It rained lightly during the next night. Ravenpaw slept on and off; he was awoken several times by the occasional drip of water into the apprentices' den. Finally, he gave up on sleep, and fluffing out his sleek black fur, pushed his way out of the den and into the main clearing. He nodded a greeting at Whitestorm, who was talking with Bluestar across the camp. Ravenpaw groomed the dampness out of his fur as the sun began to rise behind the clouds.
While he lapped at his pelt, he contemplated the events of the previous evening.
When Ravenpaw and Graypaw had returned from their hunt, the camp had been buzzing. Sandpaw had intercepted them as they were settling down to eat next to the tree stump.
"You won't believe what happened today." Sandpaw had padded up behind them, dropping a large vole down in front of her.
"What?" Ravenpaw and Graypaw had meowed together.
"Yellowfang snapped at a kit! They were just playing and accidentally ran into her! Dustpaw and I saw it happen!"
"Oh." Ravenpaw had blinked, unsurprised.
The two kits had strayed from the nursery and tumbled into Yellowfang while they were playing, Sandpaw had explained, her tone betraying deep contempt for ThunderClan's prisoner. Truthfully, Ravenpaw wasn't at all shocked by Yellowfang's reaction. She clearly wasn't the type of cat that would brighten at the sound of mewling kits. But could there have been something more to it? He thought of the time only a few days before when she had been eyeing the kits irritably as they played. She had seemed angrier than usual when she saw them, but perhaps that was just because her leg had been in pain at the time.
Ravenpaw was shaken from his thoughts and back to the present when Bluestar walked toward him. "Ravenpaw," she meowed. "How are you doing this morning? I hope you were able to get some sleep with all the rain."
"It wasn't too bad," Ravenpaw replied, surprised to be directly addressed by his Clan leader. He tilted his head to the side, wondering what was coming next.
"I've asked Tigerclaw to assess the hunting skills of our apprentices today," Bluestar informed him. "You and Graypaw will meet him at the sandy hollow at sunhigh." Ravenpaw was filled with horror. A hunting assessment with Tigerclaw! How could he hunt if he knew Tigerclaw was watching him? "Are you ready?" Bluestar asked.
"I think so . . ." He scuffed his paws worriedly against the ground.
"There's no need to be nervous, Ravenpaw. You're making good progress in your training. Lionheart told me you caught a crow yesterday." Ravenpaw nodded as Bluestar continued. "I'm glad to see that having Tigerclaw as your mentor has helped you develop your hunting skills." She looked at him closely, and Ravenpaw felt her search his eyes. Did she suspect that the dark brown tabby warrior had anything to do with the death of her former deputy? He wondered if he should tell her. This was his chance. The only other cats out of their dens yet were One-Eye and Smallear, and they wouldn't be able to hear meowing halfway across the clearing. But he hesitated. She'll never believe me. He sat facing his Clan leader, cursing his own uncertainty.
"I'm sure I will hear good things about your assessment today," Bluestar went on. The moment had passed. "Now, go fetch your denmate and head to the training hollow. You wouldn't want to be late."
"Yes, Bluestar," Ravenpaw replied. Bluestar nodded warmly at him and then turned to pad toward the nursery. Ravenpaw sighed as he walked back. He hadn't realized that Bluestar had such a high view of his hunting skills. He wondered if perhaps she had just been trying to encourage him. Either way, he hoped he could live up to Bluestar's expectations.
As he returned to his den, he noticed that a small group of warriors had finally emerged from the warriors' den. Dustpaw and Sandpaw were also among them. Lionheart padded into the group and began to organize the day's patrols.
Graypaw had also left the apprentices' den. He was grooming his long fur, which had settled into clumps from the previous night's rain. Whitestorm stood next to him, meowing quietly. Graypaw nodded respectfully at the older warrior as Ravenpaw padded up to greet him.
"Graypaw, we have a hunting assessment today."
"I know, Whitestorm just told me," meowed Graypaw, flicking his tail toward the white warrior, who was trotting back to the center of the clearing. "Oh, don't worry Ravenpaw. You'll do fine," he added as Ravenpaw began to pace nervously.
"That's what Bluestar told me."
"See? Even Bluestar thinks you'll do well." Graypaw mewed supportively.
"What if she's just saying that? To make it so I think I'll do better so I don't get nervous?" Ravenpaw meowed. "And why does it have to be Tigerclaw doing the assessment?"
"Bluestar wouldn't do that. And Tigerclaw is your mentor, he'll want you to do well. He won't want to say terrible things about your hunting skills. It would reflect poorly on his training." Graypaw nudged Ravenpaw's shoulder. His reassurance didn't soothe Ravenpaw's anxiety.
