Warrior Cats Fanfiction- Ripples of Fear

Chapter 25

  "Rosepaw, you need to keep your tail off the ground!" Sharpfang snapped.

  His brown, black, and gray apprentice glared up at him. "I am!" She retorted, lifting her tail out of the snow. It had been three sunrises since the Gathering, and she was still a bit too distracted to focus on her hunting crouch.

  Sharpclaw only rolled his eyes in response. "Tuck your paws in." He meowed.

  Rosepaw obeyed, although she flicked an ear in annoyance.

  "Perfect. Now let's try to catch something. What can you smell?" Sharpclaw meowed her to stand.

  Rosepaw sat up, tasting the air half-heartedly. "Uh... rabbit?" She mewed, twitching her whiskers. Rabbit was never her favorite type of prey, but it would have to do now that prey was getting scarcer.

  Sharpclaw nodded, a slight gleam of approval in his eyes. "Alright. Where is it?"

  Rosepaw narrowed her eyes, her large ears alert for the scuffling noises of prey in the snowy undergrowth. "Over there." She decided eventually, angling her ears at a snow-covered bush.

  "Good. Now see if you can get it." Sharpclaw mewed, wrapping his tail around his white paws.

  Rosepaw stalked forward, ears swiveling around, eyes narrowing. Then she stopped, bunching her muscles, and leaped into the bush.

  The rabbit glanced up in alarm and turned to spring out of the den, but Rosepaw grasped it with her forepaws, digging her claws into its flanks, and quickly delivered the killing bite before it could escape.

  She pranced out of the bush, carrying her catch proudly in her jaws. She dropped it before her mentor, eyes shining.

  "There!" She meowed. "How did I do?"

  Sharpclaw inspected the prey closely. "Fine." He meowed, flicking his tail-tip. "I'll take this back to camp along with my catch, while you keep hunting. I'll be back soon." He rose to his paws, collected the prey, and trotted back toward the ReedClan camp.

  Rosepaw nodded. "Okay, I'll go look for more prey." She called after him, padding deeper into the forest.

  She trotted through the undergrowth, tasting the air with her eyes and ears alert. Suddenly, she paused. Another rabbit! It was sitting beside a tree a few tail-lengths away. She sighed, but dropped into her hunter's crouch and moved slowly forward. Then she stopped, preparing to pounce, and jumped at the rabbit. However, her front right paw slipped on a rock that was concealed under the blanket of snow, and she gave a squeak of alarm as she collapsed, face first, in the freezing whiteness. The rabbit, immediately alert, darted off, kicking up more snow on top of Rosepaw's head. She scrambled to her paws, shaking her head vigorously to get the snow out of her eyes. "Fox-dung!" She hissed, pelting after her escaping prey. They ran through the forest, the rabbit intermittently glancing over its shoulder with wide, terrified black eyes as Rosepaw slowly started to catch up to it. Eventually, she was close enough to pounced. She leaped with all the force her hind legs could muster, eyes glued to the rabbit, until she felt a force against her head and tumbled to the ground. A wave of pain crashed through her, blocking her vision for a moment with a barricade of swirls and circles.

"Ow!" She squeaked, glancing up to see her attacker. She was surprised to see a nut-brown tom with thick black stripes, lying on his side. The rabbit, nose twitching in sheer terror, hared off to the left and disappeared from sight.

"Ouch!" The tom cat gasped. "What was that fo-" suddenly his eyes widened. Rosepaw narrowed her eyes at him. What was he doing on her territory?

"Trespasser!" They yelped in unison, leaping to their paws.

The tom glared at her. "What are you doing on my territory?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Rosepaw snapped back at him, lashing his tail.

"Excuse me? This is CreviceClan territory!"

"This is ReedClan territory!"

"The border's back there!" The tom flicked his tail at a line of bushes.

Rosepaw flattened her ears, noticing for the first time the strange scent of CreviceClan that enveloped her. "Oh..." she shuffled her paws.

"Hey, I remember you! Rosepaw, from that Gathering!" He tilted his head.

"Hawkpaw?" Rosepaw lifted her gaze slightly.

"Yeah. Uh... sorry about your sister." He mewed uncertainly.

"Er... it's fine. You couldn't control the decision Petalstar made." There was a moment of silence that followed, before Rosepaw dipped her head. "I should... go now..." she mewed awkwardly, backing away.

"Wait," Hawkpaw's blue eyes suddenly lit up. "I have an idea!"

"And idea?" Rosepaw asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Yeah! An idea to get Shadedpaw back!"

"Um, how do you expect to do that?" Rosepaw asked.

"Well-" Hawkpaw broke off as the sound of approaching pawsteps sounded from behind him. "I gotta go. I'll... see you at the Gathering then!" He turned and raced off to the side.

Rosepaw stared after him. What just happened? What does he mean, "get Shadedpaw back"? He's just an apprentice! And why would he even want to help me in the first place? Countless questions whirled through her mind, until her thoughts were interrupted by a distant yowl.

"Rosepaw?" Sharpfang's voice sounded from ReedClan territory.

She turned, racing out of CreviceClan, and pelted toward her mentor's voice.

"I'm here!" She panted, skidding to a halt beside the striped ginger and white tom.

"You didn't catch anything." He observed.

"Sorry. I guess all the prey's hiding now that it's officially Leaf-Bare." She shrugged.

Sharpfang narrowed his eyes. "Well, alright. At least you caught one rabbit. Come on, let's get you back to camp. You can have some prey before we practice some new battle moves."

"Okay." Rosepaw agreed, bounding back toward the camp.

Sorry this took a while! We're on another rv trip, and the wifi is pretty weak 😂 Have an awesome night or day or whatever! BYEEEEEEE!