Authors Note: Sorry you guys for the long wait, but a week before Christmas Eve, my dog of nine years had to be put down. He had a huge tumor the size of grape fruit in his chest, so the old guy had to be put to sleep :'(. But, Jake had a good nine years of life with us, so it's not all bad. Well, thank you for all of the reviews, guys! Really, it made me smile.
Chapter Six
S o m e t i m e s, Whitepool noticed, life just loved to throw you a curved moss-ball. She wanted an apprentice; she got one. Well, that small, insignificant thirty seconds seemed really good right back then. But now Whitepool would do anything to get Bluepaw away from her.
"….So do you know what Ravenpaw said? Do ya, Whitepool? Do ya?" her apprentice squeaked with the most excitement and utter annoyance that Whitepool had ever encountered.
"Obviously not, unless I magically appeared into your dream." Whitepool replied dryly, ducking underneath a low tree branch.
Bluepaw skipped behind her, her tiny paw tapping on the back of Whitepool's paws. The fluffy white she-cat almost uttered a low growl, but stopped, forcing herself to remain calm for the sake of her sanity.
"Oh, well, what had happened was, I was walking around, right? And all of the sudden, Ravenpaw, like, jumped out of the bush!" she mewed, her tail wagging to and fro more excitedly than a fox pup who'd just seen his mother with new prey.
Whitepool just continued to keep her scowl on her face. "Amazing," she mumbled with a monotonously tinged voice.
Bluepaw just grinned, continuing to be completely and utterly oblivious to the fact that Whitepool did not care. "Finally! You and I are on the, like, same page! I mean, we usually are, but now we're even more! Isn't that exciting?"
No. "Yeah, sure it is."
Whitepool stepped around a fallen log, padding into the clearing that she had chosen for her and Bluepaw's fighting session. She eyed the skeletal-like branches of the bare oaken trees, her tail-tip twitching nonchalantly.
Bluepaw skipped into the clearing shortly after her, her frosty blue eyes filling with so much excitement that it just made Whitepool feel uncomfortable. Seriously, what's wrong with her? She's driving me insane! She's more attached to me then I've ever seen any cat! I've never been this mean to a cat out loud and eternally!
Whitepool straightened her back, knowing that she couldn't possibly be seen slouching and dragging herself around if she ever wanted to mentor another cat again. She cleared her throat, "Now, Bluepaw, today we're going to be practicing battle moves. Now, I know that this might be kind of scary for a new born like you, but I promise you, I'm not going to be unsheathing my claws or harming you physically."
The blue-gray apprentice grinned, "Oh, I know that you won't harm me, Whitepool! I so trust you!" she purred, her tail flicking.
Whitepool just gave Bluepaw an awkward smile. "Um…right…now, onto the first exercise. I'm going to charge at you, and you react. Simple, right?" she asked. Bluepaw bobbed her head, dropping into the hunters crouch.
Grunting, Whitepool copied her movements, her eyes narrowing. With growl, she leaped out of her position, charging toward her apprentice with a slowed speed. Bluepaw stared up at her with wondrous eyes, her tail flicking. Come on, do something! Whitepool's eyes widened as she realized that Bluepaw wasn't moving at all, not leaping away or anything. She skidded to a stop, but not soon enough to avoid smacking into Bluepaw. The white she-cat and blue-furred apprentice tumbled forward, rolling into a small incline beneath a rose bush. Whitepool thudded against the floor, 'accidentally' - as she would later tell Bluepaw - kicking her apprentice off of her. Bluepaw rolled away from her, almost lifelessly.
Whitepool bounced on her paw almost immediately, craning her neck to get a better view of the state of her fur. Patched with dirt and plants; it wasn't in a good shape. A loud snarl escaped her lips, and the anger was almost enough to swipe her off of her paws.
Bluepaw pounced over to her, grinning. "That was like, so fun! I can't-"
"Stop talking," Whitepool said lowly, turning away from her apprentice, "Please."
Bluepaw blinked. "Wh-what?" she asked, flattening her ears to her head.
Whitepool shut her eyes, inhaling deeply, before opening them again and looking back over her shoulder. "You're impossible!" She found her voice raising in spite of herself, but couldn't find herself caring or wanting to stop it. "I've seen kits who can do better just by stalking a leaf! What's wrong with you? Are you mentally stupid, or are you just trying to be cute?" she hissed, rounding on Bluepaw.
