Now today is November 10th. Sunstar and Halftail name suggestions contest has ended, and their names shall stay Sunstar and Halftail.
OC submissions for SkyClan Leader, Deputy, and Medicine Cat roles will end November 15th instead. Normal OC submissions will never end.
Sorry that the chapter didn't come sooner. I have been busy with my other fiction: Frostheart's Vengeance, so I forgot to post chapters for this.
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN WARRIORS. I OWN NOTHING.
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Onto the chapter!
Emberpaw thought Dark Forest apprentice training was an easy, possible thing to do. But of course she was wrong.
On day three of learning weird fighting moves Emberpaw had never seen, Oakpelt sat down in front of the tree, back turned.
"This time, attack the right way." Silentshadow told her.
With her training only able to be done at night, Emberpaw realized that when she went here in dreams, she didn't get any sleep. So she'd sleep and rest during the day and at night she'd come here. However, Nightbreeze had decided not to accompany the training sessions since she was a medicine cat and had patients to care for and herbs to collect.
Emberpaw silently creeped up on Oakpelt, keeping her tail low as she crept through dark rotting grass…
Then pounced.
Oakpelt whirled and slammed her to the ground, clawing her face with a sheathed claw and jumping away.
"Emberpaw, tell us what you did wrong that time?" he asked.
Emberpaw growled. "You expected I would attack."
"Mmm… not really. I knew you'd attack from behind. Try a different strategy."
"Like what?" Emberpaw snapped.
None of them answered, but when Emberpaw looked up, she knew why Oakpelt had stood in front of the tree.
One minute later, Oakpelt was standing still as his gaze scanned the trees above him. He couldn't catch the flash of orange and yellow fur from in the leaves as Emberpaw stalked in the branches, trying not to fall.
Soon, she was directly above Oakpelt. Carefully, she crouched down on the branch, and then…
CRACK!
The branch snapped and she was sent crashing into Oakpelt, who yelped and dodged the stabbing branch.
Silentshadow cackled with laughter as Oakpelt pinned Emberpaw again.
"Next time, take caution of hazards when in a tree." Oakpelt hissed.
Emberpaw kicked him off and stormed away. She traveled through the Dark Forest, occasionally seeing the glints of eyes in the shadows and flashes of fur in the undergrowth. She'd forgotten that there were other cats in the Dark Forest. Whispers sounded from the darkness as Emberpaw prowled forward. No stars or moon shone in this blackened forest, the only light being the glowing green moss and mushrooms on old, towering pine trees.
It seemed like a maze, she thought. Every tree looked the same and she recognized some areas and others didn't.
She reached a clearing, but saw two familiar cats in it...
Half a second later Oakpelt felt something slam into him.
He whirled but whatever- or whoever- it was gone.
As he tried to figure out what just happened, he was attacked again and this time with a sheathed claw, his attacker whacked him hard and jumped away before he could fight back.
"Didn't expect that, hmph?" Emberpaw hissed.
Silentshadow taught Emberpaw more fighting techniques and made her attack Oakpelt. Usually, Emberpaw would crash into a tree ("It's just so dark." she'd muttered. "Can't a Dark Forest have a little light?"), but more often she'd be defeated easily by Oakpelt or teased by the two.
"Alright, that's enough." a cold voice snarled.
At first Emberpaw thought the meow belonged to Silentshadow or Oakpelt, but the voice was female's.
She turned to see Nightbreeze stalk from the bushes.
"Teaching an apprentice challenging, complicated fighting moves? Pfft- what you should be teaching her is how to save ShadowClan like she was meant to do." she told the two.
And after that, Nightbreeze dragged Emberpaw off...
"Where are... we.. going?" Emberpaw wheezed, struggling to keep up with Nightbreeze's quick pace.
"Away from those two mouse-brains." Nightbreeze replied.
They paused suddenly, and Nightbreeze turned to face her.
"If you're going to save ShadowClan, you must become leader. A leader saves a Clan in times of danger or fear." she instructed. "If you're going to become leader, you must become the deputy. The leader chooses the deputy as somebody they can trust, but they must be a warrior who has trained an apprentice already. After the leader loses their nine lives and heads to StarClan, the deputy takes their place. So, Emberpaw, if you are to become deputy, you must gain the leader's trust and have an apprentice."
"Sounds hard." Emberpaw muttered.
"If you are going to learn advanced fighting moves from the Dark Forest, you must learn normal apprentice moves first." Nightbreeze added.
Nightbreeze glared down at Emberpaw. "To attack your enemy by surprise, you must be quick, stealthy, and smart. All three of these let you catch Oakpelt by surprise. If you are slow, this gives the enemy the chance to see you and the attack won't be an ambush. If you aren't stealthy, you'll be seen and attacked. If you aren't smart when in battle, then you're dead."
"Makes sense." Emberpaw muttered.
