Shadow looked around to see Blaze sitting here with his brother Flint. He didn't even glance her way, it was as if their encounter had never happened.

"Well done Shadow, the clan will eat well tonight."

The black and gray apprentice turned to see Minty, a senior warrior, looking over her catch.

"T-Thank you." Shadow stammered, not used to praise. She gave a small purr of pride and padded off to look for Spark.

She found her sister sitting next to the apprentice den. Spark gave an absent mew of welcome, shifting over to make space for her sister.

"Guess what happened today? I went hunting and caught a huge amount of prey! I also met some weird cats that were on BloodClan territory but I chased them off. When I got back to camp Minty complimented me! She's a senior warrior! Spark? Spark, are you even listening to me?"

Shadow heaved an annoyed sigh as Spark nodded her head distractedly. After another few failed attempts at conversation, Shadow left, feeling a bit hurt that Spark wasn't paying any attention to her.

She padded over to where Rain was sharing prey with Pixie. The two older apprentices greeted her with meows of welcome.

"Come join us!" Pixie called, becoming Shadow with her tail. They scooted over to make space for her and gave her a small mouse.

"How did hunting go this morning?" Rain asked in a quiet voice, the gray tom was usually reserved and calm, never involving himself with any drama. His sister Pixie was the exact opposite, she was energetic and loved to argue with everyone.

"It was great! The good weather has finally lured the prey out of their dens. I ran into some strange cats by the two-leg border, they left pretty fast though." She meowed, glad to have someone to talk to.

Rain furrowed his forehead.
"You should probably report that to your mentor or a senior warrior. They may be part of a bigger group, BloodClan doesn't tolerate neighbors." Shadow was surprised by his words but nodded.

After finishing her mouse she decided to follow Rain's advice and report the two intruding cats to her mentor.

Ivy was talking to Blizzard, the clan deputy, next to the Big Stone. Shadow waited respectfully a few tail-lengths away until her mentor had finished her conversation.

Ivy turned to her apprentice after Blizzard padded away, looking at her expectantly.
"When I went hunting this morning I ran into two strange cats by the two-leg border. One of them had prey but they disappeared before I could take it back."

The calico she-cat narrowed her green eyes broodingly. "What did they look like?"
Shadow wrinkled her nose, trying to recall the memory.

"The biggest one was black with yellow eyes, he was huge too. The smaller one was about my age, he was gray with murky gray-green eyes. He called the big black tom 'Caspian' and Caspian called him 'Fog'. Caspian told Fog to go back to a 'Dumpster' to wait for him. What a dumpster Ivy?"

"Some kind of two-leg object," Ivy muttered distractedly, deep in thought. She swished her tail in an agitated manner. "I must report this to Sky, go rest and meet me at the training hollow at sunrise. We'll be training with some of the other apprentices today."

