Don't Trust Anyone

Chapter Three

"And you lost?" Rainpaw exclaimed in surprise, referring to their contest against Ledgeflight and Gorgeleap. It was the afternoon of the match and Blizzardpaw still felt pretty pathetic for what had happened. "You made it sound like you would win or something. What went wrong?!"

Dirtpaw gave a low growl from his nest. He looked absolutely bitter as he curled up into a tight ball with his tail over his nose.

"Well, for a start, Blizzardpaw couldn't seek anything."

Blizzardpaw looked down at his paws. He felt shameful, even after Ledgeflight had reassured him that it was his first time seeking and that he shouldn't be so hard on himself. It just didn't make sense.

How had things gone so wrong?

"Dirtpaw, why do you think Jaggedstar chose me to be a seeker?" Blizzardpaw didn't know what to do. He was absolutely helpless at the rank, so maybe it'd be easier to transfer to a different one as soon as possible.

"How should I know?" Dirtpaw muttered, hazel eyes flashing green in the darkness. "All I know is that Chasmleap laughed at us when he found out. I've never been so humiliated. We didn't catch anything."

"If it's any consolation," Lostpaw cut in, from where she sat by the entrance. "Chasmleap is too goofy to keep a straight face. He probably didn't even mean to laugh at you guys. One time, he even laughed at Cragfoot's joke."

"What?" Dirtpaw mumbled in surprise. "Cragfoot's jokes are horrible."

Blizzardpaw's shoulders sagged and his head hung. I should go talk to Jaggedstar about changing out of seeking.

He almost jumped when Dirtpaw lifted himself abruptly from his nest, stalking over to Blizzardpaw with a look of pure annoyance.

"You're thinking of changing, aren't you?"

Blizzardpaw's wide eyes imprinted with shock we're practically an answer.

"Doesn't it irritate you to lose?" Dirtpaw questioned roughly.

Blizzardpaw rose nervously to his paws, body still tense under the tabby's gaze.

"Of course it did; I wanted to win."

Dirtpaw seemed satisfied with the answer, depsite his dramatic huff.

"You could've found all the prey in the forest if your thoughts weren't so jumbled up thinking about what question you would ask Gorgeleap. One step at a time, foxbreath. You're smarter than that."

Rainpaw let out a defensive growl, but Blizzardpaw felt a rush of enthusiasm at his words.

He thinks I'm smart.

He decided not to press that comment any further, just in case he received a biting remark.

"So, you're telling me that you don't mind that I screwed up?" He asked instead.

Nope, that wasn't a great thing to say either.

"No, I still hate you for that," Dirtpaw growled, just as Blizzardpaw had expected. "But I'm saying that I'll help you train this moon to improve. I think you're cut out for seeking more than anything else. For StarClan's sake, do I have to spell it out for you, nosypaw? You're up in everyone's business. You can hear gossip from a mountain-length away. There's no way you couldn't be the best seeker the Clan's ever seen."

Blizzardpaw gave him a determined smile, fur fluffing up with pride at the praise he had been given.

"One moon and even we can be in sync," he deduced. After several calculations in his head of Dirtpaw's skills and his own, he could see potential. "Then, when we're ready, we'll ask for a rematch."