RainClan
Chapter Two
As Sorrelpaw ate her mouse from the freshkill pile, she watched Nightpaw and Seedpaw as they talked about battle techniques across the stream that ran through the camp. The prey she was eating was killed by Nightpaw, she was sure. After she gulped the last of it down, she called, "Nice catch, Nightpaw!" He turned towards her, blinked, and said, "Oh, you mean the mouse? Actually, that was Seedpaw's catch. Thanks, though." His brother snickered, but stopped abruptly when Nightpaw flashed him a stern glance.
Sorrelpaw, feeling foolish and humiliated, ran back to the medicine den in a giant mossy Redwood trunk. Dappledrose turned away from her herb-sorting, having noticed her apprentice's rushed manner, and asked, "What's wrong, Sorrelpaw? Is someone hurt?"
"No, it's nothing, really. Everything's okay out there."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, don't worry, okay?!" Sorrelpaw hadn't meant to shout like that. "Um, I'd better go get some more cobwebs, we seem low." She briskly trotted back into the Mossy Clearing, and, avoiding Nightpaw and Seedpaw's gaze, ran across camp and through the maze of fallen trees that formed the entry tunnel until she was safe in the forest outside. She sighed and sat down, wondering what to do now that she was away from the humiliation she had just experienced. Well, I guess I might as well get those cobwebs.
As she walked along the soft worn paths she knew so well, something a treelength in frontof her made her freeze in her tracks. A goose and her goslings were crossing the trail, not knowing of the danger that lay behind them. As Sorrelpaw watched, she saw something else; the mother goose's wing was torn, so she probably couldn't fly. I know I'm no warrior apprentice, but would it really hurt to try and catch a crippled goose? Sorrelpaw crouched, trying to replicate the warrior apprentices when they learned how to stalk, and silently slid toward the family of geese.
When she was a foxlength away, she leaped. The goslings scurried away into the bushes, and the goose honked, fluttered her large wings, and bit Sorrelpaw hard on the tail. "Ow!" She screeched. The goose honked once more and started at a run towards Sorrelpaw. She ran towards a young sapling and leaped to the top, the little pine swaying back and forth under her weight. The she-goose circled the tree, flapped her wings, and hissed at the cat in the tree. After what seemed like moons, it waddled back to its young and they continued down the trail, more skittishly this time. "Foxdung. I didn't know geese could hiss!" She muttered. She jumped down from the tree and walked back to camp, acting as if nothing happened and that she wasn't scared out of her fur.
When she re-entered the camp, Seedpaw came running up to her. "We heard a cat yowling and a goose honking. What happened, did a goose sneak up on you while you were out searching herbs?" He said snidely. "Hey, leave her alone, will you, Seedpaw?" Nightpaw nudged his brother aside, who walked off muttering things about his sissy brother. "Hey, don't worry about him," Nightpaw reassured her. "His head is full fluff." This made Sorrelpaw giggle, but she quickly stopped. "Nightpaw, listen. This can't happen, you and I. For one thing, it goes completely against the Medicine Cat Code! And, I-" Nightpaw silenced her with his tail across her mouth. "Look, tonight is the half-moon. You can talk with StarClan, and I'm sure they would approve! Nothing can get in love's way, no matter what. They'd understand that."