Rainpaw struggled against the cat, swiping at them with all her might. Her many attempts to hit her attacker, though, all failed, as they could merely move their head to dodge the blows.

"Stop that."

A paw firmly held down Rainpaw's shoulder as she tried to roll away. Wait. I recognize that voice!

"Lightningpaw! What are you doing?!"

"A better question would be, 'what are you doing?' This is ShadowClan territory!"

Lightningpaw's green eyes glowed with concern for the tabby she-cat. All of a sudden, Rainpaw felt exceedingly awkward. "Uh..could you, um.."

"Oh! Right, sorry." Lightningpaw leaped off the tabby apprentice, landing on three paws. He kept his left forepaw slightly above the ground, as though it were injured. Rainpaw tilted her head at it, but didn't press. "So, what are you doing here?" Lightningpaw inquired. The gray tom sat down, facing Rainpaw. The tabby she-cat sat down as well, opening her mouth to explain.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened, but Ashpool was acting really weird." Lightningpaw tilted his head to the side, appearing confused. "Oh, right, you don't know her. Ashpool's the medicine cat. For ThunderClan."

"Anyway, so I followed her into the forest, and then I fell." Lightningpaw blinked at Rainpaw. "You just...fell." He repeated. Rainpaw nodded. Lightningpaw gave her a sideways grin, and replied, "That was probably the most boring story I've ever heard."  Then his gray-striped tail whisked away into the forest.

"H-hey! Come back!" Rainpaw's eyes were wide as she chased after the ShadowClan apprentice. "Lightningpaw!" She called out, exasperated. "You still haven't told me what you were doing here!" Rainpaw peered around the forest again. It was familiar, but it an odd way. She leaned down to sniff at some leaves; they clearly had Lightningpaw's scent. She followed a trail of broken twigs until she finally spotted the the tabby tom, waiting for her in a small clearing.

Rainpaw crouched down, letting her instincts take over. She placed one paw on the ground, then the next...her tail straightened, completing still...another paw...then she leaped! Lightningpaw's turned around a second too late; Rainpaw had crashed into him, knocking them both to the ground. "Wha-?" Lightningpaw yelped. Rainpaw lost her balance, flipping over Lightningpaw onto her back.

Rainpaw heard a snicker. She looked up at Lightningpaw, who was beginning to laugh. Rainpaw chuckled, and began laughing as well. They both fell on the ground, failing to support themselves.

"That. Was. Amazing! Rainpaw, I had no idea yo-"

"Rainpaw?"

Lightningpaw stopped short. "What was that?" He whispered. Rainpaw shrugged, then silently crept forward. "I think it's Ashpool," she answered. She turned around, spotting Lightningpaw's crestfallen expression. "Hey, we'll see each other again. Right?" Lightningpaw nodded, "Yeah, right."

Rainpaw flicked his ear with her tail and briefly held his gaze. She turned back to the bushes, preparing to leap out, ready to return to ThunderClan. As soon as she left the little clearing, Ashpool yowled her name, and proceeded to tackle Rainpaw.

"Where were you!? You could've been killed, or captured, or-"

"Ashpool, I'm fine!" Rainpaw pushed her mentor off of her. "I- I fell, and-"

Ashpool shook her head. "Don't even tell me. Let's get out of here." Ashpool led the way back to camp. Rainpaw smelled some of her other Clanmates, including Echopool. She turned back to where Lightningpaw was hiding, and whispered goodbye. She didn't receive an answer until she was nearly too far away to hear.

"See you tomorrow."

☆☆☆

Back at camp, Rainpaw was taken straight to Petalstar, who would decide her punishment. Ashpool suggested taking care of the elders. Well, that's hardly fair, Rainpaw thought. Petalstar decided against it. Instead, she took Rainpaw into her den for a lecture. A very, very long lecture.

"You should have come straight back to camp, or better yet, told someone you were leaving in the first place. Ashpool was worried sick! Not to mention your parents. And speaking of them, Tawnyheart has gotten better, but no thanks to you! I never would have thought that a ThunderClan apprentice would ever do something like that..."

Rainpaw's mind trailed off into spirals of thought. She barely listened to her leader. Instead, her mind was centered on her meeting with Lightningpaw. 'I'll see you tomorrow...' what does that mean?

"Of course, if you were actually listening to me, you would realize I'm not going to punish you as severely as I was going to."

Rainpaw's ears perked up. "What?"

"Punishing you won't stop you from seeing him again."

"Him?" How could she know?

"Don't try to hide it. I'm the only that knows. Just...make sure you know what you're doing. And it's okay to talk to others. We're a Clan. We look out for each other, it's what keeps us together," Petalstar smiled down at the medicine cat apprentice, "Now you'd better go see what Ashpool has in store for you. Please remember my words."

The leader nodded Rainpaw away to the medicine den. The she-cat's heart quickened as she saw her mentor's face emerge from the den.

She was clearly in for an unpleasant day.

A/N: Hello, readers! I am so sorry I haven't updated! I'm not even going to try to deny that's it's been too long. The school year is nearly over, and then I'll have plenty of free time to write. I promise we're getting closer to the end! I'll try to make these chapters longer, and I may revise earlier chapters, so don't panic if one of the chapters randomly disappears, it'll be under (Probably severe) editing. Thank you! Don't forget to vote, and maybe leave a comment!

~Dusky~