Taking a deep breath, Heathpaw padded over to Silverstorm. He knew that if he wanted to survive here, then he would have to get better fighting skills, skills that couldn't be taught to him in WindClan, and he knew that Silverstorm would be the best cat for the job.
As he neared him, he could see that the tom was eating a mouse, and even though he wasn't moving much, Heathpaw could see the muscles rippling beneath his pale grey fur.
"Silverstorm," he meowed, trying his hardest to keep his fear out of his voice.
"What?" Silverstorm grunted without looking up from his prey.
"I was wondering if you could teach me how to fight."
The tom snorted and shook his head.
"Go away."
Anger rose in Heathpaw's chest, but he closed his eyes, willing himself to keep his temper under control. He didn't want to anger Silverstorm, especially since he knew that the cat could probably take him down without even getting his fur ruffled.
"Please? I don't want to die," Heathpaw meowed, sounding more vulnerable than he meant to.
"No one wants to die, besides, what makes you think I should help you out of all the other cats here?" Silverstorm asked.
Heathpaw didn't know how to respond to that, why should he get help from Silverstorm out of all the other cats? He wasn't better than any of them. A few nights ago, he would have said that he was better than the kittypets and rogues, but now he was beginning to see that wasn't true.
"Why don't you teach everyone how to fight then?" he asked.
"Let's see, waste my time trying to teach someone fighting moves, which they might use against me later on," he shook his head, "I don't want to disappear."
"So you're a coward then?" Heathpaw spat.
Instead of getting angry like he expected him to, Silverstorm let out a mrrow.
"Look, you have spirit, so I'll tell you what, you see that branch up there?" he flicked his tail to a thick tree branch that was at least two or three fox-lengths off of the ground.
"Yes."
"Okay, I want you to jump up, and hook onto that branch with your forelegs, and hold on until I tell you to stop."
"What?" Heathpaw hissed with disbelief, how did he expect him to jump up there? Much less hold on. He couldn't jump like a SkyClan cat, and he wasn't strong like a ThunderClan cat.
"Giving up before you even try?" Silverstorm shook his head.
"No, I'm going to do it," Heathpaw meowed with determination, padding over to the tree. He stared up at the branch, feeling his heart pound hard against his chest. Then, taking a deep breath, he launched himself off the ground, and surprisingly got a grip onto the branch.
"There, I did it, will you train me now?" he grumbled.
"No, I said you have to hang there until I tell you to stop," Silverstorm meowed, laying back down to finish his mouse.
Why isn't he telling me to stop? Heathpaw thought to himself, it felt like nearly half a day had passed since he started hanging from the branch, and every muscle in his body was screaming at him to let go.
No, he could do this. He took a deep breath, trying to fight through the pain. Unfortunately, his body won in over his mind, and a shock of pain jolted through him, when he dropped to the ground.
"Looks like you didn't pass, go away and stop wasting my time," Silverstorm spat.
"That's not fair!" Heathpaw protested.
"How is it not fair? I told you my requirements if you wanted me to train you, it seems perfectly fair to me."
"But I hung there for like half a day!"
Silverstorm shook his head.
"I actually counted to twenty-seven in my head, I was going to tell you to stop at thirty."
"But that's so close! I almost had it!" Heathpaw spat. He hated the fact that he was practically begging, but he didn't know what else he could do. He didn't want to lose the next contest. If he did, he doubted that he would ever see his family ever again.
"Hello Heathpaw, I'm playing a game with some of the other cats, do you want to play?" Twix asked bouncing over to him.
"What game?" Heathpaw asked warily. He didn't see the point in wasting their time playing games, not when they should be focusing on staying alive.
"It's called would you rather, we ask some cat a question like, would you rather get attacked by a badger or a fox, and then they answer and ask one of their own."
"That sounds kinda dumb, but seeing as I have nothing better to do," Heathpaw shot a glare in Silverstorm's direction, "I'll play."
"Great! Let's go then."
Twix led him to a space between a clump of reeds where a group of cats were gathered.
"Is this who is playing?" Heathpaw asked, surprised that Snowdrop was one of them.
Twix nodded.
"Right now it's Brightpaw's turn," he flicked his tail over to the white and ginger ThunderClan apprentice.
"Alright," she mewed, looking over at Mintpaw, "would you rather be in ShadowClan or be a rogue?"
"That's easy," Mintpaw meowed, "ShadowClan for sure, even though they're despicable, they still know a thing or two about the warrior code."
Everyone meowed their agreements, except for the kittypets who looked confused, and Snowdrop, who wrinkled his nose and meowed,
"I don't know, from what I heard, those ShadowClan cats smell worse than crowfood.
Everyone ignored him.
"Heathpaw,' Mintpaw began. He blinked at her with surprise, not believing that he had been chosen so quickly, he had only just started playing the game.
"Who do you think would win in a fight between Lionblaze and Silverstorm?"
"Lionblaze for sure, his fighting skills are legendary," Heathpaw meowed, feeling proud that he was kin to such an important cat.
"No way, Silverstorm could beat the tail of any cat, including this Lionblaze," Snowdrop meowed.
"Snowdrop, do you have to disagree with everything we talk about?" Hawk sighed.
