues were heavily outnumbered and underpowered, and SilverClan had easily won. The rogues had promised to stay off SilverClan territory for the next nine moons, and SilverClan wanted to make sure that they stayed true to this.

"Sure thing, Feathershine!" Dawnpaw replied.

"Well then, off you go!" Feathershine meowed gently, touching her tail to Dawnpaw's flank.

Dawnpaw raced off, tracking the scent of SilverClan cats until she got to the GoldenClan scent. The calico apprentice let out a growl, what was a GoldenClan cat doing this deep in SilverClan territory? She sniffed the marker closely and identified the cat Gorsepelt! He had tried to invade SilverClan even before Dawnpaw was born, and she had met him at a gathering.

But as she sniffed more she realized there was a lot of fear in his marking, he must have been scared when making his mark. She sniffed around the tree until she had caught a semi-fresh scent of Gorsepelt.

She followed the scent trail to a tiny clearing near the Golden-SilverClan border, and noticed that the scent became much fresher.

She spotted a dead mouse, freshly killed. Dawnpaw sniffed it, and immediately knew she had found what Feathershine had wanted her to. The mouse reeked of Goursepelt's scent and the familiar scent of SilverClan territories.

Dawnpaw carefully picked up the mouse and brought it back to Feathershine.

"Is this it?" the she-cat asked, after dropping the mouse at her meteors paws.

"Yes, excellent job!" Feathershine praised.

Dawnpaw lowered her head to hide the excitement written across her face. She watched as the sunspots from the branches danced across the brown leaves spread all over the forest floor. Dawnpaw took a deep breath of crisp, cool air and looked back up at her mentor.

"What do the other apprentices have for their tracking assessments?" she asked curiously.

"You can ask them later, but right now we must go to Ashstar," the grey warrior replied.

Dawnpaw nodded and followed her mentor back to camp.

"How did she do?" Ashstar questioned.

"Amazing, it barely took her any longer than it took me!" Feathershine replied.

"Great,"Ashstar meowed as she looked at Dawnpaw. "Keep up the good work, you'll be a warrior in no time."

Dawnpaw nodded, too scared to sound giddy if she spoke.

Soon, there was rustling and Firesong and Gingerpaw pushed into the den.

"She did well," Firesong mewed. "She got a little stuck on the trail, though, and lost it a few times."

"That's fine!" Ashstar meowed and turned to Gingerpaw. "It happens to the best of us, I think you two will make great warriors!"

Later that day Dawnpaw sat with Oakpaw, Crowpaw, Gingerpaw, and Leafpaw. They were eating fresh-kill they had just caught and were chattering about the assessment. All four of them had passed the assessment, but each had something different.

"I had to find a mouse that a GoldenClan warrior hunted on our territory!" Dawnpaw shared.

"I had to track Owlkit, who wandered from camp!" Crowpaw meowed, trying to suppress a giggle. "You should have seen his face when I found him!"

Snowbreeze and Birchclaw had recently had a litter of two kits, but one was born dead, so instead the two spent extra time with their last kit.

"I had to track a sick fox and mark where it was for the warriors!" Leafpaw boasted. He stared at Dawnpaw, waiting for a compliment.

"That's nice," Dawnpaw meowed unenthusiastically.

Leafpaw turned to Gingerpaw, who gushed, "That's so cool!"

The five finished their food in silence after that.