Chapter 3

"Highs and Lows."

1/8/18 - 1/9/18 - 1/10/18 - 1/12/18 - 1/13/18 - 1/14/18 - 1/16/18 - 1/17/18 - 1/18/18

~ Crowpaw ~

Foxfur sent him on a hunting mission this afternoon for a rumored weasel sneaking around the edge of camp. Concerns for the kits made Heatherstar double the patrols to hunt down the rodent. The jet black tom brushes off a stray leaf off his shoulder, to which lands on Dapplepaw's nose causing her to sneeze. Not only was Crowpaw picked out for the mission by seniority, but so was Dapplepaw, on the condition that she would stick with him due to her inexperienced navigation skills.

The two apprentices search near the Twoleg nest, and find an interesting sight. Five Twolegs in white and blue pelts smearing russet colors on the nest's sides, some of the russet colors were on some the Twoleg's pink skin.

"What are they doing?" Dapplepaw whispers to him.

"No clue." Crowpaw keeps his eyes fixed on one Twoleg female who climbs off the skinny tree. The Twoleg female locks eyes with Crowpaw, and makes a soft, crooning sound that grabs the others attention.

Crowpaw's fur spikes up. "We have to go!" Crowpaw nudges Dapplepaw to give her a head start, and runs after her.

Crowpaw and Dapplepaw made sure to keep the distance between them and the Twolegs. They stop near the Greenleaf Twolegplace den, knowing that the Twolegs from Green-leaf's past have left ages ago.

"Let's agree never to look a Twoleg in the eye." Crowpaw said, padding back to their territory.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Dapplepaw huffs, following the black tom.

Crowpaw enters the marshy land, his comfort within becomes difficult knowing that the Twolegs were so close to the camp. It isn't long before he and Dapplepaw run into the sunhigh patrol. The leader Adderclaw looks down on the two apprentices.

"Don't tell me that a measly weasel is too much for you two."

Crowpaw almost spits at the arrogant tom when Dapplepaw speaks up.

"We saw Twolegs by the abandoned Twoleg nest."

Adderclaw squints at Dapplepaw distastefully when Longfoot says,

"Heatherstar would want to hear this."

Adderclaw looks ready to keep arguing, but he obviously thought better of it and leads the patrol and the two apprentices to camp.

Adderclaw talks quietly with Heatherstar, Crowpaw wishes he could stroll over there and listen in.

After all, it hasn't stopped me before ~.

Just outside of the nursery, Shimmerkit is playing with Heatherstar's kits and the three youngest kits, Snakekit, Volekit and Stoatkit. Newtkit is watching Heatherstar talking when Shimmerkit calls him out.

"Newtkit! Wishfeather told us to play with the kits!"

Newtkit rolls his eyes. "I'm busy."

Volekit narrows his eyes on the five moon old tom, Stoatkit slowly backs away.

"On second thought, I'm still a bit tired…"

"But we just got up!" Snakekit protests.

Shimmerkit stomps over to Newtkit and yanks his tail.

"I don't like this anymore than you, but Wishfeather said to make them feel welcome."

"Forget about it." Volekit snorts, turning his back. "We'll have fun by ourselves."

Shimmerkit's eyes flash with annoyance. "Newtkit…"

The dark grey grey tabby tom shakes his head.

"Why should I pretend to like those half-breeds?"

Crowpaw's breath hitched at the taunt and stands rigidly, looking at Volekit's amber eyes widen with ire.

"Who are you calling a half-breed, half-breed? You don't even know who your father is!"

"Neither do you!" Newtkit counters. "Or your mother, for that matter! You should be thankful that we didn't throw you out into the fox's den."

Foxfur casually saunters by, coughing to grab their attention. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Nothing! We're just deciding on a game to play." Shimmerkit said, looking at Volekit.

The grey tabby tom glares at the two, older kits before turning away again.

"I'm sleeping in."

"Me too." Snakekit said. Stoatkit follows her brothers inside the nursery without another word.

"You should consider other cats' feelings before you judge them, it can affect their self esteem in a bad way." Foxfur told the two older kits.

Shimmerkit shoves Newtkit, who looks back at her in bewilderment.

"What?"

"I told you!"

"Oh, so it's my fault that their too sensitive?"

"You're the one who started it!"

Crowpaw forces himself to move away from the two littermates, just to breath.

The three youngest kits were the talk of the Clan after Streamlily and Lichenfall, the elder, brought them in, abandoned by their mother. The rumors are always about them being outsiders and how some of them resemble Lichenfall, but the latter was quickly dropped.

But the teasing of the kits brought up Crowpaw's treatment for being born in ThunderClan before Featherwing brought him to ShadowClan to be closer to his deceased father, Swiftstrike. But the stigma around him still stands, and as Featherwing said more than once, he has to prove himself.

Crowpaw hears his name being called, he looks and pads to Heatherstar.

"I'm proud of you for taking charge of the situation, Crowpaw. You have the instinct of a warrior at a young age, that's rare."

"Why are the Twolegs messing with that den?"

"Who cares? Twolegs are crazy." Adderclaw scoffs, padding away. Crowpaw glares at him briefly before looking at Heatherstar.

"I don't know, but the warriors will take a look into it. You just focus on your training."

The ShadowClan leader pads away to talk to Foxfur. Just then, he hears yowling from the entrance and pricks his ears and turns in the direction.

