Chapter 2!
A/N: Thank you for the review Hollythorn! Very sweet of you!
Here's my list of characters as promised (Bear with me it might be a bit long)
Hazelpaw: A brown tabby she-cat, white spot in between her eyes and covers her nose, dark hazel eyes. (Siblings: Rockpaw, Palepaw, Amberpaw. Mother: Grassleaf Father: Falconwing Past life sibling: Falconwing Mentor: Cedarcreek)
Rockpaw: A solid dark brown tom, white paws, a bit bulkier, dark green eyes (Sibling: Palepaw, Amberpaw, Hazelpaw Mother: Grassleaf Father: Falconwing Mentor: Squirrelflight)
Palepaw: A pale brown tabby tom with pale green eyes. (Siblings: Rockpaw, Amberpaw, Hazelpaw Mother: Grassleaf Father: Falconwing Mentor: Threshpelt)
Amberpaw: An amber brown she-cat with gorgeous blue eyes (Siblings: Palepaw, Rockpaw, Hazelpaw Mother: Grassleaf Father: Falconwing Mentor: Snowbush)
Grassleaf: A gorgeous sandy pelted she-cat with blue green-eyes (Mate: Falconwing Kits: Rockpaw, Palepaw, Amberpaw, Hazelpaw)
Falconwing: A dark brown tabby tom with dark intense green eyes (Mate: Grassleaf Kits: Rockpaw, Palepaw, Amberpaw, Hazelpaw Siblings: Hazelshine)
Cedarcreek: A very tall broad shouldered gray tabby tom, intense blue eyes (Apprentice: Hazelpaw)
Those are all my characters so hopefully that sorts out any confusion, let me know if there are questions!
Onto the story!
Hazelpaw moved slowly under the brush, keeping low to the ground, attempting not to hit the leaves and branches above her to avoid making noise. She saw an opening for her chance. Sneaking forward she positioned herself on the opening and gazed out in front of her, looking for… wait… where did..? Where had Cedarcreek gone, he had been sitting in the brush when she had push away. He'd told her to work on being more quiet in the brush and she'd been trying, but now that she had the perfect spot to pounce on him from, he was completely gone.
She huffed and sat up, creating a shuffling noise in the brush, and suddenly she heard something from behind her, she whipped her head around and saw Cedarcreek midair jumping at her, she yelped and attempted to get out of the way but, the huge tom landed on her and tackled her to the ground. "Oof! Cedarcreek! What was that for!" She angrily puffed out, attempting from getting out from underneath the tom.
"You gave up your location." He spoke still on top of her.
"I know! I was looking for you!" She hissed looking up her mentor. While Hazelpaw had grown, so did her temper and desire to be a great warrior. She often times got angry when she didn't get things correct the first time around, it was becoming a bad habit. "I messed it up!"
"You were so focused on being quiet, you didn't hear me leave or hear when I climbed up onto the higher ground. When you're in battle you won't have time to be so quiet and you'll need to attack quickly without thinking twice." Cedarcreek nodded finally stepping off the younger apprentice stretching.
Hazelpaw huffed again as she sprang up to her feet her tail straight back as she looked to her mentor. "Hazelshine I bet never had this much trouble learning. Falconwing said she was an amazing warrior." She batted her tail, striking the ground behind her.
Cedarcreek's ears perked up his ears at the mention of his past good friend. He heaved a small sigh and sat back on his haunches looking at the apprentice with a serious look on her face. "Hazelshine.. Actually did have quite a few problems… she was a lot like you actually. She strived for perfection in herself, and got quite mad when she messed up." He nodded.
"Oh yeah? How do you know?" Hazelpaw asked ready to defend her fallen aunt at any moment.
"Because we were apprentices together. Hazelshine was my best friend when we were younger. We did everything together. Hunting lessons, we used to beg Lionblaze and Dovewing to let us have our lessons together."
"Wait you were close with Hazelshine? Oh Cedarcreek tell me about her! Falconwing won't talk to me about her very much, Grassleaf says it's because it hurts him too much."
"..very well." Cedarcreek nodded before motioning to his apprentice. What most cats didn't know is just how close Cedarcreek and Hazelshine had been. Hazelshine had been in love with Cedarcreek from the time that they were apprentices. She got jealous every time another she-cat would approach the tom.
Cedarcreek stood up, his tail flickering, he stopped for a moment after taking a step waggering an idea before he nodded. "Hazelpaw come with me." He meowed taking a running leap and jumping up from the training hollow. Hazelpaw scrambled on her paws to keep up with him.
