Dapplewind woke me up at dawn.
"I want to make sure we get the training hollow before anyone else"
I stumbled out of the apprentice den. I saw my mother on dawn patrol. She shot me a scathing look. I whimpered and hid my head with my tails.
"Don't let her know your scared" Dapplewind whispered in my ear. I looked up cautiously at her. She actually believed in me! Like Wolfheart and Doepaw! I held my head high and marched towards the training hollow. I smiled. I had thought that Dapplewind would of hated me but she believed in me! Dapplewind came into the training hollow. She stared at me intensely.
"What?" I said.
"Your tails"
"What about them?" I said fiercely.
"They might get in the way of battle. Having one tail is fine, but having nine seems a bit overboard"
I stared confused. I hadn't thought of it before. My tails were kind of heavy. They did drag on the ground.
"I know!" Dapplewind exclaimed "If your enemy can't see, he is easy to beat. With your tails you can scuff up alot of dust, which clouds the air and goes in your enemies eyes!"
"Oh!" I was getting the idea "Like this?"
Sweeping my nine tails from side to side, I managed to make a huge cloud of dust, but the wind blew it away from the training hollow. Dapplewind paced around looking around thoughtfully.
"Ninepaw? Can you use your tail to blow the dust towards me?"
"I don't get it"
"Like this" She said raising her tail up and down. I tried. Every time I arched them over my back, a gust of wind blew towards Dapplewind.
"Nice! Now try it with the dust"
I raised a cloud of dust. Then I blew it over to Dapplewind, who had her eyes closed tightly.
"Great!" She called. I grinned. I felt more confident about battle.
"Maybe, we could use the same strategy for hunting?" I suggested. Dapplewind shook her head.
"The prey would be gone by the time you raised the dust. Your tails kind of rustle against every plant."
"Oh" I looked down.
"But your blinding move works well. Lets practice some battle moves"
It was about Sunhigh when our battle training was ruined. I had almost perfected some useful moves. It was tough work blinding, then fighting Dapplewind.
Sunhigh was when Streampaw came in with Stonesong. Stonesong sent a sympathetic, but mocking, gaze to Dapplewind. I was afraid she would return it with a "I Know Right?" look, but she glared back at him, her fur bristling.
"Well, Ninepaw. Your tails getting in the way?"
I turned to see Streampaw.
"Aww. Poor Ninepaw"
I sent him a scathing glare. "I challenge you" I said impulsively.
"What?" Streampaw gasped. He quickly regained his cool. "Fine. But we all know who will win"
I left the training hollow holding my head high. Dapplewind followed, pride in her eyes. But, there was also worry. She knew how much Streampaw resented me.
"Are you sure about the challenge? You know you can back down. It's not to late"
"No, I'm not backing down" I know I'm going to win. I feel it. And I'm not backing down.