Oleanderpaw threw himself at a tree, attempting to climb it as fast as possible, he was nearly at the top, he just had to- a chill traveled down the young cat's spine as he felt sharp teeth clamp down on his tail.

As they were roughly yanked down, Oleanderpaw hissed as they roughly hit the ground, he struggled to his paws and swiftly turned around to face the brown tabby as she lost her grasp on his tail, some of his fur stuck in her teeth.

Oleanderpaw growled and wacked at the other cat's muzzle, before running right by her. He saw the gray kit dash out from, trying to trip him like last time, but he leapt over it, and kept running even as his paws ached.

He knew that they were going to try to herd him to the gorge, and he was letting them, because he had a plan; once they got there, he would jump over, and hopefully escape the two cats.

And so far, the plan seemed to be working, the two bloody felines chasing after him. They rapidly approached the massive crack in the earth, and all Oleanderpaw had to do now was leap.

He readied himself, trying to gain more speed, it was just a few fox-legths away- he could make it! He pushed any bit of nervousness aside and leapt, he was going to make it!

But, as if he was fated to fall, only his front paws had made contact with the other side of the ravine. Their claws sunk into the earth as they tried to hoist themselves up, and they nearly did before a bird landed in front of their paws.

The pale dove pecked at his paws, making him further lose his grasp... Oleanderpaw noticed that it was the same dove he had seen before! It had the same odd burn marks.

But that revelation didn't matter, as the dove had managed to peck his claws out of the earth. And soon he began to plummet... Falling into the endless void again.

Oleanderpaw looked at the two bickering siblings, his tired haze wearing off slightly as he spotted Rushpaw. “Why are you two fighting this early in the morning?” he sleepily asked, yawning shortly after.

"Rushpaw li-” Rushpaw slammed his tail over Stormpaw's mouth, muffling the she-cat. “Please ignore my sister,” Rushpaw sighed, “and it isn't early, you were the last one awake, and the dawn patrols have already left.”

“Oh...” Oleanderpaw looked down, “Guess that's extra battle training for me, cause Coalpelt is super strict and- and boring!” he exclaimed, tail lashing.

“Hmm,” Stormpaw put her paw to her chin, and tilted her head in thought. “Aha! I have an idea to get you out of battle training,” she exclaimed.

“What is it? No offense, but Coalpelt isn't easy to sway,” Oleanderpaw pointed out.

“Well, Sootwhisker and Smallstripe are gonna take Rushpaw and I to climb the jagged cliffs! And since you haven't gotten a chance to climb them yet, I'm pretty sure Coalpelt would let you come,” Stormpaw explain, “and if he doesn't let you come, I'll just convince Sootwhisker to tell Coalpelt to let you!”

“What if Sootwhisker says no?”

“I doubt he would, but if he does,” The silver she-cat draws out the word "does" for a little to long, “we, well.. you can ask Hemlockwhisker, since she's Coalpelt's mate, there's no way he'd say no to her!”

Rushpaw rolled his eyes at the other two "conspiring" apprentices, he definitely wasn't jealous over Oleanderpaw having a good time talking to Stormpaw- no no, he would never be jealous over something like that!

Oleanderpaw noticed that Rushpaw looked lost in thought, “Hey Rushpaw, You alright?”

“Hmm?.. Oh yeah, I'm just peaccchy..” Rushpaw said sarcastically, which confused Oleanderpaw a bit.

Stormpaw heard the sarcasm in Rushpaw's voice, and had an idea to torment her brother, “Whats wrong Rushpaw? You jealous?” she asked condescendingly.

“I am not!”

“Gasp!” Stormpaw said the word, rather then actually gasping, “so you are jealous!”

“I literally stated that I'm not, you're just making yourself sound like a mousebrain.”

“I'm not the mousebrain here, you are! because you're not admitting the very clear truth that you're jealous and in-lo—” Stormpaw didn't get to finish as Rushpaw pounced on his sister, batting at her face.

“Hey! Get off me- you weigh the same as five fat foxes!” Stormpaw exaggerated, attempting to shove Rushpaw off.

“I'll only get off if you shut up!” he hissed.

Oleanderpaw stared at the two fighting, not really sure what to do or how to separate the pale cats. Fortunately, one of the patrols were just returning.

“What are you two fighting about?” Iceflight questioned his kits, dropping the rather plump vole he had caught.

“She started it!” Rushpaw pointed his tail at Stormpaw as she finally managed to shove him off, the following argument included Rushpaw and Stormpaw accusing each other, as well serval "nuh uhs" being thrown around.

“Both of you, stop bickering like kits right now!” Iceflight commanded.

Stormpaw's head lowered, “Sorry father...”

But Rushpaw glared at the silver tom, eyes narrowing, “whatever you wish, o' great and powerful,” he growled with spite.

Iceflight simply glared back at his son, but did not say anything more, picking the vole back up and bringing to the fresh-kill pile.

Oleanderpaw glanced at Rushpaw, they felt bad for the other tom, but before they could voice any sort of concern for him, a gruff voice called out, Coalpelt. 

“Oleanderpaw,” Coalpelt harshly addressed his apprentice, “you slept in, so I expect you to ready for extra training, Claws out.”

Oleanderpaw's long ears pinned back, right now he really hoped Stormpaw's plan worked...

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A/N: despite being one of the shorter chapters, this one gave me so much trouble for so many reasons, and even with all that trouble, I'm not the biggest fan of how it turned out. I sincerely apologize to who ever reads this chapter because I dont like it. But I needed to post something, even if Im very unhappy with it. Hopefully the next chapters will be better(as I'm actually very excited and have stuff planned!).