When the four cats met back up near the Thunderclan border, it was clear which team had won.

"Yes! We won!" Stormpelt yowled.

Blackpaw and Stormpelt had caught a lot more than Nightpaw and Grayfoot. A huge pile of mice was scattered at their paws.

"Dang it! That's not fair, Blackpaw! You got an older warrior on your team!" Nightpaw whined, his green eyes lowered.

"Aw, come on, Nightpaw! Don't be a sore loser! You caught almost half of our prey." Grayfoot meowed reassuringly to the sulking apprentice. But he continued to pout.

"Well, we better get all this prey back to the camp." Stormpelt picked up as much as he could in his jaws.

"Just wait until the rest of our clanmates see this!" Blackpaw said excitedly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as Blackpaw dropped of her load of fresh-kill, her stomach grumbled. She grabbed a fat thrush and settled down to eat alone.

But soon, a shadow settled over her thrush.

"Mind if I sit with you? My sister is on a border patrol." Stormpelt's voice asked.

At first, Blackpaw was hesitant. Wasn't this the same annoying cat that she started the hunting patrol with? But then again, wasn't he the same cat that she'd had fun playing games with?

"Yeah, sure. You can sit with me." Blackpaw was as surprised as anyone to hear herself say that. Well, at least he's better than Nightpaw, she thought.

As he sat down, Stormpelt chuckled. "You know, I wasn't sure if you would actually say yes," He meowed, "you seemed pretty mad at Grayfoot and I when we were joking around."

Blackpaw shuffled her paws, finished with her thrush but not this conversation. Why was he asking her about this? Did I seem mad at them? She wondered.

"Yeah, well, I guess I was a little mad." She admitted, her eyes narrowed in mock anger. "You guys were supposed to be hunting!" She meowed in a voice like Adderstar's.

Stormpelt let out a mrrrow of amusement. "That's pretty good!" He laughed again, "But really, sometimes us warriors are just too serious! If we don't have a little fun every once and a while, what makes us cats anymore?" He twitched his ears at Adderstar. "Like him," Stormpelt watched the leader walk to the medicine den. "He's on his last life and he's still to serious for his own good!"

As the gray warrior talked, Blackpaw began to understand what he meant. Maybe the clan cats are too serious.

"Yeah! I get it now!" She meowed excitedly. "Like the warrior code! Some things are just too formal. Feeding the elders first? What's the point of that? They don't do anything for us! The rule should be to feed the strong warriors first so they stay strong, instead of wasting fresh-kill on the dead-weight cats."

Stormpelt lit up. "Finally! Someone understands me! I've told my sister about this before but she just doesn't understand...She thinks I'm crazy!" He narrowed his blue eyes and seemed to get far away.

Blackpaw watched the warrior. She suddenly felt this horrible urge rise up in her. She wanted the power of a warrior. No, she wanted the power of the deputy. No, the leader. The feeling rose up in her small chest and threatened to burst out. Blackpaw wasn't aware that all her thoughts could be read in her eyes. At least by someone who understands the thoughts.

"Blackpaw?"

"Yeah?" She meowed through gritted teeth.

"We need to be in charge. They don't deserve that power. We do. I don't care what we have to do to get there."

"I'm with you, one hundred percent."

"Well...we need to get rid of the cats in charge now."

"You mean..?"

"Yes."

"We are going to kill Adderstar."