RainClan's Fate; The Apprentice's Destiny | Warrior Cats Fanfiction

~Chapter 5~

"How was the Gathering?"

Amberpaw jumped. She hadn't noticed Mudpaw beside her because she'd been thinking about Whitefall's question. Was she going to meet him at the hollow? It was late now; the full moon was high in the sky. She couldn't meet him anyways — the Clan would spot her sneaking out of camp.

"Amberpaw?" Mudpaw repeated. "How was the Gathering?"

"Oh, um," Amberpaw quickly shoved her thoughts about the white tom's question out of her head and turned to face Mudpaw. "The Gathering was fine! Nothing bad happened!"

Mudpaw watched her with confused amber eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Amberpaw was startled by the question. "Nothing's wrong. Look, Mudpaw, we should really get some sleep. Don't you have training tomorrow?"

"Well, yes," Mudpaw answered. "But friends come first. Now tell me what's bothering you."

Amberpaw could tell he wasn't going anywhere until he got an answer. That was the thing she didn't get about Mudpaw; he was more loyal to his friends and kin than to his actual Clan. In a battle, he would save one of his friends instead of his Clan leader.

She sighed. "Honestly, Mudpaw. Nothing is bothering me. I'm perfectly fine."

Amberpaw felt her mind protesting. It felt to bad to lie to one of her closest friends. She knew that Mudpaw would forgive her if he found out; he was like that. Loyal no matter what. Even if Amberpaw tried to kill Flamepaw, he'd still forgive her. Mudpaw was just a forgiving person.

Unlike Snowpaw, Amberpaw realised. Her sister was more likely to kill anyone who tried to kill her or Stormpaw. Snowpaw would hunt them down if it took all her life. She would kill them in the most painful way possibly.

Amberpaw flinched, just thinking about her sister doing something like that.

"Anyways, so, um, bye," Amberpaw muttered to Mudpaw, before hurrying off to the medicine cat's den, where she curled up in her nest and went to sleep, leaving a stunned Mudpaw standing in the middle of the clearing.

~~~

Almost a moon later, the camp had changed. Silkkit and Mousekit had been apprenticed to Silkpaw and Mousepaw, which meant Dawnlily had returned to the warriors' den; Eaglepaw had become Eaglefur and Stormpaw was quickly becoming the best hunter in the Clan, thanks to her speed and flexibility. Snowpaw had turned out to be a good fighter and she'd been spending a lot of time training with Mudpaw and their mentors in the sandy hollow. The pair had become best friends in the past moon. With leaf-bare drawing closer, the Clan was stocking up on supplies.

Amberpaw darted around yet another hunting patrol heading into camp consisting of Barkstripe, Eaglefur, Jayflight, and Daisypaw. The white she-cat looked more excited than usual with her warrior ceremony coming up. Amberpaw hurried into the forest and padded quietly along the worn path. The leaves in the trees around her were turning golden with the moon; crunchy golden leaves coated the forest floor. Amberpaw glanced around for any sign of herbs, but she wasn't in the forest to collect herbs.

She decided to walk along the border instead; there was less likely to be a hunting patrol for her to run into. She knew that Burntstar and Wolfstrike didn't send out patrols that this time of day. The dawn patrol was the last patrol sent out, and it came back to camp a few heartbeats before Amberpaw left. The sunhigh patrol wasn't due for ages.

As she headed down to the EmberClan border, she head a twig snap behind her. Glancing back, she couldn't catch sight of anyone, and when she sniffed the air their was no scent of a cat either. Narrowing her eyes, she turned and continued to the EmberClan border. She began to pad silently along it, until suddenly she head the bushes behind her rustle slightly.

It's just the wind, Amberpaw told herself, though she knew it wasn't. There was no breeze this morning, nothing but an eerie stillness. She realised with a hiss, I'm being followed.

Slowly, Amberpaw turned around and watched her bushes. Nothing else moved; it was like her stalker was trying to make her think there was nothing there. But she knew there was.

"Show yourself," she hissed, tail lashing. Even though she was a medicine cat, Toadfeather had told her that she needed to learn how to defend herself. He'd taken her down to the sandy hollow and they'd practiced some battle moves, with the help of Silkpaw's new mentor, Patchfoot.

Nothing in the bushes moved. Amberpaw growled and continued along the EmberClan border, hoping that whoever was behind her would get bored and leave. After she'd made it to the Gathering hollow, she stopped and looked down into it. Last time she'd been here, Whitefall had asked her to meet him there later. Of course she hadn't gone; it would have been stupid.

Suddenly she felt a creepy feeling of being watched. She quickly turned and ran away from the border, hoping that it wasn't a EmberClan or FeatherClan patrol — if they found her that close to the border, they wouldn't have been happy.

Amberpaw could tell that someone was still following her. There were signs; a twig snap here, a frantic scrambling of claws here. Her stalker obviously wasn't that good at being silent.

Wait a minute, Amberpaw suddenly realised who it was. She turned around and faced the bushes behind her.

"Hi, Flamepaw," she meowed. "Why are you following me?"

Nothing moved. Amberpaw smiled and sat down with her tail wrapped around her paws. She knew it was Flamepaw; it had to be. He was the only cat she knew who couldn't creep around without making a huge noise.

At last a dark ginger tom padded out of the bushes. His pelt was covered in leave and stray twigs and his yellow eyes gleamed.

"How did you know it was me?" he asked.

"Because you're the only cat I know who can't stay quiet for more than two heartbeats," Amberpaw laughed. "Don't worry, that's okay. You'll learn."

Flamepaw huffed. He stalked away, tail lashing in annoyance. Amberpaw laughed again and chased after him. Eventually Flamepaw looked happy again; the pair raced each other back to camp where their eyes met a terrible sight.

The limp body of a tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat was lying in the middle of the camp. Cats were clustered around it. At first Amberpaw was confused. What was happening? Who was the limp cat in the middle of camp?

Then she realised that it was Rippledawn who was lying in the centre of the clearing. And she was dead. Amberpaw padded over to stand beside Cindercloud; the old dark grey tabby tom was grieving for his dead friend among the rest of the elders gathering around Rippledawn's dead body. Wolfstrike, Burntstar, Moonfire, Foxheart and Barkstripe were also crouched beside their old friend. Amberpaw looked closer at Rippledawn's body and gasped.

Rippledawn wasn't just dead; she had been murdered.

~~~~~

Hiya!

I might stop doing these updates after a chapter — I might only do it for a few chapters.

As per usual, let me know if any mistakes found, winner for Stormpaw's warrior name is Autumnleap (though I think I already mention this twice). Have any suggestions on plot ideas? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you're enjoying the fanfic!