"What do you mean 'I don't know'?" asked Blossomfall.
Whitepaw sighed. "There are two things about a Twoleg life: the good thing is that it grants so much fun and relaxation, but the bad thing is that I don't feel like doing the work I need to do to earn it."
The two friends walked along the dirt path to the gathering island, which wasn't that far off. Crickets chirped all around and the only other noise was the soft waves going up and down the shore. The moon had only moved along a small distance in the star-filled sky, barely having anyone notice time had passed.
Blossomfall and Whitepaw kept going, their tails swaying behind them. Whitepaw's answer was confusing to her friend, and wasn't understandable to the warrior either. Even Whitepaw wasn't too sure about it.
After a bit of silence, Blossomfall asked, "Can't you just do what you have to?"
"That's the thing. I don't know why I don't want to do the work. Maybe it was something I did when I was younger, or I think I'll always get away with little effort. I think part of the problem is..." She trailed off on her empty thought, and instead changed the subject. "Never mind."
"Alright..." Blossomfall didn't continue the talk, and looked forward while Whitepaw looked down.
Whenever Whitepaw tried to figure out why she didn't want to do her work, is because she kept over thinking it and made her more frustrated. So in the end, she would just do whatever she wanted. But it always ended in a bad result of not getting something done, such has homework.
The she-cats had padded all the way to the tree-bridge. Blossomfall went up to its roots and clawed her way to the top. She balanced as best she could on the smooth platform and began to make her way across. Whitepaw quickly followed after her.
Whitepaw jumped onto the bridge. Her mind wandered as she crossed it. What will Bramblestar say? How mad will he be? What will the clan think? Questions buzzed around Whitepaw's mind, all of them left unanswered as she followed her friend along the smooth surface of the trunk.
Whitepaw then noticed she made it to the island as she unfocused her mind from her thoughts. She jumped off the fallen tree and caught up with Blossomfall, who was waiting right outside of the trees. When the two friends met, they entered the tiny forest together towards the Gathering clearing.
As they walked, Whitepaw began to hear a voice up ahead, assuming it to be a she-cat's. After going further, it was indeed a she-cat, but it was the only voice heard. The apprentice figured it was Mistystar, since the Gathering would have already started. Soon enough, they were able to find the Gathering place when Whitepaw and Blossomfall saw tips of cats' ears a few fox-lengths from them.
The she-cats pushed past a few ferns and finally appeared in the very back of the Gathering clearing. Mistystar was speaking on top of a branch, but the nearby cats' watching below had been disturbed by the two, making them turn around. Whitepaw shrunk a little, and was glad that the cats just shrugged it off and turned back to the Great Oak.
Blossomfall flicked Whitepaw's back to signal the apprentice to follow. The two skirted the outside of the crowd to go to the other side of it, which Whitepaw assumed was where ThunderClan was. They got glances from other clan cats, but the friends ignored them, or in this case, Blossomfall ignored them and Whitepaw felt disturbed by them.
They eventually made it to the ThunderClan side of the clearing. They found a spot in the back and sat down next to each other. Apparently, Mistystar had finished talking by then, and backed away to let another leader speak.
Whitepaw and Blossomfall watched as the WindClan leader stepped forward. Onestar said, his voice being heard clearly, "WindClan has been doing well. Furzepelt had found an entire nest of full grown rabbits, five of them, which finally fed the whole of the clan. The finding had given us strength to continue looking for more resources to restore the clan back to normal." A few quiet, positive meows were heard from the WindClan crowd, before being quiet after a few seconds.
Bramblestar took his turn next. He went forward and Onestar went back. The tabby leader said, "ThunderClan has two new apprentices: Lilypaw and Seedpaw!"
Immediately, the names were being called out. "Lilypaw! Seedpaw! Lilypaw! Seedpaw!"
Almost every cat on the island chanted the name. Whitepaw chanted too, and so did Blossomfall. Whitepaw was able to see the two apprentices not too far from her, and they looked like they would explode from pride.
