Yay! Another Chapter!
Mudpool's Path- Chapter 6
Mudpaw laid her head between her paws, shutting her eyes. She was still grieving for Thrushflight, who had died more than a moon ago now. She hated how her brother and sister acted as though nothing happened, as though it was alright that their father was gone now, as though a part of them didn't die along with him.
Icestar had made Dawnshadow the deputy, and he also took on Maplepaw as his apprentice, since Maplepaw's mentor was Thrushflight. Rainpaw had become a warrior, now Rainspots, and moved out of the apprentices' den. Blacktail retired, leaving Sandfur to be the full-time medicine cat and moving to the elders' den. Skyfoot, the oldest cat in the Clan, died from old age.
It's almost as though StarClan doesn't want us to have such a large Clan, Mudpaw thought.
"Mudpaw," a voice mewed, bringing her out of her thoughts.
Looking up, she saw Nutwhisker looking down on her.
"We're going on a border patrol. Volefur and Weaselfang are coming with us."
Mudpaw nodded, getting up and padding out of camp with her mentor. Weaselfang and Volefur were waiting just outside the entrance.
"Where are we headed?" Volefur inquired.
"I thought we could head for the MistClan border first," Nutwhisker meowed. "Ever since the battle, and the last Gathering, we haven't been able to trust them."
"Sounds good," Weaselfur mewed.
Mudpaw followed the three toms on the way to the border. Sniffing the air, she thought she had caught a whiff of rogue scent. She sniffed the air again. No sign of rogues.
How odd.
The ground underpaw began to get marshy, indicating they were almost at the border. A frog hopped past the patrol; Mudpaw sprang and caught it in her teeth, killing it.
"Good catch," Volefur commented. "Blacktail might like it."
Mudpaw purred, and continued after the others, who had met a MistClan patrol consisting of Reedstripe, Wavepaw and Eaglepaw. Mudpaw flattened her ears, and Eaglepaw did the same.
"Hello, Reedstripe," Nutwhisker meowed curtly.
"Nutwhisker," the tabby greeted curtly. "Our apprentices are now warriors, Wavestripe and Eagleclaw."
Wavestripe was about to mew a greeting to Mudpaw, when Reedstripe held his tail up for silence. "We've found a rogue on our territory."
"Oh? Is that what that stench on our territory was?" Volefur asked.
"Most likely," Reedstripe replied. "We've taken him in, and he became a warrior. His name is Ravensky now."
"I see," Nutwhisker mewed. "And you're telling us this because...?"
"I just wanted to report our news to you in person. Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
Weaselfang nudged Mudpaw. "He's telling us not to invade," he whispered, too quiet for any other cat to hear.
"How can you tell?" Mudpaw asked quietly.
"For starters, he told us that two of their apprentices are now warriors," he replied. "More warriors are a sign of strength. He's implying that the next time we meet in battle, we won't be so lucky."
"You can tell all that from what he said?"
"Sometimes you have to look between the lines, Mudpaw."
The two cats broke away from their conversation, looking up to see Reedstripe and Nutwhisker glaring at each other.
"If you're saying my Clan is weak, then why don't we just see right here and now who's stronger?" Nutwhisker challenged.
"It would be my pleasure," Reedstripe hissed, leaping at Mudpaw's mentor.
The two toms wrestled on the marshy earth, biting and kicking at each other.
"Reedstripe!" Wavestripe gasped, trying to pull the tabby away.
"Come on you two!" Volefur pleaded, yanking at Nutwhisker's scruff. "Knock it off!"
Mudpaw watched as Nutwhisker and Reedstripe were pulled away from each other, still swiping and reaching to attack the other.
"This is no way to behave!" Weaselfang scolded. "Especially when on a border patrol!"
"What's going on here?"
Mudpaw turned around to see Icestar padding towards them, fur bristling.
"Nutwhisker and Reedstripe got into a fight," Volefur mewed. "We had to break it up."
Icestar looked past the dark gray tabby and looked at Reedstripe. "Is what my warrior saying true?"
"Yes, Icestar," Reedstripe mewed, not flinching. "But Nutwhisker was the one who challenged me first."
"Liar!" Nutwhisker objected. "You provoked us in the first place!"
"Enough!" Icestar snarled. "Nutwhisker, this is no way to behave! You are one of my senior warriors, and you especially shouldn't be acting like this in front of your apprentice! Go back to camp at once!"
Nutwhisker flattened his ears, and followed the trail they had taken before back to camp.
Icestar turned to Reedstripe. "Get your Clan off my territory at once."
Reedstripe nodded curtly, beckoning to Wavestripe and Eagleclaw. Wavestripe flashed an apologetic glance at Mudpaw before following Reedstripe into their own territory.
Icestar turned to what remained of the patrol. "Carry on with your patrol. Nutwhisker will be back at camp."
