Thank you for the beautiful reviews; they made me smile. And as for her being teased then falling in love with the bully, I has a plan for her love, and no, he is not in the clan.
Thank you again; please keep up the support.
"duck, lunge, swipe. Duck, lunge swipe…" Tigerheart's tried call rang out across the clearing as Foxpaw went through the cycles of the basic battle moves.
As each word was called she tried her best to perform the move but even after three moons of being an apprentice she was still sluggish and choppy with her movements.
Tigerheart sighed and leaped up from his spot and trotted over to the she-cat. "What are doing?" he sighed.
Foxpaw glanced up, visibly pleased by her progress. "I'm doing your commands of course."
Tigerheart shoke his head and sat next her. "You've been my apprentice for a while now and you still can't lunge right."
Her eyes widen. "I wasn't doing it right?" she shrunk and started to shake like a cornered mouse. "I swear I thought I was doing them right. I put all my weight into my back legs and lunched myself." She cried.
Tigerheart felt a growl rising up. Even if she was his apprentice she was a bit whiny and was never confident with herself. "Foxpaw your very uncoordinated."
"Wha-whhhhaaaaat!?" she cried, I think this is the first time I have actually told her head on what she was doing wrong, she looked like she was going to lose it.
"You need to use your tail more, the way you're using it, it is basically there for looks." He pointed out.
Foxpaw turned sharply to look at her tail, wiggling it around to make sure she still had it on her. "but…. I thought I was doing it right."
"I bet you did. But that doesn't mean you were doing it right." Tigerheart stated plainly.
Foxpaw's eyes widen to the sound of marrows of laughter coming from the other side of the training hollow, to be specific, her denmates, Pinepaw and Mintpaw.
Pinepaw was a deep grey tom spotted with dark black flecks, and his sister Mintpaw -who looked like the exact copy of the tom- gave her sly looks of scorn and condensation making the poor little tortoiseshell cat sink into her fur.
Tigerheart looked at Foxpaw and followed her gaze over to the older apprentices with a scornful gaze he glared at the cats, making them turn to face the outside wall of the hallow with widen eyes. Turning back to the she-cat he gave her a quick lick on the ear. "We are done training for today. Go off and try finding a corn snake… you know their Snaketail's favorite."
Foxpaw's ears pricked up. "Are you sure? I still have a lot of training to do…"
Tigerheart nodded. "Yes. Now go." He commanded.
She nodded quickly before ungracefully bouncing away into the pine forest.
Tigerheart whipped around and growled "GET OVER HERE THE TWO OF YOU!"
The two apprentices slunk over, not making eye contact as they made their way over to the anger Warrior. "What is it Tigerheart?" they chimed in perfect unison, as they like to do.
"You know Foxpaw isn't the most able cat in the clan…" Tigerheart started his lecture.
"you mean the most useless; even a newborn kit has more coordination then she does." They said together, tilting their heads together towards each other making perfect symmetry.
Tigerheart growled, unamused. "Whatever the case, she is your clanmate, and must be treated with respect, she doesn't laugh at your faults."
The twin apprentices gave a cocky grin "She is not our Clanmate. She is simple a lowly crow-food eating cat that ShadowClan took in. Nothing more and nothing less."
"THAT IS FO-" Tigerheart was cut off by the twins mentors sliding in front of the apprentices ready to claw out the dark tabby's eyes if necessary.
The two cats mentors were Olivenose and Scorchfur. Their glaring hateful eyes trained on the leader's son. "What's the matter?" Scorchfur asked, his eye narrowed at the tom.
" Your disrespectful apprentice were making game of Foxpaw's emotions." Tigerheart said with a fierce tone.
The two mentors glanced at each other then chuckled. "Oh is that so? I thought that it was something bad." Olivenose chuckled.
"It is something bad! You mustn't teach the apprentices that it is alright to pick on their denmates." Tigerheart argued.
