Untold Omen

Ch.3

At some point during the night, Patchpaw, Laurelpaw and Silverpaw had also made their way into the apprentices' den. Snakepaw was unaware until he felt a paw prodding at his side.

"Wake up! We're going out to train!" Patchpaw meowed in his ear. Snakepaw rolled over and stretched out his front legs before opening his eyes.

For a moment, he expected to be greeted by Tawnyflower back in the nursery. But he was an apprentice now, and the only cats nearby were the other apprentices.

"Am I late?" Snakepaw groaned tiredly. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"Silverpaw woke me up when he left for the dawn patrol. I thought you needed more sleep. You went to sleep early, so I figured you were really tired."

There was nothing but innocence in the young she-cat's tone, but Snakepaw couldn't help but feel bothered that he wasn't included in the early morning apprentice chatter.

He was relieved that Patchpaw didn't seem to notice the hurt in his eyes as she bounded toward the exit of the apprentices' den.

Not wanting to be left behind, Snakepaw hopped up onto his paws and followed her out into the camp.

Rednose and Crowwatcher were already together near the clan exit. Rednose's ears perked as he noticed Snakepaw and Patchpaw finally leaving their den.

"You'll have to eat when we get back. It's normal for apprentices to have a hard time adjusting to being awake so early," Rednose looked to the side toward Crowwatcher, waiting to see if he had anything to add.

After a brief pause, he continued. "-but you shouldn't make a habit of it. Let's go."

The four cats passed the returning dawn patrol as they left.

Gingersnap, a warrior Snakepaw hadn't been formally introduced to, was among them. He was a solid ginger tabby with deep amber eyes.

He padded alongside Silverpaw, his attention forward as he made an effort not to slip on the frozen ground.

Silverpaw gave a taunting look to Patchpaw, who returned it with a stuck out tongue. Snakepaw urged her to continue walking, and the two of them sped up to walk beside their mentors

"Are we battle training today?" Patchpaw asked, struggling a bit to keep up with Crowwatcher's large strides.

"We will get to that," Crowwatcher said simply in response.

"Hunting is more important at the moment, since leafbare hasn't shown any signs of leaving soon." Rednose added. This answer seemed to satisfy Patchpaw much more than her own mentor's did.

"Elmstar wants us to build your endurance so you'll be ready to travel to the island in a few days time, so we'll be walking all the way to the bridge and start hunting there."

Snakepaw wrinkled his nose in disapproval. The bridge was all the way at the edge of their territory.

It was the only path to ThunderClan's territory that didn't require walking across the stream, but it was the furthest away from the lake you could go before wandering into uncharted territory.

By the time they approached the bridge, Snakepaw's legs were already aching.

"We haven't even started hunting yet, and my paws are numb!" he complained, Patchpaw giving him a concerned glance.

"That's good, it means you're really pushing yourself." Rednose said with a small nod, turning to look at Snakepaw.

Crowwatcher was next to him, and the four cats sat in a circle formation while the apprentices were instructed.