Hi, I am so annoyed I had planned the fifteen next chapters and I lost the plan. Oh, on a less annoying (to me anyway) note, thanks to all of you readers and reviewer:). I WOULD appreciate more reviews though.
I-really-hope-not: Thanks, Icepaw's point of view will be more interesting when I get to the main plot point. In about... a moon or so in the story.
Disclaimer: The friendly clan competition is actually from one of the original warrior books, although I changed certain things, sort of as if it had been a distant tradition that the clans lost in time and gained back again in a time when peace was needed.
Okay, I am SO sorry I haven't updated in a while. To redeem myself I wrote a chapter that is actually many chapters away (I just has to write her Moonpool dream, I couldn't wait)... By the way Icepaw is a mix between a Russian blue and more long-furred house cat.
Icepaw emerged into a clearing. On one side of her stood row after row of immaculate pine trees, and ahead of her was a clear pond, sparkling almost unnaturally in the clouded sun's filtered light.
The shimmering reflection of the pool called to her, and without realizing she had even taken a step, she was suddenly staring at her reflection in the pool. She carefully placed a paw onto it, as gently she might had picked a delicate flower.
From her paw spread a small ripple, which quickly took the shape of a small snowflake, but before she could do anything the water swallowed her like a weightless piece of prey and the current tossed her along the banks of an unknown river.
A cloud of hazy darkness was suddenly looming overhead, and she desperately tried to escape the tide of water, but just as quickly as it had appeared, the shadows fragmented as the whole dream fragmented into darkness like a new layer of
"Icepaw!
The first thing that she noticed was had not risen yet. The second was that each of the apprentice's mentors were outside. Pineclaw, looking bored out of his fur, Burrfur, yawning, Dustpelt and Lightheart, looking annoyed, and Duskfrost, who was already exiting camp.
The other apprentices were exchanging confused glances, but before any of them could ask any questions, Duskfrost grinned teasingly from the branches of a tree that bordered the camp, "Welcome to your first official training session for the thirteenth moon competition!"
"And it couldn't wait for dawn?" Sunpaw complained.
"Nope. Because you are hereby Shadowclan cats for the day!" The apprentices exchanged bewildered glances at Lightheart's words.
Flamepaw let out a strangled ,"what!?"
Although it did make sense, Starclan this was almost weirder than Shadowclan's behaviour. After having sent battle patrols all over their boundaries; without ever actually battling, they had retreated back into the shadows of their territory and a patrol sent to meet with Nightstar had reported that although they were in their territory they had changed their camp's location.
"Pebblestar will eventually be explaining all this, but for now what you need to know is that today we will be practicing stalking, ambushes, tracking, and hiding," Burrfur mewed.
She had to hope that this didn't mean they were practicing Windclanish moves. Running was the best way to be discovered and labeled useless.
She turned to exchange a glance with Flamepaw, and when she turned back the mentors were already leaping into the trees.
Frostpaw was nowhere to be seen, and Sunpaw and Stormpaw were keeping pace with his mentor, leaving Icepaw and Flamepaw to rush to catch up.
Now starting her fourth moon of training, the sisters were perfectly capable of leaping from tree to tree, but being smaller than average certain gaps between branches were harder to jump over. That didn't stop them from arriving at the training clearing on time.
Redclaw, Twigleap, and White-Ember were already there, and she jumped when she saw them, but considering that they were newly named warriors and had therefore never participated in the competition, it wasn't a mystery as to why they were there.
She yawned, glancing aimlessly at the sky out of habit, although she already knew that the sky was filled with clouds and she wouldn't be able to see much of the moon's position.
She was shaken out of her sleepy state when she stepped in a cold puddle of water, gasping at the shock of the cold as Stormpaw, Sunpaw, and Flamepaw snickered. Still tired, she sighed, hoping that this lack of sleep wouldn't lead to her making any more distracted mistakes.
She glanced back to where Frostpaw had just padded into the clearing. Burrfur cast an irritated glance towards his apprentice, but said nothing.
Moments later Duskfrost bounded onto an overhanging branch from a holly bush. "I know it's late- err early, but this training session is basically to prepare us for any challenges that have to do with Shadowclan. You will be separated into small groups and will have to roleplay an ambush battle on each other. Winning team moves on, losing team can keep practicing with the other losing teams. The winners get the day off, and the ones with the most victories get first pick on the fresh-kill pile. Your mentors will assign your partners and give you a setting for you battle as well as give you any other information," at those words, she waved her tail and leaped down to where Sunpaw was waiting with Stormpaw.
At that point Icepaw's competitive spirit was rising and she was already forming plans about how to defeat her 'enemy'. Of course she couldn't form a whole plan without knowing her adversaries allies and location, but she was definitely fully awake now.
"Icepaw," she turned around, nearly gripping on her own paws, to see Dustfur coming her way.
"Your partner will be Sunpaw. You will be against Redheart, and Stormpaw, and you will be fighting at the pond near the marshes, but make sure to stay away from the Thunderclan border. "
Before Icepaw could ask anything he interrupted, "I will explain what the goal is once we get there. Duskfrost and Sunpaw left a few moments ago."
