Chapter 1 | Snow
Thornpaw woke up, seeing the fresh layer of snow outside. The only place that was warm was his nest, but of course he had to leave it and train. His brother and Bramblepaw were already out there, their nests empty. Thornpaw woke Spottedpaw and Lightningpaw, going outside. He carefully spoke to the she-cats with complex tail signals in order to keep their positions from being compromised. He stepped in the soft layer of snow, making his way to the fresh-kill pile. All was quiet as they slowly moved, too quiet.
"Ahh!" Spottedpaw yelped as Sparrowpaw tackled her. Lightningpaw spiked up her fur but she was attacked with snow by Bramblepaw. Thornpaw knew that there had to be more and he was right as Robinfeather tackled him. The newly made warrior was very heavy and laughed heartily. He got off Thornpaw, shaking his head.
"You did pretty good, Thornpaw. I was almost late this time!" Robinfeather mewed to his allies in attacking him. Thornpaw sighed, grabbing a mouse from the fresh-kill pile, sitting next to Spottedpaw to share it.
"You don't have to do it so much though." Thornpaw mumbled through a mouthful of mouse. Spottedpaw nodded in agreement. Not much of the others had an opinion though, simply talking to themselves.
"H-Hey maybe tomorrow it can be Robinfeather, Bramblepaw, and Lightningpaw while Spottedpaw, Thornpaw, and I can be in a group. You know, make it the sibling trio!" Sparrowpaw mewed, his loyalties divided.
"We can decide later, we should wake up our mentors!" Lightningpaw mewed. The light in her eyes soon died as quick as it had appeared. Thornpaw sympathized with her, because almost everyone had lost someone on the Blood Moon. Wolfbite had lost his mate, Fallowbelly, his mentor lost his sibling, and Bramblepaw lost his sister. Nothing had really been the same.
But despite what everyone had been thinking, Hawkdive came out of the warrior dens. With him waking up, all of the warriors would soon wake up.
"So, do you think we could go patrolling with Wolfbite today?" Thornpaw asked. She nodded her head. Thornpaw got up from Spottedpaw, shaking his pelt. He looked at Lightningpaw and stared at her incredibly fluffy fur.
"I thought most apprentices lose their kit-fluff in the first two moons of apprenticeship." He mewed, half-amused at her coat. She puffed out her chest in a rebellious nature.
"Well, when it's the dead of leaf-bare you'll be jealous of my fur." She purred, pleased with herself. Thornpaw smiled and shook his head. He would only be weighed down by that much fur!
"Come on, I see Ryetail over at the entrance." He mewed, trotting along with her to the usual reddish tom. Leafbreeze purred contentedly as she joined him in the patrol with Wolfbite. Thornpaw followed the tom into the open world. It was glaringly white, and the slow decay of the trees didn't help the mood.
Nonetheless, they still went by the edge of the clan, being able to see the WindClan cats that were hunting, dashing about in the snow. Thornpaw narrowed his eyes, seeing something in the distance. It looked like a reddish cat, and yet it couldn't be- right?
"Thornpaw? You kinda spaced out there for a second." Lightningpaw mewed, breaking his train of thought. Thornpaw shook his head, thinking it was nothing. He turned to see Leafbreeze and Ryetail speaking to eachother softly. He was happy for the two, as Leafbreeze was always head-over-tail for him.
"Wait- you didn't tell me that Leafbreze and Ryetail were mates!" Lightningpaw whispered to him, excitement crawling into her voice.
"Well, it's not like you're related to them or anything." Thornpaw mewed back, rolling his eyes as she flicked her tail back and forth with happiness. She always enjoyed playing with Dustkit, Oakkit, and Tigerkit, considering they were younger than her.
"Yeah, but I can still be excited, right?" She mewed, waving off Thornpaw's lack of excitement and replacing it with her own. Admittedly, he did like the prospect of having a mate one day, but he didn't care that much.
"Anyways, aren't we battle training tomorrow? I want to see if I've improved." He stated, hoping that in his next battle he would be able to handle himself better. Surprisingly, Lightningpaw was becoming better and better at battle training than at hunting.
"Oh yeah! I think that we'll be fighting out mentors. That'll be pretty fun!" She purred, continuing to walk in the snow. Thornpaw nodded, staring at the slow freezing forest. It was almost calming in the quiet and cold, and yet he felt off about something.
There were many reasons for it, like prey hadn't been as easy to catch, although that was apart of leaf-bare. There were legitimate reasons for why things were happening and yet he felt like something bad was going to happen.
"Dear StarClan…" Wolfbite muttered, stopping dead in his tracks.