Chapter 4
Snowpaw was eating breakfast when a sound came from nowhere. It sounded as if a tree was falling somewhere in the forest! Somebody could be in trouble, really close to the tree. "Dartpaw, Dartpaw!" She padded up to Dartpaw and yowled in his ear. "Ah! Why'd you do that?" He asked.
"Don't you hear it? It sounds like a tree is falling, cats could be in trouble! What if the tree falls on camp, and everyone is hurt!" Snowpaw went on and on. "There's no freakin' tree, it's just the freakin' kits doing stuff to the freakin rocks. Calm down, and have freakin' Grasspaw check you for freakin' ticks." He bounded off to get Grasspaw, leaving Snowpaw to fret about the kits being crushed by a falling pebble.
Grasspaw appeared a moment later with mouse bile. "Hm, you've got a few ticks. On your face mostly. Close your eyes! And your mouth. Especially your mouth, you don't want to eat this stuff, and no one wants to listen to you!" Grasspaw spread the mouse bile all over Snowpaw's face, and when she was done with that, went to put some on her tail, which had one tick. "There, all done. Try not to let the poultice come off, it'll get everywhere. And your ticks could come back." And Grasspaw was back in the medicine den before you could say 'mouse dung'.
Kittycat was calling her name. "Snowpaw, we need to train! You're going against Dartpaw today! Show him female cats are just as strong as male. Come on, Bronzetail and him are waiting for us!" Snowpaw followed her mentor into the forest where all cats train. "Try to use that really weird move on him that I taught you yesterday! Dartpaw's never seen it, so it'll give you a nice boost."
Snowpaw faced Dartpaw in the middle of the clearing. Snowpaw pounced on him and batted him in the face, her claws sheathed. She pinned him down in batted his eyes as hard as she could without hurting him, and got off of him. He got up and pounced, but she dodged and jumped right on top of him, but Dartpaw threw her off, and scratched her with sheathed claws. He ran at her but she moved to one side, tripped him, and Dartpaw ate dirt.
"Good job Snowpaw! You showed him! Bronzetail, you really need to train that weirdo, he was just beaten by a she-cat! Ha!" Kittycat laughed. "Come on Snowpaw. Let's get you a snack for your victory." They went to the fresh kill pile and each got a mouse.
"Do you hear that? It sounds like a little dog. I'll warn Skystar." Goldheart was listening to birds chirping when she picked up the sound of a little dog, barking. It sounded very close, so she wanted to warn Skystar. But Skystar was on a hunting patrol, so she looked for Specklehumm, the new deputy.
"Specklehumm, there you are! I just heard a dog barking! Tell Skystar when he gets back! We need the camp guarded and safe!" Just then, Skystar and the rest of his patrol emerged from the bracken and put the stuff they caught on the fresh kill pile. Specklehumm explained everything to Skystar.
"Really? Okay. I won't send out and more patrols but the one to look for this dog. The rest will guard camp."
Once everyone knew about the dog, the patrol was sent out and the camp was guarded.
Snowpaw heard a louder bark, coming from just outside the hollow. She started panicking. The patrol must've found the dog, but wasn't able to keep it away from the camp. Snowpaw ran all the battle moves she knew, and prepared herself just in case she had to fight it off if it came in. She heard another bark from outside the hollow. In seconds in could jump through the brambles and hurt somebody. Snowpaw thought quickly. She would go out there and look at the dog, and see if she could take it on. She ran towards the hollow and stepped out of camp. And there was the weirdest thing she had ever seen.
What a tiny dog! She thought. No wonder it had made it's way to camp. It was so small and barley scented of anything. It could easily slip pass the patrol without being seen of scented. She scratched it's muzzle as fiercley as ever and clawed it's eyes. She would not let it survive, it knows where camp is, and she didn't want it bringing other dogs, bigger to tear up camp. Snowpaw bit his tiny leg as hard as she could. She knew she had killed it as soon as she sunk her teeth into the tiny throat. Skystar appeared out of the brambles.
"Good job! Snowpaw, I'm glad you got rid of that pest before it grew up and came back. Who knows? It could've grown up to be giant and fierce, and you killed it so we would never find out. I'm so proud of you. In fact, maybe it was time I gave you an apprentice."