Warrior Cats Fanfiction- Ripples of Fear

Chapter 10

  Silverpaw raised her head as her sisters padded through the camp entrance, Shadedpaw with a juicy sparrow in her jaws and Rosepaw empty-pawed with a hint of frustration in her orange eyes.

  Silverpaw stood from her nest, shaking out her striped fur and trotting over to her littermates. "You did hunting?" She mewed, eyes glimmering as she gazed at Shadedpaw's sparrow.

  Rosepaw cast a glance at Shadedpaw, then flicked her ears. "Where's Foxpaw?" She mewed, scanning the clearing for the young ginger and black tom.

  "He and Breezepaw were gonna practice fishing." She mewed. "They should be back soon."

Rosepaw sighed quietly. Then she glanced at Darksong."What should we do now?" She mewed, swishing her tail restlessly.

  "I already got out Loudflame's  ticks." Silverpaw muttered grudgingly, flicking her striped tail in revulsion as she remembered the way Moonpaw helped her apply the mouse-dung onto Loudflame's pelt.

  Darksong gave Rosepaw a comforting smile. "You can go rest or eat some prey." Then the black she-cat turned to Shadedpaw. "Go drop that sparrow in the fresh kill pile." She purred. Shadedpaw gave her mentor a nod, while Rosepaw looked on after her sister, then turned to pad off somewhere, but just then two ginger and black apprentices with plump fish in their jaws trotted through the camp entrance, followed by their mentors, who were praising them with shining eyes.

Rosepaw began to trot toward her friend, only to be pushed aside by Shadedpaw. "I caught a sparrow!" She announced, the words rolling off her tongue like the richest of honey.

"On your first try?" Breezepaw sounded shocked.

Shadedpaw nodded proudly. "Oh, yeah! I-"

"Well, I almost caught a...a...um..." Rosepaw stammered.

  "A twig." Shadedpaw whispered to the other apprentices, grinning and winking playfully.

  Breezepaw snickered, twitching her tail to and fro, and Foxpaw smiled consolingly at Rosepaw.

  "I didn't catch anything on my first try either." He meowed, then trotted off toward the prey pile to drop off his catches. Breezepaw followed, flicking Rosepaw's ear with her tail as she passed.

  Rosepaw sighed, then glared at Shadedpaw, who shrugged and bounced off somewhere.

  Rosepaw twitched her whiskers. Maybe she should check on Gingerpool. She turned to walk toward the medicine cat's den, then paused. Jaggedstripe! She thought. Tornshadow and Sharpfang mentioned him! I haven't seen him around for the last few days!

She stood, blinking for a moment, wondering where the dark tom had gone, when a sleek gray pelt shuffled towards her. Whirling around, Rosepaw found herself face to face with Shimmermoon, one of the Clan's prettiest cats and Breezepaw's mentor.

  "Going to check on Gingerpool?" Shimmermoon meowed, peering at the medicine cats' den.

  "Yeah." Rosepaw answered, paws itching to see how Gingerpool and her kit were doing now.

  Shimmermoon nodded. "Okay! I'll come too." She decided, with a quick glance toward the forest. She trotted toward the den, followed by a suspicious Rosepaw, and pushed easily through.

  Tornshadow glanced up sharply from Gingerpool. She and her kit were staying in the medicine cats' den until they could discover what had happened.

"Well,what is it?" Tornshadow sighed, looking annoyed at being interrupted. Moonpaw, in the back of the den, glanced up with an odd look in her eyes, something like suspicion glittering in the depths of those deep blue orbs of neverending discontentment.