Chapter 3
Lakepaw bounded towards the warrior's den. Her mentor still hadn't come out. She wanted to go training now! As she neared the warrior's den, she saw Braveheart come out of the den. She bounded towards him.
Braveheart turned around, looked at her and said, "Are you ready to learn how to hunt?"
She nodded enthusiastically.
"Then follow."
She followed Braveheart out of the camp, and arrived at a sandy hollow. I bet it's called the sandy hollow, 'cause it's so sandy!
"Now, keep your body low, and try sneaking around."
She crept as low as she could.
"Keep your tail straight, your head up, and step lightly." Braveheart said.
She tried again, and Braveheart looked at her, impressed. "You've done it perfectly!"
She tried to conceal the purr rising in her chest. "Really?"
"Yes. Let's practice that some more, and then we'll move on to actually catching and tracking prey!"
Later that day, she ran from tree to tree, collecting the fresh-kill she had caught that day. Braveheart followed her, obviously impressed with her catch.
As she approached the old twoleg nest, she heard a faint growling. Braveheart had heard it too, but he was obviously ignoring it, so she did, too.
But as she started to dig up her fresh-kill, two gleaming eyes stared at her from a bush…and a huge black and white creature jumped out of it.
Braveheart gasped. "Lakepaw, get into cover! This is a badger, the most dangerous animal to cats!"
But she didn't move, and as she stared at the badger something seemed to start in her mind, like a cat after a long sleep. As she kept staring, she felt herself grow bigger, her muscles begin to broaden, her paws becoming bigger and wider, and her fur turning black and gray.
Braveheart turned back…and jumped in terror.
She had become a badger.
For some reason this didn't surprise her, like she had known this since kithood.
All the badger fighting techniques clicked in her mind, and she launched herself right at the badger, claws out.
The badger fell to the ground with a startled grunt and yelled, "What are you
doing? You should be attacking the cat!"
She didn't answer, but kept on slashing and pummeling the badger and it finally admitted defeat, and raced off into the forest.
She stood, looking at the badger run, and only when it had gone did she focus on her cat's spirit, and slowly, her paws shrunk, her fur turned back to its original color, her body turned smaller and her whiskers grew back.
All of a sudden she realized what had happened, and started to tremble. Am I a cat, or a badger? She wailed inwardly, confused.
Braveheart looked shaken, though not as shaken as she thought he would be.
"You transformed…into a badger." He started, sounding a lot more excited than shocked. Weird, she thought.
"I…think it's best we keep it a secret." Braveheart said.
She nodded.
"So…you can transform into a badger? Can you transform into other animals too?" Braveheart asked.
"I've never tried. I think it's only when I need it that I transform, but maybe I just need to focus on an animal and I could transform into it." She answered.
"We'll see. Alright, let's try this squirrel."
Braveheart nudged one of the squirrels she had caught in front of her, but no matter how hard she focused, she couldn't make herself change.
"Oh." Braveheart sounded disappointed, and said, 'If you can transform into a badger, that's good enough."
Good enough for what? She thought.
A thought struck her. Why was Braveheart so accepting of my special power? Did he know about it?
These thoughts ran through her head as she padded into the camp, barely hearing the other warriors' words of approval, and padded into her den, lost in thought.
She has more power than the sharpest claw, the sharpest minds, even her warrior ancestors themselves… Braveheart knew that Lakepaw could transform into a badger, but could she transform into other animals too? Maybe it's just that the squirrel was already dead, Braveheart thought. I'll try tomorrow.
And he drifted into a pleasant sleep.
Or not so pleasant.
Braveheart found himself on one of the roots of the Great Pine on the Island. As he looked up, a blue-gray she-cat, a tortoiseshell she-cat and a ginger tabby tom padded across the tree that led to the Island.
Bluestar, Spottedleaf and Firestar. How great.
They didn't say anything, just dipped their heads to Braveheart. Bluestar meowed ominously, "Do not go here, for it is where the Clans will die."