The clearing quieted down quickly, and Bramblestar continued. "Prey has begun to fill our territory once more, letting us believe to have a chance to live through this upcoming Leaf-bare."
Immediately, the Gathering ended. Bramblestar walked along his branch to the tree trunk and clawed his way down with the other leaders. The other clan cats split up into their clans and waited to be guided back to their territories by their leaders. Whitepaw and Blossomfall waited, since they were already with the rest of ThunderClan.
Eventually, the ThunderClan crowd began moving, and Whitepaw and Blossomfall followed. Whitepaw slowed down so she could be left alone in the back. She was quickly noticed by Blossomfall, who had stopped to let Whitepaw catch up with her. When Whitepaw caught up to her, the warrior said, "We still have to tell Bramblestar."
"Oh. Yeah." Whitepaw said, literally forgetting about that until remembering at that moment. She felt her stomach roll in circles as she and Blossomfall walked up towards the front of the group.
But before they reached the front, they had to cross the tree-bridge. All the cats crossed without trouble and followed the route to get back home. As soon as Whitepaw and Blossomfall crossed, they continued to catch up to their leader.
The she-cats reached Bramblestar, and Blossomfall was the one to say, "Excuse me, Bramblestar, may we speak with you?"
The tabby cat looked over to the warrior and nodded. He whispered something to the cat next to him, which was Squirrelflight, and then followed the two to the back of the crowd.
When they were alone in the back, Blossomfall nudged Whitepaw, notifying to talk to Bramblestar first. Whitepaw tried to say that her friend should say it, but all that came out of the apprentice's mouth was, "Um...could you...do, um...it. Please?" The more she spoke, the more she lowered her head and the quieter her voice got. She felt cowardly to have to tell someone else to speak for her.
Somehow, the warrior got her message. She said to Bramblestar, who was looking at them curiously, "Bramblestar," the leader brought his full attention to the warrior. "Whitepaw snuck away from the group when she heard 'music'. She followed it and saw Twolegs. She watched them doing...something, and I found her there when I noticed her absence."
Talk about straightforward, thought Whitepaw. Bramblestar sighed. "Excuse us, Blossomfall. I need to talk to Whitepaw alone." The tortoiseshell she-cat walked further up the crowd, far enough for the two to not be heard.
"Whitepaw," said Bramblestar. Whitepaw looked at the ground, ashamed. The leader began to say, "I thought you would keep your promise. But I see that you are still attracted to Twoleg-like things. Why did you break your promise? I thought you were more responsible than this."
Don't get upset. Don't get upset. Don't get upset. Don't get upset. The same phrase was said over and over again in Whitepaw's mind. She tried to talk, but she felt as if she was physically incapable to. She ended up just staring down at the ground and waited for everything to be over.
"Whitepaw, I know you can speak. Answer me." Bramblestar spoke in a calm, yet firm voice. He waited.
Whitepaw finally said, "Um...I...um..." Her mind went blank. What made it even worse was she had a familiar feeling with those words Bramblestar had just said.
The leader sighed. "How long were you gone?"
Whitepaw tried to think of the right words. "Um...I came back after Mistystar spoke."
"If you came back any later, I might have been more upset with you. I am very disappointed in you, Whitepaw."
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. StarClan, I hate it when I get pressured and upset about these things. Whitepaw kept having more and more arguments in her mind, making her more upset.
Whitepaw took a deep breath to calm herself down. Bramblestar finally said, "I will give you your punishment tomorrow. For now, think about what you've done." Bramblestar walked up ahead to take back the lead of the group.
By now, they were on between WindClan and RiverClan territory. The moon had gone down a bit, and the sky had a few clouds here and there. Whitepaw felt horrible for wandering off, and began to feel anxious to know what her punishment was.
What if he confines me to the camp? What if he does that for a moon? That is the one punishment I don't want! Whitepaw wouldn't have known what she would do if she couldn't escape to somewhere quiet. That was one of the things she liked about going out into the forest alone.
Whitepaw saw that Lilypaw and Seedpaw were happily strolling to the back of the crowd, moving in the direction of Whitepaw. The two young cats walked on each side of the older cat, Lilypaw on the left and Seedpaw on the right.
