Rosepaw was walking back to camp with Rockpaw, and her limbs felt tired. She had been working hard the entire session so she could catch up to the other apprentices.
"Hey, Rockpaw?" She asked.
"Yeah, Rosepaw?" He replied, looking at her with his innocent amber eyes.
"Um..." She started hesitantly. "Why did you listen to Thrushpaw and leave without me?" The question had been bothering her since Rockpaw had first said he had followed Thrushpaw's suggestion.
"I dunno... Maybe because she's an older apprentice? And she knows a bit more?" He said, apparently not sure why he had listened to her.
"Did no one else try to wake me up?" She asked, hoping someone else cared for her a tiny bit.
"Yeah, uh, Ripplepaw had tried, but Thrushpaw had pulled him away before he could wake you," He stated, recalling the events earlier in the day.
"Oh," Rosepaw's ears perked up. I wonder why Ripplepaw cared? Aw, who am I kidding. He's nice, so of course he'd try to do the right thing. Rosepaw brushed off his actions.
"Want to get something from the fresh-kill pile when we get back?" Rockpaw asked hopefully.
"You're always hungry," Rosepaw teased. "But, yeah, I'm hungry too after all."
Rockpaw and Rosepaw arrived at camp and went to the fresh-kill pile, and both started to pick through the prey, looking for the perfect piece. Rosepaw and Rockpaw eventually settled on sharing a rabbit.
The both picked up the rabbit and brought it near the entrance of the Apprentice Den. Rockpaw was the first to take a bite out of the prey that had probably come from WindClan territory.
"Wow, this tastes way different than fish," Rosepaw said, surprised.
"Definitely," Rockpaw mumbled as he was chewing some of the tender rabbit.
It tasted much more meaty and juicy than fish, and it didn't taste as sweet as fish, but it was still delectable despite the fur. Rosepaw wondered how other prey tasted, like squirrels. Or maybe frog? Nah. Frogs would just be gross, she decided.
"Hey, Rosepaw!" Ripplepaw called to her just as she and Rockpaw were finishing their meal. "Do you, uh, wanna maybe play a game, or uh, something?" He asked with a slightly crooked grin.
Is something wrong with Ripplepaw? He's usually really casual. Why was he stuttering? Aw, oh well. I'm sure he would say if something was wrong, Rosepaw concluded. I feel like I think about stuff too much. But do I really? I don't know.
"Why would you play with her, when you could play with me~?" Thrushpaw purred and flicked her tail, her green eyes trying so hard to be cute that it was creepy.
"Uh, maybe next time, Thrushpaw," The dark gray tom meowed awkwardly and ducked away from her green gaze. "I kinda just wanted to get to do something with Rosepaw."
The russet and white she-cat felt Thrushpaw glaring daggers at her. "Oh, sure. We could ask our mentors if we could go hunting, maybe? Hunting is always fun," Rosepaw suggested.
"Agreed," Ripplepaw nodded and they went to their mentors together.
The mentors gave their approval, with the cliché saying of telling them to be careful.
Rosepaw and Ripplepaw headed farther north in RiverClan territory, near the border of ShadowClan and RiverClan. Ripplepaw opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Rosepaw flicked her tail and hushed him. She heard another crack of a twig and something that sounded like pawsteps of an animal.
Rosepaw dropped into the hunter's crouch and crept towards the noise, with Ripplepaw copying her, even if he seemed a bit nervous.
"Rosepaw? I-I'm not sure that this is prey. It sounds too loud for what we usually catch.." He whispered.
"Maybe it's just a larger bird or something? I don't know," she admitted hesitantly, "but if it is prey, then imagine the Clan when they see the prey we brought!" She raised her voice a bit at the end, her eyes lighting up with the prospect of some mysterious food.
Ripplepaw sighed quietly and they crept up onto the clearing where they heard the noise. The apprentices went forward and looked through a gap in the bushes, but instead of prey, a big, furry, black and white animal with large claws and tiny eyes was sniffing around. It smelled so musky and strongly, Rosepaw wasn't sure how they hadn't realized it before. Ripplepaw was just staring at the badger with his jaws slightly open, as if he had frozen in the middle of a gasp.
"Run," Rosepaw said just loud enough for Ripplepaw to hear it. She took off with Ripplepaw behind her. They tried moving as fast as they could without making enough noise to alert the beast to their location. Ripplepaw, however, started having troubles due to the injuries he had gotten before from the rogues. He started panting after just a bit of running, they weren't even that far from the badger. He slowed down, with Rosepaw noticing she slowed down a tad. Ripplepaw panted, but when he stepped forward, he tripped on a tree root and fell, cracking a fallen branch.
That one noise seemed, to them, to almost shake the entire forest with its loudness. The apprentices both paused, as if the world had stopped, for what seemed hours, but really it was just a second. A moment later, they heard the clumsy, crashing noise of a badger trampling undergrowth to chase the cats. To it, the prey.
Rosepaw yanked Ripplepaw up by his scruff and they started running. Ripplepaw was still panting, but he never slowed down. Fear could make anyone run a marathon faster than lightning. The badger, with his larger strides, still gained on them, bit by bit. Sure, it couldn't see well, but with the absence of sight, it used smell.
Rosepaw had started running to the camp, but Ripplepaw had to block her. "We can't go to the camp! The badger could destroy it, and think of the Queens, Elders, and kits!" He huffed as he ran.
He's right, Rosepaw thought to herself. Where can we lead the badger to then? Suddenly, and idea popped into her head.
"Ripplepaw, I got an idea!"
"Talk fast, then, because we need all the ideas we can get!"
"You know the little forest of cedars at the edge of our territory?"
It took Ripplepaw a moment, but he nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, since badgers rely on smell and sound, not sight," Rosepaw panted, the words tumbling out of her mouth, "We could go there and when we get to a tree that's not much bigger than the gap between us, let's run on both sides of it. The badger is following in the middle between us, so if we run around the tree and it can't see," Rosepaw paused for a breath. "It should run into the tree, leaving us at least another few seconds to get away. I know it'll be back though, but it gives us a little more time."
"Sounds good," Ripplepaw responded. "but, we can't run forever. I say after we get the badger to run into the tree, you run to camp and get help from the warriors. I'll keep running and distract the badger so you can go," He finished, breathing rapidly.
"What?!" Rosepaw practically shrieked in outrage. "No! You can go to camp and get help. I'll distract the badger. You have injuries that are still healing, and you won't be able to run as long as me!"
"Exactly, we need someone to get back to camp as soon as possible!" He retorted.
Rosepaw shot him a look, and he knew he wasn't winning this argument. It hurt him a little bit, though, to know that he was going to run away while she was in danger. He shook his head and looked up. They were almost at the cedar forest.
Rosepaw practically jumped for joy at seeing the cedar forest. She could already almost feel the badger's foul, hot breath on her neck, and it sent shivers down her spine just thinking about it. She saw a tree that looked about the right size for their plan.
"Ready?" She called to the dark tom.
No. His thoughts screamed but instead he let out a huffy "I guess..." to her quesion.
"Alright! 3!" She meowed.
2...
1...
