Legacy Rising: Dark Secrets

9

Rewritten ✔
Edited ✘

Pebblepaw's thoughts were plagued with images of Troutfrost standing over the bodies of her loved ones all the way back to camp despite Lavenderwing's comforting presence next to her.

They had gathered a lot of herbs, and the bitter taste was soaking into Pebblepaw's mouth. She spat them out next to Lavenderwing's carefully placed ones, and with a flick of her tail, went to wash her mouth out.

"Hey, Pebblepaw!" Sparrowpaw yowled, running up to his sister. Pebblepaw nodded to her brother, dipping her face into the stream that ran by camp and coming up with a mouth full of water.

Sparrowpaw playfully bumped into Pebblepaw's side, causing the water in her mouth to come shooting out.

"Sparrowpaw!" she yelled, though her smirk wasn't very well hidden. Her brother yawned.

"Imma head on to my nest now," he said, lowering his head. Pebblepaw nodded.

She needed to talk to someone else before she headed off anyway.

-

"Ravenflight!" Pebblepaw meowed, bounding over to the dark warrior. The older stopped in her tracks, looking over at the apprentice.

"Pebblepaw? What do you need?" she asked, her voice as sweet as honey.

"I wanted to ask you something," Pebblepaw said. She sat down, breathing heavy for a second, before continuing. "About Troutfrost, if you can spare a minute."

"Oh, uh... okay. What do you want to know?"

"What was he like as an apprentice?" She had to know if what Ravenflight said lined up to what Lavenderwing told her. It would all add up then.

"He was quite reckless and brash, always trying to show the Clan he wasn't just some rogue's kit. It caused him lots of trouble," Ravenflight murmured, looking up at the sky.

"His only real friend was Stormpuddle, but she grew apart from him after becoming Hailstorm's mate," she said. "He was always aggressive, if that's why you asked. Never got over his best friend ditching him, and honestly, I don't blame him. Losing a loved one can do wonders to a cat's personality, especially if that loved one is still here but can never be reached."

Pebblepaw shuffled her paws in the sand below her, thinking about what Troutfrost had to go through.

She almost felt bad, but she knew what she saw Troutfrost do had to have happened. His story just didn't line up correctly. There wasn't any fox scent where Goldenglow had died, after she thought about it, and Troutfrost had seemed uninjured.

If he tried to save the medicine cat, why would he have no injuries? Unless the fox nicked his nose or something, and that's why his maw was so bloody.

"Was that all you needed?" Ravenflight asked, yawning right after. Pebblepaw nodded, not wanting to keep the senior warrior up any more than she had to.

"Thanks," she added as Ravenflight walked away.

Pebblepaw turned away, only just realizing how hungry she had gotten.

When was the last time I ate? she thought. It feels like it's been moons!

Her paws crunched in the sand and her nose filled with the mouth-watering scent of fresh fish as she neared the fresh-kill pile, but as she was reaching for a small carp, shouting sounded from across the camp.

"Traitor!" Sootsky screeched at Troutfrost, hackles raised and back arched. The deputy looked similar, though was taller, and the look in his eyes was different than Sootsky's.

Sootsky looked mad, but Troutfrost looked absolutely murderous. He looked like he wanted to kill someone.

And at this point, Pebblepaw wouldn't put it past him.

The argument had seemed to settle down once Pebblepaw had finished her fish. The stars shown bright in the silverpelt, and Pebblepaw knew it was time for her to sleep.

In her dreams that night, all she could hear was a deep voice in the dark, whispering into her ear, saying: "There will be an enemy who will always last."

-

Pebblepaw woke with a gasp, her chest heaving with breaths. Why had that dream come back? It couldn't have meant anything; it must have just been a reoccurring nightmare.

She couldn't let it distract her.

"Pebblepaw!" Troutfrost meowed, almost slipping as he stuck his head inside the den. Pebblepaw watched him carefully, trying not to narrow her eyes.

"We're going on the sunhigh patrol towards WindClan territory. Hurry up," Troutfrost snapped, flicking his tail as he turned to stalk out.

"Someone's in a bad mood...," Pebblepaw scoffed.

She met Troutfrost next to the fresh-kill pile, watching him as he tore open a chub.

"Who else is coming?" she asked her mentor, and he didn't even look up to respond.

"Ashleaf and Ravenflight."

Pebblepaw nodded, grabbing a mouse to eat. Once she finished, both Ravenflight and Ashleaf appeared next to Troutfrost. She pushed the bones out of the way and stepped up to follow the three warriors.

All of them had much longer legs than Pebblepaw, and she thought they might rival the length of a WindClan warrior's. The only thing she could focus on was breathing and trying to keep up, but even then, she was still far behind once they stopped.

"Here Pebblepaw, I'll show you how to mark our borders," Ashleaf suggested, waving the apprentice over with his tail.

Pebblepaw nodded, watching carefully as Ashleaf rubbed his cheek across a tree, but wondered why Troutfrost couldn't show her. He was her mentor after all; maybe it had to do with his bad mood.

"Hello, Troutfrost and company!" a voice sounded from across the gorge.

Pebblepaw glanced across the gorge. In the distance, five cats stood. She could recognize one of them from the gathering, being the bubbly white she-cat named Cranepaw. Next to her was a pale ginger cat, whom Pebblepaw thought might've been named Cherrytree, and on Cherrytree's left, there was another apprentice.

It was probably Pearpaw, one of Cranepaw's littermates.

"Who are the two standing next to Pearpaw?" she turned to ask Ashleaf.

"The brown one is Larkleaf, Pearpaw's mentor, and next to him is his mate Quailwing. They don't go anywhere without each other," he responded, nodding to the WindClan cats.

Pebblepaw nodded. It made sense.

"RiverClan, let's go!" Troutfrost shouted, sounding somewhat angry. Pebblepaw tilted her head. Why was he still angry? Did he have a bad dream or something? Maybe it had something to do with his fight with Sootsky.

When they got back to camp, crows were crowding the willow trees.

A/N :

Word Count: 1029
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