Chapter 1


Dawnpaw leaped in the air, turned and landed squarely on her friend’s shoulder.

“You’ll never beat me!” Honorpaw teased.
“But I can when you’re my opponent” Dawnpaw flashed back.

Together they started to rustle each other on the sandy ground of the training hollow, cuffing each other with sheathed claws. Finally Dawnpaw leaped in the air and pinned down her opponent on the shoulders.

“Well done, Dawnpaw.” Changingleafs
s said “Well played as well because you teased her at first by going easy on her but you were learning what moves you could defeat on hers, well done.”

Her mentor was looking quite satisfied for her win. It had taken her ages for her discover that move and get it right. In fact, Dawnpaw was satisfied with herself too.

Now Honorpaw’s mentor, Seasonhigh spoke
“But that is for you, that you must bring back five pieces of fresh kill to the Clan, and no mice!”


Honorpaw let out a groan (mice were the easiest fresh kill to catch) she had never won against Dawnpaw from the beginning she had started training. But Dawnpaw suddenly had an idea so that her friend didn’t have to do all the work.

“Seasonhigh, is it okay if I help Honorpaw get the fresh kill. I need to catch prey myself.” Dawnpaw finished speaking with a silent praying hope to MoonClan.

Please don’t let her get all that fresh-kill. Please.

Seasonhigh stood there for a moment before giving a curt nod.
Thank you MoonClan for saving Honorpaw.
Dawnpaw turned to Honorpaw who was looking glad for the help and together they padded away into the under growth.

“Isn’t it weird we are called OakClan cats when we have no oak trees in our territory and we don’t know how to climb trees?” Honorpaw asked.

Dawnpaw looked at her friend with a shocked face.
“Don’t know how to climb trees?” Dawnpaw looked like someone was going nuts.
“I do, don’t you know how?”

Honorpaw shook her head.
“Can you teach me how?” Her voice sounded hope full.

“I’ll try.” Dawnpaw said,
“I make no promises.”

“Can we start now?”

“Which tree looks easiest to you?” Dawnpaw asked looking at one tree in particular that was curvy and had a lot of branches.

“That one, over there.” She lifted a paw and pointed in the direction to the right of the tree Dawnpaw had been staring at.

Dawnpaw took a look at the tree and instantly said
“No, the tree you want for beginners is a tree that is curvy and has lots of branches for support, that one is too straight and upward.” Dawnpaw gave a flick of her tail to the tree she was staring at. “Let me show you how on this tree.”

Dawnpaw padded away to the tree and picked a root on the bottom of the tree and climbed her way up going round the tree and used branches for support.

“See” Dawnpaw said “It’s easy as taking a paw step forward. You just have to keep you claws unsheathed.”

Honorpaw looked up at her in complete amazement. Dawnpaw leaped down from the tree and said for her to have a go. But when Honorpaw tried she only could get up a fox length away from the bottom root.

“Mouse dung” She spat “Mouse brain, Fox dung!”

“It’s okay.” Dawnpaw said “I didn’t get it right on my first time too.”

Honorpaw had had her head down but she had lifted it up now.
“You did?”

“Yes” Dawnpaw said. She was just about to say, Of course, mouse brain, No one can get things right on their first time. But she knew that would make her feel worse. “Come on, we need to catch fresh-kill”

. . . . .


When they arrived at the camp they found that the logs that they sleep in now had a bramble thicket being built around it.
A patrol was coming by them heading toward the SunClan border.

Dawnpaw dropped her fresh kill and went over to the group patrol leader, Trueworld.

“What is going on here?” She asked.

Trueworld’s voice was seirous when he replied,
“A SunClan border patrol came back and said they overheard the leader saying they were going to plan an attack on OakClan in our camp, tonight”

Dawnpaw gasped, what did we do wrong to annoy them?

“Go now and deliver that fresh kill to the pile. We are going to need it.”

Dawnpaw was back in focus by the warrior’s voice.
“Okay” She said and padded back to tell Honorpaw.
nn
“What’s the reason?” She asked, her voice calm, clearly she didn’t over hear what Trueworld had said thought Dawnpaw.

