Chapter 6
Jadepaw was dreaming, and she knew it. She was in a perfect forest filled with moss on every tree stump and prey running around every corner. Jadepaw looked at a very plump mouse which was sniffing some moss on a tree root. She knelt down, her tail lazily swooshing on the grass. Why catch a mouse in a dream when I can't catch one in real life? The moss made a soft bed when it wasn't dry and crinkly. The mouse turned to her with its black beady eyes and blinked questioningly at her. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I can't even dream hunt." She muttered at the mouse. The mouse twitched its nose and skittered a step forward.

"Thanks for not eating me," It squeaked. Jadepaw jumped back in surprise and blinked her eyes slowly. "I mean, I'm not the only food in the forest. There's  bugs, and caterpillars, and birds..." The mouse trailed off and yawned. "Sorry, I didn't get any sleep last night. Because cats were chasing me!" The mouse glared at her. "But you're good." Because I can't catch anything? The mouse straightened. "Oh, sorry, Jadepaw, I'm Sam." Sam gestured to the tree. "I'll help you out, since you helped me out. What do you want most?" He asked.

Jadepaw shifted her weight as she sat up. "Um....my mom." She said almost immediately. Sam's eyes softened. "I'm sorry, I can't do that, but I can show you her." Jadepaw nodded eagerly at him. "Follow me." Sam said as he walked into the hollow of a tree trunk. She reluctantly followed him, and the world turned pitch black in the trunk. Jadepaw continued to pad through the never ending trunk. She felt like she was flying, but she kept moving her paws. Her stomach seemed to be flying around in the air, leaving her behind. Just ahead, a spot of light appeared, growing larger and brighter as she went.

All at once, Jadepaw was on solid ground, and she was looking at a starry forest. Sam was running through the forest. "Come on!" Jadepaw passed a few cats as she ran through the forest, but they didn't seem to notice her. Sam and her slowed as they approached a white she-cat with brown ears. "That's Dewstorm." Sam squeaked. Jadepaw felt excited to see her mother, but she hung back, skeptical. Starlight said Dewstorm looked completely different. Like me. Or maybe she meant them... Drizzlepaw was brown, and Cloudpaw was white. No, he said me. And I don't look like this cat.

"Jadepaw!" Jadepaw rolled away from the cat waking her up, just wanting to stay in her dream "No, no, no, noooo!" She murmured. "Go away." She opened her bleary eyes to see Flipnose. She sat up groggily in her nest and took a deep breath. "Ravenstar is being....questioned, so I'll mentor you for today." Jadepaw shook out her fur. None of the other apprentices wee left in the den. "It's okay, it's your first day in the den." Jadepaw looked at Flipnose, who didn't seem to be in a hurry. "What are we going to be doing?" She asked, the remains of her dream leaving her. "Hunting." Flipnose replied. Jadepaw shrunk into her pelt. She didn't think she could hunt a mouse.

Jadepaw walked across camp with Flipnose, and stopped outside of the medicine cat den for a moment. "I'm demanding you to let me go! I have an apprentice to mentor, and a Clan to lead." His tone lowered into a growl, and Jadepaw left with Flipnose in a hurry. "So, what did my mom look like? Dewstorm?" Flipnose thought for a moment before pulling the memory out of is head. "Oh, she was very pretty, and she looked a lot like you. She had a gray pelt, just like yours, with white spots. And green eyes. She was a very good cat, and I hope you can be, too, despite all of the evil around you...." He trailed off, thinking of something Jadepaw no longer was interested in.

"Oh, was she smart?" Jadepaw dragged him back into the subject. "Yes,f very smart and thoughtful." Flipnose meowed, his thoughts far away. "Was she loving?" Flipnose turned to her, his eyes glittering. "Yes, very."
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Drizzlepaw was eating a piece of prey when Jadepaw returned, carrying a mouse that looked disturbingly a lot like Sam. Jadepaw approached him after she dropped the mouse in the fresh-kill pile. She sat down next to Drizzlepaw and sighed loudly. "Flipnose is exhausting." She breathed. Drizzlepaw rubbed his nose over his paw and sniffed. "Goldenpaw is so....horrible. We did battle training together today and she was acting like she wanted to kill me. I mean, she doesn't even know battle moves and she almost killed me!"

What? Nobody hurts my brother! "Where's Goldenpaw?" Jadepaw asked, her voice measured. "Over there. Don't embarrass me." Drizzlepaw pointed his tail towards the middle of the clearing where, of course, Goldenpaw, Hawkpaw, Sparkpaw, and Clearpaw were lounging lazily, each eating their own piece of prey that they probably caught themselves. Sparkpaw wasn't eating a piece, she was playing with a piece of moss. Jadepaw stomped over to Goldenpaw, who looked at her innocently with her golden eyes.

Jadepaw stopped in front of her face, glaring at her. "Did you try to kill my brother during battle training?" She growled, no caring who heard her. Goldenpaw's eyes rounded and she gave off a nervous laugh. "No, no. No matter how ugly and mouse-brained a cat is, I would never try to kill him!" Jadepaw glared at her so hard and she wished that her head could just fall off or something. "Don't mess with me," Jadepaw warned her, sounding more confident than she felt. She hadn't had a single training session on fighting, and she was pretty sure that Goldenpaw knew it.

Goldenpaw just laughed and turned away from Jadepaw. Jadepaw padded in front of Goldenpaw, her shoulders squared. "Listen to me. If you mess with any of my littermates, when I'm older, you'd better pray to StarClan it isn't a bad day for me." Jadepaw glared at her and stomped out of camp. It was a relief to her when she smelled the moss and trees surrounding her. She relaxed some and let out a breath she had been holding in. She found herself a stump and sat on top of it, wrapping her tail around her paws.

