A/N: Thanks to reviewers! Seiren no Kaze, sure, call me Eclipse! It's easier than typing my full 'name'. Quiet Shadow, I'm honored you like this fic so much. (Benjamin Franklin! Yes! Thank you!) Heck, I'm honored that all my reviewers like this fic.
Chapter Ten
A half-moon had passed since the Tribe had attacked at the Star Lake. Most of the Clan were on edge, unsheathing their claws when they patrolled, scenting the air every few minutes. The warm, bright weather almost seemed to mock the Clans and the threat they had to deal with.
Sunpaw trotted beside Lightningstar, who led the way to a stream on the far side of ThunderClan territory where he would begin to give her battle training. She'd heard him speaking with Mudspeckle that morning about making Shadowpaw and Nightpaw warriors in about another half-moon.
"That's only three moons of training," the deputy had said. "Apprentices almost always go through four moons of training, sometimes a little less. But gaining a warrior name after barely three moons? And you tell me that you're ordering the three youngest begin battle training now. They haven't even been apprentices for two moons yet, Lightningstar. In fact, they shouldn't have had their assessment when they did."
"You cannot deny what will come in moons ahead, Mudspeckle. You yourself said that the Tribe are powerful fighters. If there is to be war, all cats must be prepared. And Shadowpaw and Nightpaw are strong cats."
"Darkcloud is their father, and it is to be expected his children will be as strong as he," Mudspeckle admitted. "And they are. I just think you may be speeding things up too much, Lightningstar. Making events come too quickly."
The black-and-white tom sighed. "I value your opinions and thoughts, Mudspeckle. But if war is come, it may be better that we speed things up."
"Speeding things up may lead to warriors with weak battle skills," countered Mudspeckle. "Becoming a warrior is meant to be a slow task, Lightningstar. Every strength and weakness of each apprentice must be taken into account, and time must be taken to strengthen weaknesses. Speed doesn't always win the fight."
"You will make a fine leader when my time is over, Mudspeckle," said Lightningstar. "A fine leader who will rule this Clan well. Until that time comes, my decisions will be what rules ThunderClan." The deputy, understanding the finality in Lightningstar's tone, dipped his head in respect.
As she replayed the conversation in her mind, Sunpaw realized there were two questions she'd meant to ask her mentor some time ago. "Lightningstar, who was your last apprentice?"
"My last apprentice was Jaywing, and before him, Hawkclaw." He glanced at her. "There's something else you wanted to ask me," he stated.
Sunpaw started. It was as if he could see into her mind, and she didn't like the idea. "Yeah. What was your warrior name?"
"Lightningeyes. Before I received my warrior name, many of my denmates were of the opinion I should be called Lightningclaw, due to my efficiency in battle." He said the latter with no trace of pride, only a tone of simply stating facts.
"Lightningeyes doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Lightningstar." In fact, Sunpaw found it hard to imagine her leader being called anything but Lightningstar.
"Probably because you have never heard me referred to as anything but my current name." He sat down on a thick clump of grass; they had reached the stream. He flicked his tail to indicate that he wanted Sunpaw to stand at the other end of the small clearing. As she did, he went on to add, "It is an odd feeling to have your name changed. For a few days you feel as if you don't know yourself."
"Do you have warrior names chosen for all the apprentices?" Sunpaw asked him.
He nodded, but said nothing. Can't expect him to tell me what our future names are going be, thought Sunpaw.
After Sunpaw had sat down, Lightningstar spoke again. "As you have noticed, Sunpaw, the training of apprentices is being sped up. Normally, Rainpaw, Icepaw, and yourself would not begin battle training for another few quarter-moons." He took a deep breath. "Already you have proven yourself to be a skilled, quick, and fierce fighter. One day you will meet an enemy who will prove difficult to strike down. It is my duty to prepare you for that day." He stood. "Attack me."
Sunpaw shifted her weight to her haunches and rocked from side to side, finding her center of balance. After a heartbeat, she shot forward, charging headlong towards Lightningstar. Seconds before she reached him, Lightningstar stepped nimbly to one side; Sunpaw braced her paws against the ground to stop. Whipping around, she began to raise a forepaw to strike her mentor; before she could do so, Lightningstar reared up and dropped his weight on her. After a few moments, he stood and backed away.
Winded and humiliated, Sunpaw scrambled to her feet. Before she could make another move, Lightningstar called, "Consider your attacks. In battle, one wrong move could cost you your life."
Sunpaw's nature urged her to disregard the idea of waiting and considering, but she knew that if she repeated the charge attack her mentor would simply sidestep again. Flattening herself to the ground, she narrowed her eyes and stalked across the clearing. When she reached Lightningstar, he copied her crouch and bared his teeth. Sunpaw stopped, waited a moment, and threw herself at her leader.
