A/N: Hello everyone! Ok, I have one warning for you guys in this chapter...wait, two warnings.
1.) I'm sorry if parts of the chapter look rushed, I was distracted a lot while making this one, and my sisters have this tendency of making me go crazy.
2.) The 'settings' will be a bit different during this beginning part of the chapter. I mean, the places and stuff will still be there, but the way they formated the "See You Tomorrow" scene in the movie, was back and forth from training with Toothless, to training in the arena. So...you'll see how I plan that one out when you read it, because it would obviously be too confusing to just keep switching.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and happy readin'!
Better Than You Ever Were
The next few days were full of hard work, and sneaking around.
Today, a new idea had popped into my head about a new technique and I faked a soar throat. I padded over to Brownwhisker's den, and asked for something to help. "Well, honey would be your best option." He said, batting over a fresh comb he had managed to get the other day. I smiled my thanks, and took the comb in my mouth, him trusting me that I knew how to eat it properly.
I went in the direction of the apprentices' den, and padded inside, looking behind me for any followers. None. Good. I padded to the back of the den, and slipped out of a small hole that had formed at the very bottom.
Pretty soon, I was on my way to the Thunderpath.
My paws flew across the ground, anxious to get to the cove before I was tempted to eat the sweet smelling substance. I quickly came across the Thunderpath, and stopped, cowering behind a bush as a monster flew across it. I waited a few moments after it vanished, just to see if it came back, then ran across. The comb dripped honey as I dashed across the black ground, making my paws sticky. I kept my mind straight, as I ran as fast as I could to my 'patient'.
I finally reached the edge of the cove, and looked down into the open space, my eyes searching for the black tom.
I quickly spotted him grooming himself over near the small trickling water fall (and yes, there is a waterfall in the cove), and I made my way down the rocky cliff-face. "Toothless!" I managed to meow through the honey comb. His ear flicked, acknowledging my presence, until his nose twitched at the scent of the honey. "What do you have there?" he asked, trotting over. "Something that will help your tail stay in place." I said, spitting the comb onto the grass. He eyed it hungrily, "Can you eat it?" he asked. "Yes, but we're not going to. It's sticky, so it should help your new tail stay in place." I explained, picking the comb back up and bringing it around to the back of his tail.
I had redressed the wound and stuck the makeshift tail back on the day before, so this time, I took claw sized scoops out of the combs and smeared them on the edge of his tail, and across the end of the weird makeshift one.
I stuck them back together and smeared what little was left across both, to help stick. I sat back after I was done, them smiled at Toothless, giving him the ok to test it out. He sniffed the new makeshift's dressing, them ran to the edge of the rock wall near the Big Pine Tree that overhang the area. I watched as he began to climb, each paw step, fear of loosing my only friend again welling up in my heart,
When suddenly, he cried out in alarm.
I watched as his tail brushed against rocks and dirt, and along the tree's roots, and clusters and clusters of stuff collecting onto the honey. My plain failed...again. He bounded down the rocks and ran to me again.
"What went wrong?" I asked as he halted in front of me, his tail dragging against the ground. His musculed shoulders drooped as he lay down, his ears pressed back. "The 'stickyness' makes it too much to handle; it collects anything it touches." he meowed sadly.
My head hung at the lost effort. "I'll try something new again tomorrow." I said, begining to pad away to the exit. "Where are you going?" he asked. I stopped, "Back to camp I guess. My mentor's on the patrol around the whole territory to check for...uh..." I stuttered for a polite meaning, "Intruders." I mewed after a second. He sat back on his haunches and looked at me confused. "So you'd rather go back there and do nothing all day, then train to become a REAL warrior instead?" he said with a smirk.
"Train?"
"Yes, train. You're helping me so much with trying to heal my tail and help me escape, why shouldn't I repay you? You've told me how hard it is for you to train the way your clanmates do, so why don't I teach you easier ways? My sister dislocated her paw one time, and we don't have so called 'medicine cats' where I'm from, so she had to learn to fight a different way for a while. I could teach you the moves she had to learn." he offered. I looked up into his deep green/yellow eyes, and sincerly said, "Thank you."
"Don't mention it, squirt." he meowed, batting me behind the ear playfully.
So that's what we did for the rest of the day. He showed me this strange plant that grew in the cove called 'catmint'. I've scented it in the Medince cat's den before, but I've never been able to see it. Just one whiff of it made my head dizzy. He showed me how to use it against my enimies, and where to hide it before the fight started, and where to find it.
Pretty soon, I was a master at catmint fighting.
The next day I used what I had learned to my advantage. Creekfoot told me that we were training by the river again, and I hid a stock of catmint down there the night before.