The white tom shook his head.
"It's true, Silverstorm is the best fighter hands down, no one can disagree."
"Maybe on this island, but in the world? No way! That title belongs to Lionblaze," Brightpaw meowed.
Heathpaw nodded in agreement.
Snowdrop growled and lashed his tail.
"When we get off this island, the first thing that is going to happen is a fight between Silverstorm and Lionblaze."
"Are you sure Silverstorm can handle the blow to his ego?" Reefpaw snorted.
"What's that about Reefpaw? We share a border!" Snowdrop protested.
"I thought you shared a border with BerryClan," Heathpaw meowed, remembering something he had heard a few days ago.
"We do, and also CoveClan."
"Yeah, now back to the topic on hand, Silverstorm is only that good at fighting because of dishonorable methods!" Reefpaw spat.
"What dishonorable methods? My brother is the most honorable cat ever," Snowdrop hissed, fluffing up to look twice his size.
Reefpaw sat down, and licked one of his paws, dragging it over his ear, before replying.
"I heard he trained in the Dark Forest."
Heathpaw's pelt prickled slightly, could it be true? Could the pale silver tom really have trained in the Dark Forest?
"That's impossible! He's not dead, how would he get to the Dark Forest?" Snowdrop spat.
"It can happen," Reefpaw meowed.
Brightpaw nodded.
"I heard that a lot of cats trained in the Dark Forest before the battle between them and StarClan."
"Did all those cats get kicked out?" Sparkpaw asked with her eyes opened wide.
"I hope so, any cat who decides to fight on the side of evil shouldn't be part of a clan," Heathpaw spat.
"No, I heard that a lot of them just trained there to be stronger for their clan," Brightpaw meowed.
Heathpaw nodded.
"Oh, okay, I can understand that."
After all, not too long ago, he was wanting to train with Silverstorm to get stronger.
Those are honorable cats, he thought to himself, willing to brave the evil cats in order to become stronger for their clan.
"Well, your clanmates may have chosen to train in the Dark Forest, but Silverstorm learned everything he knew from Featherstar, he's the leader, and our father," Snowdrop bragged.
"They let your father be his mentor?" Heathpaw asked with surprise. He never knew of any clan allowing cats to mentor their kits.
"Uh yeah, and our mother mentored me, and when our younger sister, Thistlepaw, became an apprentice, I became her mentor."
"It's the same in CoveClan, my father was my mentor, and my mother was Reefpaw's," Coralpaw piped up.
"Yeah, and I heard Huckleberryfern was mentored by one of his older siblings!" Reefpaw exclaimed.
"That's really odd," Heathpaw meowed. He couldn't imagine being mentored by Breezepelt or Heathertail, or even his older sisters, Brindlewing and Smokehaze.
"In ThunderClan, Poppyfrost mentored her younger sister, Lilyheart, and Whitewing mentored her younger brother, Dewnose, so it's not that far-fetched," Brightpaw meowed.
"Yeah, plus if the clan isn't big enough, cats will have to mentor their close family members, apprentices can't just get by without a mentor," Mintpaw agreed.
"That sounds really complicated, I'm glad I'm not part of a clan," Twix meowed. Munchkin nodded in agreement.
"But being part of a clan is so great! You get protection from the other cats, you get the pride in being able to protect the other cats, it's like a huge family," Mintpaw exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it's not all great, what about all the rules there are?" Coralpaw meowed.
"Without the rules, we'd be no better than rogues, they're there to keep the clan in order," Reefpaw pointed out.
"I agree with Reefpaw, the warrior code is one of the most important things about being part of a clan," Sparkpaw meowed.
Coralpaw shook her head.
"I think the most important part about being a clan is helping each other, including cats not from our clan."
Reefpaw mrrowed.
"If it were up to Coralpaw, CoveClan would be full of non-clan cats."
"That's not true, I just think that everyone should stop being so hostile towards other cats," Coralpaw protested.
"Everyone gather around, we have an important announcement to make!" Pepper yowled.
Suppressing a groan, Heathpaw padded over to where the black she-cat was standing beside her brother, what did they want now? He wondered, he hoped it wasn't another fighting contest.
"Tomorrow we will be having another contest, this time, it's a hunting contest!"
"You're going down!" Hawk meowed to Huckleberryfern, who mrrowed and shook his head, "I've won this contest everytime, and I'm not slowing down any."
"That's not fair! Why are you only choosing to do contests that house cats can't win?" Bluebell protested.
"Um, you shouldn't be house cats," Salt spat.
"Yeah, I really hate house cats, they're so lazy and entitled, I can't wait until they're all gone," Pepper agreed.
If anyone had said that about him, or any of his clan mates, Heathpaw would have clawed their ears off, but the kittypets just held back, with their fur ruffled, looking angry, but not doing or saying anything.
He couldn't think about that though, he had to focus on the hunting contest. He didn't know how he could possibly catch anything, not when there were so many trees around, and the only other place he could hunt was in the water, and there was no way he could ever do that.
With a sinking feeling in his chest, he realized that this could be his last night on the island before Salt and Pepper made him disappear, and then, he would never see his family, or his clan, ever again.