All right folks, I've reverted to the old author notes now. So here you have the fourth chapter of A Saving Lily! Disclaimer: I do not own warriors. I do, however, own ElementClan and Lilypaw.
I stretched out in my nest, pleased to be back in the apprentice's den. Crowpaw, Greypaw and I were the only cats left in the den. I was allowed to sleep late because of my injury and Greypaw and Crowpaw had been training late.
"I'm going to do battle training today!" I bragged.
"I get to go hunting!" Greypaw said, trying to outdo me.
"I'm going to do some sort of training with Stormtuft today, but that isn't until later." Crowpaw said. The three of us walked outside stretching in the bright sunlight. I trotted over to the fresh-kill pile and selected a trout. I'd initially thought that eating fish raw would taste terrible, but it actually tasted pretty good. Then I noticed Sparkpaw flopped dejectedly on the ground.
"Hey Sparkpaw, what's wrong?" I asked. Sparkpaw had been apprenticed yesterday, but as far as I knew, he had only done the elder's bedding and searched them for ticks.
"Everyone pities me!" He wailed. "I can't do things as well as the other warriors and everyone thinks that I'm weak and helpless! I'm not! At least Lightpaw understands me." Sparkpaw said. "Lionpaw thinks that all that matters is being a good fighter." Sparkpaw slowly got up and trotted away.
"Hey Lilypaw, we need to get going!" called Burnheart. I got up and trotted after him. We went to a small clearing in the forest part of our territory. "All right Lilypaw, you need to try to get over me and onto my back. Why do you think that my back is the place that you want to land?" Burnheart asked.
"Um, because you can't attack me up there?" I answered.
"Very good," Burnheart said. He crouched down, then charged towards me. I tensed, then leaped into the air. I tried to twist, but I fell back to the ground awkwardly.
We tried that move several times until I finally got it. Just as we were putting the finishing touches on it, Coalpaw, Sandpaw, Lightpaw, Stormtuft and Moonheart walked into the clearing.
"Good, you're here!" said Burnheart. "We've got a sort of challenge for you apprentices." He continued. "It's a sort of racing competition. First, you have to run to the edge of the forest and make a claw mark on the fourth branch of the lone tree, the farthest tree from the others. Then you have to run to the small stream and swim across it. We'll be there, so don't worry about drowning. Finally, you have to run back to this clearing. Whoever makes it back first is the winner! Are you ready?" We all nodded. "Then get ready… get set… go!"
The three of us were off like a shot. Lightpaw and Crowpaw held the lead, with Sandpaw just behind them and me in dead last because my legs were shortest. Our first obstacle was the lone tree.
Lightpaw skidded to a stop just below the first branch. She leapt up and just managed to grasp it with her claws. Crowpaw had no troubles getting onto the first branch. I took a flying leap and managed to just clamber onto the first branch. I leapt up to the next one, glancing above my head to see the other competitors. Crowpaw was just making his mark and Lightpaw was right behind him. Sandpaw was still below me. I hopped up onto the third and fourth branches and slid my claw into the bark, making a small, neat claw mark. Just then one of my paws slipped and I fell off my branch.
I shrieked as I plummeted through midair. Suddenly, with a jerk, I stopped falling. I glanced up to see Sandpaw clinging to my scruff. He said something that sounded like "Gotcha," but with his mouth full of me, who could tell?
"Thanks," I gasped when he set me down on the branch.
"You're welcome. Just don't do it again." Sandpaw replied. As he jumped up to the next branch, I leapt down from the tree and continued to the next obstacle: the stream.
When I got to the stream, Crowpaw and Lightpaw were already there. Crowpaw splashed into the stream easily, but Lightpaw slid to stop next to its banks and stared at the water uncertainly. I jumped right into the stream and I was pleased to find that it was easy to swim through the water. My pelt shed water easily, and I pulled ahead of Crowpaw. Sandpaw had only just jumped into the water and Lightpaw had finally gotten in and was more struggling than swimming. Our mentors were probably going to have to rescue her.
