Chapter one

As the birds started their morning routine, Enderpaw awoke to the sound of rustling brambles. She saw her mentor Silverheart's head poke through the bramble screen covering the entrance to the apprentices' den. "For StarClan's sake Enderpaw!" said Silverheart in an annoyed tone. "The sun's been up for ages now! You should have been up a long time ago!"

Enderpaw yawned and stretched before getting out of her nest and padding out of the apprentices' den and out into the clearing of the camp. Every cat was awake and heading off to do their duties. "You're on hunting patrol with me, Boundingfoot and Foxfire!" called Silverheart.

Again? Thought Enderpaw. She'd gone on hunting patrol three times in a row already! This was her fourth time in a row! Enderpaw knew not to complain though. With twolegs chopping down trees at the edge of their territories beside the twolegplace. They'd already taken a good amount of the territory that was near the twolegplace. Of course, there wasn't that much prey there, it was barely a decent hunting spot, but with the clan getting bigger every day, and the kits demanding more food every day, Stormclan needed as much food as they could get.

Maybe Deerstar and Stormswift think of me as a good hunter and that's why they keep putting me on hunting patrols! thought Enderpaw proudly. She held her head a bit higher as she trotted out the camp, right on the heels of Silverheart, Boundingfoot, and Foxfire in the lead.

It wasn't long before they spotted their first prey. It was a squirrel scavenging among the leaf litter under a bramble bush. Foxfire turned back and looked at Boundingfoot. He flicked his tail tip to the right and Boundingfoot melted into the undergrowth as he made a big semicircle around the squirrel and to the back of the bramble. Silverheart and Foxfire spread out quickly. It was only Enderpaw left. She knew what to do. She leaped at the squirrel, letting out a fearsome screech as she did, flailing her front paws to imitate and scare the squirrel. The squirrel looked up and immediately fled for the nearest tree. Boundingfoot quickly leapt out from behind the tree and caught the squirrel in his claws. He bent down a gave it a neat nip on its backbone and the squirrel fell limp between his paws. Enderpaw gave a quiet purr for she had set up the squirrel into running at Boundingfoot. Boundingfoot scraped leaf litter and soil over the squirrel and pushed it under the bramble bush.

They traveled along the border that separated Stormclan's territory, and Marshclan's territory. Enderpaw wrinkled her nose as she gazed out at Marshclan's territory. The marsh. Enderpaw shivered as she imagined what life would be like out there where every step you took, you would sink into the springy ground, and having the mud and ground squelch as you hunted or did a border patrol. And the musky-sour scent of the dirt and boggy peat between your toes and caught all over your claws. And frogs! Enderpaw found frogs absolutely repulsive! Their skin was slimy and slick and the way Marshclan would eat them! Ripping of the skin and tasting bug flavoured meat! Of course Enderpaw hadn't actually tasted frog before. She just assumed it would taste like that living on the marsh and all.

Enderpaw couldn't imagine a comfortable life in the marsh. She couldn't ever imagine life out there!

Suddenly, Foxfire stopped. There, right beside the border, was a fat plump rabbit grazing peacefully at short young shoots of grass. The rabbit was barely inside of Stormclan territory, but it hadn't of seemed to cross the Marshclan border mark so Enderpaw edged closer. Silverheart circled around a bush and lay perfectly still, in wait. Boundingfoot took his place, opposite of Silverheart. Foxfire nodded to Enderpaw. She kept going closer until she was exactly opposite of the rabbit. If everything went as it should, the rabbit would run straight into her paws. Foxfire popped out in front of the rabbit and gave a loud yowl and pretended to chase the rabbit. The rabbit ran straight at Enderpaw. Now that the rabbit was much closer, Enderpaw realized how big it was. I'm not going to catch it! She thought frantically. The clan needed the extra food. She let her instincts take over. She leapt at the rabbit, bowling it over in midleap. She rolled over and over with the rabbit until they were right at Silverheart's feet. Silverheart quickly grabbed a hold of it and gave the killing bite on its neck. The rabbit flopped limp in her paws.

