Warriors: Uprising (Book 1)

Chapter 17

Shredpaw wanted nothing more than to be away from Blacksting again, and the gathering was his only time away from the cat he calls his father. Shredpaw didn't understand how almost killing your son twice is "training". He wondered if he will ever learn how to hunt or even fight.

Hi, friend! The voice that spoke to Shredpaw before had come back to talk to him.

Shredpaw groaned, "What do you want? I don't even know your name..."

Well... My name is Shred! Close to your name! The voice said.

"Shred...?" Shredpaw echoed.

Shred!

Shredpaw chose not to respond to the voice any farther until he realized the voice was in his head. He only stopped because he heard pawsteps coming into the Apprentices' den.

"Hey, Shredpaw."

Shredpaw looked up to see who it was. It was his mother, Dustshine. His expression went from blank to a frown. He stood up and gave her a dark stare. "You come in here to say Hey Shredpaw? No "Shredpaw, are you okay" or "Shredpaw I'm sorry"?" He snarled at Dustshine.

"Shredpaw I didn't-"

"No!" He hissed. "I don't want to speak with you! I've got hurt these past two moons and you just don't seem to care anymore! Leave me alone!"

"But Shredpaw-"

"Get out!" Shredpaw gave another hiss to his mother. Tears were forming in her eyes as she left the Apprentices' den with her head lowered.

As she left, another cat came in.

It was Blacksting.

He looked back at Dustshine before he looked at Shredpaw again. "You made her sad? Marvellous job, anyway. Our next lesson will begin soon. Be ready when I am you, worthless apprentice."

Blacksting left quickly.

I don't want to be alive anymore. Shredpaw thought as he slowly left the apprentices' den. He looked around and he noticed Blacksting was with two other cats. They were both toms. Shredpaw didn't want to know what Blacksting wanted to teach him at all if it involved those two toms.

The three cats looked at Shredpaw and padded over to him.

Please leave me alone... Shredpaw thought as they came up to him.

They all stopped right in front of him. "Stagwhisper and Rockcreek will help us with your training today, Shredpaw."

The two didn't look so happy doing this for Blacksting. So they both looked away from Shredpaw.

Blacksting gave a small chuckle. "Let's get going then."

The four toms headed out of camp. Nova watched silently from the Medicine den.

*

They got to a place that Shredpaw was unfamiliar with. It was a little far from Vertexclan, but not far enough to not be able to get back. They stopped by an old tree that had not a single leaf on it.

Why are we here...? Shredpaw thought and stared at the tree for a moment before realizing there were claw marks on it.

"Shredpaw. Stagwhisper and Rockcreek will attack you. You won't fight back at all. If you do, then I will kill Dustshine, you hear?"

Shredpaw didn't respond.

"Show no mercy."

Stagwhisper and Rockcreek padded up closer to Shredpaw, and both unsheathed their claws. But they were hesitant. They didn't want to hurt the poor apprentice.

Blacksting was getting angry, so he unsheathed his claws. "It's not that hard to hurt a cat! Just do this!" He went behind Shredpaw and raked his back with both of his claws deeply, causing Shredpaw to shriek in pain.

Rockcreek and Stagwhisper watched in horror as Blacksting hurt his apprentice. Blacksting gave Shredpaw another giant rake on his back, and it caused him to shriek in pain again.

"See, that's how you do it! Now attack him before I kill Smokedream!" Blacksting snarled.

Stagwhisper held back his tears as he didn't want to do this, and Rockcreek also seemed like he would cry, but they clawed and rake at Shredpaw themselves. Shredpaw had tears falling down his face as he felt more and more pain inflict onto him. He fell onto the ground as they continued to batter all over him and rake into his fur. There was a lot of blood staining Shredpaw's fur and the paws of Stagwhisper and Rockcreek.

Shredpaw's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he passed out in front of the three cats.

Why... Me? He thought as he closed his eyes for what he thought would be the last time he saw any cat.

*

Shredpaw slowly opened his eyes, only to see Nova in front of him, pacing around quickly. She then looked over at Shredpaw.

"Oh, thank Starclan you're okay!" She quickly went over to him to check his wounds once more.

Shredpaw looked at his body slightly, but not too much since every move he made hurt. He could see a ton of cobwebs wrapped around his body and legs. "What happened...?" He winced at the pain he felt from the slight movement.

"Blacksting said a fox attacked you. Is that true?" The medicine cat asked.

Shredpaw didn't want to respond.

"Shredpaw, if Blacksting is hurting you. Please let me know now..."

He just laid his head back down. He didn't want to think about what Blacksting would do to his mother.

"Shredpaw! I demand you tell me as your medicine cat what happened!" Nova hissed. She was well angry now.

"There was a fox that attacked us." Shredpaw lied.

Tears were welling up in her eyes. "Shredpaw, please! Is that the truth? I don't want to see a clanmate of mine get hurt like this again... You could've died..." The tears fell down her face.

Shredpaw didn't answer.

Shredpaw just wanted to be alone.