A/N- …Holy…shoot. This chapter took FOR EVER. If this doesn't make you happy, nothing will.
Disclaimer- Yes, I own Warriors. I am now going to sue you all for a million bucks because you didn't ask permission to use the characters, plot, etc. –rolls eyes-
Chapter 11- Learning to Fight Back
A dark shape loomed in the shadows, just on the edge of sight. Blue eyes flicked nervously back and forth, not bothering to try to make out the figure, she knew it was impossible.
Dark brown eyes flashed with anger as they met hers, and something stirred in her mind. Those eyes seemed so familiar, but where had she seen them? Before she could study them more, they suddenly vanished. She could sense the creature moving noiselessly through the undergrowth.
Whipping around, she tried to find it, but couldn't see anything in the pitch black night. She suddenly felt claws digging into her back and scrambled frantically to shake them off. Just as she craned her head around to see her attacker, she woke up.
She was no longer in a dark clearing, but safe in her den beneath to Highrock.
Spiritstar snorted in annoyance. Though the exact same dream plagued her dreams night after night, she'd thought that maybe this time it would be different, maybe she'd finally learn what the ominous creature was.
Then she remembered the eyes. They were new to her dream, but where had she seen them?
Shaking her head, she snorted again and hauled herself to her paws. As she exited the den, Spiritstar noticed her apprentice talking animatedly with Leafpaw in the center of the clearing. Leafpaw nudged Swiftpaw and nodded towards her as she approached.
Swiftpaw turned to face her and Spiritstar stopped dead. Those eyes, they were the exact same ones as in the dream. Did that mean…? No, she contradicted herself. It couldn't be.
Shaking her head, Spiritstar forced herself to ask, "Ready for battle practice?" in a light tone. Swiftpaw nodded eagerly and trotted next to her through the gorse tunnel.
OOOoooOOO
"Attack me."
Swiftpaw blinked, surprised. She was supposed to attack her own leader! Was she mouse-brained?
As if she could read her thoughts, Spiritstar said, "You won't hurt me Swiftpaw."
Unconvinced, Swiftpaw nodded and sank into a crouch. She moved around quickly, trying to get a clear shot at Spiritstar's back, but unblinking blue eyes followed her every move.
She leapt forward, launching herself at Spiritstar in an attempt to surprise her. Spiritstar raised a paw and smacked her out of the way, pinning her to the ground.
Leaning down next to her ear, Spiritstar breathed, "Now try something I don't expect."
She leapt away across the clearing. Swiftpaw rolled over and shook the dust from her coat. Narrowing her eyes, she wracked her brain to think of a way to surprise her mentor. She leapt forward again, but as Spiritstar rose to meet her, she cut downwards under her paws. She then knocked Spiritstar's hind paws forcefully out from under her.
Darting out of the way as she fell, Swiftpaw quickly placed a paw on Spiritstar's neck and chest, pinning her to the ground. Leaning down, she whispered, "Expect that?"
Spiritstar nodded her head in satisfaction as Swiftpaw let her up. They continued sparring until well past sunhigh.
By that time they were both panting and got a drink from the nearby stream before starting back to camp.
OOOoooOOO
Noticing them as they came in the gorse tunnel, Firestream sneered, "I do feel bad for Spiritstar. Her apprentice is so weak. It's really very sad."
Everyone froze, waiting for her reaction.
Swiftpaw suddenly felt all the anger and frustration she'd built up in the past few moons coursing through her veins. It didn't matter that the entire Clan was gathered in the clearing. Nor did it matter that her mentor, her Clan leader, was right next to her. All that mattered was the fact that this worthless mound of fox dung had been taunting her and putting her down for two straight moons. And she was sick of it.
Without thinking, Swiftpaw launched herself forward.
Firestream didn't realize this until she slashed him across the muzzle, the force of the blow knocking him to the ground. He rolled with the impact and leapt toward her. She dropped to the ground and slithered under his outstretched paws, hitting his stomach with her hind paws as he flew by.
She made to stand but he jumped on top of her, biting down sharply on her shoulder and raking his claws down her back. Howling in pain, Swiftpaw scrambled to break loose, but he only bit down harder. Craning her head around, she bit down on Firestream's foreleg as hard as she could. This earned her a loud howl of pain that escaped his mouth, causing him to let go of her shoulder.
She then wriggled her body around and, with all the strength she could muster, kicked him off of her. He landed hard in the dust across the clearing with his breath knocked out of him. Swiftpaw rolled to her feet and stood panting as he slowly got his breath back and stood shakily. She noticed with slight satisfaction that he couldn't put any weight on the leg she'd bitten.
