Heartstar's rise : Book Two

Ch. 40

Hawkpaw leapt, paws extended straight at Heartstorm. Then just before landing, he twisted and sprung onto Heartstorm's back. Heartstorm was taken by surprise and buckled to the floor. Hawkpaw clawed at Heartstorm with sheathed claws. With a roll, Heartstorm flipped over and was now onto of Hawkpaw, clawing at him. Hawkpaw struggled and twisted and finally, managed to break free. He bunched up his muscles, balancing on his hind legs and started pelting Heartstorm with front paw blows. Heartstorm, slightly disorientated, stumbled back then quickly, reared up and brought down both his paws strongly onto Hawkpaw. Hawkpaw fell to the ground and groaned. Heartstorm let Hawkpaw get up and breathe a moment before lunging for Hawkpaw's tail. Hawkpaw wasn't ready and yelped then twisted around and bit Heartstorm on the shoulder. He tasted blood and withdrew quickly. 

                "Sorry!" exclaimed Hawkpaw, embarrassed. Heartstorm licked his small bite and shrugged. 

                "It's alright," he said. "You'll do great if I was a real enemy." Once he had licked all the drops of blood off and the bite was clean, he turned to Hawkpaw once more. 

                  "You're improving very well, we just need to fix a few things while you fight then we can learn new moves tomorrow," Heartstorm said. Hawkpaw grinned happily. Heartstorm was proud to say Hawkpaw had improve immensely in the last quarter moon in terms of fighting.

                  "What are we going to do now?" asked Hawkpaw. 

                   "We're going on a patrol to ThunderClan," announced Heartstorm. He hadn't brought Hawkpaw anywhere near ThunderClan after the battle and Wolfstep's death but he thought it was time Hawkpaw returned there. Hawkpaw seemed slightly scared but nodded nonetheless. 

                 "They should be leaving soon, let's go," Heartstorm flicked his tail and they walked towards camp. They found Sparkbelly and Dustpaw waiting at the entrance. Sparkbelly smiled at Heartstorm and Hawkpaw and Dustpaw started talking. The group of four made their way towards ThunderClan border. 

                "How is it, being a mentor?" asked Sparkbelly. 

                 "Great," said Heartstorm. 

                 "I think Dustpaw is a great apprentice, he's learnt a lot," Sparkbelly bragged. 

                  "Hawkpaw too. He's improving so much in fighting," Heartstorm told Sparkbelly. Dustpaw and Hawkpaw trotted ahead of them, playfully batting at each others ears and joking. 

                   "One day do you want to do training together? They could do some training fights just to see how good they are," Sparkbelly said lightly but he seemed competitive. "Nothing competitive." Heartstorm nodded, it would be good for Hawkpaw to fight with someone his size since he'd been practising with Heartstorm all the time. 

                  "And they can learn fishing in pairs," added Heartstorm. Sparkbelly shrugged. 

                  "It's soon going to be leaf-fall, it'll be cold," Sparkbelly put in. 

                  "Yes but they do need to learn fishing in pairs," urged Heartstorm. 

                   "Yeah alright," huffed Sparkbelly. "But we should do that fighting training together soon." Heartstorm chuckled in amusement. Sparkbelly seemed very keen to prove Dustpaw was a great fighter. But Heartstorm knew Hawkpaw could beat Dustpaw. Heartstorm scented the faint smell of ThunderClan and Hawkpaw slowed down to pad beside Heartstorm. 

                    "It's alright," Heartstorm said, seeing Hawkpaw's look. "They'll be staying on their side of the border this time." The broke out of the shelter of the trees and the river rushed ahead of them. Sparkbelly ordered Dustpaw to mark the border and Heartstorm nodded for Hawkpaw to mark the border further along. Hawkpaw trotted along, looking slightly nervous at first but when there was no sign of ThunderClan, he seemed more relaxed.