Mouse! There, in the bushes! My tail twitched, and I heard the mouse freeze. Foxdung! Was a tail twitch really enough to alert a mouse? Was I doing something wrong? This is what I get for being a perfectionist.
My name is Ripplepaw. I'm an apprentice of ValleyClan, and this was my first lone hunt. (I'd been apprenticed in early spring, when prey is scarce, and hadn't had much hunting practice. They don't let apprentices hunt then, when inexperience can mean prey loss.) I wanted to have more than a mouse to bring back to the fresh kill pile, but having a mouse wouldn't be a bad idea.
I froze, even holding my breath. But the mouse still sat frozen. StarClan, let it be mine! After several agonizing seconds the mouse resumed its tiny little mouse life. I began creeping closer, slowly, one teensy little step at a time...
It snapped to attention and raced off. I lunged but fell short. Foxdung! What in StarClan had I done wrong?
Was it really me? I sat up, ears pricked, closed my eyes, blocking out all my other senses in order to concentrate. Twigs snapped, off to the right. A cat snarled and another hissed, faintly. An outright yowl broke out but was silenced sharply and immediately.
I bolted in the direction of the sound, feeling the earth under my paws so as not to make noise.
Another yowl broke out. This time I recognized the yowler. Frostleaf, ValleyClan deputy!
I slowed and crouched low, moving silently now, taking careful note of each and every step. I reached the edge of a tiny hollow, one I'd passed many times before and never really noted. I'd tried hunting there once or twice but to no avail. But now a greater hunt was taking place.
Flameclaw, (a senior warrior,) and Frostleaf were locked in combat, jaws snapping wildly. Blood spattered the forest floor, and it looked to me as though most of it was Frostleaf's; there were fewer wounds on Flameclaw.
As the two cats rolled past, Frostleaf spotted me. Her blue eyes, still fierce, locked on mine. "Stay hidden," she breathed, so softly that I wasn't even sure I'd heard her. But apparently Flameclaw had.
"What was that?" he snarled, swatting her across the cheek. She screeched in agony and clawed at him feebly. My eyes were wide with terror, my muscles tense with wanting to help. But Frostleaf continued to hold my gaze steadily, giving me the same warning look she had Thornpaw when she'd caught him putting mouse bile in his brother Robinpaw's bed. I cowered behind the ferns and she nodded slightly.
Then it happened.
Flameclaw flipped her on her back and slashed open her belly. He was panting wildly as he watched her bleed out upon the grass. He looked down at her with icy cold eyes. He gave one disdainful hiss. "Not so tough are we now, old friend?" he spat in her face.
"Forget it, you mangy StarClan forsaken piece of foxdung. You'll never win!"
Flameclaw spat at her again and stalked off.
As soon as he was out of earshot I bolted for Frostleaf. She looked up at me wonderingly, the way she did when she was in the nursery and saw her kits for the first time. I would know. I was there.
"Frostleaf?" I whispered, hardly daring to breathe.
"Oh, Ripplepaw." Her eyes were far away as she sighed. "What have I done?"
"Nothing," I told her, desperately trying to soothe her.
"I have done something," she snarled. I leapt back the ferocity in her voice. Her face softened and she took a steadying breath before continuing. "Believe what you will, young one," she rasped. "But know this: Water is always stronger than fire, no matter how small. But it never hurts to have a larger storm."
I nodded, but I wasn't sure what she meant.
"Good luck on your journey, Ripplepaw. You and your fellows are the future. Of all the Clans."
The death rattle of her last breath hissed from her ribs with a sigh. The Clan deputy was gone.
A rustle in the ferns. Flameclaw was returning. I dove back into the bushes. The red-orange tom held two things: a fat blackbird and a vole in his jaws, and he kicked along a foul-smelling lump of moss with his paws. My eyes widened. Was that...foxdung! I realized suddenly what he was doing. He was covering up his tracks!
The tom smeared the foxdung all over the hollow, taking great care to cover most of the blood. He then slit open the blackbird and scattered bits of it about. He was making it look like a fox was here!
But His Evilness wasn't done yet. He picked up Frostleaf and hauled her to the river, many fox-lengths away. Then he came back for the dung, and smeared it over the trail to the stream and over Frostleaf's body.
It had all been carefully planned out. There was no evidence to incriminate him, aside from a few scratches, and then he could say he's had a close encounter with the fox and chased it over the border stream.
It was perfect!
Perfectly deadly.