Glaring at her, Firestream made his way to the medicine dog clearing, leaving Swiftpaw to look around the clearing at the rest of the Clan.
Many dogs were nodding in acceptance, but she sought out one in particular. She finally found him sitting by the Highrock.
Holding her head high, she stared straight into his challenging amber eyes. Slowly, he blinked and nodded his head. Darkclaw recognized defeat when he saw it and, in this case, accepted it.
Swiftpaw nodded back and limped toward the medicine dog clearing. As she did, she saw Ravenwing staring at her. She seemed to say 'I told you,' though her eye was filled with pride.
Swiftpaw shook her head slightly and continued across the clearing.
Burningpelt was just finishing Firestream's wounds, so she settled down to wait, licking the wounds she could. Finally, Firestream stood and limped out of the clearing.
Making her way towards Swiftpaw, Burningpelt asked, "Where does it hurt worst?"
Though it felt like her entire back was on fire, Swiftpaw simply grunted, "My shoulder."
"Oh, that's a nasty one." Burningpelt murmured. She rubbed some poultice on it, causing Swiftpaw to yelp and flinch in pain.
Clenching her jaws together, she forced herself to stay quiet and still until Burningpelt gave her the all-clear.
"Just take it easy for the next day or two, you could make it worse by irritating it." She warned.
"But-" Swiftpaw tried to object.
"Swiftpaw," Burningpelt interrupted her sternly, "This is serious. If you don't let your shoulder heal it will continually get worse. Take it easy or it may never heal."
Reluctantly, Swiftpaw nodded and limped out into the camp. She was heading toward the apprentices' den when Spiritstar called her name.
"You did well in that fight today. You showed the Clan that you are just as good as everyone else. They won't forget in a hurry." She said, padding up to her.
Swiftpaw glowed with pride at the comment. Then she remembered what Burningpelt said, "Burningpelt said I can't train for another day or two. Says I'll irritate my shoulder." She recalled bitterly.
Spiritstar smiled sympathetically, "Just take tomorrow off. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to train the next day."
Swiftpaw nodded and, yawning, continued across the clearing to her den.
OOOoooOOO
The next day, Swiftpaw woke and padded out of the apprentices' den to find Beetlepaw and Leafpaw sitting by the nettle patch sharing fresh-kill. She grabbed a thrush from the pile and joined them.
"Scarcheek is taking me on the sunhigh patrol with Fallenoak and Longfang today." Beetlepaw boasted, puffing out his chest importantly.
"Lucky," Leafpaw whined, "Redstorm is taking me bird catching with Jewelpool. I'm going to have splinters stuck in my pads for a moon!"
Swiftpaw stared unsympathetically at her sister, "At least you get to go out and train. Meanwhile I'm stuck in here all day playing with the pups."
"Speaking of which," Beechpaw said, joining them, "when do you think Whitefeather will have hers?"
Swiftpaw followed his gaze and saw Burningpelt and Darkclaw rushing into the nursery and shrugged, "Soon from the looks of them."
"There's something to look forward to." Leafpaw said, attempting to cheer her up.
"Thanks for trying." Swiftpaw replied glumly.
"Leafpaw!" Redstorm called from across the clearing.
"You'd better go, Redstorm and Jewelpool are waiting. I'll be fine." Swiftpaw soothed as her sister gulped down the rest of her shrew and sprinted off.
Swiftpaw slowly finished her meal as Beetlepaw was called by Scarcheek and Beechpaw was summoned for a hunting patrol with Brackenpelt and Silentshadow. When she finished, she heaved herself to her paws and padded over to check on the elders.
"Ah, hello Swiftpaw. Come to clean out the den?" Smokecloud asked as she entered.
Grimacing, Swiftpaw nodded and began pushing the old bedding into piles to take out. 'At least I get to leave camp.' She thought dully.
When she had finished collecting new bedding, Ravenwing said, "Well I think young Swiftpaw deserves a story." She looked at the other elders for approval and settled more comfortably in the grass. "Have you heard the tale of Savagestar?"
Swiftpaw shook her head, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"When I was just a young warrior, WindClan was taken over by Savagestar. He was originally from ShadowClan, and he and his brother, Boldstar the leader of ShadowClan, planned to take over all the Clans. They were ruthless. They forced pups to become apprentices and killed anyone that didn't do as they were ordered. They attacked and killed any border patrols they found, and they refused to allow the other leaders, old Oakstar of RiverClan and Morningstar of ThunderClan, to visit Highstones.
"They planned to take over ThunderClan and RiverClan by killing their leaders. They thought that if we didn't have a leader, we would surrender. Oakstar was the first to fall. He had only one life left at the time, and he was killed during a raid on the RiverClan camp.
