Warriors - Burnt Skies

Chapter 24

Nightstorm watched through some brambles as Dune lowered himself into a wonky hunting crouch, tail waving wildly in the air and gaze fixed upon a mouse. The mouse sat up, quickly glancing in Dune's direction before scrabbling away. In a desperate attempt to catch the small rodent, the cream tom launched himself towards the mouse, but his paws caught nothing but empty air.

"Mouse dung!" He hissed, staring in the direction that the mouse had ran off in.

Nightstorm pushed herself out of the bramble bush, the sharp spikes clinging to her fur as she made her way into the clearing.

"Remember, Dune, this is about seeing what you know. It doesn't matter if you can't do something - we'll just teach you it," Nightstorm reassured as she disentangled herself from the bush.

"I know, but everyone else probably done way better on their tests," Dune meowed, tail drooping.

Nightstorm finally pulled free of the bush, padding over to the young tom and resting a tail on his shoulders. "Yes, but they're a lot more experienced than you," she pointed out.

Dune shrugged. "I guess. But what about Hazel?"

Nightstorm thought back to the confident spotted she cat she had seen padding into camp, and remembered Dune telling her that Hazel had always wanted to live as a wild cat. It would make sense if she knew a bit about hunting.

"Stop comparing yourself to others," Nightstorm meowed firmly. "Everyone has to start somewhere, but having the determination to get your end goal is what truly matters. As long as you try your best, no one can judge you."

Dune nodded in agreement, though some doubt still remained in his blue eyes.

"Let's get back to camp," Nightstorm meowed, flicking her tail on the direction of camp.

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Nightstorm nodded to Tigerflame as she trotted into camp, Dune bounding over to Spirit to tell the small tom about his test. She narrowed her eyes as Tigerflame stood up from where she had been sat at the edge of the camp and started trotting towards Nightstorm.

"Hello, Nightstorm," Tigerflame greeted as she approached. "I need to talk to you."

"What is it?" Nightstorm asked, trying to keep the hostility she felt towards the she cat out of her voice.

"When on patrol, me and Snow found some fox scent near the border with Twolegplace. It seemed like it was only passing through, but we should keep a look out in case it decides to come back," Tigerflame told her.

"Oh, ok. I'll spread the word across camp then," Nightstorm replied.

Tigerflame's amber eyes sharpened to slits and her fur fluffed up slightly. "Are you saying that you don't trust me to spread the word myself?"

Great. If it wasn't bad enough that Nightstorm didn't trust Tigerflame in the first place, now the whole camp probably knew about it. She saw Dune and Spirit watching the conversation whilst pretending to talk to each other on the other side of camp, while Shadow had stopped outside the tunnel through which she had just entered, not making any effort at all to disguise the fact that she was eavesdropping.

"N-no, it's not that!" Nightstorm spluttered. She gave her black pelt a few licks in an effort to smooth it down. "I just thought I would help. If you want to do it yourself, I won't stop you."

Nightstorm felt like that last part was probably true - if she was speaking to any other cat, she would have helped. Then again, she felt like Tigerflame knew that she didn't trust her from the start, and was just using this as an excuse to confront her about it.

"Look," Tigerflame meowed, lowering her voice to a whisper. "I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you. I just want a chance. A new start. Please."

On that last part, Tigerflame's voice had a tone of desperation, making Nightstorm feel almost sorry for the she cat. Almost. She still couldn't forget that Tigerflame had tried to 'capture' both Shadowstrike and Spirit, who was just a kit, when they first met each other. Nightstorm was willing to give her a chance, though. Whatever won the others over was clearly working on her, because Tigerflame genuinely seemed like she was trying to have a fresh start.

"You're right. I think we got off on the wrong paw," Nightstorm told her, studying the tortoiseshell she cat. "Why don't we both spread the word across camp to keep an eye out for the fox?"

Tigerflame nodded in agreement, turning to pad over to Shadow. Blizzardfrost and Hazel had appeared in camp at some point, at the grey tabby caught Nightstorm's eye. She trotted over to him.

"You were having an argument about who should warn everyone about a fox on the territory? Seriously?" The tabby twitched his whiskers in amusement. "I thought you were better than that."

"It wasn't about the fox," Nightstorm meowed defensively. "Well, it was, but it was much deeper than that. It was more about trust."

Blizzardfrost sat down, curling his tail over his paws. He seemed to have found the entire ordeal hilarious.

"You should have seen your face when Tigerflame accused you of not trusting her," Blizzardfrost grinned.

"Shut up," Nightstorm meowed, giving him a playful cuff on the ear. "You can hardly talk. At least I sorted out my trust issues."

Blizzardfrost huffed in response. "You got me there." He paused, and quickly changed the topic. "Anyway, that argument saved you a job. Now the entire camp knows about the fox."

Nightstorm looked across camp to see that Tigerflame had realised the same, instead choosing a fish off the fresh kill pile and trotting away to eat it with Emberheart.

"You seem in a good mood today," Nightstorm meowed, turning back to him.

"Am I not allowed to be in a good mood?" Blizzardfrost asked, but Nightstorm continued staring at him until he gave a proper answer. "I caught a rabbit today."

Nightstorm was momentarily confused, until she realised that, considering he came from RiverClan, he had probably never caught a rabbit before.

"Great!" She meowed. "But I thought you were meant to be testing Hazel."

"I did test Hazel, but we finished early, so I went hunting," Blizzardfrost responded. Seeming to read Nightstorm's mind, he added, "Hazel can do a basic hunting crouch but her techniques need some work."

"Sounds like she done better than Dune. He couldn't do a hunting crouch," Nightstorm told him. "That's fine, though, we can just teach him it."

Blizzardfrost nodded. "We should probably go and talk to the others about how Dune and Hazel done. Then we can make them and Spirit apprentices."

Nightstorm stood up, gesturing Blizzardfrost to follow her as they padded over to Dawnbreeze. Emberheart pricked his ears and followed shortly after. It was time for the first apprentices of BirchClan to have their ceremony.