A/N: Just a reminder! I don't own any of this... If I did I would be quite rich and I probably wouldn't write on here haha
EmberskyofShadowclan: I've really had nothing to do over the summer... (Well, I'm supposed to be writing my book, I can't think of anything...) so it's gotten lots of chapters hehe
"Bramblepaw, c'mon we're on a hunting patrol."
Bramblepaw blinked open his eyes to see a fluffy grey figure standing a whisker-length away from his nose. "Oh yeah," he murmured sleepily as he pressed a paw to his nose, "Forgot. Sorry," he mumbled apologetically as he got to his paws and stood up before his sister took off, leaving him standing groggily in the apprentice den.
His night had not been so restful. The black cat, who had still not told him his name, had been training him. And the training wasn't friendly either. His legs and flanks were sore from falling to the dry ground and from being whacked so many times. Bramblepaw was beginning to wish he could just get a night of sleep. Without dreams from the cat.
He pushed his way out of the den and found the rest of the hunting patrol waiting at the tunnel. Rainpaw seemed to be the only one who was watching him; the others were busily sharing tongues as if they had forgotten what they were doing.
"Ready, sleepy furball?" teased Seedpaw, one of the eldest apprentices in ThunderClan at the time. Bramblepaw tried to make a face, but out of exhaustion only nodded. As they filed out of the camp, Seedpaw fell back with Bramblepaw, a curious look in her amber eyes. "You look tired," she mewed.
Bramblepaw found himself looking up at the treetops, not able to make eye contact with her. "Yeah, bad dreams," he muttered with a sigh.
"Did you go to Jayfeather to see if he's got anything for it?" she inquired, her voice hushed as if she had just picked up the scent of prey. Bramblepaw nodded and was about to say something when she touched him lightly on the flank with her tail, silencing him. "Mouse," she murmured quietly before creeping away, leaving the rest of the patrol on her hunt.
She came back a moment later carrying a large mouse. "Did you see Jayfeather? Or tell Rainpaw?" she asked as they continued on their way, slowly putting tail-lengths between them and the rest of the patrol.
"I went to Jayfeather," Bramblepaw lied, wishing he wasn't. Jayfeather would wonder about his soreness as well, he wasn't exactly sure how he would tell the medicine cat that he had been training with another cat in his dreams, and it wasn't Lionblaze. "I didn't tell Rainpaw. I don't want her to worry."
The ginger she-cat's whiskers twitched in amusement. "Your sister worries a lot," she admitted, pausing to set down the mouse and taste the air. "Mmm, I think I hear a finch," she said, her voice hushed, gesturing to the left, where Bramblepaw supposed the sound of the prey was coming from. "You catch it," she mewed.
He gave her a grateful look before creeping into the low undergrowth nearly, his silver belly almost grazing the ground. After a few moments, he finally picked out the scent of the finch that Seedpaw had determined was nearby. Thankfully, it was on the ground and not up a tree.
He paused several feet from it, thinking it had sensed him, but when it when back to pecking at the ground for food he leapt forward catching it in his paws before nipping its neck. He came back through the undergrowth carrying the finch. "Caught it," he managed to say.
"Good hunter for being an apprentice for two days," Seedpaw praised, her amber eyes glinting. "C'mon let's go find Rainpaw. She wanted you on the patrol, she obviously wanted to hunt with you," she mewed. "It'll help with your tracking skills," she added.
My tracking skills are already good, he thought to himself. As kits, he had usually been the one left behind and he had to find his siblings. He accomplished that by scenting his siblings and following their scents, sometimes messing up and ending up on the total opposite side of the hallow, but most of the time actually finding them. That at least made up for his fear of heights. But he followed Seedpaw anyways, keeping an eye out for grey fur.
Somehow, his sense of smell had decided to skip over the scent of his sister, and she nearly barreled him over chasing a squirrel. She let him up with a huff. "Almost had the squirrel," she sighed shaking her head. "See you caught a finch," she mewed, her amber eyes fixed on the tiny bird.
"Seedpaw found it," he mewed, his eyes darting elsewhere. Seedpaw could have easily caught the finch, but she had let him catch it instead. He knew that, and it made him feel embarrassed a little that she had scented it first. "Let's see if we can find that squirrel," he offered before turning to the tree had had just rounded and setting the finch in the roots. "You want to climb the tree?" he inquired, his amber eyes returning to his sister.
