• Chapter 1


    It was another cold day of no-leaf in the fire-clan camp. Ashpaw yawned, stretched, and looked out of the den of branches, leaves, and twigs that he slept in. He could see Firestar sitting in front of his den, grooming himself. Ashpaw got up, pushed his way out of the den, and over to the fresh kill pile. He chose a surprisingly fat mouse and carried it over to the tree stump in front of the den to eat it before his mentor, Firerain, got up. When he was done, he looked towards the warriors den to see if Firerain was up yet.
    “Oh good he is,” he thought as he went over to Firerain and asked what they would be doing in training today.
    “I was going to teach you how to catch birds” Firerain meowed.
    “Ok” then Ashpaw asked “when?”
    “Now if you want.”
    “Ok let’s go!” he meowed and dashed off toward the bramble tunnel that led out of the stone camp. Ashpaw had not gotten three rabbit hops away from camp before Firerain sped past him in the direction of the great oak tree. By the time he got there, Firerain was waiting.
    “Ok. Can you guess the way to stalk a bird?”
    “No.”
    “Ok then…”
    “What was that?” Ashpaw asked.
    “What?”
    “That” he said after a yowl a little ways away.
    “It sounds like the dawn patrol was spotted by a water clan patrol,” Firerain said dashing toward it, “and that’s not good. Come on!” he said before disappearing through some ferns. Ashpaw dashed after him in the direction of the sound. When Ashpaw got there, it was not as bad as he thought it would be because the cats were not using the special powers that all cats got from Spiritclan. Using these powers was against the clan-code, unless in real-life threatening situations. Ashpaw pounced on a tabby warrior who was nipping at Firerain and clung on to his back. Ashpaw gave him a good bite on the shoulder so that he went screeching off in to the bushes
    “Well, that was easy” he meowed.
    “It was but, they will be back with reinforcements soon,” Fireheart, the son of Firestar, said. “We should get back to camp.”
    “Ya” Asheart said, dashing off.

    Everyone was up when they got there.
    “We should tell Firestar about the battle,” Ashheart said padding off towards Firestars den. Firestar was pushing his way out when he got there.
    “Is there anything to report?”
    “Yes, There was a battle with a water-clan patrol at the river by the border” she mewed.
    “If that is it then you may go.”
    “Ok” he said, dipping his head respectfully.
    “What did he say?” Fireheart asked
    “Nothing.”
    “That’s odd,” he said
    “We should get back to training, Ashpaw,” Firerain said walking towards the tunnel and off to the great oak tree. He padded after him wondering why Firestar did not say anything about the battle.
    “So you said you can’t guess the way to stalk a bird?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then how is a bird going to sense you?”
    “Hearing?”
    “Correct, so try it. ”
    “Ok” he said crouching down and creeping across the ground.
    “Good. I think you are ready to hunt!” Firerain said. “Can you sent anything?” he asked. Ashpaw sniffed the air.
    “Yes, there is a robin that was foolish enough to stay here during noleaf.”
    “Good. Do you think you can catch it?”
    Ashpaw nodded.
    “Ok then” Firerain said. Ashpaw crouched down and crept across the ground towards the sent. He could see it now, pulling a worm from its whole.
    “A bit closer” he thought. He crawled a tail length closer and pounced. The bird was startled and took off but he was faster. He landed on it and broke its neck. He grabbed it and brought it out to Firerain.
    “Here” Ashpaw said
    “Good job, I think you can take that to the elders, they will like it,” Firerain said. Ashpaw nodded and padded off to camp. When he pushed his way in to camp everyone was busy. Firekit, Ashkit and Smokekit were playing with a ball of moss, batting it back and forth, Firestar was talking with Fireheart about patrols and the rest were reinforcing the camp. He trotted off to the elders’ den and poked his head in.
    “Here” Ashpaw said to Fireye, the oldest cat in Fireclan.
    “Thanks” she croaked.
    “You’re welcome,” he said, ducking back out. Then he went over to Fireleaf and asked if he could help patch a hole in camp.
    “Sure” she said. He went out to get some brambles to patch the camp. He was just coming in to camp with his third load of brambles when Fireleaf said that he had done enough for today and that he could go get some dinner for him self. Ashpaw dropped his pile of brambles in front of Fireleaf and went to get some food. He saw Coalpaw in front of the den so he asked if she wanted to share some fresh kill. Coalpaw said she had not had any fresh kill and that it would be great to share some.
    “Cool, I will be right back,” said Ashpaw. The fresh kill stock was large for the middle of no-leaf, which was the coldest season of the year. He grabbed a rabbit and brought it to Coalpaw to eat. When they were done eating it Firestar came out of his den and jumped up on to the high rock, which was where he always talked to the clan.
    “Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the high rock for a clan meeting.”
    “I wonder what he is going to talk about” Coalpaw said.
    “Maybe he is going to talk about the battle that we had with water-clan this morning.”
    “What!? Were you in it?” she asked.
    “Ya, but it was pretty boring. They left before I could have some fun” He said.
    “There was a battle with water clan this morning, but no one was harmed. I think they mean this as a warning; so from now on we will have more patrols along that border.” Firestar said.
    “I think that we should go and attack them to tell them that we do not want to lose any land,” Fireheart said.
    “I will think about it,” Firestar said.
    “But what if they attack us?”
    “Then we will tell them to back-”
    “YOWL!!!”
    “Defend the kits!” a dark tabby named Waterwave jumped on Ashpaw but he was ready. He scooted out of the way just in time and she landed hard on the ground. He then pounced on her and sunk his claws in to her fur. She screeched in pain and tried to fling him off but he held on fast. She then tried to get him off by rearing up into a cliff face.
    “Uhh” Ashpaw said as he had the breath knocked out of him.
    “Puny apprentice” she spat and jumped him. Suddenly there was fire raining from the sky and he was able to get out of the way but he did not get to yowl help because Waterwave just dove into him and knocked the breath out of him again. She pined him down and was just about to bite his neck when she screeched again fell off him. She had bean hit by a small fireball and now her tail was on fire.
    “Retreat!!!” Rainstar said running from the brambles and out of camp. All of his cats followed him and fled. Some of the Fireclan cats tried to follow them but Firestar stopped them.
    “They have learned not to mess with us so we will be left alone” he said.
    “You see!!! This is what I was saying, that they could attack us!” a queen named Ashcloud said. She was licking one of her kits as it was trying to go play in the rubble.
    “You were right, they can, but I know that if they did we still have the most powerful cats in the clans.”
    “But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t killed in battle!”
    “It doesn’t but we still have lots of good cats. We will step up training instead of patrols”
    “But if the best are killed and we are left with just normal cats when they attack again we will be killed. We should step up patrols not train! If we train a lot then we will not know untill death that they are coming!”
    “You will listen to me, deputy or not! If you keep this up you will lose your place in this clan!

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