Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors or any ideas associated with Erin Hunter. Thanks. Well, I hope you enjoy the chapter! :) -LRR
Warriors: United
:.~*~.:
Chapter Two
The tall pine trees stood like silent sentinels on either side of the tom's path. Glancing about with thoughtful, deep blue eyes, the cat seemed undecided about his next course of action. With a slight sigh he moved into the shadows of the trees, feeling their cool shade envelop his dark grey fur. Parting his jaws, the tom tasted the air for any signs of prey. He frowned. For a moment, he thought he had smelled…
"Oof!" The tom grunted as he was bowled off his feet by a white whirlwind of trouble. Looking up into a pair of narrow black eyes, the tom struggled and hissed.
"That's the ninth time I've caught you. You'd think you would could to expect it, huh, Ravenpaw?"
"Get off me, Swanpaw." The white she-cat twitched her whiskers at him and, with a cheeky wink, complied. Ravenpaw shook himself out and turned to glare at his denmate. Swanpaw was long-limbed and long-furred, with a sort of arrogant confidence about her that irritated cats to no end. Still, Ravenpaw couldn't help noticing the scars that had only just healed on her shoulders. She always seemed to have some sort of wound, and he knew he wasn't the only cat who noticed.
"So," Swanpaw drawled, "Where's that ever-watchful mentor of yours? Still flirting with Brackentail?"
"Naturally," Ravenpaw replied with a sigh, "What else does she ever do?" He hated to talk badly about Whistlingwind, but it had been days since she'd taken him out for battle training. The only action he ever got outside the camp was that which he sought for himself. And no cat ever blamed him for wandering off when he such a flippant mentor.
"Not much, if my observations have any weight to them." Swanpaw looked at Ravenpaw with the smile of a co-conspirator. "Hey, do you want to go check the ThunderClan border with me?"
"Aren't you supposed to be hunting with Ratpaw?" Ravenpaw glanced in the direction of the ThunderClan border. He'd been there before, obviously, but only a few times. Usually, he liked to stick to his territory and he didn't like to go anywhere near the Greenleaf twoleg-place.
"Sure, but Ratpaw can manage on his own and I can manage to hunt on the way. You'll help me, won't you?" One side of Swanpaw's mouth tipped upwards—it was something of her signature half-grin, and no cat could do it quite as well as she could. Ravenpaw sighed.
"Fine," he meowed. "Let's go, then."
The two apprentices made their way through the pine forest, walking side by side but keeping a small gap between them so that their pelts didn't brush. Ravenpaw personally didn't mind Swanpaw's company, even if she could annoy him sometimes. But Swanpaw wasn't the type of cat that liked close relationships. She was pretty shallow when it came to friendship, and Ravenpaw didn't really expect her to ever be straight with him, so he didn't figure it was worth it trying to get to know her. Most cats treated Swanpaw the same way. They all understood why she liked her boundaries.
The hunting was pretty scarce near the border. Ravenpaw tried to focus on scenting out prey, but the stench of ThunderClan was overpowering. Wrinkling his nose, the tom stared out at the deciduous trees across the Greenleaf-place.
"Let's move farther down the border," Swanpaw suggested, "There'll probably be more prey there." He nodded, following her down the line of trees that marked the border with ThunderClan. Ravenpaw felt bad for dragging Swanpaw away from her patrol, even if it wasn't his fault. I hope she doesn't get in trouble. Ravenpaw started when he heard a noise on the opposite side of the border. A sleek tortoiseshell she-cat padded into the open, her green eyes darting between the two apprentices. Ravenpaw relaxed when he recognized her.
"Hi, Briarpaw," he said warily, "We were just…"
"You don't have to explain yourself," Briarpaw meowed with an amused grin. "And I'm not Briarpaw now. I'm Briarheart."
"You're a warrior now?" Ravenpaw breathed, "Wow. Congratulations!"
"Thanks," Briarheart purred. She glanced warily at Swanpaw, who was staring back with narrowed, dark eyes.
"Anyways, you should get moving before my patrol catches up." Briarheart mewed, "They wouldn't like to find you here."
"Why not?" Swanpaw snapped, "We're on the right side of the border."
