Chapter One: The Secret?
Two lavender eyes glided back and forth across the empty clearing. They caught onto a flicker of movement hidden skillfully behind a clump of thistles. The long white furred she-cat padded softly through the undergrowth, and then suddenly there was a crack of a twig and a furry of tan fur. Thorn-sharp claws raked her ear as Moonpaw was snapped back into reality. Dragonpaw had cuffed her over the ear with sheathed claws. She liked to exaggerate things.
"Come on you lazy furball, we have to go to training!" he meowed. She purred, and followed the sandy tom towards the entrance to the camp. Hopping over boulders and mossy logs, the two cats made their way to the training hollow. The training hollow was a large grassy clearing shaded by huge oak and cottonwood trees. A few smooth rocks lay planted in the ground off to the side.
"About time," grumbled a dark grey tom. "We're sorry, Cinderheart," Dragonpaw mewed, dipping his head to the grey warrior and shooting Moonpaw an annoyed glance. "Someone was caught up their dream world," he added quiet enough so that the senior cat didn't hear. Cinderheart carried on.
"Today," he started, "we are going to go over our hunting skills." The young apprentices groaned, knowing that hunting with Cinderheart made everything the more boring. Moonpaw followed the grey tom alongside her sister, Maplepaw. "I wish Pewterfur would take over training today," Moonpaw mewed quietly, "he makes everything more fun."
"Yeah, and Cinderheart is the exact opposite," she scoffed. The two cats snickered and continued following the warrior on the cool grass of the forest floor.
The five cats made their way back to camp after a long day's work. Moonpaw padded over to put her catch in the fresh kill pile near a smooth rock that was part of the warriors den. The pile was overflowing with plump mice, voles, rabbits and birds, as it was the height of green leaf. She picked out a large thrush and made her way towards the fallen tree that sheltered the apprentice's den.
She sat down beside her sister and bent down to start eating her well deserved meal when a ball of white fur came barreling across the clearing. It was Frozenkit, Willowflower's daughter. She had a wild look in her icy blue eyes. "Did you train today?" she asked the four apprentices excitedly.
"What else would we have done?" Thistlepaw sneered, soft enough so that the thrilled kit wouldn't hear. Moonpaw shot him a warning glance.
"Wow! How great would it be to go training? I can't wait until I'm an apprentice!" she continued.
Willowflower padded up to the eager kit with another small grey one bouncing at her legs. "And it's time you came back to the nursery," she mewed. Frozenkit gave a rebellious moan. "I'm sorry she's been bothering you," Willowflower continued.
"It's good to have a little spirit come to the apprentice's den once in a while," Moonpaw purred. Frozenkit followed her mother back to the sheltered bush that was the nursery, her tail dragging.
Moonpaw pushed away the remains of her thrush, no longer hungry. "Why do you always have to make the worst out of situations?" Maplepaw demanded turning to her brother, Thistlepaw.
"Why do you care?" he meowed heading into the apprentice's den. Maplepaw sighed. "His tongue is as prickly as his name," she mewed to her sister. Moonpaw purred and headed into the den too. She curled up on the soft nest of moss next to the already sleeping Dragonpaw.
Looking up at the night sky, she saw the full moon; alight like silver fire, spewing sparks that glittered across the sea of blue. She stepped lightly across the cool short grass, being careful to step over roots that stuck out of the earthen ground. Moonpaw came into a grassy clearing, a large smooth rock in the middle, only a tail-length high. The whole clearing was flooded with watery moonlight, when Moonpaw noticed that there was another cat in the clearing. The fiery cat's pelt was turned silver by the moonlight, and when his green eyes were gazing at her, she could see all of StarClan glittering within.
The flame-colored cat turned and she could tell something out of the ordinary was about to happen, when a blinding light shot her into reality, and she could feel a paw prodding her side. Moonpaw was staring out the apprentice's den and noticed that Maplepaw was nudging her awake. "Come on, let's get to the training hollow," she mewed.
Moonpaw groaned and heaved herself up. She definitely wasn't a morning person. Padding out into the bright light of dawn, Moonpaw headed towards the fresh kill pile, hoping to get some energy out of the first meal of the day before starting training. She started eating her mouse next to her mother, Emberwhisker. The ginger she-cat purred and continued eating her vole.
Seeing the two cats eating together, Jadewhisker, ForestClan's medicine cat, trotted up to Moonpaw with a worried look in her eye. The small medicine cat flicked her tail motioning for the white apprentice to come have a word with her. Moonpaw obeyed flicking her whiskers to her mother in farewell. Once in the shadow of a grand cottonwood, Jadewhisker let out a sigh. "There's something you need to know," she started. Moonpaw could see that the brown medicine cat had averted her green gaze from Moonpaw's.
"Emberwhisker isn't your mother," she breathed, still staring off at something Moonpaw couldn't see. Moonpaw gasped. "Th-then who is?" she asked, eyes filling with misunderstanding and grief.
"I don't know," the small cat replied, "I found you one morning in the main clearing. You carried a faint scent of TorrentClan, but it could've been rogue. I'm so sorry." Moonpaw let her head droop with grief. "There's one more thing you should know," Jadewhisker added, "Your eyes aren't just coincidence. StarClan sent me your name." The brown tabby touched her tail to the young apprentices shoulder, and headed towards the medicine cat's clearing.
Moonpaw still sat in awe when she caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. The grey figure that she had thought was a rock or dead plant in the undergrowth turned out to be Thistlepaw. There was a sick gleam in his blue eyes. "Rogue," he mocked. She glared at him, slightly taken aback. Why would anyone get joy out of hurting people? There's a bad one in every lot, she thought to herself bitterly, slowly making her way towards the camp entrance. Now that Thistlepaw knew, after a few days, there wouldn't be anyone in camp who didn't.
(A/N: Hmm… cliffy? Well I hope you all like it, this is only my third fanfic, but my second one was just comedy to loosen me up. Anyways pleeeeease R&R :-D)