I was the first one out of the stream and I was the first one to start racing back towards the clearing. Crowpaw was right on my heels though, and I could feel that I was much slower on land than I was in water. My muscles burned with exhaustion and I felt myself slowing down and staggering with tiredness. Crowpaw was swiftly pulling ahead and Sandpaw wasn't far behind. Even Lightpaw had managed to get across the stream and was running too, though she looked too far away to be a threat.
The clearing was only a couple of paw steps away, but Crowpaw slammed past me at the last second and Sandpaw and I made it to the clearing at the exact same time. Lightpaw trotted into the clearing in dead last.
"You all did very well." Stormtuft congratulated us. "Even you, Lightpaw," he added when Lightpaw shook her head no.
"That was both fun and exhausting." I gasped.
Crowpaw grinned. "It was even more fun because I beat you!" He bragged.
"And I came in second!" Sandpaw yowled.
"You did not!" I hissed, outraged. "We tied!"
"Yeah, but we tied for second, so I still came in second place." Sandpaw said.
"I came in last!" wailed Lightpaw. "I couldn't go into the stream! I hate water!"
"Guess you're not going to be alive for much longer!" Sandpaw teased.
"You know what I mean! I don't mind drinking it, I just don't like being in it." Lightpaw said.
"We'd better get back to camp." Burnheart interrupted. "It looks like rain and you guys are probably hungry anyway." The seven of us got raced back to camp.
"Hey Lilypaw, want to share?" asked Sandpaw.
"Sure," I said. I trotted over and bit into the thrush he offered.
"Hey, I was wondering… would you like to go hunting with me tomorrow?" Sandpaw asked. "I know you've never been hunting before so I could teach you and I have an assessment coming up soon so I could use the practice."
"Sure," I said.
"Do you know how to answer a question with anything but sure?"
"Sure,' I replied, then laughed. "Oops, I mean yes!"
I trotted into the apprentice's den and settled down in my nest. My eyes slid shut and I fell into a peaceful sleep.
I dreamed, but it wasn't a freaky, prophetic, StarClan dream of disaster. Instead, it was a memory. I was a twoleg and I was sitting on my bed with my cat, Maisie. I was reading a book and Maisie was purring away, her eyes half shut with contentment.
I blinked open my eyes slowly in the morning. The dream had seemed so real and peaceful, but it also scared me a little. My twoleg life seemed so far away and it was hard to believe that I would never see anyone from my old life again.
"Lilypaw, are we going hunting or what?" Sandpaw asked. I jerked out of my thoughts and darted out of the den.
"Coming!" I yowled. I almost slammed into Tricklewater, but dodged at the last second. Sandpaw was talking to Blazingarrow.
"Okay, let's go!" Sandpaw said. "Blazingarrow said we can go out as long as we stay near camp."
I nodded. "The let's get going."
Sandpaw and I went to the more forested area and Sandpaw demonstrated hunting techniques for the forest. "See, you want to get as close to the ground as possible and move slowly and quietly."
I copied his movements as closely as possible. He was a pretty good teacher and I got it down in no time. Unfortunately, putting the movements into practice was easier said than done.
"What is with you?" Sandpaw asked after I missed my third piece of prey. "You're more jumpy than a rabbit."
I sighed. It was okay eating the prey that someone else had caught, but catching it myself was way different. "I guess I'm just tired."
"You can't be that tired. We didn't get up that early and you were sleeping in your nest all night." Sandpaw pointed out.
For some reason, his logic frustrated me. "Well maybe I can't catch prey because I keep thinking that it's cruel to the mice or the shrew, or the bird! Maybe it's because I'm too emotional for a cat! Maybe it's because I used to be a twoleg!"
Sandpaw stared at me in shock.
Oops.
Haha! Cliffhanger! Come on people, review! I need to be motivated!