Disclaimer: I do NOT own Warriors. It belongs to Erin Hunter.
'Thoughts' Dreams Memories
When Firepaw woke up, she immediately turned her head towards Sandpaw, she found the slightly older apprentice still sleeping and blinked, allowing a small sigh of relief. The flame colored demon then looked up, her green eyes watching the clouds before movement from the warrior's den caught her attention.
Narrowing her eyes, Firepaw watched as Darkstripe, ThunderClan's new deputy stepped out and stretched before heading towards the fresh kill pile. The young demon watched him pick out a thrush and scowled. She still wasn't used to forest food. Ever since she came here, he belly would always feel empty, even after she would finish eating. She wondered if Sandpaw felt the same, after all she had at least some demon blood in her.
Firepaw sighed at that before noticing Lionheart rising and making his way to the fresh kill pile as well before being cut off by a sneering Longtail and a regretful Halftail.
"We don't want you touching our food, Lionheart. It's not like you need it, go settle your dark appetite on something else, demon." the tabby warrior snarled, showing his fangs.
Lionheart's eyes widened and he took a step back, looking over to the nursery and finding Speckletail listening from the entrance with pain and sorrow shining in her eyes. Lionheart turned back to the two males and found Halftail looked uncomfortable and wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Just...just go, Lionheart. You might...you might get hurt. Please. Don't fight over some prey." Sensing that he had won, Longtail told Halftail to stand guard over the fresh kill pile while he walked off. Darkstripe, who remained behind and heard everything, sneered at the retreating tom before looking to Lionheart and Halftail.
Darkstripe took a deep breath and wondered over to the pair, his whiskers twitching. "I'll make sure to talk to Longtail about his behavior, you can eat from the fresh kill pile."
Lionheart looked at the fresh kill pile then back to where Longtail was walking off and snorted. "It seems we'll only be able to eat if you are around. Tell Longtail he and the rest of the Clan can keep his prey. We'll hunt our own food."
Before Darkstripe could speak, Lionheart turned away and walked over to Firepaw, lowering his head. "You haven't been assigned a mentor yet. Sandpaw has Whitestrom, Ravenpaw has Tigerclaw, and though you haven't met her, I have a cat named Graypaw. We'll have to think of something, but you need to start training. Go to the apprentices' den and get Graypaw for me. All of us will be taking you young cats out to the forest. We need to think..." he added this part under his breath but Firepaw narrowed her eyes, deciding to just do as she was told.
Going to the apprentices' den, Firepaw looked inside to see a thick gray furred molly sleeping soundly in her nest. Firepaw gave her a nudge before the other began to stir and let out a soft yawn.
"Time to get up?" her voice came out groggy as she stretched and quickly got to her paws. "Hey, you must be the demon that everyone is talking about. Or rather, one of the demons. It all makes sense now, why mother was so careful around me. Ack, I'm sorry, I'm Graypaw. What's your name?"
"Firepaw." the ginger molly answered tersely before turning to head out of the den. Graypaw followed and the pair made their way to their mentors, who nodded and greeted Graypaw with soft meows.
"We'll be exploring the territory today, you'll need to see the land that you will be defending and will have to learn just where our borders lie. Now then, come." Lionheart said before turning and heading out of the gorse tunnel and up the ravine.
Sandpaw, Firepaw, and Graypaw all followed after their mentors, Firepaw however kept her head down, not interested in seeing the forest. It was the same, no matter what, what difference could there be?
"Young Firepaw, you need to pay attention and familiarize yourself with the territory. Please keep your head up." Lionheart scolded gently, turning his head to look at the ginger apprentice.
Firepaw flinched and gave the golden warrior a look before picking up her head, noticing a giant sycamore tree ahead of them. "What?"
"This is the Great Sycamore. Apprentices practice their climbing and stalking skills here. Speaking of, we will do just that. Just a quick demonstration though," Whitestorm said, turning to the young cats with a smile before extending his claws and leaping at the tree climbing skillfully.