"Two apprentices without their mentors, frolicking on the border? It's enough to entice a few snide comments, at least. Don't you want to represent your Clan well?" Briarheart looked at Swanpaw through narrowed eyes. Ravenpaw shuffled his weight from paw to paw nervously. He'd been friends with Briarheart since they'd met at his first Gathering, and Swanpaw had always seemed venomous towards her, though why he couldn't figure out.
"Let's just go, Swanpaw," he said quietly. Swanpaw rounded on him and looked like she was going to protest. Then the fire died out of her eyes and she sighed.
"Yeah," she muttered, "Let's go." The white she-cat trudged off away from the border. Ravenpaw turned back to Briarheart and smiled.
"Nice to see you."
"You, too," she replied, her expression hard to read. Ravenpaw, a bit unnerved, turned and darted after Swanpaw. He found her standing at the base of a tall pine, her fur fluffed up and her dark eyes simmering dangerously.
"Why are you always so friendly with her?" Swanpaw spat, "Don't you have any loyalty to your Clan?" Ravenpaw frowned at her. What was she talking about?
"The warrior code says that we can have friendships in other Clans," he mewed. "What's wrong with being friends with Briarheart?"
"Is that all it is?" Swanpaw's eyes narrowed until they were dark slits framed by snowy white fur, "Just friends?"
"Of course," Ravenpaw responded, "What else would it be?" Swanpaw sighed and looked away. Blinking, Ravenpaw was about to ask her what was wrong with her when a deep voice said,
"There you are." Swanpaw started and a flash of fear twisted her features for a moment before it was replaced with the cool expression she usually wore. Ravenpaw turned to see a dark tabby tom emerging from the undergrowth. Swanpaw's mentor had thin amber eyes and a large lower jaw that sagged slightly, revealing one of his incisor teeth.
"Ratpaw wanted to hunt on his own," Swanpaw meowed softly, her eyes no longer burning with the fire Ravenpaw was so used to seeing, "And I found Ravenpaw by himself, so I was going to…"
"'By himself?'" Dogjaw's eyes darted to Ravenpaw. Chills darted down the tom's spine as he looked up at the large warrior who seemed to have a permanent scowl carved into his face.
"Whistlingwind was busy and told me to go hunting," Ravenpaw meowed coolly, "So I did. I can take care of myself."
"Oh?" Dogjaw curled his lip, revealing his overly long incisor tooth, "So now you think you're entitled to follow your own rules just because of who your father is?"
Ravenpaw fought the urge to hiss. He frowned slightly and struggled to keep his voice under control, "I don't see how it has anything to do with you."
"Fine, then," Dogjaw snarled softly, turning his attention back to Swanpaw. "You, come with me." Swanpaw flinched and lowered her head as she followed the tom deeper into the pine forest. Ravenpaw watched her go, and felt as if rain had suddenly started pouring down on his head when he saw Swanpaw look back at him with her dark eyes full of sadness and fear.
Ravenpaw couldn't focus after his run-in with Swanpaw. Everything that had happened had confused him, and he ended up only bringing a blackbird back with him to camp. Slipping into the mesh of brambles that surrounded the ShadowClan camp, Ravenpaw wound his way through the thorn tunnel and into the clearing. Branches hung low over the little hollow, and bramble thickets made up a row of neatly ordered dens. The fresh-kill pile sat neatly tucked into a corner, sheltered by an overhanging pine branch. Ravenpaw saw one of the queens, Darklight, sitting outside the nursery with her kits Jaguarkit and Moonkit wrestling nearby. Two of the other apprentices, Ratpaw and Shallowpaw, were sitting together beneath the crooked branch that covered their den. Ratpaw looked pleased with himself, which made Ravenpaw think that his hunt must have gone well. Shallowpaw, contrarily, looked somber and stoic, as he always did. Ravenpaw was about to drop his blackbird onto the pile when he thought of the elders. I'll take this to them, he thought. If they don't want it, I can always just bring it to Milkyeye and see if he or Sightpaw want it. Trotting towards the elder's den, Ravenpaw was just about to slip inside when he heard a voice behind him.
"Ravenpaw!" He turned at the shrill voice of his mentor. Whistlingwind was a somewhat pretty dark grey she-cat with slanted green eyes. Her whiskers were twitching violently, which Ravenpaw knew meant she was irritated.