"Hi..." Whitepaw said, unsure whether or not to enjoy the apprentices' appearances.
"What happened? Did you get in trouble?" Lilypaw teased.
The white she-cat answered honestly. "Yeah...but I don't know what my punishment is yet. I have to live with being anxious for the rest of the night." Whitepaw flicked her tail once or twice before listening to what Seedpaw was saying.
"Don't worry; whatever it is you did, you can live through whatever punishment he gives you." Seedpaw's words comforted Whitepaw, mostly for being her tone being reassuring and kind.
"Thanks."
Soon enough, the random Twoleg questions began to come up again from both Seedpaw and Lilypaw. Lilypaw was the one who brought it up first. "So...do you have a family? A littermate?"
"I have a sister, and a mom, or mother. My sister is three years older than me and had gone away for education. And my mother still lives with me. My father...he passed away when I was seven." Whitepaw was only aware of how open she was until she had finished speaking, but didn't really care.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Lilypaw said, sounding regretful for asking the question.
"Oh don't worry; I'm not upset about my dad anymore. Now, is there anything that you would want to ask me that isn't about my Twoleg life?" Whitepaw wasn't uncomfortable with the question, but it was, in fact, tiring to describe her Twoleg life.
"Ooh, I got one!" Seedpaw said. "What was the best thing that has happened here since you have arrived?"
Whitepaw couldn't just pick one thing, so she answered with, "Everything. Being here in the clans is the best thing that has happened to me." she added, "Though, it would be even more awesome if I became a warrior, too."
"I hope we become warriors after you, maybe even have you mentor us along with Bumblestripe and Poppyfrost!" said Seedpaw, cheerily.
Whitepaw felt so happy about the younger cats being kind to her, though she did always enjoy both kindness and little kids; school seemed to lack kindness. Uncertain why she was questioning it, the apprentice asked, "Why are you guys being so nice to me? Aren't you supposed to think I'm weird and dangerous?"
Lilypaw immediately answered. "Why wouldn't we be nice to you? You were super nice to us when we were still kits! Remember that time you played with us?"
Whitepaw was confused about what she said until the white apprentice remembered a not-too-distant memory about meeting the two young cats as kits. They played together, along with Snowkit, Amberkit, and Dewkit, who are still kits at this point. Whitepaw considered at that moment to do it again if she ever remembered.
"I remember. I loved that!" Whitepaw left the comment open ended, not knowing how to complete it.
"We had fun too." said both Lilypaw and Seedpaw
They had seemingly walked with the Gathering group across WindClan, and were heading towards ThunderClan territory. Whitepaw, after knowing how close to the camp they were, suddenly felt the aching in her paws and the sleepiness from staying up. She was glad she would at least get some sleep that night.
All the cats jumped over the stream separating WindClan and ThunderClan, and onto their territory. It was quiet, except for a few conversations from the cats. Whitepaw slowed her pace to be alone in the back of the crowd. Lilypaw and Seedpaw saw her leave them, and got the message to go off and talk to some other cat.
Finally, they made it back to camp. Each cat slipped past the thorn barrier and split up to go to their dens. Whitepaw padded to the apprentice den and practically collapsed in her nest. Within a matter of minutes, she passed out.
Whitepaw woke up in a dark place. She was standing in the middle of a forest with a sky that had no stars. Whitepaw knew immediately where she was. The Dark Forest? Is Mapleshade behind this? As if on queue, the ragged she-cat walked out of the shadow of the gloomy trees.
"I wasn't done with you." Mapleshade said, sounding irritated.
"Look, I didn't want be in your little plot. I still don't." hissed Whitepaw. But the apprentice's confidence against the ragged cat vanished. Since she wasn't outside of the forest, she was vulnerable. Even worse, she can get hurt.
"May I begin my deal with you without me wanting to rip your pathetic pelt off?" Mapleshade unsheathed her claws.
Whitepaw froze with fear, but that didn't stop her from feeling tough. "Fine. But don't expect me to want to do it. And I thought you already did something like this before."
