SOLSTICE - CHAPTER TWO

NA/: hey guys sorry it took so long, with editing and school I found it hard to find time. enjoy and reviews are welcome.

"...And this is the piece of land was won back from ShadowClan," Moleflight explained as we explored a small stretch of land. Not wanting to provoke an argument with ShadowClan, we quickly hurried on.

"So, are you ready to take on your apprentice roles?" Lilypaw asked, coming out of nowhere and trotting up to my side.

"I hope so," I meowed nervously. Did they even assign apprentice duties to brand new apprentices?

"Don't worry, everyone has to go through it on their way to becoming a full warrior. I'm sure you'll be fine," Lilypaw mewed kindly. "But then there's training."

"What will happen then?" I asked, confused and feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Well, apprentices train together. If you ever need to get back at your brother, then..." Lilypaw smirked, leaving her sentence hanging meaningfully. I smiled as I understood what Lilypaw had been cryptically trying to tell me. Just then, I heard the unmistakable scuffling of prey and I started tasting the air, trying to find out where the sound was coming from.

"Come on, Honeypaw, you don't want to lose the patrol!" Lionblaze called back to me when he realized I'd stopped.

"Sorry, I thought I heard a vole or something," I meowed back, slightly embarrassed.

"You know, we could stop and hunt. There's plenty of time till sundown," Squirrelflight said thoughtfully.

"Just make sure to stay in our territory! We haven't shown you the WindClan border yet," Moleflight cautioned.

Every cat went in an opposite direction. I went to the west, staying in the forest with a view of the lake. I stopped and opened my mouth and tasted the air, trying to remember every step of the hunting procedure. A jolt of excitement coursed through me as I discovered the scent of a rabbit; if I could catch one, my Clan would be so proud of me!

The smell led me a little ways off, close to a hill. Thankfully, the wind was on my side, and I immediately hunkered down into a hunter's crouch. I was just about to pounce when the rabbit picked up my scent and bounded off quickly, terrified. I ran as fast as I could, not willing to let this rabbit get away, and took a wild leap. I felt its fur snag beneath my claws and I cried out joyfully. I'd caught it! I bit the rabbit's neck swiftly, killing it, then looked around to see where I was. I had run up to a river and, I realized nervously, I had come very close to crossing the WindClan border. I sighed with relief, thanking StarClan the rabbit had not crossed the river.

"Hey, fuzz ball, what are you doing stealing prey from our territory?" A lean black tom with amber eyes was barreling up to the river's edge with a look of fury on his face.

"What are you talking about? This is our territory, not yours!" I meowed back, confused. The tom turned to face me, the river the only thing dividing us.

"Don't lie. I saw you drag that rabbit back to your territory. Is ThunderClan sending its apprentices to steal from WindClan now?" he replied, still glaring furiously.

"That's a load of badger droppings and you know it!" I countered, moving to protect my prey. "I caught this fair and square."

Just then, I accidentally slipped on the bank of the river and almost fell in, getting my front paws wet. I cringed. I had to be careful that I didn't get in trouble here.

"I didn't know ThunderClan were such scaredy-mice," the arrogant tom sneered.

"We're not!" I growled, digging my toes into the soft riverbank.

"Come on over here and face me, then!" he snapped, flashing his claws.

"Honeypaw, what's going—" Lilypaw mewed, coming up behind me, but stopping abruptly upon seeing the black tom.

"Breezepelt. What do you want?" I recognized Lionblaze's meow.

"Your apprentice here stole that rabbit from our territory. I saw her," Breezepelt muttered in response.

"Honeypaw? What do you have to say for yourself?" Lionblaze asked, and I could see disappointment glinting in his amber eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Squirrelflight and Molefight rejoining our patrol with their fresh kill.

"I didn't step over the border!" I cried, defending myself. The last thing I wanted was for Lionblaze to be ashamed of me for something I hadn't even done! "I killed the rabbit three paw-steps away from the river. I counted."

"And hedgehogs have learned to fly! Yeah, right, you counted!" Breezepelt spat, obviously as determined as I was to come out on top. "This proves you're a liar and that ThunderClan is just a bunch of fox-hearted cowards. You can't even admit the truth!"

