Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors or any of the cats in this chapter except for Graypaw, Redpaw, the Starclan cat with no name, Pinepaw, Graypool, Rosetail, Mistypool and Rosetail's four kits! Please participate in my poll on my profile! Who should Graypaw's best friend be? Amberpaw or Flowerpaw?
Chapter Eight
Graypaw's eyes widened as cats swarmed through the entrance of Shadowclan's camp.
"Shadowclan- attack!" The leader near her hissed and dove for a gray she-cat with blue eyes
Graypaw looked around. What could she do? She didn't know any battle moves!
Suddenly, she spotted Redpaw grappling with a large tom that had to be at least three times the size of the red apprentice. Graypaw pelted over, and without thinking, launched herself on top of the large gray tom. She sunk her claws in his back and the tom let out a yowl of pain. He rolled over and squashed Graypaw beneath him. Graypaw flailed her paws desperately. She couldn't die, she was only an apprentice!
"Stop!" The large Shadowclan leader yowled. The cats in the camp all stopped and watched him. "What is the reason for your attack, Mistystar?"
The gray she-cat with blue eyes glared back at him. "Your warriors have gone across our border too many times, Blackstar!" she hissed.
Blackstar snorted. "Of course they would! Because my warriors love fish!"
Mistystar let out an enraged snarl and leaped forward towards him. The cats resumed fighting.
"Get... off...!" Graypaw gasped and bit his neck. The cat screamed and leaped off of her, blood dripping down his neck. He raced off with Redpaw behind him. Graypaw stumbled to her paws. She had to get out of here right now!
Graypaw looked around, but all that she could see was cats fighting. Graypaw took a deep breath. Graypaw knew that she probably shouldn't do it, but she did anyway. She shot up into the sky. Once Graypaw was certain that she was high enough, she looked down. No was staring up in wonder. No one had seen. Graypaw quickly flew over to Thunderclan territory and landed. She bounced back to camp. No one would know.
Graypaw panted heavily. She was with Jayfeather and the other medicine cats, on their way to the Moonpool. It had been four sunrises since she had been in Shadowclan territory. She had angrily ignored Moonshine and Jayfeather- no, her mother and her father- ever since she had gotten back.
Now, she was off to the Moonpool to become a actual medicine cat apprentice.
Graypaw suddenly felt a burst of excitement. This was it! She ran up the hill to the Moonpool and raced over to the pretty pool bathed in moonlight. Once the rest of the cats were gathered, Jayfeather beckoned Graypaw towards the pool.
"Graypaw, is it your wish to enter the mysteries of Starclan as a medicine cat?"
"It is." Graypaw could hardly contain her excitement.
"Then come forward," Jayfeather mewed. Graypaw stepped forward until she was almost touching the Moonpool.
"Warriors of StarClan, I present to you this apprentice. She has chosen the path of a medicine cat. Grant her your wisdom and insight so that she may understand your ways and heal her Clan in accordance with your will. Now, lay down and drink some water from the Moonpool."
Graypaw did as she was told. She lapped up some of the water and then closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she wasn't at the Moonpool. It was all dark, there was nothing at all.
"H-hello?" Graypaw called out nervously. She took a cautious step forward and quickly stepped back. She had stepped in a puddle of water. Graypaw squinted down at the water. There was something weird about it... her nose touched the puddle and suddenly Graypaw's eyes closed. She heard a voice say: "This would be your life if you became a medicine cat."
Graypaw saw a gray cat with blue eyes in Thunderclan's medicine den, sorting herbs. Graypaw let out a gasp. That was her!
"Pinepaw!" Graypaw's older self called.
A small dark brown she-cat with green eyes bounded towards her.
"What is it, Graypool?" The apprentice asked.
That scene melted away, only to be replaced by darkness. Then came the sound of two cats purring. Graypaw smelled her scent and another familiar one that she couldn't quite place. Then the sound of purring stopped and Graypaw heard a cat screeching in pain. Graypaw wanted to cover her ears; the cat was in so much distress! Then Graypaw saw herself laying in the middle of the forest with two kits nestled near her belly. She saw a shadow of a cat, and Graypaw guessed that the shadow was the father of the kits. Then the scene vanished to Graypool watching two kits playing in the clearing. Then the kits got larger, and larger, and Graypool cried: "Rosetail! Mistypool!"
Then Graypool was sitting with the two warriors, and telling them the truth. They ran off.
The scene vanished and was replaced with Rosetail in the nursery with three kits, dying as the fourth came out. Graypool was sobbing softly as she prepared her daughter for burial. Then the scene changed again and Graypaw watched her older self putting cobwebs and poultice on a bleeding cat's throat, only to have the cat die. It was Mistypool.
Then Graypaw felt wind on her fur. Graypool was standing at the top of a tree. She closed her eyes, whispered a prayer to Starclan, then jumped. Graypaw watched in horror. She couldn't close her eyes, and she watched Graypool's body slam into the ground.
"This would be your life if you became a medicine cat," the cat repeated. "This, or become a warrior."
Graypaw opened her eyes. She jumped to her paws, her dream still vivid in her mind.
"Jayfeather!" Graypaw hissed, prodding Jayfeather in the side.
The tom opened his blind eyes, and opened his mouth to speak, but Graypaw interrupted him.
"I can't be a medicine cat!" She exclaimed.
*Gasp! The drama of it all!* Please review! :)
