When hazepaw heard the pawsteps coming towards her, she willed herself out of the cave. It was a dream, she could do whatever she wanted! She closed her eyes, and began walking slowly to the entrance of the cave.

Come on.  Hazepaw thought. Wake up!

Then, a golden tom appeared in the cave, and hazepaw's world snapped shut, and into darkness. She opened her eyes. Sunlight was filtering in through the apprentices den leaves and brambles, and she got up, and tried to stretch. She cried out in pain at this, her wounds from the battle with IceClan stinging.

Then she remembered Blizzardstorm. Hazepaw hadn't wanted to kill her! All she had wanted was to injure her, but now the innocent white warrior was dead, and it was her fault.

She shook her head, trying to clear the pain, and padded out of the den. Ashblaze was organizing patrols, smokestar watching from the side of the bloodtree. He beckoned wit his tail when he saw her, and hazepaw followed tentatively. What did he want? Was she in trouble? Oh no. Smokestar lead her into the leader's den, a small hollow in the back of the hinge red tree. It was covered in soft moss, but the sides seemed to be used as the SparkClan leader's scratching post.

 "Hazepaw." Smokestar meowed, nodding.

 "Uh... Smokestar?" Hazepaw tried, not knowing what to say .

 After a few moments of silence that felt like moons, smokestar said "I saw what you did in the battle yesterday. It was... Acceptable."

 Hazepaw's eyes widened, and she tried to hide a smile. Getting praise from smokestar was so hard, and didn't know one day who had been able to do something acceptable in his eyes. Wait. That was bad, wasn't it? To smokestar, being amazing would probably be killing an entire clan and coming back with blood soaked fur, but no scratches. 

 "Uh... Thanks." Hazepaw replied , trying to look grateful.

 Smokestar tilted him head. "Are you ready to become a warrior? "

Hazepaw's eyes widened even more. A warrior at last! But wasn't there something dangerous involved? Something terrible she had to do? Knowing smokestar, she might have to kill one of the other apprentices or... A kit. No.

"W-what would I have to do?" Hazepaw asked.

" I didn't say now. " smokestar growled, and hazepaw winced. "Maybe in a moon. Your 9 moons old."

 "So why did you ask?" She muttered .

"What was that? " smokestar snapped.

"I just said thank you for asking." Hazepaw squeaked .

smokestar narrowed his eyes. "maybe. Now get out of my den."

Hazepaw bolted out of the leader's den, and to the fresh kill pile . If only had a few pieces of prey, but she grabbed one anyway, and brought it over to the nursery, where whitetooth was sitting with her two kits. Seeing hazepaw, however, the white and black queen wrapped her tail around her kits proactively.

"I'm not going to hurt them." Hazepaw told whitetooth, taking a bite of the prey, a large sparrow. "I don't kill kits. I'm not like smokestar, you know."

" You killed mouseface, that's all I need. " whitetooth hissed, turning her head, picking up her kits, and taking them inside the nursery.

Hazepaw sighed, and picked up the sparrow. She walked over to where Thunderheart and graybreeze were sitting, waiting for the last name her of their patrol.

 "Hi." She mumbled nervously . Surely her friend, Thunderheart, would accept her.

But instead he turned us back, forcing hazepaw growled in frustration, and carry her prey over to sit by a tree, with hardly any sunlight reaching through its branches. She claimed up it, the sparrow still slammed between her jaws, and say on one of two lowest branches, watching her clan. Why couldn't any one accept the fact that smokestar had made her do it? She could have refused, but then she would die, and that would be worse. Hazepaw took another huge of the prey. It wasn't bad, though a bit stale, it was still juicy. She was Thunderheart, graybreeze, and lionfang, another warrior, walking together on patrol.

"No one understands..." Hazepaw hissed softly , to herself. No one knew what it was like, being smokestar's kit. No one realized how she felt, every single day...

"I understand." a

Hazepaw jumped at the voice behind her, and whipped around , making sure her feet stayed on the branch. A cat, with golden red fur, stepped out of the leaves, with green eyes.

"Who a- are you." She hissed.

"I'm flamepaw, and I'm not supposed to be here. " the tom said before sitting down, and beginning to wash himself.

"Wait... From my dream?" Hazepaw asked.

 " obviously, mousebrain. " flamepaw rolled his eyes. "I am flamepaw of BoulderClan and SunClan."

" Go away. " Hazepaw growled, turning around. "Don't you know what I've done? "

"Mhm. But I want to give you a chance to prove yourself."

" Ha. Your not even a SparkClan warrior, get out of my camp. " Hazepaw told him, her back still turned, head hung low.

"Your choice. Your being a mousebrain, mousebrain." Flamepaw replied . 

"I've been informed of that." 

" Fallenstar says your not trustworthy, but I think you are. You already know about us. We can help you, hazepaw. " flamepaw offered.

"I said no." 

Then silence .

She heard flamepaw sigh. "SparkClan doesn't accept you. I can get Fallenstar to let you in, I'm sure of it. I might be an apprentice, but I'm... Persuasive." Flamepaw said finally .

Hazepaw turned to look at the golden apprentice. "No one accepts me. Now leave me alone."

" The light of the sun will shine through the darkness. That's what Fallenstar says. Things why she named us SunClan. Or maybe she made that for SunClan. " flamepaw told hazepaw. "You can join the light."

" How? I'm smokestar's kit, I've killed two cats, I've spied on my own clan, I've made every day hate me I've... I've... " Hazepaw trailed off, tail hanging off the side of the branch, head down. "The point is, I'm saying no."

When she looked up, flamepaw was gone.