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It was that time of morning.

The time where everything is bathed in pale golden light, and the clouds are starting to stretch across the sky, making rays of sun slant onto the ground and dapple the forest floor.

Bearpaw was sitting outside of the apprentices' den, letting the warm New-leaf air lay comfortably across his face. It seemed like no cat was awake yet. He shifted his paws, aware of the cold ground making his paws numb. He wished the day would just start already.

The tomcat licked his paw roughly and swept it over his ears, brushing tiny pieces of moss and ferns from his head. Having not washed yet, perhaps was a good time to do so. After a few minutes of the sun brushing his ears as he washed, Sablepaw clambered sleepily out of the apprentices' den, yawning widely as she shook out her messy pelt.

"What're you doing out so early?" she meowed crossly, clicking her claws against the ground and furrowing her brow. "You always say you could sleep forever. Plus, Pumpkinpaw is still asleep," she crowed, her voice catching with laughter.

Bearpaw shrugged. "It's not a big deal."

"I never said it was," Sablepaw mewed coolly, sitting besides her brother and stroking her pelt swiftly with her barbed tongue. They was a pause, then: "I'm scared."

Bearpaw tried to say it. Tried to lie. But the "we're going to be fine" was caught in his throat and he looked away. "Of course you are." That wasn't supposed to come out. Bearpaw stammered a quick apology, but Sablepaw just smiled sadly, the melancholy making her stay quiet. "I-I am as well - is, what I . . . mean. . . ." He sighed and looked away, his pelt burning from the gaze of his sister and embarrassment.

Sablepaw opened her maw wide as she started to say something, but two warriors were approaching. Doetrail frowned as she looked at the apprentices. "What're you guys doing, sitting around like a pair of bored bluejays?" she meowed snarkily.

Fawnpath hid a smile. "She woke up early to Fadingwave getting out to make dirt and she's been grumpy since," she murmured out of the side of her mouth, suppressing an amused purr.

Doetrail had spun around and stalked away through the camp entrance. Bearpaw heaved himself to his paws, giving his chest fur a quick lick before pounding after his mentor.

Sablepaw took a more steady pace, keeping up with Fawnpath's lengthy stride easily. "What are we learning today?" she meowed, flicking her ears curiously at her calico mentor.

"We'll be focusing on battle," Fawnpath responded nervously. She hesitated, seeming to think over what she let out. "Now that FallowClan is here and now that they want our territory and camp, we'll have to learn more offensive battle moves and defensive battle moves."

She quickened her pace and Sablepaw streaked past her, nearing Bearpaw and Doetrail. Fawnpath caught up quickly, her nose touching the top of Sablepaw's tail. Sablepaw flicked her tail, and her mentor growled mockingly.

Doetrail's eyes widened as they reached the training grounds, Bearpaw shaking water out of his eyes. The river was always going to scare him after he fell down the mountain into the rushing waters. He had already been sprayed in the face as they passed along the small fallen young oak branch.

Fawnpath thrust the apprentices aside as Doetrail gaped at the training area. Sablepaw squeezed past Bearpaw, who craned his neck to look around his mentors. Wild foliage cramped the path together and all he could see was the backs of the warrior sisters' heads. "What is it? I can't see it!" he complained, lashing his tail in obvious frustration.

"Calm down, minnow-brain," Sablepaw snapped, her dappled golden fur bushing up as the mentors finally stepped back.

Bearpaw gasped audibly. There was blood stained all around the clearing. He gingerly reached out his nose to sniff the horrible mess. FallowClan and pigeon, with the sharp tang of blood. A furious growl escaped his throat.

"FallowClan did this," Sablepaw meowed, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she pulled away from the blood. "They must've hunted pigeons and spread the blood all over here to make us scared. Blasphemy. How dare they waste prey."

Her brother puffed out his chest. "We are not scared," he muttered, scratching the ground with his claws.

Sablepaw rolled her eyes, squinting as she stepped backward into a shaft of bright sunlight. Fawnpath and Doetrail were deep in a whispered conversation, eyes flicking around the trail and ears pricked, alert for any sound or movement. Sablepaw was quiet for a second, gazing at the blood. It looked like a pigeon massacre.

