This all takes place after Night Whispers. I guess you could say this is the first story I've put up, I don't call Tales of ThunderClan a story. This story is supposed to be darker, though! Well, as dark and serious as I can make it...
Hawkfrost slinked across the frosty ground, his body numb from the cold. Shadows spread across the forest floor and coated the trees like an ebony liquid. His dark tabby pelt was sliced by the darkness like hungry claws. The chilled air wreathed around him, squeezing his lungs, though he hadn't needed the life giving air for seasons.
Silence stuffed his ears, the quiet still unnerved him despite the time he'd spent there. Every once in a while, he'd slid out his claws so they'd scratch the earth and break the dead, stiff air. With this he knew that everything was real, he was there in spirit, and forever bound to the Place of No Stars.
He continued sneaking through, trying to keep his paws light and unnoticed. He didn't have much to fear here, yet the forest itself seemed ready to snatch and destroy him.
A sickly gleam rose from patches along his path. It was his only source of light, without it's existence, he'd be drowning in choking black.
The trees began to thin and he came to a small clearing encircled with the mysterious gleam. Time to meet up with my apprentice. Hawkfrost twisted around to lick the fur that was ruffled up along his back, but stopped himself. Why should he care what he looked like? It wasn't like he was meeting anyone important. Despite telling himself this, he felt his ears burn with an unknown emotion.
He turned his gaze to the compact earth in front of him. A small white and gray she-cat appeared as though out of thin air once he allowed himself to blink. The cat was curled into a tight ball, her sides rising and falling in an easy sleep. Unfortunately he could no longer enjoy the calm sleep brought; what he would give for a chance to leave this place, even if it was only a dream.
Something had disturbed the she-cat in her sleep, her ears and whiskers began to twitch irritably. She opened one of her eyes, the color of clear afternoon sky, to take in her surroundings. Perhaps she had hoped that the Dark Forest wouldn't be there. This seemed to be the case, for the light drained from her eyes as she turned to look at Hawkfrost. He felt his heart drop slightly. Was she really that disappointed to be here? He couldn't blame her, but he'd almost hopped to see some sort of happiness when she'd seen he was there.
Hawkfrost shook his head to dislodge the thought and greeted the she-cat with a nod, "Ivypaw." Ivypaw unwrapped herself and climbed to her paws, stretching her limbs for what would be a long night of training. "Ready to begin, then?"
Ivypaw gave a curt nod, but she wasn't looking at him, instead she chose to look at the withered grass beneath her paws. Hawkfrost held back the urge to order her to look at him. How could she just ignore him? A fire of unexpected anger flooded his chest. "Come on," he growled, not bothering to suppress his temper.
Hawkfrost raced across the forest, his paws drumming to a steady rhythm on the ground. Another's lighter gait sounded along side him. Hawkfrost glanced at the apprentice, her fur whipped around her small frame, rippling like a pool of water. Ivypaw was struggling to keep up with him, but the life Hawkfrost was used to seeing in her had returned with the run.
Hawkfrost slowed to a stop when their path was blocked by a pile of jagged rocks.
"What's this?" Ivypaw panted, coming to his side.
"Our new training ground. Today we're focusing on how to take your surroundings into account when you battle. You need to make sure you're aware of both your opponent and what's around you to be the best warrior."
Ivypaw appeared slightly apprehensive. Her gaze drifted over the sharpened spikes that reached to the pitch black sky.
Hawkfrost glanced at Ivypaw and meowed, "Don't worry, you'll do fine."
He was surprised when a purr rose from Ivypaw. Apparently so was she, because she quickly ceased the rumble in her throat. Again, Hawkfrost felt his ears burn and he struggled to recollect his thoughts, forcing away everything that didn't have to do with the training session.
"What do you want me to do?" She mewed quickly.
Hawkfrost blinked slowly, then slid away from her side, "I'll hide among the spikes and you'll come in. Once I attack, I want you to keep aware of the spikes around you and of me. If you know what you're surroundings are, you may be able to use them to your advantage."
Hawkfrost waited for her to nod before darting off into the rocks. He ran until Ivypaw disappeared from his range of sight. Then, he scrambled up a spike, clinging to the rough stone with his claws. He waited.
Ivypaw appeared shortly after. Her nose was raised and her jaws slightly parted as she tried to find his scent. In her search, she came to the base of the spike he hung on, but she wasn't looking up. It was then that Hawkfrost dropped down onto her. Ivypaw gave a small squeak of surprise, but quickly scrabbled away from Hawkfrost. He had been unsteady from his fall, however, the second he regained his balance he shot at her, pinning her to a rock. Ivypaw was slithering like a snake under his grasp, but Hawkfrost didn't let her go.
"Come on, take in your surroundings! Use them against me!" Hawkfrost hissed. Then he felt something hit his belly and nearly jumped away in surprise. Ivypaw had managed to kick a stone at him. She took advantage of his loosened grip and writhed away.
She scrambled up the spike above Hawkfrost and dive bombed him. But Ivypaw seemed to have forgotten how light she was, and Hawkfrost threw her off easily. Hawkfrost, unfortunately, overestimated Ivypaw's weight as much as she had. Ivypaw flew through the air and hit another spike, crumbling to the ground after the impact.
"Ivypaw!" Hawkfrost raced to the apprentice's side and nudged her with his nose. She didn't respond. Panic welled up inside him, but it rushed away when he saw that she was breathing. Hawkfrost sighed. Why be so happy? If she'd died then she could stay here forever, she wouldn't have to leave.
Hawkfrost shook his head angrily, how could he think that? It's just because if she lived here she'd be a better Dark Forest warrior, that's all, he assured himself.