The three apprentices watched as Whitestorm scaled up, up, and up into the branches of the mighty tree, looking down on the cats below. The pure white warrior stayed on the lower branches so the younger cats could see him and easily jumped from branch to branch, his fur billowing out and his tail streaming behind him. He weaved his way through the branches, his paws looked as if they barely touched the bark.
Sandpaw looked at her mentor with pride and awe, her eyes shining as she watched. Graypaw had her mouth hanging open and jumped to paws, eager to try. However, Lionheart stalled her, reminding her gently that they were to be traversing the territory.
"You'll get your chance, Graypaw, I promise." As he spoke the gray furred molly sighed and nodded, watching Whitestorm fly through the branches of the great tree before shimmying back down, barely breaking a sweat.
Firepaw had to admit that Whitestorm's skills were pretty amazing and she looked at the massive tree, wanting to be able to do the same. The white warrior chuckled and waved his tail in amusement, following Firepaw's gaze.
"Once you have learned oyour territory, hunting and fighting will come next. You will learn to fly through the trees faster than any squirrel. It's is ThunderClan's greatest skill. No other Clan can climb and jump through the trees like we can. But beware, the other Clans have their own skills. Each Clan is balanced and diverse in this way. It's what makes us all different from each other."
The three young cats all listened intently and Firepaw was more motivated to learn. The patrol continued on, through Tallpines and the Treecut Place, an aptly named part of the forest filled with the sticky scent of pine trees. Beyond it was a area known as Twolegplace. Firepaw had heard of it but Jake always warned her against going there. The cats had to weave their way through muddy water, though Firepaw, seemingly worse to the wet, didn't even bother. Lionheart noted this with a small interested grunted. They traveled on to the Owl Tree, where Whitestorm explained that an owl lived there and the Clan used the owl during night hunts to find prey.
Then they went to Snakerocks, the young cats could smell the scent of adders and all hissed but the older males passed them along, seeing as they got the gist of the danger there and didn't want to linger there themselves.
Lionheart led them further in towards Sunningrocks and here, he scowled. The sight and smell of battle was still here. He could still smell blood and his mouth started to water. Turing his head, Lionheart saw that being here was affecting Sandpaw and Firepaw, with the latter practically drooling and trembling. Well, it looked like Sandpaw's demon blood, however small an amount it was, was starting to awaken. He would have to talk to Spottedleaf later. They had to help her before things got even more hard for them.
Graypaw tilted her head and nudged both her companions with Sandpaw snapping at her, actually nicking her and making a small trickle of blood ran down. The fluffy cat jumped, yelping and moved near Lionheart for protection. Whitestorm tugged hard on Sandpaw's ear to distract her but it only caused her to turn her ravenous gaze on him, baring her fangs. Lionheart sighed and then, rather roughly, pinned the pale molly to the ground with a muted growl. Their eyes met and for a second, Sandpaw looked like she was going to attack but a surprisingly savage snarl from Lionheart cowed her and she turned her head, her ears flat. Staring at her for a second more, Lionheart then moved away, nodding to Whitestorm.
"Let's finish this. She needs to go to Spottedleaf. Graypaw, are you okay with continuing?" Lionheart asked while looking at Firepaw, the darker apprentice seemed hungry as well but after watching Lionheart, kept her head bowed and remained still.
"N-No, I'm fine, we can keep going." Graypaw muttered though she stayed close to Lionheart and as far from Sandpaw as she could.
Once away from the battle torn area, the young demons and Lionheart himself seemed to calm down a little, though because of Sandpaw's little episode, the mentors sped through the rest of the tour. Firepaw absorbed all she could and was able to retain it all and knew that with time, she would know the territory anyway.
Once back at the camp, Lionheart told Sandpaw to follow him and while a little reluctant, did as she was told. Graypaw waited by Whitestorm before heading to the apprentices' den and Firepaw, curious, followed after the tom and molly.
She followed them to Spottedleaf's den, sitting just before the entrance, Firepaw could hear Lionheart telling the healer about the tour of the territory and what happened with Sandpaw and Graypaw. From her vantage point, she could just see Sandpaw wince and lower her head while Spottedleaf began to pace.
