Russetpaw crouched down in the training clearing, tensing her muscles as she watched Rabbitfur sit in the middle of the clearing. His short bob tail twitched, and next to him sat the mentors of the other new apprentices, Spottedwing, Oakcloud, Berrysplash, and Heathercloud. Russetpaw could feel her brother's fur bristling next to hers, and on the other side of her was Blackpaw, whose face was unreadable. Gorsepaw lifted his head confidently next to Blackpaw, and on Scorchpaw's side, Wildpaw examined her claws with disinterest.
"Today, we will teach you how to fight," Rabbitfur began. "In the world as it is now, we must use all the strength we have to defend the ones we hold dear. If giving our lives is what it takes to break this world apart, then it is good enough. It is how it should be." Emotion flashed in Rabbitfur's eyes. "From the start, we were all meant to be sacrifices."
What? Russetpaw stared at Rabbitfur, feeling her eyes widen with shock at the way Rabbitfur's voice broke. Her mentor stood still for a few moments, and the other warriors said nothing to his grim words. Then, Rabbitfur shook out his pelt. "Our enemies are RiverClan and ThunderClan. Those two Clans share something in common. Can anybody tell me what those are?"
Russetpaw had never seen a ThunderClan cat before in her life. She chewed her lip in irritation. What did they share in common? She recalled back to the attack on WindClan's camp - the RiverClan warriors had been muscular and robust in comparison to the lithe, thin WindClan cats. Russetpaw's mind flashed back to the time where she had traveled into ThunderClan territory with Blackpaw. If ThunderClan climbed those trees often, did that mean…
"They're both sturdy and powerful!" Russetpaw exclaimed. "Their shoulders are wider than ours, and they weigh more than us. So, in a sense, they're stronger than we are."
"Correct." Rabbitfur nodded his head to Russetpaw. "Very good, Russetpaw. That may be a strength of theirs. But can someone tell me how their strength makes them weak?" The tom's narrow face swung to examine the rest of the apprentices.
"We're faster than both of them," Gorsepaw meowed, his voice strong and confident. "And a lot more agile. Even if those cats are strong, we're able to quickly outmaneuver them and use their weight against them."
"Perfect." Rabbitfur's blue eyes glowed with pride. "You're all going to be great warriors, I know it." The gray-and-white tom turned around to face Heathercloud. "Watch me incapacitate Heathercloud like a WindClan warrior would do to a ThunderClan cat. Ready, Heathercloud?"
The young gray warrior nodded, bunching her muscles and staring Rabbitfur in the eyes. Rabbitfur gave her a brisk nod, and in a matter of seconds, lunged under her stomach, snapping his jaws. Heathercloud buckled her knees to crush Rabbitfur underneath her, but Rabbitfur was faster and appeared on the other side of her. Russetpaw caught her breath in her throat. Rabbitfur was moving so quickly that she couldn't even keep up with him - he was a blur of gray-and-white. No matter how many times Heathercloud tried to attack him, she always missed. Rabbitfur ran circles around the gray she-cat until he delivered a crumpling blow to her knees.
"And that's how we do it in WindClan," Rabbitfur purred, sitting down and licking his chest fur as Heathercloud got to her paws. "Good job being a ThunderClan cat, Heathercloud."
"Don't make me do it again," Heathercloud grumbled, shaking the dust off her short gray fur.
Rabbitfur twitched his gray ears, then turned to the apprentices who watched him, fascinated. "I'm going to split you guys into pairs. Wildpaw and Russetpaw, you'll be working together. Scorchpaw and Gorsepaw, you work together. Blackpaw, you'll work with Heathercloud, since she's the youngest of us all. Take turns being ThunderClan warriors." The tom nodded, and at his orders, the apprentices split up into their respective pairs.
Russetpaw approached Wildpaw, and the dark tortoiseshell she-cat regarded her opponent with a bored look. Russetpaw furrowed her eye whiskers. What was that expression on Wildpaw's face for? For a moment, a trace of irritation made Russetpaw's claws unsheathe, but she immediately sheathed them. There was no need to fight. Perhaps Wildpaw was just in a bad mood. Shaking off the hesitation, Russetpaw circled Wildpaw, feeling the tip of her tail twitch back and forth.
"What's taking you two so long?" Spottedwing asked the two apprentices when she skirted over to them, her tail-tip twitching in barely disguised irritation. "Get a move on!"
Russetpaw glared at Spottedwing and then leaped onto Wildpaw. In seconds, Wildpaw had evaded her grip, and was on the other side of the clearing, a smug grin on her face. The smirk made the fur on Russetpaw's fur bristle, and without thinking twice, she lunged back towards her. Once more, Wildpaw evaded her target. Russetpaw got to her paws, shaking out her dusty ginger fur and trying to think about what she was doing wrong.
Rabbitfur walked over to Russetpaw, and Russetpaw looked up, wondering if she would see disapproval shadowing his blue gaze. Instead, Rabbitfur held her gaze steadily. "What are you not doing?" he asked.
