Nearly 4 moons had passed since we had that meeting at the gathering. Not much changed, other than Greypaw and Ravenpaw becoming Greystripe and Ravenfall, and Frostkit becoming Frostpaw. Frostpaw was apprenticed to my mother, Riverflower.

Myself and Lionpaw had both grown immensely, now the size of warriors. This annoyed a lot of the smaller warriors, especially Streamtail. She was nice, but scary when she was angry.

The great thing was being taller than Hailstar. It's funny when he calls me into his den and he has to look up to me.

He gets real mad when I bring it up, but he isn't as scary as a mean Streamtail.

Gives me nightmares.

I knew that our assessments were coming up soon, because Mistheart would often head straight to Hailstar's den after we returned from a training or hunting session. I was excited, of course, but also freaked out because now Lionpaw and the other's could freely kill us without breaking the truce.

"Heronpaw, we're going out." Mistheart, who was coming from the warriors den, said.

I did one final stretch, and then jogged over to where Mistheart was waiting. "We'll go through some basic combat training, and then if you're comfortable, move on to more complex and deadly moves."

My eyes widened as Mistheart mentioned deadly moves. Yes, I would need them, and yes, I was coming up on my warrior ceremony, but it was still shocking that I was being taught them. I knew how to kill prey such as fish or water-voles, and that move was used for killing cats as well, and Mistheart knew that. That means that there are other, potentially more gruesome moves.

And I don't know if I'm ready for that. Mentally, of course. I know that I'm more than capable physically. I know I'm going to have to grow out of this discomfort, because Lion won't end things until one side is dead.

By this time we had reached the Training clearing. Mistheart moved into the center of the clearing, and I followed.

"Okay, pin me."

I crouched lower to the ground, and slowly circled. I began planning out how to knock Mistheart down. He was bigger than me, so I couldn't rely on my size. He was also quick, so I couldn't rely on speed. The most annoying thing is that he's smart as well, so I basically have no advantage over him.

Mistheart; the Dream Warrior.

This meant that the only thing I could rely on was luck. And luck is a pretty crappy thing to rely on.

What I need to do is unbalance him so that I could knock him over. I have the strength to keep him down, so now the only thing I had to do was outlast him as I ran around.

This makes my head hurt.

"Are you going to keep circling or are you going to pin me?" Here I started running around him, dashing in and out and cuffing him every now and again.

The confused look on his face was a good sign; he had no idea what I was doing. I slowed down my pace a bit, just so that I could run for longer.

After I dashed in and cuffed Mistheart again, he said, "Ow! What are you doing?"

I stopped and tilted my head in confusion. "What?"

"What are you doing! I told you to pin me, not run around!"

"That's what I was getting to!"

"I was going to let you pin me, and then correct it! Great Starclan, you sure look like a warrior, but your brain is a few moons behind!" I flinched at the insult, and Mistheart seemed to notice. "I'm sorry, I know I snapped, but I'm tense. Let's forget about combat for now, and let's go to the river. We'll strengthen your legs today instead."

I followed him to the nearest part of the river, and waded in. 

"Okay, swim for as long as you can. Tell me if you need a break." Mistheart said.

I spent the next couple of hours swimming, taking a few breaks when I needed them. I finally swam back to the shore when Mistheart called me, and we left, passing by a patrol on our way back to camp.

"See if Brambleleaf or Fishface need anything. If they don't, the rest of the day is yours."

"Okay. See you tomorrow." I went over to the elder's den and poked my head in. "Do you guys need anything?" I looked around to see both elder's sound asleep.

I'll take that as a not yet. I'll come back later.

I decided instead to go to my nest, and to take a quick nap before Brambleleaf and Fishface woke up.

'~******~'

"Get up."

I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to see Mistheart in front of me, but instead I saw a cat I didn't recognize. I tilted my head in confusion.

"Don't worry about who I am. We'll meet again soon enough. Just know that your kin isn't in as much of a predicament as he thinks."

And then the cat disappeared.

New record for quickest Starclan meeting?

I woke up, and quickly stood to groom myself. My kin isn't in as much of a predicament as he thinks? That's simple. Something about Lion... How is he in a predicament though? He has Rosefrost on his side, so they outnumber me.

I shook the thought off for the time being, and looked up into the sky. It was nearing sunset, which reminded me that I needed to check on the elders. I jogged over to their den, and poked my head in once again. "Do you two need anything?"

Brambleleaf responded, "If you could grab us a fish to share, that would be greatly appreciated."