Great StarClan, now I was mad. How dare he call me a fox-hearted coward! I lunged forward, but Lilypaw flicked her tail warningly in front of me. Lionblaze pushed his way past me to stand at the river's edge, glaring Breezepelt down.

"That was uncalled for. Is this really how you get your enjoyment; from accusing apprentices of stealing so you can attack them? Such a cat has no right to call himself a warrior!" Lionblaze yowled across the river, unsheathing his claws just in case.

Lilypaw and I looked on in silence. Were we really going to fight over a rabbit?

"Breezepelt, what are you doing?" came a voice from over the horizon. It was an older-looking brown tom, followed by two other cats, a dark grey tom and a ginger tom with white paws.

"That apprentice there stole prey from our land, just look at her front paws!" Breezepelt protested, breaking out of his stare-down with Lionblaze for a moment to glower at me. I shrunk back against Lilypaw's flank, feeling genuinely afraid that he would cross the river and rip me to shreds. After all, I couldn't exactly disprove his claims; my paws were wet and muddy from the bank, but...

"What about the rabbit?" I asked boldly, having a sudden flash of inspiration. "It's not wet. Besides, there's no blood or fur on your side of the river."

Squirrelflight bent down and sniffed the prey. "She's right. It's dry as a bone." The ginger she-cat gave Breezepelt a strange look.

"She caught that rabbit on our side," Breezepelt said matter-of-factly.

The brown WindClan tom sighed. "Breezepelt, we're leaving." He turned to glance at Squirrelflight. "Tell Bramblestar that he'd better teach his apprentices to pay more attention to the borders; next time you won't get off so easily."

With that, the WindClan patrol left, the dark grey tom swatting his tail over Breezepelt's back angrily as they walked away.

"Come on, we have to get back to camp and report this. Do you want some help carrying your prey back?" Squirrelflight asked. It took me a few moments to realize she was talking to me.

"Uh, I'm fine," I meowed, worry tingeing my voice. Breezepelt had really scared me. I picked up the rabbit in my mouth and started walking back to camp with the patrol. Lilypaw was on my left flank with two mice hanging by their tails in her mouth. When we reached camp, I saw Seedpaw's eyes widen at the sight of the rabbit I was carrying. It was obvious that the young she-cat was jealous, but nabbing that rabbit didn't seem to me like such an accomplishment anymore, considering.

"Why don't you take that into the medicine den? I'm sure they would appreciate it," Moleflight suggested, padding over to my side with an appreciative glance at my catch.

I directed my paws away from the patrol heading to Bramblestar's den, glad for the distraction. The medicine den was bigger on the inside than it appeared to be on the outside. There was a little pool of water forming in the corner under a leak in the ceiling and a little place that looked like a storage area.

"Hi, Honeypaw, what brings you here?" Briarlight asked kindly, scooting to the den's entrance to meet me.

I dropped the rabbit and pawed it over to her. "I thought you would like this," I meowed quietly. As Briarlight's eyes lit up, a grey tom with pale blue eyes walked out of the storage room and scowled.

"Look, Jayfeather, Honeypaw brought us a nice juicy rabbit!" Briarlight exclaimed, trying to liken him to her excitement.

"Yay. Thanks, Honeypaw," he murmured with his usual lack of enthusiasm. I nodded and left as subtly as I'd entered.

"Honeypaw! Hey, Honeypaw!" An excited mew rang out in my general vicinity and I turned to see Emberpaw running towards me. He skidded to a stop beside me and touched his tail to my flank in greeting. Emberpaw proceeded to tell me all about his day, but I was too busy noticing how late it was getting to be. Every cat was starting to go to their caves, so I nudged Emberpaw towards the apprentices' den.

Inside, Amberpaw and her brother were already sleeping, and Frostpaw was talking to Seedpaw. Then I noticed something that didn't belong.

"Ivypool? Cherrymist? What are you two doing in the apprentices' den?" I hissed.

"The warriors' den is too crowded. Again," Cherrymist complained, curling up and putting her head on her paws.

I shrugged and padded over the sleeping cats to my nest, settling down into the soft bedding. Emberpaw snuggled down next to me and laid his tail protectively over my back as I fell asleep, sending my fear of the Breezepelt confrontation to the back of my mind, at least until dawn.