Darkness encased the cats near the river. Riverpaw shivered with the cool air. The Leaf-Fall weather wasn't anything like the warm, sunny weather of Green-leaf. Riverpaw was thankful for his warm thick pelt. If not for it, he would be as cold as a block of ice.

"We appreciate your help, Riverpaw. Hopefully with the fish you provide some of our nursing queens can feed their young, and hopefully we can all have fuller bellies too. You're saving a ton of cats today, Riverpaw." Gecko meowed, flicking her tail to the rogues behind her.

Whale nodded her head, dipping her tabby head to the earth, gratefulness being expressed in her eyes as well as humility.

Riverpaw glances down at his paw, feeling waves of embarrassment course through his pelt. "It's nothing." He mumbled. "Any noble cat would do the same."

Zinnia purred with amusement at Riverpaw's embarrassment. "Don't be so modest. You're becoming one of us—er, well you're becoming a friend to us. Pretty soon you'll even know Stripes well enough he will have to come out his shell!" Zinnia meowed, shoving him affectionately.

Out of the corner of his eye, Riverpaw could see Pearl rolling his eyes before shaking his head with disapproval.

Stripes snorted as if that was the most mouse-brained thing he'd ever heard.

What has Riverpaw ever done to him to make him this grumpy?

It was strange for a cat he never met once in his life to just snort as if he was better off not talking to him.

Even Deeppaw talked to him more than this tom. This tom would barely even greet him.

But, there was something about Stripes that made Riverpaw curious about him. Their fur color was the same. That didn't mean anything on its own, but there was something familiar about that pelt color, and those eyes...they reminded him of someone back in RiverClan, but he couldn't place his paw on it.

He really wanted to know what it was, but he couldn't just ask this tom for the answers. So he would have to do the investigating on his own.

For now, he had to hone his focus on helping these cats.

The cats of the rogue group crowded the river, staring into the pool of water. Green eyes, blue eyes, Amber eyes, and yellow eyes of all kinds reflected off of the big stream of water.

Pearl's tail waved in air as he paced back and forth, his eyes showing how nervous he was about them doing this. "If you get caught it you will be having a really bad time." He meowed. Panicky, he added, "Are you sure you want to do this, Riverpaw?"

Kelp snorted, mocking the young tom.

Riverpaw didn't understand why Pearl was so anxious. Getting caught? They wouldn't get caught now that the sun was barely peeking at them. It was their only witness to this break in the code.

Well, Riverpaw wasn't sure if it was breaking the code. More or less it was bending the code slightly to help cats in more need than the clan.

Peering into the river he saw all the big and small fish swimming around in the river. The water in the river seemed higher to Riverpaw than it was earlier.

Seeing the river swell like this made the young apprentice shiver. It didn't look fun to drown in such an river when it was swelling. Even if it was only beginning to get swollen.

He had heard stories of a couple of cats drowning in this river. For StarClan's sake! I've even heard of a young ShadowClan medicine cat apprentice drowning in the lake!

Such a fate was unfortunate. He shivered again.

I pray no one drowns in this river when I'm alive! That would be tragic! He thought.

"So, Riverpaw." Gecko began. Riverpaw craned his head to take a look at Gecko, giving her brown striped pelt a quick scan before she continued. "How would a RiverClan cat catch prey?" She quizzed him, indicating with her tail to the river.

That's kind of hard to learn on its own let alone teach it as an apprentice, Riverpaw thought as he gulped. His mentor quizzed him about three times within the past moon, but it always came to him. Now, in front of Zennia, though, he was nervous.

He was afraid he would mess up his words and the she-cat would make fun of him forever for teaching them incorrectly.

"We would wait for the fish in a crouch. RiverClan cats would make sure the fish in the river hadn't seen them, keeping as quiet as possible. When a fish comes we scoop them out of the water with our paws and give a killing bite or scratch. A killing bite would be better as the fish would still be flopping around trying to get back into the river." He explained.

Gecko nodded. "I knew that. I was just testing you." She meowed with a purr.

With those words all the rogues surrounded the river on the border of RiverClan territory.

