Warriors: Crazystar's Greatest Challenge(Sequel to Crazystar's Battle)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

                Redpaw followed Goldentooth, who was leading a small group of cats to search for Crazystar. The patrol included Cloudheart, Mousestorm, Mudsplash, and best of all, her brother, Whitepaw. The medicine cat apprentice seemed to be quieter than usual, and was also limping slightly. Hmm…that’s strange…maybe he got a thorn in his paw or something.

                Goldentooth suddenly halted. They were extremely close to the ShadowClan border and were standing by a bush with bright red berries. Cloudheart, a white-furred she-cat, sniffed the ground by the bush. “Oh, no,” she muttered. “Her scent is strongest by the deathberries.”

                Redpaw gasped with horror. But another voice quickly asked, “Who’s missing?”

                A black-furred tom stepped out from behind a tree. “I wouldn’t tell you, Shadestar,” Goldentooth growled.

                “Well...guess what?” the ShadowClan leader meowed. “We want the land on your territory up to the Twoleg path. Give to us now or we’ll take it by force. Will you surrender?”

                “Of course not! Your pathetic warriors would never beat ThunderClan anyways!” Redpaw was shocked that it was Whitepaw who answered, stepping forward.

                “ShadowClan, attack!” Shadestar growled before leaping at her brother.

                Shadestar was intercepted by Goldentooth. Cats ran out of the bushes, but fortunately the ShadowClan patrol only had one more cat than ThunderClan did.

                A brown-and-white she-cat charged at Redpaw. The ThunderClan apprentice barely remembered to sidestep. Fortunately for her, when she stepped aside, the ShadowClan warrior couldn’t stop in time to avoid crashing into a tree. Oh, great StarClan, I’m terrible at fighting and this cat is older than me! How am I supposed to win? Actually, forget about winning, let’s talk about surviving…

                The she-cat charged again. Redpaw slid to the right again, but this time the ShadowClan cat was prepared.  She swept the ThunderClan apprentice’s feet out from under her, and Redpaw tumbled to the ground. “I knew apprentices were bad at fighting, but not this bad!” the she-cat laughed.

                Redpaw screamed in agony as the ShadowClan warrior raked her claws across her belly. She seemed to enjoy the apprentice’s pain and repeated the move. The she-cat lifted her forepaw for the third time, but suddenly staggered sideways as a white tom sprang onto her back. The ShadowClan warrior rolled onto the ground, but Whitepaw clearly anticipated the move and jumped off. She was back on her feet before he could attack.

                The she-cat charged and Whitepaw took a flying leap over her head, spinning around perfectly in mid-air. It was a move Redpaw had struggled with since Brightleaf had shown it to her a little over a half-moon ago.

                Whitepaw slapped her hindlegs with a forepaw and she collapsed to the ground. He raked his claws down the ShadowClan warrior’s stomach a few time and meowed, “Feels great, doesn’t it? Now get out of here!”

                He released her and Redpaw was surprised when she actually fled from the battle. “Why did she fall down suddenly like that?” the ThunderClan apprentice asked curiously.

                “There’s a tendon on your hindlegs, and if you hit it, your opponent will collapse,” her brother quickly explained.

                “Thanks for saving me,” Redpaw meowed.

                “No problem,” he responded almost instantaneously.

                The ShadowClan cats soon had no choice but to retreat. Almost immediately after Shadestar and his warriors disappeared on the ShadowClan side of the border, Hawkwhisker dashed over to where they stood, gasping for breath. “Liontail found Crazystar,” the brown tom panted. “You can all stop looking for her.”

                The patrol breathed a sigh of relief in unison. “That’s great because we need to report what just happened to her,” Goldentooth stated, and Redpaw caught a slight hint of tiredness in the senior warrior’s voice.

                “Why?” Hawkwhisker asked.

                As Goldentooth explained the battle with ShadowClan to the brown tom, the patrol began to walk back in the direction of the stone hollow. And Redpaw couldn’t help but wonder how Whitepaw, who was a medicine cat apprentice with no warrior training, had more knowledge of battle moves than his sister and executed them so perfectly. Meanwhile, she struggled with just about everything other than hunting and hardly had any fighting skills. Am I just that bad at battle training or is something peculiar going on here?