"Ugh, she's so mean, and perfect. It's not even possible for her to have golden eyes and a golden pelt. Her parents have brown pelts and white pelts. Ugh....AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" She screeched. She was too far from camp for any cat to hear her, anyways. She glared at the sky. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO??!!!" She yowled at the sky, her heart racing. She began sobbing. Loud, heaving sobs. She shut her eyes tight and tried to control her breathing. She choked on her own air, and dug her claws into the stump.

"I'm lo-I-I'm losing it." She gulped in air and swallowed. When she stopped crying, she sat, her throat dry. Jadepaw took a deep breath and watched the sun set. The sky turned red, and, for a moment, everything just disappeared around her and she was able to enjoy the sunset by herself. She watched coolly as a sparrow hopped on the ground, pecking at a patch of grass. Jadepaw sat up and stalked towards it, remembering what Flipnose had taught her. She lifted her tail off of the ground carefully and began creeping towards the sparrow. Her heart raced, and the bird flapped its wings wildly, trying to lift itself off of the ground.

Jadepaw rushed over to it, slapping her paw onto the sparrow and pinning it down. The bird chirped wildly, its wings slapping against Jadepaw's leg. Jadepaw gave it the killing bite and felt it go limp. "Sorry." She picked it up and carried it into camp. She took her time walking back to camp, she really didn't want to go back, and have to greet all of her Clanmates. She felt leaves brush the side of her face, and she drew away from the bushes. The moon was rising in the darkening sky, and Jadepaw began to wonder which way was camp.

The moon had rose into the sky. The stars and the moon were lighting her path, and she thanked Dewstorm for that. She glanced down a path into a clearing, and she wandered towards it. Didn't the entrance to camp look like this? She padded into the clearing, but the smell of cats was stale. She looked around nervously. This place looks old... and it looks like cats used to live here. Maybe they still do. It would be really useful if I knew what downwind meant...maybe. Jadepaw couldn't hear or smell any cats, so she turned around and tried to find her way back to camp.

"Wait!" A voice called from behind her. Jadepaw spun around to face the cat. The cat was a red she-cat with white paws. The cat stared at Jadepaw desperately. "Please, don't go. We need your help. I'm Amber. Tawny needs your help." Amber's meow was urgent, and Jadepaw couldn't help but notice how plump she was. "I have to go.." She turned and started to run from the clearing, back to camp. Amber brought her down from behind, sending Jadepaw tumbling. "I asked you to help me. There's an easy way, and a hard way." She growled, her ears flat. Jadepaw let herself get pushed into a ratty old den. When she entered, she shook off the moss that had fallen onto her head.

A dark brown tom with amber eyes, who she suspected was Tawny was slumped into a nest. He looked over at Jadepaw, his forehead wrinkled. Jadepaw shrunk under his gaze, and was relieved when he started speaking. "What is she d-" he began coughing, and Amber rushed over to him. She couldn't do anything except for stroke his pelt with her tail. "See- we've heard of your civilization-" civilization? "And we need help from your doctors..." "What's a doctor?" "Healers," Tawny croaked. "And Tawny needs help bad. He's really sick." Jadepaw shook her head wildly and backed out of the den.

"No, no, no. Stay! Just bring us to your healer. If they ask us to leave, we will leave." Amber's yellow eyes were desperate, staring at Jadepaw, who didn't know what to do. I'm just an apprentice! Every cat will hate me if I bring strange cats into camp, and then they invade, and it will be all my fault! "Um...sure. But it's really dark, and the middle of the night...." Amber shook her head. "No, no problem. Sleep...uh..." Amber shuffled around the den, pushing old branches into the edges of the enclosure. She ran out and returned with a clump of fresh moss.

"Here." Jadepaw gratefully nestled into the moss and drifted into sleep.
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"Hey, wake up! We have to go!" Jadepaw sat up and blinked groggily. "It's Jadepaw." She said, letting out a long sigh. Amber nodded. "That's great." Tawny grunted, heaving himself up before letting out a wild coughing fit. Amber rushed over to him worriedly. "I'm okay. Thanks for asking." He growled, padding out of the den. With the sun rising, Jadepaw recognized her surroundings. "Oh, okay, let's go." Jadepaw stumbled around on her tired legs and led them through the forest. She began to have second thoughts about leading them into her Clan.

Tawny sat down and began coughing, like he was never going to stop. Jadepaw watched as blood was spit out, and he lye down on the hard ground wearily. Uh oh. What if he dies before we arrive in camp? What if Ravenstar refuses to help them? She felt a nervous worm creep through her stomach. "Let's go before the Clan wakes and begins patrols." Jadepaw insisted. Tawny stared at her coldly, motioning his tail to the pile of blood on the ground beside him. "Oh, um, you need help. Let's get to camp.

The rest of the journey was long and tiresome. Jadepaw took many stops for Tawny, and, finally, they arrived in camp. "Flipnose?" Jadepaw called, and he emerged from the warriors den. "Jade-oh my StarClan!" Who are these cats?" "They need our help!" Tawny's legs buckled, and he collapsed onto the ground. Moonrise rushed out of her den. "Come in, come in!" Starlight and Flipnose carried Tawny into the medicine cat den, not noticing his legs trailing limply on the ground. Jadepaw felt her heart racing, he suddenly felt weak. Ravenstar was nowhere to be seen, but Frostfang was. "Jadepaw, where were you last night? I was worried sick!" Jadepaw shook her off. "I got lost, okay? Just, please, I need some rest."