"I have. But how else am I supposed to be able to do what I want, knowing who you are? I want revenge on those clans for defeating us."
Whitepaw was about to speak, but kept her jaws shut. The dark cat continued. "Since you know everything, and is an easy source for information, you would be most useful to me. Even though I don't have an army with me, I can still repeat what I was capable of many seasons ago when I had a RiverClan cat to look over."
The mention of seasons made Whitepaw realize how transparent looking the Dark Forest cat was. She commented, "Speaking of seasons of you being here, are you ever going to fade away?"
"In time, I will. But I will do whatever I can to have my final goal be complete." She continued explaining her plan. "I need a target for my vengeance. Tell me who is the most vulnerable. It doesn't even have to be from your clan."
Whitepaw interrupted an almost tempting thought to say someone from another clan, knowing it was a cruel thing to consider. She answered, "And what if I don't?"
"I will keep having you dream yourself here until you answer me. A punishment has been undecided if you refuse."
Whitepaw rolled her eyes in disbelief. "You can't do that every night. Wouldn't StarClan stop you?"
"They can. But I will keep trying to get information from you."
"This is crazy. I don't need you in my Warriors life. Why can't you bother someone else?" Whitepaw had a slight flash back into her Twoleg life as she said that phrase. She shook her head and ignored it.
"I could randomly pick a cat, but why not torture someone in the process?"
"Look, Mapleshade. I know what happened you a bunch of years ago, but that is no excuse to hurt others."
Mapleshade hissed. "If you know my past, then why be so harsh?"
"Because you still hurt others. And I read about it. You killed off an entire family, including Graystripe's mate. And you also killed off Spottedleaf. Do you expect me to be nice to you?"
Mapleshade tried to defend herself. "Shut up! Crookedstar broke my promise and Spottedleaf deserved it!"
Even if Mapleshade had her reasons, the defending ones Whitepaw had were better. "Crookedstar was mislead! And Spottedleaf never broke the code, and you had your own opinion about her saying she was fine without the one she loved!"
"If you really knew my story, then you should know I was driven out of my clan for falling in love when I see many cats these days get away with it! Shall I count them out?"
"May I just leave already?" Whitepaw blurted out. She was getting tired of arguing with the stubborn cat.
"Not until you tell me who is vulnerable."
"No." Whitepaw snapped.
"So be it." With those words, Mapleshade and the forest vanished into an ocean of black.
The apprentice woke up to sun shining onto her face and the memory of the dream faded away. Dawn had risen early that day. The she-cat lifted herself from her nest and sleepily walked outside. The clearing was alive with cats, as it is every morning.
Instead of grabbing a piece of fresh-kill, she decided to walk around the forest; unless, of course, Bramblestar told her to go on a patrol before she could even leave the camp. Whitepaw walked past every cat on her way to the entrance. She slide past the thorn barrier and made her way to her usual spot: the Sky Oak.
She walked along and began to have a conversation with herself, but this time she was speaking aloud. "Hm...what should I talk about? I could say something about the clan, but what?" She immediately found a topic. "When are they going to build a new den for the warriors? If I ever become a warrior, which would be near Bramblestar's Storm's place and time, I would like to be in a place where I can be pretty much alone."
Whitepaw stopped her self-conversation when she heard flapping wings above. She looked up and saw a robin perched in a nest. She immediately began to go up to the tree it was on and climb up it. She made as little noise possible as she then lifted herself onto the robin's branch. Her paws crept along the thick branch, unsheathed. Whitepaw took in a silent breath before taking a risky jump.
The apprentice's front paws successfully landed right onto the bird's back, but the branch started to shake a bit. Whitepaw froze in place until the branch steadied, which she then sighed in relief. She quickly nipped the bird's neck before it could have a chance to escape.
Once the bird had died, Whitepaw laid down on the thick branch. She kept hold of the bird while she rested comfortably stretched out. Her right leg and tail hung down as her left leg got a grip on the bark. Whitepaw just sat there for a while, making that her resting spot for the day.
