Yay, new chapter! This one is the second longest chapter of this story yet, so it took me a while to come up with this. I'll have the next chapter up in a few days or so, but no guarantees. x3
Springflower - So true. So true. Alas, we have to wait until the big moment for it to happen. x3 And even then, I might not do it.
Captain Scar - Mhmm. He'll be important later on as the story progresses.
"The name's Bleed," the tom meowed pleasantly, his tail lazily flicking from side to side.
For a brief few moments, the dark brown she-cat didn't say anything before she sighed and dropped her green gaze, muttering, "Shadefrost."
Inclining his head politely, Bleed acknowledged her with a murmur, "Shadefrost. That's an interesting name."
The she-cat rolled her eyes disdainfully adding to a low murmur, "Yeah well, I didn't choose it."
The dark-brown tom chuckled quietly in amusement. "It fits you."
Shadefrost seemed taken aback by the sudden comment. Bemused, she stayed silent, now taking to eyeing him with wariness and a tinge of curiosity.
"You sure do like staring at other cats, don't you?" He remarked, amused.
"If I may remind you, it was you who had decided to jump down from a tree and meet me that way, instead of just walking up and greeting me the normal way."
The tom smirked faintly, shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah, well. I'm no normal cat."
She stared at him with a deadpan expression before she started to turn away.
"Where are you going?" he asked, confused as she began to walk away quietly.
"I have to hunt," her voice drifted over to him as she began to edge farther away from the bewildered tom.
"I'll leave you to it, then. I hope we can meet again," he meowed over to her before he turned around and disappeared into the undergrowth.
Remaining silent, the dark brown she-cat looked back over at her shoulder, her gaze landing on the spot where the tom had padded off, leaving her once more, alone. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she turned back around and circled back on the way to the clan camp, her thoughts spinning like a whirlwind, focusing on the rather brief meeting that she had just encountered. Possibly the strangest, as well, she mused.
Scoffing to herself, the lithe she-cat stalked through the undergrowth on her way back to the Clan camp. Feeling a twinge of guilt on the fact that she had just lied to that tom about how she was going to supposedly "hunt," she paused in her tracks for a moment, her ears swiveling to catch any disturbance made for the sound of prey scuttling about.
Might as well bring a back a piece of prey to the camp, she thought quietly to herself as she stood still, her eyes darting around the landscape.
Even though she wasn't entirely all that enthusiatic about living with other cats and devoting her life to that code of theirs, Shadefrost still felt that tinge of loyalty from spending nearly two sunrises with them. Though she hadn't given up her former loner/rogue ways. It seemed so much more simpler back then than it is now, the dark-brown she-cat thought wistfully, her pale eyes taking on a distant far-away look.
When she heard a twig snap, did she snap back to reality, her eyes resuming their guarded and cold tone to them. That moment of soft, wistful thinking was now over, and the she-cat was regaining hold of her emotions, locking them away into her heart for no one would see or discover something that could potentially harm her or put her at risk of doing something drastic.
Parting her jaws so that she could scent the air better, a gentle breeze flew past carrying with it the scent of shrew. A confident smirk formed on her muzzle before the lithe she-cat stalked forward toward the scent, recalling to step down lightly. Getting closer to the scent, she crouched down, her eyes focused on the prey in front of her which was entirely focused on its forage for food to even notice its predator hidden in the shadows.
Suddenly springing out of the undergrowth, her claws snagged the shrew's short fur before she brought it closer to her with a deadly snap to its neck, killing it instantly and soundlessly. Smiling faintly at the easy catch, she picked it up in her jaws and started to head in the direction of the Clan camp.
Ivypaw's POV:
Waking up to the sound of the murmurs of warriors outside of the warriors' den, Ivypaw opened her eyes revealing their depths showing that one of them was covered with a white film. Swiveling her head around to look at the other nests, she found that the two other apprentices had already left.
Just then, a jet black tom poked his head into the apprentice den. "Come on, Ivypaw. We need to train," he called before he disappeared. With a sudden burst of excitement, the young apprentice rose to her paws grinning while thinking of what they were going to train first. Most likely hunting, she decided.
Ducking out of the entrance to the cave she was just in moments ago, she came to a halt before the main clearing. Semi-full with still drowsy warriors appearing out of the warriors' cave, low chatter and the booming voice of the dark-grey deputy could be heard as Jaycloud began to assign cats to separate patrols for the day. "Ivypaw, over here." a familiar voice called over to the brown she-cat.
She directed her gaze her partially blind gaze toward the voice, her one good eye meeting the striking blue gaze of her mentor. With a flick of his tail, he motioned toward the entrance. The message was clear: Come on. We don't want to waste perfectly good training time.
Ivypaw began to make her way across the main part of the StormClan camp, reaching Blackstone in mere moments.
"What are we doing first?" she asked excitedly as she reached him, her tail flicking relentlessly.
Blackstone smiled in humor before he addressed his apprentice, "We're going for a little hunting lesson. Then, if we have some time left, we can do a short battle lesson."
Ivypaw grinned at the prospect of learning many new things before she chirped, "Okay!"
Letting out a soft chuckle, Blackstone briskly turned and padded out of the Clan camp. Scampering up to pad beside her mentor, Ivypaw began to lose herself in her own thoughts hardly noticing her surroundings.
