Omen of the Sun Book Two: Snowfall ✅

Chapter Thirty-Three

**A few days later**

Sunpaw stared wistfully at the fresh kill pile. It had a scrawny mouse on it, and an even smaller trout. She, Cinderstorm, and Moonpaw had just shared a tiny pike together, after bringing a shriveled old shrew to Rosefoot and Windheart and a tough blackbird to Peonystorm. Applestar, who had returned among praise and had been deceptively and suspiciously upset when she had found Snowblaze dead, had been able to get enough food that she could feed her kits, and herself. Sunpaw suspected she was taking a bit more than she needed, but how could she say anything? Who would stop a nursing queen, who also happened to be the leader of the Clan, from taking food for herself and her four kits?

Sunpaw broke out of her thoughts as Skypelt approached her, looking excited. "Hey Sunpaw! I have really good news."

"What is it?" Sunpaw asked, turning to face her mentor and wrapping her tail neatly around her paws.

"In a few heartbeats, we're going to go out hunting- it's your assessment today!"

Sunpaw stared at her, then slowly a grin spread over her face. Finally, she would become a warrior! She was ready, and excited. "Awesome!"

"Yeah!" Skypelt meowed cheerfully. "Then, after land and water hunting- oh don't look so surprised, you know we do both -we'll go on to climbing Sky Tree. Hopefully we'll have enough time today- the days are shorter now -and you'll have your warrior name by sundown if all goes well!"

Sunpaw smiled, but at the mention of her warrior name her stomach seemed to drop a little. "G-great!" She mewed, trying to sound cheerful but sure she was failing miserably. Luckily, Skypelt seemed too wrapped up in her apprentice's success to notice.

"Come on, let's get started."

They walked out into the woods, Skypelt explaining how it would work. "It's really simple, you just hunt like you normally would in the river near HollyClan that hasn't frozen yet, then we'll go to the woods near FlowerClan, then we'll go to Sky Tree, where Applestar will be. There's a time limit for each, and we'll move to the next task when the time limit is up."

Sunpaw nodded, and realized that they were at the HollyClan river. Skypelt nodded. "Alright, good luck, see you later."

She disappeared into the trees.

Sunpaw crouched at the riverbed, not particularly wanting to get into the freezing water to fish the way she usually did. She kept her paw at the ready, and her eyes alret for any movement that might be a fish.

A gleam of silver caught her eye after a while. Sunpaw flicked her paw in, grateful that a fish had finally come. How bad would it look if I hadn't caught anything?

Scooping the fish neatly out of the water, she bit its neck, killing it, and saw that it was a reasonably sized trout. Returning to her post, she kept her eyes ready for any other fish.

In the end, she only managed to catch another fish, and a trout. The trout was around the same size as the first one she had caught, but the other fish was small. Sunpaw stood and turned, shaking out her pelt, as Skypelt approached. It had been cold sitting there, and she was ready to go hunting in the forest. Even if she wasn't good at it, she would be able to keep warm by moving around.

Skypelt padded up and eyes her catches. "Not bad, for leaf bare," she said approvingly. "Okay, come on, I'll bring you to the woods and then bring these back to camp."

"I can find my own way there," Sunpaw promised. Skypelt nodded without looking at her. "Okay."

She grabbed the fish in her mouth and departed. Sunpaw made her way through the hard, crunchy snow, wishing she had something to cover her paws. It was cold, almost too cold to be outside, and she didn't want to be anywhere near this messy, wet mess of snow. She would have much rather stayed in her den... but then she wouldn't be having her warrior assessment.

Even though she knew Applestar might name her Sunpaw, she wanted to take the chance. It had been driving her crazy for the past few days- she and Cinderstorm had kept quiet about their powers and had watched Lightningfeather closely, and every time they did this, Sunpaw couldn't help but remember that whether she lived or died pretty much depended on Applestar.

So that was awkward.

She arrived at the forest, and sighed, tasting the air. Mentally, she cursed, because all she could smell was the StarClan-forsaken snow and ice. Muttering an angry message to the sky about their timing to release snow, she dropped into a crouch and sniffed. After many attempts, she smelt the scent of mouse. Creeping slowly towards the scent, Sunpaw remembered to place her paws down carefully. When she had reached where she thought the mouse was, she sprang with a snarl, a flash of gray-brown meeting her gaze. She snapped the mouse's spine with her paw, and stood, its limp, cold body in her mouth.

Burying it in the snow, she continued on her way. She heard a scruffling up in a tree, and stopped, her paw raised over the snow. It seemed to come from the tree above her. She paused, turned, and began to climb the tree stealthily.

When she reached the branch where her quarry was, she glanced around, trying to locate it. When she finally found it, she crept forward. It was a skinny robin, out on the branch with its back to her. With a low snarl, she leapt forward and killed it with a bite to the neck. It never even had time to cry out.

Sunpaw continued hunting until Skypelt stopped her. She hadn't managed to get much after that- a sleepy baby squirrel, and a bone-thin mouse. The baby squirrel, at least, had a little meat on it. Sunpaw felt she had done very well for a leaf-bare day.

"Alright," Skypelt said, her voice low, not looking at Sunpaw. "Come on, this way. Time to climb."

Sunpaw took a deep breath, padding after her.

Applestar would be here.

Showtime.

And that's a wrap! :)

So. Skypelt is being weird. Any predictions?

Also I wrote this in a weird mood, so if anything is weird, that's why o.O

Heh heh SHOWTIME!

I love Clace songs. They're so cute. FORGET THE SONGS, I LOVE THE CLACE!

Sorry. OTPs.

BUT CLACE!

BAI!

~RAINFEATHER