Thistle's Mistake

Chapter 13

Thistle stalked up on to the calico apprentice. She barely knew that he was there. Without a warning, Thistle lunged at her. Her blue and green eyes widened with shock as the large grey tabby was heading for her. Thistle braced himself for impact, but Lillypaw ducked out of the way. She quickly twisted her small body and thrusted her hind claws into Thistle's pale grey belly.
"Can't escape that easily!" Lillypaw declared as Thistle flopped awkwardly in the training hollow.
"Are you going to let an apprentice beat you?" Darkmoss called from the stump in the training hollow. Half a moon had passed since the coyote attacked camp. Darkmoss had decided to train Thistle like an apprentice, just so he'd fit into clan life easier.

Thistle pushed himself to his paws, turning to face the apprentice again. She was darting up at Thistle. He swiped his paw at her legs, making her trip and tumble to the ground. As lightly as he could, Thistle pounced on her, holding Lillypaw down. Lillypaw threw her sheathed paws at Thistle's muzzle.
"Sneak attack!" Darkmoss gave a quick warning call as she plunged into Thistle's side. Within the same movement, Thistle kicked Darkmoss off. From his fights with Birch, he quickly stood up, able to get another attack on Lillypaw. The calico apprentice leapt to the top of his back, trying to knock him over. It failed.

She basically fell off, then started to bat at his face again. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see what appeared to be an angry cat charging at him. He stood over Lillypaw as the cat attacked him again. Thistle swiped his unsheathed claws at the cat, barley raking her muzzle.
"This is just training! No claws, remember?" He looked over at Darkmoss, a few small bleeding claw marks where in her face.
"I'm sorry! I forgot." Thistle just realized that he was shaking, although it wasn't too bad, just barely noticeable.
"It's not a big deal, I'm fine. We all make mistakes." Darkmoss reassured him. I'll make more mistakes than both of you, Thistle told himself with an inaudible sigh.
"Why are you over top of me? I could rip out your guts if I wanted to!" Lillypaw poked her head between Thistle's front legs.
"Oh, uh, sorry. I-I wasn't thinking."
"I thought rouges fought a lot." Darkmoss thought out loud.
"They do, a lot, which is why I did that." Thistle shuffled his paw in the dust, embarrassed.
"I think this enough battle practice for today, shall we hunt?" Darkmoss asked.
"Yeah! I'm going to hunt the biggest squirrel!" Lillypaw excitedly pounced around.

"Great oak would be the best for that then." Thistle added, trying to forget his past. Darkmoss nodded and let Lillypaw lead. She lead the way out of the training hollow and headed to the massive oak tree. The faint smell of the rouge camp touched his nose for a second. He glance around as much as he could without looking odd.
"Why did you flip out when I attacked you, if you don't want to answer that's completely fine." Darkmoss gently asked. She must have seen me looking around! I must look like a nervous freak! Thistle hissed at himself.
"There was this one cat, she would make up reasons to attack me." I could end it all here, and basically end our lives. It's not worth it.
"That's horrible! Why did she start attacking you?" Darkmoss had a harsh concerned tone to her voice.
"I really don't know."
"Well your protected by BirchClan, you have nothing to worry about." The brown she-cat touched her black tipped tail lightly onto Thistle's shoulder. Why must she make everything so hard? I should've known better than to make friends with who I'm supposed to be enemies with!

I don't have to listen to Birch though. I can't bring myself to kill any cat. I have a chance to change my life, make it good for once.
"Vole!" Lillypaw quietly whispered to Darkmoss and Thistle. Darkmoss gave a nod, telling her to catch it. The calico apprentice stalked down closer to the willow tree. She peered over the steep slope that Thistle had fell into when he had first joined. Lillypaw quickly slipped down the edge. A high pitched squeak was cut off moments before Lillypaw's face popped over the edge, holding the vole.
"Good job!" Darkmoss praised her apprentice. Thistle started to dig a small hole to hide the prey from birds or foxes. Lillypaw proudly dropped her vole into the small hole, her tail held high as she covered it.

Just stay away! The same, barely noticeable scent of rouge touched his tongue. Neither Lillypaw or Darkmoss seemed to notice it. Heat pricked his pelt at the thought of eyes starring at him. Hopefully this won't last long, Thistle sent a warning glance into a few bushes, although he couldn't pin point where Birch or another cat was stalking them from. It could be drifting down from the border, though it's unlikely.

He didn't want to, but Thistle opened his mouth, trying to find another piece of prey for the clan. To his surprise, rabbit touched his tongue. He flicked his tail up, telling Darkmoss and Lillypaw to stop. They both sniffed around, Lillypaw's expression lighten up once she smelled the rabbit. Darkmoss looked deep into thought, slightly tilting her head. After a moment, she flicked her tail slightly away from great oak. Thistle nodded and crept up to where the rabbit should be. Carefully weaving around some vines, he saw the grey rabbit, it was distracted by the plant it was nibbling on.
"I'll go around, Lillypaw is going to head in front of it and chase it to us." DarkMoss whispered in Thistle's ear. He nodded as the brown she-cat walked off. Through a berry bush in front of the rabbit, he could just make out a few of Lillypaw's white patches. A white tipped tail waved near the top of the bush. Within a moment, Lillypaw darted after the rabbit. It turned around quickly, But Darkmoss and Thistle where already heading that way. They ran slightly behind the grey piece of prey on either side of it. Thistle shoved his hind paws hard into the ground, leaping onto it. He tumbled onto his back, still holding onto the rabbit. He reached up and bit the rabbits neck. Blood filled his mouth as the rabbit stopped squirming. It gave one more hard kick, nearly hitting Darkmoss who had caught up to him. She jumped back just in time before the rabbit's powerful hind legs would've hit her.
"Nice catch." Darkmoss mumbled through the rabbit's fur as she drug it off of him.
"Thanks, I dont there be any prey out around here after that chase." Thistle commented as Lillypaw priced back.
"Aww, I missed it!" She complained.
"I'm sure you'll catch plenty of rabbits." Darkmoss told her calico apprentice. Thistle sat up and shook dirt and small tree debris off of his short grey tabby coat.
"Should we head back?" Thistle mewed. Darkmoss nodded as she nudged her apprentice forward.
"Why can't we hunt still?" She asked.
"There'll be no more prey in this area, I'll see if we can get into a boarder patrol near dawn, okay?" Lillypaw gave an exaggerated nod before darting off to where her vole was. Darkmoss gave another quick tail flick before darting off after Lillypaw, saying come on.

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Sorry for not uploading on schedule for 2 weeks, summer break is here and I don't know when I'll have access to WiFi, so my uploading schedule may be a bit off. Also, I just haven't been in the mood to write a lot, but hopefully that'll end soon. Imma leave you back to your life now and I'll hopefully upload sometime next week. ...so bye?