A/N: This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction of any sort. I wrote this to learn how story publishing works on this site. Enjoy!
Sootpaw padded through the broad-leafed trees and tangled shrubbery of ThunderClan's territory as he made his way to a clearing in the forest next to the stream. The small, skinny dark gray tom's fur was flattened on one side, as a result of his abrupt awakening not too long ago. He had been dreaming about battling ShadowClan by the border, only to find himself suddenly woken up by Dovepaw's paw prodding his side. He protested, only to be reminded that he was supposed to be at a hunting lesson at dawn, and treated to the sight of sunlight streaming through the den's entrance.
He dragged himself out of his nest, paused briefly to pick out the moss stuck in his pelt, and then rushed out of the thorn barrier into the woods. Dovepaw began sprinting to the clearing as soon as she gave him the reminder. Sootpaw could not see her gray pelt through the dense foliage ahead of him. He cursed his sister's ridiculous speed, and in his annoyance, surmised that she was already back at the clearing, looking not the least bit exhausted.
Continuing his visual, he placed Snaketail in front of Dovepaw, praising her for being back so quickly. Sootpaw added Brackenbelly at the far end of the clearing, lying down underneath a bramble bush and chatting with Cloudpaw about his poor punctuality. To complete the image, he inserted Hollybriar, perched on a tree branch and angrily asking where her apprentice was. Sootpaw winced. She's not going to be happy about this. This was supposed to start at the crack of dawn, and now it's past sunrise. I'll be lucky if I escape with both of my ears intact. He whispered a silent prayer to StarClan that his mentor would not claw them to shreds. While he doubted they were listening, given how many times he had been chewed out for arriving late, he supposed it could not hurt to try.
His amber eyes glanced up from the forest floor, and he found himself peering through a clump of oak trees into the clearing, identified by the gray and pale gray fur of his sisters, and the ginger and brown fur of their mentors. Where's Hollybriar? Sootpaw wondered as he noticed the lack of black fur in the open space. He scanned the undergrowth surrounding the clearing.
Sootpaw's visual search of the shrubbery turned out to be fruitless. That was when he tripped on a log that lay just before the edge of the clearing, having stopped paying attention to the ground beneath his paws as he cleared the remaining distance to his destination. Mouse dung! He thought as he tumbled upside down into the clearing, landing on his back and just barely managing to avoid smacking his head into the dirt. He ate a mouthful of dust instead, which he immediately spat out. Then he forced himself to look upward, into the faces of the cats in the clearing. Dovepaw and Cloudpaw are never going to stop teasing me about this. Great StarClan, I really hope Hollybriar didn't see that, Sootpaw thought desperately, despite knowing otherwise. He might as well say farewell to his unscarred ears.
He pushed himself up onto his paws, shaking out his pelt, taking care to let most of the dust fall onto Dovepaw, who had run to his side with an amused meow when he had tumbled into the clearing. "Hey! Do that somewhere else!" she hissed in return. Snaketail responded by fixing a glare at Dovepaw, before flicking his brown and black striped tail in a gesture that meant move. The gray she-cat darted out of the way, but her mentor did not advance on Sootpaw. What? He looked towards the other end of the clearing, seeing Brackenbelly and Cloudpaw standing up, his other sister making eye contact. They were looking at him.
"What did I—" he tried to shout, then he got cut off as a black blur slammed into his side, knocking him over, back into the dirt. He ate another mouthful of dirt, and reflected that he should resign himself to eating the entire floor of the clearing. Then he tried to get up, and discovered a fluffy black foreleg holding down his shoulder. Sootpaw looked up into the disappointed green eyes of his mentor. Hollybriar. Of course.
The black she-cat removed her foreleg from his shoulder, and backed into a normal standing position. Relieved, Sootpaw stood up, and immediately began forcefully staring into the ground, fearful of the intense look sure to be emanating from his mentor's eyes. He supposed that that answered the question of why he did not see her black pelt before his unlucky tumble into the clearing. The apprentice tried to bite back a retort. "What was that for?" Sootpaw asked, then flattened his ears once he realized that it had come out as a nervous squeak.
"I was testing to see if you were paying attention. Now I know," Hollybriar replied. Sootpaw mentally groaned. This was always the type of excuse she used when she pounced on him out of nowhere.
"You did look very distracted on your way into the clearing," Brackenbelly commented. The striped ginger she-cat padded up to him, Cloudpaw following a few steps behind her.
"Well, that's because I was busy tumbling in the dirt!" Sootpaw protested.
"No, I meant before that. You weren't noticing the log in front of your feet until you tripped over it," she clarified. Sootpaw lashed his tail in annoyance.
