ClawClan (Season 1: Episode 2-Meowder Mystery)

Chapter 1

    A gray blur flashed past Fangclaw and Hiddenpaw. The two cats crouched down behind a bundle of gorses. Silently, the mentor prodded Hiddenpaw to go forward. The apprentice obliged and crawled slowly, not to scare off the mouse that grabbed a nut fallen from a large tree. The sun of early Greenleaf shone brightly, which cast light dapples filtered from the trees. Fangclaw knew that the prey doesn't mind the shadows. However, it was standing on a big bright dapple.
   
Hiddenpaw crept into the ring of light, creating the apprentice's shadow that darkened the mouse's fur. The gray prey dashed into a tree hole, knowing that something was hunting for him.
"Dung!" Hiddenpaw cursed under his breath. Fangclaw walked up to him.

"That's your lesson for today: never walk too close to your prey," the leader hissed. Hiddenpaw scoffed, then added that prey were supposed to be dumber than they appeared. "Some prey are unique, like us cats. there's going to be a time when you're facing a smarter prey." The ginger warrior frowned as his apprentice ignored his speech and continued to hunt. The mentor looked up at the sun, it will soon be sundown, which will start the clan's movement to The Boulders, a clearing in front of four gigantic rocks. "We should get back now, it will be moonrise if you press on."
   
The black-and-white 'paw sighed and looked up at his mentor. "Will I be able to catch prey? What if I never catch fresh-kill for our clan?" he mewed, eyes brightened with worry. Fangclaw assured.
   
"I know one day that you will catch an abundant of prey for ClawClan. Look," Fangclaw looked down at the apprentice that was once a kit. Soon the young cat will be a strong warrior, Fangclaw thought. "I'll changed my plans and will hunt again tomorrow, if you like." Hiddenpaw stared at his white paws, hesitated, then locked gray eyes with his mentor's.
   
"I should like that, thank you," the apprentice purred.
   
"You should, now let's go!" Fangclaw leaped away, closely followed by his apprentice. As the mentor jumped over a big, fallen tree, he turned over his shoulder.
   
Hiddenpaw was scrabbling on the bark, heaving his fat body over the log. Finally, the apprentice flipped over the tree and got on his four paws. He nodded, showing that he is ready to move on.  The two sprinted onwards through prickly brambles, gifting light scratches to the apprentice and the mentor.

Not long did they stopped at the tall grass that presents the camp on the other side. They walked through it. Scents of familiar cats hit Fangclaw's nostrils. He noted how the combatants came back from training strong warriors as they came back from the Sand-Fortress, the training grounds.
   
Going to the pile of fresh-kill, the leader bit into a mouse's scruff and went to a spot in the clearing. Hiddenpaw dragged a squirrel in his maw as he trotted to the nursery. He stopped as two shadows crept out of the den and rushed at the apprentice!

It was Brownkit and Wavekit, kits of Minkbounce, and are almost at the age of apprentices. Fangclaw promised the queen that they will be apprentices tomorrow at sunhigh. They (the kits) hopped around the young apprentice, who dropped his squirrel. He hissed teasingly.
   
"Hey, don't let me trip over you! What is Minkbounce going to say when you two are disrupting me?" The two kits stopped their bouncing and looked at Hiddenpaw with pleading eyes.
   
"Come on, Hiddenpaw!" Brownkit whined, "You promised to tell us about your training last sunrise." His sister joined in the complaints.
   
"Yeah, I'm too-o-o eager to hear about your training," Wavekit sang. "We will soon be apprentices, so at least give us some heads up when we become apprentices!"
   
Hiddenpaw shook his head lightly, looked back at the kits, and meowed, "Alright, first, an apprentice feeds their clan first," he shoved the red squirrel to them. "So bring that to your mother, then I will tell you about my training."
   
"Okay!" both Wavekit and Brownkit cried and grabbed the fresh-kill, Brownkit holding its scruff, and Wavekit holds it with its tail in her mouth. As they both went inside the Nursery, Fangclaw swallowed the last piece of his meal. The satisfied tom pulled himself up, licked his lips and nose, then headed towards the combatant-patrol led by Foxwhisperer. The Clan leader remembered moons ago when he stood on top of High-Stomp and called out to DeadClan to give the rank of Right-Hand to the fox-like tomcat. Along with the rank of Right-Hand, Foxwhisperer accepted the responsibility of a combatant. 
   
