Eaglepaw sat in front of the apprentice's den, which lay slightly in front of the nursery in an old, sandy, dried up creek bed, and watched as Lightstep jumped from stone step to stone step to reach Applestar's den. She could see Sunheart nervously placing his front two paws onto the first step, as he glanced up towards his leader's den.
I wonder what his problem is. She thought, I mean, he can't just come running up, interrupting my training with Lightstep, yelling about some stupid bird on fire! Ugh.
She stood up slowly and walked back into the apprentices den, after seeing that Lightstep had entered the den.
"Where have you been?" Foxkit, her brother, asked.
"I was with Lightstep near the Echoclan border; he was showing me all of our boundaries!" Eaglepaw practically skipped over to Foxpaw, who was sitting next to Stormpaw.
She stopped, and sat down next to them. "But, then Sunheart came running up, yelling about some giant silver bird that was on fire. I really don't have a clue what he was talking about exactly…" Eaglepaw sighed, "But, it kind of sucks that he interrupted my training, it was really fun."
"Better luck next time, I guess." Stormpaw replied.
Foxpaw nudged his sister, "When you find out what it was about, tell me. It seems interesting."
"We'll see…" She purred.
Lightstep stared at Sunheart as the brown tom finished telling Applestar what he had seen. He glanced at Applestar to see that she was deep in thought; he turned his white head back towards Sunheart.
"You're sure this is what you saw?" Applestar questioned.
"Y-yes, Applestar, I'm positive. It was a giant silver bird, and it was on fire, it landed in the canyon near the far side of the Treeclan border. The ground shook when it flew over me, and my paws are still tingling. It was huge; I've never seen a bird that big. But…but, it smelled different…" Sunheart shook his head.
"Different? Different how?" Lightstep asked.
"Well, it smelled stale. Almost like the monsters that the Two-legs have in Leaf Bare when the leaves are falling." Sunheart closed his eyes in concentration. "It smelled exactly the same, but it was flying and had wings."
"If what you say is true, not that I doubt you, then I'm sending a patrol to see where it landed and if there are any damages to the boundary." She stood up and looked out of the opening of her den. "Lightstep, I want you to choose four cats to go to the canyon, but first send Flashfoot to Treeclan territory and ask them for permission to travel along their border to the canyon. Don't send the patrol until she gets back."
Lightstep nodded. "Right, do you think any of the apprentices are ready for a patrol like this?"
Applestar tilted her head in thought, "Not Foxpaw, Lionpaw, or Eaglepaw, but the others will be fine, although I think only one should go. Send Stonepaw, and Birchtail, tell her to test him while their patrolling, it's almost time for him to become a warrior. The other two, I'll leave up to you." She nudged his shoulder, "Go tell them."
Lightstep disappeared out of the entrance.
"Thank you Sunheart, for coming to me right away. Why don't you take Petalpaw to the training den, and practice her fighting?" Applestar purred.
Sunheart nodded his head, and flicked his tail as he turned to leave, "One more thing Applestar." He kneaded his front paws into the dirt floor. "I smelt something else when it flew over me."
"What did you smell?"
"I smelt blood. Two-leg blood."
Lightstep padded towards the Warriors den, greeting different cats as he walked. He walked into the Warriors den, blinking when his eyes adjusted slowly to the light change. "Flashfoot, are you in here?"
"Oh, hey Lightstep, what's wrong?" Flashfoot, a pretty tabby she-cat with black dappled spots on her back, asked.
"Nothing's wrong, but I do have a mission for you." He laughed when his old apprentice jumped to her feet and pranced over to him.
"Well," she purred, "what's the mission?"
"I need you to go to Treeclan and ask Treestar if it's okay to send a small group of cats along their border to the canyon. We think that something crashed there; tell him he's welcome to send his own group of cats with ours if he wants to. It's just a search mission, completely peaceful." Lightstep replied.
Flashfoot stretched out her front and back legs, warming up her muscles. "Gotcha, hey, after this I have to talk to you about something, okay?"
Lightstep tilted his head curiously. "Why don't you just tell me now?"
Flashfoot purred with laughter, "You absolutely embody that saying, what was it again? Oh, 'Curiosity killed the cat.'"
Lightstep paused for a second, "But, satisfaction brought it back."
She sighed. "You're so stubborn. Fine, I'm going to be moving into the nursery soon, I'm with kits." Flashfoot sighed with bliss.
"Whose are they?" He asked curiously.
"Sunheart's. He doesn't know yet though, so don't tell him." Flashfoot replied.
