Chapter 11: Faster than Lightning..
Neon; Okay Swiftpaw your turn
Swift: YAYZ! Neon does not own warriors, but she owns me, and any other characters she has created, also the plot :D
Neon: well that went well :D
Swift: Now let me go and save Snowpaw's behind!
Swiftpaw padded through the thunderclan forest, the birds sang sweetly and the slight breeze ruffled her short ginger fur. Snowpaw padded beside her, his white paws padding over the grass delicately. Swiftpaw noticed he was getting taller, looking less of an apprentice and more of a warrior. She sighed, knowing the time would come soon when they would be separated. "What's the matter?" Snowpaw asked.
Swiftpaw looked at his deep amber eyes, full of concern and emotion. "It's nothing." Swiftpaw mewed. She then continued walking closer to the Darkclan border, where they had to check the boundary. Snowpaw frowned but followed her anyway. Swiftpaw sniffed the air, there was a scent she couldn't place, it was odd, like crowfood. Snowpaw was checking every leaf, glancing at her with orange amber every few paw steps.
Swiftpaw shook her head and sniffed again. The rest of their patrol was at the other end of the border, a couple of hundred fox lengths away. Since Breezestar's sinister warning thunderclan had been having patrols check the Darkclan border at dawn, sunrise, sunhigh, sunset , moonrise and moonhigh. The whole process was tiring and the patrols had to be small to get other tasks done. Swiftpaw was with Snowpaw, Squirrelflight and Birchfall, but the split in two earlier to cover more distance in a quicker time. The whole clan was paranoid elders staring at the entrance with round eyes of fear, Bramblestar keeping watch on the highrock every so often, two cats watching the camp at night. And constant patrols on the border. Swiftpaw was feeling the strain. All the apprentices were dead on their feet and the warriors slept whenever they got the chance. Another problem was rising also, it was now the heart of Greenleaf, and suddenly there was a heat wave, prey was sticking in their holes only coming out at dawn and sunset, making prey scarce and warriors tired and hungry. Not a good mix.
However Swiftpaw had noticed that Blackpaw and Foxpaw's attitudes had improved recently, helping whenever they got the chance and always training for battle in case they needed to protect the queens and elders. Blackpaw also had a new friend, which was surprising because making friends wasn't Blackpaw's strong point. Amberpaw was the black apprentice's new companion, sharing prey with her and training with her. He didn't even mind when she corrected his battle moves, which he normally got extremely offended about.
A rustle in the bushes made Swiftpaw snap out of her thoughts. She narrowed her eyes and unsheathed her claws, another rustle made her turn around, she leapt around and hissed. It was a mouse. "Wow, now I'm getting paranoid." She growled and leapt for the mouse to find it run down a hole. She growled in annoyance at her clumsiness, that could have fed a cat. "Hello Swiftpaw".
Swiftpaw leapt around and was bowled over, a red tom planted his paw on her neck, his claws unsheathed. "If you're smart, you won't call for help." He hissed.
Swiftpaw recognised the large apprentice Redpaw, from Darkclan. Swiftpaw eye's widened when she saw more two more cats leak out of the bushes, one a large red tabby tom, covered in scars, he had one large fang that stuck out of his mouth. "Well done Redpaw, I've taught you well." He purred.
"That you have Dogfang." Redpaw purred. Swiftpaw looked at the third cat, she was black with yellow eyes. "Nightcloud. Nice of you to join us." Redpaw purred.
Swiftpaw glared at the three Darkclan cats and hissed. Redpaw glared down on her and pressed his paw harder, choking her. "What- do- you- w-want?" Swiftpaw chocked.
"We want thunderclan to be petrified before we make our real move." Hissed Nightcloud. "You're leafpool's granddaughter. Lionblaze is your father. Crowfeather your grandfather. Which means sweetie. I want you dead."
Swiftpaw narrowed her eyes and unsheathed her claws. "That's not going to happen." She spat.
Nightcloud shook her head and unsheathed her claws. Swiftpaw tensed her muscles, with a surge of adrenaline she rolled over, clawing Redpaw as she turned. The red apprentice yowled in pain and blood dripped from his cheek. Nightcloud leapt for her, but Swiftpaw was too quick, she leapt into the air and twisted while still airborne, landing on the other side of Nightcloud. "Is that all you've got?" Swiftpaw teased.
Dogfang knocked her head with one heavy paw, Redpaw bit her tendon in her leg and Nightcloud pulled her leg out from underneath her. Swiftpaw had no chance with all three. What am I going to do!? Swiftpaw dragged herself up from under them and with no looking back, ran into the bushes of thunderclan.
Swiftpaw kept running, going as fast as she could she was running as fast as a rabbit, easily able to beat a Windclan cat. Swiftpaw pulled to a stop near the thunderclan camp, she looked back. They hadn't followed her. But before she could breathe a sigh of relief, she heard a voice cry out. "Help!" It was quickly cut off with a yowl of pain.
It was Snowpaw.
Swiftpaw narrowed her eyes and unsheathed her claws. Now they've done it...Swiftpaw leapt forward and took off, tearing at the ground with huge strides she realised something amazing, a bird flying alongside her was going in slow motion. Swiftpaw was going so fast that everything had slowed down. She saw a single drop of water fall from a leaf slowly. Her vision was crystal clear, she took in everything, the leaves above her were frozen, the ground a blur. She looked at the clouds, they were dark and promised thunder.
Suddenly lightning flashed in the sky, but Swiftpaw saw it differently, she saw it first spark off and then watched the long lines of static grow, then eventually fade. That was when Swiftpaw realised, she was going faster than the speed of lightning! This... is.. impossible!
