Rivers and Trees: A Warriors Fanfiction

Chapter 2: Eagles, Beetles, and Adders

Eaglepaw woke up in the morning, his fur dusty and full of sand after training the entire day before. His paws ached, and he was extremely tired, even though a had slept well that night. He slowly blinked his golden eyes.

"Eaglepaw!" His mentor, the deputy Foxfoot, startled Eaglepaw.

"Wha?" Eaglepaw was wide eyed, yet he still felt asleep.

"Get moving, we're doing more battle training," Foxfoot flicked his tail in demand.

"We did that all of yesterday! Also, I haven't eaten once ever since we started training last dawn!" Eaglepaw complained.

"You need more practice! Go take a piece of fresh kill, then get to it," Foxfoot shot him an angry glance, and Eaglepaw knew it meant he was in trouble. He trotted over to the pile of quite a bit of fish, two water voles, and a single mouse. Eaglepaw chose a surprisingly plump trout. He ate hurriedly, then sped off to the forest where they train.

"Took you long enough!" Foxfoot scolded Eaglepaw. Unexpectedly, Foxfoot pounced at Eaglepaw, trying to pin him down, but with a yowl, Eaglepaw dodged the attack.

"What was that?" Eaglepaw was startled. Foxfoot never said anything about surprise attacks yet.

Then, from behind him, a tortoiseshell she-cat called Pepperspot leaped at his hind legs. Eaglepaw turned around unsheathing his claws and raked Pepperspot's side with his claws. Pepperspot yowled, startling Eaglepaw.

"Sorry! I-I didn't mean to unsheathe my claws..." He apologized.

"Eaglepaw! That's it, I'm putting you on tick duty. Take Pepperspot to Snowfern and get mouse-bile to bring to the elders' den," Foxfoot demanded.

"What? I didn't mean to! She surprise-attacked me!" Eaglepaw argued.

"Go," Foxfoot looked at Eaglepaw with slitted, emerald eyes.

"Come on, Pepperspot," Eaglepaw grumbled. The tortoiseshell cat groaned as she walked with Eaglepaw to the medicine cat den. As the two cats walked over to the thorny bush that overhangs the river, Eaglepaw spotted Creampaw, the RiverClan medicine cat apprentice, appear from the thorns and race over to where he and Pepperspot were.

"What happened?" Creampaw panted.

"This mouse-brained apprentice unsheathed his claws in training!" Pepperspot hissed.

"I'll take you to Snowfern," Creampaw tried to sooth Pepperspot, but Creampaw seamed unsettled herself. Her pretty, creamy fur faded into the darkness as she walked into the dim-lit thorn bush. About a heartbeat later, Creampaw came trotting out of her den towards Eaglepaw.

"Creampaw!" Eaglepaw called out to her.

"Wha?" Creampaw mumbled surprised, obviously distracted.

"Are you OK? You've been acting, well, weird."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine..." She trailed off.

"Oh, can you get me some mouse-bile?" Eaglepaw mumbled. "Foxfoot assigned me to ticks for punishment," He continued, spitting.

"Oh sure," Creampaw's eyes were bright, and she looked amused. The creamy she-cat came back with moss soaked with mouse-bile, which Eaglepaw wrinkled his nose at.

"Smells good, huh?" Creampaw laughed.

"Sure, if you can't smell it!" Eaglepaw joked. Creampaw's eyes gleamed, then she blinked and looked troubled once again.

"I'm going to help Snowfern now," Creampaw paced slowly to the medicine cat den. Well, I'd better get this to the elders, Eaglepaw sighed, looking down at the bile-covered moss that hung on a stick. He picked it up and trotted over to the elders' den.

"Eaglepaw! I see you've come for ticks. You don't mind treating Dewtail first, do you? She's been complaining all night about 'em," Beetlenose, the second oldest elder asked, his dusty brown fur drifting into the air. Beetlenose was quite old, but luckily, he's always been good-tempered.

"Sure, as long as you tell me stories," Eaglepaw joked. He brought the stinky, mouse-bile covered moss over to Dewtail, the oldest elder, and got to work searching for ticks in her short silver fur.

"Hmm, would you like to hear about our leader, Adderstar?" Beetlenose asked him. Adderstar became leader not long before Eaglepaw was born.

"Sure!" Eaglepaw nearly bounced but realized that would get mouse-bile on Dewtail's pelt.

"Well, Adderstar was originally a rouge, as you might've heard before," Beetlenose rumbled.

Eaglepaw nodded.

"Well, when he joined the clan, he was about the age of an apprentice. His name was Adder, and he pleaded to our former leader, Harestar, to let him join the clan. Adder had been abandoned by his mother and had nowhere else to go. Eventually, ignoring cats' protests," Beetlenose glared at Dewtail, "Including that cat's," Beetlenose continued again, to Eaglepaw's relief. "Harestar let Adder in, giving him the name Adderpaw. He worked his paws off, doing his best to earn the respect of his clan. When he was about twelve moons old, a great war broke out between RiverClan and ThunderClan. Adderpaw had been attacked by the ThunderClan deputy, Rowanfur, who obviously thought Adderpaw would be easy to drive off or kill. Adderpaw used his best skills and drove off Rowanfur, to most cats' surprise. Rowanfur still bears those scars today. After RiverClan won the great battle, Harestar gave Adderpaw his Warrior name, Adderfang. Adderfang had been a warrior only one moon when Harestar decided to make Poppyheart, then known as Poppypaw, Adderfang's apprentice. Poppypaw learned well from Adderfang and became a strong warrior called Poppyheart. By then, another litter of kits were old enough to be apprenticed, being born not long before Poppypaw was a kit, almost ready to be apprenticed. Adderfang received an apprentice from this litter, Birchpaw, who will be a warrior any day now. Not long afterwards, a badger had attacked a patrol and killed the deputy, Turtleshell. Adderfang was named deputy by moonrise. Now, you must be wondering how Harestar died, but that's a story for another time," Beetlenose told Eaglepaw. Eaglepaw thought that the story Beetlenose had just told him was amazing and hoped that he could be as great as Adderstar was.