Warriors: Wishes For Four

Chapter 9

SharkPaw woke up to a cat in the apprentice den yapping excitedly. "I wonder what your warrior name would be..." another voice said. "Hopefully something cool sounding. I don't want any cat to mess with me!" Then SharkPaw woke up a bit more, and recognized the voices. ThornPaw was having her warrior ceremony later that day, and BadgerPaw was talking with her about it. SharkPaw opened her eyes wider to look at ThornPaw. The brown and white tabby had grown a lot recently. Her dark blue eyes sparkled with determination. SharkPaw stretched and walked past them, commenting on how she was sure ThornPaw would be a great warrior. "SharkPaw, good. You're awake." FinchNose meowed, walking closer to her apprentice. "How would you like a hunting lesson?" she asked. Excitement fluttered through SharkPaw. "Of course!" she mewed, shaking away her last bits of sleepiness. "Follow me." FinchNose purred, walking off toward the thorn tunnel. On their way, CharmTail, the medicine cat, mewed a greeting. "Looks like there'll be snow later." she informed them, gazing up at the clouds. "Leaf-bare is here." SharkPaw was confused. "What is snow?" she blurted out. CharmTail looked amused. "Well, I suppose FinchNose will have to show you." She replied, resting her red-tipped tail neatly over her paws. FinchNose nodded and continued into the thorn tunnel. SharkPaw walked into the forest, looking around at the trees. She noticed that several were completely without leaves. FinchNose came to a sudden stop. "What do you smell?" she asked after a pause of silence. SharkPaw sniffed the air. "Hm...Bird...and frog too I think."
"What else?"
SharkPaw wrinkled her nose. "The thunderpath." she grumbled. FinchNose nodded. "You have an excellent sense of smell, SharkPaw." she complimented. "Do you see any prey?" SharkPaw looked everywhere for bird or frog. "A bird!" she gasped, looking in front of her to see a small bird sitting on a low branch of a short, leafless tree nearby. "Quieter." her mentor whispered. "You could scare the bird off." Keeping that in mind, SharkPaw flattened her body to the ground, how SpotHeart showed her the day before. "Good." FinchNose meowed softly. "Make yourself un-noticable to the prey, while still staying close enough to it so it doesn't get much of a head-start if you need to chase it. SharkPaw crept closer to the small tree, her body close to the ground. "Since the bird is higher than you, it'll be trickier to stay hidden. Try blending in with that patch of tall grass next to the tree. FinchNose flicked her tail towards the hiding spot she was referring to, and hid herself behind a large bush that was still holding onto a lot of it's leaves as she watched SharkPaw creep into the spot unoticed. SharkPaw watched the bird from underneath, and when she felt the time was right, jumped up and batted the bird towards her with one dark grey front paw, then biting into it and landing on her paws, holding the bird in her jaws as it went limp and died. FinchNose came out from behind the bush, and congratulated SharkPaw on her catch.  "Very well done!" she purred. "I couldn't catch a bird until I was almost a warrior." SharkPaw felt a rush of pride as she set down the bird in front of her. A little embarrassed, SharkPaw asked FinchNose: "Is there anything I should improve on?" Her mentor thought for a moment. "Not much." she said finally. "The technique you killed it with may not work every time, though. You need to learn to use your claws more. The warrior glanced around the ground, until she found a leaf slightly bigger than SharkPaw's small paw, and pushed it towards the confused apprentice. "Try clawing apart this leaf." She meowed. SharkPaw nervously unsheathed her claws. She even impressed herself by how easily she split the leaf in half with a single swipe. "Good, good." her mentor meowed. "Now cut it more. Many small pieces." Wanting to impress her mentor, SharkPaw took her time and shredded the leaf until it was only a pile of leaf scraps, each smaller than a single claw. FinchNose purred. "Very good." Suddenly, SharkPaw was almost knocked off her paws by a strong breeze of cold air. She was trying to groom her ruffled fur, when a small, white flake of an unusual material landed on the ground near her back paws. After another fell in front of her, she decided to ask FinchNose about it. That's when she noticed how many of these strange flakes had already fallen on the floor. Even more were slowly falling from the sky. "What are these?!" She asked, looking up. FinchNose looked up and smiled. "This is snow, SharkPaw." SharkPaw was remembering what CharmTail said, when a large one landed on her muzzle. "Snow is cold!" she mewed, shaking it off of her. FinchNose let out a purr of laughter. "We should get back to camp before it gets bad."