Warriors: Dark Whispers

~Chapter 3~

~Chapter 3~
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Lostpaw opened his eyes to see Sandnose towering over him.

"What..?" He gurgled, sitting up and blinking sleep from his eyes.

"Time for training. You must get up this early almost every day," Sandnose explained.

Lostpaw groaned. "What are we going to do today?" He asked groggily.

"We are going to hunt," she meowed cheerily.

Lostpaw perked his ears and stood. "Ok! Let's go!" He squeezed out of the apprentices den with Sandnose following him. Sandnose slowly guided Lostpaw out of the camp. Suddenly, Sandnose stopped.

"Here we are," she whispered. Lostpaw pulled up beside her.

"What now?" Lostpaw asked in a whisper.

"I'm going to show you the hunting crouch," at that, she crouched and squinted her eyes. Lostpaw uncertainly crouched beside her.

Sandnose demonstrated how to stalk forward by keeping the tail straight out behind her and keeping at a steady pace. Then, she leaped, landing on a brown crunchy leaf.

Lostpaw mimicked her and leaped, landing on a leaf, too.

"Now, try on real prey," Sandnose pointed with her tail at a rabbit crouched near a thin tree.

Lostpaw flattened his ears to his skull and crouched downward. He squinted his eyes and kept his tail out straight, just as Sandnose had instructed.

Then, he leaped. The rabbit got startled and dashed off. Lostpaw perked his ears and gave chase. Heavily breathing, Lostpaw ran faster. Suddenly, he leaped. He landed on the rabbit, pinning it down. With a bite of the neck, the struggling rabbit went limp.

Sandnose pranced up to congratulate him. "Great catch!" She purred proudly.

As they walked back to camp, Lostpaw kept his chest puffed out. In his jaws, he carried two plump rabbits. Sandnose carried one plump rabbit and one scrawny rabbit. When they got to camp, the dropped there catches in the growing pile of prey.

Lostpaw grabbed a scrawny rabbit and slinked over to were he saw Shinepaw and Softpaw giggling as sharing gossip.

"What are you talking about?" He curiously asked as he sat down next to Softpaw.

Softpaw and Shinepaw exchanged a glance before Softpaw spoke up, "I promised Shinepaw I wouldn't tell anyone," she flashed a glance of reassurance to Shinepaw, who was blushing.

Disappointment tugged on his belly as he took a bite. "Ok," he responded coolly.

Lostpaw finished up his prey, then looked at the sky. The sun was slowly sinking beneath the horizon.

"I'm going to rest a bit," he murmured and walked to his nest with his ears down. "What could've so important the my sister can't tell me?" Lostpaw muttered crossly to himself as he settled in his nest.

Lostpaw ears were burning with disappointment as he drifted into sleep.

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(Top picture is Lostpaw, I know the color isn't quite right but it never will be... Hope you enjoy!) :)