My plan worked out perfectly; we went training at the river, and Redwillow was playing the part of a rouge. The plan for the training was a free for all; figure out your own way to bring the enemy down. I quickly snuck away unnoticed (as usual), and grabbed a pawfull of the catmint I had hidden behind a boulder. I took a small pebble and chewed the herb, and smeared the pulp across the small rock.
Still hidden, I prodded the rock so that it went tumbling into the clearing, just in front of Redwillow. She stopped for a second, her eyes going misty, and she shook her head as the scent entered her glands. While she was momentarily distracted, I quietly and quickly crawled out of the shadows, trying to do it fast so no one could go after her before I could. I snuck my way around back, and just as she was regaining herself, I sprung. I landed square on her back, sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Yes!" I mewed before I could stop myself. Redwillow shook me off and stood up, and smiled down at me. "You're finally starting to prove your worth, Smallpaw." was all she meowed before walking over to chat about my feat to Creekfoot, who was watching with interest.
"You're all dismissed." Creekfoot mumbled to the rest of us. I sighed in relief, and padded away in the opposite direction. I heard other paw steps running behind me, and suddenly I was surrounded my my clanmates. "How did you do that?" I heard Eaglepaw meow, and was quickly interrupted by Thornkit (who for the first time was showing some sort of attention to what I've done) "I've never seen anyone do that before!" he said. "That was incredible!" Icepaw complimented, and suddenly all of my denmates where crowding around me. I definitely not use to all this attention...
"Uh...I scented some squirrel, over near the Pine Tree, I'm just gonna go..-you guys go on ahead," I stuttered, backing out of the crowd in the opposite direction. I turned around and almost ran straight into Flamepaw, who had been the only one who hadn't been complementing me. She glared at me, and I continued, "Uh, yeah, you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up with you!" and with that, I darted away as fast as my three legs could take me.
I came back the next day to the cove with my own honey comb I had managed to steal from a group of bees. Yes, I got stung. No I had not gone to Brownwhisker...I didn't want to up his suspicion any more, right? I'll make up an excuse to him later. This time I had the idea of using the honey again, in the same was as before, but this time, i was planning on using pine needles to coat the outside of the honey, so nothing could stick to it.
Did my plan work?
No.
First off, it hurt him pretty badly. His wounded tail did not appreciate sharp pine needles, and they didn't stick to the makeshift. So I promised again, that I would come up with something tomorrow. But, again, he wanted to repay with with training. This time, he taught me the weakest part of a cat during an attack: the stomach. He showed me how to fight with this power, without hurting anyone, which I didn't want to do at the moment.
So of course, the next day, I used it to my advantage. My own mentor was going to be the prop today, and we all had to come up with some way, like last time, to drive him out.
While he was distracted with trying to chase the other apprentices, I hid behind a bush and waited for him to come running by. Flamepaw at that time, was attempting to battle him full on, and was doing a pretty good job, until he dodged one of her blows. Knowing how vulnerable she was at that point, she ran, with him chasing her. Just to my plan, she ran right by my bush, and so did Creekfoot.
3...
2...
1...
Now! I jumped out of my hiding spot behind the bush, and leaped at my mentor's side, sending him sprawling onto his back. I pinned him beneath me, and placed my good back leg on his stomach. Him knowing full well the power warriors had in their back legs, and their full force, Creekfoot surrendered, not wanting, even in a fake battle with claws sheathed, to get hurt. I smiled as I let him go.
After training was done, we went hunting. I, as usual, couldn't catch a mouse, so I had to sit by and watch the so called, 'real warriors' do the work. For the first time, the other apprentices didn't make fun of me when I came back to the group with no prey. I fell back to the back of the group as we walked back to camp, chattering amongst ourselves. I was lost in thought, so fell back even more that usual. Finally I was so far behind, I couldn't even see my clanmates anymore.
I sighed, hissing at myself for being so distracted, then ran as fast as I could to camp.
I entered, my ears pressed back in shame, and picked up a small trout from the top of the freshkill pile, and settled down. I had seen the apprentices, talking to Flamepaw, like they normally are, while walking in. But suddenly when I sat down to eat, I was quickly surrounded, and not just by the apprentices, one or two warriors had come by to congratulate me.
I looked behind me to see Flamepaw staring at me with anger for stealing her spotlight. I gave her an apologetic look, I really didn't want to make her mad...she was a friendly cat, if a little headstrong, but I still didn't want to make her mad.
She looked away, still angry, and picked up her sparrow, moving to the Apprentices' Den.
