Rock bottom is something we all know about. When nothing seems to go right and your feet are stuck in quicksand and each time you try to break free, it sucks you under even more. It pulls you under and when you awake, you're at the bottom. It truly takes a lot to get out of that position, even with people around you saying, "Don't give up" or "Mistakes only make us grow", it is a very hard thing to climb out of. I've been there plenty of times and know that when I'm not in that situation, it's easy to see how that person can improve and come out of that pit, but it's hard to see any kind of solution when you're that person stuck in that ditch, staring at nothing but darkness. 

I do believe that the people around us do influence us and affect us in ways we don't know. When a friend is stuck at rock bottom with you and is the first to recover while you're still moping around, you notice the sudden change around you pretty fast. That person sees those solid rock walls, knowing that they can't climb out with no groves or ledges in them, but yet, they throw themselves on that wall and try to use their nails to get a grip. Even if they continue to fall on their back, they still get up, tackling that wall with twice the courage and determination than they had before. It's strange to watch and after some time, there's gotta be something that makes us rethink things and help that person in escaping. 

But that stubborn courage, it does bring a smile to anyone when they're at rock bottom, don't they?

X X X

"This isn't fair!" Beechpaw yowled into the air for the umpteenth time. By now, Mothpaw and Runningpaw marched on with their ears glued down to keep his sharp voice out. Lionfur, Speckleflash, and Sparrowblaze glanced at one another and sighed. Eventually, his mentor came over and shoved him to the ground, pressing a paw along his back to keep him in place. Withering to break free, the brown tom rolled onto his back, exposing his white underbelly as he glared at his mentor. 

"There's plenty of things that aren't fair in this world," Speckleflash countered. "Do you know how badly I wanted to go on that raid---"

"Don't make this about yourself!" Beechpaw fired back. "I didn't come on this patrol just to hear you complain how much it's a pain to hear me complain about not going while you can moan and groan all you want just because you're a warrior!"

"I'm not making it about myself, you greedy little---"

"Let go of me already! Let's just get this border patrol done and over with! It's freezing out here!" To prove his point, Beechpaw let out an angered huff, breath coming out as a visible fog, floating into the cloudless sky. Speckleflash wrinkled her nose as if her brother's breath smelled like rotten prey. 

"Wherever we go, it's going to be freezing and cold! It's almost leafbare, Beechpaw! Use that mind of yours already!" snapped Speckleflash, lashing her tail to keep herself semi-calm. The other warriors stopped what they were doing and rolled their eyes. Mothpaw and Runningpaw looked at them and Sparrowblaze shook his head. 

"I would use it if Ashstar could think straight for once! Why can't we go?! We know how to defend ourselves in a fight! Just---"

His protest was stopped the moment the cream she-cat lunged, locking her jaws around his paw and yanking it with her strength, causing a yowl out of him. Before he could pull his paw back, Speckleflash pinned her apprentice down with all four paws, restricting his actions as he squirmed to break free. Her claws sunk into the ground beneath them, careful not to harm the apprentice but also strong enough to hold him. Every thrash Mothpaw saw her brother do only wore him out, and the smirk only grew wider on the she-cat's face. 

Runningpaw looked away to distract himself with something else other than the fight going on between mentor and apprentice. Lionfur dropped his shoulders and got into a more comfortable position, almost as if he was going to take another nap. The cold wind around them ruffled their ear, sending small shivers down Mothpaw's spine, singing a tale of an incoming leafbare. The grass around them had turned dull and didn't shine like it use to when the sun above was bright and full of life. 

She tried to ignore leafbare and the fact that it was getting closer with each second of the day, keeping herself busy with training and her brother, but each morning was a waking call to the changing world. It would be her first leafbare, but she didn't want to see the sun shy away from the Clans below and hide behind a cloud. Mothpaw definitely didn't want the one thing that shone during tough times to disappear like StarClan. 

Prey began to dwindle, each mouse slipping through her paws faster and quicker than the last time. The birds flew away somewhere far away, a place that she couldn't follow even if she traveled throughout the starry night. Herbs, no longer thriving under the warm rays, shriveled up in a brown mess, easily crushed under a kit's paw. The clouds grew heavier, incoming snow singing miles away, ready to fall overnight. Mothpaw could faintly see flakes of white drift from the clouds and sway in the wind, melting before they touched the bare ground. 