The three cats nodded, and continued along the border.
"It's not like such a mature cat like Nutwhisker to lose his temper like that," Volefur remarked. "He's usually so calm."
"Well, he always was pretty cocky and immature as an apprentice," Weaselfang replied. "He still has some of that personality today. You just don't see it often."
"How do you know that?" Mudpaw asked, remembering these cats were younger than Nutwhisker. "You weren't apprentices when he was."
"Petalbloom and Twistedfoot always told us he was like that whenever we got in trouble as apprentices," Volefur meowed. "They said even the greatest warrior screws up sometimes."
"Nutwhisker made mistakes as an apprentice?"
"Oh yes! All apprentices make mistakes!"
Mudpaw remembered the time she had forgotten where she had buried her prey during leaf-bare, and she as punishment for not bringing her prey back she had to go without eating that night. She shuddered. She didn't like to talk about being that hungry. Other times she had messed up including passing over the ShadeClan border, forgetting to feed the elders, and forgetting to change the bedding in Nettlepelt and Featherflight's nests.
I guess every apprentice does screw up now and then, Mudpaw thought.
The three cats padded across the border, Volefur and Weaselfang remarking the boundaries.
"Well, it looks like we're finished here," Volefur mewed, then stared at the Twoleg path that marked the ShadeClan border. "I still find it weird that a Twoleg path just stops at that big rock at the very end."
"Maybe it went around the whole of ShadeClan territory before, then just wore out until grass grew over top of it," Weaselfang remarked. "Anyway, we should get back."
The patrol padded back to camp, Mudpaw still clutching the frog she caught earlier in her jaws. When they got back, the evening patrol consisting of Specklefur, Mosseyes and Cloudstorm were waiting for them.
"I hear you got into a little border skirmish," Specklefur purred.
"Nutwhisker did," Weaselfang replied. "By the way, where is he?"
"He's in the den moping," Cloudstorm mewed. "He's been like that since he got back. Icestar punished him by not letting him go on anymore border patrols for a moon."
"That's too bad. At least he can still train Mudpaw."
The evening patrol left, and Weaselfang turned to Mudpaw. "You can give that frog to Blacktail, then you can come to the nursery with me. I'm going to see the kits."
Mudpaw did as the warrior told her to do, padding into the elders' den. Grassnose and Blacktail were mewing quietly.
"You remember Shadowfoot, don't you? She was the cat who was exiled."
"I don't think any cat could forget her," Blacktail replied. "She even had her name changed before she left. She was Shadowheart when she left."
"I wonder if she's still alive..." Grassnose trailed off, then spotted Mudpaw. "Hello, Mudpaw. What brings you here?"
"I came to give this to Blacktail," she mewed dropping it at the former medicine cat's paws. "Volefur said you like frogs."
"That I do," Blacktail mewed, bending his head down to eat his meal.
Grassnose wrinkled his nose. "How in the name of StarClan can you eat those?"
Blacktail looked up. "I had them a lot when I was a kit," he rasped. "They say when you have a certain food when you're young, you grow to like it more when you get older."
Mudpaw padded out of the den, over to the exposed roots of a maple tree, which formed the nursery. She squeezed in through the entrance, nodding to Featherflight, and padded over to Nettlepelt.
"Hi Mudpaw," the queen purred. "How's your training going?"
"It's going well," Mudpaw answered.
Dapplekit and Fernkit scrabbled out of the mossy nest, pouncing on Mudpaw.
"Will you teach us some fighting moves?" Fernkit begged. "Pretty please?"
"No," Mudpaw mewed. "You're only four moons old. I can't teach you yet."
"You're no fun!" Dapplekit complained. "Maplepaw taught us some fighting moves yesterday, so why can't you?"
Mudpaw groaned. "Because Maplepaw doesn't know that he shouldn't be teaching little kits fighting moves."
Mudpaw looked up as Birchkit waddled uneasily over to Mudpaw. He looked up at Mudpaw. "You can teach me fighting moves though, right?" he squeaked.
Mudpaw purred, pressing her nose gently to the top of his head. "No. You're far too young and Weaselfang would have me for the fresh-kill pile if he saw me teaching you fighting moves."
Birchkit pouted, then turned to Weaselfang. "Why can't Mudpaw teach me anything?"
"You need to wait until you're an apprentice, Birchkit," Weaselfang replied. "You have a ways to go before you're six moons old!"
"No fair!" Birchkit padded back over to Featherflight.
A loud, grief-stricken yowl rang out across the clearing. Mudpaw padded out of the nursery to see Rainspots holding her muzzle to the sky, yowling.
"What's wrong, Rainspots?" Icestar raced out of his den, Dawnshadow following.
"The evening patrol just got back," Rainspots sobbed. "But... but..."
