What if I DID own Warriors? This would happen in the 1st series…
Chapter 3 - ThunderClan
Firepaw slowly crept through the bushes, his eyes fixed on the huge pigeon.
He pounced, landing squarely on top of it, his forepaws pinning down its wings. Remembering the warrior code, he bit down cleanly on its neck, then lifted it up.
His biggest prey yet! He raised his head proudly. This would feed the queens and their kits!
"Huh, nice catch, kittypet!" a sarcastic call made Firepaw stop. A low growl came from his throat.
"You had to catch the oldest, deafest bird ever!" Icepaw's voice crowed. "It's so fat it couldn't have flown away! Leopardkit could have caught that!"
Leopardkit, along with her brothers, Tigerkit and Lionkit, were the youngest kits.
Firepaw dropped his prey and leaped into the bramble bush, hitting Icepaw. She gave a yowl of surprise and the two apprentices rolled over in a flurry of paws and fur.
"Get off me, you stupid kittypet!" Icepaw hissed: when they finally stopped, Firepaw pinned her to the ground.
"Make me!" Firepaw growled.
"Fine!" she spat. She swiped her forepaw at him, it caught his muzzle and Firepaw felt pain sear through it as her claws caught skin.
She lunged at him, and Firepaw fell off her. He dodged her slashing claws and barrelled into her chest.
"Stop it!" a cat growled, and the two apprentices sprang apart, panting.
Firepaw looked round to see Birdstar, Twilightsky, Shadowfur and Dawnpaw standing on the top of the ridge.
"That's enough," Birdstar growled. "Icepaw, come with us on the border patrol, if you haven't got anything better to do."
"And me?" Firepaw asked hesitantly.
Birdstar turned her gaze on him. "Your hunting task will be extended until we come back." she meowed. "Go around where the stream begins."
Firepaw dipped his head. "Yes, Birdstar." He traced the route in his head. He would be going near the ThunderClan border.
Birdstar paused and glanced at the pigeon. Then she led her Clanmates into the trees.
Firepaw started to pad towards it, so he could bury it, when he heard a voice.
"Firepaw?"
"Yes, Birdstar?" he looked back.
Birdstar's amber gaze softened. "Nice catch," she mewed, before disappearing with the rest of her patrol into the trees.
Firepaw felt a thrill run through him at his leader's praise. Then, feeling happier than ever, he scraped dry leaves and earth over his prey, and trotted silently along the bank of the stream.
It had been a moon since he had joined the Clan, and although Icepaw hadn't changed, Firepaw felt at ease with SkyClan.
He soon heard a mouse scrabbling in the grass on the bank. He paused, then stepped forward lightly.
He remembered Birdstar telling him: A mouse hears you before it scents you, and a rabbit feels your pawsteps in the ground.
He must not be heard by the mouse.
He kept his weight on his haunches, but he felt himself slipping to one side.
The mouse pricked its ears. Firepaw held his breath, stiffening. The mouse fled.
'Mouse dung!' Firepaw cursed under his breath, then bounded after it. He climbed up the trunk of an oak, then saw it scurrying below him.
Remembering the fearsome SkyClan 'Sky Drop' move that could be used for prey and enemy, he leapt off the branch and landed behind the mouse.
He slashed its throat with his claws, then picked it up delicately in his teeth. He realised he'd gone close to the ThunderClan border, and instinctively scented the air.
ThunderClan patrol!
Firepaw forced himself to relax. He wasn't over the border!
He saw a patrol stepping through the bushes, and forced his flame-coloured fur to lie flat. He padded near the border, making sure he didn't split the skin of the mouse with his teeth.
"Hey! Are you a SkyClan apprentice?"
Firepaw dropped the mouse and looked round.
The ThunderClan patrol, a white tom, a golden tabby, and two apprentices (a long-haired grey tom with a slender pale ginger she-cat) were looking at him. The white tom had spoken.
"Yes," Firepaw dipped his head uneasily to the ThunderClan warriors, hoping he was reacting right. He still hadn't completely memorised Clan ways yet.
To his relief, the white tom nodded. "We'll move along, then."
Firepaw nodded, and turned back to the mouse, when his fur prickled.
He looked up to see the pale ginger she-cat watching him. His fur felt hot and he felt self-conscious, but he just nodded to her and padded away.
Even when he was back at the small pool where the stream began, further away from the border, his thoughts kept sliding back to the ginger apprentice.
He pushed them away angrily. He soon caught a squirrel, and heard voices.
He dropped it near his mouse and bounded over, near the border again.
The border patrol were with the ThunderClan one. And the ginger she-cat looked at Firepaw again...
Birdstar glanced around. "Good hunting, Firepaw?"
"Yes, Birdstar." he dipped his head.
Birdstar turned back to the patrol. "Are you moving along, Lionheart?" She addressed the big golden tabby.
"Yes," Lionheart meowed. "We'll see you at the next Gathering, Birdstar."
"Very well." Birdstar dipped her head formally to him, and the patrol padded away.
Firepaw couldn't help noticing that the ginger she-cat kept glancing back at him several times, before the thick ThunderClan undergrowth swallowed them up.
They collected Firepaw's prey and padded back to camp.
"Welcome back, Birdstar," Leafblade meowed as he met them in the gorse entrance. "How was the ShadowClan border?"
Birdstar dropped Firepaw's squirrel on the fresh-kill pile. "The new one, you mean," she mewed dryly, and Firepaw remembered the story that ShadowClan had taken the Pines before he joined.
She padded away with Leafblade to talk, and Firepaw dropped the rest of his catch on the fresh-kill pile, apart from the pigeon.
He padded into the nursery. The bramble thicket arched overhead, creating a cosy hollow, and the grass that grew there was thick and soft. Warmth immediately surrounded the flame-coloured apprentice.
The two queens, Whiteleg and Amberlight, looked up at him.
"Hello, Firepaw," Amberlight purred. "Is your apprenticeship going well?"
Firepaw nodded, dropping the pigeon. "I love it." he mewed.
"Thank you," Whiteleg meowed, blinking at him gratefully before she pulled the pigeon closer.
Amberlight nudged her. "I hope you're going to share that!"
"Of course," Whiteleg mewed. "Do your kits want any?"
"I'll save the softest parts for them," she meowed.
Firepaw dipped his head to the gentle queens, and ducked out of the nursery.
"Firepaw!" Dawnpaw called.
Firepaw padded over to where his yellow-furred friend was eating with Hurricanepaw and Lightningpaw.
As he chose a mouse for himself, Birdstar padded over.
"You and Dawnpaw are going to the Gathering tomorrow night," she meowed.
"Thank you, Birdstar!" Firepaw mewed happily.