Ripple was sitting in her Twoleg den, bored out of her mind. The two Twoleg kits were gone, just like they were almost every day, the female Twoleg was also gone, and the male Twoleg was sitting on the couch, looking at a bright glowing box.

Ripple sighed and looked out of the window from her perch on the window sill. Snow was falling softly, covering the ground like a blanket. Ripple jumped off of the window sill, the bell on her collar jingling softly. She padded through the Twoleg den, enjoying the feel of the fuzzy carpet on underneath her paws. She reached her bowl of food and took a few bites, trying not to cringe when she ate the disgusting pellets. Once she was finished, and satisfied that her pelt had been groomed thoroughly, she padded over to the door and let out a yowl.

The male Twoleg came over, chattering on something near his ear. He opened the door for her, and once Ripple had jumped outside, closed it loudly and walked away.

Ripple hissed and fluffed up her fur when she felt something touching her fur, only just realizing that it was actually snow. Ripple just a cautious step forward, into the snow. It was freezing cold, and Ripple shivered, taking another step forward. Then she raced forward into the snow, running as fast as she could. She jumped over the fence, and into the world beyond.

Ripple padded slowly through the snow. The snow had stopped falling from the sky, but the dark clouds still hung low in the sky, threatening to unleash more white flakes. Ripple walked forward absentmindedly, not really watching where she was going. She thought she smelled a strange scent when she was wandering around, but she dismissed it as a passing rogue or loner.

She wandered around for a while and got bored, but didn't want to go back to the Twoleg den, where it was even more boring.

Suddenly Ripple noticed a small stream up ahead, and on the other side of the stream, there was land. Maybe it's an island! Ripple thought excitedly. I can explore it and make it my own!

Excitedly, she splashed through the stream, ignoring the freezing cold water that tugged at her fur. Without a second thought, she charged through a wall of reeds. Then froze.

Cats stared at her, clearly shocked.

"Intruder!" a pale golden tom suddenly yowled, and several cats jumped to their paws and raced over to her menacingly. Ripple squeaked and turned around in fear, ready to run away, but found that her path was blocked by a large black tom with glittering yellow eyes.

He growled and unsheathed his claws.

Ripple whimpered and shrank down to the ground. Four cats stalked over to her, claws also out.

"Why are you in our camp? Why are you even in our territory for Starclan's sake?!" A pale ginger she-cat asked angrily, long tail lashing.

"T-territory?" Ripple gasped.

"Yes! Right now, you are standing in RiverClan's camp!"

"R-RiverClan?"

The pale ginger she-cat rolled her eyes. "Yes, kit, you are in RiverClan, one of the four great clans that rule this area. We follow the warrior code, hunt, fight, and patrol our borders."

Ripple could only stare fearfully at the cats surrounding her.

The pale ginger she-cat glared at her with a look of contempt and muttered: "Kittypets."

Suddenly a graceful white she-cat with pretty green eyes padded towards them. "Who is this, Sandpelt?" she asked, her voice soft and fluttery.

"A stupid kittypet who supposedly wandered into our camp without noticing," Sandpelt mewed with a hint of disgust.

The white she-cat looked at Sandpelt. "We shall not be rude to our guest, Sandpelt. She could have wandered into WindClan, or ShadowClan, and they could have gained another valuable warrior. Instead, Starclan gave her to us." The white she-cat's eyes glittered brightly as she talked.

StarClan? What's that?

"Wait, are you saying that-" Sandpelt started with horror, but in one swift and graceful movement, the white she-cat had leaped up onto a large rock that stuck out of the ground.

"All cats old enough to swim gather below the Great Rock for a clan meeting!" The she-cat yowled, somehow managing to still have a soft and fluttery voice.

Instantly cats swarmed out into the clearing, brushing past Ripple without a second glance.

"Today, we found a curious young cat who I believe will be an asset to our clan. What was your name, young one?" the she-cat asked, looking at Ripple.

"R-Ripple," she stammered, aware that every cat was watching her.

"Well Ripple, we're very glad that you decided to join us," the she-cat purred. "I am your new leader, Moonstar..."


It had been a moon since Ripplestream had been forced to join Riverclan. Her life in Riverclan had been horrible so far, cats had whispered behind her back constantly, and they made no effort to make sure she couldn't hear them. And Moonstar still remained oblivious. The stupid she-cat just laid in front of her den and groomed herself and admired her growing belly next to her mate, Stoneclaw. On more than one occasion Ripplestream had tried to tell the white-cat that all the other cats were being rude to her, but the pregnant leader simply ignored her and told her that they would stop eventually.

But the young cats, especially the kits, never left her alone.

"What's it like being a stinky kittypet?" Sunkit asked, wrinkling her nose and bouncing on her back paws.

Ripplestream sighed. She had just sat down in front of the warriors den to relax and have a nap in the sun when Goldenwing's two kits had raced over to her.

"It must suck being a kittypet," her brother Lionkit mewed, pouncing on his sister playfully.

Sunkit batted her paws at him, and managed to escape from his grasp and raced away, Lionkit pounding after her.

Ripplestream just closed her eyes and fell asleep.


A few days later, Ripplestream had to organize a battle practice with two of the snottiest apprentices in the clan, Darkpaw and Silverpaw.

"Today we are going to practice being a warrior, Ripplepaw," Silverpaw sneered, glaring at Ripplestream.

"No," Ripplestream managed to say. "We're are doing battle practice."

"No, we're doing battle practice," Silverpaw imitated.

Darkpaw giggled, her amber eyes sparkling with evil delight.

Ripplestream officially despised it here. The cats were all mean and rude to her, and she couldn't even hunt or fight.

Suddenly Birchpaw and Redpaw sauntered in. The two brothers were extremely full of themselves, and thought everyone loved them.

"Hello Darkpaw and Silverpaw," Redpaw mewed, his voice low and husky.

"Hi Redpaw," Silverpaw and Darkpaw giggled in sync.

Ripplestream was disgusted watching the apprentices flirt with each other. Then she realized something. The cats had never left her alone in fear that she would run away. And now only four irresponsible apprentice were around.

So Ripplestream bolted.

"Hey!" Birchpaw exclaimed but didn't make an effort to follow her.

Good, Ripplestream thought. I can get away easily.

But that wasn't the case. Ripplestream bumped into a border patrol consisting of Mapleflame, Tigershade and Pinefrost.

"Oh good, you can join us," Mapleflame mewed dryly.

Ripplestream nodded and said nothing. When they finally reached the border, Ripplestream pelted away.

"Hey!" Mapleflame yowled and raced after her.

Ripplestream didn't look back at the patrol, just focused on getting far, far away. She mentally changed her name back to Ripple.

She was finally free.

Yay, it's finally done! Please read and review! :D And Mooneh, I didn't try to insult you in here, okay?