A/N: Small warning, if you're sensitive to kids being abused by their parents, then I'd just be cautious around this chapter...
Chapter 11:
By the next day, the rain had cleared and everyone was back out doing patrols. Much to her annoyance, Stormpaw had been selected to go on the dawn patrol with Lionpelt, Ivyheart, Clawnose and Flamepaw. The were to patrol along the Pineclan border, which meant trekking across a very muddy and damp forest.
"Hurry up, Stormpaw!" Called Lionpelt, "we're about to leave!"
"Coming!" She yelled back, finishing up the last of her fresh kill.
She got to her paws and trotted towards the other four cats. Clawnose gave a little nod and led the patrol out of camp. The forest was beginning to look different today; instead of lush green leaves blocking out the light, yellow and red colours were scattered along the trees and their branches. On the floor below lay lots of brown, crunchy leaves that made a loud noise when she stepped on them.
"Looks like Leaf-fall is coming," remarked Lionpelt to Clawnose.
"Well, we have had a long green-leaf," The patrol leader responded, "it was bound to come."
"Hopefully a long green-leaf doesn't mean a long leaf-bare," Ivyheart joined in, "that's the last thing we need right now."
Stormpaw had been born in the latter moon of leaf-bare, so she could hardly remember it at all. She could remember Ivyheart warning them to be careful of the cold and Flamepaw, back when she was Flamekit, telling her and Shadowpaw about all the snow that had covered the forest.
But Leaf-fall was a completely new season to her, why did it make the leaves go different colours and fall off? It was all a bit weird to her.
Suddenly, a very poignant scent hit her nose.
"Ugh," she stuck out her tongue, "I can smell Pineclan already!"
"Hmm," hummed Lionpelt in response, "me too, but why is it so deep in our territory? The wind isn't even that strong today."
Clawnose flicked his tail and the patrol stopped whilst he sniffed the air.
"It's coming from not too far away," Clawnose said, "we're nearing the border anyway, we'll check it out."
And by the time they had reached the border properly, the scent was almost overwhelming as it mixed with the scent of the actual border. Stormpaw desperately sniffed the air to see where the intruding scent was coming from but Flamepaw got it first.
"Here!" Said the dark grey she-cat, "this bush stinks of them!"
Stormpaw bounded up to her and took a sniff of the bush before recoiling in disgust. She was right, it really did stink of Pineclan.
"They're pushing it," growled Clawnose, "they think that because we're at war with them that they can invade our territory whenever they like."
"I'll tear their fur off," remarked Ivyheart, flexing her claws.
"They're just trying to provoke us," Lionpelt responded calmly, "we'll just report it to Brackenstar and see what he does about it."
"Yes," Clawnose sighed, "that would be for the best."
They headed down towards the border, their ears pricked for any other signs of Pineclan cats on the wrong side of the border. Luckily, they didn't come across anything until they reached the actual border and lay down their scent marks.
A Pineclan patrol consisting of around four cats approached them from their territory, emerging from the pine as though they were prepared to invade. Stormpaw vaguely recognised Darkspots and another cat she'd seen whilst in Pineclan camp. Scarletclaw was there too, looking thoroughly fed up.
Unfortunately for Stormpaw, Duskpelt seemed to be leading it.
The tabby brown tom looked a lot more like Shadowpaw now that she thought about it, though, he didn't have his eyes. Her fur bristled slightly, looking at the tom.
"Duskpelt," greeted Clawnose.
"Clawnose," the Pineclan deputy responded, eyeing each cat in the patrol one by one.
Stormpaw felt Ivyheart tense beside her.
Duskpelt's eyes seemed to rest on both Stormpaw and Ivyheart, to which the apprentice gave quite a defiant glare back.
"Over in our territory, we found a bush covered in Pineclan scent, care to explain?" Growled Clawnose.
The deputy flicked an ear, "I don't know what you speak of, maybe the wind blew over some of our scents into your territory."
The Pineclan cats seemed to snigger at this.
"There's little wind today, Duskpelt," Clawnose clawed the floor impatiently, "I don't see how it could've gotten so deep into our territory."
Scarletclaw butted in, "you dare accuse us something we didn't do?"
Ivyheart snorted, "we have proof, that bush reeks of your scents."
"Scarletclaw," scolded Duskpelt, "there's no need to be so aggressive, it's not their fault they were born into Lightningclan."
"There's nothing wrong with being born in Lightningclan!" Stormpaw flattened her ears.
"Stormpaw," Lionpelt said warningly as he saw the glare that Duskpelt was giving her. "We're not accusing you of anything, we just want if you've been on our territory."
"Well," Darkspots sighed, "what do we do about this?"
'Why does every Pineclan act like they own the lake?' Wondered Stormpaw.
"We'll tell them the truth," Duskpelt flicked his ears, "yes we did go onto your territory."
