The Prophesied

Chapter 13 - Birdpaw

That morning she was woken up by Mimicpaw. Who said that she and her mentor were having a training session with Birdpaw and Crowthroat. Birdpaw felt exhausted from her training session with Hopepaw in the Dark Forest. The smaller apprentice had been faster than she looked, and had kept confusing Birdpaw as the apprentice had raced around Birdpaw, and she had missed almost every single hit that Birdpaw threw. She had managed to get a few blows on the apprentice and with a few more training sessions with Hopepaw Birdpaw would be able to know how to take down swift cats in battle.

 Birdpaw nodded in agreement to Mimicpaw and said that Birdpaw would be there in a moment, trying to hide her scratches on Birdpaw's flank, Mimicpaw had then left her to wait by the HurricaneClan camp entrance with Mimicpaw's mentor and Crowthroat. Birdpaw lifted herself up, and started to groom her fur, at least Birdpaw had been able to deflect most of Hopepaw's blows. It would be easy to cover up, most of the other apprentices and warriors just thought she was a restless sleeper and sometimes hurt herself by accident.

 Birdpaw stood up and trotted out of the apprentices den, shaking off the sleepy feeling that still clung to her. She saw Heronleap sitting with Mimicpaw beside him and Crowthroat was sitting a tail length away from them, glaring at the apprentice's den. Birdpaw walked towards them, "Finally." Crowthroat growled, Birdpaw rolled her eyes.

 Heronleap stood up, "Let's go now," he said, trotting out of the camp with Mimicpaw his apprentice following him, Birdpaw and Crowthroat stood up and went after Heronleap and Mimicpaw.

 Heronleap soon stopped in a clearing, it had a few trees around the area and there was a large fallen tree branch laying on at the edge of the clearing, it looked as if it was planted into the ground and not easy to move. There were mostly dead ferns and bushes too, the snow made everything too bright, and it made everything look clean. The snow crunched loudly under the patrol's paws, making Birdpaw's paws feel a little numb with cold.

 "Here, we will see how far you are in your training. Also see if Crowthroat has really been training you like he says." Heronleap shot a suspicious look at Crowthroat, who rolled his eyes, "Of course I've been training her!" he snapped.

Sure you have. You must have been lying to everyone saying that you have been training me, which also works in my favor too. Birdpaw thought, Crowthroat lying to the Clan about her training helped her as well, because if he didn't then it would be odd that Birdpaw knew how to fight and hunt without training.

 "Mimicpaw and Birdpaw, let's see how far you are in training by a fight. As one of your assessments, the first one to pin the other three times wins, the first one to get pinned three times loses." Heronleap said, leaping up onto the large fallen tree branch, Crowthroat jumped up next to him, pushing off the snow before he settled down.

 Birdpaw looked over at Mimicpaw, her breath made small white clouds as she breathed nervously, "I'll go easy on you Birdpaw, you are younger than me and you haven't been assessed yet." Mimicpaw said, Birdpaw flicked her tail. "You don't need to, I've trained just as hard as you." I've trained harder than her, but she doesn't know that. Birdpaw thought with slight amusement.

 The two apprentices started to walk around the edges of the clearing, making a circle in the deep snow, not breaking eye contact with each other, then Birdpaw lunged forward swinging her paw to smack Mimicpaw's muzzle, her littermate yelped in surprise at the unexpected force. Birdpaw jumped back as Mimicpaw tried to swat her back, Birdpaw jumped at Mimicpaw and she planted her front paws in the snow and turned back to her the force of the movement her lifted up her back paws and kicked them at Mimicpaw's face, she growled and jumped at Birdpaw's back, pinning her and pushing her into the snow, belly to the ground.