"You were looking up at the sky or something!" Cloudpaw joined into the conversation with a soft meow. She had a look of amusement on her face, which was mirrored by Dovepaw.
"I was looking for Hollybriar. I couldn't see her until just now," Sootpaw attempted to point out.
"So you noticed my apparent absence, but not my tail sticking out of the bush directly to your left?" the she-cat in question inquired. Hollybriar sighed. "You need to improve your concentration, Sootpaw. Between that, and your repeated lateness, you evidently haven't been focused enough."
"But I was paying attention! I noticed that you weren't in the clearing, didn't I?"
"Then you're not focusing on the right details," Hollybriar said drily. Sootpaw bit back another protest as she flicked an ear in acknowledgement to Snaketail, who was patiently sitting with his tail around his paws while they talked. Dovepaw sat beside him, though the rapid shifting of her front paws and twitch of her tail gave away her anticipation.
Snaketail, getting the message, stood up, gazing steadily at the cats in front of him as Dovepaw moved over to just beside Sootpaw. His hazel eyes seemed to create a sense of command over the line of cats. "As you all know, we are here for a hunting lesson, even if it has been postponed by a certain apprentice's punctuality." Sootpaw flattened his ears, feeling irritated. Why do they have to pay so much attention to that? It's not my fault that Dovepaw and Cloudpaw didn't bother waking me up this morning.
"Today, the three of you" – Snaketail nodded towards Cloudpaw, Sootpaw, and Dovepaw – "will split up, and head in different directions throughout the territory. You will each catch as much prey as possible before returning here at sunhigh. That leaves us less time than is preferable, but we expect you to come back with at least one piece of prey. Your mentors will be watching you as you hunt, to make note of…"
Snaketail's voice trailed off inside Sootpaw's head as he began visualizing himself accidentally launching into a tree, and getting told off by Hollybriar. He was lucky that she did not see him during the one time he did that. It had been difficult to explain where, precisely, he had gotten the cut to the top of his head, and for the next quarter moon, he was plagued by worries that she did indeed see it, before dismissing it as unlikely paranoia.
"Sootpaw, let's go!" the voice of Dovepaw yelled into his ear. The tom flinched at the loud meow. Where am I supposed to go? I missed the directions! He thought, even as he bolted out of the clearing behind Dovepaw, not processing Cloudpaw tearing off in a different direction as their mentors retreated into the bushes. He followed Dovepaw at her usual breakneck pace through the forest, panting slightly. They were going to be lucky if they managed to catch any prey today with the racket she was making.
"Come on, or I'm going to push you into the lake!" she directed at him. Sootpaw lifted his nose and smelled the air. The scent of the lake washed over him. He attempted to improve his pace, but still failed to pass his speedy sister. Mouse-dung!
The two of them broke out of the bushes onto a shore unevenly interspersed with grass and sand, leaving a trail of paw prints behind them as they kicked up moist sand. Sootpaw noticed Dovepaw halting briefly out of the corner of his eye, and quickly dodged to the side as she attempted to tackle him at a run. Now who's the one not paying any attention? He thought ruefully as she ran right into the lake, only barely managing to pause in time in order to avoid tumbling in over a small rock sticking up from just beneath the water's surface. "Hey! I'll get you for that!" she meowed loudly. Dripping wet with water splashed onto her pelt and soaking into the fur on her paws and belly, she turned around and burst out of the lake, spraying Sootpaw with moist droplets of lake water.
Sootpaw flattened his ears and closed his eyes against the spray, the shook himself off. The water had turned the dust clinging to his pelt from where Hollybriar knocked him over in the clearing to mud, which he now flicked towards Dovepaw. He let out a mrrow of amusement as she frantically twisted and began licking her pelt in desperation to get rid of the mud and water.
He knew he should not be doing this, especially seeing as his mentor was likely watching – he turned his head and scanned the trees behind him in search of a black pelt, but did not find it – and he was supposed to be hunting. However, he had no clue where he was supposed to go, and did not want to let Hollybriar know about that. So he decided to play with his sister until she inevitably teased him about how her hunting place was better than his. "Perhaps your warrior name should be Dovemud!" he teased.
"And yours should be Sootsneak!" she retaliated, between licks. "Or maybe not, since you tumbled into the clearing earlier, and that's a very not-sneaky thing to do. Could it be Sootdust?"
Sootpaw was tempted to let out a hiss, but held it back. "I wasn't trying to be sneaky, mouse-brain! I just wanted to know where Hollybriar was, that's all." If today was any indication, he would be ridiculed over that tumble for at least another quarter-moon. He let the thought take root in his mind. The elders whispering about it with snorts and grumbles of disappointment. Him facing mockery from Dovepaw every time he entered the apprentice's den. Hollybriar lecturing him nonstop on how he failed at paying attention. The thoughts trailing off into a swirling torrent of disappointment and ridicule.
