Back to our regular schedule! As soon as I finish this chapter, I'll be heading home to see my grandparents! I dyed my hair pink since the last time they saw me and I can't wait for the reactions lmaooo
DragonoftheStars1429: I agree with you on the last life being special thing! I remember tiny sixth grade me crying when I read The Darkest Hour for the first time and Bluestar gave Firestar his final life. It was so beautiful, and I've always wanted to emulate that for myself! Thanks so much :D
Hollyshade: Same here! I'm already planning out specific scenes for the sequel and I hope I can make it even better than this one! I can confirm here that Rainstar is DEFINITELY not opposed to kits ;D
FreeEcho: Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked the chapter :D
SkiesOfAmethyst: Haha, surprise chapters are always the best! XD Thanks so much!
Shadowwolf1997: I definitely see the similarities between Crowfeather and Sharpclaw! Maybe you're onto something ;)
BlueCat217: Thanks so much! No worries if you don't review every chapter, I love every single review I get from you! :D
SoniJay: Thanks! I definitely couldn't see Sunblaze suddenly becoming a wise old sage just because he went to StarClan, so I wanted him to keep his attitude, haha!
Fair warning! This upcoming chapter has some graphic descriptions and might make you sad. T.T I've been rewatching Game of Thrones and it seems fitting that this chapter would release around that time, haha!
Chapter 24: Victims of Innocence
"I, Squirrelstar, leader of StormClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. She-"
"Squirrelkit, get down from there at once!" hissed Crowfeather, glaring up at his daughter from where she stood on the Highrock. Ashkit, her sister, flinched at her father's angry tone from where she sat at the base of the rock, but Squirrelkit didn't quaver.
So like my sister, Leafpool thought.
"Let her have her fun," meowed Rainstar, glancing up at the brown tabby kit with a purr of amusement. "Kits don't stay kits forever."
"Thank StarClan for that," growled Crowfeather irritably.
"Don't be so grumpy!" Hollyleaf shouldered her father heartily. "You act more like an old cat every day!"
"Is that an order, Clan deputy?" Crowfeather asked teasingly.
"It could be." There was a steely look in Hollyleaf's bright green eyes. Leafpool figured it was to hide the streak of insecurity their daughter was going through in the moons since her deputy ceremony. Her natural ambition clashed with her guilt that her father, a warrior of legendary status within the Clan, was passed over in favor of her, a relatively inexperienced warrior in comparison.
But Hollyleaf turned out to be a natural choice, a fact that Crowfeather was the first to voice. Where her brothers shone through their skills in battle, brains for medicine, and fierce loyalty, their only sister had such a mind for tactics and organization that it rivaled any cat from the lakeside Clans. She and Rainstar had a strong chemistry as a bonus, and it made Leafpool's heart swell to know that her Clan had no end to its strong leadership.
"Hey! I want to become an apprentice already!" yowled Squirrelkit, scrabbling down ungracefully from the Highrock. "If you keep this up, Falconkit and Batkit and Starkit will become apprentices before me!"
"Fawnstep's kits are two moons old," Leafpool reminded her, smoothing down a tuft of fur that was sticking up between Squirrelkit's ears. "It's Rainstar's decision whether or not to make you apprentices. You're not acting like an apprentice," she added sternly.
Squirrelkit narrowed her emerald-colored eyes. "Graypaw doesn't act like an apprentice! He still throws leaves on Blazepaw's head when she's asleep!"
"That's because he acts too much like his father!" snorted Rainstar, swiping her tongue over her muzzle to clear away the feathers stuck to her whiskers. "I think he's bringing me those stale old thrushes on purpose."
Ashkit's liquid blue eyes widened in concern. "You won't keep us from becoming apprentices, will you?" she asked the Clan leader fearfully.
Rainstar purred. "Of course not. I'll hold your ceremony right now."
Both kits shrieked, and then with one mind, composed themselves and sat as dignified as possible.
