The sky was thick with rain, the echoing sounds of thunder stretched into the distance. Leaves dropped under the weight of the flying drops. The ground was wet and soggy and cloaked with mud. The scent of damp grass choked the air. The scent of prey was far harder to identify. That was unless your were a Riverclan cat.

Volepaw dipped his brown paw into the swollen river, sending a flashy minnow onto the marshy  ground. Turns out hunting in the rain wasn't all bad.

"Good swipe." His mentor, Fallenclaw, commented from his place farther up the sloping bank, "Although that wouldn't feed as much as a kit." He frowned, pointing a white paw at the flipping silver minnow.

"Then it will make a great decoration." Voleplaw slammed a unsheathed paw down on the fish, ending the thrashing. 

"Good idea Volepaw!" His mentor exclaimed leaping to his paws.

Volepaw had always liked his mentor. Even though he kept puzzling over why he was named Fallenclaw, they shared their love for pretty things, both their nests where full of little trinkets they would find. It was a common Riverclan trait. Sometimes when they were done for the day, mentor and apprentice would sit and talk about all the customs they would create if they lead their own clan. In their spare time they would act out "Rainclan".

"Let's take it back to camp, we can take out all the scales and keep them." Fallenclaw turned around.

"Yay!" Volepaw jumped up, then proceeded to pick up the minnow and streak after his mentor, rain pelting his face. Once they reached camp, they were greeted by Redstorm, a russet furred she-cat who was guarding the camp.

"You cats are mousebrained to go training int his weather, every other sensible cat is hold up in their dens." She said as they passed by. Volepaw decided to ignore her, Redstorm was always grumpy, even when the sun was shining.

Fallenclaw and Volepaw decided to take cover under a small clump of overhanging ferns. This was where they usually hung out, they had such a great friendship. Side by side they stripped the minnow of it's pretty silver scales, eating what little meat they were.

"I'm going to give some of these bones to Iceypaw! She really loves them." Iceypaw, Volepaw's sister was also into trinkets. However she preferred prey bones over shiny scales, and since cats usually didn't go for the little minnows, these bones would be perfect for her.

Taking most of the minnows small bones in his mouth he padded over to the apprentices den, pushing himself in through the clump of reeds supported by a low hanging branch. He padded towards Iceypaw, nudging her awake with his brown paw. 

"What....." The white apprentice moaned, rolling over.

"I got something for you." Volepaw mumbled over the bones in his mouth, sitting down with his tail over his paws.

Iceypaw rolled over to face him. All weariness in her eyes seemed to drift away as she spotted her gift. Volepaw set the bones down on the dusty floor.

"Cool! What are these? Fish?" Iceypaw asked excitedly, poking the bones with her paw.

"One of a kind minnow bones!" He said proudly, puffing out his chest.

"Wow, thanks! I'll think of a way to repay you after the rain stops." She scrunched her nose at the pounding rain pouring overhead. 

"That's ok." Volepaw got up and turned, padding back into the downpour. He bounced over to Fallenclaw, who was waiting patiently beneath the ferns, his green eyes  glowing in the dark. 

"What now?" He asked tail twitching his excitement as he ducked under the ferns. Instead of happiness, deep worry creased his mentor's face.

"Is everything all right?" Volepaw asked, brown ears flattening. It didn't seem like he had done anything wrong. Fallenclaw didn't have his disappointed look on.

"Lakeshade just told me something." He responded, troubled, "I think we might need to..." Fallenclaw paused, raising a paw, "I might need to leave..."

"Leave!?!"