Warriors: Blazing Fires

Chp. 8

Chp. 8

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"Blossompaw!"

Blossompaw opened her eyes, expecting to see the small bramble wall of the nursery, but instead she found a woven den made of leaves. Then she remembered; she had been made an apprentice yesterday. Excitement fizzed through her paws.

"Blossompaw! I'll leave without you!" her mentor, Greytail, called. Blossompaw quietly scrambled out of the den. Since becoming an apprentice yesterday, she had already learned the territory, going along the borders and exploring. That's all they had done, but it had been enough for the day for she felt like a zombified cat at the end.

Blossompaw padded over to Greytail. "Where are we going today?" she asked energetically.

Greytail purred. "Don't get too ahead of yourself. You'll waste all of your energy before we finish hunting today with Nightpaw and Goldenclaw."

"We're going hunting? I can't wait! Where are we going? What are we hunting? Are you-"

Greytail flicked her ear with his tail. "Enough questions for now. You'll scare all the prey away while you're yowling like a badger."

"Sorry," Blossompaw whispered quietly, then remained quiet to watch the rest of the activity in camp.

Not much else was going on; Feathercloud was mewing loudly to many warriors, dividing up patrols. Thornpaw padded out of the apprentice's den, stretched, then sat. Brambleheart padded up to him, mewed something that Blossompaw couldn't catch, then the two toms headed over to the group of cats at the bramble entrance.

"Hey," Blossompaw mewed to Thornpaw. "What're you doing today?"

"Hunting, then-" Thornpaw looked expectantly at Brambleheart, not sure what they were doing afterwards.

"I was thinking about showing you a few battle moves," Brambleheart mewed.

"How about we join you? I'd like to show Blossompaw a few things," Greytail mewed, padded up to them.

"Great!" Blossompaw yowled, ready to set off right away. She dashed to the entrance, eager to leave and waited for the others to catch up to her. "So, where to?"

Greytail rolled his eyes at her. "Honestly, be patient. That's one of the most important lessons of hunting. Besides," he added, "Nightpaw and Goldenclaw will be joining us too."

"We're here," a new voice yowled. Blossompaw turned to see Goldenclaw and Nightpaw racing across the clearing. They skidded to a halt, then waited expectantly for someone else to take the lead. Brambleheart must've decided that he should lead the patrol, even though no one invited him in the first place, because he headed out the tunnel. Blossompaw and Nightpaw exchanged glances before they followed the others out after him.

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Warm sunlight dotted the forest floor under her paws as they headed to Owl Tree. Thick undergrowth appeared on either side of her while a thick canopy of leaves sprawled overhead, blocking most of the sunlight, but still letting some shine through.

Brambleheart was still in the lead, acting like the leader of the patrol, even though Greytail was the first cat to organize it. The big dark tabby tom thrust aside some leaves and stalked forward arrogantly. Who died and made him leader?

They soon arrived at the big tree that supposedly had owls living in it. After all, it was called Owl Tree.

The three older warriors got into positions around the base of the tree; Brambleheart arrogantly lifting his chin high, Greytail twitching his nose sniffing for any signs of prey, and Goldenclaw with her ears pricked, listening for anything new. Soon after, Brambleheart must've gotten bored of trying to look sophisticated, for he soon growled to his apprentice, "Thornpaw, get over here."