Chapter Six:
Told you I would do two in one day! Not like anyone's making sure haha. Anyways, our other main-ish but not really character is introduced here! (REEE I LOVE HIM)
And the next chapter will have updated Allegiances for Shadowclan and Forestclan.
I still need some cat names for the rest of the clans.
- -Brownfur/Nostalgia Claws
Echopaw stood from her nest shakily.
"This is your first dawn patrol!" Thawpaw mewed quietly. His silver and grey pelt was gold in the first light of the sun.
Echopaw blinked, mind still whirling with the confusion of her dream. "Yes," She meowed blankly.
"Then let's go!" Thawpaw lashed his tail around Echopaw's and they walked out of the apprentice den. Ashenspots, Spirestrike, Writheclaws, and Thistlerash were waiting for the apprentices and Ashenspots waved them over with his tail.
The patrol left camp, and began to walk along the borders between the pines and Thunderclan's oaks.
"I smell... mouse!" Echopaw mewed. "Should we catch it?" She asked Thawpaw.
He laughed. "No. We don't catch things on border patrols. At least until leafbare."
"Oh. Well, your turn." The apprentices were taking turns smelling something out, like Thistlerash said they should.
Thawpaw parted his paw and breathed in. "I smell... Thunderclan?"
Echopaw nudged him with her paw. "We're a fox-length away from the border, cheater."
"No, as in an actual patrol," Writheclaws called from the front of the patrol.
Five Thunderclan cats padded close, still on their side of the border, and stopped.
"Hello, Spirestrike!" A blue she-cat called, waving her tail in greeting.
"How's the prey running, Starlingclaw?" Echopaw's father meowed.
"Great for this time in leaffall. How is yours?"
"The same here." Spirestrike stepped over the border into the neutral land and began to talk to the patrol. Echopaw looked at all the cats. The blue she-cat. A ginger tabby tom. A younger white and black tom. And-
Swallowskies, the cat from her dream stared back at her. Echopaw swallowed slowly, and Swallowskies dipped her head in greeting. And behind stepped out a thick, long-furred tom apprentice. His pelt was white dappled with orange and brown, a calico.
"I thought only she-cats could be calico and tortoiseshell," Thawpaw voiced Echopaw's thoughts.
"Rarely, a tom can be a tortoiseshell." Writheclaws looked down at the apprentices. "Say hello. You can talk."
Echopaw stepped closer to the tom, ignoring Swallowskies' hot gaze. "Hello. I'm Echopaw and this is Thawpaw," she introduced.
The tom slowly padded forwards and curled his tail around his paws. "Hi. I'm Heartpaw." Swallowskies nudged him to his feet, and Heartpaw looked down to his paws. "How are you?"
"We're good. And you?" Thawpaw eyed Heartpaw with confusion.
"Good."
The apprentices sat in an awkward silence until their mentors finally finished their conversation.
"Goodbye!" Spirestrike called to the Thunderclan cats one last time, and headed back to camp.
The sun had risen by now, and a thin curtain of clouds clung around them. It was time for battle training with Rapidpaw and Redrose.
Ashenspots led Echopaw back to the training grounds. The peat was solid, but still soft enough to cushion the apprentices. There, Rapidpaw was swatting at the air, claws unsheathed.
"Hi!" She squeaked.
Redrose looked exasperated already. Since Rapidpaw's first mentor, Curlyears, was expecting kits, he had to take over.
"Well, let's start off with some warmups," Ashenspots stretched out his back and legs. Echopaw followed suit.
"Enough warmup, let's fight!" Rapidpaw yelled, tail lashing.
"Now, go easy on Echopaw, she doesn't know as much as you do," Redrose cautioned and flicked his long red tail.
"Ready?" Ashenspots asked the apprentices.
They nodded.
