So this is my third story, a one shot for AdderClan's Innocent Eyes. Please enjoy!
Softpaw stalked gently through the heather. It was her final assessment and she was determined to do well. Suddenly she stopped; she had caught the scent of rabbit on the breeze. Slowly she circled her way round the rabbit until she was behind it, with the downwind breeze bringing the mouthwatering smell straight to her. Wiggling her haunches, she leapt into the air and began to chase the rabbit, lengthening her strides as she got into the rhythm of the chase. Softpaw could see that the rabbit was beginning to tire, whilst she still had bags of energy in her. Eventually she came so close to the rabbit, her whiskers almost brushed its tail. Without breaking stride, Softpaw pounced onto the rabbit's back and gave it a swift killing bite to the neck. Straightening up, she realised she had chased the rabbit all the way to the training ground, and Nettlepaw and Ravenleaf were staring at her. Softpaw ducked her head in embarrassment, but felt a touch of pride as she heard Ravenleaf say to her apprentice, "Now that's what I meant by good running technique!" Softpaw walked slowly back into the direction of the camp, still trying to catch her breath after the exhilarating rabbit chase. So long as her mentors thought she had done well chasing the rabbit, she would have probably passed her assessment!
Softpaw walked for a while and had reached the abandoned badger set before her mentors, Mothfeather and Thistletail, finally caught up with her. She noticed, with a glimmer of amusement, that both cats were panting quite hard.
"It gets harder and harder to keep up with the apprentices," purred Mothfeather, gently flicking Softpaw over her ear. Thistletail, however, didn't look so happy.
"Hmm, you did quite well chasing the rabbit, you showed satisfactory running technique," he growled in his deep voice. "But you took far too long finding the prey. There were several other rabbits that would have been much easier to catch." Softpaw secretly rolled her eyes. It was just like Thistletail to try and fail his own apprentice. Indeed, when the trio of cats returned to camp, Thistletail had been extremely reluctant to say anything good about Softpaw's assessment to Wolfstar. It was lucky that Softpaw had two mentors, otherwise she never would have passed her warrior assessment. Mothfeather put in a good word for her wherever he could. Soon both her mentors and Wolfstar came out of the leader's den behind the Tallrock. Softpaw jumped up and trotted to the senior cats.
"Have I passed my assessment?" she asked anxiously. Wolfstar gave a small mew of amusement.
"Yes Softpaw, you've passed your assessment. We'll hold the ceremony right away." Jumping up onto Tallrock, he yowled to the WindClan camp.
"Let all those old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Tallrock for a clan meeting!" Softpaw quickly smoothed down a bit of her fluffy black pelt as the clan gathered round Tallrock. Standing up straight and tall, she waited until Wolfstar called for her. Keeping her head high, she padded to the base of the Tallrock, where Wolfstar was waiting, eyes sparkling.
"I, Wolfstar, leader of WindClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn." Meeting Softpaw's gaze, he went on. "Softpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this clan, even at the cost of your life?" Softpaw lifted her head even higher as she replied.
"I do."
"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Softpaw, from this moment you shall be known as Softbreeze. StarClan honours your compassion and your skill, and we welcome you as a full warrior of WindClan." Softbreeze gloried as the clan called out her warrior name.
"Softbreeze, Softbreeze!" At the very front of the crowd Softbreeze could see her father, Gorseberry, calling her name loudest of all, eyes full of pride. As soon as Wolfstar disbanded the meeting, Softbreeze hurried over to her father and touched noses with him.
"Your mother would be so proud of you," he whispered sadly. Mallowfern had been killed by a fox just before Softbreeze had been made an apprentice.
"I know you'll be the best WindClan warrior the forest has ever seen," Gorseberry said confidently.
(Six moons later)
"Meadowkit, from this moment until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Meadowpaw. Softbreeze, you will mentor Meadowpaw." Softbreeze was excited. My first apprentice already! Wolfstar continued.
"Smallkit, from this moment until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Smallpaw." The little ginger tom bounced with excitement. "Thistletail, you shall be mentor to Smallpaw. You trained Softbreeze, and I hope you will pass on all of your skills to this young cat." As the clan cheered the new apprentices, Softbreeze wondered where she should take Meadowpaw. When I was an apprentice, Mothfeather took me to Outlook rock, she thought. Maybe I should see if she wants to train with her brother. When Softbreeze, Thistletail and their apprentices headed out of the camp, she turned to face her former mentor.