"Next they came for Morningstar, who had three lives left. She had just lost one life from a bout of greencough, and it left her weaker than usual. She was killed once trying to get to Highstones, and then again when she and her apprentice were ambushed while they were training. The final time was during a raid of the camp."
She paused and her eye glazed over with grief as she remembered, "It was terrible, it seemed like for every one of us, there were two of them. They broke into the nursery and killed all the pups as well as my mother, Nightflower, who was guarding them. I thought we would be wiped out."
"Well? How did you survive? What happened?" Swiftpaw asked earnestly.
"I'm getting to that." Ravenwing said before continuing, "We were losing. Many dogs had been killed, including our deputy, Blackrose. Then Wolfpelt, a warrior like me, showed up with his patrol and two others, as well as help from RiverClan. He let out a howl and launched himself at Savagestar, who was preparing to give Morningstar a killing bite to the neck. He ended up killing Savagestar once, which put life back into the Clan. We were finally able to beat the attackers back.
"When the battle ended, Morningstar was dying. With her final breath, she named Wolfpelt deputy and told him to take care of the Clan.
"Despite the win, the Clan seemed broken, defeated. Many dogs thought that all was lost. Both ThunderClan and RiverClan had lost their leaders, both Twilightnight and Wolfpelt were young warriors unaccustomed to leading a Clan, and our enemy seemed as strong as ever, though with one less life. But Wolfpelt refused to give up. He came up with a route to get to Highstones without crossing WindClan territory.
"That very night, Wolfpelt and Twilightnight took a small group of ThunderClan and RiverClan dogs. Under the cover of darkness, we traveled along the edge of the gorge and out of Clan territory. We then turned towards Highstones and used the tall plants in the Twoleg fields as cover to get the rest of the way. We sheltered in an old Twoleg nest and rested during the day before going to the Moonstone.
"During the ceremony, Wolfstar was told that Savagestar was planning a second attack on our camp. We rushed back but arrived too late. The attack had already started, and this time both ShadowClan and WindClan were together against ThunderClan and RiverClan, who was sheltering in our territory because their camp was completely destroyed.
"When we arrived, Spiritstar, then our deputy, Spiritsong, was battling both Savagestar and his deputy, Iceheart, at the same time. Wolfstar and I leapt at them to help her. Iceheart panicked and accidentally struck Savagestar, killing him once and for all. Realizing what he'd done, Iceheart ran. Boldstar saw his brother lose his last life and jumped on Wolfstar from behind."
Her eye filled with unbearable grief, more than just for her leader, but as though he meant something more. "Wolfstar couldn't throw him off, and Boldstar dealt the killing blow to his neck. I couldn't save him. I tried, but was blocked by another dog. As Boldstar was celebrating, Twilightstar attacked him, knocking him to the ground. By that time most of the dogs had either run away or died.
"Twilightstar was about to kill Boldstar, but Wolfstar stopped her. He said if we killed him in cold blood, we would be as bad as him. Instead, Boldstar was banished from all Clan territory. The last anyone ever heard or saw of him, he was limping past Highstones, out of Clan territory."
Awed, Swiftpaw exclaimed, "I want to be Clan leader just like Wolfstar. Nothing could ever be as good as that."
Ravenwing blinked slowly, then replied mysteriously, "There are other things that can be like that, but even more rewarding."
Tilting her head to one side, Swiftpaw asked, "What could possibly be better or more rewarding than being the Clan leader?"
Ravenwing's eye glowed as though she knew more than she was letting on, and she said, "Having pups and a mate that love you."
Swiftpaw scoffed, "Being a queen, no way." Then something clicked in her mind, "Wolfstar was your mate, wasn't he?"
Ravenwing nodded. It was so obvious. Now all of her actions made sense, talking to him at the Gathering, the regret and grief she showed during the story, it was because she loved him.
They sat in silence for a moment, until Swiftpaw heard Leafpaw calling her name from the clearing. Saying good bye to Ravenwing, Swiftpaw left her watching the sky as Silverpelt reclaimed it once more.
A/N- Seven pages, over 2,600 words…BOO YA! So anyway, this is the last chapter I actually have written (not so bad, eh?), so updates may take a little longer now. I also have a poetry performance thing for English the end of January, as well as six performances of Beauty and the Beast coming up in the middle of February (more actually…and I pretty much have a different part for each). Also there are some soccer and basketball tournaments that I have during certain weekends. So basically this is a really bad time for writing, reading, etc. but I'll try to squeeze it in. That is my promise.