Rainstar bounded atop the Highrock and called out the familiar words. Before long, the Clan began to gravitate towards the center of the camp. Ravenwing ducked out of the nursery; pride lit the new father's eyes. Even if Fawnstep hadn't told Leafpool who the father of her kits was, she would have guessed right after they were born; Falconkit looked almost exactly like Ravenwing, though he had a splash of his mother's creamy fur on his underbelly. Batkit and Starkit took more after their mother with their light brown and cream pelts. It kept recurring to Leafpool that those kits were essentially half-ThunderClan; they were almost her kin, in a way.
Stormtail and Breezepelt emerged together from the warrior's den, talking together comfortably. Leafpool noticed that the younger warriors had been together a lot recently; despite her misgivings about Stormtail's mentoring, Leafpool couldn't help but purr every time she saw the two of them together.
Hollyleaf went to take her usual place at the foot of the Highrock, and Jayfeather soon joined her. Leafpool found Squirrelkit and Ashkit amongst the rabble and began to smooth down their coats. "Be good and listen to your mentors," meowed Leafpool between licks.
Ashkit nodded obediently as she always did, but Squirrelkit tried to squirm away, hissing, "I know! I know! Would you quit it?!"
Leafpool purred as she pulled away from her two daughters. They acted as differently as night and day, but the bond they shared was irreplaceable, as though they were two parts of a whole.
They're exactly like how Squirrelflight and I used to be.
The elation that was growing beneath Leafpool's pelt as her two youngest children stepped up to be made apprentices died slightly as she thought of her ThunderClan sister. How was Squirrelflight now? Were she and Brambleclaw getting along? Had they had any kits of their own yet? Had Squirrelflight gotten an apprentice already?
I miss her. Leafpool stared in the general direction of the lake she and Crowfeather had left behind. If she really concentrated, she could swear that she felt the lake breeze stir her whiskers and dampen the fur on her muzzle. Maybe I'll go and visit someday soon.
"Squirrelkit and Ashkit, step forward."
Leafpool shook herself and stared back up at the Highrock, where the two kits were just stepping up to Rainstar. She certainly wasn't going to miss this ceremony by reminiscing about old times like an elder!
"Ashkit."
Leafpool's dark gray kit padded up to Rainstar as she bounded down from the Highrock, quivering slightly from nerves. She glanced back nervously at Leafpool, her blue eyes huge, but when Leafpool gave her a nod, she stopped trembling and stared back up at Rainstar.
"From this day, until you receive your warrior name, you will be Ashpaw," Rainstar announced. The Clan leader looked up, found the cat she was looking for, and then meowed, "Mossflower!"
Blinking her wide green eyes in surprise, the gray warrior stepped forward and faced her daughter.
"You have much to teach an apprentice," continued Rainstar. "You will be mentor to Ashpaw. Pass on everything you know to her and make her as good a warrior as you have been all these moons."
Mossflower nodded formally and touched noses with her new apprentice, a lighthearted look in her eyes. "You're doing fine," the older she-cat whispered to Ashpaw as they drew away.
Rainstar shifted her gaze to Squirrelkit, who was beginning to fidget in an agitated sort of way. "And Squirrelkit, terror of StormClan." Rainstar let out a purr of amusement. "From this moment you will be known as Squirrelpaw. By taking you on as my apprentice, I endanger not only my own life, but my sanity as well."
An amused purr floated through the crowd. Ashpaw twitched in embarrassment, but Squirrelpaw met Rainstar's gaze with level green eyes; she certainly wasn't one to be intimidated.
"Ashpaw! Squirrelpaw! Ashpaw! Squirrelpaw!" the Clan yowled, with the loudest voices belonging to their new denmates, Sunpaw, Blazepaw, and Graypaw.
"Look at all those rogues," snickered Crowfeather from where he sat by Leafpool's side. "We'll be trembling in our sleep from now on!"
"What sleep?" asked Leafpool dryly.
"Leafpool!" called Rainstar.
"Yes?" said Leafpool turning to see the Clan leader trotting up with Squirrelpaw at her side. Mossflower and Ashpaw followed.