A sudden, terrible thought occurred to Ravenpaw. What if his mentor tried to sabotage him? Ravenpaw shook his head. It wouldn't make sense for Tigerclaw to sabotage his own apprentice, yet he couldn't banish the thought from his mind.
Ravenpaw shook his fur out, ignoring Graypaw's encouragement. "Let's just go." He set off toward the gorse tunnel.
"Don't you think it's a bit early?" Graypaw called, running to catch up.
Ravenpaw looked back and shook his head. "We don't want to be late."
As Graypaw and Ravenpaw arrived at the sandy hollow, the air was beginning to dry out, although there was still a chill permeating the breeze. Ravenpaw paced the clearing nervously. He would have been more confident in his abilities today if it hadn't been Tigerclaw doing the assessment.
As though he had been summoned by Ravenpaw's thoughts, Tigerclaw burst into the clearing and Ravenpaw halted his pacing. His mentor nodded a greeting at him and Graypaw. "Lionheart and I have spent the last few moons trying to teach you how to hunt decently. Today you'll have the chance to show me how much you've learned. You both will take a different route and hunt as much prey as possible. Whatever you catch will be added to the fresh-kill pile back at camp." Ravenpaw shared a worried glance with Graypaw before Tigerclaw continued. "Ravenpaw, you will follow the trail beyond the Great Sycamore as far as the Snakerocks. That should be easy enough for your pitiful skills." Ravenpaw ignored his mentor's hostile tone, waiting anxiously to be dismissed.
"And Graypaw, you will take the route along the stream, as far as the Thunderpath." Tigerclaw stared at them, his pale eyes gleaming. "And remember, I will be watching both of you." Ravenpaw broke eye contact with Tigerclaw, spun around, and without a second glance at the other cats, raced into the forest.
He sped along the familiar trail that he had taken only a few days earlier to the Great Sycamore. He paused to sniff the air for prey, but there was nothing, and he continued along the path. Why had Tigerclaw chosen Snakerocks? There wasn't a lot of prey there because there were so many adders and other predators there. I'll just catch as much as I can on the way there then, Ravenpaw told himself.
As he pressed on, the warm scent of prey hit the roof of his mouth. It was a mouse, and it was nearby. He stood still as a stone, not wanting to scare it away. From the scent of the mouse he could tell that he was nearly on top of it. Ravenpaw swiveled his ears, trying to listen for the pattering of paws. The surrounding undergrowth rustled, and a small mouse padded out into the open. Less than two tail-lengths away, it had somehow neither seen nor scented Ravenpaw. He sprang forward and landed directly on top of it, killing it instantly.
As he found a spot to store it to pick up on the way back, he appreciated his good luck. That had been a dumb mouse. If Tigerclaw had seen that he would have said it was a lucky catch. In a strange way Ravenpaw hoped that Tigerclaw hadn't seen it for that reason. At least he wouldn't come back empty pawed if he didn't catch anything else.
As he continued through the forest, he didn't come across anymore prey. He soon had reached the smooth, sand colored rocks and slowed to a stop. Ravenpaw sniffed the air. He knew that in addition to prey, he needed to watch out for adders here.
Ravenpaw warily stepped onto the mound of rocks. Although he could scent prey here, he could also detect the bitter tang of predators. All it would take would be one wrong step near an adder's burrow and he would be dead.
The scent trail of a mouse was winding its way up the Snakerocks. Cautiously, Ravenpaw crept pawstep by pawstep up the rocks. Soon, he saw it, resting in the shade of a small overhang, nibbling at a seed. It glanced around, realizing that something was wrong. Ravenpaw saw it tense just as he bunched his muscles and sprang, dispatching it with a quick bite. Having caught the rodent, Ravenpaw bounded down to the edge of the Snakerocks to bury it.
The assessment was going reasonably well, he reflected. At this point Ravenpaw was confident that even if he only brought back the two pieces of prey, it would at least be enough to avoid ridicule from most of his Clanmates.
Feeling pleased, he began to pad back up the Snakerocks. He placed a paw on a smooth boulder and pushed himself onto it.
His blood ran cold.
An adder was staring directly at him.
In the heat of the moment Ravenpaw didn't have any time to be afraid. Barely aware of what he was doing, he dodged instinctively as the adder's head bolted in his direction. The snake's fangs hit empty air where he had been standing a moment before- he leaped around to deliver a killing bite to the back of its neck. It writhed wildly, and he clamped down on it, ignoring its foul taste. It gave one last twitch before it went limp.
Ravenpaw stumbled down to the base of Snakerocks and dropped the dead adder onto the ground. He stared at it in disbelief. He had just caught an adder. He had never even heard of a cat catching an adder before.
