Right, so I finished a new chapter! Yey! I hope you will enjoy and fortunately, only a week longer and I will be finally done with school! More writing time for me!
Rain poured from the sky, melting the little remaining snow that lingered beneath it. Sparrowpaw trudged along through the muddy earth, muttering to herself about how annoyed she was the Pricklestar made her go out on a hunting patrol in the middle of a downpour. She held a scrawny shrew in her jaws. It was the only prey she could find stupid enough to be soaking its fur outside of its burrow.
Around her, Mousefoot and Creamfur were padding silently in the slush, each holding a small mouse. By the expressions on their faces, they were sharing Sparrowpaw's exasperation with her.
Boom! Crash! Sparrowpaw flinched at the loud clap of thunder. She shook her head quickly and got back to walking. Unfortunately, the patrol had to take the long way back, since the usual path was piled high in blackish-brown melting snow, which some crazy twolegs had obviously moved there.
Lightning flashed in the distance and Creamfur dropped her mouse. "You think we can climb through the trees?" She suggested, "It will be faster than having to put our paws so high every pawstep to avoid getting our paws coated in the dirty snow… and the leaves might better protect us from leaves" Sparrowpaw hated climbing. It was rather challenging for her. She grumbled to herself at the idea.
Sparrowpaw saw Mousefoot nod his agreement so she did the same as he did; ruefully knowing it would be better than moving on the ground, anyway. Creamfur seemed to understand fine so she lifted up her mouse and started to bury her claws in the trunk of a tree. In nearly seconds, Creamfur was up in the tree. Mousefoot followed her up quickly. That left Sparrowpaw. She wasn't a big fan of climbing, but she knew she had to. She leapt up and dug her claws into the wet bark. Drops of water from a leaf above pounded on her head. Can't let them think I can't even climb, she thought irritably.
Sparrowpaw lugged herself upward and clawed her way father up into the tree. She hauled herself onto a fat branch and lay on the wood, exhaustion flooding her. Before Sparrowpaw could get some time to rest, Creamfur was already bounding into the next tree, beckoning with her tail for the other two to follow. Sparrowpaw swiftly scrabbled to her paws and began jumping after the older she. Mousefoot brought up the rear behind them.
After jumping a few trees, the patrol came to a halt. Creamfur dropped her mouse again onto a branch. "I think we should walk from here, it isn't very far" She pointed out. Sparrowpaw nodded in agreement, "Why don't we go then?" She tried to say, but the prey muffled her voice and it ended up as; "Fwell, Fwy Von't Ve go Fen"
Sparrowpaw realized she was being ignored, but didn't question it. After all, they were both warriors and she was just an apprentice. Well, not for long, she purred silently. The rain started to lighten up a bit, but the thunder stayed clapping and the lightning kept striking. Sparrowpaw started to think about her name, since she would be getting it so soon. Maybe Sparrowheart, or Sparrowwing, she came up with names for herself, Sparrowpelt?
After what felt like days, the cats arrived back at the camp. Sparrowpaw's pads ached from all the walking in the damp weather. She dropped off her shrew in the fresh-kill pile, and rushed into the apprentice's den. When she came inside, the younger apprentices wrinkled their noses at her, well, except for Firepaw, who along with Rileypaw were giving her sympathetic looks. Heatherpaw, like always, broke into laughter. "You look clean!" Heatherpaw snorted sarcastically, amusement glinting in his eyes, "You definitely won't need to give yourself a wash!"
"Ha-ha. Very funny, Heatherpaw," Sparrowpaw hissed indignantly. Shimmerpaw let out a giggle, "And with how you look, I'd think you'd been wrestling with rats in the middle of a murky twoleg place!"
Sparrowpaw shot a glare at the younger apprentice. She was used to Heatherpaw acting up like that, but no cat otherwise. "Where is Airpaw?" She asked, changing the topic off her cleanliness. She started to let her tongue rasp over her filthy fur.
Honeypaw was the one to reply, "She's out taking her warrior exam, the older warriors thought she was ready," He mewed matter-of-factly. "Oh! Out in this weather?" Sparrowpaw looked at him in shock. Heatherpaw lapped at his paw and drew it over his ear, "Yep! And I'm going next!" He boasted.
"So... Our warrior assessments are today?" Asked Sparrowpaw. Rileypaw nodded, "I'm certain we'll pass, though!" She mewed joyfully. Sparrowpaw groomed her chest fur. "Yeah, sure," She meowed between licks. Once she was clean, Sparrowpaw curled up in her nest, letting her limbs stretch out as she relaxed a bit. Her eyelids shut and she drifted away into a light sleep…
"I'm going to be a warrior! I'm going to be a warrior!" Sparrowpaw jerked her head up at Heatherpaw's excited shouts. "Really? Me too!" She heard Airpaw meow happily, "I wonder what my new name will be!"