"Mossflower and I are taking our apprentices to explore the territory," Rainstar meowed. "Would you care to join us?"
"Certainly," meowed Leafpool.
"Mind if I join?" asked Crowfeather. "Hollyleaf is taking Sunpaw with her, so I've nothing to do."
"Of course." Rainstar turned to Squirrelpaw, who was tearing up the springy grass beneath her claws. "Are you hungry?"
The apprentice shook her head, her green eyes excited.
"Then let's go."
Squirrelpaw and Ashpaw gaped at the surrounding woods with open mouths; never before had they been in the forest, though Squirrelpaw did her very best as a kit to sneak out before her time.
"You had best close your mouths before you start catching flies," teased Mossflower.
Ashpaw immediately clamped hers shut.
"It's awfully cold, even for the end of leaf-fall," commented Leafpool with a sneeze. "All the herbs will be dying before much longer."
"Should we get some?" asked Ashpaw with round, concerned eyes.
"We have plenty," Leafpool reassured her daughter.
"The forest is so pretty!" meowed Squirrelpaw loudly. "I wish I really was a squirrel, so I could climb all the way to the top branches of all these trees!"
"Feel free to," invited Rainstar. "I'll leave it up to Leafpool whether or not to try and piece you back together if you fall."
Squirrelpaw frowned, but she didn't comment further. Suddenly, she froze, her tabby fur standing on end. "Did you hear that?" she hissed.
"Hear what?" asked Mossflower.
Rainstar waved her tail for silence. As Leafpool listened, surely enough, she heard a high-pitched wail of distress.
"What was that?" gasped Ashpaw.
Squirrelpaw tore off into the undergrowth, her paws kicking up dying autumn leaves.
"Squirrelpaw! Get back here at once!" hissed Rainstar.
Her apprentice didn't hear her.
Spitting something beneath her breath, Rainstar bounded after her, Crowfeather in hot pursuit.
Leafpool kinked her tail and gestured Mossflower and Ashpaw to follow.
The patrol followed Squirrelpaw's lead until they came to the very edge of StormClan territory. Then, the brown tabby apprentice came to an abrupt halt. The last thing Leafpool expected came out of Squirrelpaw's mouth. "Kits!
"Kits?" Leafpool bounded forward, the rest of the patrol following.
Surely enough, nestled beneath a bramble bush were three kits. They were so tiny that they could pass for newborns, though the thickness of their fur told Leafpool that they at least had to be several days old.
"What in StarClan are they doing here all on their own?" gasped Crowfeather. Squirrelpaw, for once, was speechless, staring at the kits with huge green eyes.
Rainstar sniffed at the kits as they tried to squirm away from the newcomers. "Rogue," she confirmed. "Their mother's milk scent is there, but it's stale. I'm guessing they've been alone for at least two days."
"Could she have abandoned them?" asked Ashpaw, her voice quivering slightly.
Mossflower shook her head. "No mother would ever abandon her kits."
Rainstar turned to Crowfeather. "Take Squirrelpaw with you and scan the area. See if their mother is hanging around. I doubt it, but we can't take the kits back to camp if their mother is looking for them."
Crowfeather nodded. "Come on, Squirrelpaw." He kinked his tail, and he bounded off with his daughter in pursuit.
Leafpool started to check over the kits. Their fur was matted and filled with bramble thorns, and they squealed loudly as though in pain. They must have been hungry if they hadn't been fed in two days. "Ashpaw, take one of the kits and start removing the thorns from its pelt. Be very gentle; try not to spear any of them."
"Okay," mewed Ashpaw. She started to paw at the thorns tangling the pelt of a dark gray tom kit.
Mossflower started to work on the white she-kit, and Leafpool turned her attention to the smallest of the three, a golden-brown she-kit with white paws. Senseless green eyes blinked up at Leafpool as she worked. She wasn't sure if they were too young or too terrified to speak.
"Leafpool."
Crowfeather's voice was very low.
Leafpool turned around and glanced at her mate. She was shocked by the depths of sick horror in his blue eyes. "Come and take a look at this."
