A gray and red tabby stalked her way through the under growth, her fluffy tail flickering about; the large pine trees that were littered everywhere made her look tiny in comparison.
It was a sunny, piercing day, the sun was blazing up above but the dark draping pines of ShadowClan gave it a dark sinister look.
But Foxpaw, didn't mind, it was her home after all, growing up in the beauty of the darkness she had grown accustomed to the way the shadows bounced in all directions endlessly. She loved the way the soft pine needles felt under paw, the way they were always littered everywhere, whether it was leaf-bare or Greenleaf, the pine-needles fell constantly.
She stopped suddenly, her white ears perked up to catch the suddenness sound. Fluttering sounded above, a dove? She thought as she spotted the gray bird flying up above her head, that's ThunderClan prey, what is it doing here?
She shrugged, its not like she really cared anyways, prey was prey, and it was good practice to try that new stalking skill that her mentor Tigerheart had just showed her. Within a split second, she dropped down, her amber gaze locked onto the gray bird that had landed on the warm muddy ground, pecking away At a pine cone that hadn't dropped all its seeds yet.
With her amber eyes trained on the bird she crept very slowly towards it. Her tail gently dragged on the ground creating a muffled noise. The bird glanced up from its food, cautious of the shadows that surrounded him, with a sudden roar, Foxpaw leaped from her hidden position, launching herself after the bird with great power in her hind paws.
But the bird was a bit big for her, so when her front claws hooked into the birds breast tearing away feathers, it dragged her around with it as it flapped franticly to get away from certain doom. Foxpaw's eyes widen in surprise, she had never expected the bird to take her with it!
The bird zigzagged around the small clearing, releasing choppy churrs for help and dull gray feathers. Foxpaw hung on for dear life, digging her hind claws into the soil trying to stop the bird, she couldn't let the bird go! It was prey and her clan needed to be feed, living on ShadowClan territory left them with very few options of food sources, leaving the clan always a bit hunger and a bit on edge.
Foxpaw panted, and with a giant leap she launched herself a top the bird and gave it a quick nip to the neck. Landing on the ground she admired her kill, it was a bit torn in places , and didn't really have any feathers - or meat for that matter- left where she had clawed at it in the breast area.
With a pleased grin on her face she headed towards camp, feeling pride course through her as she dragged the bird back for the elders.
.
.
.
"what do you mean this is all you caught!" Rawred Snaketail from his nest in the elders' den.
Foxpaw shrunk away, leaving her messy kill by the elders. "I-I thought it was enough." She murmured.
"One frog-brained dove, that you already eat half of?!" he cried, waking up Whitewater and Cedar heart.
Whitewater, lifted her white and gray muzzle and searched around. "Wh-what is it?" she asked sleepily.
Foxpaw turned her gaze from the blazing tom cat to the half blind she-cat. "nothing Whitewater. You may go back to sleep." She murmured.
The old white she-cat nodded sleepily. "Okay lily-flower, wake me up when they've brought the new moss and pine needles, my nest is gotten a little flat." Foxpaw smiled as the she-cat nestled into her dark green nest.
Foxpaw loved it when Whitewater would call her lily-flower, The old she-cat had decided when they first announced her name to the clan that 'Foxkit was no name for a little kit, even if she was unwanted', and ever since then she had called the tiny she cat Lily-flower, because, as she put it ' Foxpaw was as pretty as a lily flower in the middle of newleaf'.
Snaketail growled and swiped at foxpaws paws to get her attention. "Fox-dung! You forgot that I was talking to you!" he reminded her with his favorite nickname for her.
Foxpaw cringed and waited for Snaketail to tell her how she was not worth ShadowClan's time and how the little half-clanner she was, was meant to be thrown out just like her traitor Mother was, but it never came. The old senile tom just growled and shoved her out the den entrance with his shoulder, leaving her out in the clearing of camp, and his face in the entrance to the den. His old graying muzzle lighten by the late afternoon sun. "You have some hunting to do, or else you'll be picking out ticks for the next moon." With that he disappeared into the dark gloom of the den.
Foxpaw slipped out of the clearing and into the pine forest for the second time that day.
She was shaking with embarrassment, why had she been so stupid and only caught one bird? She should have known that only a dove wouldn't feed all three of the elders, but she let her stupid pride get the best of her.
She didn't deserve the pride that came with belonging to the best clan. She didn't deserve the kindness ShadowClan gave her by not turning her out into the cold cruel world outside of the clans like her mother was. She felt that she didn't even deserve to sleep in the same clearing as ShadowClan's great leader, Rowanstar.
Shivered and huddled down on the floor, wishing that she was stronger and wasn't born from breaking the one thing ShadowClan cats hold dear, when she felt a swat on her ears. "Self-pity won't get you anywhere." A voice scorned.
The mixed she-cat looked up to see her mentor looking down at her with a mix of pity and disappointment. "I'm sorry." She croaked, finding deeper under her paws.
Tigerheart nudged her again, this time with a sharper push. "Get up."
"No. I'm a failure." She mewed like a kit.
Tigerheart growled and swiped at her. "You are no failure, your just young. If I had a mouse for every time I didn't bring back eno-"
"You would go hungry!" Foxpaw snapped. "You haven't the stupid defect of already breaking the warrior code by doing anything at all."
"Foxpaw, shut it about being a failure. You try just as hard as all the other apprentices, you try harder in fact, but you let the fact that you're a half-clanner get in the way of your success." He sighed.
Foxpaw perked up as he said that. "Really?" she meowed, her head cocked to the side.
"Really. Now go get some prey before Snaketail has your pelt in his nest instead of needles." Tigerheart commanded with a voice that if you had the displeasure of knowing Tigerstar when he was alive, you would be quaking in your fur.
Foxpaw flashed Tigerheart a glance of gratitude before taking off into the woods, a new hope filling her up for the moment.
Tigerheart growled under his breath. He had to do this pep talk most every day because of the way his clanmates pushed his apprentice around. He himself had some displeasure towards the young she-cat, but the fact that he himself had fallen prey to loving a cat outside of the clan made him understand why she had come to existence, and that for every cat somewhere in the warrior code there was some wiggle room.
Tigerheart stood up and swayed a bit before giving his tabby fur a good shake. Mouse-brained world we live in kid, you have to learn to play the game or quit while your ahead.
I'm back from the dead! My account was banned for awhile so all that i had written kind of just had to wait...
R&R!