Warriors: Wounded Pride (Book 4)

Chapter 16

    Tidepaw and her siblings padded with their mentors over to Sandcoat, the Driftclan deputy. "You can go, but be careful out there," he meowed. "You never know if Shredflash could show up."

"We will!" Ripplewave replied, then smiled at her father.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Oceanpaw mewed and pawed at Seapaw.

Seapaw glared at Oceanpaw.

"S-Sorry!" he mewed nervously, turning to Tidepaw. "Do you think we'll be fighting Shredflash, Tidepaw? He sounds tough!"

Shadowblossom turned to Oceanpaw. "You'll never get to see Shredflash, because by the time he shows one whisker, I'm ending him," he meowed.

"What?! I want to fight him too, Shadowblossom!" Oceanpaw replied to his father.

"No," he started, nearly hissing at his son. "If you ever see Shredflash, then you need to run away from him as fast as you can and get me if I'm not there." he meowed.

Oceanpaw didn't respond for a few heartbeats before Shadowblossom spoke again.

"Do you understand, Oceanpaw?" the black-furred tom asked.

Oceanpaw sighed and nodded. "Yes, Shadowblossom..."

Shadowblossom looked at Tidepaw, then Seapaw. "Do you two understand?"

Tidepaw nodded at her father. "Yes, Shadowblossom."

Seapaw nodded.

"Strict now, are we, Shadowblossom?" Kingletsong mewed.

Shadowblossom glared at the tom as they padded towards the entrance of the camp. "I don't think you would want your kits lying in cold blood in front of your eyes, now would you?" he shot back.

"I... Yeah, I wouldn't..." Kingletsong sighed.

"Are we ready to go now?" Ripplewave meowed to them.

"Yeah!" Kingletsong responded.

Shadowblossom mumbled something.

Ripplewave and Oceanpaw then padded out of the camp. Shadowblossom, Kingletsong, and their apprentices followed behind them.

*

The group of Driftclan cats padded away from the camp. Padding past the trees as they looked around to see the leaves on them flow as the wind hit them. "This reminds me of when we snuck out of camp as kits!" Oceanpaw meowed.

"Yeah!" Tidepaw meowed.

"You did what?!" Ripplewave said.

Shadowblossom and Seapaw sighed in unison.

Kingletsong stifled back a laugh.

Soon, the cats reached the sand of the Ocean Side. It felt warm under their paws as they padded onto it. "Is the sand always warm like this?" Oceanpaw asked.

"No, fish-brain!" Tidepaw replied. "It gets cold too!"

"No need to be rude over it, gull-face!" her brother said.

Tidepaw turned to Oceanpaw and tackled him. "Take this!" she meowed.

The rest of the group stopped and watched the two apprentices wrestle. Ripplewave soon padded over to them and pulled Tidepaw off of Oceanpaw. "Enough of that... We have a patrol to get through you two!" she mewed to them.

"Yeah, so can we please not attack each other for 2 heartbeats?" Shadowblossom added.

"Yes, Shadowblossom..." Tidepaw and Oceanpaw replied in unison.

Seapaw shook her head as the group continued padding down the Ocean Side.

*

A while later, Seapaw and her siblings were in the Apprentices' Den once more. She looked over at them, meowing about something. "I'll catch more prey than you!" Tidepaw mewed.

"No way! I'll catch more than you!" Oceanpaw replied.

"You can't even tackle me! What makes you think you can catch a bird?" the tortoiseshell she-cat scoffed.

"I'm better than you! That's why I can catch one!" Oceanpaw puffed his chest out.

Seapaw got up from her nest and padded over to her siblings. They bickered until they saw their sister pad up to them and stare. "Hey, Seapaw!" Tidepaw mewed. "Need something?"

"I need to speak to you two."

Oceanpaw and Tidepaw's eyes widened.

"Did you just speak?!" they both meowed in unison.

Seapaw nodded. "I had a weird dream the other moonhigh..."

"Seapaw can speak! This is wild..." Oceanpaw mewed.

Seapaw sighed. "We can focus on that later... Right now, I need to tell you about this dream," she mewed back.

"Okay, Seapaw! What was the dream about?" Tidepaw asked.

"I saw four cats. They seemed like they were... Fighting?" The white-furred she-cat meowed.

"Woah! Did you fight with them?" Oceanpaw asked curiously.

Seapaw shook her head. "No, I only watched before I woke up in my nest... One cat said that they couldn't stop them..."

"Stop them from what?" the light-green eyed time mewed back.

Tidepaw swiped her paw over his ear. "Stop interrupting her and she'll tell us!"

"I don't know... I woke up before I saw anything more." Seapaw meowed.

"Aw! That's boring!" Oceanpaw pouted.

"Do you think the dream means anything, Seapaw?" Tidepaw asked her sister, stretching herself out.

Seapaw shrugged, then padded back to her nest and lied down.