Chapter five
Bisonpaw trudged towards the apprentices den, her tail droopy with exhaustion. The patrol hadn't gotten back to camp until the sun was slowly dropping towards the horizon.
Bisonpaw crawled into the den, and pulled herself towards a nest.
"Tired?" Rootpaw chuckled as Bisonpaw laid down at his paws.
"Exhausted." She sighed.
"Did you have fun?" A dark brown she-cat asked.
"Oh yes, definitely!" Bisonpaw sat up, happy to talk about her day, "It was so amazing to be outside the camp for the first time! There were-"
"Shut up, I don't want you blabbing while I'm trying to get some sleep." Firepaw padded into the apprentice's den, rudely interrupting Bisonpaw.
Fur ball. Bisonpaw thought angrily, shooting him a glare.
"Frogpaw, go tell Firepaw what he did wrong, you seem very good at that." Rootpaw meowed sarcastically at the dark brown she-cat.
"Really? You're still angry about that?" Frogpaw flicked her tail, lifting an eyebrow skeptically.
"Yes, actually, I am." Rootpaw stiffened.
"You're such a mouse-brain! I was just trying to be helpful." Frogpaw frowned, "You were sloppy on you're landing, and I was just giving you constructive criticism."
"How about you give you're 'constructive criticism' to yourself!" Rootpaw hissed, "You seemed to have forgotten how to catch a mouse this morning."
"How dare you!" Frogpaw's yellow eyes burned with anger, "You were the one who stepped on a twig while I was stalking it!"
"Can you please stop fighting?" Bisonpaw squeaked quietly.
"No!" Frogpaw and Rootpaw hissed in unison, turning to her.
Bisonpaw shrunk back, her ears pressing back against her head.
Rootpaw softened, "I guess." He muttered.
Icepaw, Meadowpaw, and Blossompaw soon joined the other three apprentices in the den.
Bisonpaw purred as Meadowpaw plopped down next to her, "You look exhausted."
"No more exhausted than you." Meadowpaw replied, rolling onto his back.
"Well then, we should get some sleep." Bisonpaw yawned, her jaws gaping wide. She lowered her head on her paws. She let out a relaxing sigh, and closed her eyes.
"Goodnight." She murmured
"Goodnight, Bisonpaw." Meadowpaw mewed gently.
The sounds of night slowly dissipated as Bisonpaw fell soundly asleep.
…
"Bisonpaw! Bisonpaw, wake up!" Bisonpaw could hear a distant voice. Suddenly, she felt a sharp poke and opened her eyes. She blinked against the bright sunlight filtering into the apprentices den.
"Bisonpaw, today is the first day of training! Get up, lazy badger, or we'll be late!" Meadowpaw said hurriedly, urging Bisonpaw to move faster.
Bisonpaw rose to her paws, and stretched her limbs, letting them wake up.
"C'mon! All the other apprentices are waiting!" Meadowpaw rushed out of the den.
"Coming!" She called and chased after Meadowpaw, focusing on trying to catch his fluffy, cream tail tip.
Meadowpaw stopped, and Bisonpaw halted just before she could crash into him.
"Finally!" Firepaw complained, "I thought we'd have to sit here all day."
"Stop complaining. It's only just past dawn, we have plenty of time." Mushroomhill, Firepaw's mentor, scolded the young apprentice.
"Everyone ready?" This time, Shadedbramble stood at the front, and she looked over the patrol.
Bisonpaw noted that only. Firepaw, Mushroomhill, Icepaw, Twigbee, Blossompaw, Duckglade, Yellowivy, and Meadowpaw. No Rootpaw or Frogpaw. They must be training on their own, since they're more experienced. Bisonpaw realized.
When everyone was ready, Shadedbramble headed off. Bisonpaw trotted at her mentor's side and watched each pine tree she passed. The morning light shined through the pine needles and warmed Bisonpaw's fur.
Mushroomhill padded up beside them with ease, "What shall we practice first?"
"I think we should teach hunting separately first, then maybe we could practice some basic fighting moves together?" Shadedbramble suggested.
Mushroomhill nodded in agreement, and fell back to tell the other mentors the plan.
Finally, the patrol reached their destination, The Burnt Sycamore. Shadedbramble turned to face the rest of the patrol.
"You know the plan, meet back here just past sunhigh." The brown and black speckled she-cat nodded to the patrol.
Each pair headed in a different direction until Bisonpaw was left alone with Shadedbramble.
"First," Her mentor began, "Hunter's crouch. Show me what you've got."
Busonpaw crouched down confidently, remembering when Rootpaw had shown her how to do it as a kit.
"Good!" Shadedbramble praised, "You just need to tuck your paws underneath you more, and your tail shouldn't stick up, but it should drag on the ground either."
Bisonpaw corrected her mistakes, and looked back up at Shadedbramble.
"Now creep forward." She ordered.
Bisonpaw placed one of her big paws softly after the other, trying to creep quietly across the leaf covered ground.
"You're as loud as a badger." Shadedbramble snorted, "Pretend you're as light as a feather."
"But I'm not!" Bisonpaw pointed out.
"Just try," Shadedbramble sighed.
Bisonpaw tried again, focusing on her paws, letting her weight spread evenly throughout her limbs. One big paw in front of the other.
"Perfect." Shadedbramble nodded, "Stand up."
Bisonpaw did as she was told.
"Now do it again." Shadedbrambled flicked her tail.
