Chapter 14 - Red Snow

"Leafpaw, hunting patrol!" Stormpelt called into the apprentices' den. The light gray apprentice looked up groggily and got unsteadily to her paws. As she woke up more, she stumbled slightly out of the den and into the bright sunlight of early morning. Her eyes squinted against the sudden light as she joined her mentor to leave the camp. During the night, a fresh layer of snow had fallen to cover the camp's ground. Several tracks of paw steps already marred it showing the way the dawn patrol and other cats had left earlier. Stormpelt led the way through the bramble tunnel and turned toward the forest where snow that had managed to get through the branches made patches on the ground. At the edge of the forest stood Spottedpelt with Berrypaw and Oakstar with Lionpaw. Excitement shocked Leafpaw to wakefulness as she realized what this patrol would really mean. Warrior evaluations! she excitedly thought joining the group of cats.

Oakstar nodded to the newcomers. "Let's get started, shall we?" He turned to the apprentices. "You all will part into different directions and hunt on your own. Your mentors will follow behind you, but do not let that disrupt your hunting. They will be hidden out of sight."

Leafpaw started shaking, almost unable to wait any more. She had been waiting for this day since she was a kit. Lionpaw gently laid his tail on her shoulder trying to calm her and she settled down a little. She turned to look at her mentor who twitched his ears in amusement making her skin burn with embarrassment under her light gray fur.

"You three can go now," their leader said, stepping back. Berrypaw immediately went for the lake. Lionpaw glanced over at her before going straight into the forest heading to the right. Leafpaw watched them leave before going in the opposite direction of the other apprentices. She took care to step lightly on the snow and avoid twigs and kept her mouth open to draw in scents. The clean, crisp scent of snow and air filled her senses and had some undertones of mice and voles. Following a scent trail, she lowered herself to the ground until her belly fur almost touched the snow and padded forward, tense. She gently stepped through a bush without a sound and found herself on the outskirts of a small clearing. Two mice were crouched in the middle, eating nuts that hadn't been found by squirrels before leaf-bare.

All right. Time to show Stormpelt that I'm ready to be a warrior, she thought getting into the hunter's crouch. Leafpaw watched the two mice eat, ears perked for any other sounds that could alert them. One, two...three!

Leafpaw leaped out of the bush and pounced on both mice. She bit into the back of the neck of the first mouse she got to and bashed the second mouse with her paw. Dropping the first, she quickly bit the second in the neck as well before it recovered from being stunned. Under the nearest tree, she scratched at the dirt and snow to make a small hole to store her fresh-kill and scratched dirt over them. Her gaze came up to regard the forest, prideful of her first two kills.

I wonder how Lionpaw is doing? she idly thought as she continued back in the forest. Soon she caught the scent trail of a vole and followed that. The closer she got, the stronger the scent of vole became with another scent intertwined with it. Twitching her tail slightly, she quietly broke through a low lying bush and stopped before a dead vole. She sniffed it and hissed slightly. ShadowClan scent!

Looking around her, she tried in vain to locate her mentor's dark blue fur. Leafpaw gave up after her first two sweeps and opened her mouth, drawing in the scent. She nodded. Definitely ShadowClan. Unwilling to wait for her mentor to intervene, she followed the trail.

"Wha-?" Stormpelt broke into a dash after his apprentice. He had watched her sniff the dead vole and scan the trees for something until something made her run in the direction of the ThunderClan-ShadowClan border.

Skidding to a halt, he panted as he walked up to the border. Leafpaw stood there facing five warriors and two apprentices. He slowly approached her from behind.

"You're stealing our prey!" she shouted, tail lashing the air. Stormpelt's mind went back to the vole she had found and understanding dawned him. His fur stood on end as he faced the group as well.

"You kittypets have no idea what you're talking about," a black ShadowClan warrior shot back. "It probably died of old age!"

"Then why does it have your Clan scent all over it!"

The warrior launched himself over the border at Leafpaw. She dodged and aimed her claws at his muzzle. Another warrior launched himself at Stormpelt and knocked him to the ground. He growled and pushed the cat off of him and raked his claws down the warrior's side. She howled and backed off a little before attacking him again.

"Leafpaw!" a duo of voices shouted from behind. Berrypaw and Lionpaw rushed to the border, bowling into the ShadowClan apprentices and followed by their mentors. Stormpelt scratched his opponent's eyes making the she-cat back up and run off onto her territory. He didn't have much time to enjoy his small victory as two other warriors brought their attacks to him.

The light gray apprentice backed away from her attacker licked blood off her shoulder. Somehow the black warrior had gotten through Leafpaw's defense and gave her shoulder a gash. She looked around the small battlefield looking for Lionpaw, but didn't find him before the ShadowClan warrior attacked her again, giving her a scratch to the muzzle. Yelping, she jumped back and stumbled over a tree root. She regained her footing quickly and leaped onto her opponent, biting his ear and holding on. The ShadowClan warrior shook her off and she fell to the ground with a soft thump.

"Leafpaw!"

Her name called, she looked in the direction of it and saw Berrypaw bloodied and on the ground. Her sister's attacker approached closer for a kill and Leafpaw growled dashing forward.

"Leave my sister alone!" She screeched, landing a well aimed scratch above the eyes. The attacker became blinded by blood and ran off across the border to his territory. Leafpaw turned to her sister and examined her quickly. A long gash ran down her belly, bleeding heavily. Her eyes were open and showing she was slightly alert, but not much. The darker gray she-cat groaned in pain causing the lighter gray she-cat to moan. "Come on, Berrypaw, hold on."

Leafpaw turned and came face to face with one of the largest cats she had ever seen. By the looks of him, he was one of the better ShadowClan warriors. Her eyes widened in terror some, but she held her ground, claws out ready for an attack.

The warrior went in for an attack, but a flash of color entered from the corner of her eye and brought down the warrior in a tangle of legs and tails. Lionpaw bit into the neck of the warrior and ripped out a small portion of it. He spit it out as he was knocked off of the cat and started to chase the warrior as he ran off across his border. Leafpaw watched in horror and awe as Oakstar came up behind him and grabbed him by the tail before he could cross the border too. She noticed that the other ShadowClan cats had also ran off across the border to avoid further wounds.

Around the ThunderClan cats, blood drenched the snow. One ShadowClan cat laid in a puddle of blood, killed by one of the warriors. Leafpaw turned her attention back to Berrypaw and licked at her wounds. Her tongue went in a little with the gash on her belly, but she was careful not to cause anymore harm.

Oakstar came up from behind and laid his tail on her shoulder. "Go get Silverwing. I'll watch over her."

Glancing up at her leader, she solemnly nodded and ran off toward camp. The entire way she couldn't get the image of red snow and her wounded sister out of her mind.