Moonpaw(Warrior Fanfiction)

Chapter 14

Moonpaw felt she could sleep forever. She had never felt so tired in her life. Had she decided not to go to the gathering, she would have been fine. It was never pleasant to get out of her cozy nest, but she had to go hunting for her clan. At this point, she wouldn't even be able to get up before Blackpaw.

'Wake up, dormouse!' Blackpaw meowed as she nudged Moonpaw out of her nest. 'It's dawn.'

'Shut up.' Moonpaw mumbled as she rolled onto the den floor. Blackpaw let out a snort and padded out of the den, while Moonpaw slowly got up from the warm den floor. It was a good day. The sun was shining as bright without a trace of sad clouds who wanted to rain. It was warm, yes, but it was better than being rained on.

She padded out of the den, grateful that no cat had wet fur or wet paws. It was a new day, another day to train. She suddenly realize how lucky she was to be in this clan, not a stray or rough living out on the forest floor, with no clanmates to protect them. This was her home.

'Moonpaw, there you are!' A delighted meow from Cloudheart snapped Moonpaw out of her thoughts. 'Come on, let's go. I want to show you how to hunt near the twoleg place. It's good practice if you ever need to go on a mission, and it improves your scenting skills tremendously.'

Mission? Moonpaw thought. Did Cloudheart really think that Moonpaw could ever go on a mission? Moonpaw didn't know if that was a praise, but she was too excited to ask. With the swipe of Cloudheart's tail, her mentor lead the way. Moonpaw was following closely behind, lost in her daydream thoughts about what a mission could be.

The pair leaped across the forest, and headed for the tall pine trees. Moonclaw had never been beyond clan territory, but this could be a first. The sun was nice and warm on her pelt, with a few streaks of sunlight escaping from the leaves of the pine trees, onto the forest floor.

Before Moonpaw knew it, she was close to the thunderpath. She could hear the monsters, or at least she thought it was the monsters, but could never see them. They weren't close enough yet. Stride by stride the sound got louder and louder until a grey dot could appear in the distance. The dot got larger and larger and turned out to be a path, a thunderpath.

'This is so cool!' Moonpaw yowled, but she couldn't beat the sound of the monsters roaring by.

'Okay. This is the thunderpath. It's dangerous. The monsters can kill you. Now go and run across when I say go, and be quick.' Cloudheart meowed to her, as her eyes were still looking for monsters. Moonpaw felt like she couldn't wait, but Cloudheart was tense. 

'Can you smell that? That's what monsters smell like.' Cloudheart explained, and Moonpaw nodded. But Moonpaw didn't smell it. She could tell that it smelt different from the forest, but she couldn't pick out that specific stench that Cloudheart was talking about. It wasn't a stench to Moonpaw, more like a familiar scent. And Moonpaw wasn't nervous at all. She didn't know why her mentor was so scared of monsters.

Something was familiar to Moonpaw, almost like the camp. She felt at home, she didn't feel afraid or smell anything that Cloudheart did. It just felt, normal to Moonpaw. She didn't know why, but she wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.

'Go!' Cloudheart howled and Moonpaw made a run for it. The thunderpath was hard, like a rock. It wasn't slippery at all, and Moonpaw did not need to dig her claws into it. It almost resisted her weight, unlike the forest floor did. Moonpaw leaped onto the edge. She was now safe.

Cloudheart's nose twitched at the scent of the twoleg place. What stench? Moonpaw thought as they padded closer and closer. It did smell different but not at all bad, and not enough to make Moonpaw's nose twitch. It sort of smelt like new territory, not dangerous, but new.

Moonpaw never had a good look at the twoleg place. They walked around it towards some green fields, somewhat looking like the Breezeclan border. There was a huge twoleg nest or something on the far side of it. Moonclaw picked up the scent of something living, but also dung. A lot of it. She thought she must have been here before. It all seemed too familar.

'This is the horse place.' Cloudheart meowed.  So that what the dung is. 'It's not normally worth it to go this far to catch a few mice, but I thought it might be beneficial for you to take a run across some plains. And it might be helpful to learn how to hunt like this.'

Cloudheart's nose went up into the air, and so did Moonpaw. Moonpaw scented mice, even before her mentor did. She dropped to a low crouch, and Cloudheart, clearly surprised, followed her apprentice slowly and steadily. Soon, a plump mouse was in sight, chewing on some plant. This would be such a good catch! Cloudheart swiped his tail to the left, and slowly moved to the other side of the mouse. Moonpaw was waiting for her mentor to spring, there was no way Moonpaw could take it.

Cloudheart was focused, making sure he was downwind. Moonpaw watched her mentor carefully while keeping an eye on the plump mouse. Moonpaw expected her mentor to creep closer and take a spring, but he sprinted forward as light as a feather, and chased the mouse towards Moonpaw. Moonpaw was standing too close to the mouse. Stunned, she smacked a paw onto the mouse, which was still warm and ended it with a killing bite.

Thank Starclan for this prey. She thought as she picked up the mouse and padded towards Cloudheart. Cloudheart eyed her carefully, then nodded with a face of satisfaction. They continued.

By the time of Sundown, Moonpaw and Cloudheart combined had caught two plump mouse and a fat squirrel. Moonpaw and Cloudheart headed back to the camp, crossing the thunderpath once again and running across the forest. When they had put their prey down at the fresh-kill pile, Moonpaw was dead exhausted and was looking forward to dig into a small mouse for herself.

'Moonpaw?' Cloudheart called, 'Before you go, you did well today. Good job.'

OMG, HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?!?! A year. A YEAR since my last update. I am so sorry. I just had so much schoolwork and personal issues. I originally didn't want to pick Wattpad writing back up because I am still so busy, but I decided to drag myself into it for you guys. AND ALSO WHAT 500 VIEWS. Omg I didn't think I'd ever be able to say that. THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS MEANS THE WORLD TO MEEEE. (Hopefully, you'll see improvement in my writing since it's been a year :O) AHHHHH. Have a good day ya'll. OMG 500 VIEWSSSSS.