Warriors: The Prophecy of Frost - Danger Lurking

Part 2: Chapter 5- Shock

Froststar was hunting by the ShadowClan border with Dewsplash, Goldenfeather and Sparrowshadow.

"Pay attention," she instructed. "The patrol brought news of a fox nearby."

They nodded silently. Sparrowshadow went to stalk a rabbit with Goldenfeather, leaving Froststar and Dewsplash behind.

Suddenly, a smaller dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes ran straight past their border, his eyes filled with anxiety.

"Hawkflight?" Froststar mewed in confusion. "What is wrong?"

"There's... trouble..." he stammered, his eyes wide.

"What trouble?" Dewsplash asked.

Unexpectedly, Hawkflight leaped towards Froststar with a furious snarl.

~~~~

"Wake up, Fernpaw," Honeyfrost mewed patiently. "You are late for training."

Fernpaw jolted awake and mewed groggily, "Sorry, Honeyfrost."

"Meet you at the Training hollow," she mewed. "Run a bit to get yourself fully awake for today. We are going to learn battling techniques."

Fernpaw nodded with a yawn. Honeyfrost had taught her basic hunting skills yesterday, and today was battle training!

She skipped out of the den, her tiredness gone. She sprinted past Hailpaw, who mewed in annoyance as his newly groomed fur became messy.

Fernpaw almost crashed into Stripepaw, whose whiskers twitched with amusement. "Be careful!" he called out.

"I will!" she yowled to him.

When she arrived at the Training hollow, Honeyfrost was waiting for her patiently. "Ready for battle training?"

"Yes-" Fernpaw mewed but was cut off as Honeyfrost swiped at her paws which made her fall.

"Rule one in battle training is that you must always be ready. You will never know when an enemy would strike you," she explained calmly.

"Okay," she mewed, getting up.

"Firstly, we are doing a basic move, the front paw swipe. Just swipe with one of your paws, and try to do it fast and hard. When we are training, sheathed paws so that we would not hurt each other," Honeyfrost instructed.

Fernpaw swiped with her right paw. "Like that?"

"Remember to be balanced," Honeyfrost mewed, nodding at her. "If you swing yourself too hard, you can lose your balance."

Fernpaw nodded and concentrated on swiping faster.

After a few more tries, Honeyfrost mewed, "Now, let's try some defensive moves."

Fernpaw sat down, listening attentively.

"The first one is simple, dodging. Basically you move away from your opponent's swipes, but there are many ways to do that. Today, it will be dodging by ducking," she mewed.

"Duck quickly as your enemy swipes at your head. It is easy to do, and effective too, as it gives you a chance to attack at their neck," Honeyfrost continued.

She swiped at Fernpaw and she ducked as fast as she could.

"Good," her mentor praised. "Now that's all for now. Go and get a piece of prey from the freshkill pile after feeding the elders."

Fernpaw mewed in acknowledgement and padded back to camp.

~~~~

Spottedpelt was starting on a story when there was a shocked yowl. Fernpaw sighed in disappointment and looked out of the elder's den.

To her horror, Froststar was lying motionless in the clearing, her light fur stained with red blood.

"Froststar!" she cried, running out. Stagwind blocked her firmly.

"I need space to treat her," the medicine cat mewed.

"How did this happen?" Silvercloud asked. "Where is Dewsplash and Goldenfeather?"

"We are here," Goldenfeather called out. "We needed to help an injured warrior."

"From another Clan?" Rockpelt growled.

"He's here," Dewsplash mewed, looking at the dark brown tabby.

"It happens to be a ShadowClan warrior!" Rockpelt hissed. "Chase him out now!"

Hawkflight looked surprised and Sparrowshadow mewed calmly, "He tried to save Froststar from a fox."

"How do we know that he is faking it?" he challenged.

"Hawkflight was injured," Goldenfeather pointed out. "But the fox was too strong for him and it managed to attack Froststar, who dived in to protect Dewsplash from it. His paw was almost torn off for that. How is it faking?"

"You can never trust ShadowClan," Rockpelt mewed in response.

"Stop arguing," came the faint voice of the ThunderClan leader, who just recovered from losing a life. "Goldenfeather is right. Silvercloud, what do you think about this?"

The deputy dipped her head respectfully. "Hawkflight should stay here for now, so that his paw could recover faster."

Sunstream came to nudge the young ShadowClan warrior to the medicine cat den, and he nodded silently.

"Froststar, are you okay?" Fernpaw asked worriedly.

She smiled and mewed, "I feel better now. Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself."

Hailpaw, who had been making a new nest, pressed his fur to Froststar as if to comfort her.

"It is okay now," she purred. "Thank you, my kits."

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A/N: Did the incident with Hawkflight shock you a bit? I mean, who can trust a 'Tigerstar-look-a-like' ? ;)