Hurt. That's what Whitepool mostly saw in Bluepaw's eyes. The other emotion was surprise, but when Bluepaw opened her mouth to say something, Whitepool couldn't stop.
"No, not another word. I don't want to hear some stupid, squeaky response about how you can't believe what situation you're in, or how I'm amazing. I'm not that amazing! I don't have a mate, kits, my best friends my sister, and I only have had one, stupid apprentice! And an apprentice who can't even react to a cat charging at her properly! Is that what you're going to do in a battle? Just allow a cat to charge into you and possible kill you? Again, what's wrong with you? Can't you just be normal?" Whitepool was practically panting by the finish of her rant.
Bluepaw was just blinking, not even speaking. But then, suddenly, her face contorted to that of hurt, and she seemed to be hold back sobs. "You're the only cat who hasn't told me to be normal!" And with that, Bluepaw charged away into the bracken.
Bluepaw hadn't bothered Whitepool for the rest of the day, and even the next. Every time she tried to come close to her apprentice, Bluepaw just looked away and scampered to her mother. Whitepool wasn't sure if Spottedflower knew or not, but she didn't want to find out.
"What's Bluepaw's damage?" Whitepool jolted, looking behind her and seeing Ravenpaw look up at her curiously. "She hasn't been talking all day, not ever since you two came back from that training session."
She sighed, turning back to the center of camp, and seeing Bluepaw sulking in front of Spottedflower. Spottedflower suddenly found Whitepool, before mouthing 'You're so dead' to her.
"I messed up, Ravenpaw," she murmured, her tail smacking against the dirt. "I guess I just messed up."
"Whitepool? You wanted to see me?" Whitepool sighed, watching as Mousestar flicked her tail for Foxclaw to leave. The ginger tom just blinked, scowling, before slipping past Whitepool and out of the leaders den.
Whitepool gulped, "Yes, I did."
Mousestar sighed. "Well make it quick; I don't really have all day to listen to everyone's problems."
Whitepool blinked, before sighing. "Well…I…umm…," she just sighed for the umpteenth time, "Okay, Bluepaw and I were training-"
Mousestar groaned. "Another Bluepaw story,"
Whitepool just shifted, "-right, so we were training, and, well, Bluepaw just sat there and let me charge into after I told her that she just had to react when I was charging. And, well, some words were said, and now she won't talk to me much less train." Whitepool looked at the leader, trying to get a read on her expression.
Mousestar twitched her whiskers. "Well that certainly seems like a problem, doesn't it?" Whitepool nodded, feeling like the leader was on her side, until Mousestar just gave her a small glare. "But from what I see, Bluepaw's having a good time training with Grayshade and Ravenpaw. Now I'm not dumping your responsibilities on Grayshade, but until you decide to get over this…I don't even know what, 'thing' I guess, with Bluepaw, he should be the one to train her."
Whitepool gaped at her leader, "B-but, Mousestar, that's not fair!" she gasped, blinking rapidly.
Mousestar just flicked an ear, "Well, Whitepool, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but life's sort of not fair either. You can't exactly say 'oh, life's not fair, blah blah blah', and expect it to magically heal itself over," she said nonchalantly, her tail flicking.
Whitepool smacked her tail on the floor, growling. "Yes, Mousestar." And with that, Whitepool turned around, slumping into the camp.
Blacktail skipped over to Whitepool a few moments later, stopping and giving her a small smile. "Whitepool, we're going on the sunhigh patrol, care to come?" he asked politely, his tail pointing toward the camp entrance.
"Uh, yeah, sure thing," Whitepool grumbled, following the black tom to the entrance of camp. Whitepool didn't know whether her eyes were playing some sort of trick on her, but the white she-cat could've sworn that she saw Bluepaw staring murderously at the leaders den.
Coming back from the sunhigh patrol, Whitepool didn't know what to expect, but she certainly didn't expect the camp to be in a frenzy, cat's running in and out of the forest and crowding in clumps.
Blacktail's ear flicked, before he padded up to Briarcloud, clearing his throat in order for her to snap out of her trance.
"Uh, Briarcloud, what's going on?" he asked.
The brown she-cat just shook her head. "Mousestar, uh, went for a walk and…" She was shaking, badly.
"Mousestar's missing."
Authors Note: Hmm... *taps chin thoughtfully* well, I wonder who could've done it? Like it's a huge mystery...
