Lionpaw was still groggy as he went to practice fighting with the Windclan apprentices. Harepaw circled with him as Lionpaw was wondering what he should do in order to improve his skill. Crowfeather and Tornear watched as the apprentices got themselves ready. Harepaw sprang along as he tackled Lionpaw down. Lionpaw tried to kick the apprentice off of him but Harepaw wasn't going to let the apprentice squirm free from his grasp. Heatherpaw was cheering him on as he was struggling to get the apprentice off of him. Heatherpaw wasn't as tired so she was full of energy. Crowfeather lost all hopes for Lionpaw as Harepaw soon held the apprentice down to the point where he couldn't move.
"At least Lionpaw wasn't roleplaying with Heatherpaw until 4 O'Clock in the morning in the tunnels but something is going on. I know he's speaking well but he seems terrified to sleep." Crowfeather mewed to Tornear but Tornear soon turned to him.
"Terrified to sleep? That's the laziest excuse from an apprentice I've ever heard. Sleep is important for an apprentice to function." Tornear laughed as he thought no apprentice was scared to sleep. Crowfeather turned to Tornear as he wanted to set things straight.
"Tornear, Lionpaw's been getting night tremors as he was worried about ghost cats coming along and taking him to cat hell." Crowfeather told Tornear. Tornear turned to Crowfeather as he was ignorant about the cause.
"Night tremors, there is no such thing as cat hell. Who would have thought about something like that. Starclan is able to watch over all of us so there is no way in Starclan any of us will go to cat hell. Good day." Tornear soon turned as he took Harepaw away. Crowfeather helped Lionpaw up as he soon turned to him.
"Tornear wouldn't believe in me. Report anymore sightings of these ghost cats back to me. I'm taking Heatherpaw out hunting so we have something to eat for later. Bounce around for a bit." Crowfeather mewed to Lionpaw as he soon turned and began to walk away. Lionpaw soon began hopping about as he went back to Windclan camp. He was soon alone with no one to talk to as two cats came up. It was Tigerstar and Hawkfrost again.
"Hey there, I see you're alone and your bounce is terrible. How about we improve it with some dark magic?" Tigerstar asked Lionpaw. Lionpaw wanted to say no since he was afraid about getting dragged back into Cat hell but he knew he was groggy with no sleep.
"What's the deal? If you teach me this, will you leave me alone?" Lionpaw mewed wondering if he would be completely left alone. Tigerstar though about this.
"Yea sure but don't expect us to show up in your dreams with Heatherpaw since we got her soul too." Tigerstar mewed. Hawkfrost was soon there as he began teaching Lionpaw on how to improve. Soon, Lionpaw was getting the hang of it. Lionpaw smiled as he knew he had the power of dark magic.
Onestar soon climbed onto the high rock of Windclan as he wanted to make an announcement, rather two.
"Cats old enough to run the moors, gather under the high ledge for a clan meeting." Onestar began, the cats soon gathered around as they wanted to do something. Onestar cleared his voice as he spoke. "I have two important announcements, first off Harepaw, come forth." Onestar began. Harepaw soon came forth as he was listening to his leader. "Harepaw, do you promise to uphold the Warrior code even if it costs you your own life?" Harepaw gulped as he was listening in onto this as he soon responded.
"I do." Harepaw responded as he wanted to keep his promise. Onestar smiled to him as he soon spoke again.
"From here on out you will be known as Harespring, Starclan is proud with your training today and they hope to make you a warrior now." Onestar mewed giving Haresping his Warrior name. all the cats chanted for Harespring as Onestar soon silenced them. "Harespring, you will keep watch over the clan until dawn and second off, the gathering is tonight so Ashfoot, Crowfeather, Heatherpaw, Barkface, Kestrelpaw and the three temporary apprentices we have are coming. Now meeting dismissed." Onestar soon left as Harespring soon went to take up guard duty of the camp. Soon he and the others left the camp as they went to the Gathering.
The cats soon arrived as it was clear that Riverclan was there but they weren't living on the island. Thunderclan had arrived early as Breezepaw spotted Crowfeather as he ran up to him. Lionpaw and Heatherpaw soon looked at each other as they had nothing to say about it. Minnowpaw was talking to Mousepaw again as usual and Hollypaw soon went Willowpaw. Even though Hollypaw was blackmailing Lionpaw to get him to stop seeing Heatherpaw doesn't excuse her from the fact that she was going to meet up with Willowpaw in secret. She was purposefully going against the Warrior code that she loved to no end. Blackstar spoke first.
"Cats of all clans, prey is running well in Shadowclan." Blackstar mewed as he was giving the news. Leopardstar spoke next.
"Riverclan has had a twoleg problem but it was fixed a couple of sunsets ago before the gathering." Leopardstar spoke. Firestar spoke next.
