Blank Slate

CHAPTER THREE

Training moved surprisingly fast, despite Slatepaw's initial thought that it would be a long day. His mind swirled with thoughts of 'would you like to train at the rock' and 'the forest seems smarter'  the whole session, clouding his judgment and making his fighting the slightest bit clunky. What was going on with Cinderpaw? That wasn't just any silly code phrase, it was the code phrase. The sudden thought of maybe he legitimately can't remember sent a chill up Slatepaw's spine.

Slatepaw's distrust of Peonystrike only grew more and more as the group trained; not only was she fussing over Slatepaw's safety and how good his moves were, she was now fussing over Cinderpaw's safety and how good his moves were. It was annoying, to say the least; whenever an exercise was suggested, Peonystrike would pick it apart and strip away any potentially dangerous scenario, leaving it boring and noneducational. At one point, Slatepaw even saw distaste on Tigerthroat's face, though she was doing a good job of hiding it and going along with it.

Once the whole ordeal was over, Slatepaw followed Cinderpaw into the forest to 'train', when in reality it really unnerved Slatepaw that Cinderpaw didn't remember what the phrase meant. As the two toms walked in silence, he wondered just how much Cinderpaw remembered and was beginning to think something happened to him.

After a bit of walking, Slatepaw couldn't stand it anymore. He sped in front of his friend and stopped, turning and facing the brown apprentice straight in the eyes. "You really don't remember?" Slatepaw meowed. The tone of his voice spoke the question more of a statement and held heavy confusion and slight twists of hurt. "Have you hit your head recently?" He meowed half-jokingly.

Cinderpaw skidded to a halt and swished his tail. He blinked his green eyes and tilted his head. "Remember what?"

"The phrase! What it is, what it meant! The code," Slatepaw gaped in disbelief. Genuine confusion was written on Cinderpaw's face. The ambiance of the forest seemed to grow louder in the quiet, and the chirping of cicadas filled Slatepaw's head. "The rebellion?" He added a heartbeat later.

"Rebellion? What are you talking about? What rebellion, what phrase?" Cinderpaw took a step back from Slatepaw as if he was the crazy one. The brown tom's tail was lashing in discomfort now, and Slatepaw suddenly had the urge to backtrack.

"Y-you know, the meetings we had, as kits?" He stuttered. If Cinderpaw truly didn't remember what the rebellion was, maybe it was best to leave it that way. At this point in time, the entire rebellion was at risk of being sold out, if Cinderpaw were to tell.

Cinderpaw seemed to relax, but only the tiniest bit. "Yeah, I remember that. But it was only a game, why are you getting so worked up over it?"

Slatepaw opened and closed his mouth a bit, not sure how to respond anymore. He was upset and confused as to what was going on, and he was never one to tell lies. He finally decided to say quiet, and he dropped his gaze to the ground.

"Listen, you seemed really concerned about me, Slatepaw, but maybe you are the one we need to be concerned about." Cinderpaw scoffed. "I thought we came out here to train, so are we going to train or not?"

"Let's just go back to camp," Slatepaw said quietly. Cinderpaw shrugged in an irritated manner and turned to go. All day, Slatepaw thought that Cinderpaw had simply been trying to confuse him. Now that he knew the truth, he wasn't sure he felt much better.

The trip back to camp seemed longer than the trip away, into the forest in the first place. Every fallen leave that Slatepaw's paw crunched throbbed in his ears and the silence between the two apprentices was tense. He knew that Cinderpaw could have easily just hit his head, and thats why he couldn't remember. Slatepaw wondered if telling Rushshade, the medicine cat, would be a good idea. Even while thinking about all this, something felt off. Maybe he was right, and Cinderpaw simply had an accident; but maybe something stranger had happened.

Finally back at camp, Cinderpaw parted from Slatepaw without a word, walking towards the kill pile, which was now full of fresh prey from the previous patrol. Slatepaw knew that if he got food now, it would probably still be warm and he'd have a chance of making up with Cinderpaw, but he really just wanted to sleep. His mind was still racing, and he wondered if it'd always be awkward with Cinderpaw from now on, now that he thought Slatepaw was crazy.

He entered the apprentice den and crashed into his nest. It didn't take long for sleep to claim him, as he was tired both physically and mentally. His last thought before it went back was 'I wish Burnetflame were here.'

'I miss her so much.'

--Remlin, and this is my first chapter on the account, whoop whoop