"Hey, I was thinking, maybe we should let Meadowpaw and Smallpaw train together for today?" But Thistletail just snorted.
"They're going to have to learn that they aren't going to be together forever," he sneered. "They might as well learn now." Rolling her eyes, she left Thistletail as he headed to the training hollow, but she and Meadowpaw continued on to Outlook rock. Settling themselves into a comfortable position, Softbreeze turned to face her apprentice. To her dismay, she saw that Meadowpaw seemed upset.
"Thistletail is right, you know," she said softly. "You won't always be able to train together, but there will be plenty of chances to catch up with each other, and you'll still be sharing the same nest." Meadowpaw sighed. "I know, but I wish…" the little cat trailed off awkwardly. Softbreeze purred reassuringly.
"Don't worry, I know what you mean. It was a little harsh of Thistletail to put it quite so brusquely, but it is true. Soon, you'll be having so much fun training with all the other apprentices that it won't matter if you don't always see Smallpaw." Meadowpaw seemed to brighten up at her words. Turning to look out over the cliff, she gasped.
"Everything seems so small from up here!"
Softbreeze then went on to show Meadowpaw the basics of keeping watch over WindClan's territory. When the sun was high above the moors, they decided to head back to camp.
Entering the camp, Softbreeze let Meadowpaw go to the fresh kill pile, and went to find her father. Finding him patching up a hole in the warrior's den, she spent a long time helping him, whilst she described her first day as a mentor. By the time the hole in the den was well patched up, there was still no sign of Thistletail. It was odd, as he had returned to the camp a little after Softbreeze and Meadowpaw, but then left again after taking a shrew from the fresh kill pile. She decided to go to Wolfstar and see if he knew anything about Thistletail's odd disappearance. She padded round to the back of Tallrock, and called softly into the den. Wolfstar trotted out of his den, jaws stretched wide in a yawn. Seeing Softbreeze waiting, he quickly stifled it.
"Yes, Softbreeze?" he asked, raking a paw over his ear.
"Thistletail hasn't returned to camp since sunhigh. Should I organise a patrol to go find him?" Wolfstar sighed. "We don't need to send a whole patrol for one perfectly capable warrior. You can go on your own though if you wish." Flicking his tail to indicate the end of the conversation, Wolfstar padded away to the dirtplace. Sighing, Softbreeze headed out of the camp. She was ambushed by Meadowpaw at the apprentice den.
"Are you going out again?"
"Yes," replied Softbreeze. Before Meadowpaw could open her mouth, she added, "You stay in camp. You've worked hard today and deserve a rest."
"I was going to ask you to look for Smallpaw whilst you're there. I haven't seen him in camp for ages," mewed Meadowpaw.
"I will!" Softbreeze called as she headed out of camp. She decided to try the training hollow, since that was where Smallpaw and Thistletail had last been seen. Avoiding a bramble bush, Softbreeze came to the training hollow, then stopped, eyes wide. Slowly, she backed around until she was behind the bramble bush. Crouching low, she watched as Thistletail trained Smallpaw. He sneered at Smallpaw's feeble attempts to fend off his mentor, and scored his claws down Smallpaw's flank even harder. Thistletail rained blow after blow to the little ginger tom, nimbly jumping out of the way as Smallpaw desperately tried to escape his ferocity. Softbreeze watched in horror as Smallpaw's blows grew weaker and weaker, until he collapsed onto his side and didn't get up again. His head rolled back and he moved no more. Thistletail poked his body with the tip of his claw, then grasped its scruff in his strong jaws and dragged Smallpaw's broken body to the stream that ran through the territory and dropped it into the water, listening for the dull thud as the body hit the streambed. Softbreeze backed away slowly, then ran as far away from Thistletail as she could. She could never tell anyone what she had seen, that was sure. Who would believe a new warrior against the most senior warrior in WindClan?
Now Smallpaw will never be a warrior, she thought sadly.
Thistletail had been mistreating apprentices for a long time, but Softbreeze wasn't treated this way because of Mothfeather, her other mentor. WindClan never found Smallpaw's body and Thistleclaw's evil acts were hidden for a long time. It wasn't until Softbreeze's son, Cedarfoot, revealed his evil intentions to all of the clans. Thistletail was banished from the clans, and was never seen by any clan cat ever again.