"Yeah?" Ravenpaw asked, laying the bird down at his paws and trying to keep his composure. She has nothing to be irked about, he thought. She's the one that's been ignoring me.
"We were supposed to train this morning," Whistlingwind informed him.
"You said we'd leave at dawn, and I waited until after sunhigh," Ravenpaw said, managing to keep his voice level, "I wanted to go hunting. Or would you rather I had remained empty-bellied for the whole day because of my duty to the warrior code?" The apprentice's eyes glittered with anger. Whistlingwind frowned at him.
"You shouldn't disrespect your mentor," she hissed at him softly, so that the other cats in the clearing couldn't hear. Ravenpaw finally lost his temper.
"And you shouldn't neglect your apprentice just because Brackentail wants to chase your tail all day," Ravenpaw spat back, earning a few wide-eyed looks from the cats nearest him. Snatching up his prey, Ravenpaw slipped into the Elder's den and tried to get his fur to lie flat again. Looking up, he saw that Mangefur and Starlingfeather, the Clan's two Elders, were sitting in their nests with a slim, light grey tom crouched over Mangefur's tangled pelt.
"Ah, some defter paws," Mangefur meowed, "At last! Sightpaw tends to tear at my poor tangled fur more than he teases," the Elder said gruffly. Sightpaw, ShadowClan's medicine cat apprentice, sniffed.
"Be grateful I didn't chew your fur off in clumps," he meowed.
Mangefur, completely ignoring Sightpaw, turned to Ravenpaw and glanced at the blackbird, nodding slightly, "Finally some apprentices are doing their job. I thought Swanpaw would have come by now, but it seems she has other plans." The Elder sighed.
"Swanpaw was injured," Sightpaw informed the old tomcat, "Milkyeye is probably still treating those scratches."
"What happened?" Ravenpaw asked, alarmed.
"Swanpaw and Dogjaw came back from hunting a little while ago," Starlingfeather meowed from her nest, her cool amber eyes looking calm as always within the soft grey mask of her fur, "Swanpaw had fallen or something of that nature. She was pretty banged up, poor cat."
"Clumsy and lazy," Mangefur muttered, "She always makes excuses and gets herself hurt so that she doesn't have to work."
"That's not true!" Ravenpaw exclaimed. The three other cats glanced at him curiously. "S-Swanpaw works hard, just like every other cat," he added, feeling a little nervous with their staring.
"You can't blame her for having a bad attitude," Sightpaw meowed matter-of-factly, "Most cats in the Clan don't trust her just because her father was a rouge."
"It is unfair," Starlingfeather sighed.
"This is what happens when cats aren't loyal to the Clan," Mangefur said solemnly, "Swanpaw's mother should have known better."
"Iceleaf was young and foolish," Starlingfeather murmured, "As were we, once." Mangefur bristled slightly and turned his face away. Ravenpaw blinked in surprise. Mangefur was a cranky sort of cat, but he usually didn't take things personally. Is there something deeper in what Starlingfeather just said? He wondered.
"Um, Starlingfeather?" Ravenpaw asked tentatively, hoping to change the subject to something more interesting.
"Yes, Ravenpaw?"
"I saw Briarpaw on the border today."
"Really?" Starlingfeather shuffled in her nest and turned her bright eyes on the apprentice.
"She's a warrior now. Her name is Briarheart."
"How lovely!" Starlingfeather beamed. "I knew her mother and father well. They would have been so proud." Ravenpaw pricked his ears. He'd heard that Briarpaw—Briarheart's—parents had died in a fox attack, but he'd never asked to know more. It had always seemed like too sore a subject to ask Briarheart, and he didn't really believe in getting information secondpaw.
"Are you going to leave that bird there all day or can I eat it?" Mangefur interrupted, his fur fluffed up a little. Ravenpaw brought it up to the old cat's nest. He tapped Sightpaw's shoulder with his tail and watched the apprentice turn his head in his direction. Sightpaw's soft blue-grey eyes were blurry and had little blotches of white in them that always seemed to take a different shape. A tiny sliver of clear silver-blue hovered in his right eye, though, and he could apparently see just a little out of it. Even so, most cats still considered Sightpaw to be completely blind.
"I'll take over if you don't mind," Ravenpaw meowed, dreading going back to the clearing where Whistlingwind might still be around.
