Ivypool's Confusion

Chapter 9

Dovepaw

Dovepaw woke up, feeling excited. Lionblaze promised them that they could do battle training! She looked over to Ivypaw's nest, wondering if Ivypaw was awake yet.

Ivypaw was sleeping soundly in her nest. Wait. What was that? A streak of crimson laced around Ivypaw's side. Ivypaw's underbelly was wet with blood. How? Dovepaw wondered in shock. She shook Ivypaw awake.

Ivypaw opened her eyes, blinking a few times. "Ivypaw, are you ok?" Dovepaw asked.

Ivypaw looked confused. How could she not know that she was bleeding? Sometimes, Dovepaw thought Ivypaw was clueless.

"Your fur!" Dovepaw explained.

Ivypaw looked down at her fur. She didn't seem surprised. She awkwardly started to lick her fur.

Dovepaw came out of the apprentice's den. Lionblaze walked up to her, "Go to the training pit. We will be doing battle training soon."

Finally! They could learn battle moves! Dovepaw rushed there as fast as she could.

Blossompaw, Briarpaw, Bumblepaw, and their mentors were already there. Sandstorm and Graystripe, two respected senior warriors, were also present. They waited for Ivypaw and Cinderheart in silence. Dovepaw wished they would hurry up so they could learn battle moves!

Finally, Ivypaw and Cinderheart arrived. Lionblaze demonstrated a simple front paw blow. "We learned that ages ago!" Blossompaw complained. Hazeltail quickly hushed her.

"Blossompaw, you'll do the move I demonstrated to... Cinderheart paused. Me! Dovepaw thought.

"...Ivypaw." Cinderheart finished. Dovepaw felt a twinge of annoyance. It seemed as though Ivypaw always got to demonstrate new techniques!

Ivypaw and Blossompaw faced each other. Suddenly, Blossompaw leaped at Ivypaw. Ivypaw dodged just a moment before Blossompaw would have clawed her. How did she do that? Dovepaw wondered. How did she know what to do?

Ivypaw hovered over the gasping Blossompaw, who was still lying on the dusty ground. She clawed Blossompaw. Dovepaw gasped. Ivypaw's claws weren't sheathed!

"Hey! Your claws aren't sheathed!" Blossompaw wheezed.

"I know this is your first battle training, but you are not allowed to unsheathe your claws! I didn't mention this because I thought you already knew." Lionblaze said.

Wait...Ivypaw did know that. She had told Dovepaw that was one of the first things Cinderheart taught her.

"Then what is the point of this so-called battle practice?" Ivypaw asked.

"Battle practices are for practicing your battle moves. You don't need to unsheathe your claws for that." Lionblaze said, obviously annoyed.

Dovepaw glanced at Ivypaw, wondering how she would react. Ivypaw's ears were back, and her fur was standing on end. Her eyes were narrowed at Lionblaze.

Dovepaw barely had enough time to think uh oh before Ivypaw attacked. She tumbled over Lionblaze, raking her claws across his back. Then, she bit his hind leg. Hard.

As he backed away, startled, Ivypaw screeched "I will get my revenge!" in a weird voice. Then, whirling around, she rushed away.

Watching Ivypaw's silver-white pelt slowly get farther away in the distance, Dovepaw wanted to call her back. But she felt like her voice has failed her.