Ever since she had opened her eyes, and her mother had discovered that one of her blue eyes was blind, she felt useless like she was a burden to a Clan. She heard the low murmurs between Breezeblossom and Mousestreak that concerned her and her life when she had been feigning sleep.
That's why she was so excited to become an apprentice; ever since the murmurs stopped as Mousestreak became occupied with his warrior duties, she had been counting the days as they went by, yearning for the final day of being a kit stuck in the nursery. Reflecting back to the past, she found that she used to sit around in the nursery all day, just thinking about her future life in the Clan. Ivypaw smiled as she remembered that she had daydreamed about becoming a warrior, serving the Clan with tooth and claw.
The most well-known phrase she had ever remembered and received when she asked constantly about the time of her ceremony was, Warriors don't just fight with tooth and claw, Ivykit. They also fight with words; fighting in battle is not the constant life of a warrior. She had then asked, a frown on her face, But why not? Isn't it in the words of one's warrior ceremony?
Breezeblossom had chuckled in amusement, she remembered, before relenting, Yes... But, the warrior kind of life isn't all just fighting battles, defending your Clan with your teeth and claws unsheathed. The major part of a warrior is defending your Clanmates. Either with claws or words.
She had stayed silent, a confused frown still on her face. I don't get it, she had bluntly announced with Breezeblossom chuckling after her.
I didn't expect you to get it right away, Ivykit. But one day, when you're an apprentice, your mentor will tell you this as well. The life of a warrior is complicated, even if an outside eye thinks that it's simple. You just go about and serve your Clanmates, they think. But what they don't truly understand is that the warrior life is filled with ups and downs. Some face daunting choices that could either benefit or destroy their Clans.
With her mother's brief lecture over, the brown apprentice stayed silent, her eyes wide as she pondered over the words. That was the starting point of when my whole line of thinking was changed, she mused. True, she did still daydream about becoming a warrior, but now she knew that a warrior kind of life could be difficult depending on the choices that that cat makes. No one's life is perfect, I suppose.
Right at that moment, Blackstone's voice cut into her thoughts. "Here's a good place to practice and start to develop your hunting technique." Blinking, she realized that they had stopped in a dappled clearing, the warm sunlight bursting through the open gaps of the treetops, highlighting parts of the ground and casting the others in shadow.
Hearing a rustle beside her, she noticed that Blackstone had moved forward and turned to face her with his glittering blue eyes. "Now, what do you know about forest prey?"
Racking her brain for answers, she hesitantly mewed, "If you step too hard or make a racket, then... they would run away?" Her voice got slightly hopeful at the end.
Chuckling, Blackstone nodded. "That's true, but what type of forest prey would require you to step lightly and to move silently as a patch of shadow?"
She frowned, remaining silent for a moment before asking, "A mouse?" Back when she was still a kit, she would sometimes go outside of the nursery to find the apprentices practicing their stalking techniques. They would often show her some, only correcting her when she had moved forward too quickly or too noisily. Telling what the particular stalking technique was for, the apprentices usually moved to demonstrate as they started their "mini" lesson in the mornings or afternoons.
Realizing she was zoning out on Blackstone, she struggled back to the present, her ears pricked as if she was listening the entire time. "Good. I'll show you the crouch that's usually for mice and voles." She watched her mentor attentively, noticing how he had tucked his hind-legs in and kept his tail still, hovering barely on the forest floor.
"Would you like to try?" he asked after he had stood up.
Nodding, the she-cat slowly lowered herself into the appropiate position, her tail-tip quivering faintly. You have to keep your tail still and low on the ground, hovering slighty, or your prey, the mouse in this case, will notice your uplifted tail and scurry away, Fleetpaw's words echoed in her head. The grey-white apprentice was becoming something more of an expert at hunting, that is up until her accident with the fox.
Blackstone was walking around her, looking closely at her bunched hind-legs and her quivering tail. "Keep your tail more still, and loosen up your hind-legs a little; you don't want to make your pounce a little bit farther away from your prey."
He looked at her revised crouch and nodded in approval. "Now, the pounce. When you pounce, you have to make it swift and always snap its neck quickly, for it will try to struggle and get free if you hesitate."
Ivypaw nodded in understanding, moving up in a sitting position before Blackstone stopped her and began to demonstrate a pounce. "Aim for that leaf over there," he said, gesturing to a nearby leaf with his tail. "When you feel you're close enough, pounce."
Biting her lower lip in concentration, she moved silently over her "prey" easily sidestepping forest debris that lay scattered all over the place. As the leaf began to grow larger in view, the she-cat stopped before springing from her crouched position, her forepaws outstreched as her claws gripped the leaf's edges.
Proud of her spring and stalking, she turned around to face a smiling Blackstone. "Nice job, Ivypaw," he praised. "Your stalk was careful and your pounce was a little too sudden, but that was really well done."
Puffing out her chest a little, she beamed, her one good eye glittering with excitement. Seeing out of her blue eye, she glimpsed Blackstone looking toward the direction of the sun. "Well, it's about to become sunhigh, so we have plenty of time."
"Battle training?" she asked enthusiatically.
"Sure," the jet black tom chuckled before leading the way toward the training clearing where it was usually held for sparring or just simple battle training.
Trailing behind her mentor, Ivypaw felt hope flutter in her chest. Maybe I can be a warrior yet. With or without my partial blindness, I will be the best warrior StormClan will have.
Okay, I think that ending was a little too cheesy. Eh well. XD Keep a lookout for the next chapter and review! Cheers~