Chapter One
Petalpaw looked at her mentor, Firestorm.
"Really?" she asked.
"Of course!" Firestorm purred. "Your training is complete. I think you deserve an assessment."
Petalpaw began bouncing up and down. A warrior! I'll be a warrior!
"Will my warrior name be Petalstorm?" Like Firestorm!
Firestorm looked at his apprentice with amusement. "I can't tell you your warrior name," he mewed. "Oakstar will decide it."
Oh. "Well, I hope he chooses Petalstorm for me!" Petalpaw mewed, still excited about the news.
"Me too," Firestorm purred. "Petalstorm is a fine name. Now go to sleep. You don't want to be groggy on your assessment day, do you?"
"Of course not!" Petalpaw mewed.
That night Petalpaw could hardly sleep. She forced a minnow down her belly and went to the apprentices' den. She tossed and turned all night. Will it be hard? Will I fail?
"Hey!" Icypaw grumbled. "You're getting moss all over me!"
"Sorry," Petalpaw mewed, but she could hardly understand what she was saying. "I'm just so excited! My assessment is tomorrow!"
Later...
"Wake up!"
"Huh? Firesto-"
"Petalpaw, it's your assessment! Come on, eat and we'll go!"
Assessment! I'm going to be a warrior! A warrior of RiverClan! And then I'll fight stinky ThunderClan for Sunningrocks! As Petalpaw reluctantly ate a fish, she daydreamed about her being a warrior. Attacking ThunderClan, yowling, "Sunningrocks are ours!", sleeping in the warriors' den...
"Petalpaw!" Firestorm's mew jolted her out of her senses. He led her up to the river.
"That's where I have to leave," Firestorm mewed. "But remember, I'll be watching you, even if you can't see me."
"Okay," Petalpaw mewed back. For StarClan's sake, let's just begin my assessment!
Later...
Petalpaw buried her fish. It had been her fourth one that day. I think that's enough. She was so tired! Petalpaw unburied her fish and was about to carry it back to camp when she felt sharp claws along her spine.
"Let go of me!" she yowled. "Seriously, Icypaw, it's not funny!"
"Oh, but it's not Icypaw," a sweet voice purred.
Petalpaw felt teeth sink into her scruff, then felt lifted off the ground. She whirled around, using every battle move she'd ever learned, which wan't many, but for every trick she had, this cat had its own. Finally, after a short struggle, Petalpaw gave up. She was tired, especially after catching those fish, and she felt herself go limp under this cat's teeth. She heard Firestorm's voice yowling, "Petalpaw!" He yowled and yowled, but eventually, his yowls faded, and stopped. Petalpaw was trapped, in a place she didn't know, with cats she'd never met and no one to rescue her.
Chapter Two
"What have you brought us here, Adder?"
Petalpaw opened her eyes, not even realizing that she had closed them. She looked around. They were in Twolegplace, and there were some rogues, including a black tom with ice-blue eyes. The cat holding Petalpaw put her down and answered, "Just what you wanted, Scourge."
"A prisoner?" the tom with ice-blue eyes who must be Scourge answered quizzically. Adder nodded. Petalpaw immediately began thinking about an escape, but there was not hope. The rogues surrounded her.
Scourge picked Petalpaw up by the scruff, walked over to a large hole, and put her in it.
"From now on, you will be called Rubbish," he mewed. "You are nothing more than our prisoner, worthless to us, but of use to others. Just like rubbish."
Rubbish stifled a sob as she looked at Scourge.
Much later, in RiverClan...
Foxtail looked at the rogues. They were surrounding them! There was no hope. Oakstar had had his eight lives ripped away from him, and his deputy, Lightningheart, had taken over. He had admitted defeat. The time of blood had begun.
"I miss Petalpaw," Foxtail admitted to Firestorm, who had become a close friend of his.
"Me too," Firestorm told him. "In fact, I think everyone misses her. After all, if we don't listen to Scourge, she will be killed."
"There's still hope," Foxtail mewed. "There's always hope."
Meanwhile...
Rubbish wandered through Twolegplace. A kittypet named Jumpy had given her his collar, so she was pretending to be a kittypet. It felt itchy on her neck. For StarClan's sake, where's the forest?
There! Rubbish saw a clump of trees and ran up to it. Frog dung, that's a dead end. Where am I? Will I ever get out?
"What are you doing here?"
Rubbish whirled around. "Who said that?" she asked.
The speaker was a skinny light brown tom with yellow, blazing, eyes. "I'm Mouse," he explained. "Who are you?"
"I'm Rubbish," Rubbish mewed.
Mouse looked at her. "That's a silly name," he mewed.
Rubbish nodded. "Well, actually, it was changed by a group of rogues."
"Oh. You must be talking about BloodClan. What's your real name?" Mouse mewed sympathetically.
"Petalpaw."
"I'm going to call you that," Mouse mewed firmly. "No protests. Anyway, what are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for the forest," Petalpaw replied sadly. "I live there, and BloodClan have probably taken over by now."
Mouse's eyes blazed with anger. "I have some friends that would be more than willing to help you out. You'll need some cats on your side if you're going to defeat BloodClan."
Petalpaw nodded. They would defeat BloodClan, and she would be back home.