"Knock yourself out," Sightpaw mewed. "I'll send Swanpaw back to deal with Starlingfeather's ticks." With a farewell flick of his tail, Sightpaw left the den.
"He's a nice cat," Starlingfeather sighed. "It's a sad thing that he lost his sight."
"I thought he was born that way," Ravenpaw mewed, surprised.
"Well, I suppose in a way he was. His mother called him Softkit for a while, and he seemed perfectly normal. But then his eyes began clouding up slowly after he caught a mild infection or something like that. I'm surprised you don't remember, Ravenpaw. You were with him in the nursery at the time."
"Ravenpaw's only two moons older," Mangefur mumbled, seemingly lulled by Ravenpaw's gentle teasing at his fur, "Still, he should remember. The whole thing was a horrible business."
"Poor Sightpaw. He was crushed. His mother practically disowned him." Starlingfeather shook her head and rested her chin on her paws, her pale eyes staring off into the distance, as if she were remembering.
"But he likes being a medicine cat, doesn't he?" Ravenpaw ventured quietly.
"Well enough," a new voice uttered, and Ravenpaw started and flushed with embarrassment as Sightpaw reentered. His face looked almost frozen into some sort of half-expression, so it was hard to tell whether he was upset or not. "Swanpaw's injuries are a bit worse than I'd thought. She must have tumbled into several thorn bushes or something. Anyways, Milkyeye sent her to rest so I'll be searching you for ticks, Starlingfeather."
"You've done quite enough in here, young cat," Starlingfeather meowed, "You care for us gossiping lumps of fur all day and never have any time to relax. Go and tell some stories to Jaguarkit and Moonkit. I know you like to and they love to listen." Sightpaw stared in Starlingfeather's direction, his expression still unreadable.
"Are you sure?" He asked finally.
"Of course," Mangefur snapped, "You can't be a super-apprentice all the time. Milkyeye works you like you're his slave. You need to relax more often." Sightpaw frowned slightly, and Ravenpaw smiled at him reassuringly even though he knew the tom couldn't see it.
"You should go, Sightpaw. The half moon trip is tomorrow, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Sightpaw sighed.
"Then go rest and keep up your strength. I'll deal with the ticks." Sightpaw hesitated for a moment longer and then he dipped his head and left. Ravenpaw was glad that he had taken their advice. He felt a bit sheepish at being caught talking about the blind apprentice, and he didn't mind spending some time alone with the two Elders. Besides, helping them meant he didn't have to face Whistlingwind for a while.
"I couldn't help but overhear," Mangefur meowed, "But you're upset with your mentor, are you not?" Ravenpaw flushed. Sometimes he wondered if the Elders could read his mind.
"Well… Whistlingwind doesn't really pay a lot of attention to me, and then she gets mad when I do stuff on my own. It's not fair!" the apprentice almost wailed.
"You should tell Swallowstar that your mentor is worthless and ask him to give you a new one," Mangefur said with a disdainful look on his face, "Whistlingwind is about as attentive as a dormouse. She's not fit to be a mentor."
"I don't want the Clan to think that I can get what I want just because my father is Clan Leader," Ravenpaw murmured.
"This isn't a matter of who your father is, Ravenpaw," Starlingfeather meowed, "It's a matter of your training and how well your mentor is looking after you. If Whistlingwind is not performing her duties, you need to tell Swallowstar about it." Ravenpaw sighed. He loved his father, and the two of them got along very well, especially after Ravenpaw's mother died. But that closeness had come at a price when cats began whispering behind Ravenpaw's back, saying he was spoiled and that Swallowstar let him do whatever he wanted because he was his son. Ravenpaw didn't like being the butt of rumors, and he especially hated other cats badmouthing his father. He hadn't been apprenticed long, but Ravenpaw had decided not long after he moved into his new den that he wouldn't bother his father anymore. It was better for them to be… apart. Even if Swallowstar was Ravenpaw's only family. It's the price I have to pay. My father deserves his Clan's respect and I need to do what I can to help that along.
A rustling outside the den told Ravenpaw that another cat was going to enter. He looked up, his ears pricked. He felt his mouth grow slack when he saw the familiar ornery face and the narrow black eyes of Swanpaw. She was covered in bits of green goop and some leaves that held Milkyeye's poultices in place on her wounds. In her mouth she carried a finch. When she noticed the blackbird at Mangefur's paws, her eyes became tiny slits.