"Thunderclan is doing fine. The apprentice we have had on a temporary basis seems to be settling into Thunderclan just fine. We are more than happy about this seeing how we want to finish the experiment." Firestar mewed as he knew he couldn't have holding on Breezepaw for more than a moon. Onestar spoke last.
"Windclan has a new warrior, Harespring. Also the apprentices we have seem to be all over the place. Hollypaw seems to like it there. Jaypaw has found a stick he seems to be holding on to and we are getting reports of ghost cats coming from the tunnels. Gorsetail's kits, Sedgekit, Swallowkit, Thistlekit and Moltedkit are curious about these ghost cats but we need to learn to plug up the tunnels so no cat can get into them." Onestar announced. The clans nodded as the leaders decided to dismiss the meeting and head for home. Hollypaw had other plans in mind. She soon followed Willowpaw back to Riverclan as she wanted to figure out about these twolegs that they managed to get rid of.
"Hey Willowpaw?" Hollypaw mewed to her. Willowpaw lifted her head wondering what Hollypaw wanted. "Can I come with you for a walk?" Willowpaw thought about what Hollypaw wanted to do, Unaware that Hollypaw was being fueled with self-importance and hypocrisy, Willowpaw blindly responded to her.
"Sure." Hollypaw smiled to Willowpaw's response as they soon began to walk together to Riverclan camp.
"So Willowpaw, when you were on that island, did you see anything interesting, the Diadectes?" Hollypaw mewed to Willowpaw. Willowpaw lifted her head up to her.
"Not that I know of but I do know that otters live at the lake." Willowpaw responded to Hollypaw's question. Otters were like stoats but they were good swimmers. Hollypaw continued to walk along with Willowpaw.
"How come the Erins never bring up the otters in their books?" Hollypaw turned as if she was speaking to the readers herself. The two cats continued to speak as they arrived back in Riverclan camp as Willowpaw brought her to Mothwing. "So Mothwing, what exactly happened with the twolegs and how did they attack your camp?" Hollypaw asked her. Mothwing looked at Hollypaw ask she was caught off guard. She soon turned as she soon began to speak.
"A couple of twoleg apprentices were armed with rocks as they thought it would be funny to throw them at us so we immediately scattered as none of us want to get hurt with the rocks.
"Rocks, who knows that these twolegs would be armed with them?" Minnowpaw responded. Her black and white dappled pelt shining in the moonlight as the moon was slowly disappearing over the horizon. Mothwing soon turned to her apprentice and Hollypaw as she soon got some herbs for her.
"Leafpool is running low on herbs needed to treat Bellyache since they've been hunting Diadectes instead of squirrels. Windclan has hit them hard to the point that they are calling each other squirrel swiping sons of Satan." Mothwing explained the situation. Soon she gave the apprentices the bundle of herbs that they needed. "Also, take Fernpaw with you." Hollypaw and Willowpaw nodded as three cats were better than 2. Fernpaw showed up as he was ready to escort the apprentices.
"Okay we better do this quickly since time isn't at our side." Fernpaw mewed to them. Soon the cats nodded as they began their journey, the journey would be across the thunderpath bridge for the beginning part as they didn't want wet paws. They soon stopped at the Thundersnake path as a long Thundersnake slipped past as the metal ground against the metal of the path. It was clear that they didn't have much time. They knew in order to save time, they needed to cut through the farm and hopefully, the dogs would be kind enough to let them pass through. One by one, they slipped into the horse place.
The three cats were doing their best not to make as much noise as possible. This place was crawling with dogs as they knew that some were friends, some were foes, and the rest they didn't know much about. Hollypaw was looking around as they snuck their way through the farm. She turned as she saw three big dogs that were fast asleep. She soon studied their pelts as one of them was black and tawny with big pointy ears, by the looks of it, the dog was William and his family as they were asleep. Hollypaw breathed a sigh of relief.
"Few I thought for a second that we were… going to get caught." Hollypaw sighed but the apprentices froze in their tracks as someone else was up and about and his black and white lips were pulled back in a snarl, it was the old terrier Pip.
"Going somewhere whippersnappers?" Pip wheezed as he was pretty old for his age. Hollypaw gulped as she knew from Riverclan that trespassing in Pip's home during the night is one of his biggest pet peeves as he was known to being territorial.
"Oh fox dung." Hollypaw muttered under her breath as she knew they were in trouble.
"YOU DARN KITS GET OFF MY PROPERTY!" Pip shouted at them as he charged at them. The three apprentices soon turn and began running in the opposite direction trying to find the nearest tree to climb up. They knew the herb bundle needed to be balanced as they raced along as Fernpaw jumped first as his claws clung onto the bark. Hollypaw soon followed him up with Willowpaw as they carried the bundle of herbs up with them. Pip was yapping and shouting as the apprentices were held up in their tree. Pip soon turned and began running as the dog Hollypaw saw earlier came by the tree as it leaned its body up. Hollypaw prepared to fight but the dog spoke.