Lightningstar must have expected her to try and strike him with her forepaw again, because he had begun to rear up a second time just as Sunpaw leapt at him. He had been half upright when Sunpaw lunged, so she hit him square in his belly. The force of her body hitting his sent Lightningstar crashing to the grass. Eye to eye with him, Sunpaw stepped off his ribs and backed up a few paces, her green eyes gleaming.
Rolling to his feet and shaking his coat, Lightningstar nodded at her. "Well done," he mewed. "Very well done." His whiskers twitching, he added, "My turn now."
;-;-;-;
Sunpaw dreamed that night.
She stood on a high mountain peak, looking down at the forest that lay beyond the snow and rocks. A harsh cry spilt the air, and Sunpaw tilted her head upward to see a hawk circling overhead. In one smooth movement, it turned in the sky, folded its wings, and dived straight for her. At the last moment, it veered away from Sunpaw and rose in the air again. Sunpaw looked at her feet, and saw the hawk had deposited a small, delicate rose. As she looked at it, the rose shriveled and turned from deep crimson to black.
Frightened, Sunpaw turned her gaze back to the hawk, which flew in lazy circles again. Far down below on the rocks and ice, the midnight-coated vixen barked, her ice-blue eyes standing out against her dark coat.
;-;-;-;
Sunpaw jerked her head up, feeling disoriented for a moment. From a hole in the den wall, she could see that it was barely dawn. Standing and stretching, she stepped out of the den and sat down.
She'd concluded by now that StarClan was communicating with her through dreams. The trouble was, she didn't have clue as to what this most recent dream meant.
Would be a heck of a lot easier if StarClan, for once, came out and said what's going to happen, she thought. Licking her lips, she walked over to the creek that ran by Lightningstar's den. Bending her head to lap up some water, she swivelled her ears when she heard another cat approach. Sorrelflower sat down beside her, also dipping her head to drink.
"Hello, Sunpaw," mewed the elder in her cracked voice when she finished drinking.
"Hi," said Sunpaw.
The tortoiseshell elder was about to say something else when a crow cawed somewhere nearby. Sorrelflower whipped her head in the direction of the noise, her tail tip twitching excitedly and the fur along her spine standing up slightly. Frowning, Sunpaw said, "It's just a crow, there's nothing to–,"
"Quiet!" whispered Sorrelflower. "I have to listen and see if I can find out where it is." As if on cue, the crow swooped down from wherever it had been perched and landed on the grass on the other side of the stream. Opening its beak, it cawed again, then spread its wings and flew away.
"Sorrow," said Sorrelflower once it had disappeared from view. Before Sunpaw could ask what in the name of holy StarClan she meant, the elder turned and slipped back into the elder's den.
Sorrow? Shaking her whole body, Sunpaw turned and went to wait for Lightningstar to wake up.
;-;-;-;
"I hate fishing."
"Small wonder. Your fur is the most absorbent I've ever seen. Granted, I haven't seen that many highly absorbent pelts, but still, my point stands."
Icepaw snorted in amusement, and Sunpaw turned her gaze back to the stream. Mudspeckle had sent the two of them to fish at the Birch Stream, a task which Icepaw set to grudgingly. His thick fur seemed to lock in water, and it took some time for it to become fully dry. Sunpaw was considering pushing him into the stream to annoy him, but, she figured, that would scare the fish away. Normally, ThunderClan did not fish, but with the many streams running through their territory, it seemed a waste to just leave all the fish alone.
A glimmer caught Sunpaw's eye, and she looked to see a fish swimming near the bank. Shifting closer to the water, she tensed, silently cursing the creature for taking so long to swim another half-tail-length closer so she could reach it. For several heartbeats, the forest was dead silent, so when the squawk of a crow shattered the quiet, Sunpaw jumped so hard she fell into the water.
Gasping from the cold of the water as she dragged herself out, Sunpaw glared at Icepaw, who was slumped on the ground laughing.
"Shut up," she growled, shaking the water off her fur. After a moment, Icepaw's laughter, which was on the edge of becoming hysterical, subsided as he pulled himself to a sitting position. Though he was restraining himself from laughing aloud, his body shook with the effort.
"Yes, hysterical. I'm going to push you into the lake," said Sunpaw, who was struggling to gather what scraps of dignity she still had.
"Oh, come on," said Icepaw, still half-laughing, "admit, that was funny. For once, can you forget about your stupid pride?"
"Never," replied Sunpaw, but she didn't bother to try and stop her whiskers from twitching. Shaking herself again, she sat down and started to lick herself dry.
"You just have an inability to laugh at yourself," he said, walking over and licking the fur around her shoulders.
"No, I have an inability to laugh when I fall into an ice-cold stream. I'll push you in, see how much you like it."
The crow squawked again, this time from a tree directly overhead. Sunpaw tilted her head up to look at it.
"I wonder if the rhyme has any truth behind it," said Icepaw, also seeing the crow.
"What rhyme?"
"The rhyme about counting crows," he said, and began to recite. "'One for sorrow, two for–,'"
"Oh, that one," interrupted Sunpaw. "Sorrelflower saw a crow this morning and said 'sorrow'. I only just remembered the rhyme and I've been trying to think about what she meant."