"-If you hadn't gotten in the way, that sparrow wouldn't have escaped!"

"You ran into me, remember?"

"And you didn't even move out of the way - how can you not see me coming, Tigersniff?!"

Otterheart and Swallowfur appear from behind the boulder, Dawnpaw's fur is bristling while Tigerpaw is lashing his tail with annoyance clear on his face.

Swallowfur turns to the ginger and black she-cat. "Dawnpaw, give it a rest! If I hear you antagonize your denmate one more time, I'll hold you from going to the next Gathering."

Tigerpaw leaves without hearing Dawnpaw's reply, flopping by the fresh-kill pile just as Marshfoot approaches the pile and stops in front of him.

"Stop blocking the prey! There's others here besides you!" Marshfoot snaps.

Tigerpaw rolls around, and lands on the other side to allow Marshfoot room. The brown and black tom rolls his eyes and takes a shrew from the pile before padding away. Crowpaw approaches Tigerpaw and prods his young denmate's flank.

"What was it this time?" Crowpaw asks.

Tigerpaw lifts his head off the ground. "You heard her, didn't you?"

Crowpaw chuckles sheepishly, while Mudtail passes by, rolling his eyes.

"It's sad how you can't handle a simple she-cat. Where's your dignity?"

"I have one." Tigerpaw said, getting up to rest on his stomach. "But suppose you wouldn't know about it since Streamlily shredded you back then."

Mudtail blinks in shock before turning tail and leaving. Crowpaw flicks his ear.

"When did you get so snippy?"

Tigerpaw groans. "I have a bad feeling that Dawnpaw is corrupting me."

~ Sharppaw ~

The gray and white tom slowly circles around Wildpaw, watching his movements carefully. Then, Wildpaw runs towards him with paws outstretched. Sharppaw jumps over Wildpaw, and he turns around to face the ginger and white tom. Wildpaw swipes his paws back and forth, Sharppaw jerks his head back - every time to dodge.

Wildpaw quickly becomes impatient. The ginger and white tom lunges forward and Sharppaw stands his ground, surprisingly. Wildpaw grabs Sharppaw's widening shoulders, and the gray and white tom bites down on Wildpaw's scruff.

He pulls off Wildpaw while he's surprised, and throws him towards Gorsewing.

"That's enough." Gorsewing cries out. "Sharppaw, what was that about?"

Sharppaw lowers his tail. "Oh… Nutbranch taught us that move when we were kits. I thought it was cool, so…"

The white tom and gray splotched tom twitches his whiskers.

"It's good, but you need to keep in mind that some of your denmates aren't as big as you, you might hurt them."

"He didn't hurt me!" Wildpaw protests, looking at Rockfur. "I want to try it again."

Rockfur shakes his head. "We've been training since this sunrise, we should take a break."

"I agree." Gorsewing said.

~ Moonpaw ~

It isn't long before she sees her brother return with Gorsewing and approaches the fresh-kill pile. Sharppaw eyes her funny.

"How long have you've been sitting here?"

Moonpaw is chewing on the meat of a falcon, and it didn't look entirely finished.

"You were still out. Sandpool gave me this and told me to finish every piece of meat."

"Can I have some? Gorsewing forgot to let me eat."

Moonpaw rips a big chunk off the breast and pushes it to Sharppaw. The gray and white tom eagerly bites into the falcon as Wrenpaw, Meadowpaw and Tallpaw come over. Wrenpaw stops by Moonpaw, cocking her head to the side.

"Wow, that's a lot of falcon for a cat your size." She comments.

Moonpaw's fur prickles with unease, the falcon meat suddenly tastes like crow-food on her taste buds.

"But that's okay!" Wrenpaw chirps in a honey sweet tone. "I'm sure your mentor makes sure you have just enough to eat. She's an expert in that regard!"

Wrenpaw takes a rabbit before padding away. Moonpaw swallows, and stands up from the falcon before pushing it to Sharppaw. Her brother blinks in concern.

"I thought you were eating."

"I'm not that hungry." Moonpaw said. Meadowpaw narrows her eyes as the silvery gray tabby she-cat leaves the three apprentices.

Tallpaw looks at Meadowpaw. "What was that about?"

"It's… a she-cat thing. I'll talk to you later."

Moonpaw enters the medicine cat den where Softdawn and Pheasantpaw were practicing herb memory.

"Moonpaw." Softdawn greets her. "How can we help you?"

"I don't feel good." Moonpaw whispers. Softdawn pads to the WindClan apprentice and gestures for her to lay down. Moonpaw rests on her side as Softdawn presses her paw on her stomach, Pheasantpaw watches close to her mentor.

"Moonpaw, did this feeling show up first thing in the morning?"

"No, not at all…"

Softdawn's green eyes glimmer.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Wrenpaw, would it?"

"No!" Moonpaw's body tenses under Softdawn's touch.

Meadowpaw makes her way in the den, holding and dropping a pigeon near Moonpaw.

"That's nice of you, Meadowpaw." Softdawn told the mottled gray she-cat. Meadowpaw nods, and stares at Moonpaw sternly.

Moonpaw realizes that she isn't getting out of eating this time, and her stomach is pushing her toward the pigeon. Moonpaw pulls the grey bird toward her before taking a bite out of it.