Riverpaw stood by Stripes, who was startled by his presence. "Why don't you go stand by someone else?" He suggested, seeming a little on edge.

"Why?" Riverpaw questioned.

Did the tom hate him that much? Or was there some other reason he was pushing the apprentice aside?

"Because..." the tom averted eye contact, staring at the grass like it was the most interesting thing there was.

"Because there's more interesting cats out there. I'm the least interesting cat there is here." Stripes meowed.

"Lies, brother! You're very interesting." Stream meowed, nuzzling his brother. The act made Stripes back up, away from Stream.

Gecko chuckled. "Stripes is right. Why don't you hang around Zinnia, or even Kelp? Get to know him better. Stripes doesn't need a young apprentice like you ruining his experience, you know? This is his first time—our first time—experiencing this fish experience as a whole. So please don't bug our grumpy friend. He needs some space. He's had it very rough."

Very rough? Riverpaw pondered, tilting his head as he looked at the older tom.

Stripes gazed into Riverpaw's eyes for a second before hissing, retreating them back to the grassy marsh.

What could this tom's past have to do with how he acts now? How curious.

Riverpaw nodded, though he didn't want to move a little more time with Zinnia could help. But...Riverpaw couldn't help but think about how interesting Stripes was.

His brother thought he was interesting, but he himself and Gecko didn't.

Riverpaw padded over to Kelp. The tom had a mischievous glare to him. When Riverpaw approached him, Kelp turned his Amber gaze on Riverpaw. "Wow! I feel so honored, Paws of the River! You decided to choose me instead of mooning over a cat out of your league!" Kelp meowed loudly.

Riverpaw growled. "What?!" He exclaimed.

Kelp went closer to his ears, his orange-brown fur ruffling in the breeze. "I know you're secret, clan cat. And you will never get what you want." He meowed.

Riverpaw wanted to tear him to shreds. How dare he tell him he can't achieve his dream of being Zinnia's mate!

Riverpaw's head turned to face Kelp.

"Now, shall we catch some fish? Or are you too scared to help us that you won't help us get some food for winter?" Kelp asked, flicking him with his brown tipped tail.

Riverpaw snorted.

Who even was this cat?

"Of course I am. What a mouse-brained way of messing with me." Riverpaw meowed.

"Kelp, stop Messing with him. You're both scaring away the fish I was about to catch!" Zinnia whined, her paws silky and wet from trying to catch a fish from the river.

Riverpaw felt his ear tips grow hot. Kelp snorted at the sight of Riverpaw.

He did have a goofy cat smile. Well, cats can't really smile.

"Oh that's cute." He mewed, eyes on the river.

Riverpaw wanted to rip his ears off, but he kept his claws to himself. After all, it would probably only make Kelp taunt him more. Not only that, but it could—and most likely would—make Zinnia disown him as a possible lover.

"Whatever. Just focus on catching a fish for your group." He snarled, fur stuck up in surprise at how much this tom was getting on his nerves.

Kelp snorted loudly, his tail waving around in the air like he was hunting something.

"Fine. Fine. But don't think this conversation isn't over. We'll talk when this is over." Kelp meowed.

Riverpaw ignored him, setting his gaze upon the river.

Fortunately, the two were quiet enough for Junico to catch a fish, and the hunt had officially begun. Riverpaw wasn't sure if he could work well with the orange-brown tom next to him.

The tom's amber gaze is glowing with amusement.

"Welp, now it's time to catch us some fish. Don't mess this up, Paws of River, or else." Kelp meowed threateningly.
—————

Authors note: Again, if I make any mistakes with eyes and such let me know. I don't want to be on Dovewing level or worse because a cats eye color is Yellow and Amber.

Anyways, what's up with Kelp? Do you think he's teasing or do you think his threat is real?

Anyways, I will in fact put out two more chapters before stopping, so stay tuned. I know this one was a little cringey, but there was a special hint in this chapter if you can find it.

Also don't spoil this story for others. If you've read up to this point don't go back to chapter one and say spoilers from this chapter.

Anyways, hope you can enjoy this special sort of cringe! Thanks so much for reading! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️