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A drop of rain splashed directly onto Larkpaw's nose - then another and a third, until the water poured over her in torrents.
Blinking, the apprentice turned her head upwards. The sky had been covered in heavy, dark grey clouds all morning and there was a distinct smell of rain in the air.
"Come here!"
Heatherwing's voice sounded indistinct through the countless drops pattering on the high canopy of the forest.
Larkpaw jumped gratefully to her and Reddapple under a thickly woven undergrowth. Shivering because of the sudden cold, she curled up with her fur fluffed up and watched as the earth was softened by the rain.
"Of all times for the weather to change," Reddapple grumbled, her ears flattened. "We're not even close to the Pineglade yet."
Secretly, however, Larkpaw was infinitely glad that they were now stuck under this bush. For today was actually her intermediate fighting test.
When Heatherwing had surprised her with this news this morning, Larkpaw had almost jumped out of her fur. After all, her hunting test was only two days ago. She had never expected the two tests to be held so close together.
Larkpaw was even more stunned when it turned out that another battle strategist would be testing her today, with Reddapple volunteering.
When asked why she had to be tested by two cats, unlike the hunting test, Heatherwing had explained to her, "You seem to have an extraordinarily high potential of all the apprentices of the last moons - well, apart from Lakepelt. But in order to judge that properly, we need to get the opinion of a second cat."
Flareblaze also said that to me during my last training session. Larkpaw stared thoughtfully at her claws. At first it seemed more like a bad joke to her, but now that the cat-in-command of the battle strategists also thought that she would be a good fighter, she gradually realised how serious it was for her.
Still, doubts nagged at Larkpaw. Her greatest fear was that she would turn out not to be as good as she thought.
Lost in thought, she continued to stare out into the dense wall of rain, through which her surroundings seemed to blur.
"We haven't had weather like this for a long time," Heatherwing's voice sounded softly. "I just hope it doesn't go on like this all day."
That would be just fine with me.
After a while, which was characterised by silence, Reddapple stood up and began to pace back and forth restlessly. Every now and then she cast a long glance into the forest, which Larkpaw couldn't interpret.
As the tabico she-cat shuffled past Heatherwing, she held a paw in front of her and brought her Clanmate to a halt. "Great StarClan, do you have ants in your fur or why are you running a furrow in the ground here?"
