Gray Skies - Book One

Chapter Sixteen

Nightpaw followed Vineloop into the medicine den with a bundle of tall, bristly-stemmed plants with fleshy stalks known as horsetail. 

"Where do I put it?" Nightpaw's mew came out muffled from the herb.

"Just next to the goldenrod." Vineloop set the goldenrod down in front of Spiderstar's nest. Nightpaw padded toward it and spat the stalks of horsetail onto the ground.

"Careful there!" Vineloop hissed, gathering the herbs into two separate piles. "We didn't walk all that way for nothing."

Nightpaw watched as Vineloop began chewing some goldenrod into a poultice and smeared it on Spiderstar's severe wound. The black tom twitched and let out a murmur as the poultice seeped into his wound.

"You're back," Talonswipe's gruff voice came from Vineloop's nest as the she-cat stood up and stretched. She had been napping in the medicine cat's nest while Vineloop and Nightpaw were out collecting herbs.

"It doesn't seem like you've been watching Spiderstar," Vineloop nodded toward her nest as Talonswipe stepped over to the herb store in a crevice in one of the bramble walls of the den.

"What could I do?" Talonswipe snorted. "I'm no medicine cat. Unless you want me to give him these to cure him from his misery." The brown-and-yellow she-cat swept her paw across the herb store. Unsheathing her claws, she pierced red berries with her sharp claws and held them up to Vineloop.

"Are you crazy?" Vineloop spat. "Put those down! Those are deathberries!"

Talonswipe purred. "Ah, so they are. I thought they were yarrow."

Vineloop whipped her muzzle toward the den entrance. "Out, Talonswipe."

"But you aren't my leader."

"I said out."

Talonswipe scowled, squashing the berries underneath her paw as she stormed from the den. Her tail was kinked angerly over her back; her ears were flattened with fury. 

"Just because she's the deputy's sister doesn't mean she can do whatever she wants," Vineloop growled, turning back to Spiderstar. "Nightpaw, go and find Creekfeather."

Just as Nightpaw turned to exit the den, she heard a raspy cough from Spiderstar's nest. Looking over her shoulder, Nightpaw saw the long-legged tom force his clouded yellow eyes halfway open. 

"Vineloop, Nightpaw," he rasped without lifting his head. "Come closer."

Nightpaw sighed. What was Spiderstar calling her for? Why not just his medicine cat? "Spiderstar, why-"

"Do you disobey your leader?"

Nightpaw hung her head and padded to Vineloop's side. The orange-and-white she-cat was looking at Spiderstar with concern. "Spiderstar, make this quick. Don't waste your energy by speaking. Your body needs it to heal."

"I have more lives to spare," Spiderstar muttered. "I want to speak about the prophecy."

"Then why am I here?" Nightpaw exclaimed. Vineloop quickly silenced her. 

"Because I-"

"Nightpaw!" Creekfeather's yowl came from out in the hollow. "It's almost sunhigh! Where are you?"

Nightpaw looked from Vineloop to Spiderstar, but her leader simple twitched his tail in dismissal. Nightpaw trotted out from the den and into the hollow to see Creekfeather pacing in circles. Once he saw her approaching him, he stared her down in anger. 

"I thought you wanted to learn to hunt?" he growled. "Where were you?"

"I was helping Vineloop collect herbs for Spiderstar," Nightpaw replied. "Can we learn battle moves today?"

Creekfeather looked over toward the thorn tunnel where Brokenpad was speaking to Hazelpaw. "Well... I suppose we could do that. Brokenpaw will be doing the same, so you could train with Hazelpaw. Come on."

Nightpaw followed Creekfeather over to the two she-cats. "Brokenpad, Creekfeather mewed as he approached the warrior. "We'll be joining you in your battle training today. Nightpaw would rather learn battle moves than hunt."

Brokenpad looked down at Nightpaw with a purr. "I was the same when I was her age. Let's go." The bulky gray and white she-cat bounded through the thorn tunnel with Creekfeather and Hazelpaw on her heels. Nightpaw caught up to her sister's side as they ran through the pine forest.

"Have you done any other training yet?" Nightpaw asked as she tried to keep up with her mentor.

"Brokenpad has only taught me the warrior code so far," Hazelpaw mewed, her hazel-colored fur rippling as she ran.

"Creekfeather has only told me about hunting techniques. I never actually used them yet."

The two apprentices slowed their pace as Creekfeather and Brokennpad stopped at a small ditch by the marshes. "Here's a good place to practice," Brokenpad puffed out her fur. "What first?"

Creekfeather looked at Nightpaw and Hazelpaw. "Let's start out with something simple but important like the front paw strike."

"Good idea." Brokenpad turned to look at the two young apprentices. "The front paw strike is when a warrior slices downward with her front paw at the face or body of her opponent. It's a frontal attack."

Hazelpaw and Nightpaw nodded as the two mentors acted out the move. Creekfeather hissed and raised his paw in the air before bringing it down, raking it across Brokenpad's face. "Normally you'd have your claws unsheathed, but that's not how you train."

"Hazelpaw, try the move on Nightpaw first," Brokenpad instructed. "Nightpaw, try your best to dodge the attack."

The two apprentices got into stance, Nightpaw bracing herself to duck out of the way of Hazelpaw's paw. As her sister lifted her paw into the air, Nightpaw dropped to a crouch to avoid her battle-ready paw. Nightpaw felt air rush against her muzzle as Hazelpaw's paw flew down in front of her face.

"Not bad," Creekfeather praised. "Now switch positions."

Nightpaw and Hazelpaw went back and forth, practicing the front paw strike until they could move their paws so quickly that the other couldn't dodge it.

"You two are about as swift as WindClan," Brokenpad purred as Creekfeather nodded with agreement. "Well down."

Nightpaw noticed that the sun had left its place in the sky that signaled the time of sunhigh to drop just at the tree's level. "Are we heading back to camp?" she asked Creekfeather.

The chestnut-brown-and-white ShadowClan warrior nodded. "I expect that the hunting patrols are all back. Once we get to camp you two may take something from the fresh-kill pile." Creekfeather quickly bounded away with Brokenpad behind him. Hazelpaw and Nightpaw broke into a run, a mouse-length from their tails.

"Are we going to hunt tomorrow?" Hazelpaw panted as they approached the camp.

"Possibly," Brokenpad replied as they slipped through the thorn tunnel and into the camp. "If Creekfeather agrees."

"I don't see why we can't," he mewed. "More cats hunting will have a great effect on the Clan."

Hazelpaw and Nightpaw broke off and padded over to the fresh-kill pile that was encircled by stones. There was a vole on the top of the pile that caught her eye. "Here, Hazelpaw," she mewed, hooking the vole from the pile with her claw. Hazelpaw purred and followed her sister over to a warm patch of grass to start eating the vole.

It was still warm from being caught, and Nightpaw savored the forest-y taste in her mouth. She guessed that the warriors felt good whenever they caught prey like this. Nightpaw looked up at the setting sun, twitching with inpatient excitement for her hunting training tomorrow.

I hate writing training scenes of any sort, so I tried making it short.