Chapter VII
"Lovepaw, wanna come hunting with us?" Shouted an apprentice from the entrance to camp.
Lovepaw looked up from the mouse that she and Whitepaw were sharing, excitement laced in her eyes. "You don't mind, do you?" She meowed quickly to Whitepaw. "Please?"
Whitepaw felt a bolt of disappointment shoot through her, but she didn't let it show, choosing instead to wave her tail affectionately. "C'mon, Lovepaw. You don't have to ask me."
Lovepaw raced off to where the other apprentice's were waiting. "See you at sundown!" She cried back to Whitepaw, who suddenly felt self - conscious sitting all alone at the food pile.
She hastily finished the mouse and scattered the bones, standing up and stretching. She was used to this, of course. Lovepaw had adapted to the cats of Iceclan quickly, and they loved her. Whitepaw was more... quiet. Rather than feel loyal to Iceclan, or Fireclan, she felt loyal to none of them. She felt like a cat who was just caught in the middle of a tug o' war, with no hope of escaping it.
Fireclan was where she was born. But Iceclan is where she lived now. Even though she could not forget the sounds of screaming, her uncle's death trying to protect her mother, the blood - curling yowls of pain...
Lovepaw had forgotten. Whitepaw had not.
It was a hot summer's day. She decided to pad down to the river for a while. She took the familiar path down to the riverbank. The familiar trickle of icy water over stones was comforting to her, and she went over to a shallow dip in the river to pad into. The cold water flooded over her paws.
She knew a lot of cats didn't like the water, but on days like this, it was all she could think about. She looked up, on the other side of the river, to see the stretch of dry sand that led to Fireclan's territory.
A pang of guilt washed over her- though she was doing nothing wrong, right? She was just looking...
Images of a bloody, torn up campground refreshed in her mind. She was startled as a particularly large robin flew over a head, when a shape came barreling into her, causing her to fall over in the river. Expecting an attack, she jumped up in a fighting stance, ears flattened against her head, mouth forming into a snarl.
Two cats had appeared in her line of sight- one standing on the bank of sand, probably just having emerged from the thick dense of wood. The other was standing on the edge of the river, scrambling to his paws.
"What'd you think you're doing on Iceclan territory?" Whitepaw immediately challenged. The tom had golden, sleek fur, from his head down to his paws, and peculiar brown eyes. The cat in front of her seemed older than her, and much more muscular, as did the one standing a little ways away. She was scared.
"Iceclan territory? I'm clearly on my side of the river."
"Well watch where your claws take you next time, idiot." She growled, shaking out her fur. Stupidly enough, the Fireclan cat called out after her.
"Wait!" He said, panickedly, stepping foot forwards. She turned around. "What?" She grumped. The other cat was approaching him fast.
"C'mon Goldenheart, don't mess with the other territories!"
Goldenheart continued though. "I'm sorry for running into you. Truly, I am."
Confused, Whitepaw relaxed the tiniest bit. "Oh," She meowed after a while. "It's fine. What were you doing so close to the river anyways? I thought Fireclan cats didn't like being near the Iceclan border."
Goldenheart opened his mouth, then closed it. He seemed ashamed. "We were, uh, chasing this bird."
"A robin?" Whitepaw asked, remembering the bird that had flown over her head. "What kind of warrior are you if you can't see a cat two paws in front of you?"
The cat behind him laughed. "Goldenheart's barely a warrior. His ceremony was at sunrise today."
"Shut it, Oakpaw. You're just jealous I got it earlier than you."
Oakpaw rolled his eyes. "What's your name?" Goldenheart asked her, curious.
Whitepaw looked once back towards her territory. "It's Whitepaw. I'm supposed to become a warrior soon too."
"How come I haven't seen you at Gatherings before?" Goldenheart meowed in response, his eyes curious. Whitepaw felt uncomfortable. She wasn't about to tell a cat she didn't know, let alone a cat belonging to her clan's enemy clan, that the reason she didn't go to Gatherings is because she couldn't bear to see Fireclan.
"I think I'd better go. Another Iceclan warrior might come along soon who will have no problem battling two Fireclan cats." She chose to say in response. She turned to pad outside of camp, when she caught Oakpaw muttering to Goldenheart. "Isn't she... Whitekit?"
The last thing she heard was Goldenheart's sharp intake of shocked breath before she had disappeared into the evergreens.
Stormpaw's legs were sore from battling all afternoon, and his paws burned from skidding in the sand. The last thing he wanted to do was standing on the training patch against Rosepaw, the absolute prat, but he had no choice.
"Ready to lose?" She mewoed at him as he tiredly pawed up onto the sand yet again. He narrowed his eyes at her, but before he had the chance to say something, he heard his brother's voice.
"Yeah, Rosepaw, because you're so good, at losing-"
She whipped around, snarling in his direction, but Thunderpaw looked too self satisfied to care. Stormpaw cracked a grin, stretching his paws into a stance.
"I'd like to see you try, Thundepraw." She sniffed, and there was a loud scoff from behind them. Confused, Stormpaw looked over his shoulder to see Featherpaw with a stormy expression written on her face.
"Featherpaw?" Rosepaw asked, confused. "What is it?"
Featherpaw huffed. "I'm tired of your fox-dung attitude, Rosepaw, that's what it is. I'll beat you right now!" She meowed to her sister. "Stop picking on Stormpaw and Thunderpaw all the time!"
Rosepaw rose up to the challenge. "I beat you every time, Featherpaw. You're a lot weaker and you know it!"
Stormpaw cleared his throat. "You know Featherpaw, you don't have to- I mean, she's not that much of a threat to me." He said, and watched Rosepaw almost physically boil over in anger.