"-you doing? Sootpaw?" he heard from somewhere very close by. His eyes snapped upwards, spotting an all-too-familiar face within a whisker-length of his muzzle. He recoiled backwards, looking at Dovepaw in surprise.
"Uh, nothing?" he attempted to bluff, voice wavering. If he did not know better, he would say it sounded a little like a squeak. Great. There's no way she's going to believe that, he thought miserably.
"What were you staring at?" Dovepaw asked, turning around to stare in the direction Sootpaw was facing. He was surprised, watching her as she intently gazed at the lake, eyes roaming over the distant smudge of the far shore on the horizon. He had not expected her to believe his quickly conceived lie. The apprentice supposed that, to another cat, it looked as though he had paused for a few heartbeats and stared at something off in the distance, instead of being lost in his own thoughts of the hypothetical future.
"I thought I saw a patrol on the other side of the lake?" Sootpaw lied. He felt half-relieved, but half nervous and mildly frustrated. This lie might have been better than his previous one, but he had gotten sidetracked from the teasing between him and his sister that would reveal where he was supposed to be going. Also, given how long he had been down here by the lake instead of wherever he was supposed to hunt, Hollybriar, and probably Snaketail as well, would be watching, and would probably berate him for being here and talking to Dovepaw instead of hunting.
"I don't see any cats. You think they left the shore?" Dovepaw asked, having concluded her scan of the far coastline, and turned toward him, green eyes gleaming in the sunlight. For a moment, Sootpaw wondered if she would also get into trouble for talking to him during a hunting lesson. He guessed that she would not, if only because she was probably where she should be.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," he meowed, distractedly. He did not know how to turn the conversation back to teasing. And if he stayed here any longer, Hollybriar would figure it out, or get him in trouble for not following directions. Sootpaw took a deep breath and looked at his sister, hoping he could do this. "Listen, I need to go hunt. Snaketail told us to hunt in our own specific places, and I'm pretty certain mine wasn't –"
"Wait, what? He didn't tell us to go anywhere. He just told us to split up." What? Dovepaw stared at him in confusion. Fox-dung! He thought, feeling slightly panicked. He had assumed that they had all been given places to go.
"Oh, uh…" Sootpaw tensed. "Don't we usually get told to go somewhere when we're on lessons where we split up like this?"
"Uh, yes?" Dovepaw replied. "But Snaketail didn't mention anything about that this time. It was odd. Why'd you think he did?" She was looking at him intently, seeming puzzled, though he could see her gray tail flicking behind her. He did not know what to make of that.
How am I going to bluff my way through this? I don't have any way to be honest without alerting Hollybriar and Snaketail, even if they haven't figured it out already. Feeling the wave of dread that crashed over him, he let his tail droop down into the sand. He would have to be honest, there was nothing else to do.
"I… err…" Sootpaw let his mew trail off, and cast a nervous glance over his shoulder, towards the trees. Hollybriar probably had realized already that he was not paying attention in the clearing. He knew it was pointless, especially since Dovepaw would likely let the whole Clan know even if they did not overhear it, but he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I… stopped paying attention? Snaketail's lecture was really boring."
His sister looked at him, expression changing to take on a mirthful look. Oh, no. Please, StarClan, don't let her do this... "You weren't paying attention? How do you expect to avoid being bitten?" she mewed.
Sootpaw groaned. Horrendous jokes about Snaketail's name and temperament were common among the senior warriors. Dovepaw must have overheard them. "I'm pretty certain Snaketail doesn't bite. At least not outside of battle. And if he did, I'd notice as soon as he attacked me."
His sister let out a mrrow of laughter. "Why weren't you paying attention, though? Didn't Hollybriar just scold you for that?" she inquired.
"I-I…" Sootpaw stammered. "Yes…" he sheepishly admitted, bowing his head in resignation. This conversation was becoming unsalvageable. "I couldn't stop myself?"
"Why not?" Dovepaw asked. He tried to think up an answer, and found that he could not. His thoughts had turned to him failing the hunting lesson in embarrassing fashion, and he had followed and continued those thoughts, never stopping to pull away from them, even though they made him feel bad. There was no reason for that. It did not make sense.
"I don't know, so stop asking." He needed to back out of this conversation. Lifting his head up and turning to face away from his sister, he meowed, "I should be hunting right now. I'll… go into the forest."
