Wolfclaw nudged her side, helping Olivepaw get to her paws. She opened her mouth, about to blurt out Littlecloud and his weird words, but he slapped his tail over his mouth. "Quiet!" he whispered. "Medicine cats aren't supposed to share their dreams, unless they specially feel the need to."

Oh. Maybe medicine cats weren't so anti-rivalry as they seemed. She nodded, and he took away his furry gray tail. "Now come on," he instructed, padding up the spiral path after the other medicine cats. She bounded after him, only to be intercepted by Morningpaw, whose eyes gleamed at her. "What was it like?" she meowed excitedly, matching her paw-steps perfectly. "I remember my first time at the Moonpool. It was great! Did you like it? I hope you liked it!"

Heatherpaw glanced back at them and snorted. Morningpaw narrowed her eyes at the other apprentice before turning back to Olivepaw. "I can't ask you what you dreamt, though, since medicine cats aren't supposed to," she grumbled at the end, although she immediately brightened up again. "You and Wolfclaw don't seem so bad, though, for ShadowClan cats," she rattled on. "Almost every ThunderClan cat says you're mangy crowfood-eaters."

Olivepaw purred to herself. Talk about an oops. "Oh, really?" she mewed smoothly.

Morningpaw nodded eagerly, but then seemed to realize what she said. "Oh no!" she wailed. "Forget I said that, okay?"

She purred harder, and Morningpaw's whiskers twitched in amusement. "No offense, then?" she asked, as seriously as she could.

"None taken." Even though she was talkative, Olivepaw liked the ThunderClan apprentice. If only her Clan was as nice as she is, she thought, a little sadly.

The group left Gorseclaw, Heatherpaw, and Doveheart behind before trotting on to leave the ShadowClan cats. Eventually, they came to a stop at the end of the territory.

"Goodbye, Frostsnow," Wolfclaw meowed to the white she-cat. "May StarClan light your path."

"Bye, Olivepaw!" Morningpaw flicked her tail along her side, beaming. "Until the next half-moon!"

Olivepaw nodded. "See you then." 

Wolfclaw and Olivepaw watched for a while as the ThunderClan cats trekked to their camp, before turning around and running through the forest.

"How did you like the Moonpool?" Wolfclaw called to her over the wind rushing in her ears.

"It was nice," she panted back.

"That's good. You seem to be struggling with being a medicine cat in general."

She pretended to not have heard as she sprinted towards camp. What did he mean, struggling with being a medicine cat? She was amazing! She got most of the herb uses right, never back-talked, and was way more polite than Sunpaw! Was she not working hard enough?

They arrived in camp to see mostly everyone asleep, except for a patrol leaving for some night hunting. Birchstar rose beside the fresh-kill pile and headed towards them, her brown fur turned to silver in the moonlight. "Welcome back. I wanted to see you return home safely before I went to sleep."

Wolfclaw dipped his head. "Thank you, but you need plenty of sleep. You shouldn't stay up this late waiting for us."

"There is also another thing. Wolfclaw, come see me in my den." She glanced at Olivepaw. "Go to sleep, little one. This is for old ears only."

Olivepaw's fur bushed out. She was a medicine cat, too! She may be smaller and younger than them, but that didn't mean she wasn't responsible. Sourly, she headed into the medicine den. Young cats know things too, she thought as she tucked down into her moss nest. Me being only seven moons old doesn't mean I'm not smart!

But when the paws of sleep came and closed around her, she didn't complain.

When she woke up, feeble sunlight filtered into the den. The sun was beginning to rise, and ShadowClan was gathering around the Highbranch to hear the patrols for the day.

Duskpaw stumbled over to her, his eyelids drooping. "I had to go out night-hunting with Poppypaw," he muttered. "How can these cats work all day and then go out hunting in the night? Unbelievable!"

Olivepaw nodded absently, keeping her gaze trained on the deputy. Frogleap sat below the Highbranch, gazing at his Clan with thoughtful green eyes. "Mudstripe, go with Honeyfrost and Blossompetal to do a border patrol near the RiverClan border. Snakebite, you lead a hunting patrol and see if you can catch anything in the daytime. You can take..." He searched among the warriors before Birchstar padded out of her den and meowed, "I'll go with you."

The deputy nodded gratefully towards her as she padded to the senior warrior. Olivepaw's skin prickled as Snakebite glared at her, eyes cold and harsh as he passed her, patrol in tow.