“Pick up the fresh kill and put it on the pile. Eat one yourself as well, even if you’re not hungry. I’ll explain in the apprentice’s log. Go.”
Dawnpaw didn’t bother to wait for Honorpaw to pick up the fresh kill she had dropped because of Dawnpaw’s urgent voice.

Quickly she scooped up her own fresh kill and ran to the fresh kill pile that was by the warriors log, dropped it, got a squirrel for her self and made her way to the log she slept in.

She didn’t need to wait long before the sound paws told her Honorpaw was coming.

What is it?” She asked. Her voice wasn’t calm anymore but in the tone of slight panic.

Dawnpaw was ready to reply a moment later.
“SunClan is going to invade the camp, tonight”



Chapter 2


Honorpaw looked dumbstruck.

“Eat the prey now. Once you are finished go to sleep, we will need the energy. If our mentor wakes us up for training don’t mumble about it. Oh, and try to use the skills I try on you for the battle.”

And with that, Dawnpaw curled up to a tight ball and fell asleep.

. . . . .

Some one nudged her in her sleep and Dawnpaw instantly waked up.
She turned her head and in surprise, Hawkstar was there. Her yellow eyes were glowing in the dark.

“Lets go.” She said and went out of the log.

Dawnpaw stood up, gave a shake and followed her out of the den, shaking her head wondering why the leader wanted her outside. As her head poked out of the log she realized it was dusk. The sun was setting in the west, which you could barely see above the hills. She followed Hawkstar out of the camp. The new bramble thicket was finished besides two elders covering up the tiny holes that a cat could tear without getting hurt.

What a lovely night this is, thought Dawnpaw, if only it didn’t have to be shattered with blood.

As the leader gave a greeting to Blackraven who was keeping guard on watch, Dawnpaw noticed she was very stiff when she gave a reply of a nod.

Dawnpaw followed the dark brown she-cat into the woods and soon realized they were heading to the training hollow.

I’m going to get personal training, Dawnpaw thought, from Hawkstar . . .
“We are going to the training hollow,” Said Hawkstar, “I have something to tell you in private.”

Dawnpaw stared at her leader. What didn’t she know?

It was a little bit later when they arrived at the training hollow. It was a night with no moon, which made the hollow have a haunting feeling.

Hawkstar sat down neatly in the hollow with her tail over her paws.
“Who is your mother?” She asked.

This was not what Dawnpaw expected, her jaw was slightly open and quickly closed it shut and gulped.
“Clusterleafs, I think, we never seem to have anything in common.”

She stopped mewing and thought back to her and her mother’s differences. One was that they way looked was different, Dawnpaw had a golden tabby pelt with deep blue eyes, Clusterleafs had a deep brown pelt with light green eyes.

Clusterleafs had no friendliness at all. She would not let her kits go outside to play on the other paw Dawnpaw had a paw full of kindness and happiness, which was a very big difference.

“You’re right,” mewed Hawkstar plainly, “Because she is not, your true mother actually is Robinheart.”

Dawnpaw gasped, Robinheart? Of course, she was just like her with kindness, love and she had the exact same color that she had on her belly.

“This is what I want you to do,” said Hawkstar’s voice in something close to stern and serious, “Your brother is Spotpaw, and you must convince him you are his sister.”




She paused to take a breath before mewing again, “Once you’ve convinced him, I need you to ask why the battle was started. If you find out leave as another warrior attacks you, then come to me and tell me what he said. Then I will tell the leader if we did it or not, it should work right.”

Dawnpaw was staring at the leader now, her mouth fully open in shock, I didn’t know my mother was he Robinheart, of course mouse brain! But couldn’t I figure that out before?

“Let’s go, SunClan will come soon and you need to be ready for it.”
Hawkstar mewed and padded away. When she was at the edge of the clearing Dawnpaw mewed to her “Could you tell me who my father is then at least?”

Hawkstar turned, looked at Dawnpaw with a sad look and ran away as if a dog was behind her. Why was she running away from me? Did she give a sneering look when she didn’t mean it?

