The New Prophecy

Chapter 9

“From now on, until you receive your warrior names, you will be known as Manepaw, Ashpaw, Softpaw, Tigerpaw, and Stormpaw.” Bramblestar said. “Your mentors will be Whitewing, Brackenfur, Bumblestripe, Blossomfall, and Icecloud.”

            Stormpaw ran over and touched noses with Icecloud, her body was shaking with excitement and she couldn’t wait to run around Thunderclan territory. Now though most of the cats left after the last leaf-bare had apprentices, Graystripe hadn’t made it through the cold weather but Hazeltail had pulled through. There had been more recent scent marks from the rogues and Bramblestar had ordered more patrols.

            “So ready to see the territory?” Icecloud asked.

            “Yeah, can we go see if anyone crossed the border?” Stormpaw ask while running towards the camp entrance.

            “No we can’t! While I’m showing you around you have to listen to me otherwise you could get hurt or cross a border.”

            Stormpaw waited until Icecloud caught up with her and let her lead her around the territories, they met up with the sun-high patrol as they went to their back border to check the rogue scents.

            “There have been more of them here…” Dustpelt muttered.

            “Take a good sniff, that’s what they smell like.” Icecloud instructed.

            Stormpaw wrinkled her nose at the disgusting scent; at least Shadowclan and Windclan hadn’t smelled like carrion. They continued to follow the patrol until Stormpaw thought her paws would fall off, finally Icecloud went back to camp and let her rest, and to her surprise it was dusk already. 

            “Are we training tomorrow?” Stormpaw asked as she got a piece of fresh-kill.

            “Yes so get some rest we’ll be learning how to hunt.”

            Stormpaw saw her brother and Ashpaw walk into camp behind their mentors, when they saw her they ran over to her and sat beside her.

            “Guess what!” Tigerpaw shouted, “Blossomfall already taught me some fighting moves!”

            “What? That’s so unfair! Brackenfur made me walk around borders.” Ashpaw exclaimed.

            “Well that’s what she said we’d be doing starting at sunrise.”

            “I already saw the borders, and I got to smell the rogues’ scent.” Stormpaw bragged.

            “Oh ready well I got into a fight with a gray one.” Seedpaw sneered as she strutted over. “Good thing they didn’t come back otherwise you’d be the one who got turned into mousemeat.”

            Tigerpaw lunged at him but Stormpaw and Ashpaw pinned him to the ground until he stopped struggling. Seedpaw gave him an amused look before walking off to the den.

            “You know, if you don’t want her badgering you about how flea-brain you are, you could just ask me to fight her.” Snowpaw offered.

            “You’d get us all in trouble.” Ashpaw replied.

            “But wouldn’t it be worth it if she got what she derserved?”

            He got up and padded away to the apprentices’ den and they followed him so they could rest until their mentors came to wake them up. Stormpaw curled up next to her brother and Softpaw who must’ve come back to camp before them.

            Stormpaw was prodded away and blinked a few times before Amberpaw’s face came into focus. “Battle training come on.”

            “Battle training? Icecloud said I was going to learn how to hunt.” Stormpaw gave her friend a confused look.

            “There was another attack from the rogues, Bramblestar ordered us to get battle training first.”

            Stormpaw stretched before padding out of the den and running trough the forest after her mentor. When they got to the training hollow she saw Snowpaw, Seedpaw, Manepaw, and Ashpaw were standing there with their mentors.

            “Okay everyone’s here lets get started.” Ivypool instructed. “First, I want you to practice the duck and twist.”

            “But we already know that move.” Snowpaw complained.

            “Well they don’t so you can show them how to do it.”

            They gave Snowpaw room and he ducked, twisted around into a roll, and got back onto his paws. Ivypool had them spread out and their mentors watched them as they practiced the defensive move, Softpaw, Stormpaw noticed, couldn’t stay on her feet and ended up on her side. Berrynose stood by her and told her what she was doing wrong and she tried again, this time only stumbling. They practiced this move until they got it down and Ivypool had Seedpaw demonstrate the front paw blow and front paw strike.

            “Can we take a break? It’s almost sun-high and we haven’t even eaten.” Manepaw whined.

            “Not until you get the move right.” Whitewing replied.

            “All you do is claw at them!”

            “But you have to be accurate and focus on where you’re hitting them. You are just clumsily swinging your paws.”

            He glared at her but continued to practice while the others left to go back to camp.