Hi again, whew this one was bit of a challenge. Trying to write an entire with minimal dialogue was way harder than I expected. Enjoy and please review!

Chapter 9

Nearly a moon had passed since the fight with ShadowClan at the border. Gorsepaw had recovered a lot since then. Immediately after Sunfur told her she was ready to train, Swallowstar had assigned her to Shrewtooth. The wiry she-cat had taught her a ton of dodging techniques. After a few days however, regular training resumed with Blackeye once Swallowstar deemed him fit enough.

Interestingly enough, Swallowstar had chosen not to declared war on ShadowClan for stealing prey. However, she overheard that Swallowstar had accused ShadowClan at the gathering. Rabbitpaw was also healing great as well. She had more or less returned back to herself despite that head injury. On top of that, she had also resumed training, but was on Sunfur's strict orders to not do anything too engaging due to her head injury.

Gorsepaw was starting to feel more confident in her abilities everyday. She could tell Blackeye felt the same. More often than not, he would let her take care of her duties by herself. Changing moss for elders, collecting herbs, and various apprentice responsibilities she handled herself. The only time Blackeye really told her to do anything would be when they went out training. This morning, Blackeye was outside the apprentice den waiting for her.

"Good morning Gorsepaw," he mewed politely. Usually Blackeye would sit around near the warriors den until Gorsepaw came to find him. It was strange for him to approach her first for training. "Swallowstar has put me on an away party to ShadowClan to discuss their recent prey stealing. Normally I would have assigned you to Shrewtooth, but I figured it might be a good experience to hunt alone for once." Gorsepaw looked up in shock, but that quickly faded into excitement.

"Really? By myself? Is this an assessment?" she mewed suspiciously. Although she was sure Blackeye wasn't lying about going to ShadowClan, this seemed awfully like a chance for him to gauge her on her hunting.

"Yes, by yourself. Also, how about a challenge? If you manage to catch more than the hunting patrol I'll consider asking Swallowstar about making you a warrior soon," he replied casually with a smirk.

"O-of course! I'm going to catch so much that Swallowstar has no choice to make me a warrior soon!" she replied in excitement as she bounced from paw to paw.

"Get going then, the sun is already up," he concluded. "Oh, and don't get too close to the ShadowClan border." After he finished, Blackeye stood up and went off to join several other warriors along with Cloudwhisper. A fleeting thought of whether sending an apprentice on her own to hunt crossed Gorsepaw mind. But she quickly replaced it with her plan of hunting. She would go immediately to the huge oak, before looping around and head towards the clearing. After concocting her plan, she made her way out of camp and towards the oak.

It was strange traveling alone. Usually she would follow her mentor. This time however, there was nothing to follow but her own decisions. A short trek later, she arrived. Almost immediately, she caught a whiff of prey. Some sort of bird. Gorsepaw wasn't sure that she'd be able to catch it, considering she didn't have the wings the bird did. Moving towards the scent in a crouch, she finally spotted the bird. It was a blackbird, perched on a low branch. It seemed preoccupied with something in the branch. Gorsepaw slowly inched forwards, she needed to get close enough to guarantee the catch, but not too close as to alarm the blackbird. Suddenly, the bird's head flicked around in alarm, Gorsepaw leapt. The blackbird opened its wings to fly but was pushed to the ground by Gorsepaw weight. She swiped at its neck before thanked StarClan. Burying the catch, she began to move forward again. She knew in her mind that there was probably no way she would be able to catch as much as a patrol. However, she realized that maybe that was the test all along, to test whether she would give up on an otherwise seemingly impossible task.

The second catch of the day was a shrew that had strayed too far from the safety of its hole. This seemed to be all the luck for her near the oak however, as she couldn't find anymore prey around. After one final sweep of the area, Gorsepaw decides to begin step two of the plan. Still keeping an eye out for any potential catches, Gorsepaw began to head towards the training clearing. Although she was hoping to score a catch on the way there, she didn't find anything. Finally she arrived in the clearing. Immediately, she set to work scouring the area. The first unfortunate critter to be caught was a fat squirrel. Although it had gotten a head start due to Gorsepaw not noticing it immediately, it was so slow that catching up to it was hardly a challenge. After burying the prey, Gorsepaw began to sweep the area again. After a short while, she gave up looking. Gorsepaw was sure that three pieces of prey wasn't going to cut it. Afterall, she had managed to catch the same amount on her first day as an apprentice!

After thinking for a moment, she decided to go check the small bridge near the shore to see if she could find any catches there. No doubt, some potential catches were being caught by the morning patrol as well. If she wanted to impress Blackeye, she was going to have to be a step ahead of them.