Taking one more glance at the ghostly hollow she padded on the scent line Hawkstar had made.

Was there something very unfortunate that I might not be able to cope with?

















Chapter 3

Dawnpaw jerked awake to the sounds of yowls outside the apprentice log. She stood up and gave a peak to an eye-sized hole in the log.
Cats were streaming from the warriors log and on in to the clearing, which was packed with all the SunClan cats from the queens to the warriors. But where was Spotpaw, she needed to find him to keep her word to Hawkstar.

There!
His pelt was reflecting the half moon as he fought to break into the nursery log with his fellow SunClan apprentices and two senior warriors. Luckily OakClan warriors were coming from all directions to stop the SunClan cats from going into the log and taking the kits.

Spotpaw suddenly turned around and stared directly at the log Dawnpaw was in and Spotpaw left the group he was with to come over to the log. He came in the log and charged straight at Dawnpaw and hit her like a rock.

Spotpaw had spotted her before she had realized it, she was supposed to take him away from the battle not lure him away from the battle.

He turned back to the entrance only to come back at Dawnpaw. She turned away from him just in time to see him aim a blow that missed. He leaped back at Dawnpaw only to land clumsily because he had hit the top part of the log. He dropped to the ground and started to roll at her, but Dawnpaw was ready and she pushed Spotpaw back to the end of the log with her back.

“I surrender, what do you want from me?” Spotpaw’s voice was scared and Dawnpaw let sympathy flow over her but she couldn’t do that. She needed to convince him that she was his sister.

“You are my brother. Do you understand that?” Her voice was cold because she needed to frighten him to convince him, “We have a lot in common and don’t go thinking that my mother is Colourjoy, it’s Robinheart and she knows that, we are also the same age. Do we have an agreement?”

Spotpaws head nodded nervously “Is there something else you need to know” His voice was tiny and Dawnpaw couldn’t help giving a meow of laughter. “Yes there is something I need to know, why did this battle start?”

Spotpaw looked up at Dawnpaw straight in the eye and stared at her with anger “You know why this happened, prey stealer.”

Dawnpaw gasped, they had not stolen prey from SunClan, in fact prey was only running too well here.

Spotpaw took this advantage as a time to attack, and gave a Dawnpaw a blow on her head with unsheathed claws. The blow was painful and it hurt so much but she couldn’t waste anytime crying a silent pain. Instead she began swiping at her brother furiously, only getting harder each blow as he took a step back. He was almost at the mouth of the log now, Dawnpaw took the chance of raising her paw high so that it scraped the top of the log and Dawnpaw took it down with full power and unsheathed claws. As it hit Spotpaw on the head he winced in pain and Dawnpaw instantly felt guilty. He was her brother she shouldn’t have done that.

Still no time to loose, she pushed Spotpaw out of the den and raced across the clearing to find Hawkstar battling with SunClan’s deputy, Cloudstripe.

She hurled over toward them faster and knocked Cloudstripe off her feet to the ground when she came close.

Cloudstripe was surprised by the attack from Dawnpaw. She got back to her feet but dropped down again and rolled to Dawnpaw in one, quick move. But Dawnpaw was already prepared. This was a typical SunClan move. She hurdled over Cloudstripe, landed neatly on her paws, turned around and pushed her a little faster on the roll that she lost control of her speed and bumped into Ruffleheart, who was standing alone waiting for the next warrior to attack him. He spun around and glared at Cloudstripe then he turned her onto her belly and started to rake his claws firmly with his hind paws against her belly while he kept his front paws on her chest, spitting into the deputy’s face.

Dawnpaw stopped watching the fight as they got into a wrestle, she turned around to Hawkstar who mewed“Good moves,” She commented, “Changingleafs taught you well. Well what did you get out of Spotpaw?”
Dawnpaw took a breath “He believes we are kin, but hates me and attacks me anyway because he calls us prey stealers.”

Hawkstar gasped just like Dawnpaw had hasped before, it was a little funny to see a replay of her own gasp.

