Heart of a Warrior (Book 2) [A Warrior Cat Fanfiction]

Chapter Two: The Dream

Applepaw shuddered as she opened her eyes. Gingerpaw was towering over her, looking annoyed and exhausted. "You kept me up nearly half the night! Again!" she growled.

"Sorry," Applepaw mewed. "I had that dream again..."

"Ugh, the one about the black light that engulfed the forest? You should ask Leafpelt what to do about it," Gingerpaw meowed, washing her left paw.

"You're probably right," Applepaw said. She got to her paws and padded to the medicine cat den.

Leafpelt wasn't in the den. Instead, Frostpaw was sitting there arranging herbs.

"Burdock root for wounds...no wait, that's cobwebs. Or maybe comfrey? Oh, this is so confusing..." Frostpaw was muttering. She sniffed the burdock root again, then set it in a pile of its own.

Applepaw felt bad for the young apprentice. She looked so nervous and confused, as if a mistake would cost her dearly. "Frostpaw?" Applepaw meowed.

Frostpaw looked up from the herbs, expecting Leafpelt to be there. She looked calmer and her tail dropped down as she realized it was Applepaw. "Yes, Applepaw?" Frostpaw mewed.

"Is Leaf-" Applepaw stopped when she saw the disappointment in Frostpaw's eyes. "Er...I've been having the same strange dream every night for about a moon now." Applepaw knew that Leafpelt would understand it better, but she couldn't let Frostpaw be so upset.

"A dream?" Frostpaw echoed. "I'm not the best with dreams yet; I'm going to the Lightstone (my version of the Moonstone) tonight...can we get back to this when I return?" Applepaw noticed a pang of regret in Frostpaw's eyes, as if the poor apprentice thought she wasn't good enough to be a medicine cat apprentice.

Applepaw nodded. "Of course. I can wait." She licked Frostpaw's ear and smiled. "Do you want some help with these herbs? Gingerpaw and I learned a few of the herbs while we stayed in this den after we got kidnapped."

Frostpaw's eyes lit up. "Yeah, that'd be great!" she meowed happily, finally getting some help.

"Okay, so cobwebs are for wounds, and burdock's for rat bites..."

-Later that day-

"Frostpaw!" Leafpelt called. Applepaw watched the nervous apprentice pad up to her mentor and say something quietly, while her ears flattened. Leafpelt's eyes showed a pang of sympathy as Frostpaw spoke, and Applepaw knew that she was telling Leafpelt how nervous she had been.

Ravenpaw came up next to her. He purred as he watched his sister get ready to make contact with Starclan as a cat more special than all of them. Applepaw looked at Ravenpaw's sleek gray-black pelt and felt something she never felt before, but pushed it back. "Hey Ravenpaw, want to go hunting?"

Frostpaw climbed up the steep hill, short claws searching for pawholds. Leafpelt watched from the bottom as she inched her way onto a piece of rock sticking out just large enough to stand on. Frostpaw saw the top of the hill and carefully put a paw on the next indent in the rock. She felt the rock under her shake and took the paw out, dropping into a hunter's crouch. Leafpelt, at the bottom, pricked her ears curiously to see what the young apprentice was doing. Frostpaw pounced high in the air, claws outstretched. She landed on the edge of the top of the rock, narrowly missing the fall back down.

Leafpelt ran up the side way, which was a grassy slope, and looked at Frostpaw. "Very creative, but be careful when you do things like that. You almost fell off."

Frostpaw looked proud anyway; the leap she made was amazing. The two cats kept walking until they got to the Thunderpath.

Monsters roared past, running like crazy. Frostpaw's ears flattened and her pride in the previous assessment vanished. Leafpelt was staring intently on the Thunderpath, and when a red monster passed, she ran across the road just in time.

"I'll tell you when to go!" Leafpelt called from the other side. Frostpaw nodded nervously and crouched down, praying to Starclan that she wouldn't die.

"Now!" Leafpelt growled, and Frostpaw dashed across. She stumbled and saw a huge black monster running at her. Frostpaw scrambled to her paws and kept running until she could smell Leafpelt.

"Frostpaw, it's okay," a soothing voice comforted her. "You made it to the cave."

Frostpaw opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. There was a completely pitch black cave and a few oak trees. Leafpelt licked Frostpaw's flank and walked into the darkness.

Frostpaw followed, letting the darkness engulf her. It was terrifying. She couldn't figure out if she was going the right way or not, with Leafpelt's scent as her guide.

Finally, after what Frostpaw thought was ages, they reached a clearing with light. A white stone sat on a rock that reached higher than the others. There was a hole in the ceiling that was only emitting a bit of light from sunset. But Frostpaw knew it would become dark and then let light in at midnight.

The two cats waited. Frostpaw's stomach grumbled, but she knew she wasn't supposed to eat or speak until after the ceremony. So she rested her head on her paws and stared at the Lightstone, admiring its perfect shape and smoothness.

Finally, moonlight glowed down onto the Lightstone. Leafpelt nodded to Frostpaw, who carefully stepped up to the stone and pressed her nose against it.

"You are here!" a cat called. It was a she-cat. She ran to Frostpaw and cried, "It is true! The raven's wing whose protection helps the frosty lynx to fight is here!"

Frostpaw stared in confusion. What was she talking about? But Frostpaw couldn't speak still. Everything got quiet.

"Frostpaw, kin of the great Mistyleaf, you have promised to train hard by the warrior code," a different voice, this time a tom's, said. "I speak for all of Starclan when I say you have been accepted as a medicine cat apprentice. You shall always have contact with us."

Frostpaw opened her eyes. She was back in the cave, shaking harshly and sweat on her shoulders. Leafpelt was staring nervously as well, but neither cat spoke.

Frostpaw walked with her tail intertwined with Leafpelt's. She was still shaky, and needed to feel more than smell to get herself out of the dark cave.

Once they were out, Frostpaw collapsed on the ground. She was weak and unsteady, fear-scent rippling across her pelt. Leafpelt comforted the poor apprentice with soothing words and licks behind the ears.

Frostpaw opened her eyes again in the medicine cat den. "How did I get here?" she asked herself.

Leafpelt padded in, carrying cobwebs. Frostpaw watched as her mentor set the cobwebs on a rock sticking out of the den wall. Leafpelt then turned to her. "Frostpaw, I'm so sorry..." She meowed.

Frostpaw cocked her head to the left. "Why? I'm the weak one here," she mewed, half-jokingly. "It was an unusual dream..."

Leafpelt pricked her ears toward the apprentice. "Hm?"

"A starry white she-cat was saying that something was true, that the raven's wing that protects the frosty lynx will fight..." Frostpaw explained.

"Raven's wing...frosty lynx...it may be a prophecy," Leafpelt decided. "There must be danger approaching if cats are to fight. We must ready ourselves."

To Be Continued

Chapter 2 :D sorry it's short! Well Idk if it's short cuz I'm writing it on a kindle and it doesn't look too long...eh. PROPHECYYYYYYYYYY

READ

WRITE

MEAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP