Legacy (Book 1)

Chapter 26: Blacker Then Night

Chapter 26: Blacker Then Night

"Oh no, no, no, no," Rainstone mewed, shaking her head and backing away.

Sweetberry flicked her tail impatiently. "If you want to be a real RiverClan cat you have to be able to swim! We've put it off for long enough, now it's time for you to swim!" the gold she-cat nudged her shoulder roughly and Rainstone stumbled until her paws were slipping into the fast moving current.

"Can't we at least start in shallow water?!" Rainstone begged. She guessed Sweetberry had purposefully chosen the largest stream in RiverClan territory, which happened to be the one she'd almost drowned in.

"No!" Sweetberry growled, slamming into her and sending her tumbling into the stripping water. Rainstone barely had time to draw in a breath before she was tumbled head over paws through the water. Her head scraped against something and she realized it was the pebbly streambed.

Growing frantic as her breath faded, Rainstone remembered Sweetberry's instructions and moved her paws through the water frantically, pushing the water down and herself up. Lucky for her, her wide paws pushed the water better than the Clan-cats and she jumped from underneath the water, keeping her bobbing head above water.

She struck out for the bank that swept past quickly. Her muscles burning, she felt the pebbled beneath her paws and was able to walk soaked, out of the stream. She collapsed on her side on the grassy meadow, resting her weary limbs and pounding heart.

I swam! Triumph glittered through her at the accomplishment and she ran through the motions she had used to swim. It really was just like Sweetberry said... speaking of which, here she comes now.

Hearing the patter of paws, she sat up, still dripping water, though her diet of fish had turned her fur fairly silky. "See, you lived," Sweetberry mewed with a smirk, standing in front of her.

"No thanks to you," Rainstone muttered and Sweetberry rolled her green eyes and muttered something inaudible.

"Anyways, swimming is the last thing to accomplish before you can become a warrior. You learned hunting quickly and your fighting was already... acceptable," Sweetberry sniffed.

Rainstone smirked; Sweetberry only said that because Rainstone had beaten her every time. What did you expect? Pepper was always much faster than you! And he always had a few tricks... After a moon and a half off training, Rainstone was better than all the other apprentices and the warriors had come to give her a quiet respect; even though she kept her distance.

"Let's do some hunting before we go back to camp," Sweetberry yawned. The air was warm and the droning of honey bees was quite soothing.

Rainstone followed Sweetberry to the Flatrocks, an area along a stream where the bank was a slab of rock overlooking the river. Because the rocks were warm and low, it made it easy to hunt. They were a favorite place to fish.

Stormfang, who was hunting with her apprentice, Cloudypaw, nodded at them as they settled down to fish. Rainstone crouched, quite comfortably, but with her paws ready to move in an instant. They watched the flowing water with narrowed eyes and Rainstone was the first to flash out a paw, scooping out a large pike.

With not a word of approval from the other cats, Rainstone killed it and set back down to waiting. It was quiet business, and rather enjoyable to just lay on the warm rocks with heat soaking your pelt and the cool spray of the stream to dampen your pelt.

Unlike in other Clans, there were no hunting 'patrols,' cats were just sent out to spend their day hunting until they had to go on border patrol. Rainstone liked this easy way of life, no pressure, just calm, pleasurable duties one day after another.