Warriors: Shooting Star Book #1 A Star Is Born (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 9

A familiar scent came over Wolfpaw as he slept. He opened his eyes to see Midnight was standing before him. Her tiny black berry eyes full of kindness and sorrow. Wolfpaw looked around to see Sparrowpaw and Hazelpaw were fast asleep, as if there was nothing in the den but cats. Wolfpaw yawned and got up, trying to rid the sleep from his eyes.

"What now?" Wolfpaw meowed grumpily.

"I sorry for what happen," Midnight began, "grey she-cat love young one, she not mean to leave you alone."

Wolfpaw lowered his ears and looked down. The old badger was talking about Hazelnose. He missed her sweet familiar scent and her warm grey tabby fur. Her beautiful green eyes that he shared. He wished she had been there to see him be apprenticed.

"Time move on," Midnight interrupted his mourning, "come with me, something must give you." she turned and began making her way out the apprentice's den. Wolfpaw turned back to see Sparrowpaw and Hazelpaw were still fast asleep. He walked out and followed the old badger out to the bracken hiding area. They walked out and headed out to the forest.

As they trekked through the wood, Midnight lead Wolfpaw to the tunnel where he saw that she-cat and her kit. They went through the tunnels and stopped in the cave of beautiful rocks. Midnight turned and sat down, she moved her tiny black eyes to motion Wolfpaw to sit down. The apprentice obeyed and waited.

"StarClan want give gift," Midnight began, "you apprentice now and would like you have special power to help training journey."

"A special gift? Power?" Wolfpaw tilted his head. What could StarClan give as a gift and power to him that he could use as an apprentice? "What is it?"

"You one gift at birth," Midnight started, "you have skill of all Clans, you fast, like WindClan, can swim like RiverClan, hide in dark like ShadowCla, and jump high like SkyClan. This gift, give power to speak different animal, like me, you speak fox, dog, and other badger."

"And how do I get that?" Wolfpaw asked. Midnight lowered her head and touched Wolfpaw's head. Pain shot through the young apprentice as something traveled through his head, to his ears, and to his heart. Wolfpaw, dug his claws in to the dirt, trying desperately not to lash at the badger. Suddenly, the sound of barking dogs turned in to words. The sound of foxes growling changed as well. The snarling of badgers turned to calm speaking. Midnight pulled back and everything died down inside Wolfpaw. He sheathed his claws and looked up.

"Who have great power," Midnight spoke softly, "use it only when needed, must return now, need rest for training."

Wolfpaw woke up to find he was in the apprentice's den. Sparrowpaw and Hazelpaw weren't there anymore. Sharpclaw and Poppystream probably retrieved them for hunting patrols, or battle training. Wolfpaw got up and walked out to see the Clan was awake as well. Adderstar was instructing Twitchwhisker, Hazelpaw, and Poppystream where to hunt, while Sparrowpaw was angrily looking through Earthdirt's fur for ticks. Wolfpaw looked around for Glaregaze, but his mentor was nowhere to be seen. Goosetail sat outside the warrior's den, sharing tongues. Wolfpaw narrowed his eyes, before going to Lightpelt, who had come in to the camp with herbs in her jaws.

"Have you seen Glaregaze?" the apprentice asked the medicine cat apprentice.

"I think he's still asleep," Lightpelt answered, putting her herbs down, "he went on the midnight patrol and decided to train you at sun high. Just go for a walk, help Sparrowpaw, or hunt." Lightpelt picked up her herbs and made her way in to the medicine den.

Wolfpaw looked to the warrior's den before deciding to see if he could catch anything. He walked out through the gorse tunnel and out in to the forest. He perked his ears to see if he could hear anything. He especially wanted to see if he could hear dogs, foxes, or badgers. Nothing but the chirping of birds in the distance. With a sigh, Wolfpaw went on with hunting.

After a while, Wolfpaw decided to return to camp. Glaregaze was probably awake and wondering where his apprentice was. Just as Wolfpaw was about to turn, he heard an angry snarl. The silver tom bolted off to see Sparrowpaw, Hazelpaw, Stripeclaw, and Poppystream at the ShadowClan border, where Sharpfang and a sandy apprentice with brown stripes were standing defensively.

