The Five Giants - Book 1

Chapter 13 - Heron

Nearly 4 moons had passed since we had that meeting at the gathering. Not much changed, other than Greypaw and Ravenpaw becoming Greystripe and Ravenfall, and Frostkit becoming Frostpaw. Frostpaw was apprenticed to my mother, Riverflower.

Myself and Lionpaw had both grown immensely, now the size of warriors. This annoyed a lot of the smaller warriors, especially Streamtail. She was nice, but scary when she was angry.

The great thing was being taller than Hailstar. It's funny when he calls me into his den and he has to look up to me.

He gets real mad when I bring it up, but he isn't as scary as a mean Streamtail.

Gives me nightmares.

I knew that our assessments were coming up soon, because Mistheart would often head straight to Hailstar's den after we returned from a training or hunting session. I was excited, of course, but also freaked out because now Lionpaw and the other's could freely kill us without breaking the truce.

"Heronpaw, we're going out." Mistheart, who was coming from the warriors den, said.

I did one final stretch, and then jogged over to where Mistheart was waiting. "We'll go through some basic combat training, and then if you're comfortable, move on to more complex and deadly moves."

My eyes widened as Mistheart mentioned deadly moves. Yes, I would need them, and yes, I was coming up on my warrior ceremony, but it was still shocking that I was being taught them. I knew how to kill prey such as fish or water-voles, and that move was used for killing cats as well, and Mistheart knew that. That means that there are other, potentially more gruesome moves.

And I don't know if I'm ready for that. Mentally, of course. I know that I'm more than capable physically. I know I'm going to have to grow out of this discomfort, because Lion won't end things until one side is dead.

By this time we had reached the Training clearing. Mistheart moved into the center of the clearing, and I followed.

"Okay, pin me."

I crouched lower to the ground, and slowly circled. I began planning out how to knock Mistheart down. He was bigger than me, so I couldn't rely on my size. He was also quick, so I couldn't rely on speed. The most annoying thing is that he's smart as well, so I basically have no advantage over him.

Mistheart; the Dream Warrior.

This meant that the only thing I could rely on was luck. And luck is a pretty crappy thing to rely on.

What I need to do is unbalance him so that I could knock him over. I have the strength to keep him down, so now the only thing I had to do was outlast him as I ran around.

This makes my head hurt.

"Are you going to keep circling or are you going to pin me?" Here I started running around him, dashing in and out and cuffing him every now and again.

The confused look on his face was a good sign; he had no idea what I was doing. I slowed down my pace a bit, just so that I could run for longer.

After I dashed in and cuffed Mistheart again, he said, "Ow! What are you doing?"

I stopped and tilted my head in confusion. "What?"

"What are you doing! I told you to pin me, not run around!"

"That's what I was getting to!"

"I was going to let you pin me, and then correct it! Great Starclan, you sure look like a warrior, but your brain is a few moons behind!" I flinched at the insult, and Mistheart seemed to notice. "I'm sorry, I know I snapped, but I'm tense. Let's forget about combat for now, and let's go to the river. We'll strengthen your legs today instead."