"We should report this to Valleystar," Fawnpath meowed rather loudly. Her pale olive green eyes flashed with embarrassment as she caught the apprentices staring at her. Lowering her voice at a glare from her sister, she continued scarcely loud enough to hear, "We can't train in this muck anyway. We'll have to wait for a rain to come and clean it up. No cat could be forced to lick this up."

Bearpaw's heart sank. Pleasenopleaseno. His thoughts were whirling, making words incoherent. What if we're in a battle and Acornrustle really does die this time because of me? What if Sablepaw can't defend him? She must feel worse, having almost lost him to FallowClan. His tiny groan must have been wasted on Doetrail's ears, because she started pacing back and forth on the path, which was less than two tail-lengths wide.

But Fawnpath blinked sympathetically at the spiky-furred brown tomcat. "We can still learn battle moves. Now, all we can do is go and report to Valleystar. Maybe Pumpkinpaw can join us when we get back. Bristleburn says he's almost healthy enough to train with us."

"Finally!" Bearpaw exclaimed, pushing past everyone, the bloody glen forgotten. He had been waiting impatiently for days until the ginger tomcat was able to train. He retraced his pawsteps out of the forest, the rest of the cats following behind him.

Sablepaw hastened to his side. "Slow down, will you," she mewed as the lush grass thinned out to a sandy stretch of shore covered in pebbles. "You don't want to fall into the river again, do you?" The muddy-pawed tomcat shrugged as he crossed a patch of dirt turned to mud by the miniscule waves lapping at the bank. He dug his claws into the ground, anxious not to slip into the river a second time as Sablepaw had indicated.

He fastened his claws into the tree branch as he took every step. With a start, he realized Sablepaw was nudging him along. "Okay, okay, I'm going," he muttered irritatedly. Continuing to the other side, he waited for a moment while the others bounded across.

Racing back to the camp, the fluffy tail of a certain ginger tomcat flicked by the entrance. Pouncing on it, Bearpaw chuckled as Pumpkinpaw let out a muffled cry as he spun around. When he saw it was Bearpaw, he snorted and turned back to his crouching mentor. Mousescramble rolled her eyes and rose to her paws.

"So why are you back so soon?" the soft-furred molly asked lightly, her tail brushing along Fawnpath's flank. She repeated the same gesture with Doetrail before the sisters pulled back.

"We need to report to Valleystar. Maybe Bearpaw and Sablepaw can tell you - sorry." Doetrail hurried off, Fawnpath by her side. They reached the leader's den, with bcrammed between two huge boulders, and Mousescramble turned to them.

"So, why are you guys back so soon?" the grey warrior meowed, a slight edge of impatience piercing her words as she beckoned Pumpkinpaw closer.

"FallowClan scent and the blood of like ten pigeons were all over the clearing," Sablepaw meowed simply, an excited mewling making Bearpaw shove her aside. A trampede of two little kits overtook the spot she was standing a heartbeat ago.

Blinking gratefully at her brother, Sablepaw nudged Milkkit to his paws, Luckykit beside him. The kits were so tiny, she could probably hold one on her head.

"I - milk . . . mother." Milkkit looked around, his eyes, still blue like his sister's from birth, were wide. Flecks of pale golden dotted his amazed gaze. Bearpaw purred, though quickly became silent as a harassed-looking grey she-cat raced forwards.

"Milkkit! Luckykit!" She scowled as she picked them up gently by their scruffs, the two kits bumping into each other with squeaks of glee. "Sorry," she added in a muffled voice, glancing over at her older kits before slipping back into the nursery.

Mousescramble frowned deeply as she kneaded her paws absentmindedly into the softened ground. With a start, she stared at the indent she made, flinching. "If I were to guess," she started slowly, as if each word caused her pain, "I would say FallowClan is getting ready to battle again. The blood and trespassing is a sure sign. We must do battle training as soon as possible."

Fawnpath and Doetrail approached from Valleystar's den, their faces grim. "Sablepaw, Bearpaw. Let's go to battle train somewhere else than there. You might as well join us, Mousescramble. Pumpkinpaw isn't behind on battle training too much yet."

Mousescramble nodded briskly, angling her ears at the leader's den. "How did it go?" she murmured as all six cats set out in search of a nice glen to train in.