As the crow flew away, Icepaw murmured, "If the rhyme does have truth behind it, I'm not sure I want to find out what kind of sorrow is going to come."
;-;-;-;
Sunpaw stalked with her shoulders hunched and ears flattened, squinting her eyes against the driving rain. It was nearly sundown, and Lightningstar had sent her out to hunt again not long ago. Now, with the sheets of rain cascading down, it was next to impossible to see prey, much less scent it.
Readjusting her grip on the chickadee she'd been able to catch before the rainstorm of the century started, Sunpaw paused to shake a clod of mud off her foreleg. As the sludge flew of her fur, a branch of lightning flickered overhead, momentarily lighting up the woods. Following the lightning came a crash of thunder that nearly made the ground shake under Sunpaw's feet. Flinching from both the reaching claws of lightning and the booming thunder, Sunpaw swallowed and set off towards the camp at a near run.
Another bolt of lightning split through the sky, which had turned a thick, inky black from the clouds and rain. As the flickers of electricity again lit up the trees, Sunpaw saw a flash of dark brown fur shoot out from behind a bush. Despite the speed at which the cat ran, Sunpaw recognized the broad shoulders and thick legs. Hawkclaw? Hawkclaw it was, and he ran straight past Sunpaw, his fur barely an inch from her muzzle, though he apparently did not notice her. As he disappeared into the undergrowth, a faint trail of his scent drifted over to Sunpaw. Breathing it in, her heart skipped several beats when she caught the scent of blood.
She looked in the direction that Hawkclaw had come from, and, acting on impulse as she always did, dropped her chickadee and ran over to the bush he'd emerged from. Before she reached it, she hit a swath of mud. Unprepared for the change in ground texture, Sunpaw slipped and landed on her flank, her cheek pressed against the ground. Slipping and sliding as she clawed her way back onto her feet, Sunpaw jumped over the rest of the mud patch to land at the bush Hawkclaw had bolted from.
Even through the murky scents of mud, rain, and her own wet fur, Sunpaw could smell blood, but she could not identify whose blood it was. Plunging through the dense bush, Sunpaw slammed to a halt when she saw a bundle of tortoiseshell fur laying in the mud in front of her.
"Sunpaw," said the tortoiseshell in a thin voice. It was Roseleaf. Her fur was spiky with rain and mud.
"Roseleaf," said Sunpaw in a shaky voice. "Mother?"
"I'm alive," mewed the dappled she-cat. Her reassurance was weak, though, for Sunpaw could see the blood pooling out a deep wound in her neck.
"You won't be," whispered Sunpaw, her voice squeaky. "I'll get Treeshadow."
"No time," gasped Roseleaf. "Things I must...must tell you be...fore I...," her voice trailed off, but her flanks still rose and fell faintly.
"You're not going to die!" hissed Sunpaw fiercely. "You're not allowed to die yet."
"I will. My time has come." Roseleaf sounded calm, though she knew she was leaving to StarClan. "Sunpaw, daughter, listen. You must find your father and tell him I love him. Tell him I'm sorry."
"I can't tell him if I don't know his name," whispered Sunpaw. There was no scorn in her voice. Her legs shook violently. Her mother was dying. All her pride and confidence and banter had disappeared. She felt weak, as if the rain was changing her muscles into water.
"Alexander," Roseleaf managed to say.
"That's his name?" asked Sunpaw. Roseleaf nodded. The small tortoiseshell moved her mouth, trying to talk, but all her life had almost gone, and she barely had the strength to beckon Sunpaw closer with her tail.
"It...was...h...," Roseleaf could not finish. Her amber eyes, which had always been bright, were dull, and her breath and fast and shallow.
"Hawkclaw?" said Sunpaw. Her mother flicked an ear. Rage coiled up in Sunpaw, only to wash away a moment later as Roseleaf exhaled shakily. Her small body jerked, her eyes closed, and she lay still.
Sunpaw's mother was dead.
A torrent of emotion flooded through Sunpaw. Raw grief for her mother, burning rage at Hawkclaw for murdering her, and cold realization.
The two crows that had appeared earlier that day. Each had appeared separately, giving the sign of sorrow. Sunpaw had seen them both. Squeezing her eyes shut, Sunpaw recited the old rhyme in her mind as she rose to her feet and began to walk back to camp. She couldn't carry her mother through the thick mud patches and slippery grass. She would go back to camp and say she'd found Roseleaf dead. She would give Lightningstar the details later.
As Sunpaw trudged mechanically back to camp, she kept repeating the old rhyme about counting crows in her mind as though her own life depended on it.
;-;-;-;
One for sorrow, two for joy, three for girls and four for boys. Five for silver, six for gold, and seven for a secret never to be told.
–Traditional
A/N: I'm not going to apologize for killing Roseleaf, so don't tell me I need to. Chapter 11 might be slow in coming, because I go back to school this week.