A gray she-cat sat hunched over the river bank, concentrated in what it contained. A fish swam in circles unexpectedly under her watchful gaze. She carefully lifted one white paw, ready to bring her victim to its fate.

"Hello, Fernpaw."

    The voice broke her concentration. Fernpaw blindly whipped her paw into the water. The fish darted into the weeds, sruviving another day. Fernpaw lifted her empty paw out of the water. As she bit back a hiss of irritation, she turned to face her disturbance.

    Fernpaw's irritation quickly turned to joy when she realized who had stopped her from catching a meal for her Clan. It was Icepaw, Fernpaw's best friend as well as her kin.

    "Good fishing today, Fernpaw?" Icepaw meowed. "Yes, it's fine," Fernpaw replied as another wave of irritation stabbed her. "Sorry for disturbing you from your kill," Icepaw mewed, clearly  seeing Fernpaw's uneasiness. "It's fine," Fernpaw meowed. "The river has plently more." Fernpaw gave herself a swift lick on the shoulder. "So what'd you come here for?" I'm sure you're not her so we can gossip like elders all day."

    "No, I'm not," Icepaw replied. "I came to tell you that Leopardfur wants us on the sunhigh patrol." A gleam of excitement flashed in Icepaw's bright blue eyes. "It's probably an assessment to make us warriors!"

    Fernpaw leaped to her paws. "What are we waiting for then?" she meowed. "Let's go!" Icepaw mewed as if she was going to burst.

    The gray and white cats rushed into the weeds, matching pace for pace.




    The scents of RiverClan territory rushed into Fernpaw's nostrils. She ran behind her mentor, Leopardfur, the RiverClan deputy. Icepaw ran beside Fernpaw, matching stride for stride as Whiteclaw, Icepaw's mentor and Mistyfoot, Icepaw's mother, followed close behind. The patrol was headed to the gorge that bordered WindClan and ThunderClan's territories to renew the scent marks. WindClan didn't even ccupy their own territory now. A couple of moons earlier Brokenstar, ShadowClan's evil leader, led his warriors in a battle to drive WindClan out. They succeeded and WindClan fled. No cat knows where or had any idea of where they went.

    RiverClan had taken advantage of WindClan's absence and used their territory as an extra source of prey. Fernpaw has been on one of these expeditions to the moorland where WindClan once called home. Fernpaw couldn't even begin to imagine oh how those cats could sruvive there. She knew that she couldn't be at home with the wind constantly howling in her ears, the wide open spaces with no bracken to hide in, and being in pursuit of fast prey she couldn't even catch. The RiverClan patrols were rarely successful in catching the rabbits that WindClan caught.

    As the patrol neared the gorge, a new scent wafted into Fernpaw's nostrils. It was a scent that she didn't expect to smell here. It was ThunderClan's scent. Though RiverClan's territory was thin through here the wind was blowing in the wrong direction to bring it here. ANd there was another scent mixed with the ThunderClan scent. It was a scent that seemed familiar, but Fernpaw couldn't recongnize it either. In order for her to smell it, the cats had to be coming from WindClan territory and onto RiverClans territory.

    The rest of the patrol obviously smelled the scent too. Leopardfur slowed the pace and twitched her tail to stop.

    "Do you scent that?" Leopardfur asked Whiteclaw and Mistyfoot. They nodded their heads in reply. Leopardfur turned her gaze to Fernpaw and Icepaw. "You two, what do you scent?" she meowed expectedly. "ThunderClan," Icepaw mewed promptly. "WindClan?" Fernpaw guessed. A smirk appeared on the usually serious face of Leopardfur. "Very good," she praised.

    Fernpaw glowed with pride. Leopardfur didn't give praise lightly. The unfamiliar scent was WindClan. Fernpaw thought that she had smelled that smell before. Now she understood. Her thoughts went back to the Gathering three nights before. She remembered the words of Bluestar:
"Just as we have four trees, four seasons, StarClan has given us four Clans. We must find WindClan and bring them home."

    Now Fernpaw understood. ThunderClan found WinClan and brought them back to their territory. Now WindClan was escorting ThunderClan back to their territory. They were going to cut through RiverClan's thin strip of territory because it was the shortest route.

    Mistyfoot's voice interrupted Fernpaw's thoughts. "Leopardfur," Mistyfoot whispered." Her they come." The patrol patiently stood in a battle line waiting for the tresspassers to appear.

    Then a black tom climbed out of the gorge and he was followed by three more toms. Fernpaw recognized the leading cat as Deadfoot, the deputy of WindClan. Fernpaw flexed her muscles, ready to strike as she waited for Leopardfur's signal to attack.

    Leopardfur waved her tail. The patrol sprung forward and leaped onto the unexpecting intruders. Fernpaw leaped onto a flame- colored tom's back as she sank her teeth into the back of his neck. The warrior struggled under Fernpaw's weight as she kicked furiously with her hind legs. She felt the tom scrabbling despratley as Fernpaw raked his sides. Then the warrior twisted around and bit into her fur. Fernpaw let out a yowl of fury as he clamped his jaws tight.

    But Fernpaw only clawed him more fiercely. "This is the last time you 'll set paw in RiverClan's territory," she hissed in his ear. Fernpaw was aware of the battle raging around her. RiverClan was clearly winning. After this, they would never see ThunderClan  or WindClan on their territory again.

    Then from the forest behind her, a yowl of fury rang in Fernpaw's ear as a patrol of ThunderClan cats leaped into the fray. A massive white paw pounded into Fernpaw's chest. She stumbled backwards.

    Fernpaw staggered then stood to face her attacker. It was a huge white tom. But Fernpaw couldn't help noticing a strange emotion in the bright yellow eyes. Ther was a glimmer of sadness in the fierce eyes. It almost as if the tom didn't want to attack Fernpaw at all.Fernpaw felt almost as if she was imagining things.

    True or not, the emotion lasted only for a heartbeat. The next thing she knew the tom was sending Fernpaw's body crashing into the hard earth.

    Fernpaw struggled to keep her eyes open. Her sight was turning blurry. Through the blur, she could see her Clanmates struggling. They were losing. Then a black wave washed over her.




    "Whiteclaw, lookout!"
  Icepaw's yowl brought Fernpaw back to conciencness. Fernpaw opened her eyes to see Whiteclaw fighting with another gray tom. They were dangerously close to the edge of the gorge. "Whiteclaw, get back!" Fernpaw yowled. She tried to leap forward to his aid, but pain that surged through her head stopped her from going further. Fernpaw clenched her teeth as she shifted her gaze to the white tom.

    When she saw his eyes filled with the same sad emotion, she knew that she wasn't imagining things. Then he turned his head and looked away.

    A bloodcurdling yowl rang through Fernpaw's ears. She sprang to her paws as she saw Whiteclaw crashing into the gorge. "Whiteclaw, no!" Icepaw yowled into the gorge. Fernpaw flinched as she heard a cat's body plunge into the raging river below as Icepaw's voice bounced off of the walls of the gorge.