“We should defeat the battle now,” She mewed, “Tell Flamestar that we aren’t prey stealers and they might be spilling unnecessary blood, go and say that to the leader, now” She had leaned forward so her hot breath hit her face.

Dawnpaw sat down, unwilling to do what her leader said. She was an apprentice from OakClan, not a cat to find out things or pass out messages. On the other paw though, she thought it made sense to tell Flamestar they were fighting a battle on the wrong cats.

“I am leader of OakClan,” hissed Hawkstar, “You will do as you are told.”

Dawnpaw flinched, her leader rarely forced cats to do things when they didn’t want to do it but this was something else. She leaped to her feet and ran to the Big Rock in the middle of the camp. She scrambled up the rock to search for Flamestar, leaning in all directions to get a glimpse of his orange pelt or his deep green eyes.

Dawnpaw had met Flamestar at her first gathering. He seemed to like all new apprentices, even if they were from a different Clan. He also, would listen to them, especially Dawnpaw because of her bright and playful personality.

Finally she caught a glimpse of his dark green eyes a fox length away. She bunched her legs preparing for a leap. Just as Dawnpaw was about to leap a SunClan cat pushed her off her feet and Dawnpaw tumbled down the tall rock, landing on her back and with a soft thump.

She got to her paws to see who dared to launch her off the rock. Her gaze rested on a cat with black back fur and gold fur on the face, tail and legs.

Dawnpaw was flashed back to a time when she was in the meadow as a kit. Playing with another kit passing a mouse to each other, trying to avoid it from going into the grasp of the cat with black and gold fur.

She went back to the present and stared at the cat on the rock. It was Robinheart, and the other kit she was playing with was Spotpaw. Had she really been there before? In the open plain meadow.

She tore her gaze from her mother. If her mother loved her more she would have kept her in SunClan. Which led to this, why did Robinheart not want her in SunClan?

Dawnpaw caught another glimpse of dark green eyes in front of her and by instinct, launched herself on the leaders back trying to get a grip on his fur.

“Let go,” Flamestar yowled at Dawnpaw then to his clan he meowed, “SunClan is out numbered, retreat!”

His call rang through the camp and the SunClan cats stopped fighting each other and fled through the new bramble entrance that was ruined after they disappeared. Flamestar was still in the camp and OakClan cats started to force him out of the entrance. Flamestar lashed his tail viciously “You haven’t seen the last of SunClan,” He declared, “we might be out numbered, but I could always join forces with another clan.”

He shrieked a horrible shriek and ran toward the entrance and slipped out of sight behind a tree.

No! She had failed Hawkstar, and now she must face the threats her leader would give her.

Luckyleaf padded out of the crowd of OakClan cats, her orange fur turned silver in the moonlight, “We cannot stay silent after what just happened,” Luckyleaf mewed, “I am a deputy and deputies help their leader. I am trying to help our leader by giving her advice.”

Hawkstar’s voice echoed through the hollow in gasps for an answer, “Yes Luckyleaf but what we will have to do is that Dawnpaw and Spiritpaw will go.” She gave another terrible gasp and there was a thud.
All the OakClan cats jumped or flinched when this happened and turned to have a look. Hawkstar was breathing quickly and a long mark of blood was streaming onto the ground from her neck. Sneezepelt ran over to her leader with a fresh ball of cobweb and some chewed up marigold that she was going to use on Smokepaw’s bleeding flank. The leader rasped to grab breath. Her breathing was fast and her flank hardly raised. Hawkstar lifted her head and nodded toward Dawnpaw and Spiritpaw “Both, go… you must stop me from having this done to me again… if you do not convince him, give some proof that OakClan is not stealing prey…”

The leader shuddered and her eyes closed. Suddenly, a brown tabby she-cat stood up from where Hawkstar lay. The ghostly cat looked just like Hawkstar then disappeared.

“One of her lives is gone,” Sneezepelt whispered. The medicine cat turned and looked down to her apprentice, “Go, and do the leaders orders.”