Shadow dipped her head in goodbye and went to lay down in a patch of sunlight, grooming her fur.

~~~

"Today we'll be working on battle moves," Nightshade spoke, pacing back and forth before the row of apprentices. The pitch-black she-cat was just as reserved and quietly as her apprentices Ivory. Being the oldest warrior out of all of the mentors, she took the lead in this training session.

"First you'll be paired up with one other apprentice. Your mentors will instruct you on which moves to practice. After the one-on-one training, you'll form two teams and battle against each other." Nightshade's glowing green eyes swept over the apprentices before her, causing their spines to tingle and their fur to bush up slightly.

The black she-cat started pairing up apprentices, Shadow was paired with Pixie.
The small white she-cat snarled at her playfully, "You're going down!" Shadow let her fur stand up,
"We'll see."

Minty and Ivy made their way over to the two apprentices. Ivy spoke first, "You'll be practicing the Half-Turn Belly Rake move today. Shadow pay close attention, this is an advanced move."

Shadow pricked her ears up, eager to impress her mentor. She hoped she would have an advantage in size over Pixie. Although the white she-cat had had a lot more training, she was small for her age, giving Shadow a slight advantage.

"The Half-Turn Belly Rake is done by turning onto your side, slipping under the opponent's belly, raking it with your claws, then swiftly turning back onto all fours out from under your opponent." Ivy meowed.
"I'll demonstrate on Minty."

Ivy took a few paw-steps back and bolted at Minty. Just before crashing into her, the calico slid onto her side under Minty's stomach, raking her paws over the soft underside before rolling over and landing on all four paws.

Shadow realized with dread that size was not to her advantage in this move, she'd have to rely on the basic fighting skills she already knew.

"Pixie will go first, start when my tail drops," Minty instructed, raising her fluffy tail high in the air.

Pixie nodded and backed up a few paw-steps, concentrating on her mentor's tail. When it dropped, swishing through the air, she exploder forward. Before Shadow could leap out of the way Pixie had already slipped under her, her paws raking at her soft underbelly violently.

The apprentice gasped as all the air left her, pushed out by Pixie's fierce blows. The small white apprentice rolled out from under her, landing on all four paws perfectly.

"Well done Pixie!" Her mentor praised, giving her a blink of approval.

Pixie puffed her chest proudly, giving Shadow a lopsided smirk.

"It's your turn now Shadow, try to copy what Pixie did." Ivy meowed, giving her a guarded glance.

Shadow nodded and took a deep breath, preparing herself. She narrowed her eyes at Pixie and propelled herself forward with long strides. She slid onto her side and extended her paws to rake then over Pixie's belly only to find the white apprentice standing a tail-length away.

Realizing she had been too slow and Pixie had leaped away Shadow hoisted herself to her feet, embarrassed at her failure.

A heavy paw clouted her across the head, filling her vision with black dots.
"What was that? I've seen hedgehogs move faster than that!" Her mentor fumed.

"Sorry" Shadow muttered, shaking the dust from her pelt. Ivy just scoffed and turned away.

Suddenly Nightshade's voice rang across the training hollow, "Everyone gather in front of me, you'll be fighting against each other now."

The eight apprentices scrambled to form a line in from of the black she-cat. Nightshade started forming teams, putting Shadow with Flint, Shimmer, and Rain.

Quartz, Blaze's mentor, started explaining the rules of the training battle.

"Each team will have a big leaf to guard, you must work together to defend your leaf and steal the other team's leaf. Claws must be unsheathed, this isn't a kit fight. The winning team gets first pick in prey tonight, the losing team will have apprentice duties for 3 sun-ups. You may start when I give the signal."

The young cats started to murmur amongst themselves excitedly.

Rain, being the oldest apprentice on the team, took charge. "Flint and Shadow, you two guard the leaf. I and Shimmer will try to steal the other team's leaf."

Shimmer smirked, "Are you sure you can trust Shadow with such a position? She seemed to be having trouble defeating a cat smaller than her when we were training." She taunted.

Rain scratched her across the nose with his claws, "Shut up, I saw Flint pin you down at least two times earlier."

Flint snickered at Shimmer's furious expression. He gestured for Shadow to follow him to one of the oak trees bordering the training hollow, where a big red leaf lay.

"You stand right in front of the leaf, I'll try to stop any cats from reaching you. If any cat does manage to reach you, just hold them off and protect the leaf until I come to help alright?" Shadow nodded at Flint's plan, putting herself in front of the red leaf.

A yowl ripped through the air and the training hollow exploded in action. Both teams surged forward, intent on capturing the other team's leaf.

Blaze and Ivory sped towards Flint, eyes wide with exhilaration. They clashed together in midair, claws scratching and fangs biting wherever they could.

Suddenly Ivory pinned Flint down and Blaze sprinter over to where Shadow stood. She braced herself, narrowing her eyes anxiously.

Blaze sprung at her, paws stretched out before him. Shadow was driven onto the ground by the impact, she was in her back, with Blaze on top of her.

She gasped when she saw his face a whisker away from her's, eyes like the sun dancing with amusement.

"Well hello beautiful."

Cliffhanger!! I hope you don't hate me now ((: At least it was longer than the last couple of chapters
This was mostly a filler chapter but I decided to introduce a lot of new characters. What do you think of that characters do far?
Please vote and leave a comment, you guys make my day!!

(Word count: 1605)