They walked to the pond in silence, and even though it was the beginning of green-leaf, there was a certain chill to the air brought on by the night, and the ground was sprinkled with fresh dew.
They were the before-last to arrive, Stormpaw and her mentor arriving last. This time Duskfrost left the speech to Pineclaw, and she thought she heard Redheart muttering something about being glad Dustfur, his and Whiteclaw's father, wasn't giving one of his strict and unnecessarily long speeches; she had to admit to herself that this was at least partly true.
"As you know, whatever tactic you use to win must have something to do with ambushing or stalking. Icepaw and Sunpaw's 'camp' will be in the patch of stinging nettle, and Stormpaw and Redheart's will be in the thorn bush at the other end of the 'marsh' area. Your goal is to get into the other team's camp from behind," Pineclaw mewed, "If this takes too long you are all disqualified."
"You have until the signal to make a plan. Good luck and-" Before Dustfur could continue Redheart yowled, "Thank you Dustfur!" And ran to the thorn bush.
They didn't have much time to discuss, but Icepaw and Sunpaw came up with a clear plan, although there were many flaws to it, including the fact that they had not yet finished planning Icepaw's role, but they had the potential to win and she wasn't about to let anyone beat her.
When Duskfrost's yowl rang out overhead, Icepaw stood frozen for moment. She then shook herself, berating herself for working so horribly under pressure, and padded calmly next to the side of the nettle patch, making sure to rustle the stems as much as possible. Sunpaw, meanwhile, hid, lying in wait to pounce on any cat that approached.
Suddenly leaving the nettle patch with one last flick of her tail, she wadded cautiously into the murky waters of the marsh, holding back a shiver of cold and breaking into a run, avoiding splashing through the water and instead jumping on patches of grass, she saw Redheart sneaking up to the nettles, where Sunpaw was still lying in wait, and leaped increasing faster to the thorn bush, already starting to doubt the plan.
When she reached the lone pine tree standing next to the thorn bush, she waited until Redheart was two tail-lengths away from the nettle before checking on Stormpaw, who was guarding the thorn bush and squinting to see how her partner was doing.
When Redheart's tail brushed the side of the nettles, awfully close to the place he needed to reach to win, Sunpaw yowled and knocked Redheart off his paws, quickly starting a battle between the two.
When Stormpaw turned her attention away for one second, startled by Redheart's yowl, Icepaw took the advantage and threw herself in the direction of the thorn bush, only to be stoped by Stormpaw, thing that was to be expected.
This was the part when she was forced to improvise, so she instead ran up the pine tree, leaping to the very edge of a low branch and jumped as far as she could, putting all the strength she had into the leap.
She heard Redheart's yowl of victory as he pinned Sunpaw and ran to the stinging nettle, but it didn't matter, she had reached the thorn bush first.
"Icepaw! Stormpaw! Are you okay? What were you thinking jumping right into a thorn bush like that?" Duskfrost yowled.
Icepaw grinned sheepishly and panted, "Desperately trying to win?"
After winning the first competition they were to fight against Twigleap and Flamepaw, fight which was ultimately a tie, they were set against Frostpaw and White-Ember for the final battle, which they lost when White-Ember beat Icepaw in a fight.
Although she was disappointed about losing the final match, she and Sunpaw won the most victories (after the main competition) and were allowed to pick the best of the fresh-kill pile after the queens and elders, and Flamepaw and Twigleap were told that they had escaped elder duty for two days, although they were to patch up the nursery. Redheart and Stormpaw were stuck guarding camp for half the night.
They were practicing stalking and camouflage techniques when Lakepool, Mallowfrost, and a Riverclan camp burst into the training area.
"Mallowfrost! What is a Riverclan cat doing here? Again." Duskfrost lashed her tail, "And why are you here? Shouldn't you be talking to Pebblestar?"
"You were closest." Mallowfrost protested, but a something in his narrowed eyes told Icepaw that he was not one to believe in Pebblestar's leadership skills.
The training cats had long since stopped to watch what was happening, but Duskfrost glared at them," Go back to camp, all of you!" She mewed sternly.
Curiosity was gnawing at her, and instead of looking where she was going, she stumbled over a tree branch, wincing at the snapping sound it made, and when she got up, she thought she saw a faint coppery light break the darkness of the paling grey sky. She blinked, certain that it was not normal for one to see glows the colour of embers repetitively.
Before she even had time to take a step, much less the time to leap over the branch still lying next to her, a cat silently hissed from a nearby holly bush, "Be quiet or we'll all be on elder duty for the rest of our lives!"
AN:
I was wondering if I should change the title of my story(it doesn't make sense until the climax of the story) and if anyone could tell me of any way I could improve my writing... get more reviews. I'm thankful that people are reading this, but I have only been getting one review per chapter... And not many views per chapter either. I will try to make my writing more interesting.
Have a nice day. Next update in two days:).