Poolstar's Destiny

Chapter 5

Poolpaw purred as she watched Featherpaw pace back and forth while they were waiting for their mentors. "Where is Bluefeather?" She murmured.
Poolpaw looked at her, she had never seen Featherpaw nervous, except for her apprentice ceremony. "She's putting fresh bracken in the elders's den."
Featherpaw twisted her head towards her sister, "Should I be helping?"
Poolpaw rolled her eyes.

She then spotted Icefrost and Bluefeather trodding forward to their apprentices.
Featherpaw hurried to meet Bluefeather. "I'm sorry," she blurted. "I should've been helping—!"
"No need," she cut her off. "I wanted you fresh for your first day of hunting."
"We're really going?" She breathed.
Bluefeather nodded. "Of course."

"At last!" Poolpaw unsheathed her claws excitedly then sheathed them back in.
"Ready to go?" Poolpaw turned around to see Icefrost behind her.
"I've been ready for ages!" Poolpaw mewed.
Icefrost nudged Poolpaw out the tunnel. "Come on, then."

Poolpaw shot after her, and racing to be the first to the bottom of the ravine. She gazed up at the slope, her paws prickling as she snowy branches swaying like tails, beckoning her into the forest.
Icefrost flicked her tail, "Come along."

Fat white clouds raced across the blue sky as Icefrost led the way up the ravine. As they crested the ridge, wind ruffled Poolpaw's fur and a feeling of fierce joy welled up inside her.
Bluefeather glanced at Icefrost. "The Owl Tree?"
"The Great Sycamore might be better for prey," Icefrost decided.

Icefrost headed into the trees. Following onto her heels, Poolpaw gazed up at the towering trunks. Branches with snow on top of them crisscrossed the sky, shaking a bit as the breeze shook them.
It always made Poolpaw nervous. What if a branch had fallen?

Icefrost led them through the aching fonds of a fern where Duskpaw's scent still clung. They skirted around bramble that smelled of Flowertail and Poolpaw could see tiny golden tufts of fur caught on its barbs. Icefrost kept going as the forest sloped steadily upward.

"How much farther?" Poolpaw glanced over her shoulder, trying to memorize the route they came.
"Not much," Icefrost promised.
All the trees and bushes looked the same.
Icefrost finally halted. "Here we are."

Icefrost was in front of them and lifted her chin. Ahead, a gigantic snowy tree towered above the others, its crown stretching beyond the canopy that shielded the sky.
The Great Sycamore.
Its roots, some thick as branches, twisted through dense layers of snow around its base and burrowed into the earth.

Poolpaw's pelt tingled. She could smell prey. Birds chattered in the branches above her head. She took a paw back and felt fallen leaves crunching under her paws.

"The first lesson of hunting," Icefrost began, "is patience."
Bluefeather nodded. "The greatest hunter is the one who knows how to wait."
"Can't we just sift through the leaves till we find something?" Featherpaw asked.
Bluefeather shook her head. "You'll scare everything back to its burrow."

Bluefeather padded toward a bush three fox-lengths from the base of the tree. It was still thick with leaves, and she disappeared behind it. Icefrost followed, beckoning the apprentices forward with her tail. Her tail was held erect and waving from side to side. She had learned from Raindapple that that tail signal meant Come over here.

"Is there prey behind there?" Featherpaw asked, wide-eyed.
"Not if they've got any sense," Icefrost meowed.

Icefrost was already crouching behind the bush, her belly flat to the snow, peering through the low branches toward the roots of the sycamore.
"Get down," she whispered.
Poolpaw did as her mentor said; she crouched next to her, with Featherpaw and Bluefeather beside her. She squinted through the bush, wondering what was supposed to be looking for.
"Don't move till you see your prey," Icefrost advised.