Mothpaw sat down, curling her tail around her paws as she stared at the endless, empty sky. Perhaps there was something up there, watching over the Clans - something that wasn't StarClan. After all, she thought that her mother wasn't in the ranks of those starry cats that should be protecting them - she believed her mother was somewhere else, a place where she could walk beside the kits her left behind moons ago. The gray sky reflected no trace of her mother's face and the wind never carried a single whiff of her sweet scent. She slowly blinked, jaw parting to taste the cold. A breath flew out of her and rose into the air like a free spirit, finally leaving to travel somewhere else.

It made her wish she could see her mother again, even after she thought she buried those desires in the ground.

She feared the day when Echoflight, her own kin, would only be the same nostalgic feeling Gorsekit had in her heart. A fragment of her missing memory that only spoke up when she was alone and had nothing else to think about. There was no kind of longing or sorrow that her older brother was missing from her life, but the warmth and love her silver-pelted mother shared to all of her siblings was something her yearned to have again. Mothpaw closed her eyes, imagining to herself a blurry figure of the she-cat to the best of her ability, chunks of her missing, but the parts that were assembled and sewn together with loose cobwebs made her relax.

"... And this is why Mothpaw's always dragging you out of things!" Speckleflash roared and, hearing her name called, Mothpaw snapped her head back to the patrol. She didn't flinch at the sight of her brother, defeated, and his mentor holding him down in an uncomfortable-looking position. 

"Wait, Speckleflash---"

"Don't tell me what to do! Listen to what I have to say---"

"No, seriously stop!" Beechpaw hissed, voice dropping to a whisper. Mothpaw narrowed her eyes and looked around the field, looking for the thing that caught her brother's sharp gaze. Lionfur and Sparrowblaze paid no attention to the apprentices, but Runningpaw slowly caught on and eyed his surroundings as if rogues were about to pop out from the dirt and drag him underneath the surface. Speckleflash spat in disgust and loosened the grip, but that was enough wiggle room for the tom to squirm around, throwing her off.

Jumping to his paws, Beechpaw perked his ears and looked south. "Speckleflash, I---"

"You are not going to sneak off to join that battle! Deerleaf already got in massive trouble for sneaking out with apprentices! You all could've been killed!"

And you wouldn't? Mothpaw challenged claws curling into the soft dirt. She gritted her teeth together and opened her ears, hoping they would pick up some kind of sound. By now, Sparrowblaze noticed his apprentice's behavoir and nudged Lionfur, who slowly lifted his ears to scout. 

"I think I hear---"

"Beechpaw, listen to me--"

"Speckleflash," Lionfur growled, putting a heavy paw on her shoulder. The cream warrior jumped out of her fur and unleashed her claws, attaching herself to the ground. "Just be really quiet right now."

Now that every cat in the field was silent, whatever trace Mothpaw caught onto before was gone. She dropped her head and lowered herself to the ground, wondering if placing her ear to the ground would help pick up some kind of noise. Lionfur crept forward, getting into a hunting position, ears drawn back, paws light as a feather, fur flat across his spine, and eyes peeled for the faintest movements. Each twitch from the waves of grass, the rustling sound of the trees far ahead, the anxious breathing of the apprentices behind him - all was being absorbed into the orange warrior. He lifted his head and peered at the border, waiting for something to happen.

There was the sound of a cat tripping over their own paws.

Out sprang a gray apprentice, the smell of trees clinging to her pelt as she stumbled into the open field, eyes scanning the cats surrounding her. Mothpaw instantly recognized the apprentice, and the she-cat returned the same expression back the moment their wide eyes locked. Curled in a small ball, the CinderClan apprentice looked around, flinching at the harsh glares from Speckleflash and suspicious looks from Sparrowblaze. Seeing the other apprentices, her guard lowered, but Slatepaw continued to act tough in front of the MeadowClan patrol.

"Slatepaw!" A familiar voice called, and from the tall grass emerged Cloudpaw, followed by Lionfur. The tom's eyes lit up at the sight of his fellow apprentice and he raced over to her side, and then immediately turned on the nearest warrior - which happened to be Sparrowblaze, who didn't back down from the reckless attitude from the white apprentice. Mothpaw wanted to interfere with the fight, but her paws remained rooted to the ground, unable to say or do anything. 

