Chapter 10
Many days have passed since Icepaw traveled to the Moonstone. Since then, everything has been uneventful for the most part. She has spent these days training with Stormtooth and caring for the elders along with the other apprentices.
Her daily runs from camp to the farthest border have become easier and easier, though she is always exhausted afterwards. Stormtooth hasn't stopped erupting on her every time she did something wrong or questioned him.
Ashstar and Heatherwish continued to have trouble with understanding the prophecy, and both decided there was nothing they could do at the moment. Refusing to let it get in the way of their responsibilities, they planned to wait and see what happens, then take action once they know what to do.
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Icepaw woke up one morning to see most of the apprentices have already left. Stonepaw was just waking up as well, and she saw Breezepaw was talking to Moonheart by the elders den.
Icepaw stood up and walked into the middle of camp. She scanned the area for someone to talk to. She felt like having a little conversation.
She saw Gravlestone, Rowanpelt, and Dustfoot walk into camp, probably returning from a border patrol.
They headed straight for Ashstar, who just noticed them and walked towards them as well.
"How did it go?" Icepaw heard Ashstar ask.
"It was fine," Gravelstone replied. "No problems on the borders. Although we did find recent traces of a dog in the territory."
"Where was this?"
"Not too far from camp, actually; near the river. We didn't spend too much time checking it out," the deputy replied.
"I see. I'll send a party over there. If they find the dog, they'll need to chase it out."
The conversation ended and the three cats left. Ashstar remained where he was, figuring out who to send.
"Moonheart," he called as he walked over to the cream colored she-cat.
"Yes Ashstar?"
"I need you and some others to search for a dog in our territory."
"Alright," she replied. "Can Breezepaw come with me?"
"I suppose. Breezepaw will join you along with…" he started, looking through camp once again, about to say some names. Before he had a chance, Icepaw ran up to him.
"Ashstar, you need to send me on that patrol to find the dog."
"What? Why would you want to go so badly?" He asked, noticing her determined expression.
"Because I lost my parents to dogs. If there is a dog in our territory, I want to be there to make sure it doesn't hurt anyone else," she replied.
Ashstars' voice softened. "That is a noble reason."
"Please Ashstar. I need to go," Icepaw continued.
Ashstar sighed. "Fine, you and Stormtooth can join them."
Icepaw cheered up. "Thank you," she said with a nod. Then the apprentice left to find Stormtooth.
She soon found her mentor not far from where she spoke to Ashstar.
"Stormtooth, I have great news," he said as she ran up to him.
"And what would that be?" he asked with sigh, doubting he'll care.
"Ashstar is letting us go on the patrol to find the dog in our territory."
"A dog?" He asked, this being the first time he heard about it.
"Yeah. By the river. I heard Gravelstone and Ashstar talking about it
and asked if we could go," she said with a proud smile.
"You shouldn't do that, Icepaw. If the leader never intended on sending you, you shouldn't bother him about it," he scolded accusingly.
Icepaws' smile dropped. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "Are you going to ask him to pick someone else?"
"No. Let's go," he said quickly and walked past her, towards the camp exit. Icepaw smiled again once he replied. She knew he would want to go too.
The two cats joined Moonheart and Breezepaw by the exit. The two warriors began talking about where they should start search and such, while Icepaw walked up to Breezepaw.
"Hi," she said simply.
"Hey," he replied. Icepaw noticed he had an expression of either sadness or annoyance but she couldn't tell which once it was.
"Are you okay?" She asked the tom, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he snapped.
Icepaw narrowed her eyes. "I don't think so. Come on; tell me what's bothering you."
Breezepaw sighed and looked at his paws. "I have wanted to apologize to you."
This took Icepaw by surprise. She never expected Breezepaw to apologize to her. "For what?"
"For being so mean when you first joined Windclan," he said, looking back up at her now. "I was being a mouse brain. I thought you would be confused of how things worked and well, annoying. But I was wrong. You understood pretty much everything like you lived here your whole life. And I'm sorry," he muttered. Icepaw knew apologizing was hard for him, but she felt he was being sincere.
"It's okay Breezepaw," she said with a smile.
