I woke up the next morning pretty stiff and pretty early. Sleeping on moss wasn't comfortable. I stepped out of the apprentice's den and looked up at the sky. The sky was still dark, with the sun waiting on the edges. I closely avoided all the bramble thickets and the annoying green plants that were in the den for… protection? Whatever.
No one was around so early, but I couldn't go back to sleep. Brackenfur showed me the territory. Maybe it'll be okay to have a walk, just to remember it better, I thought. I knew that taking a walk without supervision was dangerous, but I couldn't bite back the stubbornness of wanting to take a walk without those walking stand kind of thingie with wheels on the bottom of it to support you.
Oh, wait. It's guarded. I looked at Thornclaw who was guarding the camp. He was looking at me curiously.
"I guess there's someone up in this time," I mumbled to myself. I looked again at the sky. Nope, still dark.
"Hey. Do you think it'll be alright if I could take a walk?" I asked, trying to look like it didn't really matter and I wouldn't care if he said no.
"Sure. You should be used to the territories." Thornclaw narrowed his eyes, but let me pass through. My heart did a little backflip and I started heading to… well, I didn't really head over to any place. I literally just walked, and that was it. I tried to walk silently, but the rough tree roots and all those rocks really made it easy to do that!
A stroll around the territory was nice. I made it to the Sky Oak, then decided it was about time to go back. I stepped very cautiously, making my pace slower, but able to dodge thorns. I halted. I… smell something… but what is it? It was something nasty, like an old chocolate bar with fresh-made lemonade. Oh, and add your dad's socks. It was winter, and the day was really cold so I couldn't really smell anything except the strong scent of the smelly stuff and the frost.
Just suddenly when I was about to ignore the scent, something brown and orangeish, and kind of gray too, burst. I widened my eyes, realizing it was a fox. My eyes searched for an escape route. The fox was only two meters from me, and the trees blocked anything possible. I could run between the trees, but that will be running straight to the fox.
The fox stepped closer menacingly. I closed my eyes. Is this reincarnation? The ability to die again when you've had a second chance? The fox ran straight into me, and I expected blood pouring out and the fox ripping through my flesh.
Well, I didn't. I slowly opened one eye and took a peek. The fox was jumping, pouncing on me. Except… it didn't really. It was just frozen there, all four paws off the ground.
Should I kill it? The thought came loose to me later than I'd thought. But I couldn't kill this thing! Even though it was frozen it was… umm… hard to bite? I mustn't let a fox loose in the territory, but maybe the other warriors can kill it and I can just, lock it away?
So that was when I got the stupid idea of weaving a cage. It took hours, but not really because of the frozen time. I found a nice enough hole for the fox and heaved its body over there. Then, I put the cage kind of thing around it. I hoped it was strong enough.
I felt relieved, relieved to be done with the fox. Just at that moment, time unfroze. The fox attacked a boulder. It didn't seem to know how to get over the cage-like thing I made, thinking about the TV show I would watch, something like Larry's Guide to Surviving in the Wild just to fill up the time.
I noticed that the sun was going up now, so I quickly returned to camp.
"Fawnpaw! Where've you been?" Lionblaze asked when he saw me returning. I stared at his amber eyes. Okay, I definitely didn't want to get on his bad side. Perhaps it was the fact that I knew about his power he looked so… menacing.
"Oh, I was just out for a walk when it was early because I couldn't sleep. I encountered-" I froze, thinking that I shouldn't say what happened to me to any cat. What exactly did I do? Freeze the fox? Why can I do that? How? "...Nothing. Such a relief, right?" Lionblaze narrowed his eyes but I was sure that he wouldn't have a guess about what I did.
"Do you want to try hunting together? After you grab something from the pile, I mean." The golden tom offered. I guess I could try, I thought. I doubted that I would catch anything, but I didn't worry about that.
"Sure. Just a minute!" I half-ran to the fresh-kill pile and took a vole. I wolfed it down and after cleaning up, I went back to face Lionblaze.
"Done!" I proudly announced.
"Well then, let's go." Having a real hunting session with a warrior was strange. Of course, I'd only been here for one full day, but I've only practiced the crouch and stalking. It was only then that the thought that I should've at least tried to hunt on my walk instead of play with a fox dawned on me.
"Fawnpaw! Do you smell that?" Lionblaze whispered. I sniffed the air, searching for prey. …What's that scent? I caught something that was not frost or soil. It was familiar… Like something I've already smelled.
"Is it a vole?" I cautiously guessed, thinking of the vole I ate. A dead one and a living one were quite different, but the two resembled each other.
"Well done." Lionblaze gave me a nod of approval. "Now be quiet and try to catch it." I got down on four paws just like I'd practiced. I tasted the air. From the books, they'd check the wind. I couldn't detect any wind, never mind its direction. I decided to wing it and crouched lower, creeping up on where I could hear the vole chittering, looking for anything to eat.
Careful not to step on anything, I kept walking towards it. I could see the vole more clearly now. Just… a step more… I got ready to pounce, just when a mark of alarm came across the vole's face and its eyes met mine. It started running. No! I closed my eyes and sighed, ready to accept defeat. But when I opened them, it was weird again. The vole stood still. Curiously, I walked towards it. Still nothing. I was completely visible, but nothing. I nudged the vole's flank carefully. It was just like the fox. Not lifeless, but deadly still. I looked around this time. The trees were still, which was normal. I navigated my way to where Lionblaze was.
"Hi?" I stood on tip-toes and tried to get his attention. But he was frozen too, just like the vole and basically everything else. I kicked up some dirt. It shot up to the air, for I have underestimated it, and closed my eyes, bracing for a shower of earth. Nothing fell on me. When I opened my eyes, taking a peak, it was just as I expected. The dirt was still there in the sky, floating, but still frozen like the vole.
"What the h?" I stared at the brown powder hovering over me. I carefully crept forwards. I walked back to the vole. The vole was still there, still as always. I hooked it up and bit its neck, hoping it was clean enough but also enough to kill it. I closed my eyes again and willed it to stop.
"Fawnpaw! Did you get it?" Lionblaze padded over to me. I looked at the lifeless body of the vole in front of me.
"Yeah." I choked out, still remembering the experience. Lionblaze sniffed and studied the vole.
"A clean cut. Isn't this your first time?" I knew Lionblaze's tone was more 'Wow, you're amazing!' not suspicious, but I still wanted to be careful.
"I think it was so cold it lost its energy. It saw me, but didn't give me a chase." I lied.
"Leaf-bare must be getting to the prey too. Let's dig that here, we can pick it up later when heading back to camp." I smiled and trotted closer to the golden-pelted warrior. I'm not sure what I did, but I think it's positive!
TMI1: Fawnpaw can get messed up with the timeline sometimes, but she devoted her life to reading the books over and over again so she has a very good memory of what happened.
TMI2: The cats don't know what fawn means, but Fawn sometimes explains what fawn means to some cats. But I don't know if they should know because there's Deerleap, but no deers mentioned. Well, there's Lion' and Tiger' too, I suppose.
TMI3: Fawn died, definitely in her old life, but she doesn't feel any trauma or something against it. She remembers death as a quick but powerful force that took her suddenly, covering up every pain, so she doesn't really remember a lot about her old life except for her daily life that repeated a lot and dying.