I kept my promise to Toothless the next day, but this time, I managed to get the solution I needed at the cove. Once I was there, I scrapped Pine tree sap off the bark of The Pine Tree that was there, and I used that instead of honey. Too sticky, I could barley use my claws afterwards, so I was incapable of even testing it out on Toothless.
But he still wanted to train with me...again.
This time he told me how to distract my enemy, and it works pretty well, too...
The next training exercise I had, I used my new skill. Sleakleaf was pretending to be another Shadowclan cat, and we had to create distractions. I think I could've been considered the master-of-distractions, now. I had a small, flat, and shiny pebble with me when we began training, and it was going to work well, I'm sure of it...
Suddenly Eaglepaw pounced forward, knocking Sleakleaf to the side. He overestimated the after effect though, because in a matter of seconds, she had him pinned. At this point I quietly picked up the stone in my teeth, the way Toothless had done it, and stood just on front of the Pine Tree. the sun's light gathered onto it, and it reflected onto the ground next to them.
I moved it around a bit, trying to catch their attention. Eaglepaw finally spotted it, and mewed, "What is that thing?" Sleekleaf turned to looked, and Eaglepaw wriggled away from her grasp. Sleekleaf, being completely distracted by the light, and why light was moving, I set the stone down onto the wet ground, and made sure it was still at the right angle so that it gathered the light.
The I snuck quietly around her like I did the other times, and I ambushed her from behind. The whole struggle ended with me pining her.
"Wow! He's better than you ever were!" I heard Eaglepaw mutter to Flamepaw. Uh oh...
I looked at her, and opened my jaw to apologize, but she walked away in a huff.
The next day I was walking down the path, carrying both honey and pine gum in my jaw. I walked down the path like I normally do, when suddenly a lighter scent enters my nose: Flamepaw.
Maybe I can get a chance to apologize!
I followed her scent trail, which was mixed with anger, so it could be easily followed. Surprisingly, it was right down the path, as if she'd been following it. Suddenly fear enters my heart. Had she? This just made me walk a bit faster, and pretty soon I was halfway to the Thunderpath, still following.
Suddenly a hiss sounded from the right of me, and I stopped just in time to look and see Flamepaw practicing her moves on a thing tree sapling. she ran forward and kicked off its soft bark so she practically flew off of it,
and landed right in front of me.
Well, sorta; she looked up to see me standing there. She squinted her eyes at the items I was carrying in my jaws, and I suddenly felt nervous. Is she suspicious? I quickly trotted in the direction I was meant to go, but making the sharpest turn to hide behind a rock. I heard her light paw steps follow me, but suddenly stop as my scent trail veered. I heard her growl a bit, and I knew she lost me. I did a silent sigh before slipping away.
I made it to Toothless before sunset.
He sat there, staring at the occasional fish that swam in the pond, and pawed at them. I muffled his name through the objects in my mouth, and he lifted his head to me. "Did my technique work again, today?" he asked. I nodded, the stuff still in my mouth, unable to speak.
I spat it out on the ground, and he moved his tail over to me, it now becoming a custom. I took out clawfull bits of honey, and plastered it on, and took the piece of bark i had, and scrapped out a bit of the pine sap, and smeared it on top of the honey. I didn't know whether the sap would help heal his tail or not, but for now, it was an option that I had taken.
The mix because sticky really fast, and I smeared it along the outside of the makeshift and real tail.
"That hurts!" Toothless complained. I guess the pine gum wasn't doing much to soothe pain. Oh well. I looked up to see him pawing at a dead fish that had floated up to the surface, and its stench was starting to smell. "I wouldn't eat that if I were you. That's crowfood." I mewed. He ignored me anyway, and took a bite of the fish. "Not half bad." He muttered through the mouthful. I gagged.
We waited a few more minutes before testing out the new tail. It was sticking really well, now all we needed to do is to learn how to use it. We walked over to the side wall, and I leapt up to a small ledge not far from the ground. "See if you can come up here. Without jumping." I stated. His eyes gave away the though it being easy enough. He placed his paws on the side of the wall and pulled up, scrambling to the ledge.
"Great! Now, let's see if you can climb up there." I said, gesturing to a ledge much higher up. "Fine," he said defiantly. "but you're climbing too." "Fine, bossy-fur!" he snickered. We both placed our claws on the wall, and began to climb, using our tails as balance. I have too admit, it was harder that it looked without jumping.
Suddenly my bad leg (of course) started to cause my downfall. Literally. My right front paw began to slip, and I collided with Toothless, sending us both into a very short free fall. I landed on top of him, and he shoved me off, growling. "Nevermind. This time, you can climb if you want, but stay away from me!" I could tell he was joking, but I sighed. My leg always caused some sort of accident, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I looked up at the sky; the first warriors of Silverpelt were begining to show. "I should be heading back." I meowed, and began to climb up the wall.