Breezepaw forced himself to smil back, but before he could say anything, the two mentors turned to them.
"We're going to start by going up the river until we reach the border. If we still don't find the dog by then, we'll head near the barn," Moonheart explained to both of them. "Understood?"
Icepaw and Breezepaw both nodded and the four set off near the Riverclan border.
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Once the patrol got to the Riverclan border, they continued up as planned with still no sight of the dog.
After a while of walking up, alongside the river, Moonheart was able to faintly smell a dog somewhere.
The quickened their pace. The smell soon got stronger until they saw it. The dog was resting by a large rock. The four cats all stood still, wondering if the dog was awake or not. But the dog answered their question when it raised its head and saw them.
Without warning, the dark brown dog jumped up and ran towards them, barking.
Stormtooth and Moonheart reacted first. They ran out of the way and Icepaw and Breezepaw soon followed their mentors before the dog reached them. Stormtooth jumped onto the dogs' side and dug his claws into its pelt. The dog barked more and shook him off then turned to him while he picked himself off of the ground. The dog bit down on his tail, but let go when Moonheart clawed the dogs side.
The dog barked again then growled at the four cats, now all facing the dog. Breezepaw and Icepaw charged at the dog. Breezepaw jumped on the dogs back, like Stormtooth did and Icepaw clawed at the dogs legs. The dog fought to get Breezepaw off and snapped its jaws at Icepaw, but missed.
Breezepaw was thrown off and Moonheart hissed at the dog. The large animal then ran down the river, heading in the direction of Fourtrees.
"After it," Stormtooth commanded and the four cats ran after the dog.
The cats chased the dog until it they saw it was heading straight for Fourtrees, about to leave their territory.
"Alright, it's leaving…" Stormtooth muttered.
"Aren't we going to stop it from entering the other clans?" Icepaw asked him urgently.
"Why should we? It's not our problem anymore."
"So?" Icepaw demanded, now angry. "I said I won't let anyone get hurt by that dog! That includes the other clans." Icepaw ran away from them and after the dog.
"Wait," Breezepaw shouted and jumped in front of Icepaw before she could get far. "He already said it's not our problem. Why are you freaking out over it?"
"Out of my way," Icepaw said sternly then ran around Breezepaw and after the dog.
She blazed down the moor, seeing the dog ahead of her. She felt faster than she ever had before. She thanked Stormtooths' training and Starclan for that.
She quickened her pace when she saw the dog run towards Fourtrees. She followed it through the forest. It ran straight through Fourtrees and headed for Thunderclan territory. Icepaw got closer and closer and when she found the time, Icepaw jumped forward and landed on the dogs' head. She aimed for its back, but the dog stopped running at the last second. She dog barked and spun around, trying to get Icepaw off. She was eventually thrown off and landed on her back. The dog turned to her and was about to attack, until three more cats jumped onto the dogs back, distracting it from Icepaw.
She stood back up as the three cats fought off the dog. The dog ran off and to Icepaws' surprise, the three cats surrounded Icepaw, which none looked very happy to see her.
Stormtooth, Moonheart, and Breezepaw all joined Icepaw and all four of them faced the other cats, which were just joined by one more.
Icepaw recognized two of the cats, which she knew to be Thunderclan; Redpaw and Hawkwing.
"What would you four happen to be doing on Thunderclan land?" the Thunderclan deputy asked with a scowl.
"We came here to help my apprentice fight off a dog," Stormtooth replied, glaring at Hawkwing, who was glaring back at him.
"Swiftpelt, Spottedfire and I took care of the dog before you even got here," Hawkwing remarked.
Icepaw saw the deputy glance over to Redpaw. He looked shaken up, but not hurt. The dog must have suddenly stopped because Redpaw was right there.
"Only because Icepaw showed up first. If she hadn't, your apprentice would be crowfood by now," Stormtooth growled again.
"Oh, enough of this," the golden she-cat said.
"Swiftpelt, this doesn't concern you," Hawkwing replied to her.
All five warriors began arguing now. While they were distracted, Icepaw walked up to Redpaw.
"Are you okay?" She asked him.