She shook her head. "Nope, I wanna see you climb," she mewed brightly. "I'll stay down here if it comes down from the tree," she mewed as she looked up at the tree branches above their heads. "Seedpaw can go up with you," she added, as the older apprentice slipped through the undergrowth beside Bramblepaw.
The ginger apprentice dipped her head. "Good idea," she mewed, her eyes darting from tree to tree. "Hm. We'll go up separate trees so we can corner it," she decided before she raced for the nearest tree and started scaling it.
He threw one last worried look at Rainpaw before he started up the side of the tree that the squirrel had gone up, keeping as quiet as he could as he pulled himself to the first branch. He sighed when he looked back down; maybe he hadn't quite overcome his fear of heights yet. With a look of determination, he pushed forward and continued up the tree to the next branch before following the branch silently. The squirrel was nibbling on a nut at the end of the branch.
Bramblepaw could see Seedpaw's ginger pelt from his branch, and watched as she darted forward to where the branches crossed, scaring the squirrel. The prey came scampering toward him in terror before realizing that he was there waiting. He caught it cleanly and then made his way to the trunk of the tree.
He wasn't sure how, but he made it down from the tree safely without a single remark from Rainpaw. "You've gotten better!" she beamed once he was safely down from the tree. "Soon you'll be running in the treetops and I'll be down here in awe."
Bramblepaw shook his head. "Uh huh," he mumbled through the fur of the squirrel. "Here, you should have caught it," he mewed as he set it down in front of his sister. "I gotta carry back my finch anyways."
Rainpaw gave him a suspicious look before she picked up the squirrel in her jaws. "This way," she mewed, or that's what he thought she said. She flicked her tail in the direction she was already heading in. Seedpaw was scampering after her carrying her mouse. Bramblepaw had to hurry back to the tree to pick up his finch and dash after the two she-cats to keep up with them.
"Lionblaze should have seen him climb that tree!" Rainpaw boasted after they found the rest of their patrol that consisted of Squirrelflight, Berrynose, and Leafpool. "He would be really proud of him."
The three warriors' eyes fell on Bramblepaw and felt overwhelmed. Sure, he was learning to climb trees, but Rainpaw didn't need to announce it to the whole forest. "A natural tree-climber?" Berrynose inquired, sounding slightly amused. "Aren't you scared of heights?"
"Not anymore, I guess," Bramblepaw mumbled. "We're all good at something, right?" he mewed.
"Not Berrynose," the deputy mewed, green eyes dancing with amusement, "he's pretty un-decent at everything." Berrynose huffed at that. "Anyways, we need to get back to camp. They'll be wondering if we've all been eaten by foxes."
It was nearing sunhigh when they arrived back at the camp, and the moment that their prey was placed on the freshkill-pile it was raided by Blossomfall's kits, Snowkit, Icekit and Frostkit. The little kits were almost three moons old and nearly as big as he was which they seemed to think was amusing. But he was usually alright with them, they were fun to be around and completely random at times.
"Hey! Make sure you leave some for the elders!" Seedpaw teased watching the kits scamper away with their squirrel.
"But we're hungry," Icekit mewed pointedly as she shot the ginger apprentice a murderous glare which looked adorable on the tiny cat.
"We're all hungry," Seedpaw muttered rolling her eyes at the kit's stubbornness. "I'm going to the training clearing, I'll see you two later," Seedpaw mewed to Rainpaw and Bramblepaw before disappearing through the thorn tunnel.
"Lilypaw said you were twitching in your sleep, bad dreams?" Rainpaw mewed, her eyes locked on the three kits wrestling over the squirrel by the nursery entrance.
Bramblepaw sighed. "Bad dreams," he agreed, nodding. He was almost sure she had noticed the lie, but she said nothing. "Don't worry, I checked in with Jayfeather about it already, he said we all have bad dreams sometimes," he mewed shrugging his shoulders. "Nothing I can't deal with. Wanna wrestle some kits?" he offered, whiskers twitching in amusement watching as Frostkit toppled over his sisters.
Rainpaw nodded, eyes glinting on the wrestling kits.
A/N: Seedpaw was entertaining (mainly because I don't think there was really anything about her in the actual series) to write. And Blossomfall's kits. They'll be more of them, don't you worry. They're my amusement hehe hope you enjoyed (there might be more up later, depends on if the computer feels like not crashing) don't forget to review! :D