"But there's prey right here, along the shore!" Dovepaw pointed out, and flicked her tail to the side. In the direction where it was pointing, there was a pigeon pecking at the base of a tree just outside the sand, about a tree-length down the lakeshore. Sootpaw felt his tail curl in surprise at the close presence of the fat bird, which had somehow not flown off, despite the two of them clearly being around and making a lot of noise.
This was a catch he needed to make. Dovepaw, Snaketail, and most importantly, Hollybriar are all watching this. He felt his thoughts begin to trail off into visualizations of their teasing and disappointment, but he quickly shook his head, breathing deeply. Not now. Then he wondered how he was going to do this, and his mind flashed to his sister for a brief moment, before dismissing the possibility. She would make too much noise in her excitement.
"Be quiet and stay still, okay?" he ordered his sister. She's just going to ignore that, he mused. Sootpaw realized with annoyance that that was probably true, in which case, it was best for him to advance on the pigeon now, so that he could put as much distance between them for when she inevitably followed him. Despite that, he would be lucky to successfully catch the bird between Dovepaw's behavior and his own incompetence at hunting. He let out a small sigh, then, sizing up the gap between him and the hapless piece of prey, he began advancing on the bird, paws kicking up dirt as he took a few smooth, quick strides towards his prey.
"Wait, aren't you going to tell me to do something?" Dovepaw questioned, sounding confused. Sootpaw could hear her bounding after him as he swiftly covered the distance between him and the pigeon, which had paused in its hunt for seeds. "Sootpaw, wait!" The bird froze. Mouse-dung! I can't hear how much noise I'm making! He picked up the pace in an effort to not let her catch up to him, which would surely ruin the catch.
His prey was now a couple of fox-lengths away, staring dumbly as it tried to process the two cats running up to it, one closer and quieter, and the other noisier, but farther away. Sootpaw could not believe that it had not flown away already. However, the bird would probably lift off in a heartbeat. He decided that it was time to jump, and so he leapt forward, claws extended, and hooked the pigeon out of the air.
Sootpaw brought the fat gray bird down to the ground, landing clumsily on his side as he slammed his paw into the dirt. He quickly lifted his head, leaned forward, and gave a quick bite to the back of the pigeon's neck as it lay in the sand, struggling, wings flapping in a desperate attempt to get free. An alarm call was cut off abruptly as his teeth dug into the bird, silencing it as its twitching halted. The pigeon lay limp in the dark gray tom's paws.
"What – Sootpaw! That was a good catch!" Dovepaw's meow rang in his ears as he pushed himself up from where he lay in the dirt, leaving the pigeon on the ground for now. He flinched when he realized that Dovepaw's face was a mouse-length away from his muzzle, and quickly took a step back, startled. After a brief pause, he shook off the dust clinging to his pelt from his landing, flinging it onto his sister. She stepped back, adopting a confused, half-startled expression on her face.
"Uh, thanks?" Sootpaw replied, unsure how to react to Dovepaw's praise. His sister was supposed to mock him, not compliment him. He had to admit, it was a good catch, for him at least. He usually missed or failed in a more embarrassing manner when he tried to do things like that. What do I do now? Hollybriar won't be pleased by how sloppy that was. "It was just a mouse-brained pigeon. I should go now," he meowed, turning to pick up the pigeon.
"What? No, don't leave yet!" Dovepaw pleaded. Sootpaw glanced up in surprise.
"Why not?" he asked, studying her face. Does she want me to stay here? That can't be right, he thought. His sister was always teasing him, so surely she did not want him around.
"Because… well… I don't know," she mewed gently, dipping her head. "I just want you to stay, and teach me how to do that?" Sootpaw looked at her in confusion, unsure whether she was bluffing or being honest. He could not tell the difference.
"Um, okay. Just let me bury this first," he agreed, words muffled by the bird he was carrying in his mouth. He strode over to the roots of a nearby tree, and scraped a hole in the dirt beneath them. Once that was done, he placed the pigeon in the hole, and scraped earth over it. Then he turned around to face Dovepaw. "Alright, what prank are planning to play on me right now?"
"What? No! I wasn't going to do anything like that," his sister countered, looking mildly surprised. "Just… how did you catch that dove? I've always heard that they're graceful and hard to catch, and then you brought it down so easily. What's the trick?"
"That wasn't a dove, it was a pigeon," Sootpaw replied. "Didn't the elders say that pigeons are the dumbest of all birds? And I caught it by sneaking up on it and pouncing when I was too close for it to fly away, obviously."
"They did! But aren't they the same thing?" Dovepaw pointed out.
"Sure. Doves are just as mouse-brained as pigeons are."