"It's safe to come down now." Hollypaw looked at the dog and to her surprise, it was William. The apprentices went down one at a time as they were wondering why Pip went berserk.
"Don't come along here during the night, we all get nervous since Pip doesn't want anyone stealing his stuff." William suggested as he escorted the three apprentices to the fence. Hollypaw was thankful that William understood them as she wanted to take him along with her.
"Thanks back there, William, can you escort us to Thunderclan?" Hollypaw asked him. William bluntly responded with:
"Sorry I can't I have a lot to do today but I wish I can help. I'll see you around." William soon turned as he went back to the Horse Place to begin preparing for the morning work. Hollypaw knew that she and the apprentices were on their own. But still, they continued on.
They soon reached Windclan as a Windclan patrol soon spotted the three apprentices as they didn't know who they were. They soon shouted. The patrol was just Tornear and Whitetail.
"Hey you Riverclan apprentices, get out of here, we don't want your fur around this territory, if any more fish cats show up from your clan we will rip the fur from you." Tornear hissed as he made a threat. Hollypaw soon turned and ran as a Riverclan patrol was busy patrolling the area near the horse place; the three demoralized apprentices had abandoned the herb bundle when they ran as Leopardstar was waiting for them
"I see that Windclan caused you to go the other way. Upon which you abandoned your herbs that Mothwing sent out to you." Leopardstar mewed as Hollypaw gulped. She soon spoke.
"What's going to happen to me?" Hollypaw mewed curiously wondering if something was going to happen. The other apprentices would most likely get escorted back to camp as Leopardstar soon spoke.
"You don't know what we have in mind? We're keeping you with us until Thunderclan gets Lionpaw and Jaypaw back; it wasn't fair to see them swapping apprentices." Leopardstar responded. Soon the patrol picks them up as they escorted the apprentices back to camp. Hollypaw knew she had made a mistake.
The cats of Windclan were wondering why Hollypaw wasn't back. Barkface, Jaypaw and Kestrelpaw were busy wondering on what had happened, when the news began getting around. Jaypaw puts his ear to the entrance of the den to hear what was going on.
"It's like Riverclan has snatched her up or something." Crowfeather gave his insight on the situation. Nightcloud was pacing wondering where Hollypaw was.
"Those she must have been with Riverclan and they were planning on traveling through us to give Thunderclan some herbs. We got the herb bundle that they dropped and scurried off." Whitetail responded as she was putting the pieces together.
"Either way, we should prepare for war with Riverclan to get Hollypaw back." Nightcloud hissed as Tornear joined her side.
"Let's make those fish eaters for kidnapping an apprentice once we deal with Thunderclan first!" The cats cheered as they were going to take this to Onestar personally. Crowfeather became worried, what did his friends at Riverclan and Thunderclan do to gather a war? He soon went off to go think it over. Barkface soon padded to Jaypaw.
"We need to figure out where Hollypaw is, so Jaypaw I need to knock you out for this." Barkface's voice rasped. He soon tried to slam Jaypaw down with a paw but Jaypaw dodged him seeing how being helpful wouldn't extend this story to be 330 pages. Instead he picked up the stick as he decided to head out of camp wondering where Hollypaw was in.
"So stick, give me answers, where's Hollypaw?" Jaypaw asked the stick. The stick didn't respond since it was just the stick. Jaypaw soon rubbed his nose on it as it soon teleported him to the tunnels.
Jaypaw was in the tunnels with Fallen Leaves as the rain was pouring, he was dropped into a huge swelling of water as if he was going to drown in there. He soon spotted Fallen Leaves as he was trying to swim but the tunnels were quickly flooding with water, it soon pulled him out as Fallen Leaves couldn't breathe. Jaypaw could feel his bones cramping up in him from lack of air as the tunnels had no pockets of air. Jaypaw soon passed out from lack of oxygen as he soon drowned in the tunnels. Jaypaw soon woke up from the stick as he soon came to the conclusion; Fallen Leaves went into the tunnels and never came out since he drowned. Clouds began to gather over the horizon as Jaypaw knew the rains were coming so he decided to abandon the stick. A tall shadow was looming over the stick as he knew he had the answers for Jaypaw.
"Your time will come Jaypaw." The cat mewed to the stick. He soon picked up the stick and took it back with him.
[A/N]: We did good to end this year off so I want to gather more views in the mean time since 2020 is coming and I am excited for this. Also the discord meetings never happened for two reasons, no one came plus I chose a bad day to do it on since it was a holiday after all.
Also how was everyone's holidays since I had a good one, went to my friend's house and spent the Christmas with her family as well as mine so I had fun, review to tell me how yours went since I want to hear about it.
We've reached 500 views for this story and 1k for this month overall, I feel accomplished and I want to drive this number up even more. So support this review and read if you want those numbers up even higher. I will be typing away if you want more. I'll see you around next chapter as we pull out more of the plot for Lionpaw.