Chapter Nineteen
"Blackpaw." Blackpaw spun around to see Iceheart standing behind her.
"Iceheart!" Blackpaw exclaimed excitedly. "You haven't visited me for a few days. Where were you?"
"Sorry, I was with some of my friends. They're eager to meet you."
"Okay. Where are they?"
"They're in the forest a little way. Do you want to see them now?"
"Sure."
"Great. Come on." Iceheart turned and led Blackpaw into the trees. As soon as they entered the forest, Blackpaw noticed, the light grew very dim and sickly looking. The trees were bare and skeletal and the ground was moist and slightly sticky underpaw. Blackpaw thought it seemed familiar, like she'd heard about it somewhere, but she couldn't place it so she pushed the thought from her mind.
A few foxlengths in Blackpaw and Iceheart came out into a smaller clearing where two cats were talking. One of them was a long-furred, silvery-white tomcat with blue eyes and the other was a thick-furred, tortoiseshell and white she-cat with orange eyes. They looked up as Iceheart approached, Blackpaw following close behind.
"So, is this Blackpaw?" The silver-furred tom asked, his expression open and welcoming.
"Yes." Iceheart answered. Then he turned to address Blackpaw. "Blackpaw, this is Cloudfrost" He gestured with his tail to the silvery tom. "And Mapleshade." He gestured to the tortoiseshell and white she-cat. On hearing Mapleshade's name Blackpaw again got the feeling that she should recognize it but the feeling slipped away as she tried to pursue it.
"Hello." Blackpaw greeted them.
"It's nice to finally meet you." Mapleshade responded. Her voice was gravelly and hoarse but friendly. "Iceheart has been raving about you for the past few days."
Iceheart turned away, seemingly embarrassed. "She has been very kind, talking to me and allowing me to know her thoughts and feelings." Blackpaw was surprised. Most people she knew got annoyed when she spoke to them too long but apparently Iceheart really liked it.
"Tell me, do you know how to fight?" Cloudfrost asked curiously.
"Not very well. At first Badgerswipe, my mentor, was needed to hunt alone all the time and now that she's finally begun to teach me, she's only teaching me how to hunt."
"Would you like us to teach you?"
"Would you?" Blackpaw asked, surprised.
"Of course. If you want to learn."
"Thank you. I'd love to learn." Blackpaw's tail shot up in excitement.
"Okay, we'll begin with the basics."
By the time Iceheart decided that Blackpaw had trained enough for that night, Blackpaw was feeling battered and worn even though they hadn't used claws. She slept deeply for the remainder of the night and was still weary when Shadowpaw woke her up the next morning for more hunting practice. Blackpaw tried to wake up more thoroughly as Shadowpaw woke the other apprentices up. Once everyone in the den was awake, Shadowpaw led them out into the clearing where the natural cats were waiting.
"Will one of you bring the elders some breakfast? Then we'll go out to train." Tornadoclaw requested. After a moment Blackpaw decided she would, said "'Kay" and retrieved two voles and a mouse that the dawn patrol had brought back. The elders were still asleep when Blackpaw arrived so she left the prey next to Willowfire's mattress and returned to the natural cats and other apprentices.
"About time." Crimsonclaw complained. "Let's go." Without waiting for a response Crimsonclaw ran out of camp, leaving the others to follow behind as he did most every day. Blackpaw followed the other apprentices as they streamed out of camp, falling behind as she stumbled over her weary paws. She caught up with the others as they reached the training hollow.
"You've all done really well at hunting alone but not all catches can be made by only one cat. Today we're going to show you how to hunt in pairs. Crimsonclaw will be a rabbit and Moonleap and Badgerswipe are going to hunt him." Snowlion explained. At Snowlion's signal, Crimsonclaw sniffed at a clump of grass and Badgerswipe and Moonleap moved downwind of him. Moonleap moved silently over to stand to the right of Crimsonclaw as Badgerswipe moved over to the left. With a sudden leap, Badgerswipe landed noisily beside Crimsonclaw. Crimsonclaw turned and fled to his right and Moonleap leaped on him and pinned him down.
