The Legend of Silverflame (Completed) {Warrior Cats Fanfic}

Chapter 8

Silverpaw trembled. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Get off our territory!" The dark gray tabby snarled.

Gladly! But Silverpaw paused and sniffed the air. She hadn't crossed the scent line. It was set at the bushes that the cats were standing by, not where she had emerged. "But your scentline is right..."

The dark tabby pounced on her, and immediately flung her over the scentline into Shadowclan territory. "That's reason enough!"

Snowfoot snarled from the other side. "Darkpelt and Thistlefur, I should've known..." Then she gave a loud yowl and bowled over into the tabby's clanmate without a moment's' hesitation, a cat whose spiky pelt was dark as night. She clawed at him fiercely, clawing up his spine and belly fur. Silverpaw was surprised by her aggressiveness, but had no more time to observe.

As soon as Snowfoot attacked, the dark tabby took that as an opportunity to take on Silverpaw. It took her by surprise, and she struggled to grasp to the little training she had.

Darkpelt swiped, Silverpaw ducked.

Darkpelt pounced, Silverpaw dodged and jumped as he went for an immediate swipe.

"Thunderclan filth!" He spat. "I'll flay you!"

Darkpelt swung around angrily, and knocked Silverpaw off her feet. She was completely confused about why Darkpelt hated Thunderclan so much, but kept fighting. Darkpelt dashed back at her before she could stand back up, jumping at her face-first.

She dug her claws into the Shadowclan cat's face, and one in his ear with the other paw. Darkpelt, taken by surprise, overshot his jumping target, landing a fox-length over her. Darkpelt was raging mad, and Silverpaw suddenly realized she had torn off most of his ear when she had clawed at his face, and blood streamed down from the wound into his face.

She sprang back up, and thought back to her dream, remembering the moves that the smaller cat had used on the bigger cat, and had almost won because of it. Maybe they'd work for her as long as she could. And maybe the cat had died in the dream, but it was something to go on. The little cat from her dream had dodged the dark cat's blow, then dashed to one side and got in a hit while his or her buff opponent was still recovering, taking advantage of her smaller size.

She gave it a try, raking Darkpelt's belly as she dashed under him, and he yowled, partially from pain, mostly from anger to receive such a hit from such a young apprentice. She did it again, and Darkpelt got angrier.

Darkpelt had the advantage of strength and size. Silverpaw had the advantage of speed and agility.

Every once in a while, Silverpaw got a glance at Snowfoot, who was grappling with Thistlefur in a vicious battle. Thistlefur would snarl something mean about Thunderclan or Silverpaw, and Snowfoot would get angrier. The fight continued for as long as any cat could stand, and Silverpaw began to grow tired.

She wasn't used to battling, much less long ones, and her newfound technique took more energy than she could afford to spend. For a bit of the battle, Silverpaw was able to beat this fully-grown, fully-trained warrior. But, exhaustion caught up with her, and her moves began to lose accuracy and speed. The air around her seemed blurred a bit, and she realized she was suffering from exhaustion, because her vision almost seemed just as dark as her dream.

Eventually, Darkpelt caught on to Silverpaw's strategy, and faked a swipe, swinging his legs out and throwing her a few feet as she tried to attack him from the side.

She landed on a hard surface, realizing she had landed on a small sandy clearing a few foxlengths away from a pile of rocks. Darkpelt's kick was enough force to temporarily immobilize her, and she couldn't have moved, even if she had the air to breathe.

Silverpaw would've groaned, but Darkpelt had knocked the wind out of her body. The apprentice twitched, and her muscles stung. She struggled to mew as Darkpelt came rushing at her, claws outstretched.

Darkpelt flung Silverpaw as hard as he could, putting all his anger into the one throw. Time slowed down, and the air rippled through her fur. Stars pulsed around in her fading vision. She landed a few foxlengths away from him, with a bone-jarring thud, against a big brown rock on the rock pile.

Everything went black, and all the sounds and voices around her sounded distant, like they were speaking through water. Her head felt like it was on fire, and her pelt got warm and sticky, as if it had been covered in blood.

She heard Thistlefur yowl as Snowfoot clawed him like crazy to reach Silverpaw. Snowfoot's frantic yowl mingled with Mousepelt and Stormpaw's, who must've heard the battle and come running.

Silverpaw felt her scruff being pulled as she heard Snowfoot repeating over and over, "Don't fall asleep! Whatever you do, you can't fall asleep!"

But all that sounded good to Silverpaw right then was sleep, and she couldn't think clearly. Still, she knew that if that's what Snowfoot thought, she could at least try. But maintaining wakefulness was a hopeless battle for Silverpaw, because exhaustion kept rolling over her like a thick cloud.

Soon, Snowfoot's voice was drowned out as they entered the camp, where she was rushed into the medicine den. She couldn't see anything, but could smell the scent of herbs that constantly mingled with the air in Mooncloud's den. Just before all of the noise of the camp faded away, Silverpaw heard Snowfoot's voice one last time.

"Don't fall asleep! I might not see you again..."

The cat in my dream... Her last thought echoed. The cat in my dream was me.