Amberpaw was awoken from a restless sleep with a prod from a cream paw.

"Amberpaw, come on! Early start today if you want to practice hunting!" Rosefrost hissed, careful not to wake Gorsepaw, who was mumbling in his sleep.

Amberpaw rose and stretched, opening her jaws in a loud yawn. Plodding out, she blinked sleep out of her eyes and widened them in surprise. The whole clearing had been dusted with white powder, more falling from the sky. The tips of grass were still visible, so specks of green littered the ground.

"What is it?!" Amberpaw gasped, batting at a large flake that was floating down.

Rosefrost mrrowed in amusement. "That's snow, usually it doesn't come so quick, Leaf-bare is early this year," she shivered, and then flicked her tail, padding off towards the camp entrance.

Amberpaw hurried to catch up with her, growling as the gorse tunnel thorns snagged her long fur. "Why so early?" She gasped, trotting alongside her mentor.

Rosefrost kept her gaze up, although her ear twitched in acknowledgement. "It's the Gathering tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure that Clawstar is going to take you, Flamepaw and Stormpaw."

Amberpaw gasped. She might be going to the Gathering, when she had only been an apprentice for a couple of sunrises! She frowned though, contemplating. "But why do I need to wake up early?"

"You'd want to be awake at the Gathering, wouldn't you?" Rosefrost bunched up her muscles and sprang over a white dusted fallen log, Amberpaw scrambling up after her. "You can sleep until Sunhigh tomorrow, and then I'll teach you how to collect moss and clear out the elders. The day after the Gathering, you'll be able to sleep through most of it, most apprentices do after their first Gathering, if you do wake up in the day, you can join a border patrol, if you don't, I'm going to wake you up at Moonrise to try night stalking."

Amberpaw was listening in fascination to the plans. "What's night stalking?"

Rosefrost snorted. "You have to learn to hunt at night, Clawstar's orders. I don't know why, none I'd the other warriors know why, and to be honest, I doubt Clawstar even knows what he's saying."

Amberpaw frowned. "Stalking at night is a ShadowClan thing though!" She muttered, then glanced up at Rosefrost, who had stopped in her tracks. Following her gaze, Amberpaw gasped.

Lying in front of them was a dead rabbit, messily caught by the looks of things. Amberpaw stepped back on impulse as a strong scent overpowered her senses.

"WindClan," Rosefrost snarled. "Freshly caught, by the looks of things.." Amberpaw's mentor suddenly jerked her head up, fur bushed out. "Amberpaw, run back and get reinforcements!"

Amberpaw froze. "Why!?" She cried, unsheathing her claws.

Before Rosefrost could answer, several lithe shapes slipped out from the undergrowth surrounding them. They were mostly brown or grey, but their leader was a dark ginger, his amber eyes gleaming with triumph.

"What do we have here?" He purred in a sweet tone that made Amberpaw want to retch. "A ThunderClan warrior and a kit. How delightful,"

Amberpaw lashed her tail in defiance, outraged. "I'm not a kit!" She spat, growling when Rosefrost whipped her tail across he mouth to say to be quiet.

The WindClan warrior's eyes glistened in cold amusement. "I seem to recognise you from somewhere. Oh, yes," he fixated his gaze upon her, baring his teeth into a smirk. "How's your mother?"

With a jolt, Amberpaw remembered the story of Aspencloud's death.

"She died defending her Clan. During a border battle with WindClan, the WindClan deputy, Firescar, knocked her off the gorge cliff in cold blood. By the time Cloudscar had dragged her out, she was already dead."

"You're Firescar!" She gasped, and then more violently: "You killed my mother!" She spat.

Firescar chuckled in cold amusement. "I did what was right,"

"The warrior code says that we shouldn't kill! Especially in cold blood!" She cried, fur spiking.

Rosefrost had pricked her ears up, and gazed wildly around. Amberpaw breathed in, a patrol was heading their way! She had to keep stalling him.

"You broke the warrior code! What did Rainstar think!" She snarled, referring to the WindClan leader.

