Dawnstar's Trouble {COMPLETE}

Chapter 8

Dawnpaw flicked water droplets off her whiskers, breathing in the scent of rain as well as prey. She walked carefully on the wet soil, coating her white paws in mud. She hated the feeling, but after so much rain she had grown slightly accustomed to it. Her green eyes rested on the mouse slowly nibbling on a small seed. Without hesitation, she went for her prey, killing it quickly. She looked at her catch, soggy prey wasn't the greatest thing to eat but with how much rain the forest had getting, they didn't really have a choice.

Dawnpaw buried her catch and continued hunting, she enjoyed hunting like this. Thornpelt had wanted to go on a patrol, so he sent her to hunt and catch at least four pieces of prey. She liked hunting by herself, and she didn't have to worry about the looming threat of being punished or yelled at by her mentor. Dawnpaw had a permanent nick in hear from the amount of times Thornpelt had cuffed her over the ear for doing something wrong.

The mouse had been her second piece of prey, and she had been out here for a quite a while. As it rained, the forest grew colder and and the prey scarcer. Dawnpaw had heard Nightwing talking about how it was going to be a rough leaf-bare if this rain didn't stop. Dawnpaw wasn't sure to expect with leaf-bare but she heard stories of little prey and sickness. SunClan was working on getting as much prey as possible, so Dawnpaw could understand why Thornpelt was telling her to get a lot.

Dawnpaw moved towards the MoonClan border, keeping her eyes and nose peeled for anymore prey. She soon spotted a squirrel at the base of a tree, dropping into a crouch she prepared to leap. She had to be careful here, any sound would alert the squirrel and it would run back up the tree. Flexing her claws in the wet soil, she took a deep breath and ran forward. The squirrel started it's escape, but Dawnpaw was faster. He claws hooked into it's flesh before it make it up the tree, she pulled it down and killed it.

Feeling confident in herself, she continued hunting. After a while of not finding any prey, she grew slightly nervous. If she didn't bring back four pieces of prey Thornpelt wouldn't be happy with her. Dawnpaw continued her hunt, feeling as if she walked along the entire forest. After a long hunt, Dawnpaw caught the scent trail of another mouse. She began stalking, keeping silent until she spotted the creature. She killed it without issue and lifted her head proudly.

Dawnpaw began backtracking and going to pick up her other pieces of prey, and managed to catch another mouse along the way. When she got back to camp it was nearly sunhigh and she had been gone since morning, as she stepped back into camp she was greeted by her mentor. Thornpelt looked at her haul of prey.

"Took you long enough," He snorted. "But good job, put them on the pile." Dawnpaw nodded and walked past her mentor, going to the fresh-kill pile which had been reinforced in trying to keep the prey dry.

Feeling satisfied with herself, Dawnpaw left the pile to try and find her brother to talk to before she had more duties. Instead she found Fawnpaw face to face with Nightwing, both she-cats had bristled fur.

"I swear, you're the most careless apprentice I've ever seen, Fawnpaw!" Nightwing hissed, Dawnpaw saw Fawnpaw visibly tense with anger.

"If you're so picky about everything, maybe you should just do it yourself!" Fawnpaw spat.

"You're an apprentice! Maybe you should do your duties correctly!" Nightwing retorted, the old she-cat's blue eyes burned with anger and annoyance. "Apprentices think they're so high and mighty, but I've been in your pawprints and I was never this careless! If I gave this kind of moss to the elders we had I would've lost an eye!"

"Well then you must be capable, maybe you could do something other than sit around in the elder's den and do nothing!" Dawnpaw let out a small gasp, she knew Fawnpaw was bad tempered but was she really going that far?