"I had a dream so big and loud, I jumped so high I touched the clouds I stretched my hands out to the sky, We danced with monsters through the night I'm never gonna look back Whoa, I'm never gonna give it up, No, please don't wake me now This is gonna be the best day of my life..." Best Day Of My Life, American Authors
Chapter Seventeen
He wasn't sure what to make of Otterpaw's latest announcement. Part of him always knew that he was different. That something about him was off. He knew that he could create fire from his paws, but he didn't know the full extent of his ability. And now he knew that the others were just like him. Well, maybe they couldn't control fire, but they were similar to him in that they had abilities.
"This is awesome! I never knew that I had powers," Nightpaw purred, glancing at Fadepaw in excitement.
Blazepaw didn't miss the doubt in Nightpaw's eyes. Even though he claimed that he didn't know he had powers, it was obvious that the young tom wasn't telling the truth. His sister Fadepaw could vanish without a trace at will. And if she had abilities than it was more than likely Nightpaw did as well.
"What I would like to know is why the Clans are so afraid of us?" Breezepaw growled. "It's not like we'd ever try and hurt them with our… abilities." Blazepaw nodded in agreement, although he had a feeling it did have something to do with the fact that they had abilities.
Maybe that's why they tried turning on us, he thought. He often wondered how different their lives would be if they were normal. Maybe they wouldn't have even met. Or right now they would be meeting each other in the heat of battle.
"Do you think we're safe up here?" Poppypaw asked through narrowed eyes. She kept casting glances towards the direction they had traveled. Even from the hill it was almost impossible to see where the lake was now.
"We'll be safe here as long as Wolfheart and his followers aren't persistent," Fadepaw reassured her. "I don't know about you, but I'm going hunting." With that being said, Fadepaw vanished before their eyes. Blazepaw only rolled his eyes once she disappeared.
"Show off," he muttered under his breath.
He could hear Fadepaw's purr of laughter disappearing in the distance. With that being said, Blazepaw turned his attention to the others. Hazelpaw was sitting alone, looking off into the distance. Otterpaw was chattering excitedly with Nightpaw and Poppypaw while Breezepaw slipped away somewhere.
With everyone else so distracted, he thought it might be a good idea to try and see what he could do. According to Otterpaw he could control fire, but he knew he could do so much more than that. All he had to do was focus his attention on something. And that something happened to be a tree branch leaning against a boulder nearby.
Blazepaw warily looked around before narrowing his eyes at the tree branch. For a while nothing happened. Frustration soon washed over him as he tried keeping his focus. Eventually Blazepaw was ready to give up when he raised his paw. His eyes widened as the branch suddenly sparked to life with a flame, causing him to jump in surprise.
Holy StarClan! he thought in amazement. The flame quickly began to expand over the branch until it was nothing more than a charred piece of wood. Blazepaw quickly kicked dirt on the spot to ensure it didn't ignite the grass. The last thing he wanted was to burn the entire mountain.
"We need to learn how to control our abilities," Otterpaw suddenly meowed loudly enough for him to hear. "What if we accidentally lost control and hurt someone?" Blazepaw nodded in agreement, realizing that she was more than just right. He would hate himself if he hurt someone because he couldn't control his abilities.
"And how are we supposed to do that, when we don't even know what our abilities are?" Breezepaw demanded, his voice full of annoyance as he appeared out of nowhere. Blazepaw narrowed his eyes at the black tom, remembering how rude and obnoxious he could be.
"Breezepaw, I'm pretty sure that you can run really fast," Otterpaw told him with a roll of her eyes. "Like, faster than a falcon can fly, maybe even faster than a Monster."
For once Breezepaw actually looked pleased with that. The real challenge was trying to figure out how to use his ability. Blazepaw couldn't quite grasp how the branch had lit on fire. He had a feeling it had something to do with how he lifted his paws. But it was still difficult to understand.
"We can practice during sunhigh and hunt in the morning," he suggested. "Than during the night we can practice our fighting moves, just to keep them from getting rusty." He knew how important it was to keep up with that. Especially if they were eventually to become warriors.
Luckily no one argued with his suggestion. Blazepaw let out a sigh of relief once the tension around them had disappeared. He was surprised that Breezepaw didn't try arguing with him. Then again the black-furred tom seemed satisfied with what Otterpaw had told him.
With it only being early in the morning, Fadepaw was taking care of most of the hunting. Thanks to her ability it was easy to catch prey that was oblivious to her. It helped that thanks to her ShadowClan heritage, she could sneak up on anyone without being detected.
In the end she had caught enough prey for everyone to share. Blazepaw sat beside Nightpaw as the two shared a mouse. Poppypaw sat next to Hazelpaw and Fadepaw while Otterpaw was on her own. Once again Breezepaw decided to take his prey further away from them.
Why can't you just get along with us? Blazepaw couldn't help but wonder. He was worried about what the future would entail for Breezepaw if he kept up his stubborn attitude. He shook his head at the thought and could only hope that one day Breezepaw would understand that they needed to work together. Otherwise they might not survive their exile.
...
"So let me get this straight, you can see the auras of others?" Hazelpaw asked, looking at Poppypaw warily. Poppypaw sighed and nodded, still frustrated with her ability.