"H-hey Cedarcreek where are we going?" She spoke leaping up on the ledge, digging her claws into the soil as she pulled herself up and ran after the older tom.
"You'll see, just keep up. Use this as a chance to work on your speed." He nodded to the younger she-cat as he jumped up and began bound out from the forest out towards the river. Rolling her eyes Hazelpaw jumped up and ran after him.
After a little bit Hazelpaw finally caught up with him and staggered before flopping down, breathing hard. "H-how- can you r-run l-like that w-without being tired!" She rushed out trying to catch her breath, her heart was pounding inside her chest like a wildfire. Cedarcreek laughed and jumped up again.
"Come with me."
"N-no mo-more running pl-please." She heaved standing up as her paws were shaking. Cedarcreek just snorted and shook his head, he moved into the brush and disappeared under it.
Hazelpaw just blinked. How on earth..? She hadn't gotten a chance to look around she'd just been focusing on catching up to him. She realized they were next to a burrow of bushes close to the river. She heaved another sigh and urged her body upwards and pushed herself into the undergrowth he'd vanished into. There was a small tunnel that led underground, she muttered something about mentors and pushed into it. The tunnel was rather short and she came up on the other side, she saw Cedarcreek sitting there staring off into.. The river. Hazelpaws eyes widened as she pulled herself all the way up and stared off into the vast water. They were on a small outcropping from the burrow of bushes, surrounded completely with the river in front of them.
"Careful not to fall in, I can't swim very well." He joked.
"W-what is this place?!" She meowed looking at the water still amazed.
"This is where Hazelshine and I used to go when we wanted to be alone. We found it one day while we were playing as apprentices. Things were stressful back when we were young so we got away as much as we could."
Hazelpaw raised an eye to look at him. "Aren't you still pretty young?" She meowed.
Cedarcreek snorted. "Give or take 25 moons, so I suppose I still am."
"Well I'm only 7 moons so!"
"Getting us off topic again Hazelpaw."
"Oops.. sorry."
"But yes.. This is where we would come."
Hazelpaw stared at him and whapped her tail against the ground again. "I thought you were going to tell me about her!" She meowed.
"Alright alright! Mouse-dung… you're more like her than you think.."
-FLASHBACK-
(I will be referring to Hazelpaw but this is Hazelshine as an apprentice, as not to be confused with the Hazel right now… even though this is her reincarnated.. This will be so much easier when she gets her warrior name)
"Hey! Cedarpaw that's no fair!" Hazelpaw meowed as she chased her friend down the side of the river.
The two of them had escaped the camp for the time being. Things were somewhat tense back there, Squirrelflight and Bramblestar had gotten into a fight in the middle of a clan meeting and Cedarpaw had dragged Hazelpaw away to get out of the way and have some fun.. Granted they weren't supposed to leave the camp without a warrior but.. They weren't going to get into trouble.. She thought.
"No one said I played fair!" The younger tom laughed as he bounded down the side of the river. Hazelpaw had to slow down to a walk and eventually a walk as she watched the tom ahead of her run off laughing. That was one thing she didn't understand about the tom. He was tall and was quick on his feet, did those two things normally go together? She sighed and sat down as her tail flicked looking off as he disappeared over the hill. Was she ever going to be able to to move like that? Well actually was she ever going to be good at anything.
Hazelpaw often times got down on herself because she felt that she wasn't strong enough to defend the clan from danger or protect those she loved. How could she even when couldn't even keep up with her best friend? She laid down and waited for the tom to come back, her head on her paws as she gazed off in the direction he'd gone.
After a few minutes he still hadn't come back. She lifted her head up and began to worry, without taking another another thought, she was on her feet and running after the tom. She got over to the ridge to see that he wasn't there.
Panic set in as she looked around, her head whipping every which way. "Cedarpaw?!" She yelled. There was no response. She ran down the hill, still yelling his name getting no response.
"Cedarpaw!" She yelled one more time, and very faintly from her ear she heard a response.
"Hazelpaw… help!" Her ears whipped back, it sounded like it was coming from the river, she was amazed she could even hear it over the sound of the water. She took a sharp turn and ran towards it, skittering to a halt when she approached it.
