Yay! An update! Okay, okay, I know it's not that exciting.
Sir Nut: Glad you enjoyed!
Arcantos the Storyteller: Thank you! I think this story's been planned out a bit better than my Bitter Repercussions fanfic.
Echoflight21: I agree, a lot of people don't seem to remember that Whitestorm and Bluestar are related, but I'd just chalk it up to them not reading Bluestar's Prophecy. And yeah, I know cats can't actually cry, but I'm humanizing them a little. I mean, the entire concept of Warriors is pretty unrealistic, so...
AtlierSky: Glad you enjoyed! Whitestorm was always a wise character in canon, so I decided to try to keep him as in character as possible. Someone needs to keep Firepaw in line, after all. And yeah, poor Thrushpelt...but at least he gets to see his son in StarClan.
The following morning, Firepaw was awake at the crack of dawn. Silently, careful not to wake any of his denmates, he crept out of the apprentices' den and into the camp. To his slight surprise, several other warriors, including Bluestar, Whitestorm, Tigerclaw, Redtail, and Lionheart, were already awake and conversing near the warriors' den. Firepaw's eyes then traveled to the fresh-kill pile, which was still reasonably full even after last night. The ginger tom hesitated for a moment, then decided against taking a piece. He didn't even know if he was allowed to eat, and besides, he was never particularly hungry in the morning anyway. Stretching his legs, he walked over to the other warriors, who greeted him with a friendly wave of their tails. Well, Bluestar, Lionheart, Redtail, and Whitestorm were friendly; Tigerclaw merely stared at him with a cool, calculating look in his amber eyes.
"Good morning," Bluestar meowed, her eyes soft and warm as they gazed at Firepaw. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, thank you," Firepaw meowed politely, dipping his head.
"So you're the new apprentice?" Tigerclaw asked, looking the smaller cat up and down. His tone wasn't hostile, but it wasn't exactly friendly either. "Well, at least you have the sense to be punctual, unlike your denmates."
Firepaw gave a start. "Do you really get started on training so early in the day?" he asked, shocked. "It's barely even light out!"
"There's a lot that needs to get done. The sooner we get started, the better," Redtail meowed firmly, with nods of agreement from the other cats.
That made sense to Firepaw, so he nodded as well. "I guess it's lucky that I'm used to waking up around this time, then," he meowed nonchalantly.
"What do you mean?" Lionheart asked curiously. "You were a kittypet, weren't you? What reason could you possibly have for wanting to wake up at dawn?"
"Actually, it was because I was a kittypet that I learned to wake up early," Firepaw answered. At Lionheart's questioning gaze, he elaborated, "The other kittypets in Twolegplace always slept until the sun was high in the sky, so I started waking up at dawn so I could have a few hours to myself before they started pestering me."
"You didn't like them?" Redtail asked, sounding surprised.
Firepaw pondered the question for a moment, then replied, "I wouldn't say I disliked the other kittypets, but it was just...boring. The only cats who were any fun at all were the other kits, and even they were tiresome since they only ever played the same stupid games and told the same boring stories. Honestly, I can't tell you how many times I heard the story about the wild cats who eat live animals and line their nests with bones. And then, as they got a little older, their Twolegs would take them to the vet to be altered, after which they would be even less fun than before, as hard as that might be to believe. There was one tom...er, what was his name again? Oh, who cares, either way, there was some tom who refused to do anything but eat and sleep. He was a deep sleeper too–I tried to whack him over the head with a stick once, and he didn't even twitch."
The other warriors gave snorts of laughter at Firepaw's story. Even Tigerclaw was unable to prevent his whiskers from twitching in amusement. Firepaw inwardly smirked at this, oddly satisfied that he had managed to get the great dark tabby to laugh at something. Although he barely knew Tigerclaw, Firepaw guessed that he didn't find many things funny.
"I see the others are awake now," Redtail noted, glancing in the direction of the apprentices' den.
Turning his head, Firepaw saw that the ThunderClan deputy was right. Sandpaw, Graypaw, Ravenpaw, and Dustpaw had crawled out of their nests and were approaching them from the other side of the camp. When they saw Firepaw, Sandpaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw bounded over to him eagerly. Dustpaw, however, approached more slowly, a scowl on his face.
"Hey, Firepaw!" Graypaw meowed excitedly. "Ready for your first day of training?"
"I am," Firepaw meowed tersely, wishing that the gray tom would curb his excitement a little. Does he seriously need to shout all the time?
"Don't be nervous, you'll do just fine," Sandpaw meowed, apparently having taken his curtness for worry. Firepaw didn't feel the need to correct her and simply nodded.
