As they entered the RiverClan camp, back from their trip to ShadowClan, Doveripple, and Stormfrost came bounding towards them.
"Where were you?" Doveripple mewed, concern showing in her eyes.
Looking up at the sun, Leafpaw saw it was close to sunhigh!
Thinking quickly of an excuse, she realized they both had several feathers stuck in their fur from rushing back to camp.
"We decided to go early morning hunting for birds, but we lost track of time and didn't catch anything." Leafpaw lied quickly.
"Yeah," Lavapaw added, "I suppose we will need to learn how to catch birds sometime."
"We did catch a few fish though," Leafpaw said.
"Okay, next time, keep track of the time," Doveripple mewed, "Come on, today we were going to practice fighting, but we're going to work on your bird-catching skills instead,"
Racing out of camp, the group skirted around the riverbank and then swam across. Pulling Lavapaw a bit behind their mentors, she hissed, "We need to talk about Nightshade,"
"We can't do it now," Lavapaw hissed back.
"Moonhigh," Leafpaw hissed, "Meet me at the river,"
Lavapaw nodded, and they raced ahead to catch up with their mentors.
The small group silently padded into a thick forest. Even Clawpaw was quiet.
"Now, to catch a bird, you have to first find a bird," Doveripple told them, "Does anyone smell anything?"
Leafpaw sniffed the air, "I smell thrush that way," She answered, pointing with her tail.
"There's a sparrow over there," Lavapaw added.
"I found a mossy leaf," Clawpaw said.
"Good job Leafpaw and Lavapaw," Stormfrost praised.
"Try to stay on task, Clawpaw," Icewind reprimanded.
Doveripple followed Leafpaw as she stalked the thrush. When she began to pounce, Doveripple corrected her stance and she perfectly grabbed the bird, not making a sound.
When Leafpaw padded back with her thrush, she saw Lavapaw happily walking back with two sparrows, "Turns out I'm much better at hunting birds than fish," She called, dropping the sparrows.
"I thought you only found one!" Leafpaw exclaimed.
"Well, her mate was bothering me," Lavapaw said, "Hey, where'd Clawpaw go?"
"I don't know," Leafpaw said, "I thought she was with you."
"I thought she was with you," Lavapaw said.
Clawpaw burst through the clearing, yelling, "FOX!" as Icewind came through after her.
"Clawpaw, I turn around for one second and you find the most dangerous thing in the forest," Icewind sighed. A fox jumped out of the trees, landing next to Clawpaw. She shrieked and leaped on it, claws outstretched. Clawpaw shredded the fox in a matter of seconds until it fell over and stopped struggling. Icewind came over and kicked it. Nothing happened.
"Well, I caught a fox," Clawpaw said, "Why is everyone looking at me like that?"
"Clawpaw. You killed a fox," Leafpaw said.
"You didn't just kill it, you shredded it," Lavapaw said, "The poor thing never had a chance."
"I think we've caught enough for today," Icewind decided, "Clawpaw, do you want my help with your fox?"
They walked back to camp and half the Clan came running out to meet them, "Where did you get a fox?" Streamripple asked, shocked.
"Clawpaw killed it, all by herself," Icewind replied proudly, "She shredded the poor thing before I even touched it."
Birchstar came out to see what all the commotion was about. "Wow. A fox," She said, too shocked to process it. Clawpaw, you'd better see Icewhisker. I'll figure out what to do with this fox."
After everyone settled down a bit, Leafpaw could tell nobody believed Clawpaw had killed it all by herself just as she was thinking that a second fox burst through the camp barrier. This one was even bigger than the last one Clawpaw had killed.
Leafpaw watched in awe as Clawpaw leaped on this one, but it shook her off. She landed hard on the ground. Leafpaw shook herself and rushed to Clawpaw's side. After helping Clawpaw up, Clawpaw immediately leaped again and sliced her claw through its neck. Blood poured out and the fox began convulsing. Clawpaw backed away as the fox fell, dead. The whole camp was in a hush. Clawpaw had—by herself—killed two of the most fearsome creatures in the forest.
"Clawpaw," Lavapaw said, "HOW DID YOU DO THAT!"
"I don't know. I just sort of did what came naturally to me," Clawpaw said.
"It's not 'natural' for a cat to just know how to kill a fox," Leafpaw said.
"I don't know. It felt like I was killing a big bird," Clawpaw said.
"A big bird?" Leafpaw exclaimed, "Sure."
"I propose a feast in honor of Clawpaw," Birchstar interrupted, "For her bravery today in catching not one, but two foxes."
As the cats went about eating the foxes, Leafpaw dragged Lavapaw aside, "We need to talk."
"About what?" Lavapaw asked.
"About us," Leafpaw said, "Clawpaw just killed two foxes. You can dream-walk. What about me? What power will I get?"
"I think I know," Lavapaw said, wincing as she drew one paw over the other paw, "What do I need for a fox cut?"
"That's easy. You need cobwebs for the bleeding, marigolds in case of infection, and goldenrod for cleaning," Leafpaw said.
"See? There's your 'power'. I didn't know what half of those were, and I can't even say gollemreed!" Lavapaw told Leafpaw, "Now, what would you do if my paw was really hurting right now?"
Leafpaw smiled and fixed up Lavapaw's paw, "I'd still go see Icewhisker. I'm not a medicine cat yet!"