Cricketpaw padded beside her mentor the following day, his tortoiseshell fur rippling as the warmth of the sun soaked through. "Can we please practice fighting skills?" She pleaded, trudging through a mud puddle that lined the whole path so you couldn't go around it. "Mouse-dung, I've got this icky goop all over my paws!"
Her mentor let out a purr of amusement. "It's only mud, after all your grand mothers name was Mudpool!"
"Did you know her?" She asked, curiosity clawing at her belly. "She was an elder when a was an apprentice, but she told me many stories.
Your father was very upset when she died, but most cats say that her spirit came back in you! You were born the same time she died, and you're just like her so I hear." He purred. "Oh, so that means I'm a ghost, right Toadpelt?" She asked, twitching her whiskers with irritation. "Of course not, it's only what the elders say, they're old and mouse-brained anyway." Toadpelt meowed.
"Any who, let's practice some attack moves." He purred as they made their way to a stone clearing where they practiced their fighting skills. Tall willow trees surrounded the flat place, along with huge sandy colored boulders and a few marigold bushes were the medicine cat, Berrypool, came to collect herbs.
"Alright, attack me." Toadpelt rasped, standing solidly on the other side of the clearing. She pelted toward him, springing off her back legs and leaping on top of him. But he quickly rolled over, squirming out from under her grip with ease. "No, no, no Cricketpaw. You don't leap you great lump, then you're exposing your belly. You're supposed to stalk around me, moving in closer before springing, then pinning me down!" Toadpelt explained, flicking his tail with affection. "Try again."
She nodded, going back to where she started before dropping into a hunters crouch and creeping up to the tomcat.
Once she was close enough she bowled him over, batting his face with sheathed claws before pinning him down by his neck. "Like that?" She asked, lifting her paws from his neck and taking a couple of steps back. Toadpelt scrambled to his paws, shaking the dust from his fur before replying, "Perfect, it only took you a moon to get it right!"
She ducked her head with embarrassment. "Father isn't going to be happy, he wants to hear the exact opposite of what you'll have to report."
"You're improving a great deal though, and besides you still only eight moons old, you've got plenty of time to practice before becoming a warrior!" Toadpelt purred, flicking her shoulder with his splotched tail.
"I certainly hope so." She meowed, disappointment in her voice. "Hey, what about some hunting?" Toadpelt suggested as they made their way back to the camp. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt, at least that's something I'm not terrible at." She sighed, dragging on behind her mentor as they found a shady clearing, plentiful with prey.
Cricketpaw stalked up behind a plump wood mouse that was nibbling on an acorn. She sniffed the air to make sure the wind was traveling toward her, luckily it was. Dropping into a hunter's crouch she slid toward the prey before pinning it down with unsheathed claws. "Delicious!" She purred, before burying the limp body of the fresh-kill beneath some earth.
After she had caught another mouse, a squirrel and a chaffinch she searched for her mentors' familiar dappled pelt.
She found him digging up a rabbit she guessed he'd caught, heartbeats later he had the fresh-kill in his mouth along with a black bird and a vole. Cricketpaw brushed past the tall grass with her squirrel and two mice dangling from her jaws. "I have a chaffinch still back there," She murmured to Toadpelt through clamped teeth. The tom nodded, setting down his prey before replying, "I'll send Hailpaw to fetch it when we return."
She flicked her tail in acknowledgement before padding on by Toadpelt's side.
Cricketpaw padded over to meet Tanglepaw, who was sitting by himself over where the apprentices' ate near their den. "Hey, Tanglepaw! Mind if I join you?" She asked, setting down the vole she had in her mouth. "I don't care." He murmured, waving his tail rapidly.
"Are you okay, you seem irritable?" Cricketpaw murmured through a mouthful of vole. "I'm fine, I'm just worried that's all!" Tanglepaw spat, his eyes amber slits. "Worried? About what? Things are going great, especially now that newleaf is here." She purred.
Tanglepaw hesitated, before reply angrily. "I can't tell you, you're what I'm worried about."
"Me, why are you worried about me, let my father be worried."
"Very funny," Tanglepaw smirked. "I saw you and Flamepaw together at the last gathering, I saw what went on between you two."
Her neck fur started to bristle with anger, she wanted to claw his ears off but she scraped her claws against the stone floor instead. "Nothing went on between us, Tanglepaw! And shouldn't you be minding you business anyway?"
"It's my job to look out for my clan mates, and kill for them." The tom retorted, she could sense anger flaring up inside of him. "You're just as bad as Flamepaw, you're an apprentice you don't have a job." She spat before stalking away madly.
"What's wrong with you? The anger that's coming off you is going to blow me over!" Cricketpaw turned to face her friend, Hailpaw. The two friends had always been rather close. "It's Tanglepaw, he could ruin a bears day when it had just finished stuffing itself with honey!"
"You two aren't still having you're problems, are you?" Hailpaw teased, flicking Cricketpaw's ear with her tail. "That was almost too funny!" Cricketpaw rasped, padding past her friend to where Wildpaw sat with her half sister, Snowkit.
"Whoa, Snowkit is getting so big." She purred, scooping up the tiny pure white kit in her paws. "I never noticed before, but Snowkit has white whiskers!"
"Yeah I know, it's actually quite weird I think!" Wildpaw meowed, prancing toward her. "Her warrior name should be Whitewhisker!"
Snowkit bounded out of her grip, prancing after her sister trying to copier everything she did. "Second thought maybe they should call Snowkit copycat!" Hailpaw purred.
"So, how are things with you two love birds, you and Tanglepaw?" Wildpaw joked, flicking her tail with amusement. "We're not love birds, we're just friends. Well we were friends." Cricketpaw replied, tucking her paws beneath her after she had sat down by Hailpaw. "Oh sorry to hear that, I know how much Tanglepaw likes you, it's such a shame when you're fighting!" Wildpaw laughed. "You must have bees in your brain if you think Tanglepaw likes me more then any other she-cat in ThunderClan." Cricketpaw replied.
"If you say so," Hailpaw meowed, flicking her shoulder with her tail. "Lets change the subject," Snowkit suggested, who was sitting between her sisters paws, listening to everything the apprentices' had been saying. "Snowkit's right, lets change the subject." She added, her whiskers twitching self-consciously.
"Well, how's your training going?" Snowkit squeaked, rolling over onto her back playfully. "Silly kit, I'm going to take you back to Dappledleaf!" Wildpaw meowed, picking up the kit and bounding over toward her mother who was watching from the nursery.
"It's strange how your mother is a tortoiseshell with white, which must be where Snowkit gets her white from, but where do you get your tabby fur from?" Hailpaw meowed once Wildpaw had returned. "My father, Silverstone, died when I was a kit in an attack from a ShadowClan patrol, but he was white with silver tabby splotches!" Wildpaw explained. "So I get my tabby fur from him, and my long spotted tail from my mother!"
"I wish I could have met Silverstone, the elders said he was the bravest cat ever to be in the forest!" Cricketpaw meowed. "I wish I could have known him too!" Wildpaw replied sadly.
I know, not much happened in this chapter. But search for clues in this one for future chapters! R&R please!