The water was moving rather fast at the moment as her eyes scanned back and forth, curse that tom for being gray, he could blend in rather easily with the water. Her eyes landed on a gray mass holding onto a log that had been lodged into the ground. "Cedarpaw!" She screeched. She began pacing along the edge of the bank trying to figure out what to do, there wasn't time to run all the way back to camp and get help. Starclan knew what would happen if she did and had gotten back. There weren't any patrols around and there was no one in sight.
She panicked and without another thought, she leapt into the water, fighting against the current. The water wasn't raging rapids fast but it was still moving at a rather fast pace. She stuck along the edge of the bank, using rocks she found steady enough to get over to him.
"You dummy!" Cedarpaw shouted over the water. "How are we going to get back now!?"
"I'm the dummy?! Who's the one that jumped into the water!" She shouted back, now clinging to the same branch he was.
"Well I- Ahh! Hazelpaw help!" He shouted out as his paw lost its grip and he was pulled away.
"You foxbrain!" Hazelpaw shouted out again. She let herself be let go and pulled with the water, grabbing at it as she could. She swam forward trying to catch up with her sputtering friend, finally she caught up to him.
She looked around and saw a ledge poking out of the water and up onto the bank. She had to act quickly though because it was coming by quickly. Hazelpaw heaved herself forward grabbing the tom by the scruff and tried to swim across the water so they would hit the ledge. She struggled to keep her head up, Cedarpaw was bigger than her and no doubt heavier. But she still pushed her legs and managed to get in line with the ledge.
The water pushed them onto the ledge, still struggling not to let go, she clawed her way up backwards, heaving and pulling Cedarpaws body as she did. "Fhy far fu fo feavy!" She said with a mouthful of fur as she continued to struggled.
Finally she hit the top of it as she pulled herself up, wet and aching she pulled Cedarpaws body with a final tug, she pulled him all the way up and staggered back, toppling over as she heaved for air. She stayed down for a good couple minutes while she recovered before standing up, staggering a few feet and landing on top of Cedarpaw with an oof..
The sudden jolt of pressure was enough to push the water from Cedarpaws mouth as he started coughing and hacking, gasping for breath. Cedarpaw looked up to see Hazelpaw collapsed onto his chest as he attempted to move but she was right on top of him. "H-hey Hazelpaw.." He muttered.
There was no response as there was only the rise and fall of her chest. She'd passed out from exhaustion the cause being having dragged his body from the river. He felt himself fluster as he tried to move again. "H-hey Hazelpaw come on.. Move." He pushed her again but she didn't budge. Cedarpaw heaved with annoyance, he guessed this is where they'd be spending the night.. They'd having a lot of explaining to do tomorrow.
-END FLASHBACK-
Hazelpaw (back to present) stared at her mentor before she broke out laughing. "W-wait! Hazelshine saved you?" She asked her eyes wide with amusement as she looked up from where she was sitting.
Cedarcreeks ears flattened back as he looked annoyed at his apprentice and kept going with the story. "Anyways… when we woke up, it was here on this outcropping. That ledge right there is the one that she dragged me up. She gave me an earful and cuffed me on the ear I don't know how many times."
"Well I would hope so! You almost got her killed!"
Cedarcreek fell silent for a moment, gazing out towards the river. Hazelpaw kicked herself mentally for saying that. Yes this almost killed her aunt but.. She would have died saving Cedarcreek instead of saving her mother and Sagesong. "...sorry I didn't mean it like that.. You must miss her."
Cedarcreek sighed and nodded before looking back at the she-cat. "You are so much like her though. She would get frustrated like I said, but she pushed through that and became a very strong warrior. She had a strong heart." He spoke.
It was Hazelpaw's turn to fall silent while she flicked her tail and pulled herself up, turning towards the grove. "Hazelpaw?" Her mentor questioned.
"What? I've gotta practice if I wanna be like Hazelshine!" She meowed and pushed through the tunnel. Cedarcreek couldn't help but break into a purr, his tail flipping as he stood up and looked up towards the darkening sky.
"She's so much like you Hazelshine.. I miss you.. And I love you.." He said, those last words rolling off his tongue as he turned his blue eyes towards the grove and followed his apprentice, the wind slowly blowing as they both vanished from the spot.
A/: All doneeeeeeeeeee, with this chapter at least. I know this one was a little low on interactions between the other characters but I really wanted to get these two set in stone and show how their interactions with be with one another. And as for accepting OC's..? Hm.. I didn't actually think about that, but send me a PM, SilverMidnightMoon, and we'll see what we can do. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, please keep reading and reviewing! Starting on the next chapter as I am posting this!
Eterna