Up Until Now: A Warrior Cat FanFic

Chapter Five*

Sunpaw's POV

Snowpaw was darting throughout the trees, and I kept a close eye on her. I didn't let her out of my sights until she disappeared into the distant woods. I looked at Nettleclaw, who nodded her head.

I tore after Snowpaw, running as fast as I could, until I reached the place where she had disappeared. I took a sniff of the air, trying to discover which way she had gone. I followed her scent, tracing it closely, going a little slower. After a few heartbeats, I discovered I couldn't figure out where she had gone.

"Mouse-dung!" I exclaimed. My task had been simple: to find Snowpaw after she ran away. All I had to do was follow her scent, and I had failed!

I continued to sniff around for a bit, hoping that I'd discover where Snowpaw had gone, but I couldn't figure it out. I didn't want to go back to Crowpelt and Nettleclaw with having to of failed. But after several more heartbeats, I figured that I should go back, just because it would end up looking odd if I didn't.

I made my way back to the area where Crowpelt and Nettleclaw were waiting, and once I got there, I was surprised to see the small, white shape of Snowpaw. If she had gotten back to Crowpelt and Nettleclaw, I should've been able to follow her!

"How'd you get back here?" I asked her, incredulously.

"Why don't you think about it for a little bit," Nettleclaw suggested. "Perhaps you'll come up with a conclusion on your own."

I had to think about that for a while. If I hadn't been able to smell Snowpaw, then how had she been able to get back to our mentor's without me noticing? It didn't make any sense to me, even though I felt as though I should be able to know this easily.

"How?" I asked. "I can't think of anything!"

Crowpelt chuckled. "Alright, Sunpaw. I told Snowpaw that she should double back, by climbing a tree or two, and then closely following her trail back to us."

"Ohhhh," I responded. I was sure my green eyes were wide. I'd never even thought of that possibility! "That would be a good way to trick an attacking Clan, right?"

Nettleclaw's eyes sparkled. "Very good thought, Sunpaw," she praised. "And yes, it would be. Now, you can't tell Thistlepaw about this, because Dafttail is going to to take Ivypaw and Featherfern, and they're going to show him this tomorrow. Hardstar has decreed that every new apprentice must have the same training."

"What about Thornpaw?" I asked.

"He and Moonpaw already did the training yesterday," Crowpelt responded. He let out a shiver. "Alright, let's get back to the camp! It's starting to get dark out."

We all headed back to the camp. Nettleclaw and Crowpelt were in the front, and I trailed behind with Snowpaw.

"That was an amazing lesson!' I whispered to the white apprentice.

"I know!" Snowpaw mewed back. "I remember when I first learnt it, although I was smart enough to figure out that Owlheart had doubled back to confuse me."

"You were?" I asked, in awe.

"Yeah. Then again, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that you didn't figure it out. You've only been an apprentice for less than a quarter moon. And you're Nettleclaw's first apprentice. Crowpelt is older than Hardstar, and has had two apprentices!"

I looked at her, confused about what she was trying to say. Why did it matter if Crowpelt had other apprentices, or if he was older? What mattered was that Hardstar had believed that Nettleclaw would be best suited to teaching me how to be warrior, and the same for Crowpelt and Snowpaw. Experience really only mattered when it came to deciding who would be deputy.

"What's that got to do with anything?" I asked, because I was curious.

"If you don't know, then I just won't tell you," Snowpaw responded, before walking forward so that she was just a mousetail behind our mentors. And she left me feeling even more confused about the conversation than I had felt in a while.   

Edited as of 2/15/2016

Sorry for the no updating in a while guys. It's just we moved and I kind of lost interest in these books but now I'm back with a semi-short chapter. Just to let you know, I'm changing a lot more now than I had originally planned for these books but I promise it'll all be for the better. Just keep a close eye out on these and you'll know. I won't be continuing the sixth book until I get all the other ones completely revised so I am sorry if that takes me a little bit. But I hope you enjoyed this short chapter!