She couldn't help but bounce her hanging leg up and down involuntarily, like she used to do during school. She laid there thinking about random things as she became instantly comfortable just doing that.
Anything to do today? She was about to wonder if Bramblestar is looking for her to do a patrol when she remembered she had to meet with him. Oh, mouse-dung! I completely forgot! Whitepaw took the bird with her mouth and carried it down the tree. She landed safely on the ground and began to walk back to camp.
When she got to camp, she first went to the fresh-kill pile to deposit her one catch. When she did, she placed the bird down onto it and began to look around for Bramblestar, only to find him standing behind her.
She turned around to face him. "Sorry! I completely forgot!" Whitepaw said, defending her short absence.
"It's alright. Now that your here, I can tell you your consequence. But first I want to talk with you." Bramblestar swished his tail to signal Whitepaw to follow.
Not again..., Whitepaw thought. She reluctantly followed her leader back out into the forest.
When they had just passed the throne barrier, Bramblestar spoke. "Now, I don't want you to run off and do something like that again. I have decided that you will be confined to the camp for a quarter moon, and you will miss the next two Gatherings."
The apprentice's first thoughts were, Make me miss the next three! I don't care about Gatherings! Whitepaw was horrified that she would be stuck in camp for an entire week. She would be hearing the talking of cats and not get any peace and quiet. The bright side is that she would probably be alone in the apprentice den most of the time, maybe.
"A quarter moon...stuck in camp...with cats!" cried Whitepaw.
"Don't worry, it's not the worst thing possible. I can't have you running off and showing loyalty elsewhere. You are in the clans and need to get used to it."
Like I can get used to change! You are all lucky I was able to keep quiet and not get bothered by living outdoors. Speaking of me being able to handle the change of this place, maybe I was able to get used to being here, when I first got here, by the help of being a cat. I will never know...
Whitepaw said, "I know. But it was tempting to see what humans were doing. I keep update with a lot of things. Oh, wait!" She then realized something. "I know this never happened before, but..." She trailed off, thinking the rest of her sentence instead of saying it out loud.
"What do you mean?" inquired Bramblestar.
"Nothing." Whitepaw thought of an idea of how not going to the Gathering would it better for her sake. She then dared to say, "How about I miss the next three Gatherings?"
"Pardon?" Bramblestar's head tilted to one side in confusion.
"Can I miss the next three Gatherings? Instead of having me being confined to camp, I just not go to Gatherings." Whitepaw hoped he agreed.
"You're asking me for a different punishment?" The leader seemed confused, but went along with it anyway. "Very well. You will not go to the next three Gatherings."
"Thanks!" Whitepaw smiled slightly.
Though she never mentioned it to anyone before, the Gatherings were a tad too loud for her. She just some how didn't get bothered by it yet to the point where she would feel...well...she couldn't exactly describe it.
"Before you get back to camp, and be placed on a hunting patrol," Bramblestar said. Whitepaw's ears flattened for a second in annoyance before lifting them up again. The leader continued. "I wanted to ask how you've been doing. I just wanted to check up on you now that I have the chance."
"I'm fine."
"Any friends?"
"Blossomfall, Cherrypaw, and Molepaw. And I could say Lilypaw and Seedpaw are only my acquaintances, since we aren't officially friends yet."
"But you talk to them. Surely they are your friends." inquired Bramblestar.
"My definition of acquaintances is that you talk to them, and know them, but don't really hang out with them much. So, yeah."
Bramblestar switched to a different topic. "Have you been okay? Any problems?"
"No." Whitepaw looked away from the tom, noticing they had circled around as they walked and were being led back to camp.
The tabby looked ahead and said, "Looks like we're back at camp. You can join the patrol consisting of Whitewing, Graystripe, and Brackenfur." He then walked past Whitepaw and entered the camp. Whitepaw followed after and looked for the patrol.
Mapleshade has returned! Since I introduced her in the beginning, she needed to come back.
I guess it's no more Gatherings for Whitepaw for three moons. More peace and quiet for her!
Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows! Bye!