"Thanks, Sandpaw," he replied, softening his tone a little.
"Yeah, just don't get in the way of the real warriors, kittypet," Dustpaw sneered bitterly.
"Good morning to you too, Dustpaw," Firepaw meowed calmly. The other apprentices snickered and Bluestar, who had given Dustpaw an oddly sharp look for his degrading remark, twitched her whiskers as though she was suppressing a laugh of her own.
"What are we doing today, Whitestorm?" Sandpaw asked her mentor eagerly.
"You and I will be taking a tour of ThunderClan territory along with Bluestar, Firepaw, Lionheart, and Graypaw," the large white warrior meowed. "Dustpaw, Ravenpaw, your mentors will be taking you on a hunting mission."
"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Graypaw asked, taking off towards the camp entrance. "Come on, Firepaw! Race you to the Owl Tree!"
Firepaw didn't bother telling Graypaw that he had no idea what or where this "Owl Tree" he spoke of was. Instead, he shook his head exasperatedly and walked to the gorse tunnel with Sandpaw and their mentors at his side. He was seriously going to need Graypaw to calm down if he wanted to get through the day without a splitting headache.
ThunderClan's territory turned out to be far more expansive than Firepaw had anticipated. Despite this, the flame-colored apprentice barely felt tired at all even after traipsing around all morning. How could he, when there was just so much to see? He was beginning to understand why Graypaw was so energetic all the time, although that didn't make him any less wearying in Firepaw's eyes.
"We won't go any further than this, but we're at Sunningrocks now," Lionheart meowed, stopping a few fox-tails from the base of a mass of large stones near the edge of a river.
As Firepaw stared at the rocks in awe, he noticed a few cats climbing out of the river and onto Sunningrocks, lying down and basking in the sunlight. They were a bit plumper than the ThunderClan cats, and their pelts were sleek and glossy.
"Who are those cats?" he asked curiously.
"RiverClan warriors," Lionheart growled, glaring at the sunbathing cats with something akin to hatred in his eyes. "Sunningrocks belongs to them, and they never miss an opportunity to gloat about it."
"It belongs to RiverClan?" Firepaw repeated, confused. "But it's on our territory."
"You're right about that, but ThunderClan and RiverClan have been fighting over Sunningrocks for as long as I can remember," Whitestorm meowed. "A long time ago, it used to be in the middle of the river instead of on our bank, and only RiverClan could reach it. But the river changed course, and suddenly Sunningrocks was right in the middle of ThunderClan territory. Of course, RiverClan wasn't too keen on the idea of giving the rocks up. I'd estimate that most of our battles have been over the ownership of Sunningrocks."
Personally, Firepaw didn't see why RiverClan even needed Sunningrocks at all. From what he could tell, the only thing they wanted it for was to sunbathe on the rocks. They reminded him of the kittypets he used to live with. It was hard to believe that anyone could believe that these fat, lazy water cats were fierce, vicious savages who chewed the bones of dead animals.
"Come on, let's get moving. Nothing good can come of us staying here," Bluestar meowed, interrupting Firepaw's thoughts.
They veered off deeper into their own territory, leaving the RiverClan warriors to sunbathe in peace. As they walked, Firepaw noticed that Bluestar kept glancing at him when she thought he wasn't looking, the same look of sorrow he'd seen the previous night in her icy blue eyes. He wanted to ask her what was bothering her, but he couldn't very well do so with the others in earshot.
By the time they returned to camp, it was nearly sunset. Firepaw was tempted to curl up in the apprentices' den and take a short nap, but Sandpaw had other ideas. Before he was even halfway through the fern bush when she dropped a rabbit at his paws.
"Nice try, Firepaw, but you're not sleeping until you've eaten," the pale ginger molly meowed sternly. "I know you didn't eat this morning, and you can't just go an entire day without food. You need to keep your strength up, you know."
"If you insist," Firepaw murmured, bending his head to pick up the rabbit. He carried it to the mossy stump, where Ravenpaw and Dustpaw were eating a wood mouse and a pigeon, respectively. He wondered where Graypaw was, then shrugged it off. Ravenpaw nodded to him through a mouthful of his mouse, while Dustpaw glared and pointedly turned his back.
"Friendly, isn't he?" Sandpaw joked quietly. Dustpaw's shoulders tensed and he gave a huff of irritation.
However, Firepaw didn't have time to worry about what was bothering his denmate, nor did he particularly care. Tucking his paws underneath his chest, he lay down and started eating his rabbit. He had other things to worry about besides Dustpaw's inexplicable bitterness. If he wanted to hold a grudge for no apparent reason, Firepaw was perfectly content to let him do so.
