Shadow Warriors

Chapter Ten

Sagepaw awoke to a paw prodding her in the side. She groaned and rolled over, muttering something incoherent and hoping the cat would go away. To her disappointment, the cat prodded her again, harder.

"Wake up, furball!" Sagepaw opened her eyes to see her brother standing over her. Lifting her head and yawning, she saw Cloudyfoot and Pinebark waiting outside the den.

"What'd you wake me up for?" she grumbled, stretching. "I thought Pinebark was going to take you hunting?"

"Well..." Quailpaw looked down and scuffled his paws. "I asked Pinebark and Cloudyfoot, and they said that we could hunt together today."

Sagepaw blinked in surprise. Quailpaw wanted to hunt with her? Had he finally forgiven her for attacking him?

"Okay," Sagepaw replied, standing up and smiling at him.

"Hurry up! If you wait much longer, we'll be elders before you come out!" Pinebark called. Quailpaw rolled his eyes and led the way out of the den, Sagepaw following.

"Sagepaw, I know I said we'd do more battle training today, but Quailpaw wanted to hunt with you. Is that okay?" Cloudyfoot asked, a deeper meaning behind his words; Sagepaw flinched at his implication.

"That's great!" she reassured him. Now that she had proven herself loyal to Viperfang, he wouldn't possess her again— she hoped.

"Let's go!" Quailpaw said excitedly, rushing ahead of them and out the camp entrance.

"You don't know where we're going!" Pinebark pointed out, smiling leniently as he followed his apprentice.

"Come on," Cloudyfoot said, following after Pinebark and Quailpaw. Sagepaw turned her head up to look at the sky, half-expecting it to be pitch-black and starless like in the Dark Forest. But the sky was a nice, clear blue, rays of sunlight coming in through the trees and dappling the lazily swaying branches of the pines amongst which they walked with a lovely golden color. Sagepaw yelped as she stumbled over a fallen branch, paying the price for not paying attention to where she walked. She blushed and looked back down at her paws, not wanting to trip again.

"You'll scare off all the prey if you keep going like that!" Quailpaw complained.

"Sorry," she muttered, flattening her ears in shame.

"It's okay," Quailpaw responded quickly, seeming to regret yelling at her. "Where are we going, Pinebark?" the apprentice asked, now following his mentor.

"I was thinking we would go to the marsh today," Pinebark said. "Is that okay with you, Cloudyfoot?"

"Sure," the white tom replied, picking up the pace slightly to match Pinebark's as they headed through the trees. Quailpaw fell back a bit to walk next to Sagepaw.

"What was up with you last night?" Quailpaw asked, and Sagepaw noticed Cloudyfoot prick his ears and slow slightly, as if wanting to eavesdrop.

"What do you mean?" Sagepaw asked, silently cursing her brother. Now Cloudyfoot was going to start asking questions about the Dark Forest, too!

"You were tossing and turning a lot, and muttering," Quailpaw informed her. "It sounded like you were saying 'Brindlekit'," he continued, and her blood ran cold. How much else had she revealed during her nighttime visits to the Dark Forest?

"Oh, I... I think I was having a dream about Brindlekit attacking me right as I was doing something important. You know how she always gets under everyone's paws," Sagepaw invented quickly, hoping that neither her brother nor her mentor would notice anything suspicious in her voice.

"You know yesterday she got mud all over the mouse I caught?" Quailpaw asked, changing the subject.

"I heard she got moss scattered throughout the whole camp while we were doing battle training," Sagepaw replied.

"I'm glad we weren't there to clean it up!" Quailpaw joked, and Sagepaw giggled.

"Here should be good!" Pinebark called back to them, and they stopped.

"Let's practice stalking," Cloudyfoot suggested. "Sagepaw, you have to work extra hard to keep your white pelt from being noticed. And Quailpaw, I noticed the other day you have a tendency to swish your tail when you get excited."

"Quailpaw, Sagepaw," Pinebark took charge, "what can you scent?"

"Frog," the two apprentices said at the same time.

"Now, listen carefully. Where is it?"

Sagepaw pricked her ears, hearing a quiet croaking noise coming from behind some reeds on her left.

"There," she pointed with her tail.

"Good," Cloudyfoot said quietly. "Now, what you want to do is find some natural obstacle that will block your prey's view of you. Those reeds should provide good enough cover, but you'll have to be extra careful not to brush against them, or your prey will see the movement and run," her mentor instructed. "Try catching that frog."

Sagepaw crouched down and slowly drew her paws forward, keeping the reeds between her and the frog. When she was nose-to-nose with the reeds, she paused, using the soft croaks issuing from them to locate the frog. With a slight wiggle of her hindquarters, she leapt through the reeds, landing on the frog and biting down quickly, ending its frantic croaks.  She padded back to her mentor proudly, frog clamped in her mouth.

"Good job!" Quailpaw congratulated her, and she dipped her head in acknowledgment.

"That was good, Sagepaw," Cloudyfoot complimented. She dropped the frog and covered it in leaves.

"Thanks, Cloudyfoot," she replied.

"Quailpaw, now it's your turn," Pinebark said. "That wasn't the only frog in this marsh. See if you can find another."

Quailpaw closed his eyes and rotated his ears, listening for signs of prey. "There," he nodded at a small frog crouched under a bush.

"Now, I want you to stalk that frog, and take care not to startle it," Pinebark instructed.

Quailpaw nodded and slowly creeped towards the frog, placing his paws carefully. His tail twitched, but it didn't cause any disturbance as he drew closer. Without a pause, he pounced on the frog, giving it a swift bite.

"Good!" Pinebark called, and Quailpaw puffed out his chest.

"Nice catch!" Sagepaw complimented, and Quailpaw smiled at her.

By the time they were ready to go back to camp, the apprentices had caught a total of two frogs, a bird, and a mouse that they had caught as a team.

"Furball!" Sagepaw teased, shoving Quailpaw lightly as they followed their mentors back to camp.

"Mousebrain!" he teased back, landing a light blow on her head. She pretended to give up then leapt at her brother, knocking him over and pinning him down.

"Ha!" she said triumphantly.

"Ha, yourself!" he retorted, pushing his paws into her stomach and throwing her off, pinning her shoulder. She squirmed under his grip, but he was too heavy, and she finally went limp and sighed.

"Fine, you win," she grumbled. Quailpaw stepped off her and batted a leaf off of her shoulder.

"Thanks," she purred, nudging his shoulder.

"No problem!" he replied cheerfully, and Sagepaw smiled. She was glad that her relationship with her brother had finally been repaired, despite her loyalty to Viperfang. Feeling content with the world and happy about her brother's acceptance of her, Sagepaw followed the other cats back to camp.

This chapter was written by le Amazing Annco, who would like to say how much she loves this book <3