Yo, wassup my homies! It's Glossfur here with another update for Living in the Shadow! YEAH! Ok, I'm going to set a goal for everyone: I want 40 reviews by chapter 10. Can we do it? I think we can! And to everyone who reviewed: thank you so so so so so so so SO much for reviewing! It means a lot to me! I love all of you!
Frostpaw- thank you for the kits! I hope you don't mind if I change their names and tweak their appearances, I don't want LawlClan or whatever to delete my fanfic because it's "interactive".
Pandean- thank you for the kits too! and thank you for answering the trivia!
Kai Lover911- thank you for answering my extremely difficult trivia question!
Wyatt- Catholics unite!
Flameheart15- LOL, your brother is pretty wise. Yes, sometimes I want to smack Palefoot, but then I realize she's fictional and I can't smack her... :p
I wonder if I should ask Rosestar to change my mentor, Glosspaw wondered. It had been two moons since her little ShadowClan episode, and Palefoot could have been considered the worst mentor in the forest. She rarely taught Glosspaw anything; instead, she used their "private training sessions" to hang out with her lovely Clan deputy.
Silverstripe's injuries got better, and she was cleared to return to warrior duties. Her relationship with Birchsong was getting more and more strained. Glosspaw could've sworn Silverstripe knew about Palefoot but was too scared or annoyed to say. The only indicator that they were still "mates" was that their nests were next to each other in their den. Sometimes, Glosspaw wondered what Silverstripe was doing the night she got attacked, but whenever she tried to ask, she received a hiss and a scathing remark, like "Why aren't you doing something useful with your lovely mentor?"
Okay, so Silverstripe knew about Palefoot.
Meanwhile, Ashpaw visited the Moonpool and was an official medicine cat apprentice. She stayed happy and motherly towards Glosspaw. Even though her leg sometimes bothered her, Ashpaw confessed that being a medicine cat apprentice was not so bad. Stormpaw continued to excel in his apprenticeship. He sometimes spoke to his littermates in a "you're my acquaintance, no friendship involved" kind of tone. Glosspaw, however, was faring poorly. Palefoot had only taught her the basics of hunting and fighting. The rest she had to learn herself by spying on other apprentices while Palefoot and Birchsong got all up close and personal. She was actually pretty decent at hunting. She was better at catching fish than stalking forest prey, but then again, wasn't every RiverClan cat like that?
To practice her fighting skills, she asked Ashpaw to help her. Ashpaw happily agreed ("Anything to make my sister better!"). So Glosspaw assumed she was okay at fighting as well. Great StarClan, I feel like a Mary Sue! Well, to be fair, I'm a decent apprentice, but there's a lot more room for me to improve, so I guess I'm not a Mary Sue character.
"The other mentors have asked me to have you and their apprentices train together today," Palefoot said with a wicked look on her face. It was dawn and they were standing at the entrance to the camp, about to go to the Training Hollow to have another "training session."
Personally, Glosspaw felt she would be about the same level as any other cat her age, so she just nodded slowly. And she was also too tired to argue. Who woke up at dawn anyway?
"Okay…but you'll tell them that I'm not very good, right?" she asked in fake anxiousness. Since all of Glosspaw's training so far had been "one on one" with her mentor, no apprentice knew about her skills. Oh, how satisfying would it be to see everyone's dumbfounded expression when they found out how decent Glosspaw was!
"Sure," Palefoot said, sounding surprised that Glosspaw was openly admitting she wasn't good. "Oh, and I have something else to tell you," she added.
"Well, go on then," Glosspaw meowed, truly curious at what Palefoot would tell her.
"I'm expecting kits, so another cat will take over your training." WHAT?
"Whoa, wait, what? YOU'RE HAVING KITS?" Glosspaw nearly shrieked, all tiredness forgotten. Palefoot was expecting kits? Suddenly, Glosspaw knew a way to get under her mentor's skin. "Who's the father?" she asked.
Palefoot glared at her. "A queen doesn't have to reveal the father if she doesn't want to," she said stiffly. Glosspaw tried not to laugh at Palefoot's denial when it was obvious that Birchsong was the father to these kits. In a way, Palefoot becoming a queen was pretty good news. Glosspaw could have a better mentor, and Palefoot would be in the nursery—out of sight, out of mind. But then again, that would mean she would have half-siblings in RiverClan, and if those little stinkers got all salty with her, she would give them the surprise of a lifetime.
"Okay, so we'll assess your skills," Applefur said roughly. Glosspaw and Palefoot arrived in the Training Hollow with the other apprentices, who all were yawning every few seconds.
"First, we'll have a hunting contest. Whoever catches the most prey before sunhigh wins," Palefoot explained. She shot a faux-pity glance at Glosspaw.
"Then, we'll have a battle-skills contest. Whoever pins their opponent down first wins," Morningshine, Leopardpaw's mentor, added.
"Finally, we'll do a race," Petalheart, Mistpaw's mentor, said excitedly. Out of all the mentors, Petalheart was probably the most easy-going and the one who always wanted to have fun.