The ginger cat greeted Foxwhisperer, who nodded in return. The leader was about to ask how the training went, but his Right-Hand ignored, passing him to the newly built den for Autumnwind, the doctor of ClawClan, and her assistant Rosepaw. He watched the small pale-ginger pelt of Rosepaw passed Foxwhisperer and bounded into Kitten's den. Kitten was The Messenger of DeadClan. Ever since Kitten brought peace to the four clans, she and Rosepaw hung out together. 
   
"Fangclaw!" The feline voice called his name again. Fangclaw turned. He saw Weaseltooth rushed towards the leader. The middle-moon staff halted as her face was close to the leader's face. "Leader, the staff and I came up a new guideline for ClawClan, and it would be an honor if you hear it," meowed Weaseltooth, locking eyes with Fangclaw. The leader shook his head.
   
Tonight is the Gathering below The Boulders. Fangclaw has no time to listen to the Staff's new rule right now; the sun was setting down as the sky gone darker. He explained to Weaseltooth, whose face sagged as she frowned at his words. "How about tomorrow?" Fangclaw offered before the staff member sighed and walked away to the Staff Den.
   


It was now night. Fangclaw yowled for his clanmates to huddle around a mossy tree stump. Then he named the cats who will come to the Gathering. Each ClawClan cat who were called lined up behind the entrance to the forest. Fangclaw yowled once more and padded out of the camp.

The ginger warrior sprinted up a small slope, followed by his clanmates. Then, Fangclaw bounded into ferns that seals The Boulders and its clearing from the outside world. The leader unsheathed his claws and leaped onto a small boulder between two larger ones. He pulled himself and greeted the other three leaders: Stormstar, Moonstar, and Dawnstar.

   
The leaders spoke to each other as they waited for the full moon to rose high, being seen by all the cats and lightening the clearing. Fangclaw pushed the sounds of the clan cats to the background and listened to Dawnstar explaining her story to the ClawClan leader. "-As our former leader, Frogstar, died," -Fangclaw listened intently, but he realized that his Right-Hand is ignoring the story, watching the crowd of warriors- "our medicine cat Falconflight brought some traveling herbs to me and we went past the Thunderpath." Fangclaw nodded, noting that Thunderpath is another word for a road in which monsters raced on. The light-ginger molly continued, "we moved forward underground, which holds...." The ClawClanner glanced at Stormstar as he ignored the rambling Dawnstar's story.
   
The yellow eyes of the grey she-cat never blink. They were locked onto one cat. He twisted his head to see who. It was Pebble-eye, the new warrior who was formerly trained by Bigrock. Fangclaw's fur prickled. Where is Bigrock? Could be at LeafClan camp. Why was Stormstar's unease glance was upon the new warrior? The ginger cat shook his head and stare back at Dawnstar, who was still rambling about how the ancient warriors of StarClan gave her nine lives. He looked back at Foxwhisperer. His black-tipped ears were moving. 
   
Moonstar yowled aloud. The full moon was finally at its peak. Moonstar strolled to the cliff of her boulder. "MeadowClan had plenty of prey in Greenleaf and had many healthy kits," she meowed, and twisted her head to Fangclaw, awaiting for his report. 
   
Fangclaw moved up, ready to speak. "Our fresh-kill pile is abundant and none of our warriors had passed away." He backed away and looked at the WillowClan leader.
   
Dawnstar started her report, telling how a fox was in her territory and took away two kits from their camp's nursery. "My deputy will host a fox-patrol to find that stupid fox!" she stated, turning to Moonstar. "We had scented a fox trail on your territory."
   
Moonstar nodded in understanding and answered the question in Dawnstar's mind. "You are allowed on our territory to find that fox, but I expect you, along with your deputy, that your warriors don't hunt our prey!" The two shared a glance of agreement, then gazed at Stormstar, their gray ears twitching impatiently. She went up. What she was about to say stunned the crowd below the four boulders as well the three leaders and their deputies.
   
"One of our new warrior and apprentice was in a patrol." Stormstar stopped, looking at the ground.
   
She is trying to find the right words, Fangclaw guessed. The leader lifted her chin up.
   
"They saw a WillowClan cat kill their patrol leader, Bigrock!" she meowed, then her clan yowled in sadness. The other crowd, WillowClan, gasped as they heard the LeafClan leader stated that one of their clanmates committed murder.
   
Fangclaw noticed Pebble-eye ran behind the first boulder. Quickly, she leaped onto the surface and shoved Moonstar to the side.