This turned out to be a great choice. On the way there, she caught another squirrel. Once she arrived, it didn't take much longer before she hit the jackpot. There was a small family of mice burrowing near a tree by the shore. Gorsepaw would have to try to catch all three, which wasn't an easy task due to the fact that if she caught one, the other two would surely run. She managed to silently catch one of the mice simply because it had left the burrow. Gorsepaw smiled excitedly. If she could catch these other two, she'd surely impress Blackeye!

The two mice that had stayed near the burrow were working together on a small pile of nuts. Gorsepaw was relatively sure that if she waited, she would eventually get an opportunity. But she needed to hurry if she wanted to collect all of her past catches. She remembered how she managed to catch the two mice back on their first training session. Getting ready, she slowly approached the leftmost mouse. After waiting for a moment to make sure the mice hadn't noticed her, she leapt. Immediately, the second mouse began to run. Gorsepaw quickly finished off her first catch, and pushed off with her left limbs. But rather than landing on the fleeing mouse, she undershot and missed. She watched frustratedly as she watched the final mouse disappear into the bushes.

Deciding that now would be a pretty good time to go back and fetch all of her previous catches, Gorsepaw began to retrace her steps. She would have to go all the way back to the oak to pick up her first catches of the day, Picking up the two mice, she started backtracking. As she was walking she noticed a hole in the ground. This was the badger set that Vinepaw had showed her when they were still kits! She peered into the set, everything seemed undisturbed.

Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she dropped the prey she was carrying by the entrance and hopped in. As she landed, she gave her eyes time to adjust to the darker lighting before looking around. The tunnels on the walls were all still there, and the one tunnel that had collapsed was there as well.

Suddenly, she noticed a figure at the far end of the small stream, it seemed to have its head dipped as if it were drinking water. The figure looked up, noticed her, and ran.

"Hey! Wait up! Who are you?" yowled Gorsepaw frantically as she began to chase after the mysterious figure. Was this the tunnel cat? Why was there a cat living down here? The tunnel cat jumped up into one of the tunnels and began to disappear into the dark. Gorsepaw gave chase, following closely behind as she entered the tunnel. Was she really going into another tunnel? Vinepaw wouldn't be here this time to pull her out if something happened. As she ran further and further into the tunnel, she felt the familiar feeling of dirt falling onto her.

Terrified, Gorsepaw gave up the chase and quickly ran the opposite way. If the tunnel collapsed this time, she would surely get buried alive. She collapsed onto the soft dirt outside of the tunnel, chest heaving. Who was the figure? It didn't smell like it was from ThunderClan, was there a rogue living on their territory? She knew that going into those tunnels were a bad idea. But she still made a mental note to come back here again at some point and explore thoroughly. Right now, she needed to get all the prey and bring it back to camp. Shaking herself off, she exited the cavern and retrieved the three pieces of prey before heading off towards the clearing again.

o-o-o

Gorsepaw stumbled into the camp, her four paws exhausted. She had carried her six catches all by herself for the entire distance. Her jaws ached from the weight. Finally, she made it to the freshkill pile and dropped her entire bounty in it.

"Impressive. Good job Gorsepaw," she heard a mew behind her. Turning around, she was face to face with Swallowstar who looked down at her approvingly. "Blackeye had told me to keep an eye on your catch once you returned. I have to say, I'm not disappointed," she continued.

"Thank you Swallowstar," Gorsepaw dipped her head respectfully.

"I think I can seriously consider making you a warrior soon, maybe in a moon or two," she mewed.

"What about my sister?" Gorsepaw asked.

"Now listen, I don't want any rivalry between you two alright? Your job would be to help your sister, not gloat at her. Yes, she might need a moon or two extra to make sure she masters everything, but that doesn't mean that she is any less of a warrior than you, understood?" responded Swallowstar calmly yet sternly.

"Yes, of course Swallowstar," mewed Gorsepaw mutely. Inside, she was exploding with excitement, she would become a warrior before her sister!

"That's that then, I'm sure Blackeye will be very proud of you when he gets back later," mewed Swallowstar before heading back to her den. Gorsepaw went over to the freshkill pile and helped herself to the fat squirrel she had caught. But a small part of her mind kept on nagging her about the mysterious cat in the tunnels. She would definitely have to go to investigate whenever she had the chance to do so.

The rest of the day was uneventful for her. She did her apprentice duties, and waited around until the away party returned. They all looked tired and exhausted. Gorsepaw had figured that Blackeye would probably be too tired to do anything else so she didn't bother him. The rest of the apprentices returned shortly after and they all shared tongues and caught up on what everyone did today.

As Gorsepaw curled up, ready to sleep, she had one last fleeting thought about the mysterious figure. She wondered who it could be. Finally, she made the decision that she would ask Blackeye if she could have a day off from training tomorrow. Surely catching such a large amount of freshkill would give her a little leeway with him. She would investigate the tunnels first thing tomorrow.