"Rainpaw! Rainpaw! Rainpaw!"

I was filled with a warm feeling as my clan mates shouted my new name. I had worked so hard to get here. Not really, but it felt like it. Being a loner at first, a lot of the clan cats didn't trust me initially, but now that I was an apprentice, I could work hard to earn their trust. Bramblestar had quickly let me in the clan during leafbare, when the clan was at its weakest, and they had taken such good care of me. I helped out Jayfeather and Alderheart as much as I could, but Jayfeather didn't like me hanging around the medicine den, so Alderheart got permission for me to help him gather the few herbs that remained in leafbare. Now I was an apprentice and didn't need to help at the medicine den to earn my keep.

My mentor, Dovewing, waited at the bottom of the highrock, and she looked excited to have me as her first ever apprentice. I ran down to meet her, and she purred a greeting, "Hey, Rainpaw! I'm so glad to be your mentor! Today, we're going to tour the territory, and if you want, maybe I can teach you one battle move if you have enough energy afterwards."

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, excited for this new adventure. Of course I knew a little of the territory, the part just outside of camp, but now I got to explore all of it.

"Let's go!" Dovewing led me out of camp, and I bounced after her excitedly.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"This is the clearing," Dovewing explained, it's also the border with ShadowClan. You can probably smell the scent markers."

I definitely smelled ShadowClan. It smelled like pines and slimy frogs. I was sure glad I didn't join ShadowClan. I let Dovewing lead me away from the border, and we concluded our tour of the territory. The sun was setting, and it was getting cooler out. My mentor seemed to be enjoying the walk through the woods. She would point things out to me, "Do you hear that? There's a mouse just on the other side of that bush," or ,"You can hear the evening patrol leaving camp if you listen carefully.". I was glad to have Dovewing as my mentor, she was so observant. I hoped I would be able to be like that when I was a warrior. She brought me into the small clearing where the apprentices trained, and I remembered her promise to teach me a battle move.

"You ready?" Dovewing asked, turning to face me.

"Of course!" I exclaimed, giving a little hop to show it.

"Alright," Dovewing smiled, "I'm going to teach you how to jump on another  cats back to attack. You're a small cat, so it will be hard, but I know you can do it. Are you ready?"

I nodded, and tried to make myself look bigger, which caused Dovewing to laugh, "Don't be ashamed of your size. Sometimes the smallest cats are the most deadly because of their speed and agility. Have you ever heard of Scourge?" I shook my head in reply, and Dovewing continued, "but you've heard of Tigerstar, surely."

"Of course!" I replied, "He was Bramblestar's father, and the most evil cat in the forest! Firestar finally got rid of him, but he gave his own life to do so. They were enemies, and-"

"But do you know how Tigerstar died?" Dovewing asked. She gazed at me as if she knew what I would answer.

"Firestar killed him," I answered, "Didn't he?"

Dovewing shook her head, "Nope. A cat named Scourge did. And you know what? They say he was no bigger than an apprentice when he did."

"How?" I asked then. That was incredible.

"You'll have to ask Graystripe," Dovewing shrugged, "or Bramblestar, but he probably won't be as open to the question. It was in the old forest, and most of ThunderClan wasn't alive."

"Okay!" I turned around to head back to camp, but then remembered we were training. Dovewing laughed good-naturedly, "if you want to go ask Graystripe about Scourge instead of train, that's fine. There's always tomorrow."

"Thanks, Dovewing!" I smiled, then raced out of the training area, and Dovewing called out from behind me, "Why don't you bring him some fresh kill, too?"

"Okay Dovewing!" I yelled back, already halfway to camp.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Well why in StarClan do you want to hear about a thing like that?" Graystripe asked me as he swallowed a piece of vole.

"Dovewing was telling me about it," I answered, "she said Scourge was really small, but he was still strong enough to kill Tigerstar!"

"That's true," Graystripe admitted, "but he wasn't a hero either. And he had a huge deputy named Bone."

"Tell me!" I insisted.

"Alright," Graystripe give in, beginning the story, "Firestar hadn't been leader but a few moons, and we were both still young. Bramblestar was just a -paw at the time himself, so that tells you how long ago it was. Back in the old forest, we used to have our gatherings at a place called Fourtrees. It had a big rock surrounded by four trees, hence the name. Well, Tigerstar had all the leaders gather there, but Tallstar, who was the leader of WindClan before Onestar, and Firestar all brought warriors with them, because they knew Tigerstar was up to no good. Firestar brought me, Bramblestar, who, like I said, was Bramblepaw then, and Firestar's apprentice, I might add, Sandstorm, Brackenfur, and a few others that you wouldn't know the names of. Anyway, Tigerstar wanted us to join him, he said our options were join him or die, and, of course, you know Firestar's answer, along with Tallstar. Then all these strange cats came up, all wearing collars, and I remember thinking to myself, wow, kitty pets, Tigerstar's getting desperate, but these were the toughest kitty pets you've ever seen, all led by a cat no bigger than you are now, pure black, but with one white sock," I cut him off.

"Scourge," I said, sure this was the cat my mentor had been talking about.

"Yeah, that's him. Anyway, Tigerstar had gotten help from Scourge and his cats, BloodClan is what they called themselves. Firestar wanted to warn Scourge about Tigerstar's treachery, so he told him all the evil things Tigerstar had done. That was apparently news to Scourge, as he called the battle off. Well, you can imagine how Tigerstar took that, and it wasn't well. Long story short, Scourge attacked Tigerstar, or vice versa, it was a long time ago, and the exact story is fading from my memory, but Scourge sliced his claws across Tigerstar's stomach, and Tigerstar fell to the ground and, well, it was horrible. Do you want me to keep going?"

I nodded frantically, I had to hear the end of this story.

"Alright. Well, from just the one wound, Tigerstar lost all nine of his lives. It was to this day the most shocking and horrifying thing I had ever seen. I can only imagine how Bramblestar must've taken it, Tigerstar being his father and all, but, anyway, the rest is a story for another time. Why don't you come keep me company again? I would love to hear about how your training is going."

"Alright!" I exclaimed. I couldn't wait for tomorrow, and I certainly couldn't wait for the rest of that story.