I decided I spent a little too much time on the whole Icestar-Wildfire-Blickwing thing. This chapter's just a momentary break, and I tried to add more detail.
"Hey, Sunpaw, you want to go do some training?" Venomfang yowled across camp. Several sleepy cats poked their heads out of the dens they were in, still groggy from being awakened at sunrise.
The golden apprentice raced out of the apprentices' den, and in his rush her tripped over his paws. Venomfang cuffed him gently on his ear.
"A warrior never trips over his own paws. Let's get going." And the two stalked off to the training area.
Sunpaw was lost in thought. "Venomfang, why is your name Venomfang? I could never imagine your mother naming you Venomkit!" he mewed.
The huge tom stopped. "You ask too many questions!" he would have snapped, instead, he thought better of it. "When we get there, I'll tell you."
The two cats still silently padded into the soft, mossy training area. It was a clearing with a bright open sky above it. The two cats sat down. Venomfang wound his tail around his brown paws, and started to recite.
"Many moons ago, I was a day away from my warrior ceremony. I was out hunting when a huge snake came right across my path. It reared up, ready to strike me, but I was faster. I cuffed it hard on the head, and I killed it."
"That doesn't explain anything!" Sunpaw whined.
"Shut up! I'm getting there! I grabbed the snake, and I was going to carry it home, to show how brave and strong I was, but it was too heavy and long. I cut off its head and lower jaw, so I only had part of the snake to carry back. I was about halfway home when I heard a loud cry. Coming though the barricade to the camp was a huge badger! It was heading to the nursery! You were just a weak, small kit back then, and I knew neither you nor Windear could defend yourselves. Not to mention you brothers and sisters, and Icestar was also in there, trying to defend you all. Forgetting I had the snake in my mouth, I ran strait at the badger. I jumped on its head, and bit down hard. The badger immediately ran off, and we found it a few days later, dead from the venom of that snake. That's when Icestar gave me the name of Venomfang." He mewed.
Sunpaw still looked confused, his head cocked to the side. "But that still doesn't explain why your name wasn't ever Venomkit!" he mewed again. "What was it before?"
"Thistlepaw." He muttered. Sunpaw has to stifle a laugh; the huge tom seemed nothing like a Thistlepaw.
"Venomfang, if you saved Icestar's life, don't you think she would love you?" he asked.
Venomfang whipped around and cuffed Sunpaw in the head -hard. "Insolent kit!" he seethed, but then thought better of it. He let himself relax so the fur on his back would lay flat again. "I love Icestar- as a leader. I could never love her in any other way."
Sunpaw admitted a sigh of defeat. "Now can we train, instead of talking like elders?" he mewed.
"Hey, you were the one who started talking!" he teased back.
Yayayayayaya! Sorry for not updating for a while.
I had to go to my Conscience's funeral.