"Not very good," Doetrail meowed warningly, her face flushing through her short calico fur. "He told us he thinks it's just an empty threat. If it is, I'll jump into the river and let it sweep me away. We'll learn a few offensive and defensive moves."

Pumpkinpaw padded alongside Bearpaw as Sablepaw slunk behind them. "I can't wait, all Mousescramble has been doing with me is teaching me the hunting crouch, and nobody likes doing that." He wrinkled his nose in mock disgust.

"Hunting is fun!" Sablepaw spoke up indignantly from behind them. "You probably are just bad at it." She twitched her tail-tip crossly, scowling at Bearpaw like he was the one that didn't like hunting.

With a wave of his tail, Pumpkinpaw snorted in amusement. "Maybe you only like hunting because you're bad at fighting," he commented good-naturedly. Sablepaw rolled her eyes and fell behind.

"Don't worry, she's always like that. I think it's because she doesn't want to almost get Acornrustle killed again." He scuffed the ground with his paws as their mentors stopped to examine the terrain. The painful topic of the battle lingered on the tip of his tongue. "I wish I could've been in the battle. But I wasn't, for some reason. . . ." He trailed off, looking at his light paws.

"I don't think you could've helped it," Pumpkinpaw meowed automatically.

Bearpaw shook his head, hurt filling the cracks in his heart. "Maybe Valleystar thought I just wasn't good enough to go on an expedition to get Acornrustle - my own father, in fact - back. Maybe Sablepaw really is better than me."

A small laugh came from the ginger tomcat besides Bearpaw. Bearpaw stared at his friend, anger making his claws twitch out of their sheath-like place. "How could you - ?"

"No, no," Pumpkinpaw exclaimed hurriedly, his eyes wide with embarrassment. "I was laughing at how similar we are. It's not even funny, I know. Just - sorry. We're very similar, yeah. Almost losing someone. Having a sibling. The only difference - the almost lost person is lost forever." His face turned bitter and he unsheathed his claws.

Bearpaw was quiet.

"We've found a good place," Doetrail meowed, backtracking her steps by a few so that she was just in front of them. Sablepaw pricked her ears and tasted the air.

"Ooh, mice!" she moaned, glancing over at Fawnpath.

Fawnpath shook her head, leaping lightly into a gap between two bushes. Sablepaw squealed as her mentor disappeared amongst the foliage and then followed after her. Doetrail squeezed through the crack after her, then Pumpkinpaw.

Bearpaw shoved himself in through the crevice, his scrawny build making it easy to slip through. He widened his eyes appreciatively at the glen. It was dappled in sunlight, with a shaded grassy area a few fox-lengths away from main grassy area. Crispy leaves covered the ground, making a leaf mulch that felt cushioned. "It's absolutely perfect!" he meowed eagerly, dropping into a crouch similar to the hunting crouch.

"Not yet, Bearpaw," Doetrail purred. Her spirits seemed to have been lifted after the discovery of the new training grounds. "We'll show you guys a few moves first."

Pumpkinpaw sat on one side of Sablepaw, Bearpaw the other. They were at the edge of the clearing, a rough circle, and Fawnpath and Mousescramble started circling each other. Doetrail watched with narrowed eyes.

It was quick as a flash of lightning.

Fawnpath reared onto her hind legs, lashed out a paw, with it's claws sheathed carefully, and struck at Mousescramble's head. The latter ducked down as swiftly and snaked her way between the calico's legs, thrusting her body upwards and sending Fawnpath toppling over her head.

The two warriors grappled on the ground for a while before Mousescramble clambered over Fawnpath and held her to the ground, the grey warrior's paw clamped over Fawnpath's throat. For a second they stared at each other, then Mousescramble let go and started washing her pelt casually, wincing as her rough tongue rasped over scraped skin.

Fawnpath scrambled to her paws, giving her white, brown, and black pelt a quick shake. Little bits of dried leaves fell to the ground. "Good fight," she nodded at Mousescramble before turning to the apprentices. "Now who's ready to fight?"

It's going to be alright . . .

It's going to be alright . . .

It's going to be alright. . . .

Bearpaw swallowed nervously before Pumpkinpaw rose to his paws. Sablepaw stayed sitting, her eyes alight with excitement. And for the first time, Bearpaw noticed the muscles rippling beneath Pumpkinpaw's raggedy outer appearance.

It's not going to be alright.