And Rapidpaw launched herself into Echopaw's chest, slamming her into the ground. Echopaw was already out of breath, and her vision blurred, but she stumbled to her feet quickly. While she struggled to recover her senses, Rapidpaw leapt on top of Echopaw's back and pressed her face into the ground.
"Are you alright?" Ashenspots asked, wincing at Echopaw's frame.
"Yes."
No.
Rapidpaw grabbed Echopaw by her scruff and tossed into the ground one last time. Echopaw's vision darkened, and she wailed.
Rapidpaw gaped. "I'm sorry! I thought she would- Well, fight back!" The gold apprentice's ears were folded back in horror.
Ashenspots and Redrose lifted Echopaw to her feet. She shook, weak.
"I'll take her to Streakfern and Spiderclaw." Ashenspots meowed, cooling the panic in his voice.
"I'm so sorry!" Rapidpaw cried.
"Don't be." Echopaw mewed.
Ashenspots let his apprentice lean on him as they walked back to camp.
Fawnflight, Birchpaw, and Bladetooth were sitting in the center of camp.
Fawnflight rushed to Ashenspots' side. "What happened?"
"Echopaw had a little trouble with battle training." The spotted grey cat meowed.
Spiderclaw had just walked from her den. "Come along."
The medicine cat den was a small cave with moss dripping from the ceiling. Herbs were stored in small holes in the ground. A pair of nests were in the corner, with two more near the front. Spiderclaw motioned to Echopaw to sit in one of the nests.
"What happened specifically?"
"I can't fight." Echopaw mewed, forlorn.
"I mean how you got hurt." Spiderclaw grabbed some small-leaved herb that smelt strange, like the entire den.
"My head hit the ground hard." Echopaw curled her tail around her.
Spiderclaw ran her paws over the apprentice's skull. "No soft spots, just a small bruise. You'll be fine." She passed Echopaw the leaves of the herb she had a second ago. "Eat."
Echopaw lapped up the herb. "What is this?"
"Thyme. So you can stop freaking out. Now take these poppy seeds." The small black pearls tasted heady and yet sweet. "Poppy seeds help you sleep, and are good for pain. Now take a nap, and when you wake up, you'll feel much better. Sleep is my favorite medicine." Spiderclaw padded out of the den, presumably to reassure Ashenspots.
The poppy seeds lulled Echopaw into a gentle sleep.
At least until she awoke in Forestclan again. Echopaw's head still pounded, but she was steady on her paws. The brown tabby was alone this time, and took the tunnel into camp. The leaves blotted out the sky once more, and only the Blueglows lit the forest world.
Echopaw slowly padded out of the tunnel, and gazed around at the spirit cats. They laughed and talked around the pool of water. Some were training at one edge of camp. And others slept under the blue lights.
And quite a few of them were living. A silver classic tabby tom slept beside a ghostly white she-cat, tails intertwined. There was a long-furred smoky apprentice that launched herself with astonishing speed at the spirit in front of her.
Echopaw turned, and stood face to face- well, chest, with Blizzardstar. He loomed over her, like any other cat in Forestclan. Zephyrfoot stood beside him, only his ears taller than Echopaw.
"Hey Echoclaw." The grey and white tom grinned.
"Echopaw."
"Claw." Blizzardstar corrected, and brushed past Zephyrfoot. "We have much to work on."
"What?" Echopaw gazed up at the spirit cat.
"I saw what happened. You didn't even attempt to fight back."
Echopaw folded her ears back in shame. "How did you see me?"
Blizzardstar pointed to the pool in the center of camp. "We can watch you whenever we want. Let's train."
Blizzardstar and Zephyrfoot took off towards another tunnel of vines lit by the mushrooms. Echopaw followed, stumbling, and came out in a small hollow, with a barren, plantless floor. Pawprints covered every part of the dirt. In one corner, a gold tabby spirit cat was leaping over a calico cat.
Echopaw pointed to the figures and turned to Zephyrfoot. "The alive calico cat over there, what clan is-"
The figure turned to the sound of voices, and Echopaw recognized the face. "Heartpaw?"