Suddenly I was pulled back from the end of my tail, and sent down to the cove's ground again. I saw Toothless staring at me with a strange expression. "Toothless, what are you doing?" I asked. He tilted his head, ears back "I didn't do anything. You pulled my tail!" he accused. "Me? But you pulled my tail! Wait..." I looked down at our tails.
My tail must have collided with his when we fell, because ours were stuck together at the base. Ok, it was official: pine gum and honey make the stickiest mixture I've ever seen.
"Oh great..." I muttered. "You pull that way, I'll pull this way." Toothless suggested, backing up in the opposite direction. "Ok." I began walking away from him, and he doing the same. We didn't get far though. Our tails were stuck like branches on a tree. "Now what? You stay here until we can figure out what to do?" he asked. I looked at him, "I can't stay! My clan will wonder about me! No, I have to at least go back and show myself, then maybe sneak out later..." A plan started forming in my mind.
The black tom saw my expression, and an almost fearful look entered his face. "Oh no...this isn't another one of your crazy plans, is it?" he questioned. I smirked, "Sadly, it is." And with that, I told him my plan.
"Smallpaw." some warrior greeted me as they walked back to their den. I nodded my acknowledgment. I was hiding myself all the way at the back of the apprentice's den, my scent and Toothless's completely masked by a patch of wild garlic we managed to find and roll in on the way here. Speaking of Toothless, he was on the other side of the den, I having snuck in under the hole in the corner.
I watched and waited as more warriors filled into the Warriors' Den, and I knew that by the sounds of heavy breathing, I'd be able to escape unnoticed, where I could figure out the solution to the predicament I was in. I felt Toothless's tail tug on mine, and I knew he was growing impatient. Well, he'd have to take it up just a little longer.
Suddenly, and voice questioned, "Smallpaw? Are you in here?" Flamepaw. Great, now's not the time for questions...
I smiled nervously as she walked in the Apprentices' Den with a scowl. "Oh! Uh, hey Flamepaw! Hi! I was just...um...resting! Yeah." I stuttered. Ok, now I was probably pretty obvious. She just scowled more in response. "I normally don't mind what others do, but you're acting weird!" She accused. Suddenly Toothless's tail jerked on mine, sending me back just a bit. I chuckled, trying to cover it, but she had noticed. "Well, weirder..." I tried to smile, showing my innocence, when suddenly Toothless pulled back harder, each time pulling me back a bit more. Finally he gave a huge tug which sent me flying straight out from under the hole in the den.
I heard Flamepaw's small gasps of surprise form back inside. Run. Run fast, now.I didn't even look at Toothless, I just started running, which he did as well. We ran neck in neck, back to the Thunderpath as fast as our seven legs (combined) could take us.
"What. Was. That?!" I shouted at Toothless as we made our way into the cove. "Hey, I'm sorry I interrupted your talk with Flamepaw," He began with a chuckle. I just growled at him, and he continued, "but there was a...what-are-they-called? Group of cats?" he asked. "A patrol?" I suggested. "Yes, right. A patrol was coming through and they were heading right in our direction. I had no choice other than be spotted!" he explained. I sighed, "Flamepaw's probably spread the word about that strange incident, so I guess we can figure out what to do about our tails now." I muttered.
We walked down the path to the pond, and I splashed the water onto our tails in hoped of the liquid breaking it up. Toothless suddenly asked a strange question, "What's it with Flamepaw? You said she's been ignoring you all week. How come?" he asked as our tails began to loosen. "Well, before I was actually good at any warrior training practices, she was always the best. The one who took the enemy down. But now, I sorta stole her spotlight...and she's a bit upset." I explained. I thought I heard him mutter the words, 'Sore loser', but I shook away the thought.
Finally the water became the antidote, and our tail became our own again. "Thank you, again, for the help." Toothless meowed, looking me in the eye. I nodded my thanks, before wishing him a good night and making my way back to camp.
A/N: Rushed at parts, I know, and sorry if there's any mistakes in grammar, capitalization, or spelling. I finished this at night, so...yeah.
Probably the longest chapter I've done, and I'm proud of it :) I named this chapter, Better Than You Ever Were, mostly because of Eaglepaw/Tuffnut's line, "Wow, he's better than you ever were!" to Flamepaw/Astrid. I thought it fit, but comment if you think otherwise.
You can see in this how I designed the whole "See You Tomorrow" scene, and it was definitely rushed at parts, and I'm sorry. I think Dreamworks was actually trying to kill me with that one -,-
Either way, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and that you have a wonderful rest of your day, viewers!
-catz4eva101