"I hate it, what good is being able to see something that isn't even useful? At least you and Breezepaw have useful abilities," she grumbled. But she could see the dark black aura that surrounded Hazelpaw. Clearly Hazelpaw wasn't happy with something.
"I don't know if being able to teleport places is useful," she murmured with a shrug. "It may have either saved us, or prolonged our doom."
Poppypaw looked down at her paws doubtfully. She understood why Hazelpaw was so upset. The silver she-cat was so angry with the way the Clan treated her. Breezepaw didn't help matters – he was always so protective over her.
"Well, I suppose I should try practicing my ability," Poppypaw muttered. She looked at the others as they dispersed around the field. There wasn't really any safe place to practice her ability. And truthfully there wasn't any need for her to practice.
I wish my powers were actually useful for a change, she thought bitterly. At least Blazepaw could create fire from his paws if he needed to. She spotted Nightpaw standing apart from the rest of the group and decided to join him.
"You're not practicing your ability either?" he asked in surprise.
"My ability isn't exactly useful during a battle," she growled under her breath. Nightpaw narrowed his eyes before looking ahead at nothing.
"I know the feeling," he sighed. "All I can do is have nightmarish visions of the future. What use is that in battle?"
"At least your ability is useful though," she pointed out. "All I can do is see the auras around someone. How exactly can that be put to use in or out of battle?"
Nightpaw was ready to say something when he thought better of it. Even he couldn't come up with a solution. She knew that she would never be useful. Even if she was able to beat her brother in a mock fight, she had little training skills thanks to Grayleaf.
"Well, what color do you see around me?" Nightpaw suddenly asked. Poppypaw narrowed her eyes for a moment before looking up. All she saw was blue swirling around him. A sea of calm that made her realize he wasn't anxious or angry.
"I see blue…. I think that means calm, or something," she replied.
"What does it look like exactly?" Poppypaw knew that he was just trying to keep her distracted. She was partly thankful for that. But she was also annoyed he thought she would need the distraction.
"It looks like a swirling mist around your head, okay?" she grumbled crossly.
She stood up and left before he could say anything else. The day seemed to drag on slowly as she padded towards the nearest stream. Everyone else was practicing their abilities or mock fighting. What Poppypaw longed for more than anything else was to be part of it.
They'll never accept me as one of their own, she told herself as she looked into her reflection.
Poppypaw let out another sigh and sat down in front of the stream. She sat there for a few more heartbeats until noticing something odd. She realized with a start that it was starting to turn red. With her eyes widening in alarm, she looked for the source of the color.
Hazelpaw was sitting apart from everyone else, wincing in pain. And Poppypaw could see why. Her legs were covered in scratch marks, caused by her claws.
"What are you doing?" Poppypaw demanded, bounding over to the smaller she-cat. Hazelpaw flinched almost immediately, and the aura around her changed from gray to black.
"I-I-I…." Hazelpaw didn't get the chance to finish her sentence as she stumbled and fell into the stream. Poppypaw rolled her eyes and helped her out, without causing any further pain.
"Let me take a look at your wounds," she muttered while looking down at her badly scratched legs. No wonder there was so much blood in the stream. Breezepaw would have her head if he knew what his Clanmate was doing. He was so protective of Hazelpaw.
Again Hazelpaw flinched as Poppypaw touched her leg with her paw. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully for a few heartbeats. And all at once both she-cats were staring in amazement as the wounds started to glow a strange golden color.
"It hurts," Hazelpaw whimpered, and Poppypaw didn't let go. She knew what was happening before the wounds had fully healed.
"I can heal wounds," she whispered when the wounds disappeared. "Now this is something that can be useful." She looked at her paws thoughtfully before giving Hazelpaw a look. "What were you doing, hurting yourself like that?" she demanded.
"Don't tell Breezepaw," Hazelpaw suddenly begged. Poppypaw nodded, and Hazelpaw suddenly looked a bit more relieved. "I thought that… maybe things would be better if I just disappeared. Permanently. Sometimes I feel like all of this is my fault."
"Hazelpaw, none of this is your fault," Poppypaw reassured her. "What the Clans did to us, that was their own actions. They chose to try and hurt us, and you saved us by teleporting away from them. I think that's pretty heroic if you ask me."
For a moment it looked like Hazelpaw wasn't sure what to say. Poppypaw saw yellow circling around her, and she realized that was the color of happiness. She imagined that was something Hazelpaw had never been told before, and desperately needed to hear.
"Thank you," she purred shakily. "For everything."
Poppypaw nodded and flicked her tail across Hazelpaw's shoulder. "Come on, let's go back to the others before they get worried." She wouldn't tell Breezepaw about this incident. He didn't need to know that Hazelpaw had done this, especially since the wounds had fully disappeared.
AN: Sorry this took so long to get posted. I was waiting for more reviews... I also wanted to point out that there will be days when I'm updating super early, because I have work all afternoon and the Swimming Special Olympics right after.
QOTD: So, what do you think of Hazelpaw now? I can't resist asking this. She's definitely one of the most unusual characters I've written about.
Lazy watermelon - :)
Blue12720000 - Thank you! Yeah, Frost is definitely gonna have fun with her band of rogues :P And it's okay, I'm glad you reviewed at all. Sometimes it's discouraging when you get no reviews at all /: