Shadows in the Night

Chapter Three

“Duskpaw, come on! We’re going to battle training with the whole clan!” Duskpaw lifted his head at the sound of the clan deputy’s meow. He groaned. I just went to the gathering last night, don’t I deserve more sleep? 

It had been Duskpaw’s second gathering; he had been an apprentice for three moons now, but the clans had missed last moon’s gathering because storm clouds had been covering the moon. Leaf-bare had come. He remembered how thin the other clans looked, all except for StreamClan, because the river hadn’t frozen up yet. He shivered as snowflakes dotted his brown fur.

“Hurry up!” Stormpelt mew sounded more impatient this time. He wearily dragged himself upright, and hastily padded out into the clearing. He was greeted by Silverpaw, his littermate, and Nightclaw, his sister’s mentor. 

“Alright, let’s go.” Stormpelt waved his tail to summon the training patrol that consisted of himself, Silverpaw, Nightclaw, Webfoot, Sunpaw, Sharpclaw, Mousefoot, Spiderpaw and  Firepaw. 

“Why can’t I come?” Pinepaw padded up to the group and asked. Leopardfur, his mentor, had been spending most of his time with Whitestripe and his kits, so Pinepaw hardly got any training. Featherstar hadn’t appointed a new mentor for hime yet.

“Leopardfur said that you were going hunting. I’ll send your littermates to hunt with you after we finish training,” the deputy meowed.

“Wait!” Cheetahkit squeaked, her tail streaming out behind her as she raced towards the leaving cats. Her sister, Poppykit was right behind her. “We want to come with you!” Poppykit bounced up and down in excitement, her paws churning the surface of freshly fallen snow.

They look strong and healthy now, Duskpaw mused, but no cat will ever forget what happened to Littlekit and Bravekit. They had been Whitestripe’s kits, and had joined StarClan before they were even a quarter moon old. Cheetahkit, Poppykit and Whitestripe were recovering, but poor Stripekit was slumped over at the mouth of the nursery, his eyes glazed. He didn’t look like he could even summon the energy to eat. 

“Why don’t you ask Stripekit to play?” He meowed to Poppykit. The golden she-kit suddenly stopped bouncing.

“We already did,” she mewed, “but Stripekit didn’t even reply!” Her voice rose to a wail. “Whitestripe had to lick him and lick him to even get him to wake up! I thought he was dead!” Poppykit’s ice blue eyes stretched wide, and Duskpaw gave him  comforting lick on the head.

Duskpaw watched as Whitestripe padded up. She looked hollow with grief, but had recovered tremendously since the death of her kits. “I brought Stripekit to Leaffur, but she said that there is not much that we can do.” Despite her consoling words, Duskpaw could tell that she was trembling on the inside.

“Come on, Duskpaw! We need to be hunting after this, remember?”

The patrol headed to the sandy training hollow, but then started to veer away to the owl tree. Stormpelt stopped at about ten fox-lengths away from the foot of the tree and divided the patrol up into two groups. 

Duskpaw ended up on a team with Webfoot, Sunpaw, Nightclaw and Silverpaw. 

“Webfoot, you will lead your patrol, and I will lead mine. Silverpaw, take this feather away to your team.” The silver apprentice padded up to Stormpelt and picked the gray feather up. “Spiderpaw, you can take this raven feather to your team.”

As soon as the black and white apprentice rejoined his group, Stormpelt explained the exercise.

“All cats will start at this line,” He meowed, using his claw to trace a straight line down the width of the clearing. “The aim is to take this feather to the top of the owl tree, without the enemy patrol stopping you. Go and discuss tactics.” Stormpelt dismissed Webfoot’s patrol and padded away with his own. Duskpaw felt himself quivering in excitement.