Leafpool, mystified, left the she-kit to Rainstar and followed her mate into the undergrowth.
Several fox-lengths away, the terrible smell of death nearly bowled Leafpool over. Crowfeather's face was grim as he led her even close to the rank stench.
Squirrelpaw was leaning against an oak tree, her whiskers twitching violently as though she were about to retch. When Leafpool looked behind the oak tree and saw it for herself, she almost did.
At first glance, one wouldn't be able to tell what it was that lay on the gnarled roots of the ancient tree. Something bloody. Something twisted. It was only the very faint scent that clung to it that identified the mess as what used to be a cat. The fur was so stained by blood that there was no way to identify what color it had been.
"A she-cat," meowed Crowfeather quietly. "A rogue she-cat. She has the scent of milk on her. You could almost miss it."
"Oh, StarClan, no…" mouthed Leafpool, the taste of sick in her mouth more desirable than the terrible scene before her.
The mother of those three kits had died a terrible death. She had been mauled to death and torn almost literally to shreds. Leafpool could see a single dark blue eye on what used to be a face, and the stark terror frozen forever inside them would never leave her memory until her dying days.
"We need to bury her," meowed Crowfeather. He turned to Squirrelpaw, who was still doing her best not to look at the dead cat. "Go to Rainstar and tell her that the mother is dead."
"Do you need help?" Squirrelpaw mewed tightly, looking sick.
"We'll be fine." Crowfeather flicked his daughter's ear with his tail. "Go on now. Help them carry the kits back to camp. Leafpool and I will join you soon."
"Okay," mewed Squirrelpaw, tottering off.
"I wish she hadn't had to have seen that," meowed Leafpool weakly after she was gone.
Crowfeather started scraping a hole in the earth. "She's strong enough to overcome it. No cat should have had to see that."
"I've never seen wounds like that before," meowed Leafpool, helping him dig.
"Yes, you have." Crowfeather's voice dropped to a whisper.
Leafpool narrowed her eyes. "When?"
Crowfeather looked back at the ugly scar that parted the fur on his back leg, the one he received that long ago day back at Swiftstep's barn. "The day you treated my wound. Whatever attacked me then was what killed this cat. I'm certain of it."
Leafpool looked at the scar, then down at the corpse, and a long shudder passed through her like the cold north wind.
Squirrelpaw awoke to see blue eyes peering into hers. "I'm still sleeping, Ashkit," she moaned, and she attempted to push the cat away. Much to her surprise, the cat she pushed was much heavier than her sister. Blinking up at the cat, Squirrelpaw realized with a start that it was Rainstar's eyes she had been looking into, not Ashpaw's.
"Wake up, Squirrelpaw," mewed Rainstar. "You're not a kit anymore. We have training to do!"
"Training schmaining. I'm going back to sleep." Squirrelpaw rolled over and closed her eyes.
Then Squirrelpaw found her face in the dirt, and for once, she was unable to speak.
"Are you done complaining?" asked Rainstar sweetly, removing her paw from Squirrelpaw's head long enough to allow the apprentice to speak.
"Yes," murmured Squirrelpaw, spitting out a mouthful of grit.
"Great!" Rainstar chirped. "Get you something to eat, and then we're going hunting!"
All of Squirrelpaw's exhaustion dropped off of her like a tuft of shed fur. "All right!"
"You're doing great for your first time, but you need to flatten yourself a little closer to the ground. The prey will see you if you prowl at them with your rump in the air like a duck's," meowed Rainstar.
Squirrelpaw flattened herself to the ground and drew herself forward with slow, silent pawsteps.
"Raise your back up slightly; if your fur brushes the ground, you'll be heard," meowed Rainstar.
Squirrelpaw let out a growl of frustration and arched her back in annoyance.
"Prey doesn't sit in the fresh-kill pile and wait for you to eat it," growled Rainstar, giving Squirrelpaw a severe look. "All I'm saying is that you need to keep yourself as flat to the ground as you can without your belly fur brushing it."