"Landing on her?" Russetpaw replied, crestfallen. When she examined the clearing, she realized the other apprentices were faring much better than she was. Scorchpaw and Gorsepaw were jabbing at each other skillfully, their battle moves in perfect sync. Even Blackpaw, who was training with a warrior more experienced than her, moved like the wind itself, appearing behind Heathercloud every time the she-cat turned her head away to search for her opponent. The success of her Clanmates made Russetpaw want to wail. I'm such a failure! I can't even land on Wildpaw right! Maybe I shouldn't have been apprenticed.
"No." Rabbitfur shook his narrow, striped gray-and-white head, stepping in front of her to block her view from the rest of the training clearing. No? "Before you're getting ready to strike, what are you not doing that you should be? That's essential to winning a fight?"
Russetpaw gasped as she raked her mind for the answer. Then it hit her. "Thinking!" she exclaimed. "I was just so focused on my feelings… that I wanted to do whatever it took to get to her. I wasn't thinking about the best way to go about it."
"Exactly." Rabbitfur nodded. "Now that you know what you're doing wrong, start again." He stepped away to give the ginger she-cat more space, and Russetpaw dragged her gaze to where Wildpaw sat in the clearing, licking her head with a dappled tortoiseshell paw. Spottedwing stood, ways off, her eyes narrowed into slits. Russetpaw took a deep breath, squaring her position and thinking back to the demonstration Rabbitfur had shown with Heathercloud. What was the first thing Rabbitfur did? The scene played back in her mind, the image of Rabbitfur fighting with Heathercloud. He didn't jump on her. He lunged under her.
Now Russetpaw was ready. She knew what to do. She prowled towards Wildpaw, who glared at her with disinterest in her eyes. But Russetpaw wasn't fooled. In seconds, Russetpaw leaped in the air, giving Wildpaw the impression that she planned on landing on her. But just as Wildpaw raised her own paws to bat her away, Russetpaw lunged under her stomach, batting it with sheathed paws and emerged on the other side of her. Just as Wildpaw started to move again, Russetpaw grabbed the base of her tail with her teeth, yanking her back.
"Hey!" Wildpaw exclaimed, a yelp escaping her as she pulled her tail away from Russetpaw and spun to glare at her with the force of a thousand suns in her amber eyes. "You can't bite me!"
"I wasn't trying to hurt you!" Russetpaw exclaimed as she stepped back, letting go of Wildpaw's tail. "I just wanted to stop you from moving!"
"You didn't have to use your teeth for that!" Wildpaw snarled at her, stepping forward. The commotion between the two she-cats began to draw a crowd, and the apprentices stopped training to stare at what was going on, their eyes round with curiosity.
"Well, you always act like you're so much better than me," Russetpaw barked at her, frustration making her tail bush out. "Are you upset that I beat you?"
"That you beat me?" Wildpaw snorted. "Please. I could do better than that in my sleep."
Russetpaw curled her teeth. What happened to the kit that played with her and her brother every night? "Then prove it!"
"No!" Rabbitfur snarled, stepping in between the two apprentices, his short tail lashing from side to side. "Nobody is proving anything! Cease this nonsense, you two!"
"Or maybe they should." A deep voice echoed through the clearing, and every cat in the clearing turned their head to see where it had come from. At the top of the clearing stood a broad-shouldered cat, and when the sun hit the right angle, the ginger-and-white fur blazed like fire. Father. The coldness in Swiftstar's yellow eyes made Russetpaw shiver as the WindClan leader scaled the hollow walls easily and landed near Wildpaw and Russetpaw.
"What do you mean?" Rabbitfur asked, his eye whiskers furrowed with confusion as he watched Swiftstar circle Russetpaw and Wildpaw. "Swiftstar, what is the meaning of this?"
"Russetpaw needs to be challenged," Swiftstar said, shooting a glare at Rabbitfur. "You're not doing a good job of it, so maybe she needs to be put against a cat who'll give her a run for her skills."
Even though Swiftstar's presence made the other warriors shrink back, even Berrysplash, Rabbitfur did not waver, his gray-and-white shoulders stark against the bleached sand of the training hollow. "That's ridiculous. Competition will do them no good. It'll just teach them to hate each other, and what good is learning to fight when you hate your own opponent?"
"It's perfect," Swiftstar snapped at Rabbitfur. "Then they'll treat each other as real enemies, and they'll learn the true way of how to fight."
"They are Clanmates!" Rabbitfur hissed at Swiftstar. "Clanmates do not learn to hate each other! How can they rely on each other in battle when all they've been taught is to hate?" The fur on Rabbitfur's shoulders were bristling, and his torn ears were flattened. Swiftstar did not lose his composure, instead, he met Rabbitfur's blazing glare with an even one of his own.
"Do you speak from experience, Rabbitfur?" Swiftstar asked him. The color left Rabbitfur's face, but he let out a snort.