"I'll take that if you please," Starlingfeather meowed good-naturedly, "Mangefur is hungry so it's probably best if he gets his own piece of fresh-kill." Swanpaw dropped the bird at Starlingfeather's paws and stared for a moment before turning back to Ravenpaw. She said nothing, but the look they shared made him feel uneasy. What exactly happened? He wanted to ask.
Instead, he dipped his head and said, "I'm sorry for distracting you from your hunt earlier." Mangefur and Starlingfeather shared a look, obviously surprised to hear that Ravenpaw was the one annoying Swanpaw, instead of the other way around.
Swanpaw stared at him for a moment, as if surprised to hear this from him, as well. Do all my Clanmates think I can do no wrong? He thought, irritated. Finally Swanpaw just nodded slightly. "It's fine," she mewed quietly.
"I don't suppose you'd care to help me out with my ticks?" Starlingfeather asked with a soft sigh, "I think I have one just behind my shoulder where I can't reach it and Ravenpaw still has to deal with Mangefur's pelt." Starlingfeather looked at Mangefur pointedly and the cranky old tom sniffed and turned away from her. Swanpaw glanced at her and then shrugged.
"Sure," she meowed, "No problem." Scooping up the mouse-bile that Sightpaw had left for Ravenpaw, she began to sort through Starlingfeather's fur with her dainty white paws. Ravenpaw watched her with interest, surprised at how gentle she was. Even her expression softened a little, despite the wrinkling in her nose at the mouse-bile's scent.
"So," Starlingfeather meowed, glancing at Ravenpaw, "Briarheart is a warrior. It's always good to see a young cat fulfilling her duties. No matter what Clan she is in." The elder glanced at Mangefur, and Ravenpaw saw that he still looked irritated—even more so, actually.
"Sometimes duty isn't always the most important thing," the old tom snapped quite suddenly, surprising the two apprentices. But Starlingfeather just sighed and looked away. She always seemed to be trying to say something to Mangefur, but Ravenpaw still hadn't figured out what exactly it was. The tension in the den was making him feel uncomfortable, though, so he decided he had to speak up.
"I hope Dogjaw will let me train with you sometimes," he meowed to Swanpaw, who started at the sound of her mentor's name, much to Ravenpaw's surprise. "That way I won't end up living as an apprentice the rest of my life."
"There are other mentors," Swanpaw responded quietly, and Ravenpaw frowned. He knew that Dogjaw was intimidating, but Swanpaw seemed to really be afraid of him. Looking closely at her scratches, Ravenpaw wondered what exactly had happened after she'd left with Dogjaw.
"Yeah, well," Mangefur interrupted, surprising Ravenpaw, "At least Dogjaw does his job, unlike some young warriors who don't seem to understand the honor of the responsibility they've been given. I'm tempted to go and give Whistlingwind a scolding myself!" He huffed.
"You'd better not," Starlingfeather meowed with an amused twitch of her whiskers, "You may scare her fur off."
"Good!" The tom sniffed. Ravenpaw shared a look with Swanpaw and smiled to himself. I'm happy to be here, he thought. Even if my mentor doesn't care about me my Clanmates do. He looked up at Swanpaw again to see that she looked pained and her shoulder was hunched slightly. Her wounds must be hurting. Ravenpaw thought.
"So how did you get those scratches?" He asked. Swanpaw looked up at him quickly, and he felt chilled to the bone by the look in her eyes.
"Fell in a thorn bush," she muttered before looking back down at Starlingfeather's fur. But it was too late. Ravenpaw had already seen the look in her eyes, and no matter how quickly she'd hidden it he would never mistake its meaning:
Swanpaw was afraid.
Author's Note:
Thank you all for reading my story :) I hope you liked the chapter. Please review/fav if you liked! (or review even if you didn't like ;) ). Muchas gracias all!
Oh, and I also want to note that this series is rated T for some mild swearing (nothing terrible, I promise... I don't swear so it's hard enough to drop a few D words here and there) and some serious content. I will warn you of chapters that contain such heavy stuff, but this story will deal with a lot of different kinds of abuse, and content relating to this may not be suitable for all readers. Well, thanks everyone! :)
-LionRoaR
