900 VIEWS. OH. MY. GOSH. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR GETTING MY BOOK THIS FAR!!! Can we make 1 thousand? I think we can! Only 40 away!

Oakpaw stared in horror. "Su- Sunpaw? What do you mean?" Oakpaw shuffled backwards uncontrollably. "Sunpaw? But he's our clanmate," Violetpaw echoed his thoughts.

"Yeah, he's our clanmate, and that's Oakpaw's brother." Thornclaw mewed, starting to take brave steps towards Hawkfrost. "Your clanmate?" Hawkfrost sneered, making claw marks on the sand.

"Hello?" A soft voice called. Sunpaw! Oakpaw's heartbeat sped up faster. What was he going to do to his brother?

Oakpaw glanced at Thornclaw and Mousewhisker. "Yes, our clanmate." Thornclaw's green eyes seemed to dance like fire.
"Ha! Clanmates are those who fight with you, not coward behind you for protection." Hawkfrost smirked.
Thornclaw snarled.

Then, the golden tom might have made the biggest mistake of his life. Thornclaw leaped at the huge tabby standing before him. Violetpaw stared in horror with Oakpaw. Birchfall let out a battle cry, then leaped into the pile of fur. The three cats separated after tussling.

Instantly, Birchfall, Mousewhisker, and Thornclaw formed a battle line, pushing Hawkfrost away. "Cowards!" Hawkfrost hissed.

Violetpaw and him shared a glance. The two fled, both in search of Sunpaw. "Sunpaw! Sunpaw!" He called, his paws numb.
"Oakpaw? Oakpaw! What took you so long?" Oakpaw ignored the question and muzzled his brother.

"Violetpaw! Why isn't Thornclaw with you?" Sunpaw asked.

Oakpaw and Violetpaw glanced at each other nervously.
"Uh, he can't come right now. But we have to get back to camp! Now!" The two apprentices hissed. Sunpaw nodded slowly.
"Okay, but wh-"
"Never mind that." Violetpaw mewed, and the cats ran home.

Oakpaw tried to remain calm, but he was shaking anxiously. "What's going on?" Crowflight, Dawnstep, and Bumblestripe came out of the warriors den.
"Fox attack?" Dawnstep yawned.

"Uh, no." Oakpaw tried to remember if any of the cats that didn't go to the gathering were Dark Forest trainees.
He then thought about when he first came to the Place of No Stars. "Uh, where's Volefur?" Oakpaw asked. He remembered seeing him there once.

"Volefur!" Dawnstep pulled her littermate out of the den.

"We have a problem." Violetpaw mewed urgently once it was just the three cats. "Are- are you still in the Dark Forest?" Oakpaw chided.

"No! Those mange pelts tried telling me that Squirrelflight was just a lousy rogue, and then said that my family- wait. How did you know?" Volefur asked with suspicion. Violetpaw and him are amused glances.
"My mentor is Hollowflight, hers is Ivypool."

"Whatever. So what's the problem?" Volefur inquired.
"Hawkfrost is battling Birchfall, Thornclaw, and Mousewhisker near the thunderpath, and he's trying to kill Sunpaw! We brought him here to keep him safe, and we're supposed make sure no cat finds out that Hawkfrost is in the territory. Can you help us?" The information poured out of Oakpaw like a stream.

"Well, first we need a permanent guard for Sunpaw." The brown tom mewed.
"I'll do it." Oakpaw volunteered. "He's my brother, if anyone can defend him, its me."
Sunpaw was taking a vole from the fresh kill pile and sat down near the apprentice's den.

"Okay, Violetpaw and I will go back to drive Hawkfrost out. If that fails, -which it shouldn't since we'll have five warriors- but if it does, we'll come back to camp for your help." Volefur mewed the plan. Oakpaw strides over to Sunpaw who was cheerfully eating his vole.

Volefur and Violetpaw left, and Crowflight was sharing prey with Dawnstep.
Bumblestripe was peeking inside the elders' den, probably listening to one of Purdy's endless stories.
"Let's see if Purdy wants to tell us the story," Oakpaw wanted to keep Sunpaw as busy as possible.

The two squeezed into the den with ease. "Can you tell us the story?" He asked. Purdy nodded.
"Sure, youngins'. See, I was just a little kit when my first nofurs picked me up. I was trapped in this monster's nest, when they came by." Purdy began.
The old tom stretched and yawned.

"I was screeching my pelt off, when they started hitting at a little square box near the corner of the large door with their fingers. They couldn't get it open. Stupid nofurs, I don't even get why they put such mouse brained contraptions on their own stuff!" Purdy rasped.

After the story was finished, the two padded out of the den. "That was a good story, Purdy." Bumblestripe yawned.

"You get some rest, I'm gonna take night guard." Oakpaw murmured as his brother entered the den. Oakpaw padded over to the camp entrance, where Treeclaw sat guard.

"I'll take a shift." He meowed. Treeclaw dipped his head and disappeared into camp. Oakpaw wondered if the strong tom had seen the Dark Forest trainees leave through dirtplace.

Oakpaw heard a quiet rustle of branches a few tree lengths away.
"Whose there?" He called out.
"Just us." A voice rasped. Three cats appeared, all leaning on each other for balance.
Oakpaw gasped and raced forward. "Are you guys alright?" He asked, guiding them into camp.

"We should be fine." Mousewhisker muttered.

"Wait, where's Violetpaw and Volefur?" Oakpaw's eyes widened with fear.
"What do you mean? We never saw them." Birchfall mewed.

"Where's Hawkfrost?" He asked, trembling. Dawnstep and Crowflight were padding towards them. "We chased him off. He's out of clan borders, now." Thornclaw replied.

A sudden tremble took or Oakpaw. Violetpaw and Volefur might be dead because of me!

Sorry if this chapter sucks majorly. I wrote it on my tablet, so autocorrect with warrior is names is tough. When I was writing a short story for Yellowfang earlier, it kept auto correcting to Yrllowfamg's. So annoying! And if I take autocorrect off, I end up messing up majolly en evry wrd. Sey wat I meen? Lol, hope you liked this!