ThunderClan's Hope- Book #1 in Sunrise

Chapter 11

Dewpaw bit the back of the WindClan leader's neck and shook, jerking her head back and forth. Sprintstar screeched and shook her off, sprinting out of the den. WindClan warriors bristled. The ThunderClan patrol bared their teeth, and Adderjaw bristled down his spine. Spiderfur sat up and bared his teeth. "Get out! Sprintstar shouted. "And the next time you see my warriors, keep in mind that I sent them!" She shouted.

The ThunderClan patrol left the camp respectfully, and padded far away from it quietly. Flipnose turned to Dewpaw and stared at her. "What are we supposed to say now?" He growled, exasperated. He pitched his voice to a higher tone. "'Well, yeah, sorry Ravenstar, but I kind of, well, you know, attacked the WindClan leader, and, if we see WindClan cats on our land, it may be an ambush'?"

He groaned. Dewpaw just wanted to tune him out. She could smell WindClan scent behind her, following them to the border. I'm not going to be a warrior anytime soon. Her tail drooped. "I'm sorry." She mewed, shrinking into her pelt. "Fireclaw has a lot to deal with." Flipnose growled to Pebbleleg. Pebbleleg sent a sympathetic glance towards Dewpaw and looked down.

. . .

"You....what?!" Ravenstar growled. Dewpaw shrank a tail-length into her pelt and let her tail drop to the floor. Flipnose started looking sympathetic after Ravenstar banned her from border patrols and doomed her to moss collecting for a moon. "And extra hunting patrols." Ravenstar finished with a hiss. Dewpaw's heart sank. "But....," "Do you want to be on tick duty, too?" He hissed.

"No, sorry." Dewpaw stammered. She padded to outside the den where Starpaw was waiting. "Tick duty?" He guessed, eyeing the Leader's Den. "Everything except for that." She replied. Up on Highrock, Dewpaw spotted Ravenstar clambering to the top.

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey, please gather beneath Highrock for a Clan meeting!" He yowled. Oh no, thought Dewpaw. From the apprentice den, Creampaw emerged. Fireclaw and Sunray ducked out from the Warriors Den, followed by Yellowstone, Clawkit, Sparrowkit, Moonkit, and Lightningkit.

Yellowstone and Fireclaw moved closer to Clawkit. Yellowstone licked down his scruff, and started grooming his back. Clawkit rolled over and shook himself off. He licked one paw and drew it over his ears. "Look, mom, I'm clean." He mewed. Yellowstone looked at him affectionately.

Oh, Dewpaw thought. He's becoming an apprentice. Ravenstar cleared his throat. "Clawkit, please come forward." Clawkit nervously stepped forward. "You have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to become an apprentice. From this day until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Clawpaw." His sisters cheered. "Your mentor will be Flipnose. I hope Flipnose will pass down all he knows to you. Flipnose, please come forward."

From the crowd, Flipnose emerged, his eyes shining with delight. "Flipnose, you have already recieved excellent training from Amberstripe, and you have shown yourself to be patient and hardworking. You are to be the mentor of Clawpaw, and I expect you to teach him all you know to him." Ravenstar finished. Flipnose and Clawpaw touched noses. "Clawpaw! Clawpaw! Clawpaw! Clawpaw! Clawpaw!" The Clan yowled.

After the howls died down, Clawpaw padded over to his family, his sisters squealing in delight. Sparrowkit turned to Yellowstone "Can I be next?" She asked. Yellowstone gazed down on her and Dewpaw turned. She'd be a warrior soon. She turned to Starpaw. "I guess I have to go get some moss for a new nest in the apprentice den." She said, trotting happily away.

. . .
Dewpaw dug her claws into a fallen tree and scraped off a pawful of moss, adding it to her heaping pile. The sun was going down, but she figured it was a while until dark. Dewpaw stretched and started to pick up moss to bring back to camp, when she saw a brittle leaf flutter to the ground. The leaf was glossy, with four red splotches dotting the sides of the leaf. Dewpaw dropped the moss, and crouched towards it.

She sniffed the leaf. It smelled of sap, for it was a maple tree it had fell from. Dewpaw turned around and shook out her pelt. She grasped a pawful of moss from the pile and turned back towards camp. The woods were perfectly silent, except for her pawsteps. Leaves crackled underneath her paws as she passed through the forest. The camp entrance loomed before her, and her jaw was becoming sore from holding the moss for what felt like a moon.

"Hey, Dewpaw!" Flipnose mewed from behind her. Dewpaw spun around to face him. Clawpaw padded beside Flipnose, carrying two mice by their tails. Clawpaw's eyes glittered with pride, and as they entered camp, Fireclaw padded over, his pelt ruffled in delight. Fireclaw wrapped his tail around him, mewing praise at him like rain in a storm. Dewpaw's heart ached for her own parents. Her dad would've been so proud of her, except for losing her temper with the WindClan leader. Dewpaw's shoulders slumped. She guessed that she just needed to take out her anger on someone.

She was a disappointment. Her mom wouldn't want her to be breaking the warrior code, either. Weedtail had said that Skycloud was a good cat. Was Dewpaw really that bad? Was she a disappointment, or was this her one mistake? That thought stuck in her head for the rest of the night.