Book 2 - Warriors: The Servant's Promise

Chapter Fifteen

For the next half moon, it had become a routine. Get up, go hunting with her mentor, come back and have a quick meal before going to the training grounds, come back around dusk, clean out a few dens, feed the elders, eat something if she was hungry enough, and then go to sleep.

Demonpaw had barely enough time to speak with her brother, and even less time to talk with anyone else. It was just training, training, and more training. Not that Demonpaw rejected the idea—she loved it. She could feel herself becoming stronger, and though she hadn't gotten angry lately, she obviously didn't need to.

Nightpaw and his minion of a sister had stayed away from she and her brother. Meanwhile, almost all of the other apprentices looked to her for advice, and also, they'd give her advice for free. They even allowed her into a lot of conversations regular newbie's could only dream of listening to.

"Straight forward, Demonpaw!" called Snakestar from the mentors' place. "You've got to read his movements before they happen!" Demonpaw flicked her tail in acknowledged before evading another quick attack from Duskpaw, who seemed equipped for this kind of fighting no matter his size.

"Ah, so you'd rather be a defensive she-cat?" asked Duskpaw with a smirk. While with her, Demonpaw found that it was the only time he'd show any emotion, so Demonpaw took it in. Plus, Duskpaw was now playfully edging her on.

"In your dreams!" Demonpaw shouted back before lunging toward the golden tom. Out of sheer luck, she managed to unbalance Duskpaw and send him to the ground. She became too surprised, however, and didn't follow up with the attack.

Duskpaw jumped upward and pushed Demonpaw to the ground, easily pinning her. Out of instinct, the grey and white apprentice kicked Duskpaw's stomach before unbalancing him again. And this time, she pinned him to the ground, standing slightly to the side so he couldn't kick her stomach.

"I win!" Demonpaw announced, smirking at Duskpaw as he began laughing.

"With beginner's luck, Demonpaw. That's the only way you won." Duskpaw said playfully as he sat up. "If you hadn't decided to kick me, I would have easily won." Demonpaw stuck out her tongue.

"In a real battle, though, I would have won." Demonaw pointed out, her head held high. Duskpaw just continued to smile, though even then, the smile became a little weaker when the mentors walked over.

"While all that is true, Demonpaw, you were not supposed to win, you were supposed to perfect the unbalancing technique." Snakestar growled lowly, making Demonpaw shrug.

"So? I still did that, didn't I?" asked Demonpaw. "Besides, what fun is training without a realistic fight every once and awhile?" Snakestar sighed, but shook his head as Duskpaw's mentor tried to say something.

"Leave it be." Snakestar told the irritated mentor. "Demonpaw was quite quick in her mock battle, and so was Duskpaw. I'm sure they both learned something today anyway." Demonpaw puffed her chest out as she heard that, and she saw a hint of pride in Duskpaw's eyes as well.

"Can we go hunting now?" asked Duskpaw. "Sundown is fast approaching." Both Snakestar and the other mentor looked to the sky, and saw the orange streaks within the blue sky.

"Ah, so it seems." Snakestar replied before looking back to the two apprentices. "You may hunt, though because it was a little later than I thought, please do so together." Both apprentices nodded before bounding off, grateful that it was just about time to go back to camp and eat.

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It wasn't too long before they managed to catch a squirrel, two mice, and a vole. It was easy to trap them with the breeze and other sounds that were easy to make. Duskpaw caught the majority of them, though Demonpaw caught the vole.