She reached the attack, the cats were frozen, Nightcloud in mid leap, Redpaw in the air while falling to the ground, Dogfang had his claws outstretched falling to Snowpaw's throat. That meant she was going so fast their movements were too slow to even recognise! Swiftpaw's pupils grew into huge orbs and she leapt into the air, slowing her speed dramatically, Nightcloud began to react to her attack, her pupils slowly moving in Swiftpaw's direction. Swiftpaw slashed her face open, the darted to Redpaw and pushed him to the floor before he could fall by himself, then Swiftpaw turned to Dogfang, he was still unaware of her presence, Swiftpaw grabbed his paw and threw him into the air, her speed aiding her to take his weight. She saw a cloud of dust rise as Dogfang fell to the ground. Swiftpaw stopped with a skid. Her claws tearing the ground with harsh claw marks. The cats were now at normal speed, their faces full of awe as they noticed Swiftpaw standing with her back arched beside Snowpaw. "How did I end up over here?" Dogfang hissed.
Swiftpaw hissed in rage at the Darkclan cats. "if you want to live, if you want your existence to continue. You never. Never. Try to kill Snowpaw."
Redpaw narrowed his eyes at her. "Why?"
Swiftpaw bared her teeth. "Because it might be the last thing you ever do."
Snowpaw looked at Swiftpaw with wide eyes. "How did you..." before he could finish Swiftpaw unsheathed her claws and again went into super speed, she threw Redpaw into the bushes and gave Nightcloud a huge claw mark, before digging her teeth into Dogfang's tail. She then took her place beside Snowpaw again and watched as time caught up with her again and she slowed back down. The Darkclan cats noticed their claw wounds but finding no possible explanation they tore off into the Darkclan trees, yowling in fear. Swiftpaw looked back at Snowpaw and felt the sunlight warm her pelt, from Snowpaw's view the sun was behind her, cocooning her in a white blinding light, making her seem something supernatural. Her green eyes glowed dangerously in the growing dark and she puffed out her chest and yowled to the heavens. Sending the Darkclan cats a warning not to come back.
Swiftpaw narrowed her eyes into the Darkclan forest. She pricked her ears, she heard approaching paw steps. Snowpaw looked at her and stood up, his white pelt fluffed up. Swiftpaw wasn't surprised when she saw Dogfang, Dawneyes, Lightshadow, Hollowflight, Nightcloud, Redpaw and Breezestar stalk out into the light.
"Fine then." She glanced at Snowpaw. "Ready?"
Snowpaw narrowed his eyes. "Always"
Swiftpaw bunched her muscles and leapt into the air, unsheathing her claws and aiming for Redpaw. The apprentice didn't move, he was but Swiftpaw was too fast to even see his reaction. She flipped the apprentice into the air and watched him fall slowly to the ground. She realised with dread whenever she stopped moving time started to go back to normal. She twisted her head round to face Dogfang who grabbed her with long claws, she fell to the ground with a thud. Claws slashed at her neck, she suddenly became aware that now was the time for a quick exit. But she couldn't leave Snowpaw. Swiftpaw scratched Dogfang, hissing with rage. Snowpaw was fighting with Breezestar and Hollowflight, clearly losing but not giving up. Swiftpaw went back into her lighting speed and slashed Lightshadow on the flank, she was aware she was slowing down slightly and all the cats were catching up with her movements.
She slashed Breezestar's ear, cutting a nick in it, the leader growled slowly but Swiftpaw had no time to enjoy the blow, she leapt at Dawneyes, gliding through the air, suddenly a paw slashed her face and brought her down to the floor. Swiftpaw looked up into Nightcloud's eyes as the she cat brought a unsheathed paw down on her neck. "SWIFTPAW!" Cried Snowpaw.
The white apprentice launched onto Nightcloud's face and clawed her eyes, trying to injure the warrior in any way he could, Swiftpaw watched pride filling her heart as Snowpaw took on all the cats single pawed. He clawed Redpaw and sent him running away, he bit on Lightshadow's tail which sent the black and white tom howling all the way back to Darkclan. Snowpaw stood in front of Swiftpaw, his back arched and his claws curled. "Take one more step towards her, and you. DIE."
Swiftpaw bleakly heard yowls from other cats and was half conscious when she realised another Thunderclan patrol had come to help. As the fighting flamed around her Swiftpaw was comforted by Snowpaw, curling around her broken and worn out body, hissing at any cat who came near. Swiftpaw's eyes snapped open when she heard a familiar voice. "Help! Someone! He's going to kill me!"
Swiftpaw leapt to her paws, supported by one last drop of adrenaline, she ran to the attacker, Hollowflight, who had his claws ready to slice Ravenpaw's neck open. Swiftpaw knew it would be too late at normal speed, summoning all her energy she still had she saw the warriors slow down again, but not as slow as last time, Hollowflight's paw was a mouse length away from Ravenpaw's fragile neck. Swiftpaw's heart was in her mouth as she lengthened her strides, desperately trying to get to her friend. There was only one way, with an almightily leap Swiftpaw flew into the air, her claws outstretched and ready for their target, Swiftpaw's vision was tinted with black, Swiftpaw knew she had seconds before she became unconscious. Her claws collided with Hollowflight's neck and Swiftpaw felt blood flow on her claws as the warrior dropped to the ground. Swiftpaw landed on her paws, she glanced at Ravenpaw, who's jaw was wide in shock. Swiftpaw's legs buckled and she fell into darkness...
DUN DUN DUN! So what did we learn today? Swiftpaw is the most epicly awesome cat? That can go faster than lightning? Yeah!
Also Swiftpaw has risked her life to save her friend, using her last bit on consciousness to protect Ravenpaw awwwwwww
See you guys next time!
Who's your fav character at the mo?
Best wishes
Neon xxx
