SplashStar's Vision - Caves, Grass, Sea and Sky - Warrior Cats Adventure

Chapter Four

It had been one moon since Splashpaw was made an apprentice. Oceanwater had trained him well. Stretching until his legs wobbled, he lazily dropped the scrawny trout he had caught in the prey pile. 

Navykit sniffed it, and grunted. "Trout? Again? Is that all you apprentices can catch? It's like you aren't even trying these days." He sat on his haunches, glaring at the fish.

Minnowegg had had a new litter of kits a half moon ago. Two kits, and they were already causing trouble.

"You can't even eat fish yet, Navykit. Besides, you aren't an apprentice! I'd like to see what you caught!" He flashed.

Folding his paws on the sand below, Navykit gave him a triumphant smile. "I'm going to eat fish in a couple of days! Kelpsand told me. Also, a minnow was swimming by the gateway, and I caught it!" He nudged a small minnow to Splashpaw's paws.

"I can barely see it, Navykit. You should leave the hunting to us apprentices. We do better than this." The pile was feeble, with only his trout, two salmon, and the minnow. He guessed if an elder wanted a snack, they could stop threatening to eat the new bundles of fur, then. 

"You apprentices don't do much better than me." He stuck his nose in the air and padded back to the nursery. Scowling, Splashpaw turned to the pile to find, to his surprise, Aquakit watching him. Groaning, he spun to face her.

"What?" He snapped. She wrinkled her muzzle.

"Can we really eat fish in a couple of days? Minnowegg said it would make our bellies angry." She said, casting him a worried look.

Aquakit wasn't that bad. Usually, she was pretty nice. Nudging her with his muzzle, he shook his head. "Your tummy will be fine, Aquakit. But your brother's head...it's just full of air." He teased. Aquakit shrugged.

"He brags a lot. That minnow was just luck. Anyway, nobody has eaten it and he caught it way earlier. I wouldn't eat it even if I could." She wrinkled her muzzle again.

"Yeah, I know." Turning, he watched the clan pad about. Padding out past the fresh kill pile, he nudged his father, now the deputy. 

"Why is everyone so worried?" He asked in a hushed whisper. His father shook his head.

"Leafbare is pretty much here, Splashpaw. They're worried about going to the gateway. We sent a hunting patrol to the beach, just to be sure. They didn't catch anything. They said they wanted to catch fish, and the water wasn't frozen yet, but we still aren't completely sure. It might be too cold for paws. I'm worried, that's all." He murmured.

Shuddering, Splashpaw wondered if they would send another hunting patrol. Last Leafbare, he was a newborn kit. They had sent so many hunting patrols out, and only a couple border patrols here and there. Everyone was so tense. Splashpaw wondered if that would happen again. He wondered if this time, he would be on the patrols. Maybe he'd be lucky and be with Crystalpaw. She had been acting strange lately. 

Taking a deep breath, Splashpaw asked Oceanwater to go on the next hunting patrol. Sooner or later, the water would freeze. To their best of efforts, the clan always lost a cat over Leafbare.