Spottedleaf then said, "The Six are waiting."
Finally, Firestar stepped up, and finished, "The place where horses rest is the sanctuary."
They then disappeared into countless stars, which floated away when a wind blew.
For some reason, Braveheart didn't wake up.
All of a sudden, a bright light blinded him and when he blinked open his eyes, countless cats were on the Island. Four cats sat on four of the branches. Braveheart recognized one of them as Twigstar.
It must be a gathering! But why is StarClan showing me this?
As Twigstar opened his mouth to speak, a whistling sound filled the air, closely followed by the sound of a pebble dropping into water.
What's happening?
Braveheart turned his head to see a red, crusty rock-like surface replacing the rippling, cool blue waters of the Lake.
All of a sudden, all the water of the Lake blasted out of the huge hole that had been the resting place of it, and crashed down onto him. He tried to swim, but to no avail. He sunk like a stone. As time passed, he felt his lungs scream for air, and when he thought he couldn't stay underwater for any longer, he blinked and opened his eyes to find that he was back in his den.
Why would StarClan warn me of the Island? Braveheart thought.
The gathering! It's tonight!
StarClan must have been warning him that tonight, the Clans would die out!
He rushed out of the warrior's den, convinced that he had to tell Twigstar. Now, where was Twigstar?
There!
Twigstar was sharing tongues with Hazelgorse beneath the Highledge, but as Braveheart ran to him, about to warn him, he felt something trip him, and when he was about to say something, an unseen force clamped his jaws shut. No matter how hard he tried to force them open, the unseen force kept his jaws closed.
After a long time of struggling, Braveheart finally understood, with an ominous feeling in his belly.
This message is only for me and my apprentice.
He was sure that Lakepaw was part of the prophecy. She was more powerful
than StarClan. She had to be part of the prophecy.
He padded to the apprentice's den, prodded Lakepaw with a claw and meowed, "Wake up. It's time for training."
She stirred, but didn't get up.
"Wake up!" Braveheart meowed, a little louder.
She blinked open her eyes, but didn't move.
"WAKE UP!" Braveheart yowled, getting impatient.
Shocked, Lakepaw jumped up into the air.
"Right. I'll pin a squirrel down for you, and you try to focus on it, okay?" Braveheart asked.
Sleepily, Lakepaw nodded her head.
"Right. Now focus."
Braveheart had a squirrel pinned under his paws. This is my chance to see if she can transform into other animals!
Lakepaw stared intently at the squirming orange-brown lump, and started to shrink. Her paws, which were orange, slowly shrunk and turned brown, her pelt, which was blue-gray, shrunk, changed into brown and became more fluffy. She had become a squirrel.
Braveheart padded over to her, releasing the squirrel. "Good job," he meowed.
She tipped her head, like she didn't understand.
"Good job," Braveheart repeated.
She didn't react, and after a couple of heartbeats she transformed back.
"I can't understand catspeak while I'm transformed. I only understand the language of the animal that I've transformed into," she said.
"I see," Braveheart replied. "You've transformed into an animal, so it makes sense that you only understand their language, and not ours. This means that you not only change your body, but also your spirit, into the image if the animal. If we want to use this to our advantage, we'll have to figure out a way to communicate without using words. Thank goodness you know that you were once a cat, otherwise you could attack anyone in your way if you became a badger, or a fox."
Lakepaw nodded.
Braveheart decided that now was not the time to tell Lakepaw about the prophecy. There was until moonrise to go to the Horseplace.
"What will we do now? Lakepaw asked, bouncing up and down until she looked like she was a rabbit.
Braveheart stifled a purr. "I'll teach you some fighting moves now. "
"Yay!" Lakepaw raced into the forest, in the direction of the training hollow. "Let's go to the sandy hollow, then!"
Braveheart raced after her, yelling, "It's the training hollow! If we went to the sandy hollow, we would have to make the great journey every time we went training!"
As he spoke, Braveheart realized what would happen that night, with an ominous sinking feeling in his belly.
We will leave the clans.