Yes! Cheered Enderpaw silently. We caught the fattest rabbit in the history of the clans! Well it wasn't the fattest rabbit in the history of the clans but it sure would feed a good amount of cats.

The hunting patrol made their way back to the camp, catching nothing else on the way. Enderpaw couldn't wait to sink her fangs into a juicy hunk of rabbit meat but she knew the rules, apprentices of a clan shall eat last to remind them of the hardships of being a warrior and also being part of a clan.

The clan excitedly greeted them as they exited the long grass and bush tunnel that lead inside their clan. Enderpaw saw that the other hunting patrol were already back. There were two mice and a squirrel on the prey pile. The other warriors took the squirrel and rabbit from Foxfire and Silverheart and placed them on the pile with all of the other prey. The warriors and apprentices stepped back to let the elders, queens and kits take their share of prey. As soon as they were done, the warriors and the medicine cats converged on the prey pile. By the time it was the apprentice's turn to eat, there was hardly anything left for them. Enderpaw grabbed the last of the rabbit's leg. There wasn't too much meat on it, and by the time she was done, she was still pretty hungry. The rabbit leg had only taken the edge and a bit more off of her hunger. Sighing to herself, she walked back to the apprentices' den and curled up in her nest for a little nap.

The sun was just about to start setting when Enderpaw woke up. Without bother to stretch, she got out of her nest, and bounded out of the camp. Once she was outside, she gave herself a good shake before starting towards the sandy training clearing. Enderpaw and her siblings hadn't trained here today. Their mentor were planning to take them out at night time and give them the run down on night hunting and fighting. The rabbit certainly had not filled up Enderpaw's belly so she started stalking quietly through the forest and took the short way to the sandy hollow.

When she got there she discovered a mouse washing itself at the edge of the sandy hollow. Enderpaw quickly got into the hunter's crouch and started stalking it. She lifted high so it wouldn't brush against anything, but low enough so that it wouldn't stick up like a red flag against the green and earth colors in the forest. When she was close enough, she bunched her hindquarters and pushed off with her paws. The mouse saw her at the last second but it was too late. Enderpaw landed straight on the mouse immediately cracking it's neck and killing it. Enderpaw lowered her head and picked up the mouse. The warm and bloody scent filled her nose. She was so hungry she could eat a whole horse from the horsestorage place.

Surely a small bite wouldn't make any difference right? she thought. No! What was she thinking? There was no way she was going to break the warrior code no matter how hungry or desperate she was. The warrior code was there to make sure everyone was doing the best for the clan. Still, she didn't trust herself, so she carried the mouse all the way back to the camp before going out again.

A loud call stopped her. There! A blackbird was hopping around on the roots of an oak tree. One of its wings were bent at an odd angle. The breeze was to Enderpaw's back so she could smell the strong scent of the bird. It had a strange hint of thunderpath smells. It must of been hit by one of those huge monsters back at the twolegplace at the edge of our territory! She'd seen the huge dirty yellow monsters swinging their paws and taking out huge hunks of dirt from the ground and releasing those huge clouds of disgusting gray smoke from their single ear on top of their huge ugly heads.

Enderpaw knew that there was no way of escape for the blackbird. She sauntered up to the bird. The blackbird let out a call of alarm and fluttered it's good wing repeatedly and hopped about before Enderpaw leapt up and crushed it in her paws. One more piece of prey for the clan! Thought Enderpaw with satisfaction. She grabbed the blackbird and the mouse and darted back to camp.

When Enderpaw was at the camp, she dropped the blackbird and the mouse in front of Silverheart. She then looked hopefully up at Silverheart. Silverheart nodded. "Go put your prey away. You can take one more piece of prey to eat though. Just remember to rest some more for night hunting and fighting. " Enderpaw happily obeyed and dropped the blackbird on the pile. She took the mouse for herself. After she was done, she went back and curled up to rest some more for night training.

(Cat above in picture is Enderpaw)