Warriors: Traitors (Book One)

Chapter Four

                 The third sunrise after the Gathering, Moonpaw was following his mentor out of the thorn barrier. Behind him he knew that Softpaw, Rootpaw, Gingerpaw, Critterpaw, Shadepaw, Mudpaw, Cloudpaw, and all of their mentors were following closely. But, since Daisyfur and Cowpelt both had apprentices and were in the nursery, Tigerscar and Kickingbird had taken over their training in the queens’ places. The clan had had more than enough fresh-kill and there were just enough warriors for the dawn and sunhigh patrols, so Wolfheart was taking most of the apprentices and warriors to the training clearing for a surprise.

                It would be Moonpaw’s first day of battle training, and even though he was nervous about the special surprise he was excited to finally learn fighting skills. He would have gone earlier, but his mentor had insisted that he wait until his wounds had recovered well enough. She explained that the twisting, turning, and jerking of battle could easily aggravate old wounds. Moonpaw looked ahead to see a large clearing with a large rock at the very edge. Wolfheart jumped onto the rock and yowled for everyone’s attention.

                “Here we are,” the deputy said with an excited gleam in her eyes as everyone gathered around her. “I know a lot of you warriors don’t want to be here, but I thank you for coming anyway. I have a new idea for battle-training.”

                “And what is that?” Fogheart growled from the crowd with his tail lashing moodily.

                Wolfheart looked at each cat and announced, “By starting a battle.”

                Howls of protest suddenly erupted from even the apprentices, and Moonpaw was sure that they could be heard all the way to the RiverClan camp. Wolfheart waited patiently for the noise to die down, but when it never did, she silenced them with a twitch of her tail.

                “Don’t worry,” she purred in amusement, “It is a friendly battle. We will split into two groups, and fight as if we would in a real battle, only claws will be sheathed and make sure that bites don’t puncture the skin.”

                The apprentices instantly looked more eager, though the warriors seemed a little uneasy about the idea.

                “How will this work any better than regular training?” Moonpaw’s mother asked calmly. “How will we know when to stop?”

                There was amusement in Wolfheart’s eyes as she answered, “It’s simple. Apprentices always learn more from battle, because they see exactly how different moves can be applied and can learn exactly how to respond. The apprentices can observe the warriors’ superior fighting techniques in an actual battle without the risk of injury. But, we will act as though it’s a real battle.”

                “How do we do that?” Sunshine asked curiously.

                “Easy,” Moonpaw’s mentor meowed. “If you get ‘scratched’ a lot, drop onto the ground and pretend to be dead, and the same goes for if you’re bitten in the neck. The fake battle will be over when all of the cats on one team are pretending to be dead. If we have to, we can change teams in later battles to make them more balanced.”

                There were quite murmurs until they eventually died down and Swiftwind asked, “What will the teams be?”

Wolfheart let out a mrrow of laughter before she said, “I will be the leader of the ShadowClan team with Moonpaw, Rootpaw, Cloudpaw, Gingerpaw, Twolegheart, Lightningfur, and Tigerscar. Sunshine will lead WindClan with Mudpaw, Shadepaw, Critterpaw, Softpaw, Fogheart, Swiftwind, and Brokenheart. Agreed?”