Squirrelpaw sat up abruptly. "Why don't you do it then?!" she snapped.
Rainstar let out an exasperated noise and cracked open her mouth, drawing in the scents of the forest. "There," she whispered, flattening herself so closely to the ground that she looked like a light gray shadow. Squirrelpaw followed her gaze and saw a sparrow pecking at the earth amongst the roots of an old birch.
To her annoyance, Squirrelpaw watched Rainstar stalk up to the bird and catch it flawlessly and gracefully, killing it before it had enough time to feel pain. Rainstar lifted her head, the sparrow dangling from her jaws and a pointed gleam in her blue eyes. She dropped the sparrow and mewed, "I'm not such a stupid prattler after all, am I?"
Squirrelpaw huffed and looked away, her whiskers fluttering.
"Would you like some?" offered Rainstar, pushing the bird towards her with a paw.
Squirrelpaw looked at the fresh-kill from the corner of her eye, longing rising up in her throat. She'd never tasted sparrow before. But her pride made her shake her head and turn away. "I can catch my own prey."
"Whatever you say." Rainstar settled down and began to eat.
Growling in annoyance, Squirrelpaw tasted the air. Vole! Squirrelpaw would show her.
Flattening herself to the ground, she allowed her belly fur to whisk against the earth and she drew herself towards her prey. Before she got too much closer, however, the vole stiffened and raised its head.
Fox dung! It heard me! Squirrelpaw let out a growl of frustration and launched herself at her prey. But the vole scampered away into its bolt hole, and Squirrelpaw caught nothing but grass beneath her paws.
She glanced back at Rainstar, expecting there to be smugness in her gaze, but her mentor's eyes were devoid of emotion. "Try again," she urged her, licking the last scraps of sparrow from her muzzle.
Squirrelpaw tasted the air again. To her surprise, the scent of squirrel rolled against the roof of her mouth. There's a lot of prey running about for this to be leaf-fall, thought Squirrelpaw.
Then she spotted her prey, and her belly had to hold back a rumble when she saw how lovely and fat it was. StarClan! That could feed half the kits! Squirrelpaw knew she couldn't miss; with leaf-bare coming up, prey like this would soon be nonexistent.
She flattened herself to the ground again, but she sucked in her belly so that only her paws touched the moss-soft ground. She drew herself forward, silent and invisible as the night breeze, just as Rainstar had told her. When she was a couple of tail-lengths away, she gave an enormous leap and snagged the squirrel before it could scramble away. Its squeal of terror froze in its throat as Squirrelpaw snapped its neck with a single bite.
I caught it! Squirrelpaw lifted her head, her catch dangling from her mouth. The pride of her first catch was mingled with the annoyance that she only caught something when she did what Rainstar told her.
When she glanced at her mentor, Rainstar was giving her a proud look. "I knew you could do it, Squirrelpaw," she purred.
Squirrelpaw found herself purring with her.
"Why don't we take that squirrel of your back to camp with us?" Rainstar suggested. "You can show it to your denmates. Purdy will be awfully happy to see you, that's for certain."
"He's fatter than a kittypet nowadays," snorted Squirrelpaw, setting down her catch so she could speak. "Shouldn't we feed the kits instead?"
"The kits we found in the forest are much too young to eat meat now. And Fawnstep's kits are still nursing from her. They're not old enough for prey either." Then her mentor's voice took on a sterner tone. "Even so, Purdy is a valuable member of our Clan and more than worthy of your respect. We must always provide for those who can't provide for themselves anymore."
Squirrelpaw flattened her ears, suddenly feeling ashamed. Rainstar immediately softened and leaned closer to whisper, as though sharing a secret: "But you're right, Purdy has gotten pretty fat."
With a loud purr, Squirrelpaw picked up her catch and followed her mentor back to camp. She's not so bad.
As the days went by, Rainstar was steadily earning more and more of Squirrelpaw's respect. The tabby apprentice was awed by Rainstar's hunting and fighting skills; she had never even seen half the moves that Rainstar showed her.