Sparrowpaw let her eyes open fully, taking in her denmates' excitement. "Sparrowpaw, you're next." Sparrowpaw turned at her mentor's voice. Pricklestar stood in the den entrance, his fur plastered to his side by the rain. "Huh? Oh! My warrior assessment!" She regain her thought quickly, excitement and anxiety taking over her quickly, "Now?"
Pricklestar gave her a questioning look, "Yes, now" He grunted, "Come on, are you some kind of dormouse?"
Sparrowpaw shook her head defensively, "No, I'm coming!" She ran out of the den, letting Pricklestar lead her to wherever the assessment was being held. "Why don't the other apprentices take their assessments at the same time?" Sparrowpaw asked him. The rain came down to a drizzle, letting the sky brighten up slightly. "We don't want any apprentices cheating" He replied, "It's happened before, where one apprentice helps another inferior one" Is he trying to say I would be inferior?
"Oh, Okay" She mumbled. "Anyway, what will I be doing for this?"
"I want you to hunt at least 3 pieces of prey by sundown, and then you will come to me for a mock battle," He told her, "I want you to start right about now"
At that, the Thunderclan leader disappeared into the undergrowth, leaving Sparrowpaw to do her hunting. "Right, hunting," She said to herself. A small scuffling sound ahead alerted Sparrowpaw. She instinctively crouched down and moved slowly towards the bramble bush. Mole. It was rare for them to come out at day, but it didn't matter much. Prey is prey.
Sparrowpaw moved swiftly, pawstep after pawstep, closer and closer to the rodent. She wriggled her hindquarters and pounced squarely onto the mole, pride flooding through her on the catch. "It's only sunhigh, I have a half-day to catch two more things." She meowed confidently.
The rain came to a sudden stop, yet the storm clouds remained motionless in the air. Sparrowpaw purred out loud, stopping abruptly as she heard a shrill shriek of a rodent that must've heard her. A vole ran across the grass and jumped into a tiny burrow. "Mouse-dung!" She hissed crossly. Embarrassment pricked at her pelt as she remembered Pricklestar would most likely be watching her. Why do I have to mess everything up? She wailed silently.
Sparrowpaw thrust her muzzle up into the air and scented a familiar and mouth-watering scent, forgetting about the previous failure. Rabbit. A puff of wind blew on Sparrowpaw's face, letting her know the rabbit scent was in her direction. She instantly dropped to a hunter's crouch and stalked the rabbit's scent. As the rabbit gradually came into vision, Sparrowpaw saw that it had silky brown fur, big beady eyes, and plump, well-fed body.
Sparrowpaw swiped her tongue over her lips, relishing its lovely scent. She moved closer and closer, growing more and more anxious every step. She bent down and leapt into the air, pushing herself on the ground with her powerful back legs. She landed just a mouse-length away from the rabbit's flank. It let out a small sniffing sound and bounded away, frightened. "Oh no you don't! I'm not losing another piece of prey!"
Sparrowpaw pelted off after it, following the rabbit in pursuit, slowly growing closer. The rabbit turned the other direction and dived into a large hole. Sparrowpaw loomed over the hole, looking at the darkness below. Should I? She wondered if it was worth it, I have to catch this rabbit and pass my warrior assessment! Without any more thought, she crawled into the burrow.
She had to bend down slightly in order to fit. She squeezed past a narrow gap in the walls, letting the daylight recede into darkness. When Sparrowpaw was nearly certain she had lost the rabbit, she looked and noticed the sparkling of two beady eyes shining only a few tail lengths away. The rabbit blinked and scurried away, hopping into more darkness. Sparrowpaw followed it as fast as she could. She ran past another turn in the tunnel, following the straight path the rabbit was taking. She stretched out her claws and slashed at the rabbit's neck. It bled from its throat and went limp with death. She hauled up her rabbit and flung it onto her back.
I'm pretty sure I came from this way, Sparrowpaw thought, starting to pad off in the direction she came. She couldn't tell if her eyes were shut or open it was so dark. Unexpectedly, Sparrowpaw bumped into a big furry shape. A muscular tom, by the feel of it, and a bit older than she was. Sparrowpaw crawled back, flattening herself to one of the walls. She hoped he wouldn't notice her
"Hey!" The tom called out, "Who's there?!"
Phew! That took a while. How was it? I worked quite hard on this chapter. And as you might have figured, I love to end things with cliff hangers. This will be continued soon! Oh, and who can guess what Sparrowpaw's warrior name will be? I will mention whoever can guess it in the next chapter, Teehee :3
Please Review! I love to know what you guys think of my work! Bye Then!