Chapter 23 Talk and Border
After everyone cheered, Whitestar flicked his tail for silence.
"Meeting dismissed." He meowed.
Cats gathered around the new apprentices and their mentors and as they congratulated them, Shinefur approached Lightclaw and Stormpaw and was smiling.
"I'm so proud of you, Lightclaw. Your mother would be too." She meowed.
"Yep, she would be." He meowed blushing; his ears flattening a bit.
"You listen to Lightclaw, now. Do as he says, alright?" Shinefur meowed.
"I will mom." Stormpaw meowed.
Shinefur walked past the two and headed towards Frozenpelt and Blizzardpaw. As the two watched, Stormpaw nudged Lightclaw to get his attention.
"So Lightclaw, what are we going to do today?" Stormpaw asked.
"Nothing exciting I'm afraid. We're going to explore the territory, and then tomorrow, we'll begin your training." He meowed.
"Cool! Can I train with Duskpaw?" Stormpaw meowed excited.
"Umm, sure, but, wouldn't you like to train with Blizzardpaw?" Lightclaw asked.
Suddenly, Stormpaw's ears flattened, his expression changed to sadness, and he looked away from Lightclaw.
"Blizzardpaw and I haven't really gotten along ever since I've been hanging out with Duskpaw, her sisters, Applepaw, and Gingerpaw. Mom's been the only one to keep the peace, but now that we're apprentices, I'm scared to make a nest and sleep in the apprentices den without the thought of being teased." Stormpaw explained.
Lightclaw felt sympathy for his apprentice/his half-brother. He put his tail on Stormpaw's shoulder and Stormpaw looked at him.
"Look, when I was an apprentice, the thought of being teased crossed my mind, but one night, when Brightshine and Wolffang started teasing me, I reminded them that I was not a cat they should mess with." Lightclaw meowed.
"How did you do it?" Stormpaw asked surprised.
"I showed them my claws and they reminded them to not mess with me. Brightshine didn't want to loose her beauty and Wolffang didn't want to loose his good looks." Lightclaw meowed.
Both cats chuckled in amusement, then saw that the rest of the clan and slaves were returning back to their normal duties and the new apprentices and their mentors were leaving camp.
"Come on, lets join the patrol." Lightclaw meowed.
Both cats joined the large group and left the camp. As they walked, the apprentices admired the beauty of the forest around them. The green trees, the beautiful flowers, the sunlight beaming over the forest, the beautiful sky with a few clouds, the birds chirping, and insects were flying and crawling all over the place. Lightclaw smiled at the apprentices as this is how he felt when he first saw the forest. The slaves and the apprentices were a few feet behind the warriors. Lightclaw looked over and saw Moonsong and Echoshine giving disapproving glares at the slaves.
"Darkheart, Blackfur, and Tinydawn should've never gotten an apprentice, it's too soon." Moonsong meowed.
"Oh come on Moonsong, Darkheart's got to do something eventually. You know she can't mourn Darkpaw forever." Echoshine meowed.
"I'm going to have to agree with Moonsong, Echoshine. Darkheart's not dying, there's no need for her to have an apprentice now." Frozenpelt agreed reluctantly.
"What do you mean? It's just a leader taking a cat as her apprentice." Lightclaw asked confused.
"Well, in slave culture, a slave leader's successor is their second-born sibling, mate, or their first-born kit. If the slave leader doesn't have either and they're old/dying, they can take an apprentice as their successor." Frozenpelt explained.
"Didn't Shinefur or your father tell you this?" Moonsong asked.
"No, no one told me." Lightclaw meowed.
"I'm surprised. I would've think you would've known since you hang out with the slaves a lot." Echoshine commented.
"Speaking of which, why do you hang out with them? Why not hang out with real warriors like us?" Moonsong asked smirking.
"Who I hang out with is none of your business Moonsong, at least those cats are better than cats like you." Lightclaw snapped.
Frozenpelt and Echoshine looked at him shocked and scared and Moonsong looked at him annoyed. All four warriors remained silent. Lightclaw looked back to see if the slaves, their apprentices or if the warrior apprentices had heard their conversation. If they had, then they were really good at hiding it. Blizzardpaw was standing next to Mistypaw, jabbing at her and calling her names. Mistypaw was trying to ignore him.
