Chapter 6:
Stormlight had only felt relief when she had told the clan about Duskpelt's death. Most of them had rejoiced and agreed to celebrate with a feast. Only a few weren't so happy.
Ace and Shadowheart were talking in the shade of the clearing, their voices low and their facial expressions giving away nothing as they talked and glanced at two bodies lumped in the shadows. Another cat was also staring, Brightpaw was shaking viciously from what looked like fear and Flamefern was glaring at the clan through narrowed, green eyes. Her claws were unsheathed and dug into the floor, her mouth curled back into an angry snarl. Stormlight couldn't help but feel bad, Patchfur had been trying to save her neck when he accidentally activated his Powers.
Carefully, she trotted over to the darker grey she-cat.
"What," Flamefern spat, "here to tell me why I'm wrong to mourn over my brothers?"
Stormlight reeled back and glanced around. Reddust, who was sitting next to Flamescar, looked at the two younger warriors and whispered something to his friend. The ginger warrior sent a scathing glare to Flamefern and whipped his head away.
"No," Stormlight shook her head, "I'm here to see if your okay."
"Do I look okay?" Flamefern glared at her, "my brothers are dead and no one else in this clan even cares!"
"Hey!" She cut in, "Patchfur and Breezecloud were my friends too, they were my den mates, of course I care!"
"But they were Cursed!" Flamefern seemed more angry at something else rather than Stormlight, "they deserved to die…"
"Do you believe that?"
"No, I don't. But the clan's got to," now she just sounded miserable.
"I don't care what the clan thinks," Stormlight assured her, "Patchfur and Breezecloud were strong warriors and they didn't deserve to die and I know that I'm not the only one who thinks this."
Flamefern looked at her through green eyes and then back at the clan with a smouldering green gaze.
"I think you're right."
Stormlight noticed Ace standing up and padding over to the empty warrior's den.
She excused herself from Flamefern and followed him in.
"What was all that about?" She asked, padding forward, "you and Shadowheart can hardly ever hold a conversation without it ending up in tension or an argument."
Ace seemed to jump, taken off guard by her presence.
"W-we were just talking," it took him a moment to regain himself.
Stormlight suddenly found herself thinking about what Duskpelt had said to her.
"Don't trust the rogue," was what he had said to her.
Stormlight folded her ears in thought before flashing back to reality.
"About what?" She questioned lightly, "were you planning something?"
"P-planning something?" He stuttered out, Stormlight had never seen him like this before, "no, we were talking about Duskpelt and Flamefern's brothers."
'I hope he's telling the truth,' she silently thought.
"Look, Stormlight," Ace sighed, "I've been wanting to tell you something."
She pricked up her ears, "what is it?"
He glanced around and spotted someone. She turned to see Brackenstar entering the den.
"Just a minute," he hissed.
"Stormlight, Ace," Brackenstar let out a sigh of relief, "I thought you might be in here."
"What do you need?" Stormlight couldn't help but notice the scorn in Ace's tone as he faced his leader.
Brackenstar sighed, "I would do a full ceremony of this, but I don't want to make Flamefern even more upset than she already is."
'How considerate,' Stormlight thought angrily, feeling Ace bristle beside her.
"So," Their leader continued, unaware of the mounting tension, "as they no longer have mentors, I want you two could take over training for Brownpaw and Brightpaw."
Stormlight spluttered, "me? I've hardly been a warrior for a day!"
Brackenstar didn't look pleased with her disrespectful tone but he continued anyway.
"You seemed to have formed a bond with the apprentices and your brother will be helping out too."
"Okay," Ace dipped his head, "we'll start tomorrow."
Brackenstar nodded, "thank you."
Then he left the den, leaving the two cats alone. They exchanged a glance.
"Starclan! I hate that cat," Ace growled to himself.
Stormlight couldn't help but agree, "what did you want to say then?"
Ace frowned, "I don't really want to say it in here, can we go for the walk."
She chuckled, "Ace, it's night, the clan will be wondering where we are if we just vanished."
He shrugged, "tomorrow then, after we take the apprentices out training."
"Agreed."
Brightpaw swiped at her brother, leaping on top of him, causing him to tumble backwards.
"Be careful, Brightpaw!" Called Stormlight with an exasperated sigh, "we're not here to play."
The young cat glanced up, "i'm only practicing."
"Get off your brother," she ordered, "you're only going to be doing battle training on us, not on him."
"You mean I get to fight you?" Brightpaw pricked her ears up.
Shadowheart cut in, "we're just going to be showing you some moves."
Brightpaw's eyes didn't dim, though. They were lit a burning blue and filled with excitement as she sat tall in the sandy clearing. Brownpaw beside her was just licking the sand out of his fur, looking just as nervous and timid as ever.
Stormlight was relieved that both of them had gotten over yesterday's deaths quickly and seemed to be back to their normal selves.
"Now," she began, remembering what her a Shadowheart had planned beforehand, "we're gonna start off with a couple of useful moves and they are quite complicated, so don't be worried if you don't get them on your first try."
She nodded to Shadowheart who drew himself into the middle of the clearing.
"Now," he said, "this move is effective against cats that are larger and thus slower than you."