I nodded and back out of the den, turning towards the fresh-kill pile. As I bent down to pick up one fo the largest fish, my nose bumped into a pale-red nose. I backed away to see none other than Rosefrost next to me.

She looked at me cooly, and said,  "Watch where you put your nose, Heronpaw." And then she walked away.

That wasn't a weird interaction. Not at all...

I padded back over to the elder's den, and went in, dropping the fish at their paws.

"Took you long enough. I thought I'd be dead by the time you got back." Fishface said, tucking into to eat.

"You know he's joking with you, Heronpaw. Thanks for the fish." Brambleleaf gave me a pleasant smile as I exited the den once again.

The sun was halfway behind the horizon already, so I decided I would head back to my nest, and go to sleep early so that I could wake up early the next morning for training.

As I lay down, I thought about the message Starclan gave me once again. Lion's in a predicament? Is something wrong with him or Rosefrost? A sickness? Something going on in his training? I then remembered something from our past life. Is he not confident in his strength? That must be it!

But then I realized something odd... That cat also said something about meeting again, which was especially strange. Is he going to give me another message soon? That's probably what it is...

I shivered as I curled up. Leafbare was officially here, which meant cold nights and less prey. I would probably be sharing a lot of my prey with other cats. Mistheart was lucky that the part of the river I swam in wasn't frozen over yet. It would be soon, which means that we would have to resort to other types of strength training.

I finally closed my eyes and allowed my mind to rest, even though thought's were still pouring in my brain, sneaking in through the back door.

'~******~'

I awoke very early, the sun hadn't even fully risen yet, it was just a sliver over the horizon. I continued into the center of camp to see Riverflower sitting guard.

She gave me one of her signature smiles. "You're up early. Did you sleep well?"

" I slept fine. I'm up early because I feel asleep before night."

"Ah."

We sat in silence for awhile, waiting for the rest of the clan to wake up.

"What's going on between you and Lion?"

This caught me off guard, and I stumbled for an acceptable answer. "Just a bit of sibling rivalry. We're just trying to be better than each other."

Riverflower seemed content with the answer, and yawned. "I'm going to take a nap. I've been sitting here all night."

She stood and stretched, and then padded over to the warrior's den. I took her place, and sat guard.

The next person awake as Kinkfur, the deputy. "Where's Riverflower? I thought she was taking guard?"

"She was, but I woke up and took her spot a few minutes ago. She just went back to the warrior's den to get some sleep."

"Oh alright." Kinkfur went back to the warrior's den, presumably to wake up the dawn patrol.

Just as Kinkfur entered the den, I heard a screech, and then another.

My head turned toward the nursery, where the sound was coming from. I turned my eyes back towards the warrior's den, where Kinkfur had also exited. 

I sprinted to the nursery, Kinkfur close behind me.

Mouseclaw was bent over something. "Frostkit's been killed!"

My eyes widened in shock.

"Someone came in and just killed her!"

Kinkfur immediately took charge. "Did you see who it was?" Mouseclaw shook her head. Kinkfur nodded and moved his paw to Frostkit's throat. "No pulse. She's dead." Mouseclaw let out another wail of grief.

"Heronpaw, go get Finchcloud. She'll prepare Frostkit for burial. And grab your mother while you're at it."

I nodded solemnly and went over to the Medicine cat's den. Finchcloud was still sleeping, so I gently shook her to wake her up. "Kinkfur needs you in the nursery. Frostkit's been killed."

Finchcloud's eyes widened in shock, but she nodded. "Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

I headed over to the warrior's den to wake Riverflower up, but she was already up and sprinting to the nursery.

I decided to change direction, and moved towards Hailstar's den. I also shook him awake, and whispered, "Frostkit's been killed. Just thought you'd want to know so that you can tell the clan."

Hailstar jumped to his paws, and jogged out of the den. "Thanks Heronpaw. If you will, please, go wake everyone up so that I can break the news."

I nodded, and headed over to the apprentice's den to start waking everyone up.

Dang, I'm on a roll with chapters. That one was just over 1,700 words. Not bad.

I'm not going to ignore Frostkit's death, of course.

RIP.

I get the feeling that less and less people are reading this book. There were no answers on the last question, so I have to come up with a name on my own.

Meanies.

The good thing is that now I don't have to come up with questions until someone starts bullying me into it.

WE ARE OFFICIALLY MOST OF THE WAY THROUGH THIS BOOK! The total chapter count will be 19, meaning 17 chapters of actual storyline.

Imma message someone and try to get 'em to do a cover for me, and if they do, expect a new reader-powered book coming soon!

See ya soon!

-Maple