"Who was your mentor?" Squirrelpaw asked one day while the two of them basked in the sun one chilly morning.
"Sparrowheart," mewed Rainstar.
Squirrelpaw glanced up at the tawny-colored warrior, who was dozing on a tree stump with his mouth hanging wide open. "From that mousebrain?"
Rainstar let out a purr of amusement. "You'd better watch out! He's a senior warrior."
Squirrelpaw snorted. "Does being a senior warrior give you permission to act like an idiot?"
"To an extent," meowed Rainstar. "Even though he acts like a fawn sometimes, he was one of the founding members of StormClan. He taught me so many things."
"Is he really that good at fighting?" asked Squirrelpaw in awe.
"He's a good fighter," Rainstar said mildly, "but he's not the only cat who mentored me."
"Really?" Squirrelpaw's eyes grew huge. "Who else?"
"A StarClan cat. Her name was Bluestar."
"Was she a Clan leader?"
"Yes. She was the Clan leader of ThunderClan, the Clan Leafpool used to live with."
"When did she teach you?"
"In my sleep."
"Why did she teach you?"
Rainstar gave Squirrelpaw an amused glance. "Your questions are like leaves on a tree in greenleaf, little one."
Squirrelpaw lowered her gaze. "Y-You don't have to answer me," she stammered.
Rainstar turned her face back to the sky and closed her eyes. "I'm not sure why Bluestar singled me out from all the StormClan cats, but she did. She taught me almost everything I know."
"Must mean you're pretty special," commented Squirrelpaw.
"No, I'm just me." Rainstar heaved herself to her paws. "Want another training session?"
"Yes!" Squirrelpaw curved her claws into the grass.
"I like your enthusiasm," complimented Rainstar, flicking Squirrelpaw's ears with her tail. Suddenly she froze up, a bemused expression of pain on her face. She lashed her tail as though in some sort of silent agony.
"What's wrong?" mewed Squirrelpaw, looking her mentor over worriedly.
Rainstar shook herself. "I-I'm fine," she mewed, still looking slightly bemused. "Let's go."
Squirrelpaw shrugged, putting the worry out of her mind to make room for the excitement of the training session that waited for her. This is the way most young cats are, and Squirrelpaw is no exception.
Squirrelpaw had thought at the last training session she had had two sunhighs ago that she could never become more frustrated, but that day she had to eat her words. Her mentor got trickier and trickier as the sun moved on in the sky.
"You're fast and strong, Squirrelpaw, but you need to think before you leap," Rainstar said as Squirrelpaw picked herself up, shaking dust out of her light brown fur.
Squirrelpaw narrowed her eyes to slits, determined to get the better of her mentor this time. Rainstar was sitting in a relaxed posture, her blue eyes fixated on Squirrelpaw. If Squirrelpaw aimed for her shoulder, she could unbalance the larger cat and pin her to the ground. Squirrelpaw leaped at Rainstar, her paws outstretched and ready to snag her mentor's gray fur.
Squirrelpaw's feeling of triumph quickly turned to confusion as Rainstar unexpectedly flopped to the ground, allowing Squirrelpaw to sail right past her before leaping back up and using her front paws to slam Squirrelpaw to the ground in one swift, liquid movement.
Squirrelpaw spat up grit as she tried to scramble to her paws, but the wind was knocked out of her by her mentor's attack.
"Interesting strategy, but you gave your opponent too much time to think," meowed Rainstar.
Squirrelpaw didn't say a word. She leaped up and twisted around, and she saw the surprise on Rainstar's face as the smaller cat bowled over the Clan leader, pinning her to the ground.
"Very good," purred Rainstar.
Pride rushed through Squirrelpaw as she defeated her mentor for the first time that day.
"But…"
Squirrelpaw stiffened in alarm, but she wasn't fast enough to avoid the thrust of Rainstar's back leg that sent her somersaulting into the air. She landed with a thud on her back, and in the next moment it was Rainstar pinning Squirrelpaw to the ground.