A trickle of blood was flowing from Ivypaw's shoulder. Hawkfrost gave another sigh, obviously he couldn't train her anymore tonight. Even so, he stayed beside her until she faded away to the waking world.
Ivypaw jerked awake and instantly regretted it. She forced down a cry as pain shot down her left side. Blood was welling up on her shoulder, streaking down her pelt and pooling in her nest.
Ivypaw forced herself to her paws. She lapped her shoulder until the bleeding slowed enough for her to move without splattering blood around the den. As she dug through her nest with her nose, she grabbed all the blood stained pieces and dragged them out. Once her nest was clean, she gathered all the soiled moss in her mouth and headed for the exit. She padded around her snoring sister, Dovepaw, careful not to disturb her.
Once she was in the clearing, she limped toward the medicine den, careful to keep weight off her injured shoulder. The chilly night air made her pelt bristle against it. The scents of growing plants filled her nose, a pleasant change from the smell of ice and snow that accompanied Leaf-bare.
Ivypaw pushed through the brambles covering the medicine den. The thorns scrapped her shoulder and she bit down on her mouth-full of moss to prevent herself from making noise. The last thing she needed was the clan to wake up from her howls of agony. Her paws scrapped the stone ground as she placed the moss in a far corner of the den.
Jayfeather, the ThunderClan medicine cat, was curled up in his nest. The brown heap of fur that slept in a nest beside him was Briarlight. In a farther corner of the den, Cherrykit and Sandstorm slept in their own nests. The two cats had caught Whitecough and had been separated from the rest of the Clan so the sickness wouldn't spread.
Ivypaw limped over to Jayfeather's nest and whispered the medicine cat's name into his ear.
Jayfeather flicked his ear as her breath stirred his ear hair. "What?" He grumbled, his irritation at being disturbed was clear.
"I hurt my shoulder, can you fix it up?"
Ivypaw hadn't needed to elaborate. Immediately, Jayfeather's eyes opened and he leaped out of his nest and ran to the back of the den. Ivypaw knew Jayfeather wouldn't want her walking around with an injury she hadn't had before she went to sleep. Neither her or any of the Three would want to deal with their clanmate's questions.
Briarlight's head appeared over the edge of her nest. "What's going on?" She murmured sleepily.
"Nothing, Briarlight." Jayfeather replied, dropping several herbs beside Ivypaw, "Go back to sleep." His voice was unusually gentle to assure the paralyzed warrior everything was fine. Briarlight disappeared once more into her nest.
Jayfeather chewed an herb, his ears swiveled toward Briarlight. He waited until her breathing became slowed.
"What did you find out?" Jayfeather whispered, licking juices into Ivypaw's shoulder.
"Nothing," Ivypaw sighed, gritting her teeth as the poultice worked it's way into her wound.
Jayfeather jerked back, "What? What do you mean you didn't find anything out? You were there weren't you?"
Ivypaw twitched her tail irritably, she didn't need Jayfeather's sass. She was the one who was getting hurt to spy on the Dark Forest, not him. "I wasn't there long enough, I was injured soon after I arrived."
Jayfeather didn't say anything for a bit, unsticking spider web from the ground, "How did you wake up?"
"I was knocked unconscious in the Dark Forest and woke up here."
"Interesting."
Ivypaw let Jayfeather wrap her shoulder, her mind drifting off to her lesson with Hawkfrost. The tabby warrior was probably angry that their training session had to end so abruptly. Truth was, so was Ivypaw. Though he was among the enemy, Ivypaw enjoyed learning new battle moves that furthered her training in ThunderClan.
"Alright." Jayfeather meowed finally, "I've patched it up, just don't do anything to mess it up again."
Ivypaw nodded, then made for the exit of the den.
The morning air was starting to warm as the sun slowly peeked over the horizon. The sky gradually lightened in orange and yellow, the stars and moon fading to nothing with the coming day.
Ivypaw padded through ThunderClan territory, her senses alert. She'd decided to go for a bit of hunting to clear her head. The pain in her shoulder had numbed with Jayfeather's herbs and she'd lost her limp.
Green grass crunched underneath her and she tried to move fluidly. There was no use looking for prey if she scared it all off by stomping through the forest. She shifted ferns away with her nose and pressed on, keeping her ears pricked.
The undergrowth twitched several tail-lengths ahead and Ivypaw instinctively fell into a hunting crouch. She concentrated on the sound of the prey's fast but steady heartbeat and forced her body to move as quietly as possible. As she crept up on the tiny creature, she accidentally stepped on a fallen twig; the sound sent the mouse scurrying for it's burrow. Ivypaw hissed in frustration. Keep aware of your surroundings! She swore she heard Hawkfrost snarling.
Ivypaw walked a bit farther into the forest until she saw a raven picking for a worm in the ground. This time, as Ivypaw padded up to her prey, she was sure to give a quick sweep around her and avoided the fallen sticks. Once she was close enough, she pounced and killed the raven in one quick bite.
Very good, she could imagine Hawkfrost saying with satisfaction. A purr rose in her throat at the thought of Hawkfrost's praise. Any time she remembered the Dark Forest warrior, it seemed to bring happiness to her, not the fear everyone else would feel.
Ivypaw stared at the dead raven, her mind whirling. It's Tigerheart I care about, that's why, Ivypaw told herself. Hawkfrost looks like Tigerheart, so it makes sense I would also have similar feelings for someone who looked like him.
Oh, said a voice in her head, but how do you know you don't care for Tigerheart because he looks like Hawkfrost?
Ivypaw shook her head. That was just ridiculous.
So... Whatcha think? There's only one way for me to find out, review!