Warriors: The Stolen Warriors

Chapter One

"Ooh! I see a bird up there!" Lichenpaw mewed.

Rainwillow glanced up into the tall pine tree to see where the brown and white apprentice was angling his ears. She let out a mrrow of amusement.

"Unless you can sprout wings like one, there's no way you're catching a bird that high up in a tree," she told the apprentice.

Hailfall, Lichenpaw's mentor, purred. "She's right. It's early Greenleaf, there'll be plenty of other birds much closer to us."

Lichenpaw hung his head in disappointment, and continued padding behind his mentor. Rainwillow couldn't help but smile at the young apprentice's eagerness to impress the warriors; she had always wanted her own apprentice, but she knew she would get to train one when the time was right, she just needed to wait.

Rainwillow drew in a deep breath, allowing the warm, fresh air to fill her chest. The scent of prey and pine needles filled her nose, washing her with a sense of comfort. She had always felt so safe within her territory on ShadowClan, with the tall pine trees providing her with shade during the hot seasons, and shelter during the rain.

Her attention was drawn away when she heard a scuttling to her side. She turned to see a small, brown mouse had stuck its little head out of a thorn bush to inspect a berry on the ground.

Rainwillow licked her lips and dropped down into a crouch, being sure to keep her thick tail off the ground to avoid alerting the prey. She slowly moved one paw in front of the other, keeping her eyes on the mouse that was now preoccupied with nibbling at its berry. As Rainwillow steadied herself to pounce, she moved her forepaw forward slightly, and a sharp pain pierced through her leg. She let out a loud yelp of pain, making the mouse hurry away.

"What was that for?" Rustpelt huffed with annoyance as she padded up to Rainwillow.

"Sorry," Rainwillow mewed. She lifted her paw to inspect it; just as she suspected, there was a thorn sticking out of it, and a small trickle of blood was oozing out.

"Mouse-dung," she hissed.

"Ouch! That looks like it hurts!" Lichenpaw had bounded up to her and was staring intently at the thorn in her pad. "Can I pull it out?"

"Don't even think about it," Hailfall ordered his apprentice. He looked down at Rainwillow's pad, inspecting it the best he could. "You should head back to camp, there's no way you can hunt with that sticking out of your paw."

Rainwillow nodded, giving her stinging pad a gentle lick. "I'll get Snowpatch to take it out. I know he's dealt with his fair share of thorns!" she mused.

Rainwillow flicked her tail to the three cats and turned to head back to camp, limping so she didn't put any weight on her forepaw. She purred as one of her memories of her and Snowpatch as apprentices came to her; Rainwillow had always been so proud of her brother for becoming a medicine cat that when she was a young apprentice, she had purposely jammed a thorn into her paw just so she would have an excuse to visit him in the medicine den and see his skills up close. Of course, Flowerpelt, Snowpatch's mentor, wasn't too pleased when she found out that this silly apprentice had stuck a thorn into her own paw. Rainwillow shook her head in amusement at her own stupidity.

Rainwillow hobbled her way into camp, carefully placing her good paw as she walked through the thorn tunnel entrance. Making her way into the medicine den, she was thankful for her thick pelt as bramble tendrils dragged at her fur. The strong scent of herbs hit her immediately, but Snowpatch's grey and white pelt was nowhere in sight. Rainwillow let out a huff of annoyance, and pushed her way back out of the den.

Bearpounce, ShadowClan's deputy, padded up to Rainwillow. "Weren't you on a hunting patrol?" he asked her, his head tilted slightly.

Rainwillow nodded. "Yeah, but I stood on a thorn and wanted Snowpatch to help out. Where is he, anyway?"