Leaf stretched, the sun warming her pelt. It had been just one night since she had gone home with Riverclan, when she had come back with them the rumour quickly spread; there was a stranger in camp. No one had really come up to her except for the occasional curious kit or apprentice, she realised very quickly how much of a similar age she was to the apprentices, she was eight moons old, most off the apprentices were six or nine moons old. There was one she-cat who was eight moons, but she hadn't come up to Leaf yet. Leaf sat up. She was apparently going to become an apprentice today and get a mentor. She had heard about this strange system of ranking the cats, she didn't understand it, but they used it.
"Leaf? May you come with me? I'm going to make you an apprentice now." Featherstar asked softly, with a look of concern in his eyes.
"Sure." Leaf said trying to sound as confident as she could without sounding over confident. These cats are the ones that are going to make me powerful, and they don't even know it.
"Leaf? Are you ok?" Leaf realised with shock that she had been ripping up the grass and hissing, her pelt was bristling and all the cats around her were quiet and staring at her.
"Sorry, I'm fine." I can't let them know. They'll kill me. "Let's go."
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather here beneath Tall Stone for a clan meeting." Well this is going to be interesting. "At the gathering last night, as you all may know by now a cat came to join the clans..." He kept on talking about Leaf I see he missed out the part about me being powerful, figures. "Leaf, from this moment on you will be known as Leafpaw, your mentor, while in the Riverclan camp, shall be Willowreed. Leafpaw rolled the name over in her head until she realised everyone was staring at her again.
"Um, Leafpaw you have to touch noses with Willowreed." Featherstar murmured into Leafpaw's ear.
"Oh" She murmured back. Then reached up her muzzle to touch Willowreed's nose, this is mouse-brained, what does touching noses with some cat do? They want me to and I have to make them think that I want to be part of their clan. She touched nose with Willowreed, and at the same time her stomach tightened and she winced in pain, her stomach twisted and she threw up, the pain kept building until it became unbearable and she fell to the ground yowling in pain. All the cats stared at her and some gasped in shock. What is this? She thought through the pain, her vision was going blurry and she heard the faint murmur of voices and saw shapes rushing around her, I just touched her? What happened? Then she remembered.
Leaf ran up to her mother, Flower, and jumped up and down in front of her
"Milk mum! Milk, Milk, Milk!" She begged
"You know you can't have milk Leaf, have this blackbird instead."
"But Gelding and Silver are allowed to have milk, why can't I?" Leaf persisted. This had happened all her life, she'd had to start eating freshkill early, she had only ever had milk once and she couldn't remember what it tasted like. But she knew why, the same reason she couldn't sleep with the other cats. She could hurt them. Or herself.She didn't understand why then and she didn't know how now, but at least she knew why. Because the pain was unbearable. She felt like her whole body was going to explode. She let out one more gasp of pain, before she blacked out.
Leafpaw woke with the smell of herbs tickling her nose. She sneezed. A cat moved in the shadows. "How are you feeling? Are you alright? Do you want some more herbs? Maybe some poppy seed?-"
Leafpaw cut her off "I'm fine. Can I go?" Leafpaw started to get up,
"Oh no you don't!" She yowled as she jumped in front of Leafpaw. "You're not going anywhere until I make sure your okay!" She stepped back from Leafpaw and sniffed her head, without touching her. "You seem fine, you can go." Leafpaw started bolting for the exit "Wait!" The she-cat called out, "I just thought I would be one of the first to greet you, congratulations Leafpaw, my name is Flowerspot, hope you enjoy being in Riverclan." Flowerspot dipped her head, Leafpaw felt a sudden rush of affection towards the tortoise-shell she-cat must be the name, Flower... oh, how much I miss Flower she shook her head she couldn't think about that... Not now.
Leafpaw sprinted out of the den trying to get rid of the memory but she couldn't it just kept getting more and more vivid. She noticed that she was entering the main camp and stopped, I can't let them stare at me again, they'll think I'm insane and then I will have to kill them earlier, one less clan to help me win, before they die. She took a deep breath, I'll be okay. Just breathe. She ran a paw over her ear and smoothed her bristling fur. She stood back up and walked towards the camp.
As Leafpaw emerged into the camp, an apprentice raced up to her, "What was that all about? Did you have, like, a vision from Starclan? That would be so cool!-" Leafpaw stormed past the apprentice cutting him off. He let out a squeak of shock and then, when Leafpaw turned her head to look, he had an upset scowl on his face. Serves him right! She pointed her nose and tail up to the sky and proudly walked away. For a moment, as she watched Riverclan go about their everyday lives, she felt happy. She forgot, for that brief moment in time, all about her life before hand. Her short life. The moment was gone, back at home I should only just be hunting for the first time, I mean Gelding and Silver still hadn't hunted when I left and yet I'm going on long missions whereas I should be planning what to stuff into my denmate's nest tonight. Sometimes I wish I was normal. She shook the thought from her head no way, life would be boring and I wouldn't be able to take over all the cats in this world.
As she neared the den she had slept in the night before, Featherstar approached her, "Oh, no way your sleeping in there! You're an apprentice now. You sleep with the other apprentices in the apprentice den!" He meowed happily stepping in front of Leafpaw
"I don't really think that's a good idea, you s-" Leafpaw was cut short as Featherstar stepped forward to push her towards the apprentice den.
"Please don't!" She yowled, jumping out of the way. Too late. Leafpaw felt her tail brush against something lightly, even so, moments later Featherstar yowled in pain and fell to the ground. He jerked around, yowling, while the clan gathered to watch. Leafpaw stared at the leader as Flowerspot tried in vain to stop him jerking. Then, after a long, eerie moment of silence, Featherstar fell still. Leafpaw looked to see if his chest was rising and falling but all she saw was the ruffling of the wind in Featherstar's fur. Riverclan started to murmur, Leafpaw heard a few of the statements;
"Was that his last life?"
"Did she do that?"
"I knew we couldn't trust her!" but one yowl broke through, louder than the rest;
"She killed him! Leafpaw killed Featherstar!"
Leafpaw stared in horror as the cats all turned to look at her. "Murderer!" One of them spat at her then all the cats started yowling it as they charged towards her, no this can't be happening! Not again! I have to get out of here! I have to run! I have to- her thought was cut off as Featherstar jumped in front of his cats.
"How dare you attack our guest?!" He yowled over the top of his cats. Most of them looked down at their paws in shame and others just look relieved. Leafpaw stared at Featherstar he was dead! He wasn't breathing! How can this be possible!? She thought frantically for the answer. Featherstar turned his head towards her, time seemed to slow down. He looks scared! She thought triumphantly. If I can get their leader frightened I can get their leader under my control! She looked into the eyes of Featherstar, trying to look as scared as possible. The second Featherstar started to look more relieved, Leafpaw's eyes gleamed. Featherstar jumped then started to bristle, in Leafpaw's eyes was an unspoken warning;
"You better keep your eyes open, because when you're not looking, I'm going to slice your throat."