"But what?!" Icestar demanded. Rainspots pointed with her tail to what was laying in front of her. Mudpaw's eyes widened in horror.
A white tom lay in front of her, his pelt streaked with blood. His throat was completely torn, blood leaking out onto the floor of the camp. His head was twisted around in a sickening way that made Mudpaw want to puke. Large claw marks laced along his flank. Mudpaw realized with horror that it was Cloudstorm, Rainspots' old mentor.
"Who would do such a thing?" Dawnshadow rasped.
Specklefur and Mosseyes held their heads low in grief.
"We were just in the forest," Mosseyes began. "He heard something, and went back to find it. The next thing we knew there was this sickening yowl, and when we found him... he was already dead."
"We wanted to go with him," Specklefur added. "Just in case something like this happened. But he wouldn't let us."
Icestar pressed his nose to Cloudstorm's flank, sighing. "We'd better clean up his body. We need to prepare it for a vigil."
"Yes, Icestar."
The crowd broke up, and all that remained were Mudpaw and Rainspots.
"Rainspots... I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, Mudpaw... I'll get through it."
"I'm here if you need anything."
"I know," Rainspots mewed, leaning on Mudpaw's shoulder. "I know."
~o~o~o~o~
Mudpaw padded into the apprentices' den, where the rest of the apprentices were still awake.
"I can't believe it," Snowpaw fretted. "First Petalbloom, then Thrushflight and Twistedfoot, now Cloudstorm? What next?"
"This death streak will probably end soon," Silverpaw calmed his sister.
"But that's another cat who's dead!" Mudpaw gasped. "How many more do we have to lose?"
"You know what we could do?" Maplepaw chimed in.
"What?" All eyes were on Maplepaw.
"We could go out and find what's causing these deaths. Besides Thrushflight, Twistedfoot and Skyfoot, we don't know what's causing them."
"That might be the smartest idea you've ever come up with," Tigerpaw mewed. "Or maybe the only smart idea you've ever had."
Mudpaw stifled a mrrow of laughter.
"I'm serious," Maplepaw urged. "If we could go out and find what's causing all these deaths, we might be able to become warriors sooner!"
Morningpaw's ears perked up. "You mean it?"
"Hold on," Hawkpaw intervened. "Icestar isn't just going to make us all warriors because we killed what's been killing our Clanmates. We're too young to be warriors, well most of us, anyway."
"When I said 'we', I meant Rockpaw, Morningpaw and I."
Rockpaw shook her head slowly. "Hawkpaw still has a point, though. Sure we've had our warrior assessments, but if we go to find out who this murderer is, we'd probably get punished for going without a warrior's permission."
"I think it's a good idea," Snowpaw mewed. "Petalbloom and Cloudstorm's deaths have caused so much pain in the lives of other cats, so we should give this murderer a taste of their own medicine. I'm in."
"So am I," Mudpaw agreed.
"I'm not letting Mudpaw go alone," Silverpaw mewed.
Eventually, the other apprentices agreed.
"So when do we go?" Morningpaw asked.
"I was thinking now," Maplepaw replied, poking his head out of the den. Mudpaw looked where he was looking. Goldpetal and Mosseyes were guarding the entrance to the camp.
"We can't get out that way," Mudpaw whispered. "Your parents would see us."
"I know," Maplepaw replied. "We could escape out the back of the den, though."
"What are you talking about? We can't-"
Maplepaw pointed with his tail to a small hole in the back of the apprentices' den.
"Are we going to be able to fit through that?"
"Yeah. I've used it several times before."
One by one, the apprentices squeezed through the hole, appearing on the other side of the den.
"Now we just have to sneak through the forest without any cat hearing us," Maplepaw whispered.
"And just how do you think we're going to be able to do that?" Tigerpaw argued. "We're not ShadeClan!"
"If we can get as far from the camp as we can without leaving our territory, we should be able to get away without anyone being too close to hear us," Maplepaw answered.
The eight apprentices padded through the forest quietly, making sure not to step on any stray twigs or leaves.
"We're near the Twoleg nest," Maplepaw reported. "This is where Specklefur said they were during the evening patrol, just before Cloudstorm was attacked and killed."
Mudpaw sniffed the air. There was the scent of kittypets, but they were near a Twoleg nest, so that made sense.
Beside her, Rockpaw bristled.
"What's wrong?" Mudpaw asked.
"I can smell something that isn't kittypet," she hissed.
"Like?"
Suddenly, snarling sounded from behind the group of apprentices. They spun around, coming face-to-face with an enemy none of them had ever been prepared to face before, an enemy they had never even seen before.
Mudpaw's eyes widened. Fox!
Bwahaha! More cliffhangers. But again, the next chapter is out. Don't you just love me for that? XD
