Silence {Warriors Fanfiction}

{𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏}

Lightpaw twitched his nose in disgust at the prey pile. It was now a day old, and it stank. He though he might try and sign to one of the cats, especially those that had such authority, but when they saw him, they would just think he was trying to hear or something. Lightpaw saw his mother, Rainheart, padding towards him. Or he thought that was her name. He had watched carefully whenever a cat said her name, tried to say it himself, and then the cat whom he was asking would just to point to some things. That was how he learnt most of anything, actually. Sometimes his dreams that let him hear helped, since then he could fully enjoy the vast sounds of the forest.

Distant from his thoughts, Lightpaw didn't realise that Rainheart was starting to groom his fur. Why? His fur was fine. Okay, it might be a bit spiked up and set from the constant rain in HailClan, but wasn't that everyone's daily fur? 

Even so, Rainheart was busily trying to keep her son's fur sleek and flattened. In mid-stroke, she stopped, and did that weird thing where she twitched her ears. She returned to grooming, but now licking fast and frantically, only pausing to smooth a few stray strands here and there. That was when Lightpaw realised that more cats had gathered around. His sharp eyes even spotted the clan leader, Berrystar slowly emerging from their den.

Lightpaw's mentor, Quickflash padded over to join them. 

"Quickflash! I'm so excited! I bet Lightpaw won't ever know, but this is his warrior ceremony. What will happen? Will everything be alright, oh, StarClan shine upon us!" Rainheart cried, so loudly that other cats turned around to watch. Even though he couldn't hear, Lightpaw read the movements and pawed in frustration. When will anybody know that I am as normal as any other cat. I may be deaf, but I'm not senseless!

 Poolshine, a spineless cat that Lightpaw had to share his kithood with, was now strutting about like some maniac. When he passed Lightpaw, his paw flashed out, cuffing his ear. Rainheart was now deep in conversation, so she didn't see Lightpaw rub his left ear in the vain hope to draw out the small itch that had started. Some cat he is. I bet he has ticks. Lightpaw sighed. Rainheart seemed to have stopped sharing tongues, and had heard him. Padding quickly towards her kit, she started the rhythmical licking again, until Lightpaw felt as though he had just been dumped in a wet puddle. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Poolshine smirk at him, before turning around to pick at what was left of the prey pile. Why doesn't he hunt for himself? There's still plenty of time to hunt! Lightpaw didn't like the sound of a warrior ceremony, even though he had seen a few before. There's always a name change. 

And he'll have to lose his beloved mentor, who, even though she wasn't the only mentor, with the other permanent trainers that helped all apprentices, she was the one that cared the most, was patient, and taught Lightpaw how to 'talk' and 'listen' in his own way. In short, Quickflash was the best a cat could ever get. But he had heard as well, that Quickflash was fancying Mintfang, the clan's newly recruited rogue. So he guessed that it would be a while, maybe even never, until she became a mentor again.

More cats had come, but of course, not all of them! Hailclan was around almost the size of one and a half clans, from the rogues that had brought stories of the original clans, the famous five, the true  warriors. So the ceremony never waited for all cats, just the available ones, and Lightpaw thought that was smarter, since, who would be caring for the elders and the weaklings, since they were in a more secured camp, who would be gathering the prey and water, who would be exploring newer territory? 

He didn't know how the original clans survived without doing that. It was already obvious that only most of the resting warriors and apprentices would watch it, with maybe a few elders  that came over here for a visit. The youngest batch of apprentices, all just around six to seven moons old, had already left for training, which meant the current cats in camp probably won't see them for another quarter moon or so.