Flames & Shadows

Chapter 2

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Redpaw was woken long before sunhigh to Tigerpaw nudging him with his foot.

“Redpaw, get up. Mistyleg and the others are already waiting.”

The ginger apprentice sighs and gets up, stretching in his nest before padding out, Tigerpaw already trudging to his own nest.

“Look who finally decided to show up.”

Redpaw glances at a young brown tom with white paws who’s sneering at him, but doesn’t say anything. He simply takes a deep breath and pads up to where his mentor is.

“Weaselpaw can be prickly at times, but he does have a good heart.” Mistyleg glances at her apprentice. “You did a very good job saying nothing.”

The ginger apprentice nods silently and dares a glance back towards the older apprentice.

“Let’s go.” The gray she-cat nudges her apprentice and bounds out of camp, Redpaw by her side, the other mentor and apprentice right on their tails.

Once out of camp, Mistyleg signals for her patrol to stop and she tastes the air. “Redpaw, what can you smell?”

The ginger apprentice opens his jaws and tastes the air like his mentor did. “It smells like … trees. And … sap.”

The gray she-cat nods. “That would be Skyclan. Must be a patrol.”

The border patrol continues on, walking along the shore of the lake.

Redpaw stares in wonder at the glittering blue water. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It just goes on forever!”

Mistyleg nods. “I remember that same awe when I was an apprentice myself.”

Weaselpaw sneers. “It’s water. So what?”

The gray she-cat turns and glares at the young brown tom, who immediately closes his mouth. “Try that again, Weaselpaw, and I’ll have your mentor speak to Featherstar about delaying both your warrior assessment and your warrior ceremony.”

Redpaw gulps as his mentor turns and stalks ahead. He chances a pitying look at his fellow apprentice, who has his tail dragging on the ground as he trudges after his mentor.

“Redpaw!”

The ginger apprentice bolts forward to stand next to Mistyleg.

The warrior glances at him. “Weaselpaw has a bad attitude about life, but he’s a good cat. Sometimes he needs a harsh word to put him in his place.” She sits down and flicks her tail, signaling for the other warrior and apprentice to continue on. Once they’re both out of hearing range, Mistyleg turns to her apprentice. “I had them go on ahead of us because of what I wanted to speak to you about.”

Redpaw tilts his head to the side, confused.

His mentor sighs. “If you could go back and prevent certain events from happening, would you?”

The apprentice sits down. “What do you mean?”

Mistyleg bows her head. “You’ve heard the stories of the Great Battle, I assume?”

Redpaw shrugs. “I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been told the story.”

“I suppose you should hear it, then. My great-grandfather, Dewnose, told me once, before he went to Starclan, that he was just a kit when the Great Battle took place. But he would never forget seeing Ferncloud laying on the ground after the Dark Forest cats fled. He and his sister Amberkit, when he was still Dewkit, didn’t understand what was going on, but were quickly told by Cloudtail and Brightheart that all the cats that had been laying on the ground like that had gone to Starclan.”