Well hey there, it's me again! *swears far more than 12 year olds should* I'm soooo so so sorry for not updating! Argh, who else feels like the teachers are putting in an extra effort to give us 5 times more homework than usual? I'm starting to really hate this confinement thing, not that I didn't hate it before... I doubt I'm alone in thinking this. But still, let's have a minute of silence for all the poor people who died. Feel free to curse unreasonably hard at coronavirus when one minute is over (Yes I swear far too much).

Thank you soo much for the favourite and follow Growlrangiku! As a suggestion, if you like my story, you can also review! But favs and follows make me really happy too!

This is just a filler chapter because not every chapter can be interesting. See y'all at the end! (If you like my scribbling, REVIEW! If you don't, also review, just say why you don't like it and what I could do to get better;))

Chapter 21

Ivy really hated this place. Trainees fighting to the death? A heartless Governor who had no emotions except from the enjoyment that she got from torturing other cast? For the very first time, Ivy wished she had never set paw into the forest. Was freedom really worth all this trouble? Was this really freedom?

Night stood up. "Let's go, I want to introduce you to the other Trainees."

Maybe being around cats her own age would lift her spirits... but wasn't it hard, to know that any of them could be the one you would have to kill? Surely it would make cats more reluctant to make friends, to have strong links or attachments, until they were full Blood members? But it had been so long, moons, since she had even glimpsed somecat her age... The last one was Rose, unless you counted the memories of Jay that could barely fill half the space he had. The sun shining on her pelt had been enough at the time, but she wanted to talk with a trusted friend again, who would understand her view of the world from her slightly lower position.

Ivy nodded decisively. It may seem like nothing, but this would tie her to the Blood very hard. Any friendship found, even here, would be hard to give up.

She stood up, shook her cream-and-tabby pelt out where it was flattened from sitting, and followed Night out of the corner into the camp.

It was bustling, full of eyes that all seemed to turn to stare at her. She tried to her dark blue gaze from theirs; even though she wasn't shy at all, she was conscious that these cats had all killed at some point, and would probably not hesitate to do so again. She shuddered at the thought. She hoped she'd never have to kill anycat, but the chances of not doing that were feeble now. She felt slightly nauseous, thinking about cream-coloured paws saturated crimson... or worse, a cream-and tabby body, lying in a clearing in the middle of a cheering circle of cats.

She didn't want to think about that, and hastened her pace to keep up with Night's longer legs. She was being led to a very large bush on the far side of camp. It was hung with thorns and weaved with leaves, and was exposed to the coldest winds. She could see the sky turning purple over her head. She had missed the sunset, and twilight had arrived. She had always had some kind of stupid, kit-like grudge against twilight because it signified the end of the day, the sun going down, the darkness taking over... Dawn was her favourite time of day, followed closely by sunpeak.

As they drew nearer, she heard yowls coming from the bush, and wondered what was happening, and who was in there. Then she realised. She could have smacked her paw onto her forehead in the most spectacular facepaw ever had she not been walking. The Trainees were in there! It was surely where they slept.

Night nosed her way under the bush, followed by Ivy. It looked even bigger from the inside! Two Trainees were wrestling in the middle, and at least six other young cats were cheering for them. The cats in the centre were a bulky dark brown tom and a fiery ginger she-cat. She couldn't really make out details of their pelts, they were moving far too fast.

"Are they hurting each other?" Ivy gasped to Night.

The older she-cat laid her tail reassuringly on her shoulder. "They aren't." She explained. "They're fighting with claws sheathed. It's a good exercise, but they are forbidden to really hurt each other." Ivy tried not to think about what the punishment would be.

Night raised her voice. "Trainees! Come over here!" The Trainees reluctantly broke away from the circle around the fight to gather in front of the black she-cat, some with mutinous looks on their faces, as though they resented Night ending their fun. She could see the cats who had been fighting more clearly now: the brown tom had a dash of white on his forehead and chest and his eyes were yellow, while the bright orange she-cat's muzzle, paws and tail-tip faded into black, with dark amber eyes. She looked like the sassy and confident type, and tough, especially if she was willing to fight a tom bigger than her.

Both were slightly bruised and the tom's ear was flipped outwards. As she watched, he flicked it and it went back to the way it presumably was before the fight.

"We've got a new Trainee. Her name is Ivy." The young she-cat was burning slightly with the weight of all the attention, and she wished they would look at Night instead.

She's the one talking, why are they staring at me? Of course, she knew, but she didn't like being the centre of attention in the middle of a group of cats she didn't know. For all she knew, they would hate her on sight and give her a hard time. What if they thought she was ugly, or stupid, or... Whatever else it is that half-grown cats judge strangers of their age on?

She had felt the same when she was first introduced to the Band, but had relaxed soon enough when she had realised they were friendly and fun. She just hoped that these cats were the same.

Right so introductions next chapter, I'll probably put some allegiances at the start, so the chapter might be a bit short. I was thinking of starting a Harry Potter fanfic because I have an idea I can't resist. Tell me if you think I should, because update time might be stretched. Also tell me if I should change the rating of this story to T. That means REVIEW. Did you know that if everyone reviewed every chapter, I would have thousands of reviews for this?

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~Crystalshine of LightClan (digital cookies for reviewers! (::))