Heart pounding, he decided to head back. It had been a long enough hunt, and his paws were trembling too much to stalk anything now anyway. Ravenpaw picked up the snake, and resolving to return for the mice later, began to make his way back to the sandy hollow. He progressed through the forest much slower than usual, since he kept tripping on the diamond-patterned body of the adder, and by the time he got back to the sandy hollow the sun was beginning to fall.
"Took you long enough." Tigerclaw was waiting impatiently in the sandy hollow when Ravenpaw stumbled through the bushes. His pale eyes widened in surprise for just a moment when he saw the adder Ravenpaw carried with him. His astonished expression left almost as quickly as it had appeared.
"Wow! An adder! Ravenpaw, what a catch!" Graypaw bounded forward to get a closer look. He sniffed up and down its diamond patterned body. "I've never seen one up close!"
Tigerclaw was silent as he moved forward to inspect the adder. After sniffing it nose to tail-tip, he stepped back. There was nothing bad he could say about this catch, Ravenpaw realized. He stifled the purr rising in his throat.
The dark tabby dismissed them, telling them to bring their fresh-kill to camp. Purring, Ravenpaw padded along with his tail held high. The two apprentices returned to where they had buried their prey, and together they carried their fresh-kill to camp. They wanted to impress the Clan by bringing in the huge load of prey all at once, but Ravenpaw had his paws full carrying the snake alone, so Graypaw had to carry back Ravenpaw's two mice as well, in addition to his own cache.
As he and Graypaw returned to camp with their catch, he was aware of his Clanmates surprised murmuring when they saw he had caught a snake. The two apprentices left the rest of their prey on the fresh-kill pile, besides a rabbit they picked out to share, and carried the snake to the apprentices' den. "Can you even eat adders?" Graypaw asked as they reached the tree stump.
Ravenpaw spat the snake onto the ground. "Well, it tastes pretty foul. I wouldn't want to eat it," he replied.
A thoughtful look crossed Graypaw's face. "We could give it to Yellowfang." They both mrrowed in amusement at that. "But really, there must be something." He paused, frowning. "Hey, let's make it so Dustpaw and Sandpaw will see it when they get back," Graypaw meowed, picking up the adder and placing it onto the tree stump. "There." Graypaw turned back to Ravenpaw, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "I'll bet Dustpaw's never caught an adder."
Ravenpaw nodded in agreement, cheered by the thought that as much as his brother bragged about his hunting skills, he had never made such an unusual catch.
"I wonder when Sandpaw and Dustpaw will be assessed," Graypaw mewed speculatively. "I thought all the apprentices were going to be assessed today, but it's getting late already." He purred. "I can't wait to see their faces when they find out how much they have to catch to not get shown up by us." Out of nowhere, Graypaw playfully batted at Ravenpaw's shoulder. Ravenpaw swiped back.
Suddenly they were play fighting like kits. Graypaw responded to Ravenpaw's swipe with a tackle. Ravenpaw battered Graypaw's side with his hind paws, careful to keep his claws sheathed, but his denmate was bigger and stronger than him and was able to hold him down. Finally Ravenpaw managed to roll away and leap on top of Graypaw, who fell to the ground. Ravenpaw pinned him down, thinking that Graypaw had given up rather easily when the thick furred apprentice surged upwards, knocking him away.
Ravenpaw was so buoyed by the assessment that he didn't even care that he had lost. Panting, they settled back into eating the rabbit.
Ravenpaw kept on with Graypaw's earlier speculation as though nothing had happened. "Probably tomorrow. They were patrolling all day I think. And hunting for Yellowfang." He bent down to take a bite of the rabbit.
Yellowfang's sudden yowl jerked him out of his thoughts. Graypaw got up from their meal. "Speaking of Yellowfang, we should probably bring her some prey." He slowly crossed the camp to the fresh-kill pile, picked out a large squirrel, and carried it to where Yellowfang was sitting. The old she-cat spat crossly at him, although Ravenpaw was too far away to hear her words. Graypaw shrugged, and then casually padded back to the tree stump. "Anyway," Graypaw continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they get back. That was a really great catch, Ravenpaw. And at Snakerocks too! Are you going to finish that?" he asked abruptly when Ravenpaw stopped eating.
As Ravenpaw listened to Graypaw while waiting for his brother and Sandpaw to return, he felt a prickle of worry. Why had Tigerclaw chosen Snakerocks? The place was by no means an easy hunting ground, with as many snakes and other predators as prey. Had his mentor been setting him up to fail? Or worse, had he been setting him up to be killed?