"Now if you're hunting you'd want to go straight for the throat or the rabbit will squeal and frighten off all the other prey in the area." Tornadoclaw added. "We thought you should practice for a little while in groups of three then we send you out in pairs and whichever group catches something and brings it back here first gets first pick of the fresh-kill pile."
"Shadowpaw and Firepaw will be practicing with Badgerswipe, Blackpaw and Lightpaw will practice with Tornadoclaw, Eaglepaw and Minnowpaw with Moonleap, and Dawnpaw and Hawkpaw with Crimsonclaw. I'll be sitting out so I can see if someone is doing something wrong." Snowlion decided. All the cats got into their groups and Snowlion jumped onto a low branch nearby to watch.
"Okay, I'm going to be the rabbit. Blackpaw, I want you to be the distraction so that Lightpaw can catch me. Then you two can switch positions." Blackpaw and Lightpaw nodded and Tornadoclaw got into place with her back to the apprentices. Blackpaw crouched and moved over to Tornadoclaw's left side as Lightpaw began to slide quietly to her right. Blackpaw jumped up suddenly and Tornadoclaw ran to her right. Lightpaw leapt forward powerfully but he was still too far away to reach Tornadoclaw before she got past him.
"That was a good jump Lightpaw." Tornadoclaw commented as she returned. "Blackpaw, you need to wait a little longer before moving."
"I know." Blackpaw snapped, annoyed at the advice. Tornadoclaw just looked at Blackpaw for a long moment until Blackpaw began feeling uncomfortable and looked away. Then Tornadoclaw nodded and continued speaking.
"We'll try again with Blackpaw as the distraction before changing positions." The three of them practiced a while longer before Tornadoclaw released Blackpaw and Lightpaw to try hunting for real.
Tornadoclaw led the two apprentices back to camp in a much better mood than they had during training. Blackpaw and Lightpaw each carried a squirrel and Lightpaw had two mice with it while Blackpaw clutched a sparrow. Tornadoclaw had a large rabbit and another mouse.
However, when they entered camp Blackpaw saw immediately that something was wrong. Silverfire, Wolffang, Snaketail, Frostpelt, and Hazelwood were gathered around something that had been placed at the base of the meeting-tree. The rest of the clan stayed a little further away, watching solemnly. Tornadoclaw made a quiet shocked noise, dropped the prey she was holding, and ran to join the small group in the center of camp. Moonleap walked over and comfortingly licked Tornadoclaw's ear.
When Wolffang and Snaketail moved to make room for Tornadoclaw and Moonleap, Blackpaw caught a glimpse of short, gray fur and she abruptly knew what was going on. With Lightpaw's help, Blackpaw moved the prey they'd caught, plus what Tornadoclaw had dropped to the food pile before joining the other apprentices in front of their den. After they had all waited in silence for a while, Rosethorn stood and began to speak.
"Before I found Leafclan I had traveled for several months. During that time I met several different cats, after I changed. One of the cats was a gray tomcat who had previously lived with a bunch of other cats before he became a kittypet. He told me a little about the life he left while he showed me through the city he was living in. When a cat died in his clowder, each one of them would go up and say something they liked or admired about the dead cat, then the cat's closest friends and family would sit next to the body for the remainder of the night. The next morning, the oldest cats and maybe some of the ones that sat with the dead cat would go to bury the body. I think we should do this for Willowfire." Brighttalon went up to Willowfire's corpse before anyone could agree or disagree with Rosethorn's idea and brushed Willowfire's fur with his nose before speaking.
"I didn't know Willowfire very well. I only met her a few times as a human and I didn't like her. But here, as a cat, I have known her to give up food to her clanmates even though it meant going hungry herself."
Hazelwood stood up next. "And after sharing a den with Frostpelt and I for a few weeks, Willowfire proved to be selfless in sharing her mattress with the two of us. She had every right to keep it to herself and neither Frostpelt nor I made a comment implying we wanted her mattress so it was of her own will that she offered to share it." One by one, all the members of Leafclan stood by Willowfire's body and made some comment about her. After everyone had had a say, most of them returned to their dens to sleep. Only Silverfire, Wolffang, Tornadoclaw, and Snaketail stayed by Willowfire's side until sunrise.