A/N: Thanks muchly for your reviews, Flameclaw and Rin-Tin-Tin! Oh yeah, I realize the Lightningstar-mentoring-Sunpaw is basically Bluestar-Firepaw, but hey, I have my reasons. This chapter is mostly information leading up to the "good stuff". I'll probably come back later and change some stuff around.
Disclaimer: No ownage.
Chapter Three
Sunpaw woke early, early enough that the dawn patrol had yet to leave. Uncurling and rising from her nest, she picked her way around the other six apprentices. Padding soundlessly out into the gray morning, she stretched her forepaws out in front of her and settled into the cool grass.
She had not been granted much welcome last night when she, Icepaw, and Rainpaw went to the hollowed-out log that served as the apprentice's den. Shadowpaw had curled his lip, revealing his teeth, and told her that any and all half-blood filth was to stay away from him. Nightpaw had said nothing, but curled up silently into her own nest of moss and heather. Badgerpaw, a tom three moons older than she and nearly a warrior, had snarled at her in a way very reminiscent of his namesake.
This was routine. Sunpaw was used to it by now. If her Clanmates wanted to spit and snarl at her, they could spit and snarl to their heart's content. Having endured it for some moons now, Sunpaw had gotten used to the taunts and insults that were thrown constantly her way; at first, they stung like thorns. Now they were empty to her.
When my loyalties are proven...
"Sunpaw?"
She jumped as a deep mew broke her thoughts. It was Lightningstar, his bright yellow eyes shining in the almost-light. She hadn't heard him approach. His coat, white with black patches on his back, flanks, face, and tail, rippled as he sat down beside her. Remembering etiquette, she dipped her head to him in the proper acknowledgment of apprentice to Clan leader. He gave his head a slight dip in return and continued speaking.
"Clear morning. Good day to show you and your friends the forest."
"Will we see the sun-drown-place?" she asked eagerly. Though she had never been, she had heard others speak about it: a great, shining expanse of water that was never still, but continuously churning up waves; the wide stretch of near-white sand which the water lapped at; how, every evening, the water swallowed up the sun in a great flash of flame.
"Yes, you will," he answered. His tone serious, he continued: "You all must be extremely careful there. It is far easier than you would think to slip off the cliffs and fall into the water. I don't mean to scare you, but-"
"I'm not scared!" she said forcefully. Then, realizing she had interrupted the cat who was both Clan leader and her mentor, she dipped her head nearly to the ground and said quickly, "I'm sorry, Lightningstar, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry. I won't bite you," he said, amusement in his voice. "You are a she-cat who wants to prove herself. And I believe you when you say you are not scared." He paused. "Still, I cannot stress the importance of being careful around the cliffs enough. I realize I must sound like your mother cautioning you against something, but I don't want to see you hurt."
"I'll watch my footing," Sunpaw promised. After a moment, she said, "Does that mean we won't go down to the sand?"
"It is easy enough to jump down the rocks to the sand below," Lightningstar said, "but climbing back up is another matter. These rocks have been blown smooth by the wind and washed smoother by the waves. Getting a grip is immensely difficult, and the only moss grows along the very bottom, where the constant water nourishes it."
Sunpaw nodded, but felt disappointed. All that wide open space, where a cat could run forever, meeting no barriers that would block their way...
Badgerpaw emerged from the den then, his coat glinting slightly in the brightening light. The fur along his flanks was mottled pale gray. His face was black, with a wide white stripe running from his nose all up his forehead. His chest was snowy white. The reasoning for his name was no mystery; he looked like his namesake in every aspect, with the exception of longer legs and a little more grace. Only a little. Given his lumbering stalk, Sunpaw thought it a miracle that he managed to catch anything.
"Lightningstar," said the apprentice by way of acknowledgment, dipping his head to the Clan leader. He made no sign that he saw Sunpaw. She narrowed her emerald eyes, but otherwise did not react to his apparent non-notice of her. Lightningstar noticed too; Sunpaw saw his ears flick as he stared at the badger-pelted apprentice.
"Go and eat," Lightningstar said to her. "And wake your friends," he added as he padded towards Treeshadow's den. Sunpaw sat up, shook her coat, and turned around towards the den.
Reaching her paw inside, she prodded Icepaw. "Up," she hissed in his ear. He lifted his head, blinked blearily, then stood. Rainpaw was already stretching. As she turned, Sunpaw cast a glance at Shadowpaw andNightpaw, then continued walking out of the den. Lightningstar had told her to wake her friends; he had not said anything about those who were not that.
As she, Rainpaw, and Icepaw sat together sharing a rabbit, Icepaw asked, "What are we doing today?"
Sunpaw swallowed. "We're being showed the forest," she said, swiping her tongue around her lips.
Rainpaw perked up. "Will we go to the sun-drown-place?" she mumbled around her mouthful.
Sunpaw nodded. "I feel it is my duty to warn you to be careful around the cliffs. Vitally important." They gave her don't-you-think-we-know-that? looks. She shrugged. "Hey, I'm just relaying the message. Don't claw the messenger." Twisting around, she began to groom herself.