"Sounds exciting," Goldpaw commented, then stretched her jaws in a huge yawn.
"It should be," replied her mentor, Sage. Sage was once a kittypet, but after being battered by her twoleg, she ran away into the forest. She was now one of the most trusted members of RiverClan.
"Stormpaw, Moonpaw, and Goldpaw will hunt by the Lakeshore," Applefur said. "Meet back here at sunhigh."
"Mistpaw, Leopardpaw, and Glosspaw will go hunt by the stream. Again, meet us here at sunhigh," Palefoot added. Glosspaw growled in her head. She hadn't forgotten Leopardpaw and Mistpaw's rough treatment of her when she was a kit. With luck, she could catch a respectable amount of prey and not be bullied by the Clan any longer!
"Glosspaw, you can't borrow our catches," Leopardpaw suddenly said. The cats were sitting by the stream, waiting for some fish to swim along.
"What?" she asked incredulously.
"You know, take credit for what we do," Mistpaw sneered. "Everyone knows you get by because of your looks. Sorry, but a pretty face doesn't get you anywhere in this world."
"I'm extremely flattered that everyone thinks I'm pretty," Glosspaw said, but when she said this, she looked at the stream. A big, fat trout was swimming towards the apprentices, but Leopardpaw and Mistpaw were too busy jeering at Glosspaw to notice it.
"Yeah, well, you're weak and useless," Leopardpaw meowed. Just a little further, Glosspaw mentally urged the trout as she just ignored the she-cats. Unsheathing her claws, she suddenly swung her paw into the stream, slicing the trout's belly. Water sprayed everywhere, getting all three cats wet. But it was worth it. On Glosspaw's claws was the fat trout.
Leopardpaw's eyes widened. "Give me that!" she hissed, making a grab for the trout.
"Woah, wait! I thought you said I couldn't borrow your catches. Shouldn't that rule apply to you as well?" Glosspaw asked. She grabbed the fish's tail in her teeth and scraped up some dirt. Then, she buried her fish. She hoped the mentors were watching. She wanted them to see how expertly she caught the fish.
"You were just lucky!" Mistpaw meowed.
"Yes, I was lucky that I got paired with you," Glosspaw muttered underneath her breath, eyeing the stream again. She saw a minnow swimming towards Leopardpaw. She saw Leopardpaw unsheathe her claws. Splashing her paw into the water, she swung…and ended up splashing everyone.
"Haven't we been wet long enough?" Mistpaw wailed.
"We're RiverClan cats! We're supposed to like getting wet!" Glosspaw meowed back.
"Aww, frog-dung! I lost the minnow!" Leopardpaw cursed. Indeed, the minnow was still swimming in the water, not disturbed at all by Leopardpaw's attempt to catch it.
"When we've finished complaining, we should try to catch more prey," Glosspaw meowed loudly. Mistpaw growled softly.
At sunhigh, each apprentice was holding a decent amount of prey. Glosspaw had the brilliant idea of hunting the trees while Leopardpaw and Mistpaw complained, so she also had a squirrel in her jaws, as well as two fat trout. Leopardpaw had a salmon and a pike, and Mistpaw had two carps. The older apprentices glared at Glosspaw, like it was her fault that they caught less prey than her.
Once they got back to the Training Hollow, they saw that Stormpaw, Goldpaw, and Moonpaw had also returned. Stormpaw was proudly holding a water vole, a pike, and a shrew. Goldpaw and Moonpaw each had two minnows in their jaws. With a jolt of surprise, Glosspaw realized that she had the most prey out of the apprentices other than Stormpaw. So much for being useless.
"Well done, apprentices. Now, we will see who caught the most," Applefur meowed. The apprentices dropped their prey by their feet. Glosspaw made sure no one stole her prey and claimed the catch as their own.
Applefur walked around the circle of apprentices. He stopped at Stormpaw and purred approvingly. Stormpaw puffed his chest out. Glosspaw refrained from swiping at his nose for being so arrogant. Finally, Applefur reached Glosspaw. He stared at her pile disbelievingly, as if he couldn't believe Glosspaw caught so much. Other apprentices, even Stormpaw, were glaring at her with daggers in their eyes.
He cleared his throat. "Well, this is a surprise. I believe our winners are Stormpaw and Glosspaw," he meowed, but when he said Glosspaw's name, it was like he was reciting something. When he said Stormpaw's name, his voice was full of pride.
Glosspaw saw Stormpaw swamped by apprentices congratulating him. That was fine. At least she wasn't fighting for air while admiring cats tried to get a piece of her.
"Well done, all apprentices. You may take your prey to the fresh-kill pile, eat something, then come back here for your next challenge," Petalheart meowed.
Poor Glosspaw! Palefoot is the worst mentor ever, but she still managed to win the challenge and ended up getting no praise.
Trivia: Who were Fuzzypelt's sons?
QOTC: Was this chapter boring/lame? If so, sorry!
Remember, 40 reviews...and soon, otherwise I won't post the next chapter until the end of the month!
Love, Gloss