Warrior Cats Fanfiction- Ripples of Fear

Chapter 15

It was late morning. Soft pale yellow rays of weak sunlight filtered lazily through the woven branch and reed roof of the ReedClan apprentice's den, where a single splashed black, gray, and brown apprentice lay, her chest rising and falling as she slept. A few brave birds still lingered despite the chilly breeze, singing wistful songs of the warm, lazy, happy days of green-leaf.

  Silverpaw popped her head in the den. "Rosepaw!" She called. No answer. She crept forward into the den, and pounced on her sister. "Rosepaw!" She squeaked.

  Rosepaw opened one eye, then the other, then blinked and yawned. She looked awfully tired for sleeping until almost sunhigh. Silverpaw rolled her light blue eyes.

"Come on, you lazy mange-pelt!" Silverpaw meowed, swatting playfully at Rosepaw's ears.

  "Okay, okay! I'm coming!" Rosepaw groaned, yawning again.

  "Rosepaw!" Sharpfang appeared at the mouth of the den, eyes flashing. "I've been looking for you all day! I thought you went out to the territory! Finding you still asleep is unacceptable! Come on!"

  Silverpaw grinned at Rosepaw, and leaped back out of the den, dipping her head slightly to Sharpfang as she passed him, and leaving Rosepaw to deal with her mentor alone. Mossysplash had given Silverpaw the day off to do as she pleased, probably expecting the silver and white apprentice to be half-dead with weariness after the late Gathering, but Silverpaw was more awake than ever.

  Silverpaw trotted across the camp contentedly, heading for the exit. She wanted to hunt, or just explore around, or something. Just as she passed the fresh-kill pile, she spotted Foxpaw and Breezepaw, chatting over a water vole. Breezepaw laughed and swatted at her brother, then Foxpaw tackled her playfully. He glanced up as he heard pawsteps approaching, and his amber gaze lit as he saw Silverpaw.

  "Hey, bile-brain!" Breezepaw greeted Silverpaw, ears twitching.

  "Hello, fox-heart." Silverpaw returned with a hint of a growl in her voice. Foxpaw stepped between the two she-cats.

  "Hi, Silverpaw." Foxpaw mewed, with an annoyed glance at his littermate, who rolled her green-blue eyes dismissively, tail-tip twitching. Foxpaw opened his mouth to speak again, but he stopped and pricked his ears as he saw Goldenlight padding toward them.

  "Hi, Goldenlight." Breezepaw dipped her head reverently.

  "Right, right. Hi." Goldenlight meowed, eyes glazed. "Would you three go on a patrol? Foxpaw, Breezepaw, you can bring along Falconflight and Shimmermoon. Silverpaw, Mossysplash got a thorn in her paw on the last hunting patrol, so Tornshadow's getting that all fixed up. Now I have to go back to check on Froststar."

  "What about Shadedpaw? Can she come too?" Silverpaw asked.

  Goldenlight glanced at her. "Shadedpaw's coughing a bit. It shouldn't be too serious, but Tornshadow will still check on her."

  Silverpaw nodded, though she was rather disappointed that she couldn't have even just one of her littermates with her.

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  "Over here." Falconflight mewed, pointing his tail toward the FireClan border.

  "No, no, over here." Shimmermoon urged, angling her ears toward the CreviceClan border. Silverpaw didn't know why the sleek gray she-cat seemed so anxious to check those borders first. "Well get to FireClan last."

  Falconflight looked baffled, but he nodded reluctantly, managing to take the lead, which seemed to annoy Shimmermoon very much. Why did the two cats seem so hostile toward one another? Silverpaw wished she knew. It was rather amusing, though, to see the two of them always irritating each other and stepping on one another's tails. Breezepaw, as always, was rolling her eyes as her mentor argued with the brown tom, while Foxpaw and Silverpaw padded behind the striped she-cat, exchanging amused glances at each sharp remark the warriors shot at each other. Shimmermoon seemed to be rude to every cat, yet she was rather popular, except with Falconflight, of course.