"What do you mean?" Bisonpaw tilted her head.
"Get in the Hunter's crouch and crawl again." Shadedbramble clarified.
Bisonpaw groaned, but did as she was told, repeating the process.
Shadedbramble had her doing this over and over for what felt like forever. Crouch, crawl, stand, crouch, crawl, stand, until the others finally returned.
Bisonpaw noticed that Firepaw was carrying a plump squirrel in his jaws. His smug green eyes met hers and he lifted his head higher. A spark of jealousy bloomed in her chest, Firepaw got to catch prey, while I was stuck crouching and crawling the whole time!
Bisonpaw huffed and turned away. She shifted over to Meadowpaw, and sat down next to him.
"I wonder what moves we'll learn!" Bisonpaw whispered excitedly.
"I'm not sure, but I am sure that whatever it is, you're going to lose." Meadowpaw teased.
"Sure, let yourself believe that." Bisonpaw snorted.
"Now that we're all here, let's begin." Mushroomhill meowed above the cats' chatter, "I'm going to show you all a basic move, and you're going to copy me."
Mushroomhill nodded to Shadedbramble, and she stepped in front of him, and turned to face him. Both cats had their paws spread apart, paws ready to pounce. Then Mushroomhill leapt into the air, landing carefully on Shadedbramble's speckled back. Shadedbramble was pushed to the ground, her limbs splaying out underneath her.
Mushroomhill leapt off, and turned to face the gaping apprentices, "Now I want you to try it. Shadedbramble?"
Shadedbramble got to her feet and groomed her fur, "Yes?" She replied through licks.
"Should we assign partners, or should they try it on their mentors?" Mushroomhill asked.
Shadedbramble thought for a moment before answering, "Partners."
"Would you assign them please?" Mushroomhill requested.
Shadedbramble nodded, and looked carefully over the apprentices.
"Icepaw and Meadowpaw, Firepaw and Bisonpaw, and Blossompaw," Shadedbramble paused, "You can train with Duckglade."
Bisonpaw deflated, and groaned. She looked across at Firepaw, who looked just as annoyed.
"Do I have to train with her?" Firepaw groaned, casting a look of disdain in Bisonpaw's direction.
"Yep." Shadedbramble answered unsympathetically and turned to converse with Mushroomhill.
"Let's get this over with." Bisonpaw squared up to Firepaw.
"Like you have a chance." Firepaw snorted, copying Bisonpaw's stance.
"Bring it on." A flare of determination flowed through her body, she was ready.
Firepaw leapt, his ginger paws reaching towards her, like the gaping jaws of a fox. A yowl escaped her lips when he landed square on her back. The move had thrown her off blance, but hadn't made her collapse. She shook Firepaw off, and he flew through the air and landed with a thump onto a pile of leaves. Firepaw quickly shot up, looking disgruntled, his pelt covered with leaves and pine needles.
"You look like a leaf monster!" Bisonpaw exclaimed, and started laughing.
"I'd like to see you after you were flung of a giants back." Firepaw hissed.
"I'm not a giant." Bisonpaw stopped laughing.
"Sure, you totally don't tower over the rest of us, in fact, you're a runt." Firepaw mewed sarcastically.
"Take that back." A growl rumbled in the back of her throat, her hackles rising and her fur bristling.
"Giant, Giant," Firepaw teased.
Bisonpaw leapt before she knew what she was doing. She flared with a fire of burning anger. With her claws unsheathed, she landed on Firepaw's back, digging her claws into his fur.
"What are you doing?" He grunted in pain as he fell to the ground.
Bisonpaw's ears burned with rage, her eyes filling with red, hot anger as she dug her claws deeper, deeper, deeper.
"You are the most rude, mean, and intolerable tom I have ever met." She growled.
"Is that a complement?" Firepaw groaned sarcastically through gritted teeth.
"Bisonpaw!" A voice rang out through the clearing and Bisonpaw felt herself being torn from Firepaw's back, "Snap out of it."
The red faded from Bisonpaw's vision and she blinked at Shadedbramble, who was giving her a hard look.
"Sorry." She mumbled, looking down at her paws.
"It's not me you should be apologizing to." Shadedbramble turned her gaze behind Bisonpaw.
Bisonpaw swivled around to see Firepaw, his green eyes flaring with anger and resentment. Blood trickled from claw marks on his back— Bisonpaw's claw marks.
"I'm sorry." Her ears turned red hot and she glared at her paws.
When Firepaw didn't answer, Bisonpaw looked up. Firepaw was giving her a smug look, and it made her angry, but she held her tongue, returning a hard look.
"I think that's enough practice for today." Yellowivy meowed, watching the two angry apprentices wearily.
"Agreed." Duckglade sighed in agreement, "Shall I take the lead?"
Mushroomhill nodded, and Duckglade padded away from the Burnt Sycamore.
Bisonpaw shook herself and followed at the end of the patrol.
Quite a bit of fighting in this chapter! You can tell that Rootpaw and Frogpaw have a bit of a complicated relationship. They are actually siblings, and they love each other, but they like to get on each others nerves.
Firepaw and Bisonpaw are the same way, except it's a little more serious. I never really expected to write Bisonpaw attacking him, it just kinda happened.
I haven't posted this yet because I've been busy with school, but I do have seven chapters written down so I can post them, I just decided to separate it a bit. I hope you liked this chapter.
— Theoneandonlylonelypotato