The cold damp air seemed to cling to Hazelpaw like a tick. It was a rainy day in the middle of leafbare. Stripedpaw hated leafbare. The lack of food, the way the trees hardly provided any shelter. She quietly sent a prayer to StarClan thanking them that she had lived in the apprentice's den, which was in a stone crevice, instead of living like a rogue, who had no home. She shook herself, her tabby fur glistening; she had to concentrate on hunting.
"What do you scent, Hazelpaw?" Her mentor, Stoneclaw asked.
Hazelpaw opened her mouth to drink in the scents of the forest. "Vole, but it's stale, mouse and a thrush."
"Good, do you know what that other tangy scent in the air is?"
"ShadowClan," Hazelpaw meowed, "We are on their border."
"Very good" Stoneclaw praised.
"Hey, I may be an apprentice but I'm not a kit anymore," Hazelpaw meowed with a gleam in her eyes.
"Yes, but you've still got a long way to go before you're a warrior, in case you haven't forgotten, you've only been an apprentice for a moon," Stoneclaw retorted.
"You never give me the chance to forget," Hazelpaw murmured, rolling her eyes. Stoneclaw let out a mrrow of laughter. Everyone knew that Hazelpaw couldn't hold still as she was being apprenticed. She was so excited, that Amberstar almost had to tell her to calm down.
"Remind me again the difference between catching a rabbit and a mouse," Stoneclaw meowed.
Hazelpaw sighed "Rabbit hears you, mouse feels you."
"Ok then, catch that mouse over there then," Stoneclaw flicked his ears in the direction of the small creature.
Hazelpaw dropped into a hunting crouch. She was the best hunter of all the apprentices, and Lionpaw was the best fighter. Rocking back onto her haunches, she pounced on the mouse and killed it with one swift bite to the neck. She scraped dirt over her kill and they moved on towards the lake and the ancient oak. A gust blew by, Hazelpaw shivered, she hated leafbare.
Hazelpaw heard a crackling in the dead leaves. Stoneclaw pricked his ears. Then Hazelpaw spotted the source of the noise. Not three foxlengths from where they were, a squirrel was nibbling on an acorn. Hazelpaw tried to pounce, but missed. Frustrated, she ran after the squirrel.
"No wait!" Stoneclaw called. For one, she would never catch a squirrel that way, and for another, she was headed right for ShadowClan territory.
Another gust of wind blew by, chilling Stoneclaw from his head to the tip of his tail. The wind had come from ShadowClan territory, meaning that Hazelpaw was downwind, and safe, for now.
Unfortunately along the wind came the scent of a ShadowClan patrol, Stoneclaw gave a low hiss. "Hazelpaw get back here before you get caught! You're in ShadowClan territory mousebrain!"
Hazelpaw was too absorbed in trying to catch the squirrel. It raced up a tree, farther then she could climb. She took a deep breath to catch her breath, and turned around. In front of her was Blackthorn, the ShadowClan deputy.
"What are you doing on our territory?" asked Blackthorn, baring his teeth in a snarl. "You weren't trying to steal prey now were you?"
"Hey, Blackthorn, maybe we should punish her for it," sneered another cat from the patrol. "Or maybe take her to Waspstar, let him teach her a lesson."
Hazelpaw crouched back and tried to back away, but the other cats surrounded her in a circle.
"That's enough!" Stoneclaw spat, shouldering through the patrol. "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves for picking on an apprentice like that. She was chasing a squirrel and didn't realize she was crossing the border. Like any cat, she made a mistake. Now, no one wants to get into a battle, so let her go and it won't happen again." At that point Stoneclaw gave Hazelpaw a long, hard look that made her stutter in agreement.
"Yes, uh yea, it won't happen again!" She managed to get out.
"Fine, but if it does happen again, Waspstar will be hearing about it," Blackthorn flicked his tail, and within seconds the patrol had slipped away into the trees.