"Hey!" she protested. Sootpaw noted her name, and realized that he had just managed to successfully insult her. "They are not! Pigeons must be just as smart as doves are," his sister concluded.
Sootpaw suppressed a mrrow of amusement. That means the same thing! It's just phrased nicer, he thought. He began to think about the subject. Pigeons were dumb. Doves were smart. Both were the same bird. Surely they could not be dumb and smart at the same time… wait. Did the elders ever say that doves were smart? They only said that they were graceful, and difficult to catch. Difficult to catch meant that they were smart, since they'd have to be in order to avoid getting caught by a cat. However, graceful… what good did that do? Sootpaw only ever believed it to be a pretty way of moving around. Perhaps he could ask Hollybriar… no. Not an option. Maybe he would ask Cloudpaw later. His other sister, when she was not listening to everything every other cat had to say about everything, could be fairly intelligent. He would have to convince her not to tease him, that would be the difficult part, but she might know something about doves and pigeons and gracefulness.
"Sootpaw! Did you stop paying attention again?" Dovepaw's voice broke into his thoughts again. He looked at her face, seeing an expression of mirth, but not extreme mirth. "You looked like you were going to laugh for some reason, then you just looked confused."
Sootpaw fumbled for an explanation. She knew what had happened this time, but his mind protested against that thought. "No! I was thinking about pigeons and doves and how mouse-brained they are," he claimed. Half-truth, technically not a bluff. He realized that there was still dirt stuck to his fur from his capture of the pigeon, and shook it off.
"Then why didn't you talk with me about that? You were totally not paying attention." He felt his tail droop, and he found himself wondering why a cat who could be so mouse-brained at times was able to catch onto him like this.
"Alright, fine, I admit it. I wasn't paying attention to our conversation. You happy now?" he asked, letting his irritation seep into his voice.
"Well… no! You still need to tell me what you figured out," she meowed, looking slightly pleased, but also curious.
"That doves are just as mouse-brained as pigeons are," he mewed. Dovepaw's face fell into an annoyed look. Sootpaw quickly added, "They're just harder to catch than they should be."
She seemed at least content with that. "I still don't think they're mouse-brained at all," she said. "Maybe the one you just caught was more mouse-brained than usual, to allow itself to be caught by you" – Sootpaw stifled a groan –"when you're so easy to catch! I mean, everyone at the clearing could tell you weren't paying attention, and I caught you staring off into the distance! Twice!" she finished.
Sootpaw nearly froze. Dovepaw was way too good at catching onto things, things he did not like to admit, for his liking. I shouldn't be getting caught by a dove of all things! Especially not when they're just as mouse-brained as pigeons. I'm supposed to be cat, for StarClan's sake. His sister was probably going to taunt him like this for quite some time, for catching only the dumbest prey in the forest – wait… didn't she act awed immediately after I caught that pigeon?
"No, it must've been pretty smart! You thought it was impressive that I managed to catch it, remember?" he questioned. Immediately, Dovepaw's face fell, before shifting into a look of amusement. What now? He wondered.
"Yes, of course! I was kidding, mouse-brain!" she mewed. Sootpaw did not entirely believe her, but doubting her would mean that she had meant what she said, about prey having to be exceptionally mouse-brained to be caught by him. Well, she had just called him mouse-brained, however…
"I still caught you doing it, right?"
"Yeah, I guess you did," Dovepaw replied, a delighted expression crossing her face. However, it was not a triumphant or smirking one, Sootpaw realized to his pleasure. He had successfully caught her in her teasing before she revealed it to him, in much the same way that doves sang: as annoying as possible. He paused, coming to a realization.
"So, I've caught two doves today?" he inquired, meeting his sister's green eyes with his amber ones, a triumphant expression on his face. The worries from being caught by her earlier, and disappointing his mentor, Hollybriar, seemed to be forgotten. They did not feel like they were gone, but he found himself able to push them aside for the moment.
Dovepaw looked back at him. "Of course! Do you want to go catch some more?" she asked. Sootpaw twitched his ear, surprised. "I know Snaketail told us to split up, but… we're supposed to feed the Clan, right?"
"I…" Sootpaw considered for a moment. "Yeah, sure," he agreed. Of course, she would probably make it very hard to catch everything… but maybe she could learn something. She was not teasing him for once.
"Alright! Let's go!" Dovepaw meowed gleefully, charging off into the forest. Sootpaw scrambled around and followed her, noting that he really should have expected that one.
I catch the dove, and she catches me, he thought, rolling his eyes, before letting himself become lost in the rush of trees and undergrowth, as he chased the gray blur bolting gracefully through the bushes ahead of him.