"What Rainstar doesn't knows won't kill her," he took a step forward, lashing his tail. "She knows that Aspencloud was knocked off of the cliff accidentally in the heat of the battle,"

"You lied to your leader!" Amberpaw's legs felt weak with fear as she stepped forward. She heard a soft crack of the twig, something only a ThunderClan cat could pick up. They were here. "I hope you don't lie to her again!" She snarled, just as the ThunderClan patrol burst through the bushes and on top of the WindClan cats.

Pinewing, Cloudscar, Swiftwing and Blackpaw! However, even with Rosefrost, they were hopelessly outnumbered against the WindClan cats.

"Amberpaw! Run and get reinforcements!" Rosefrost howled, leaping on top of a tabby tom and pummelling his back with her paws.

Hastily nodding, Amberpaw turned tail and tore through the forest, heading in the general direction of camp.

Pounding through the gorse tunnel and into the clearing, where several cats were sharing tongues, she panted and yowled at the top of her lungs. "WindClan patrol are attacking!"

Immediately Badgertail bounded towards her in two single leaps. "Where?!" She questioned fiercely.

"Near the Great Sycamore, I think. Cloudscar's patrol is there, Firescar was among the WindClan cats.." Amberpaw trailed off as Badgertail ran towards the remaining warriors.

"Junipersplash, Lizardstripe, Gorsepaw. Stay hidden downwind, attack when I give the signal." The three cats nodded and rushed off. "Lionstream, Dovepaw, and Icewing, you come with me. Amberpaw, I also want you to come with me, but just to observe. Stay hidden, up a tree. It'll be good for you to get experience of a battle without actually fighting."

Amberpaw trembled with excitement as she ran after Badgertail. Her first battle, even though she wasn't fighting, and it was only her second day!

-

They heard the fight before they could see it. Shrieks and yowls rang out through the air, and Amberpaw's heart started thumping in fear as Badgertail gestured for her to climb a low tree that overlooked the clearing perfectly. It had several branches that made climbing easier, and it only when Amberpaw was in position that she realised that she had climbed her first tree.

From where she sat she could see the battle unfolding. Badgertail, Lionstream, Iceshell and Dovepaw had burst into the clearing, causing the WindClan warriors to cry out in surprise.

Scanning the clearing, she found Firescar, and gasped. Pinewing and Cloudscar were driving him back, matching blow for blow, fury shining in their eyes, their love for Aspencloud giving them all the power they needed.

However, Firescar was an astounding fighter, Amberpaw hated to admit. He blocked their blows with defensive ones, and even though his ear was torn and a fresh scar was on his cheek, he looked like he could keep fighting until all of ThunderClan was dead.

Unfortunately for him, the other warriors were beginning to tire. The two Clans now matched each other in numbers, and the fresh wave had knocked some of the moor cats' confidence away.

Amberpaw watched as Lionstream and Dovepaw chased a she-cat away, and as Iceshell slashed a grey cat across the face, Badgertail raised her tail and howled.

At once a battle cry sounded from the bushes, and Junipersplash, Lizardstripe and Gorsepaw crashed through, leaping into the fray. Seeing this, Firescar scratched Pinewing across the face and leaped away.

"Retreat! WindClan, retreat!" Firescar snarled, leaping past Rosefrost and Swiftwing and landing in front of Blackpaw.

An unspoken message seemed to pass between them, until Firescar turned tail and fled through the undergrowth towards the border, WindClan running after him.

Badgertail watched them for a second, before raising her muzzle and yowling their victory to Silverpelt. One by one the warriors joined her, and Amberpaw felt a rush of pride to be part of this strong, united Clan.

-

"And then Lionstream and I chased Blazingspirit away!"

Amberpaw listened in silent amusement to Dovepaw's tale, which the kits were listening intently to. The two were cleaning out the nursery, just after Sunhigh.

Rosefrost had taught her how to collect moss, but Stormpaw was already clearing out the elders, so Amberpaw had been assigned the nursery job with Dovepaw.

Clawstar had been so impressed when Rosefrost had told him that Amberpaw had stalled Firescar until the patrol had arrived that he immediately said that she could go to tonight's Gathering. Flamepaw and Stormpaw would be staying in their territory, however they would be having their night stalking lessons, so they were fine with the fact that Amberpaw would be going and they wouldn't.

I can't wait!