"You let down your guard," mewed Rainstar, releasing her apprentice. "In battle, you don't have time to feel pride. Pride and fear are two things that you cannot feel. They clog up your mind and keep you from focusing on the fight at hand."
"If battles happen so fast, then how do you have time to think?" protested Squirrelpaw.
"That's where instinct comes in." Rainstar suddenly lashed out at Squirrelpaw with claws unsheathed.
Squirrelpaw swerved her head to the side automatically. Rainstar's claws slid harmlessly through Squirrelpaw's cheek fur.
"See? You didn't think just then, did you?" Rainstar sheathed her claws. "You acted. That's instinct."
"What does that have to do with thinking?" asked Squirrelpaw.
"You must have the right balance of thinking and instinct. Too much time spent thinking can leave you open to attack. Too heavily relying on instinct can make you sustain serious wounds. You must make your decisions as quick as a lightning flash, and make your actions just as fast."
"I think I understand," meowed Squirrelpaw. "Can I try again?"
"Of course." Rainstar straightened up and waited for Squirrelpaw to make her move.
Squirrelpaw didn't take long. She immediately leaped at Rainstar with a yowl. Unlike what Squirrelpaw expected, Rainstar leaped at Squirrelpaw herself instead of dropping down to the ground like last time.
But Squirrelpaw was ready. Rolling to her side in midair, she gripped the back of Rainstar's head with her front paws and swung herself around so she was on top of her mentor. Her weight forced Rainstar to the ground. Rainstar quickly rolled over onto her back so as to crush Squirrelpaw with her greater weight, but Squirrelpaw loosened her grip and leaped away just in time. As Rainstar exposed her soft underbelly for a split second, Squirrelpaw raked her sheathed paw across it.
"Excellent work, Squirrelpaw!" mewed Rainstar, getting to her paws. "If I had been an enemy, I would have run away with my tail between my legs."
"The belly rake is that bad?" meowed Squirrelpaw. Rainstar had taught her the move during their last training session.
"If you ever get slashed there, ask me that question again," Rainstar mewed dryly. "Now… it's my turn." Rainstar came at Squirrelpaw like a flash of lightning. Squirrelpaw didn't have enough time for even instinct to set in before the Clan leader had her bowled over. "Always keep an eye on your enemy," advised Rainstar, moving so Squirrelpaw could get back up. Rainstar didn't waste time in attacking again. This time, Squirrelpaw swerved out of the way, flashing out a paw to cuff her mentor's ear. Rainstar suddenly fell to the ground as though Squirrelpaw had shoved her.
Squirrelpaw stopped and looked at her mentor in surprise. All I did was cuff her ear, that shouldn't have hurt her, Squirrelpaw thought. She inched towards Rainstar, who was lying motionless on the ground. Maybe she's playing dead?
"R-Rainstar?" stammered Squirrelpaw. She circled around so she could see her leader's face.
Rainstar was trembling, and the waves of heat that rolled off of her frightened Squirrelpaw. Her hazy blue eyes were wide and dilated and filled with pain.
Then Rainstar began to cough, and blood spattered the ground in front of her. She coughed and coughed and coughed. She wouldn't stop coughing! Please! Stop coughing!
"RAINSTAR!"
I'm so sorry for being mean and awful ^^;; Please treat me more kindly than I'm treating Rainstar at the moment!
Let me know what you guys think about Squirrelpaw and the other things that happened in the chapter! This one was a bit wild so I hope it went together well!
EDIT: DragonoftheStars1429 gave me the great idea to keep the allegiances up to where you guys can see them as I update them! Just go to my profile and click the link at the top that says Allegiances. That'll take you to a google doc I made where I (hopefully!) included everyone! The three new kits aren't on there yet because I have yet to name them, but everything else should be accurate to the chapter. I plan on updating it as each chapter goes by so check it out whenever you need it! And tell me if you see any mistakes. I know I've changed Robinwing's eye color at least twice so oopsy. XD Anyway, thanks to Dragon for the idea!