"This is bad, there's a risk now the Clan knows about us. We all know how they are treating us, if you or I do this, it could be the breaking point."
Lionheart heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head, closing his eyes. He opened them and turned to the entrance of the den. "I know you're hanging about, Firepaw. You might as well there is nothing here you need to hear.."
Firepaw flinched when Lionheart called out to her and for a second she hesitated, but then she was already found out, she had to go. Stepping away from the medicine den, Firepaw tried to meet Sandpaw's eyes in reassurance but the paler molly wouldn't raise her head.
Firepaw snorted at that, but before she could say anything, Spotteleaf moved in close to Sandpaw, wrapping her tail around her. The pale molly at first leaned into her aunt's touch, burying her face into her warm fur before looking up at her, her green eyes smothering. Spottedleaf stared back for only a second before turning her gaze away. Although Sandpaw was at least quarter demon, they didn't have the same power to entrance while Spottedleaf of course, still did. She had to be careful, but that right now wasn't the biggest issue.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Sandpaw murmured, her voice so quiet Spottedleaf had to strain to hear. Lionheart blinked and giving Spottedleaf a nod, he soon left. Spottedleaf knew what she had to attempt and the pair needed space right now. He would give it to them.
"Why did father keep this from me? Why didn't you say anything?" Sandpaw questioned, moving away from Spottedleaf to glare at her, her fur bristling.
Spottedleaf let out a breath and walked towards Sandpaw, stooping a bit to lick her cheek in an effort to comfort her and Sandpaw began to shiver, the force of the knowledge that her father was dead and never coming back crushed her all over again. Sandpaw sagged to her belly and Spottedleaf curled around, once more licking her and trying to give all the love she could for her niece.
"He wanted to protect you. Redtail didn't want you to know because he wanted you to be free of the judgement, the hatred, the fear. He wanted you to grow up happy without knowing strife."
Sandpaw raised her head, giving Spottedleaf a certain look as she spoke, realizing that there was logic in her words. Her father did care about her happiness, it was all he ever wanted. If he was here now, he would want to protect her and still want to preserve her happiness.
It hurt seeing the Clan turn on itself, and even though Sandpaw understood, it still hurt that she was lied to. She let out a brief sigh and nuzzled into Spottedleaf, her eyes downcast. "What...does this all mean for me?" she asked, her voice wavering as she dreaded what her aunt would say.
Spottedleaf stayed quiet for a few seconds before letting out a sigh, giving her niece a sorrowful look. "It means you are a beast of blood, of hunger, and of power. Even with so little of it running through your veins, you are still demon. Your strength will be your greatest weapon and if you do not not control it, your hunger will be your ultimate downfall."
Spottedleaf then left Sandpaw, getting up to go to the back of her den and pulled out a bundle wrapped in leaves before placing it in front of Sandpaw sniffed the packet before her aunt unwrapped it. It smelled like some kind of meat, but none that she ever knew.
Spottedleaf unfurled the packet, revealing a hunk of dried meat and looked at Sandpaw, this time not looking away, despite the danger. "You have to eat this or else your hunger will grow so great, you'll go mad."
Sandpaw looked at the dried piece of meat, narrowing her eyes and gulping, the smell of it causing her mouth to water and drool for some reason. "What...what is it?" a part of her, a tiny part, knew what Spottedleaf was going to say but Sandpaw was hoping beyond hope that she was wrong.
"I've known you were going to awaken sooner or later, and I know the dangers of trying to deny what you are. Sandpaw, I don't want that for you. This is cat flesh, from one I've killed myself. You have to eat it, or you'll only fall into the blood-soaked darkness of a ravenous beast."
A/N: Dun Dun Duuuuun~ Well, that one hell of a choice to make, I wonder what Sandpaw will choose? Here's a not so obvious hint: it won't be the right choice, at least, not for a while. In the next chapter, you'll see how it all goes down. Until then, please enjoy.
