A/N: Ravenpaw and Barley remind me of Alec and Magnus today. Big hint: a new character makes his first appearance in this chapter.

*********Arrowpaw's POV********

After Arrowpaw's first training session with Blossomstar and the log gap fiasco, the pair returned to camp. Arrowpaw had slowly made his way over to the fresh kill pile, grabbed a juicy looking vole, and then headed over to the tree stump outside of the apprentices den. Dawnpaw was lazing next to the stump already, a shrew at her paws to eat.

Arrowpaw sat beside her, and watched his mentor across the clearing as she made a beeline for the Medicine Cat den. He could sense his mentor's urgency from here, Arrowpaw wondered why she needed to be over there. His leader had been very tense after seeing that log so he wondered whether or not it had to do with that.

His thoughts kept him from noticing Dawnpaw's presence at first. With a poke at his shoulder though he turned his gaze on her. The pale furred she-cat's equally pale blue gaze was narrowed at him thoughtfully. Dawnpaw is a thoughtful sort, so that look wasn't unusual on her by any means.

"Hey Arrowpaw! I see that Blossomstar took you training today. How did that go?" Dawnpaw asked.

While Arrowpaw considered himself to be closest to Brackenpaw in terms of the two siblings but he thought of Dawnpaw as a great friend too. Out of the two siblings, he was more likely to have a deep conversation with Dawnpaw.

At one point, his parents had acted like Dawnpaw would be a fine mate for him. They encouraged the two becoming close early on. They even went as far as letting them have alone time together, right outside the camp walls. They were the most responsible out of their siblings, so Silvermoon, Badgerstripe and Petalfall weren't too worried in doing that,

Arrowpaw didn't have the heart to tell them the truth. He didn't like she-cats and he had known this for a couple moons now. Dawnpaw was one of the few cats who knew this, along with his sister Nightpaw. He hadn't told Goldenpaw or Brackenpaw this yet and he felt a bit disappointed with himself that he didn't think he would telling them anytime soon either.

There were several reasons as to why he wouldn't be telling them, but Arrowpaw decided that it all boiled down to the fact that he had a crush on both toms at separate points of time. Looking back on it now, he understood those crushes were just because they were the only attractive toms in camp around his age that he had connected with.

Telling them now would just be plain out embarrassing, hence why he hadn't told them. That, and I fear how they'd react. Goldenpaw and Brackenpaw both didn't seem disinclined towards gay cats, but he was unsure how they'd feel if they knew one was in their clan.

HunterClan in particular was known for being conservative. LGBTQ+, despite being around for some time in some parts of the forest, was still a foreign concept to them. A foreign concept that most of them were not accepting of. A concept that they went as far as belittling others for, especially the older warriors.

Times were changing though, and with a new generation with more open minded individuals came new hope. If he could, and he hoped he could, Arrowpaw would like to be a part of that change for the better.

"It went great!" He told her. "Blossomstar taught me all about persistence today." The older apprentice looked curious at that.

"How'd she teach you that?" She asked.

Arrowpaw thought about how to word this. There was a part of him that didn't want to mention the log as it had freaked out his Clan leader for some unknown reason. He ended up deciding to tell her the truth though, because maybe Dawnpaw would know something. She is a very intuitive cat after all.

Dawnpaw looked thoughtful after he told her his story. She chuckled a bit too at his expense for having to chase after his mentor for so long. Arrowpaw's serious expression got her back on focusing at the matter going on.

Unfortunately Dawnpaw couldn't be much help. She too, like Arrowpaw didn't know much about the log. She said she ask the elders for him though, and for that Arrowpaw was grateful. Dawnpaw was great at getting information out of the older cats, and he figured they had to know something. The two ate their prey and chatted together until someone else showed up. That someone else being Frondleap.

From what Arrowpaw had observed over the past few days. The young tom liked to visit the apprentices den quite often. He had only been made a warrior a few moons before Arrowpaw had been apprenticed. The naive side of Arrowpaw would have wanted him to believe that Frondleap was just there to visit his old den mates.

Frondleap had never acted so happy to see Brackenpaw so Arrowpaw knew something was going on. He figured Frondleap liked Dawnpaw, and from Dawnpaw's happiness at spending time with the golden brown warrior Arrowpaw could only conclude that she felt the same as well. As he had finished his prey he excused himself and decided to take a short nap before his siblings returned.

******time skip*********

It was an early morning for Arrowpaw and his sister that day. Blossomstar had decided that she and Littlebird would be taking their apprentices on the Dawn Patrol. This had excited both of the apprentices. Their brother Goldenpaw had went on his first patrol the other day with his mentor, Brackenpaw and Palenose so he would be would be doing battle training today.

The golden furred tom had boasted to them yesterday about his patrol near the VenomClan border and all the prey the group had brought in. Arrowpaw and Nightpaw knew that the dawn patrol wouldn't be the same as a hunting patrol, but it would still benefit the Clan. Plus, it was the first patrol the two apprentices would ever go on, so they were beyond excited.

Littlebird had made sure to tell the young cats before they left to keep pace with her and Blossomstar and to not dawdle looking for prey. The leader had then told them that she wouldn't say no to them catching prey but for them to avoid doing that if it would get them lost. The sun was just barely on the horizon when they left the camp.

With Blossomstar in the lead Arrowpaw and Nightpaw were following close behind with Littlebird at the rear as the group of cats plunged through the undergrowth. It was so early that mist still clung the grass, the dew drops coating each blade and weighing them down. Arrowpaw had a feeling that his limbs would be soaked by the time they got back to camp. For now however he enjoyed the soothing feeling the dew provided to his paws.