That weird quiet cat.
He blinked slowly and stepped back. "Oh."
"Heartclaw's from Thunderclan." Zephyrfoot answered unhelpfully.
Blizzardstar waved his tail over Echopaw's face, and she glanced at him. "Yes, we're training, remember?"
Echopaw followed the cats to another corner, giving Heartpaw a final glance.
"First move." Zephyrfoot crouched. He let his weight balance evenly and picked up a paw. "See how now I'm easier to push over? Try it."
Echopaw nodded and shoved Zephyrfoot off-balance.
"When you pick up a paw, move your other front paw more to the center, and move up your back leg closest to it."
Echopaw tried to push Zephyrfoot again, but he didn't budge.
"Now your turn." Blizzardstar meowed.
Echopaw crouched the right way and lifted her front paw. Zephyrfoot launched himself at Echopaw, and she fell, but much softer and on her paws.
"Now, continue."
Zephyrfoot pinned Echopaw under his paw and pressed hard. She whimpered and struggled uselessly.
"Kick with your back legs." Blizzardstar circled the cats.
Echopaw obeyed and thrust her hind legs out, the grey & white tom skidding back.
"Get up!"
Quickly, Echopaw rolled onto her paws, then turned and swatted at Zephyrfoot. He ducked back with little effort, and reared up.
"Strike at his stomach, Echoclaw."
Echopaw ran into Zephyrfoot's stomach, and he fell onto his back.
"Pin him."
The brown she-cat jumped over his frame and held his shoulders against the hard ground. "Now what?" She meowed, short of breath.
"Finish him."
"What?" Echopaw's blood chilled. She turned her head towards Blizzardstar, and watched his tabby tail lash in contempt.
"When training, if you pin down your opponent, put a paw at their neck and you've won the battle. No claws, of course."
"Oh." Echopaw placed her paw over Zephyrfoot's throat, then let him free.
"Much better," He meowed, smiling, and cast a look at Blizzardstar that Echopaw couldn't read. "Echoclaw might be saved yet."
Face as stone-like as ever, Blizzardstar nodded. "You may go. Training is over for today."
"So I just wake up?" Echopaw asked.
"You don't have to. You can roam the camp as if it's Shadowclan." Zephyrfoot meowed.
Echopaw grinned and scampered through the blue-lit tunnel into the camp hollow. Cats milled about, still a mix of spirits and living. The brown and white apprentice sat under a branch and watched the strange clan go by.
Until she was crushed under a sack of fur.
"I'm so, so sorry!" The voice sitting on her head cried. As the cat leapt off, Echopaw raised her head to a calico and white pelt.
"Heartpaw?"
He was cringing, ears flat against his head. "I'm so sorry, I was trying to climb, you know, to see if there was a sky behind all those leaves, but my claw slipped, and it's probably wrenched, but I fell down, and it was on you, and I'm sorry." His voice had turned into a whisper by the end of the sentence.
"I'm fine." Echopaw smoothed her fur down with a rasp of her tongue. "How were you climbing a tree anyways?"
Heartpaw curled himself into as small as a shape he could, which wasn't that small. "It's one of the few things I can get right sometimes."
"Can you teach me?"
"I'm not that good at climbing, as I demonstrated for you." Heartpaw's eyes were anxious.
Echopaw sat beside Heartpaw and tapped him with her tail. "Don't get stressed. I'm fine. Besides you said it was the thing you could get right."
"Sometimes." But Heartpaw's shoulders eased a little. "I'm sorry I was weird earlier. I just- Freak out."
"It's okay."
"I-"
Echopaw's vision began flashing white. "What the stars is happening?"
"Are you waking up? My vision flashes when that happens." Heartpaw opened his mouth to say more, but Echopaw awoke to rays of sunlight.
-- Brownfur/Nostalgia Claws