"See you later, Olivepaw!" Duskpaw affectionately brushed his tail over his sister's flank before bounding away to join the border patrol. She sighed and returned to the medicine den, feeling like stones were in her paws, making them drag along the ground.

Wolfclaw spat some herbs at her paws. "Take these to Avalanche," he instructed. "He says he can't breathe very well, so this should help."

Olivepaw sniffed the bell-shaped flower with long leaves. Looking up, she asked carefully, "Isn't this comfrey? You use coltsfoot for shortness of breath, or juniper berries, if you have them."

Wolfclaw nodded approvingly. "Good job. I made the mistake on purpose to see if you would catch it."

She narrowed eyes. "What if I didn't and gave Avalanche the wrong herb?"

"Don't worry about it." Wolfclaw disappeared inside the herb store and came back out with the correct herb. "You are a great learner, Olivepaw."

Even though he said praise, his eyes were calculating, like he was thinking about something very complicated. She shrugged to herself and took the comfrey to Avalanche, who resided in the elder's den across the clearing.

He cowered when he saw her, shrinking into the back of the den. "Get away from me!" he snapped. "You're going to try to kill me, too, aren't you?" He pointed his brown-and-white tail at the comfrey. "How do I know there aren't deathberries in there?"

Olivepaw felt like a leaf being crushed into the ground. Her tail whipped back and forth nervously on the ground, and right then she wished a hawk would come and take her away. Avalanche, too, saw her as a murderer. StarClan, why?

"Avalanche," she squeaked, trying to sound comforting, "Wolfclaw says you're having trouble breathing, so he made me give you some comfrey. I'm not trying to kill you, but heal you." Avalanche, the one who told stories to her when she was a kit, the one who got her out of trouble when she did something wrong. Avalanche, who was in the Clan as long as she was alive, hated her. How can I live like this? she thought, her stomach a hollow place of misery.

"I'll believe you when Wolfclaw comes in and verifies," he snarled, pressing himself even further into the woven sticks and brambles.

Head and tail drooping, she weaved her way out of the den and entered the medicine one. "He won't take it unless you come see it isn't infested with deathberries," she muttered to her mentor.

Wolfclaw crouched down so they were eye-level. "Him, too, huh?" he sympathized.

"I don't get it!" she finally burst out, a sob escaping her. "He trusted me when I was a kit. He helped me, even, but now he hates me!"

"I'll go and fix it," he meowed, licking her head. "I'll try to make him see reason."

Olivepaw flopped down on the cold, prickly floor, feeling dead inside. "Talk to the rest of the Clan too, while you're at it," she mumbled as he padded across the camp.

She was about to close her eyes before Badgerpaw popped up in front of her. "Come on, sleepyhead!" he purred. "What are you, a dormouse? We have battle training to do!"

Olivepaw leaped to her paws, Avalanche momentarily forgotten. "Really?" she exclaimed.

He nodded. "Really. Come on, Snowpaw's already there!" He barreled through the camp entrance, and the black apprentice followed. However, the incident with Avalanche tugged at her mind.

Wolfclaw can deal with it while I'm training, she convinced herself. He can surely take care of the Clan by himself!

They rushed past the boulders which led to a great aerial view of the camp, and zoomed into the battle clearing. "Badgerpaw, you're back!" Snowpaw waved her tail in greeting. They were in a clearing surrounded by pine trees, behind the ShadowClan camp. A short walk up ahead would take them to the Twoleg house, where the fierce kittypets lived.

The clearing was wide, and the ground underpaw was tougher than the mushier parts of the territory. Cats could easily battle-train here without wrenching a paw on the marshy ground, or get their view blocked by tall grasses or pines.

Snowpaw dipped her head to Olivepaw. "Now, we're going to show you a battle move today. First, you start in a battle crouch, much like a hunting crouch..."

The apprentices trained together until the sun dipped low in the sky. When twilight shadowed the forest and their pelts were hot and smelly, they headed back to the camp.

During the walk back, a certainty grew in Olivepaw's heart, a flower blossoming in the depths of her body.

More than anything, she wanted to become a warrior.

A/N: Hi guys! I hope you had or will have a wonderful day (depending on your time zone) and if you liked this chapter, please give it a vote and/or comment! It makes my day. :3

Bye!!