Waterstar's Heart

Chapter 13

The grass under Waterheart's paws were soft and wet from morning dew. The sun was slowly rising above the trees, casting a beautiful yellow glow down onto his pelt.

Waterheart trailed behind Ivytail. Along with him were Grassfang, Flarejump, and the newly apprenticed Wrenpaw and Snailpaw. The two littermates eagerly followed the grey and white patched she-cat.

Ivytail's patched tail gently swished as she paused, sniffing the air. Her whiskers twitched in confusion, but she then shook it off. The grey and white she-cat turned to Snailpaw. "What do you smell?" She asked her apprentice.

Lifting his nose to smell the air, his yellow eyes bright. "ThunderClan, the forest," he sniffed the air again, nose wrinkling, "...and something else, it smells gross!"

Wrenpaw sniffed the air too, her pelt fluffed.

Flarejump glanced towards where the trees starkly ended and where the Thunderpath lay. "This is the thunderpath." Flarejump meowed, nodding his head towards it. He lead the apprentices towards the black surface, but stopped at the edge.

The ginger speckled warrior held back Wrenpaw with his tail, and turned back to look at Grassfang and Waterheart. "You two are warriors now, tell them what you learned about the Thunderpath." He meowed. The warrior stared at them expectantly.

Grassfang was the first to speak. "There's a tunnel underneath it that leads into ShadowClan territory." She pointed with her tail tip towards where the earth dipped into a circular, stoney tunnel. "It gives us an advantage into ShadowClan territory."

"...and ShadowClan, too." Waterheart added on quickly. "That's why we have to patrol here often." He narrowed his eyes towards the tunnel. Had Shadestar took the tunnel all those moons ago to deal with Adderstar? The warrior turned to the pine forest, eyeing the trees.

There seemed to be movement. It must be a dawn patrol. Waterheart thought. He couldn't quite tell what was beyond the pines, as they shadowed the territory well. The sun wasn't high enough to cast its light into the territory.

Flarejump cleared his throat. "Don't ever cross without looking both ways. If you feel the air shake you must get off immediately. They're faster than any cat." He pressed, eyeing the two young cats. "Many cats have died here, and been gravely injured." Wrenpaw and Snailpaw gave nervous looks towards each other, and then turned back to the warrior.

Waterheart shivered at the thought. The more he thought about Houndtail and Rowanstalk, the more dark the story seemed to be. How had he listened to her as a kit?

"Do they chase cats?" Wrenpaw asked.

Her mentor shook his head. "No. They just keep going. There have been times where they've veered off the thunderpath and into the forest." Flarejump then quickly meowed, "It's incredibly rare. In my lifetime I've never seen it."

The two apprentices were staring across the black stone, eyes wide like an owl's. "I can't wait to tell Honeypaw about this!" Wrenpaw whispered to her brother. Her littermate had been taken to tour a different part of the territory by Badger.

Grassfang headed towards the tunnel along the border. She might as well remark the scents. Waterheart thought.

"I wonder if Snakeeyes is going to try something again." Grassfang wondered out loud. "I scented a patrol a couple of days ago."

Ivytail's ears flicked. "I highly doubt that Adderstar even knows what's going on anymore. I'd be happy to claw the pelt off of Snakeeyes so we don't have to keep extra patrols over here!" She called back.

Snailpaw blinked. "Adderstar?"

Grassfang glanced back over her shoulder. "ShadowClan's leader!" She glanced at Ivytail, her lip curling, "Oakpath also scented RiverClan on Sunningrocks." She announced, raising her voice so the cats could hear.