Heart Of A Fighter (Book 3): Home Is Calling

Chapter 16: Tale of Love

The sun had risen to a new day, and the BlazeClan cats were off in groups, chattering with one another. Goslingpaw sat a safe distance away from Russet Rush and his group of warriors where he was concocting a grand tale of a battle.

Gradually, her eyes wandered over to the end of the water monster where Splash Sprint was perched by the steps that led into the beast.

The RoadWalker had opened the doors that blocked the cats from wandering down the steps at night, and now he was settled there, staring absentmindedly at the beauty of the sea.

Slowly, she slunk towards him and settled down beside the blue-grey tom. "Oh, greetings little wren," Splash Sprint mewed with a kind smile. "Anything I can do for you?"

Goslingpaw blinked. She wanted to take his mind off the possibly traumatic memory he had recalled yesterday, so she asked the first question she thought of.

"How did you and Russet Rush fall in love?"

The smoky grey tom stared at the young heiress, his eyes wide with surprise. "Your highness, are you really asking... how we became mates?" Splash Sprint asked, expression quizzical. The heiress nodded, and held her excited gaze.

"Yeah! How'd you confess? How'd you get together? Did some cats in your tribe expect you both to become a couple?" Gosling asked excitedly, her eyes flickering with pure excitement and curiosity.

Splash Sprint blinked, before smiling warmly at the young princess. This had been a question asked many times, and he was happy to answer it.

"Sure, I suppose. To answer your questions, Rus was actually the one who confessed first. And we were the most unexpected couple indeed for the tribe." The grey tom smiled fondly at the memory.

"How were you two unexpected? You both go so well together!" Goslingpaw meowed, eyes wide in surprise.

The older Hydro laughed warmly, a delicate sound that made her heart feel like it was made of sunshine. She could see why most would fall for the charming tribe cat.

"Well, he disliked me a lot at first. I was the oldest kit by just a couple of minutes in the nursery at the time, you see. Storm Breeze and Leaf Wing were born respectively just a few days after I was, and Russet was born about a moon after.

Rus greatly looked up to Storm at the time because of his confidence and his build, and they often looked down on me because I wasn't as daring as them.

Russet and Storm both often called me names and teased me when we were younger. Leaf never joined in, but he didn't do anything to stop it either.

I don't blame him; I hadn't a clue of how to get them to stop their antics myself. I was a pushover, and often agreed to help them to do things only to be called unreliable and old."

The beautiful tomcat paused and flicked his tail, and Goslingpaw leaned forward, intrigued by his tale.

"They were both little pains in my tail back then, those two. I would swear to never help them again and each time I still would. They were more self-absorbed than they are now, and often flaunted themselves and tried to show off before me.

When we became trainees things didn't get better. I had a passive and gentle mentor called Silent Star at the time, who certainly lived up to her name.

She was the perfect match for me, and taught me well and often did solo sparring with me because she knew how the other apprentices treated me. But whenever it came to group sparring, oh boy, did the nightmare start.