"Yeah," Redpaw replied. "Thanks for helping."
Breezepaw walked up to the two of them.
"Who's this?" He asked, wondering how to treat the Thunderclan apprentice.
"This is Redpaw. I met him at the gathering. And Redpaw, this is Breezepaw."
"Hello, Breezepaw."
"Hi," Breezepaw replied simply, still a little confused.
The apprentices looked over to the warriors and Redpaw sighed. "Will they ever stop fighting?"
"Just wait," Breezepaw said. "That'll be us one day."
"I hope not," Icepaw muttered and the three of them laughed.
They noticed the arguing quieted down, so they both returned to the warriors' sides.
"Well then," Moonheart said, breaking through the mindless arguments. "Goodbye."
She walked away from the border and the other Windclan cats followed.
They went through Fourtrees and back on their own land.
"So what happened to the dog?" Breezepaw asked the warriors.
"It ran off and followed the river, I believe," Stormtooth replied. "It probably won't stop running until it can no longer smell cat."
Back to its pack, Icepaw thought sourly to herself.
Stormtooth spoke up again. "Let's get back to camp."
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The patrol later returned to camp. Everyone was tired from fighting the dog and arguing with Thunderclan. Moonheart and Breezepaw left to report what happened to Ashstar.
Stormtooth turned to Icepaw.
"What were you thinking?!" He demanded, startling Icepaw with his sudden rage. "Going off the fight a dog in another clans' territory? That's completely insane."
Icepaw sighed. "Can't you just look at this from my point of view?" She asked softly, not wanting him to get even more upset with her. "If that dog hurt anyone, Windclan or not, I would blame myself. I already blame myself for my parent's death."
"They could have handled it themselves anyway," he replied. "I hate to admit it, but Thunderclan has some very talented warriors. They don't need you to try to 'help' them, alright?"
"Alright, Stormtooth," Icepaw muttered. "I won't do it again."
"Good." Stormooth walked away, leaving Icepaw by the camp entrance.
"Icepaw!"
Icepaw groaned when she heard another voice from behind her. She wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. But she cheered up a little when she saw Cloudpaw running up to her.
"Hi Cloudpaw," she welcomed.
"Hey. Did you have a good day? Silverstone took me hunting with Sunclaw and Rainpaw."
"Yeah, we found a dog a chased it out. Stormtooth yelled at me again. Just an average day, I guess," she replied with a faint smile.
"That's nice. Let's get something eat."
Icepaw nodded and the two walked together to the fresh-kill pile.
Cloudpaw dropped two rabbits in the pile, which Icepaw didn't notice her bring in. They both grabbed a rabbit for themselves, and then the sisters sat down and began eating.
After they finished, both apprentices talked about what happened that day. Icepaw mentioned how Breezepaw was being nicer to her and she also added what happened on the Thunderclan border.
Cloudpaw told her about her day with Rainpaw and their mentors, but there wasn't much to tell.
The sun was setting when they stood up and Bramblepaw ran up to them, looking worried.
"Hey, have you guys seen Breezepaw lately?"
"I last saw him after we got back from a patrol," Icepaw answered, wondering what the problem was.
Moonheart, who was walking by, overheard Bramblepaw talking and padded over.
"He asked to go hunting not long after we returned from the patrol. He should be back soon."
"Oh okay," Bramblepaw said, sounding relieved. "Thanks Moonheart."
She nodded and walked away.
"I'm getting tired," Icepaw said. "Fighting dogs takes a lot out of you. I'm going to get some sleep."
The other apprentices decided to get to sleep early too and they all headed off to their nests. It wasn't long before Stonepaw and Rainpaw joined them also.
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"Hey! S-stop!" a cat shouted as two other cats shoved him forward.
"Silence," commanded a voice from the shadows. He was unable to see the face of who was speaking. "Be thankful we have reasons not to kill you yet."
"Just let me go," he smaller cat said. "I can't do anything for you."
"We'll see."
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A/N: Hey people, thanks for reading.
This story is moving along quite well. I thank all of you for the support and I hope everyone continues reading. ^-^
Have a nice day~