Dawnpaw padded toward the entrance of the camp, the brambles had worked well with only tiny gaps made by force. Spiritpaw turned and ran after Dawnpaw, making sure she was well away from the camp before she halted panting. Dawnpaw walked swiftly towards her and looked into the medicine cat apprentices green eyes. “Hurry up,” Dawnpaw meowed, “If we hurry the SunClan cats might have lots of injured cats so it would be impossible for a fight.”

Spiritpaw stopped panting and walked among the trees ahead of Dawnpaw. Dawnpaw didn’t speed up but just relax and pad to the SunClan border. If Dawnpaw needed anything it was a plan. She tried to think hard about what plan she was going to do but no plan came. Luck was some times not worth it, Dawnpaw thought, when you reach the border of the Clan you just defeated.

Spiritpaw was there at the border before Dawnpaw and her ears were pricked up and her mouth was parted for any sign of SunClan cats. She jerked her head suddenly toward Dawnpaw and nodded to just beyond the border. A tail was popping from the grass, golden like the meadow yet strangely familiar to Dawnpaw. A head poked out into the open and had surprise lit in his eyes as he stared at the OakClan cats. It was Spotpaw. He spoke with a cold voice as he meowed “What are you doing on the border, prey stealers?”

Dawnpaw let the fur on her shoulders rise “We have a message to Flamestar and I don’t think the leader would be happy if you didn’t let us come to him.”

Spotpaw glared at Dawnpaw “You are not going in the camp.” He snarled “There might be more of you wanting to attack again.”

Spotpaw looked behind Spiritpaw’s shoulder. Dawnpaw sighed “Spotpaw I am your brother, you know that. Just let us in your camp. You have told us in battle that SunClan is still strong.”

Spotpaw turned to look at Dawnpaw closely “May I ask what made you think that SunClan is still strong?”

This was a bold response for Dawnpaw, what could Dawnpaw say to Spotpaw and prove that SunClan was still strong? Maybe a weakness in Dawnpaw’s Clan might do it. Hawkstar had lost a life, that would hit the spot, but am I being loyal? But this was her brother for StarClan’s sake! Dawnpaw took a breath about to reply.

Spiritpaw shuddered, “No Dawnpaw. You can’t tell him this. You can’t!”
Dawnpaw turned to glare at Spiritpaw. She pushed her muzzle against Spiritpaw’s ear. “It’s the only way.”

Taking her muzzle out of Spiritpaw’s ear, Dawnpaw walked onto the border. “Hawkstar has lost a life.”




Chapter 4

Spotpaw was leading Dawnpaw and Spiritpaw into the camp. Why do I have to do this? Spotpaw thought, it’s not right. Spiritpaw jumped as the golden stocks of the meadow cracked underneath her feet. Spotpaw let out a hiss of annoyance; she didn’t have to be so jumpy!

Though, knowing that with OakClan having their leader loose a life was great news. Well, to SunClan anyway.

Spotpaw ran up to the barrier ahead. The guard was Fruitfur and oddly enough, he seemed like he hadn’t been in the battle at all.

“Hello Spotpaw, why back so soon on your stroll?” Fruitfur asked. Spotpaw flicked his tail at the two OakClan cats behind him. Fruitfur tensed and Spotpaw quickly told him about what had happened and went into delightful detail about how Hawkstar had lost a life. But as he detailed about Hawkstar losing a life, there was a tiny creeping feeling of sadness in his heart. Spotpaw shook himself trying to get rid of the feeling and it disappeared.

Dawnpaw padded up to Spotpaw with Spiritpaw close behind. Fruitfur sneered “To bad the hawk fell, isn’t it?”

Dawnpaw replied coolly back “Yes it is, but it wasn’t a necessary fall too and I think the sun will back down to the moon.”

Spotpaw looked at Dawnpaw with admiration, how Spotpaw wish he had that aggressive yet soft personality not the wimp he really was with bursts of anger at times that wasn’t needed.

“I assume you would like to speak with Flamestar?” Fruitfur asked. Dawnpaw nodded in reply and Spotpaw followed Fruitfur and the two OakClan cats inside the camp.

The camp was a buzz of activity before the cats and Spotpaw had entered the camp. They are probably trying to decide which Clan is best to unite with, Spotpaw thought.