"Don't change the topic on me," Rabbitfur growled at him. "I'm looking out in the interest for my apprentice. I don't want her to be put in some training competition. It'll hinder her learning, and that's not what I want for her. Don't forget, you trusted her with me."
"And maybe that was the wrong decision," Swiftstar growled. "I thought you'd teach her how to be tough. Instead, I watched that joke of a training session. So, now the game is changed. Wildpaw, Russetpaw, you will train with each other and only each other from now on. When the time comes for your assessments, only one of you will become a warrior that day."
Russetpaw stared at her father, horrified. He wants to pit me and Wildpaw against each other? And only one of us can win? That's not fair at all! Even Wildpaw's amber eyes were wide as the massive WindClan leader focused his piercing amber glare on both apprentices. Spottedwing cleared her throat nervously, but just as Swiftstar turned to stare at her, she nodded quickly, not daring to doubt his orders.
Rabbitfur's jaw dropped, and he cast a bewildered but worried glance at Russetpaw. "Swiftstar, that is absolute nonsense! You can't do that!"
"Russetpaw is my daughter, and I am your Clan leader," Swiftstar snapped at him. "Yes, I can. And I'm getting quite tired of your bellyaching, Rabbitfur. Complain to me one more time, and I'll exile you from the Clan and take over Russetpaw's training."
Rabbitfur swallowed, his throat bobbing, and Russetpaw knew that he was doing all he could to defend her. But now that Swiftstar had threatened him with exile, both cats knew he would stick true to his threat, and there was nothing more any of these cats could do. Russetpaw dared to shoot a glance at Scorchpaw, who was clawing the ground in fear and irritation. Gorsepaw shot a sympathetic glance at Russetpaw, and Blackpaw got to her paws, presumably to walk over to her, but Oakcloud raised a paw to stop her, his orange glare a sharp warning.
"Berrysplash…" Rabbitfur murmured, glancing over at the pale ginger deputy.
Berrysplash shook her head, staying silent.
"Good." Swiftstar twitched his tail. "I'm glad that's over with. Continue your training, apprentices. We'll have a new generation of warriors to defeat ThunderClan and RiverClan." With that statement still hanging in the air, the ginger-and-white tabby leaped out of the clearing, just as quickly as he had arrived. When his massive figure disappeared into the moorland, Russetpaw glanced at Wildpaw, who gave her a challenging smirk.
But Russetpaw wasn't ready to give up. If her father wanted to challenge her, fine. She'd prove to him that she was worthy, that she was just as good as Wildpaw or Scorchpaw, and that she would be the best warrior he had ever seen. She was going to make her father proud, no matter what.
Rabbitfur let out a sigh as Swiftstar left. "That's enough for us, Russetpaw. Spottedwing, we're leaving, now."
"So soon?" Spottedwing asked, her amber eyes wide.
"Yes." Rabbitfur gestured towards Russetpaw and climbed out of the training hollow. Russetpaw was aware of the burning gazes from the other apprentices into her back, and she could only imagine the satisfied expression on Wildpaw's face as she followed her mentor out of the hollow and into the moorland.
"Why did you take me out of there?" Russetpaw asked. "I could've beaten Wildpaw!"
"Maybe," Rabbitfur agreed. "But there's more to training than beating your enemy. You have to learn how and why to fight. Leaping on Wildpaw over and over – and then getting into fights with her – won't make you a better warrior. Neither will turning it into a competition. It was a foolish decision on Swiftstar's part, and it won't help you as a warrior."
Uneasiness made Russetpaw look at her paws as Rabbitfur listed all the things wrong with her training. She looked up at her mentor, who had his pale yellow gaze focused on the blazing orange sun. "It's not like I wanted this to be a competition, either. I want to train at my own pace."
"As the daughter of Swiftstar, you are not afforded that luxury," Rabbitfur said, a tinge of sympathy in his tone.
Luxury? Russetpaw felt her fur bristle. Who does he think he is? He may be my mentor, but that's not going to stop me from ripping his fur off! "Everyone else gets to train at their own pace!"
"Because the expectations for them as not as high as they are for you," Rabbitfur explained. "I don't agree with Swiftstar, Russetpaw. I don't. But I should've seen this coming from a mile away, and I should've stopped it, somehow."
"What about Scorchpaw?" Russetpaw asked, thinking back to her brother's sorrowful reaction in the training hollow. "Will they make him compete with Gorsepaw?"
"Probably not." Rabbitfur shrugged. "You are Swiftstar's daughter, you'll have higher expectations to live up to than even Scorchpaw will. They know Scorchpaw will make a good warrior. They don't know if you will."
Wow, thanks for that. "Can't you give me some support?" Russetpaw snapped at her mentor, reaching the limit of her patience with his attitude. Rabbitfur's ears twitched faintly.
"I'm telling you, I don't agree with any of this," Rabbitfur growled. "And I want to help you. I want to help you be the best warrior you can be, without your father breathing down your neck every time. So, let's begin."