Arrowpaw knew that his mentor had to be pleased with how the patrol was going so far. All the other Clans were respecting the borders and not trying to cross them. Border squabbles were not uncommon among the Clans but they were not preferred at any rate. At a leisurely pace, they scent marked their borders. It was a firm reminder to the other clans to not mess with HunterClan.

The patrol only had the borders with MagicClan and FaerieClan left to check. Arrowpaw smelt some thrushes when they reached the MagicClan border. Blossomstar told him to hunt for them while the rest of the patrol would go mark the FaerieClan border. Once Arrowpaw was done hunting, he would return to camp. Nightpaw wished him luck before she and her mentor followed Blossomstar to finish up the patrol.

He discerns the location of the thrush with quick precision. The small bird was pecking at the ground, most likely after a worm. Arrowpaw crouched close to the ground and prowled closer to the thrush. He had made sure he was downwind if he bird before he started stalking it as to not give his scent away.

He had been only a few mouse lengths away from the thrush when he finally pounced. He land on the bird's wings, effectively pinning it to the ground before he bit down on its throat, killing it. As he lifted his head back up from his prey, that was when he felt something strange. Someone is watching me.....

Arrowpaw pushed his prey aside and growled, his fur fluffing up to make him appear twice his size. He knew he felt someone's gaze on him, he just didn't know where it came from. The black tom unsheathed his claws and let them sink into the sand as he growled out.

"Show yourself." Arrowpaw wasn't about to let any cat outside his clan intrude on HunterClan territory.

It was then that he heard the sound of chuckling. It wasn't the foreboding sort, just the kind that someone makes when they find something funny, in this case Arrowpaw guessed his reaction amused the intruder. A spike of annoyance plunged into him at that.

Whoever is out there, they should be intimidated by me. Despite being early in his training, Arrowpaw wasn't exactly little. He had been small as a kit, but as an apprentice, he'd begun to shoot up. The growth spurts couldn't have come at a better time in his own personal opinion.

Then he heard bushes rustling. Jerking his head to the side, he could tell that the movements were coming from across the river. He forced his fur to lie flat as a new cat slipped into view. A cat he'd never seen before.

A cat Arrowpaw had never seen before stepped out to face him on the other side of the bank. It was clear that he was the source of the noise, the other tom's whiskers twitching in amusement. Arrowpaw padded over to him so he could get a better look at the tom and what he found what certainly pleasing.

He was definitely handsome, with his honey colored yellow eyes, hints of green here and there. He had what Arrowpaw described as beautiful night black fur with ginger splotches. Arrowpaw had never seen a cat that looked so gorgeous, not to mention the air of confidence he had about him. Arrowpaw's mouth gaped open slightly, this cat was stunning.

"I didn't realize that being on my side of the river counted as trespassing." The handsome mystery tom said, with an amused twitch of his whiskers.

Arrowpaw's pelt felt hot. Even the mystery cat's voice sounded amazing. No no no, bad Arrowpaw. Mysterious intruder is still just that: a mystery intruder. We can't be friendly to him. That train of thought came to a crashing halt as the other cat gave him a happy smile. Arrowpaw.exe has stopped working, his mind confirmed.

"S-sorry." He mewed. "I-I didn't realize. I thought...." He trailed off. Arrowpaw was very flustered by this tom's gaze alone and hearing his voice made Arrowpaw have a hard time getting words out properly.

"I can tell." The tom said. "And it's alright. I'm surprised a young cat like you is out alone anyways." Arrowpaw's fur, which had begun to lay flat again now fluffed up in indignation. I'm not that young. This isn't my first time out alone in the forest!

Arrowpaw glared at him, words returning in full. "I'm not that young. I'm an apprentice of HunterClan." He told the mystery cat. The ginger and black tom looked thoughtful, as though he was examining Arrowpaw.

"That's interesting. I haven't seen you before. What's your name anyways?" The tom asked.

Arrowpaw wondered if he should tell the cat his name. He smells like he's from MagicClan, so I guess that wouldn't bring any harm. MagicClan tended to mind its own business, despite having magic powers at their very paws.

"My name's Arrowpaw. What's yours?" He figured he should get to know this cat's name too.

Suddenly, a fish leaped out of the stream. As fast as lightning, one of the tom's front paws shot out, claws unsheathed and blue light glowing from his paws, and he quickly snapped up the fish, killing it in one hard blow. Arrowpaw watched his movements in awe, he knew that MagicClan cats could use magic, but he had never seen it for himself before. He felt too that this cat's magic was extra special, and better than anything else he'd see.

The cat let the fish drop to his side. There was a happy glimmer in his gaze, clearly pleased by Arrowpaw's reaction. "My name's Patchfur." Patchfur told him.

Arrowpaw knew he had heard that name before, the question was from where? Arrowpaw was about to ask, but it seemed that Patchfur was about to leave. The warrior was dragging the caught fish back from the water, not wanting to lose the prey to the drifting tide of the water.

"It was nice meeting you Arrowpaw." The tom then gave him a suggestive wink. "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again very soon."

"Yea see you soon. It was nice meeting you too." Arrowpaw called out to Patchfur as the tom turned and left.

Arrowpaw hastily went and retrieved his thrush before he proceeded his way back to camp. He would have a story to tell his siblings today, but then again he might not want to tell them, maybe Arrowpaw would let this meeting with Patchfur be his little secret. Sounds like a fine idea to me. It wasn't needless to say, but only one cat was on his mind the rest of that day, dreamy golden green eyes one of the only things he could think about.