A couple of anxious cats turned to look at the visitors or just went back inside their dens showing horrible marks of blood on their bodies. And there, in the popular group of she-cats, was Robinheart, staring at Spotpaw and Dawnpaw with tender loving care in her eyes.

A mother, Spotpaw thought turning his head to the ground, which is so caring she gave one of her kits away to another Clan.

Flamestar was sitting by the entrance of his den, deeply in thought. Would telling about the visitors upset him; will it lose his concentration so much he forgot about it?

Spotpaw stopped and beckoned the other cats back towards him; they all came trotting back to him.

“Who will speak to the leader first?” Spotpaw asked. The reply was a silence, more silence and more. Then Dawnpaw lifted her head and said “I will do it.”

All three cats stared at Dawnpaw then Spotpaw quickly said “I should talk to Flamestar, after all I am a SunClan cat and you aren’t. I also already know what the problem is and ...”

Dawnpaw turned to glare at Spotpaw and Spotpaw felt as if he had shrunk under her stare. Boldly, Spotpaw stared back at her with the same angry glare. Soon the angriness in his glare faded and once again he felt like a wimp.

“Thank you,” Dawnpaw said, “We will all go and talk to Flamestar but I will speak first. Fruitfur,” Dawnpaw turned to face Fruitfur, “It is Flamestar’s decision to keep you in the conversation.”

Without anything but a flick of her tail Dawnpaw led them to Flamestar. She also is a natural leader, Spotpaw thought; Dawnpaw is natural leader.

Spotpaw padded up beside Dawnpaw with Spiritpaw at the back of Spotpaw. Dawnpaw looked at Spotpaw and quietly she asked “Do you think my Clan is still a prey stealer?”

It was such a hard question to answer that Spotpaw stopped in his tracks. He would be loyal to his Clan and say no for the reply but Dawnpaw was his sister and after all, the half-eaten prey did smell like OakClan but it didn’t have the smell of cats. In the end he picked neither but stuck to both answers. Spiritpaw was passing him when she noticed him and meowed “Something is troubling you, I can sense it. Now hurry up.”

Spotpaw shivered, how could she sense that? Though, not wanting to waste time, Spotpaw hurried back up to be in front of Spiritpaw again.

When they approached Flamestar he lifted his head to look which cats were approaching him then immediately his neck fur started to rise. But when he opened his mouth to speak it was obvious he was trying to stop it from being full with aggression. “Why are you here prey stealers?”

Dawnpaw meowed calmly in reply “OakClan believes there is a mistake. May Spiritpaw and I go inside your den to have a private talk?”

The leader grunted in reply, flicking his tail also for Spotpaw and Fruitfur to come inside. Excitement bubbled inside Spiritpaw; this meant he was involved, now he would do almost everything in this situation.

Spotpaw padded into the den and sat down with the other cats. Spotpaw had never been in Flamestar’s den before but it was bigger than his by a lot.

Flamestar turned to face Dawnpaw who started telling OakClan’s part of the problem.

“OakClan cats are not prey stealers at this time of the year new leaf, and I daresay that the scent had to be OakClan scent in order for us to be prey stealers. Also you haven’t even tried to catch the prey stealer too OakClan doesn’t know about any clan mate stealing prey for themselves. Anyway we would like to know what the scent smelled like though…”    

Dawnpaw looked expectantly at the SunClan leader who tilted his head awkwardly “Well, the truth is, that, it smelled like tress and woods but it smelled a tiny bit different from your scent.”

Spotpaw shook his head, was his leader admitting that he accused OakClan when they weren’t entirely sure? He had just meowed it right out, he did it.

Dawnpaw sat down thoughtfully for a moment, twitching her tail. She started to tilt her head from side to side. Outside there was a windy breeze and oddly, he thought he smelled the scent of OakClan but it wasn’t quite that scent of cat. Trying harder to catch the faint scent on the breeze he suddenly whiffed up the scent that had turned so strong it could have knocked off Spotpaw’s paws but it didn’t. The odd scent had the tang of dog.