"I thought we made it clear you weren't allowed to steal ThunderClan prey!" Sparrowpaw hissed.

"It was on the border!" the apprentice retorted. "In a matter of speaking, it was still ShadowClan prey!"

"It was on ThunderClan side!" Sparrowpaw flicked her tail.

"Was not!" the apprentice shot.

"Was too!" Sparrowpaw shot back.

Wolfpaw decided to run up and see if he could analyze the situation. A dead robin was lying on the ground. It smelled like it was more ShadowClan prey than ThunderClan. It must have flapped over to the border when the ShadowClan apprentice, or warrior, were chasing it. It had an injured wing, so one of them probably had a grip on it, but weren't able to hold on. Wolfpaw let out a sigh. The bird was more ShadowClan than ThunderClan. It was still mostly on their side of the border, as much as he hated to admit it. What would his Clanmates say? Their was about to be a fight that could possibly lead to a battle. Wolfpaw didn't want that to happen. It would be unjust.

"Wait," Wolfpaw meowed. The cats stopped arguing and looked to Wolfpaw. The apprentice scowled at him as his mentor glared down. "If... You look closely and smell deeper in to the robin you'll see that ShadowClan had injured it and it tried escaping to ThunderClan territory. It was only able to make it to the edge of their border until one of these toms pounced on it and killed it. So... It's still ShadowClan prey..."

"What?" Sparrowpaw snarled.

The ShadowClan cats let out mrrows of laughter, before the apprentice snatched the robin up and began making their way to their camp.

"Who side are you on?" Sparrowpaw growled.

"I couldn't let a fight happen for no reason!" Wolfpaw defended himself. "If I allowed this fight to go on, then there would be a fight that could lead to a battle and for what? A robin? It was sick anyway, you would have gotten the Clan sick with that!" Wolfpaw stopped when he saw the surprised faces on the cats around him. He realized he was probably the only one who smelled the sickness that was in the bird. It wasn't deadly, but it would keep cats in the camp for a while.

"How could you possibly know that?" Poppystream tilted her head.

Wolfpaw lowered his ears. How was he supposed to explain that? He wasn't even sure he knew! He almost jumped, then thanked StarClan as Glaregaze came from the bushes to see his apprentice speaking to the older apprentices and warriors.

"What happened here?" Glaregaze asked, stepping up.

"Apparently, Wolfpaw avoided a battle and ThunderClan getting sick," Stripeclaw started, "but, we have to question how he knew a certain piece of prey was infected."

Wolfpaw flinched at the challenging glare his mentor gave him. What was Wolfpaw supposed to say? He had no idea why he could smell the illness and not them!

Thankfully, Twitchwhisker appeared and looked at the confused and challenging stares of the warriors and older apprentices.

"What's going on here?" the deputy asked. Wolfpaw just wanted to yowl out about his prophecy, about Midnight, and StarClan. All these questions were going to drive him insane. Why did StarClan place all there trust in a such a young cat?

"Nothing," Glaregaze responded before Stripeclaw, or Poppystream could answer, "what's wrong, Twitchwhisker?"

"Adderstar has chosen you, Wolfpaw, Sparrowpaw, Hazelpaw, and Poppystream to go to the Gathering," Twitchwhisker instructed, "will you guard the camp tonight while we're gone, Stripeclaw?"

"Sure," The golden tom nodded, following the deputy back to camp with Poppystream and Hazelpaw.

Wolfpaw looked up to Glaregaze, but the dark grey tom just flicked his tail and told Wolfpaw they were going to do battle training before leaving for the Gathering. Wolfpaw lowered his head as he followed his mentor with Sparrowpaw. She probably decided to help with training since it seemed her mentor was done for the day. Wolfpaw wanted to thank Glaregaze, but after countless hours trying to perfect a battle move, Wolfpaw remembered why he didn't like the cranky old tom.