"What part of don't go charging off can you not understand?" A chilling voice complained, and the one cat Mothpaw thought wouldn't show up pushed through the clumps of grass. As skinny as a twig and recovering from her wounds from the latest battle, Aspenstar stood there, looking annoyed at the two apprentices. It didn't take long for Speckleflash and Lionfur to notice an entire swarm of cats behind them, faces all unrecognizable, but a scent lingered over them, tracing back to one thing that they all shared: CinderClan.

Surprised, the MeadowClan patrol hardly said a thing, waiting for the other cat to speak up. Mothpaw met fearful glances with Beechpaw, who looked happy to see Cloudpaw and Slatepaw again, but his fiery gaze was planted on the wave of cats behind Aspenstar - even if they were probably the same size as their Clan. Clearwhisker was with them, new scars painting her pelt and a wound on her shoulder looked infected. Looking at the entire Clan again, all of them looked beaten and exhausted; some cats hanging on one another for support while others were entirely passed out and being dragged by a clanmate. 

After the shock settled in, the apprentices turned to their mentors for answers, and when Beechpaw and Mothpaw noticed their mentors looking at Lionfur. The tom jumped and tried to hold his bewilderment from spilling, but when Aspenstar approached him, he straightened up. Speckleflash eyed the leader cautiously and inched closer to Beechpaw, standing beside him in a protective manner, Sparrowblaze mimicking her. Everycat in the clearing lowered their voices and opened their ears, waiting to hear what the skinny she-cat had to say. 

"I'm going to make this brief and short," growled Aspenstar, facing Lionfur like he was a mere kit. "While we were gone fighting Shattedstar's group, another batch of rogues came and attacked CinderClan while I wasn't there, killing every single cat left behind. All I have are the cats you see behind me. They took over our camp and we can't reclaim our home in this condition."

"Ashstar!" Speckleflash shouted, springing to her paws. "If you claim your camp was taken over, then Ashstar's walking right into danger!"

"Hold still for once." Aspenstar held up a single paw. "I've already sent a few of my remaining warriors to get your leader and warn him."

"I don't know if you should be hearing this from me," Lionfur started out. "But it looks like you're going to need a place to stay, and your cats need healing." 

"And this is why I never want to be leader," Sparrowblaze muttered to himself. 

"And?" Aspenstar demanded. "Would you be willing to let us stay in your territory? If you don't want us in your camp, that's acceptable, we can make do here."

"But don't you need herbs---"

"I know where all the herbs are in this territory," Aspenstar cut off Beechpaw's complaint. "Healing isn't a problem since I'm still alive. Thistleshade might've died in that attack, but I know how to heal. Staying in your territory without you knowing isn't the best thing to do."

How does she know where all the herbs are in this Clan? Is she lying? Mothpaw thought, eyeing the she-cat, old questions and suspicion rising again. And to know where each herb grows here in MeadowClan where I know nothing about them. Then again, she's the leader of a Clan, maybe there was a part I skipped or didn't listen to when Echoflight explained a leader's role. Perhaps they have to know about herbs as well and where they grow. 

"You're going to have to wait until Ashstar gets back," Lionfur declared. "I'll let you guys into our camp, but you are to not explore freely. I don't know if other cats know you as well as I do, but I don't want to risk any fights breaking out, especially if you're hurt from battle." 

Aspenstar dipped her in gratitude, eyes shining with something unreadable. "Alright, thank you," she said, turning toward her Clan. "CinderClan, don't do anything too rash. I'll get to healing you and maybe Dapplefur could help you out."

"Don't get ahe---"

"And CinderClan." Aspenstar's gaze darkened and she unleashed her claws, energy renewed and adrenaline surging through her body with each heartbeat. Like a nightmare, the she-cat tripled in size and hissed, ice flowing out of her mouth, a battle spirit raging inside, roaring out even with red scars dressing her pelt. Her Clan responded with a small surge of confidence, lifting their heavy heads up to face their stubborn leader, reflecting the same strength back. 

MeadowClan stayed silent, unsure what to say at the battle-ready leader.

Lips curling into an amusing sneer, Aspenstar announced, "Don't even think this is our defeat against those rogues. No, we're only getting started. The moment we're all healed and ready to clash heads with them again, we'll make sure to bring back a wave of terror that'll even cause StarClan to tremble in those glittering stars."