"Look at the poor, stupid slave. Too weak to actually be a real warrior, how pathetic!" Blizzardpaw laughed.
Frozenpelt and the other warriors stopped in their tracks. He turned and headed towards Blizzardpaw; enraged and full of fury.
"Blizzardpaw! If I hear you say one more word to Mistypaw, I'll have your pelt. When you're my apprentice, I expect you to be nice to slaves. They are cats just like you, got it?!" Frozenpelt scolded.
"Y-Y-Yes, Frozenpelt." He stammered terrified.
Lightclaw, Echoshine, Moonsong, the warrior apprentices, the slave apprentices, and the slaves were shocked by Frozenpelt's temper. Usually, Frozenpelt was calm and patient, but this was different. Frozenpelt turned around and headed back to the group. Blossomsnow stepped forward.
"Frozenpelt, that was harsh, don't you think?" she meowed gently.
He stopped in his tracks.
"Blossomsnow, you know that apprentices need this type of scolding, it helps them to mature and besides, Blizzardpaw needed to be reminded that he can't talk to cats like that, especially not to beautiful she-cats like you and Mistypaw." Frozenpelt meowed calmly.
He smiled at Mistypaw, in which she smiles back. Frozenpelt turned around and went back to the group. The group reached the edge of the southern border and sat down. The slaves and the apprentices were right behind them.
"This here is the southern border, it borders our territory from the twolegs and if we had kept going, we would've reached twoleg territory." Lightclaw explained.
"Has the twolegs ever came into our territory?" Shimmerpaw asked.
"No, they haven't. At least, not to our knowledge." Moonsong meowed.
After an entire day of showing the new apprentices around the territory, it was nighttime and everyone returned to camp. The warriors and slaves headed for their dens and the warrior and slave apprentices were in the clearing talking and chattering to one another. Lightclaw noticed that Stormpaw was talking to Duskpaw, her sisters, Applepaw, and Gingerpaw and it looked like he was in love with Duskpaw. Lightclaw also noticed that Blizzardpaw, Shimmerpaw, and Glimmerpaw were looking at the group and they were laughing and snickering. Lightclaw glared at them; realizing that they would never learn from just one little scolding. After a few minutes, the slave apprentices went to their den for the night, and Blizzardpaw, Glimmerpaw, and Shimmerpaw went into the apprentices den. Stormpaw stared on at the den; his ears flattened and he looked scared. Lightclaw approached him.
"Remember, remind them that they don't intimidate you or scare you, got it?" he meowed.
Stormpaw nodded and headed towards the den. Lightclaw headed off and went into the punishment den. He laid down on the nest he made and fell asleep. Why was he sleeping in the punishment den instead of the warriors den? Well, Lightclaw had spent most of his apprenticeship in here and he would rather sleep here than with the three cats that caused Darkpaw's death. Lightclaw's plan was in motion, he had an apprentice. Now, all he had to do was figure out how to kill Snaketooth, Brightshine, Wolffang, Daisypetal, Moon, and most importantly, Whitestar.
To the guest reviewer that asked me about Flowerpaw and Petalpaw (both past and present)
Flower was formerly known as Flowerpaw and Petal was formerly known as Petalpaw. I wanted the names to be different so that there wouldn't be any confusion. Plus, both cats are completely different than the present day Flowerpaw and Petalpaw. While Lightclaw did save Flowershine from being killed, Whitestar helped Flower and Petal escape Lightclan. Do you understand?
To the guest reviewer that asked why I shipped Ivypool and Hawkfrost (if you are the same one)
Well, it started about a year ago when I stumbled on a author's story about how Hawkfrost had changed and won Ivypool's heart and they soon had kits. It was one of the few reasons why I did what I did. Plus, Ivypool and Hawkfrost are completely different cats. Hawkfrost isn't evil and Ivypool never joins the dark forest. True, their descriptions are familiar to the ones in the books, but they're completely different and I don't own warriors.