The dawn patrol left soon after. Icepaw and Rainpaw, ever the patient ones, sat quietly as they waited for Jaywing, Sparrowbeak and Lightningstar. Sunpaw paced in wide circles around the pair, her tail swishing in the air, her mind wandering.
"Conserve your energy," said Lightningstar. "We've got a lot of ground to cover." Sparrowbeak and Jaywing stood beside him. All three apprentices touched noses with their mentors. "Come," Lightningstar continued, beckoning with his tail.
"You know Cloverhill already," Jaywing said in his deep, slightly grainy voice as the procession of cats left the camp and climbed up the gently sloping hill. Thick clover grew on all sides of it and around the bottom, making it a safe place for queens to take their kits to play outside of the camp. "If we go east," he added, flicking his tail right, "we'll be at the Star Lake."
"Why is it called that?" Rainpaw asked.
"When Silverpelt shines at night," said Lightningstar, "the stars are reflected in the lake's waters. RiverClan hold territory on the other side of the Star Lake," he continued. "ShadowClan territory begins on the far western side of RiverClan land. WindClan keeps watch over territory just northeast of our own."
"Who owns the sun-drown-place?" asked Sunpaw.
"Part of our territory extends to some of the cliffs," answered Sparrowbeak. "But the other Clans must pass through there to reach the Silverstone."
"Will we ever go to the Silverstone?" questioned Icepaw.
Lightningstar nodded. "All apprentices must make the journey there before becoming warriors.
"Come,"he continued."We have a long way to go today."
;-;-;-;
"Holy StarClan!"
Sunpaw stood near the edge of the cliff, looking across the waters of the sun-drown-place. Rushes of waves rose and fell both far in the distance and right near the shoreline. The sun, which hung in the clear blue sky, turned the water a captivating green-blue. Her jaw agape, Sunpaw scanned the area. It was so big. No, she thought, wrong word. Continuous. Yes. It went on forever, it seemed.
Salt was laced in the breeze that blew from the sea. Sunpaw tilted her head to watch a bird on the sand far below. It had a slate-gray back, a black tail, and a white head. It looked to be a little larger than a crow.
Icepaw and Rainpaw stood beside her. Rainpaw had her gaze trained on the rocks below, and Sunpaw guessed she was thinking about the huge drop from the clifftop. Icepaw kept his eyes on the sea, which roared and crashed unendingly.
"Watch your footing," said Jaywing. "Sometimes the wind gets so strong up here it topples the most sturdy-legged warriors."
"Don't go scaring them," said Sparrowbeak.
"I'm not," he replied calmly. "I just think they should be prepared in case a good gust whips by."
"What's that bird down there?" asked Sunpaw, still watching the creature as it walked along the lapping water, bobbing its head as it did so.
Lightningstar craned his neck to look at it. "Seagull," he answered her. "They sit in the water, sometimes, and often you'll see them carrying fish from far out to eat."
"There's fish in the water?" asked Icepaw. "I though fish only lived in fresh water."
"These fish can tolerate the salt," his mentor answered. "But they swim so far out it is impossible for cats to get them."
The six cats sat in silence. Sunpaw took a great breath of the salty air. She liked it here. The sun above warmed the rock beneath her paws, warmth which she had never felt, having been born at the start of leaf-fall.
A flicker of movement caught her eye. She looked, but nothing besides wind-blown shrubs and smooth rock met her gaze. Then she saw it again. The faintest flash of something. Narrowing her eyes, she could make out a faintshadow. Gradually, the shadow took shape, and became the palest outline of a cat. Sunpaw's heart pounded as she stared at it, a thing which she had never heard tell of: a cat so pale the rock was visible through it.
Yet she felt no fear when she looked at it.
The cat outline wavered for a moment, then seemed to grow more solid, somehow. It was a gray cat, Sunpaw could tell that much, and it had bright blue eyes. Then it began to move. Its paws did not touch the ground, but glided just over it. When theshadow-cat moved, it had a strange, lurching gait. Sunpaw watched it, unable to avert her eyes from it. The figure stopped at a spot in the cliff, then turned around to look at Sunpaw. When theshadow-cat met her eyes, Sunpaw heard a faint whispering. Murmuring, muffled voices, calling to her, it was unclear, she could not make it out-
"Sunpaw!"
She jerked her head around, smacking her nose into Icepaw's. They both squealed; Sunpaw, rubbing her watering eyes with a forepaw, said, "What?"
Rainpaw, standing behind her brother, mewed, "We were telling you to come on. You didn't move or anything."
"Are you feeling alright?" asked Lightningstar.
Sunpaw wondered about that for a moment. She had stopped hearing the whispers, and didn't feel lightheaded. "Y-yes," she stammered. "I-I just thought I saw...something."
