SandClan's Destiny Book 1: A Flame is Lit

Chapter 2: We're Just Different

Arriving back, Rockpaw's paws ached.

"We were looking for you!" Dappledfern hissed to her apprentice. She batted his ears lightly and flicked her tail to Birchstar.

Birchstar's eyes blazed. "You tried to run away? And where did you think you would go? SandClan?" He snarled and stood, his massive shoulders rolling. He looked like a leopard that moment, and acted just as fierce.

"No! We got lost! We slept and came back!" Rockpaw argued defensively.

"Then where's the prey you hunted?" His mentor demanded with a lash of her tail.

"Well, we couldn't find any, it's too dark!" Rockpaw's voice was louder. He felt anger boil in his chest.

She hissed, "Do you know how to smell? Obviously not!" She growled. "Mouse-brains."

Shadowpool padded up and layed his tail on Rockpaw's mentor's shoulder. "Perhaps we should've trained them first?" He chuckled.

Dappledfern growled. "I want you to hunt. Don't leave until you've come back with prey! And not just some measly mouse." She lashed her tail and moved away from Shadowpool, letting his tail fall from her shoulder. She hissed as the two apprentices departed, "I'm glad this Clan's coming back into shape."

Shadowpool's voice was heard, but it faded as they left, "Is this necessary? I understand when the Clan almost fell, but..."

Rockpaw stalked off into the apprentice den, Firepaw alongside him.

Maplepaw and Shrewpaw cooed. "Ooh, look who got lost in the big bad forest."

Shrewpaw's rat-like tail lashed. "Yea, you got in biiig trouuble!" he snickered.

"We're going hunting." Rockpaw snapped, "So leave us be."

"Oh, us too!" Maplepaw sneered.

"Great." Rockpaw heard Firepaw mutter. Maplepaw and Shrewpaw didn't seem to have heard. They set off to hunt, leaving the camp from the back of the apprentice den- as they could do- and making their way out into the midst of their territory, stopping at a clearing with a basin filled with water from some moon ago's rain. The scent of prey was thick in the moist air.

Rockpaw stopped to scent the air, jaws open. He smelled a squirrel, and pursued it slowly, dropping into a hunter's crouch. He lunged, landing on his prey besides the pond. He began to bury it, feeling triumphant.

Maplepaw then leaped at Rockpaw, shoving him into the pond, giggling.

He heard a splash and saw a torrent of blue and white, and he opened his eyes to see the strange terrain he was in. He looked up to see the sunlight reflect on the surface, and Maplepaw's face jeering at him. He felt all of a sudden... devious.

... So he leaped from the water, and pinned her down. The water from his pelt dripped onto her and she screeched in surprise.

"How?--"

Rockpaw leaped off, head high, water dripping off his face.

"How'd you do that!? How did you stay under for so long? A-Are you a fish!?" She screeched, shaking her pelt of the small, almost nonexistent, amount of water she had on it.

Rockpaw tilted his head. "A fish? What do you mean, it was so easy to hold my breath! I just didn't breath." He replied matter-of-factly.

Firepaw was just watching, holding a vole in her jaws. Shrewpaw stood besides her, shuffling his paws.

"Well, I'm going to take my squirrel back to camp." Rockpaw grabbed it with his jaws and began to set off, not bothering to shake the water from his pelt.