"Okay, I won't, but you need to hurry up and go to Treeclan, so that we can get you settled into your new den." He purred.
Flashfoot hopped up from her stretch and started padding towards the clan entrance. "Whatever you say, boss."
Lightstep stopped in front of the Apprentices den. "Stonepaw! Come here!" He called to the young grey tom. Stonepaw padded over to Lightstep, and sat down in front of him.
"What is it, Lightstep?" He asked nervously to the senior warrior.
Lightstep purred, "Don't worry you're not in trouble, quite the opposite in fact. Tell Birchtail that you're both going on a patrol with Grayfoot and Dapplefur to the canyon. Go and gather everyone and meet me outside of the camp." He nudged Stonepaw's shoulder. "Go on."
Stonepaw bounced up from the ground, "Ok!"
Lightstep turned around and almost jumped when instead of seeing the entrance to the Apprentices den he instead saw Eaglepaw's blue eyes. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Eaglepaw, don't sneak up on me!" He hissed.
"Well, you should have been paying attention! At least I'm working on my stealth! If you're such a mighty warrior you should have heard me way before I could have snuck up on you, so there!" She growled back.
Lightstep measured his apprentice thoughtfully, "You're right, but I haven't taught you how to walk quietly yet." He flicked his tail at her face. "So, where'd you learn it from?"
Eaglepaw beamed up at him, "I've been watching you for a while now! Ever since you said you might be my mentor, I've been studying how you walk. You put most of your weight on your toes and back legs right? That's the trick, right?" She laughed a little bit. "It helps that my dad is kind of over protective, so he taught me a lot of this when I was a kit…that's okay, right?"
Lightstep looked at Eaglepaw in a little bit of amazement. She practically perfected her stealth walk just by watching me? He thought. "It's okay; just make sure you put a little bit more weight on your toes." He purred. He flicked his tail at her.
Eaglepaw purred a little bit, "Soooooo, what was Sunheart talking about?" She rolled her eyes, "You know, the giant silver bird…oh, wait it was on fire too, right?" She giggled.
"Eaglepaw…I'm not sure if I should tell you about this, we're not even sure if it's something to worry about yet, I don't want to cause any alarm, you have to trust me with this." Lightstep said uneasily, he didn't like not being able to tell her things, but it was too much of a risk, she might tell someone, then it would spread through the camp like wildfire. He couldn't let that happen.
Eaglepaw glanced at him, then looked up at the sky and sighed. "I understand, but you know that trust goes both ways in any relationship, right? Especially the relationship between and apprentice and their mentor, don't forget that." She nudged his shoulder, glanced at him one more time, and then padded back towards the apprentices den.
Lightstep sighed, and called out, "Go to the training hollow, I'll meet you there once I'm done talking with Grayfoot."
Eaglepaw paused and looked over her golden shoulder, "Okay."
Lightstep walked to the camp entrance, he stepped through the tunnel covered in thorns carefully, then padded towards the group of cats waiting for him.
"What's going on Lightstep?" Grayfoot asked calmly.
"I'm sending you on a mission to the canyon, Treeclan may or may not send some of their cats with you, your objective is to search the canyon for a giant silver bird made of the same material the Twoleg's monsters are made out of. This mission is search only, gather as much information as possible, and then report back to myself and Applestar. It fell somewhere near the gorge. Grayfoot, I'm putting you in charge of this. Now, any questions?" He asked.
"Just one Lightstep," Dapplefur said. "What if we find anything hostile? Do you want us to engage or retreat?"
"Remember this mission is purely peaceful. If there is anything that threatens you I
want you to come back here and tell us about it, but the clan must be protected, so don't lead anything here." Lightstep replied. "Now, wait here until Flashfoot comes back, then go to the canyon. Travel swift and safe." Lightstep smiled at them then turned around and entered back into the camp.
Deep in the canyon, underneath the wreckage of a crashed airplane, a giant steel cage groaned underneath the weight of the plane.
A small little bluebird hopped forward, its head turning from side to side, curiously moving closer and closer to the burning wreckage, and consequently the steel cage, whose door was ripped off at the top two hinges and hanging limply towards the ground.
The bird tweeted nervously, when all sounds stopped, other than the ominous squeaking of the downed plane. All of a sudden the bird flew up frantically, warned by some unknown noise, as a huge black shape landed where the bird had once stood.
The shape lifted its head, and inhaled in three small gulps, all the smells surrounding it. Slowly its lips lifted to show sharp, white teeth in a snarl.
Food.