All five cats had their eyes narrowed, heads cocked, and their tails were flicking. Sunpaw could tell they either weren't satisfied with her answer or didn't believe her. She was grateful when none of them pressed her, however, and Lightningstar led the group back into the woods. Pausing for a moment, she glanced back over her shoulder. The cat figure still stood, but Sunpaw had to strain her eyes to see it. It still had its eyes fixed on her, and when Sunpaw met the faint blue eyes, the figure motioned with its head, as though it wanted her to follow it.
Sunpaw never knew why she did it, but she walked towards it, her steps deliberate. Still she felt no fear. The shadow-cat motioned with its head, indicating the cliff. Curiously, Sunpaw craned her neck, but saw nothing save for the side of the cliff. As she looked into the blue eyes, which were pale and bright at the same time, Sunpaw felt an immense wave of something which she would not call fear but which had no other name. She turned and fled to the others.
;-;-;-;
Back at camp that evening, Sunpaw sat sharing a meal with Icepaw and Rainpaw. She wondered about the cat figure she had seen. Once she had turned to run away from it, she had felt as though she had broken out of a trance. When she had padded towards it, she had not felt any fear or sensed danger of any kind. Until she met those eyes that last time.
Looking back on it now, she wondered why she hadn't stayed away from it. She wondered if she had imagined it. Clearly, neither Icepaw, Rainpaw, Sparrowbeak, Jaywing, nor Lightningstar had seen it.
But if she had imagined the figure, why had she imagined it so precisely? It had limped when it moved, and the eyes had been a very distinct shade of blue. And why would I imagine it trying to show me something? she thought.
The elders, Sorrelflower in particular, had spoken of the spirits of StarClan. Was that what she had seen?
As she, Icepaw, and Rainpaw shared tongues after eating, Sunpaw made two vows to herself. First, she would ask Lightningstar what a spirit truly was. Second, she would return to the cliffs as soon as she possibly could. Something called her there.
Her dreams that night were full of darkness and cold, and of distant voices she could not understand.
;-;-;-;
"Lightningstar?"
At sunhigh following the day they had been shown the forest, the three apprentices had been shown the proper way to do the hunting stalk. Each had then gone with their mentor on a short hunt. Sunpaw had, so far, caught a mouse and a robin that, were it not for her long legs, would have gotten away from her because she had hesitated. Leader and apprentice had stopped by one of the several streams that ran through ThunderClan territory for a drink. Warm winds stirred the budding tree branches, and tiny, curled ferns were poking up from the earth.
"Yes, young Sunpaw."
"I have a question."
"Ask away," said the black-and-white tom, rasing his head from the stream.
Sunpaw felt strangely awkward. She was still not used to the notion of having her Clan's leader as her mentor, and Lightningstar had such a presence. Taking a breath, and wondering how she should phrase her query, Sunpaw asked, "What exactly is a spirit?"
Her leader cocked his head.
"The great spirits of StarClan are always spoken of," Sunpaw continued, "but I don't really know what a spirit is. Or what they are meant to do."
Lightningstar ran his tongue across his lips, his eyes thoughtful. After many long heartbeats, the silence broken only by birdsong, he spoke.
"A spirit lives inside every cat," he began. "When a cat dies, the spirit lives. And, in most cases, goes to StarClan. Tales were told to me, when I was an apprentice, that spirits have the ability to descend from the sky and come back down to the place where they once lived."
"But what exactly-"
He flicked his tail for silence. "I remember an elder telling me once that spirits come back down to the world of the Clans because they are feeling a strong emotion.Anger,overwhelming sorrow,or because the pain of parting from the breathing world is too much for them." He took a breath and continued. "But the same elder told me that sometimes StarClan needs to communicate with a cat in a more direct way than a dream, and so a spirit falls from the stars and appears to the cat."
"But to do what?"
"To show them the way."
"The way to what?"
"Who knows?" asked Lightningstar rhetorically, but not unkindly. "Perhaps to show them where an event will take place, or an alternate path when one is blocked off." Sunpaw kept her emerald eyes on his yellow ones. "A spirit, young Sunpaw," he concluded, "is an echo of a cat who was, a shadow of a voice yearning to speak with a living being, a memory trapped in time."
He bent his head to lick his chest. Sunpaw thought about what he had told her. Was the thing she had seen yesterday on the cliffs just that? A spirit of StarClan that had come down from the stars to attempt to speak to her? Stop it, she told herself. The salt in the air yesterday got to your head, and you imagined it. StarClan haven't any message for you. You're just an apprentice, not a medicine cat or leader. You don't read the stars or command a Clan.
But as they returned to camp, Sunpaw found she could not help but yearn to return to the sun-drown-place, if only to prove to herself that she had made up the image of the cat in her mind.
;-;-;-;
Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide.
Voices trapped in yearning,
Memories trapped in time.
-Sarah McLachlan, Possession
A/N: And so we conclude chapter three! Listen, to anyone who's reading out there, review! It's not like I write only for reviews, but I like to see what people like and what could be improved. By all means, if you see something I could improve on, tell me! Just do so nicely. Being blatantly rude never helped anybody much, did it? Also, the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessments are coming up in about a week, so there may be some delay in updates.