"Yet every attack- ambush, war, or others- you must have the ability to attack. Your attacks must be a hard, effective blow that will kill or severely injure your enemy. The weak spots are the throat and belly, strike the belly and the enemy will be in fatal condition, strike the throat and death is certain." Nightbreeze meowed. "Now, you try attacking me. Remember to be quick, or I'll easily defeat you. Now, sheathed claws, we don't want you killing me."
By the time she blinked, Emberpaw was already on her and attacking. She grabbed her tail and yanked it, but Nightbreeze flung her off.
"I said attack weak spots. You can claw off an enemy's tail and they'll still survive." she told her. "And jumping on one's back lets them throw you off, pin you, and kill you. So only jump on your enemy when they don't know you'll be attacking."
"How am I supposed to know that? I decide not to listen when I can't even hunt, let alone fight, and you expect me to know this stuff, when I'm nothing but a loner?" Emberpaw responded.
Nightbreeze's cold glare burned straight through her, and when it looked like she was about to explode, her face softened. "Emberpaw, I'm trying to help you, yet you keep disobeying me." she paused. "Now, this time, listen to me. If you don't want to attack me, then just say so."
After Nightbreeze told her what to do again, she then meowed: "One good technique is to slide under your enemy when they pounce and either kick them away or attack their stomach. Since you are an apprentice, smaller and faster, this should be easy."
After Nightbreeze did a quick demonstration, she told Emberpaw to try it.
Emberpaw charged for Nightbreeze, who pounced at her as Emberpaw slid under her and kicked her from underneath, Nightbreeze fell backwards and hit the ground.
"Good job." Nightbreeze purred as she got up.
They did a few more fighting moves, Emberpaw struggled to do most of them, but then she was gaining ground, either she was doing better or Nightbreeze was going easy on her.
The next week, Emberpaw was out of the medicine den and back to regular training. Her head was sore, but she was more careful this time and listened to Frostshadow on how to correctly do the hunter's crouch.
Today, Berrytail was sick with whitecough and he couldn't help Twigpaw with apprentice training. So Frostshadow was mentoring Twigpaw as well as Emberpaw until Berrytail was better.
"Bend down low enough so your belly brushes the ground. Keep your tail low, but not too low so it brushes dead leaves on the ground. Make sure not to step on any branches or twigs." Frostshadow told Emberpaw and Twigpaw.
"You make it seem so simple." Emberpaw sighed.
"It is." Twigpaw whispered back. "Once you're good at doing it."
"Twigpaw, would you care to demonstrate the hunter's crouch for Emberpaw? Try catching that mouse over there." Frostshadow flicked his tail towards a brown mouse skittering around the leaves.
Emberpaw watched carefully as Twigpaw dropped into a crouch, his tail low to the ground as he creeped towards the unsuspecting prey…
He stepped on a branch which snapped with a loud CRACK!
The mouse whirled and Twigpaw chased it in circles around the clearing. This running in circles continued for at least five minutes.
Finally, he pounced and caught the mouse by the tail, only to roll down the hill and fall in the mud.
Twigpaw climbed out of the mud. "I got it!" he yelled. The mouse leaped out of his grip and ran off.
Frostshadow growled. "Next time don't make a fool of yourself. A proper reminder to watch your step and to kill your prey once you catch it before it runs away."
As Twigpaw got back to the clearing and started licking his fur clean, Emberpaw tried to copy how Twigpaw did the hunter's crouch. She then saw a squirrel, stuffing its cheeks with nuts.
Emberpaw dropped into a crouch, her belly fur brushing the ground. Keeping her tail low, she crawled towards it, watching the ground for branches or dead leaves she may step on.
She stood crouched there behind the squirrel. She took one step forward- but stepped on a leaf which made a crunch sound under her paws.
The squirrel whirled around and saw the predator, it ran out of the clearing as Emberpaw chased it. It ran up a tree trunk and Emberpaw crashed into the tree and into a low-hanging branch, snatching the squirrel in her claws-
The branch snapped and she plummeted into a bush, but just as the squirrel was about to run off, Emberpaw pounced on it and killed it with a swift bite to the neck.
"I caught it!" she yelled to Frostshadow and Twigpaw.
Twigpaw whooped: "Great job!", while Frostshadow grumpily grumbled something Emberpaw couldn't hear.
They walked back to ShadowClan camp after that…
Nothing much happened in this chapter except Emberpaw settling into ShadowClan and learning more apprentice stuff, and getting used to Dark Forest training.
Chapter Fourteen coming soon. More important stuff happens that chapter.
(REMINDER: The contest for your OC to be SkyClan leader, deputy, or medicine cat will end November 15th. I shortened the deadline since I am growing more impatient. So far no OCs for these roles have been submitted, so there is a high chance of your OC getting one of these roles.)
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Tell me how I did.
-Moon