Scorchfur and Olivenose let out a purr of amusement, and the she-cat (Olivenose) gave Tigerheart a lick on the cheek. "Your over reacting. Its as if you think of Foxpaw as a real member of ShadowClan."
Tigerheart growled and lashed his tail and clenched his teeth "Just remember to control your apprentices… or I'll have to include Rowanstar in this debate." With that he stomped off.
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.
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Foxpaw trotted across the dark land happily. Her soft white paws hitting the ground with the soft thump.
"Wonder where I could find a corn snake… Maybe by the Greenleaf twoleg place! Corn snakes like mice and rats and mice and rats like carrion…. Perfect!" She shouted, scrambling to get a grip in the mud before taking off towards the Greenleaf twoleg place. The Greenleaf twoleg place is like what it is named, it is a patch of land by the half bridge –boat dock- where in Greenleaf twolegs spend many nights in collapsible nest/dens.
The tortoiseshell she cat got a little ways away from camp before she stopped a realized… she can't remember where the Greenleaf twoleg place is!
"Uh… oh…. Where is the Greenleaf twoleg place again…?" she wondered aloud.
Their was some rustling in the bushes and Foxpaw jumped in surprise before baring out she snow white claws and showing her glaring sharp teeth.
"Oh, come on what kind of welcome is that for your favorite den mates?" two voices called at the same time, the bush rustled some more and out popped twin grey heads.
Foxpaw sighed and forced down her hackles. "its just you guys…"
"Yes… its just us." They replied.
Foxpaw shivered and backed up, hitting her hunches on a thick brown trunk of a pine tree. "We heard you were looking for the way to the Greenleaf twoleg place…. We can help you find it." They said in a sliky voice that reminded Foxpaw of snakes.
"Really?" Foxpaw asked.
The tom and she-cat nodded. "Of course. We are ShadowClan cats it is our job to know our territory." They claimed, obviously attacking Foxpaw.
But Foxpaw was a bit naive and very trusting, so she didn't notice anything wrong with the sentence. "That would be fantastic!" Foxpaw claimed.
"Come along then. Snaketail won't want to be kept waiting." They claimed, putting each of their tails around her on each of her sides and lead her down the path heading away from path that led to the Greenleaf twoleg place.
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.
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"You guys… this doesn't look like the path to the lake.." Foxpaw said, shivering as the shadows creped around her, hiding away the day light.
The two gray cats turned their heads towards her at the same time and tlited them slight, giving the yound she-cat a questioning gaze. "How would you know the way? You couldn't find your way there in the first place."
"oh… right.." Foxpaw felt her fur heat up with embarrassment.
After a bit of walking they reached a white picket fence… they had found their way towards the twoleg nest in the middle of the territory. "Wha…what!?" the little tortoiseshell cried.
The two gray cats grinned ear to ear. "You're going to hop it." They said.
"No.. no way! Those aggressive kittypet live there!" she said, her fur standing on end.
"Yes, yes way. You got us in trouble, we are just returning the favor." They stated with sickening pleasure.
"But… but, I thought you were helping me…" Foxpaw whined, her back against the white picket fence.
The two gray and black cats took a step towards her, making a swipe at her muzzle every time they inched closer. Foxpaw yowled in pain as blood began to trickle down her muzzle, hoping someone, anyone would here her and come to her rescue.
Her wish was granted…. But not in the way she wanted. The two kittypets –Jacques and Susan- that lived in the twoleg nest jumped onto the fence and looked down at them, their faces twisted in a sleepily daze and anger for being woken up.
"Why are all you stupid clancats making so much noise." Susan said, rubbing a paw to her amber eye.
The two gray cats that had been by her side had disappeared leaving her on her own. "uh… I'm so sorry." She yelped out, holding a paw over her bleeding muzzle as if trying hard to become one with the ground.
The two aggressive cats hopped down next to her, hostility not leaving their faces.
"Sorry doesn't cut it, were going to have to teach you a lesson." Jacques said, flashing clean white claws, narrowing his eyes.