"Alright, paws, stop bickering. We'll find something else to do, you all must be pretty tired." Brightwing interrupted, swishing her tail. "Rosepaw, no warrior will ever best their enemy by boasting. You should start showing some respect to Stormpaw. He bested you with his actions, not his words."
Thunderpaw barreled over, laughing, as Rosepaw furiously opened her mouth to respond but thought better of it.
"Fine! But I'd like a word with my dear sister first!" She growled angrily at Featherpaw, who's lean frame of muscles stood tense. "Whatever you've got to say to me can be said with your claws, Rosepaw!" She snarled in response.
"What's your problem, Featherpaw?!" Rosepaw demanded. "You're acting more like a piece of fox-dung than ever before."
"If I'm a piece of fox-dung, then you're the whole thing!" Featherpaw snarled, and she launched herself at Rosepaw. Stormpaw barely stumbled out of the way before the two she-cats were grappling around on the sand. Thunderpaw and him exchanged glances, sharing confusion. What was up with Featherpaw today? She was never like this.
Suddenly there was a scream, and Rosepaw broke away. Stormpaw gasped. A long, red slash stood out against her russet fur.
Featherpaw stood a little ways away, breathing heavily.
Swallowheart, Rosepaw's mentor, darted forwards. "Rosepaw! Are you alright!" Ravenfeather, Thunderpaw's mentor, closely followed, leaning over her pelt. "It's just a scratch- not deep at all." She meowed back to Brightwing.
Rainpelt, Featherpaw's mentor, seemed to snap out of her moment's shock. "Featherpaw! Why don't you go take a walk?!" She growled angrily at her apprentice. Featherpaw didn't need her to say it again- she turned on her paws and vanished into the woods at a fast run.
Rosepaw's eyes were unreadable, but it looked as if she were in pain. She stood up, leaning on Swallowheart slightly, and the two began to return to camp. Brightwing cleared her throat. "C'mon you two, it's time we get back to camp."
Without looking to see if they were following, Ravenfeather and Skywing began to pad back, muttering quietly to eachother. Stormpaw started after them.
"What just happened?" Thunderpaw meowed to Stormpaw, awe in his voice. Stormpaw just shrugged. His mind was still reeling too.
"I kind of get it. I mean, Rosepaw's annoying and bossy. But I wouldn't... I don't know. Hurt her."
Thunderpaw nodded. "It's not like her. Just yesterday she, Rosepaw, and Cloudpaw were all hunting together. What went wrong?"
Stormpaw stopped, looking back into the forest. "D'you think we should go look for her?" He asked suddenly. He couldn't explain it, but he felt bad leaving Featherpaw out in the forest all by herself.
"She'll be fine. Rainpelt will probably go after her." Thunderpaw said in response. He flicked Stormpaw's ear. "C'mon, let's hurry up."
The sun had just gone down over Fireclan, and the night was still light in color, when Featherpaw came back through camp.
Most warriors had retired to their dens, though few remained outside. Thunderpaw was still eating at the Food pile, and Stormpaw had just stood up and stretched to go back to the apprentice's den, when he spotted Featherpaw's thin frame slinking in through the camp walls.
"Thunderpaw," He meowed urgently, flicking his cheek with his tail. "Featherpaw's back."
Thunderpaw looked up almost immediately, abandoning the squirrel he had been plowing down on, something he never did. "Should we talk to her?" He murmured back, but he was stopped by the rushing of a cat from the nursery.
"Featherpaw!" Came the angry yowl, and Stormpaw winced. He recognized Embertooth, an expecting queen, at once- she was the mother of Featherpaw, Squirrelpaw, and Rosepaw, who had been in the Medicine Den since they arrived and had not left since.
Her face was scrunched up in an angry scowl, and her back was arched, dangerously.
"What did you do to Rosepaw? How could you hurt her like that?!" Embertooth spat at her daughter. Featherpaw looked up, alarm clear in her blue eyes, which were dull- a contrast to her usual brightness.
"I didn't mean to- we were just fighting-"
"Save it, Featherpaw. I don't want to hear it." She turned on her feet, ready to pad back into the Queen's den, but then turned back around, fire in her eyes. "You know what? We should've never raised you. We should've just left you in that tree hollow where we found you."
And she left.
Featherpaw's mouth was open, and she slowly closed it. She seemed frozen in place, still staring at the spot where Embertooth had vanished.
Stormpaw felt his stomach lurch, and he felt frozen to the place. Had he really just witnessed... that? Whatever that was?
A face suddenly loomed in front of him. "C'mon, you two, it's time you go into the apprentice's den. It's quite late." Brightwing said, hurriedly, ushering them away. Thunderpaw looked back at Stormpaw, and they both were clearly wondering what to do.
Stormpaw decided to take action. "Brightwing, why would Embertooth say that? What does she mean, 'hollow tree?'"
Brightwing swallowed, umcomfortable. "Thistlefur, Embertooth's mate, found Featherpaw at the Gathering tree in a hollow. He brought her to Embertooth, but Embertooth didn't like cats who came from anywhere else but Fireclan. Now that Thistlefur's gone, she just..."
"Is that why Featherpaw attacked Rosepaw? Because she was jealous?" Thunderpaw suddenly said, and Stormpaw felt a sinking feeling in his chest. He wished he had known this before. He felt horrible.
Brightwing just looked away. "It's best both of you go to sleep, and forget about this. Don't mention it to any other cats, don't talk to Featherpaw about it. Don't make this worse for them." She murmured, before she left to the warriors den.
Stormpaw and Thunderpaw fell asleep quickly after that.
Both were willing to slip into sleep to forget the horrible words that hung in the air like fog.
That's the end of chapter 7- I made it a little longer to compensate for all the time I spent not uploading. Sorry about that, chapter 8 will be released soon, so keep looking for new updates!
