Book 1 - Warriors: The Shadow Outcast

Chapter Ten

Rainpaw sighed as he sat near Robinpaw and Shadowpaw, listening to the boring lecture about the hunting crouch. His mind was elsewhere as he pretended to listen, thinking of what happened around a week ago. That Gathering was the first and probably last he was ever going to according to Jayflight, mostly because it was his fault the fight even started. No one had been seriously injured, and even he had recovered from all of the wounds he'd gotten, but everyone seemed very, very distressed after that day.

Ravenstar hadn't even come out of his den since that day, and everyone kept talking about it. They were all saying about how immature he was for starting a fight like that, but really Rainpaw didn't blame the dark furred leader. He actually blamed Rosestar.

And that wasn't the worst of it, actually. Everybody kept trying to ask him what he had to do with StarClan's arrival, and of course he didn't answer. However, not answering was actually making a lot of them very suspicious of him.

Oh, and of course everyone was very, very, curious as to who the "Saviour" was. Rainpaw didn't know, but he knew that everyone thought it was him. All of the ThunderClan cats, anyway. It didn't matter, though, because he knew that there was no way he could be the Saviour or the prophecy cat. He was just him, the ex-human ex-loner ThunderClan apprentice who was cursed with a scar that made him insane. That was it.

"Rainpaw!" Sharpfang growled suddenly, making him come back to reality. "Were you even listening to what I was saying?" Rainpaw looked up to his mentor and shook his head. Sharpfang growled with frustration.

"Rainpaw, if you don't listen to me you won't learn anything," Sharpfang growled. "You're days away from being ten moons old-you should know how to listen."

"Sorry," Rainpaw muttered. "I'll try to listen next time." He could feel Robinpaw's eyes on him, and Shadowpaw's, but he didn't care. It was quiet for a few minutes before Sharpfang just sighed and flicked his tail in dismissal.

"You seem down today," said Sharpfang. "Go ahead and take the day off from training. Just don't get into trouble, okay?" Rainpaw nodded and left, knowing that a regular apprentice would have probably wanted to stay. He, however was not normal and did not want to stay.

He made it to camp quickly, thinking of the same things over and over. Frostpaw and Sweetpaw were busy doing their normal apprentice chores while the elders seemed to be sunning themselves. It was a normal day, yet something seemed to be wrong.

"Hey, Rainpaw!" called Lilyear, a kind elder. "Could get this annoying flea off me? I can't reach it!" Rainpaw smiled, happy to help anyone he could, and ran over. He smiled as a greeting before catching the pesky flea and killing it between his teeth and spat it out.

"Thank you, Rainpaw," said Lilyear happily. "You're very kind. Most of the apprentice's these days would rather go train for battle then help an elder like me."

"I've seen enough of battle to know it's nothing to be excited about," Rainpaw replied. "Guess I'm different that way." Lilyear smiled, her eyes twinkling a bit.

"Oh, you are different," said Lilyear. "Reminds me of Ravenstar in some ways." Rainpaw sat, then, and tilted his head.

"What do you mean?" asked Rainpaw. "It isn't a bad thing or something like that, is it?" Lilyear shook her head.

"No, no," she replied. "I'm only say that he too was different. He's was a loner, just like yourself. The first non-Clan born cat since Firestar to become a leader."

"Is that a bad thing?" asked Rainpaw. "He seems like a good Warrior to me." Lilyear sighed and shook her head again.

"No, it isn't," she replied. "But there's something different about him. He seems to know what dominance is and how to use it-as if he'd already been in a place like the Clans with the same rules: respect those higher than you and follow them without question. Of course, the Warrior code has changed a bit since my time, and therefore made everything softer. Anyways, I think he was apart of a group, one that isn't as kind as the Clans and in a way, you remind me of him." Rainpaw's heart leapt as he realised just what she meant.