Clawnose's fur stood on end, "why?" He hissed.
"Well, we've been thinking of moving the border back slightly… Considering how you Lightningclan cats are so worried that we mistreat our clanmates, surely you'll allow us to have a bit more territory to feed them with."
Lionpelt was angry now, "watch your words, Duskpelt, we outnumber you."
Duskpelt scanned the patrol before flicking his tail, "you may outnumber us, but we certainly beat you when it comes to power."
Clawnose flattened his ears, "Lightningclan, attack!"
"Pineclan, attack!"
Instantly, the two patrols leapt at one another as Stormpaw found herself crashing straight into Darkspots, knocking him off his paws. Flamepaw was at her side, helping her pin down the struggling tom. He was strong, though, pushing himself off the ground, sending both apprentices flying backwards. Flamepaw dug her claws into the ground to stop herself from falling whilst Stormpaw landed heavily on her shoulder.
She winced, feeling herself growing increasingly more frustrated.
'If you can control your emotions, then you can control your power.' She remembered what Ace had told her.
She got to her paws, attempting to calm herself down, the last thing she wanted right now was to accidentally activate her powers.
Darkspots was sending swipes at Flamepaw who was slowly being backed more and more into Pineclan territory. Stormpaw crouched and then suddenly leapt up at the rival warrior, landing solidly on his back. She dug her claws into his flank to steady herself as he jumped around, trying to get her off. Flamepaw, now having the advantage, leapt upwards and clawed Darkspots' face, making him yowl in pain. Stormpaw dug her claws in, pressing all of her weight down on him to force him over.
To her surprise, he began to force himself to fall to the side. She leapt off just time to see him roll onto his back, he was trying to crush her. But now his belly was exposed and she went to leap on top of it when something slammed her to the floor.
She found herself pinned to the floor by her back. She tried to wriggle free but the cat holding her seemed to predict this happening so their hold tightened.
She looked around to see Ivyheart and Scarletclaw fighting each other whilst Lionpelt was dominating another Pineclan cat. Flamepaw was still fighting Darkspots when Clawnose hobbled over to her and leapt on the warrior she was battling.
"Go! Get back up!" He called, "before they do!"
Flamepaw nodded and ran straight back into Lightningclan territory.
All the other three warriors were fighting which only meant one thing, it was Duskpelt pinning her down.
"Nice to know you finally realised," he growled as though he could read her mind.
"Get off of me," she said, trying to pull herself away.
The Pineclan deputy ignored her and raised his head. Stormpaw didn't see what he did but she guessed that he had made a gesture with his tail as more Pineclan warriors came out from the forest, surrounding the remaining Lightningclan cats.
At that moments, Stormpaw pulled herself out of Duskpelt's grip and accidently backed into Lionpelt who was swiping at another warrior.
Her fur was bristling and her back was arched as she stared up at Duskpelt whose tall frame towered above hers. She looked from side to side to see the rest of the patrol being overwhelmed by the newer warriors that had shown up to fight.
Frowning, Stormpaw unsheathed her claws again and leapt up at the deputy who batted her out of the way. Thinking quickly, she attempted to swipe at his belly but he managed to predict that move too. How did he always seem to know what she was going to do next? SHe was never gonna get a good hit on him at this rate.
'Please come back with reinforcements soon, Flamepaw!' She prayed silently.
"Reinforcements?" Repeated Duskpelt, "I better get a move on then."
Stormpaw stumbled backwards, realisation slowly dawning on her.
"Took you long enough," her father smirked, "I thought my kit would be smarter than that."
"I'm not your kit!" She growled, "I'm Ivyheart's kit, I don't need a father."
Duskpelt flicked his ears, "so loyal to your mother… I wonder if your brother would be the same…"
At the mention of Shadowpaw, Stormpaw found herself growing angrier, how dare he act like they should be loyal to him after all he's done.
"And I'd avoid that rogue if I were you," he warned, "he doesn't seem trustworthy."
"Get out of my head!" She hissed at him.
"Your mind is completely open to me, I can do whatever I want."
"If you can read my mind then why did you let me escape from Pineclan camp?"
Duskpelt flicked his ears, "I was foolish, I thought you were just a mouse-brained apprentice but I was wrong… If I'd only known there was a mole in camp… In fact, I'll deal with that traitorous runt when I get back."
'Starlingkit!' Realisation shot through her.
Without thinking, she jumped up and raked a claw straight across his face.
"I'd rather die then let you hurt anyone else!"
Duskpelt fixed on her gaze, "so be it!"
A/N: We are nearing the end of book one and it will end with a bang! Also, I haven't updated this as quickly as I wanted to so sorry for that.
Anyway, I'm not too happy with how this chapter came out, I got a bit of a writer's block with some of the dialogue but I'm good now.
I'm going on holiday until next Friday but I reckon I'll still be able to update so no worries there.
Hope you enjoyed