Stormlight padded in front of Shadowheart, crouched and ready.
When her brother nodded, she rushed forward. When he reacted by bringing his paw down on her face, she dodged sideways and rammed into his side. As he was much bigger than her, this didn't affect him too much but it lasted long enough for her to leap over and ram his other side. At this point, Shadowheart was easy to pin down to the ground.
She let him up and he shook herself.
"Can either of you tell me what Stormlight did?" He asked.
Brightpaw, unsurprisingly, was quick to answer. "She used her speed and size to confuse you."
"And how would that be effective against an opponent?"
"Well she managed to pin you down, which makes your opponent easier to kill!"
"Warriors don't kill," Stormlight said instantly.
A hard look came over Brownpaw's eyes, "unless they're Cursed."
Stormlight glanced at the apprentice in surprise. The timid cat never really spoke back or was ever disrespectful. But the amount of anger and scorn in his voice then made her physically flinch. She reminded herself that Patchfur had been his mentor and whilst it was only for a day, he was probably still angry over it.
"Good warriors don't kill," Shadowheart suddenly said.
Brightpaw glared at him, confused. "Are you saying that there are cats in our clan that aren't good? Are you saying Brackenstar's not good?"
Stormlight searched her eyes for anger at Shadowheart's words but only saw confusion and curiosity.
"We're not here to discuss clan politics," he responded gruffly.
Stormlight was relieved that her brother was there to do this. She didn't know how Ace would respond to a question like that but she didn't think it would be an answer with a positive influence. Ace had been forced out on a hunting patrol and left the two littermates to train the apprentices themselves.
"Now, Brownpaw, you try it on me and Brightpaw, you try it on Stormlight." Shadowheart ordered.
Before she could even register what was happening, Brightpaw was barreling down towards Stormlight. The silver-grey she-cat went to land a blow but Brightpaw leapt to the side.
'She's good at this,' Stormlight thought to herself.
Brightpaw rammed her in the side, but it wasn't hard at all. She went to jump over Stormlight but she had moved out of the way leaving Brightpaw to just fall straight onto the floor.
"You need to be quicker with your leap and put more force when you ram in the side."
Brightpaw nodded, determination sparking in her eyes, and tried again.
By the end of the training session, the two younger siblings had mastered the move easily and both were tired.
"Can we go back to camp?" Brightpaw asked.
"Not yet," Shadowheart told her, "we'll just give you a quick tour around the territory first."
She leapt to her paws, "What? Really?"
Beside her, Brownpaw let out a quiet groan of annoyance.
"Follow me, Brightpaw," Stormlight flicked her tail, thinking that Brownpaw would like some time away from his sister.
She followed eagerly, bounding beside her with heavy paw steps and chattering like crazy. Stormlight silently groaned, this cat was already giving her a headache and it wasn't even sun high yet.
"This is the Sky Oak," Stormlight told her, "it's where you'll train to climb trees and there's also a few good hunting spots around."
But Brightpaw wasn't listening, "is that the lake?"
"Yes," she nodded, "I'd be careful, I fell into it on my first time seeing it."
But, once again, the apprentice wasn't paying attention and was already bounding towards it. Stormlight cautiously followed her, expecting the apprentice to do something else that was rash or plain stupid.
Brightpaw dipped her nose into the water, fascinated, before abruptly pulling it out a sneezing.
"Mother said that the lake would be cold," Brightpaw turned to Stormlight, "I think it's quite nice."
"Nice?" Stormlight dipped her paw in before instantly drawing it back, "it's freezing!"
"No it's not," Brightpaw frowned, "Are you mad?"
Stormlight sighed, "if you want to go for a swim then that's fine, but we should really-"
But there was no point, Brightpaw had already dived straight into the water.
"Brightpaw, have you got squirrels in your brain?" The silver-grey she-cat desperately tried to look into the lake's depths to see if she could see Brightpaw, but the black and white she-cat was only a shadow in the water.
"Brightpaw?" She was tempted to just jump straight in herself but her fear held her back.
'Get over it, Stormlight!' She growled to herself, 'the water's not that deep.'
She took a deep breath in and dived into the water.
Instantly, panic flooded her as the water engulfed her. She squinted, trying to ignore the stinging pain in her eyes. To her surprise, Brightpaw was happily floating in the water, as though she could breathe.
Stormlight began to paddle over to her, trying to force her way to the surface to breathe, but it wasn't working. Her fur was too thick and water just dragged her down.
Brightpaw seemed to notice this and desperately swam over to her mentor, attempting to grab her by the scruff and drag her up. But she was too heavy and there wasn't much she could do to help as her conscious began to fade.
And then she woke up. Her head broke the surface and she was suddenly breathe again. Without hesitating, she swam forward quickly to the shallower part in the water, standing as the water lapped her paws.
She noticed that where she had burst out of the water, their seemed to be a fountain of water, pushing her upwards.
She frowned, that wasn't there before.
It wasn't until Brightpaw's head broke the surface with panicked stricken look did Stormlight finally figure it out.
Brightpaw was Cursed.
A/N: Who isn't Cursed these days? I love Brightpaw, I think she's quickly becoming one of my favourite characters to write. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!