°|° Woodland °|° ✓

| Chapter 1 |

(Cat above is Cherrypaw)
Berrypaw bolted. She could feel the hot breath of the ShadowClan warrior behind her. Hissing, she whipped round, ready to strike, then-
"Berrypaw!" a voice jolted her from her daydream. Her mentor, Hazelwing, glared at her crossly. "What is the best technique for stalking rabbits?"
Berrypaw blinked at her, confused. "Er..this?" she dropped down, her ears flat against her head. Berrypaw kept the weight in her tail, dragging it along as she crawled through the undergrowth.
Cherrypaw looked bewildered. "No, mouse-brain!" she meowed, crouching and bounding lightly and silently after the made-up rabbit.
"The swishing of your tail would alert the prey." corrected Eelspark, Cherrypaw's mentor. "Rabbits have big ears, so they could hear you whine from here to Moonrocks."
"Oh." Berrypaw mewed quietly. Hazelwing nudged her teasingly. "Come on- let's get back to camp and tell Tawnystar you know more about rabbits."
The patrol bounded to camp. Berrypaw barged through the tunnel, blinking lovingly at the clearing. In the middle, under a large boulder, was a pit, Tawnystar's den. The tortoiseshell was nowhere to be seen.
"I think she's with Coffeenose," Eelspark meowed. "Let's go. I got scratched by that bramble anyway."
Berrypaw trotted into the medicine clearing. The entrance was guarded by a brambly wall. The clearing was tucked in the corner of camp. A hollow boulder lay at the wall, where Coffeenose kept his herbs. His den was three large rocks with a small hole in the centre, where his nest lay. The large dark brown tom murmured to Tawnystar.
"Tawnystar, Coffeenose!" Cherrypaw called. The two cats looked up sharply. Coffeenose's apprentice, Sootpaw, peered from behind Coffeenose's den where he was mixing herbs. The small grey tom slid forward to greet the warriors. "What is it?"
"Scratch," Eelspark meowed. He showed the bloody tip of his ear.
"OK, I'll get herbs. Coming, Cherrypaw?"
The she-cat's eyes glowed. "Coming!" she raced after Sootpaw.
Cherrypaw and Sootpaw? Since when? growled Berrypaw to herself. Why didn't she have a cat that loved her? Maybe Birchpaw or Oakpaw? She thought hopefully. Birchpaw does share fresh-kill with me, after all. Then she remembered Dovepaw and felt like ramming her head into a tree. Birchpaw and Dovepaw have been a pair since they were kits, mouse-brain!
Cherrypaw and Sootpaw padded forward with herbs. "Thank you." Eelspark meowed as Sootpaw drew back, leaving sharp-scented herbs on Eelspark's ear.
"Cherrypaw, come on," Hazelwing urged. "I'm due on a hunting patrol, Pebbletail said."
"Fine.." Cherrypaw dragged her gaze from Sootpaw's. The tom's grassy-green eyes glowed as Cherrypaw followed Berrypaw out of the medicine clearing. This won't end well. Medicine cats can't have a mate, and Sootpaw is bound to have his ceremony soon..
Berrypaw didn't just feel jealous. She worried about Cherrypaw too. Her sister seemed so addicted to Sootpaw, which would be OK if he was a ordinary apprentice. But he wasn't. Sootpaw clearly adored Cherrypaw too, which could end to breaking the warrior code.
Oh, Cherrypaw, why? though Berrypaw, curling up in her nest after bounding into the apprentice den.

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The next day was warm and enjoyable. The sun sent boiling beams that made Berrypaw feel like her pelt was on fire. Turtlewing, the deputy, organized patrols first thing at dawn, when mist curled around the trees and dampened the grass.
Berrypaw and Cherrypaw had shared some fresh-kill, before Sootpaw had invited Cherrypaw to gather herbs with him. Now, lying outside the apprentice den, Berrypaw looked around for something to do. Hazelwing followed Eelspark and Cloudfur out of camp. Crowflight gathered up his patrol, Twigshine, Leafsong and Brownstripe. Tawnystar slid from her den and bounded into the medicine clearing. Ears pricked, Berrypaw tracked her with interest. She stopped outside the bramble wall, crept into a bush and made a gap with her claw, just wide enough for her to peer through.
Tawnystar and Coffeenose sat opposite each other, ears flat as they talked.
"It's been almost a moon since Smoketail's death. Why haven't they had the sign? Or did the prophecy mean a different cat?" meowed Tawnystar, her splotchy ears flicking.
"I don't know," sighed Coffeenose. "It said, ' a dying warrior will explain...'. "
"Maybe it meant Bubblefur?" Tawnystar asked. "She is the oldest elder, after all."
"I don't know," Tawnystar began. A screech made Berrypaw's fur bristle. The rank scent of death filled her nose. No! She wanted to yowl, as with a sickening jolt she raced away to see a tangle of red-and-orange splotchy fur lay in the clearing.
"Mapleflight!" wailed Berrypaw, racing towards her mother's body. Tawnystar, who had been Mapleflight's kin, bounded to her side and pressed her nose into her sister's fur.
Cherrypaw was pressed against Sootpaw. The two cats crouched beside the body, their pelts twisted together, and their tails, dark grey and bright red, twined together.
Cherrypaw.. yet Berrypaw felt no fury, only grief. Is this what it's like when your parents die? That things will never be the same again?
Tawnystar raised her head as a crowd gathered, murmuring softly to Mapleflight and sharing tongues. Sootpaw and Cherrypaw closed their eyes and fell asleep together. Berrypaw looked around hopefully. Leafpaw? but the brown tom just curled his tail over his paws and gazed at Mapleflight.
Berrypaw headed toward her den, a fresh flood of pain lapping at her pelt. No! She thought, tossing her head. I still have Cherrypaw. I'm not truly alone. Doubt tugged at her belly as she lay in her nest. Cherrypaw was more like a friend than a sister, now that she'd grown closer to Sootpaw. Berrypaw closed her eyes with a soft sigh. Her thoughts swam. My mother is dead. Cherrypaw is just a friend. I've got noone. Then she remembered the talk between Tawnystar and Coffeenose. Did they mean that Mapleflight will explain the prophecy? If so, what will she explain?
Her confusion ebbed into sleepiness. No. I can't sleep yet. I need to think about things.
As she yowled that in her mind, blackness swamped her. The soft nest beneath her vanished into icy emptiness. Berrypaw fell through a cold, endless pit, feeling lost forever.