Sparks of a Fire

Chapter 25

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she continued to search for more prey. The woods were overflowing with mice and rabbits during the warm months, but Bluepaw was so distracted with her overwhelming thoughts that she couldn't catch onto a good scent.

Sighing softly, the blue-gray apprentice narrowed her eyes and scanned the clearing for any signs of movement. It took a few heartbeats but eventually Bluepaw saw some movement out of the corner of her eye. Pricking her ears to listen, she heard a rustling sound coming from a nearby bramble bush.

Bluepaw let herself become lost in the sights and smells of the hunt. A small brown shrew sat sniffing at the ground a tail-length away from her. All she had to do was enact the methods she had been so dutifully taught and drilled on. She balanced lightly on her paws, trying to stay completely still to keep from alerting the creature to her presence.

All right, she thought. This will be easy. I just have to pounce and swipe. It's not hard. Bluepaw hesitated only a moment before making the jump.

The blue-furred apprentice leapt forward, sailing through the thick Greenleaf air for mere moments before reaching the shrew. She lashed out with unsheathed claws, but missed by a mouse-length and found herself crashing to the ground head first, landing in an ungraceful heap on the forest floor. Bluepaw growled angrily. She had fumbled her leap!

Hissing softly, Bluepaw shook the leaves from her fur and stood up, turning around to find a new scent. As she scanned the woods for any trace of prey, she could feel someone's gaze burning into her pelt. Spinning around, the blue-furred molly saw Goldenleaf staring at her with a worried look.

Bluepaw's ears flattened and she stared down at her paws. "Now what happened there?" the golden she-cat meowed, blinking and sweeping her gaze over Bluepaw. "You've never fumbled with your leap before, so what's different this time?"

Bluepaw shuffled her paws uncomfortably. She stared into the hazel eyes of her temporary mentor with humiliation building inside her, the pure intensity of the unfamiliar emotion felt like sharp claws tearing at her pelt, reminding her of her failure.

"I-I don't know," she replied truthfully, not wanting to see the disappointment in the older she-cats eyes.

Goldenleaf sighed softly and flattened her ears, then meowed quietly, "I think we need to have a little chat with Meadowlight, maybe she can figure out why you fumbled with your leap today."

Bluepaw sighed but slowly nodded, her ears twitched angrily, upset at her failure to locate prey during her assessment. She hoped that this was only a one-time thing and that Meadowlight could help her with whatever made her fumble today.

As the two cats patted back to camp, Bluepaw's thoughts were racing with concerns. What would Meadowlight find out while examining Bluepaw? Would it be something that would keep her from becoming a warrior? What if Meadowlight couldn't fix whatever was wrong with her? The blue-furred apprentice shook her head, trying to banish the torrent of negative thoughts that were clawing at her like a furious storm of rats. She couldn't let herself be sucked into the endless void of negative thought swirling around in her head.

The pair of she-cats padded their way through the brightly lit woods and pushed through the thicket tunnel into MistClan camp, which was sheltered from the rain by the towering trees that built a canopy over the dusty clearing.

Bluepaw prayed to StarClan that Meadowlight would be able to fix whatever was wrong with her, she just had to, she had to or else all of the training that Bluepaw had accomplished over the past four moons so far would've been done for nothing.

The blue-gray molly sighed and silently followed Goldenleaf into the medicine cat's den. The two cats patted into Meadowlight's den, where she was sorting her array of herbs in the small notches and hollows in the walls. The yellow she-cat sensed them immediately and let out an exasperated breath, but turned to them with friendly eyes.

"How can I help you?" she meowed pleasantly, walking up to the two cats with curious eyes.

"Well you see... I had sent Bluepaw out on a solo hunt," Goldenleaf began, sighing softly and twitching her ears back and forth. "At first she was doing just fine, but as more time passed, she started to fumble with her leap and she wasn't pouncing correctly." Goldenleaf informed the medicine cat.

Meadowlight frowned and twitched her tail in thought. She stared at Bluepaw with a thoughtful expression. "Hm, I see... I'll examine her and see if I can figure out what's happening."

The medicine cat motioned for Bluepaw to come closer. After a moment of hesitation, the blue-gray apprentice nodded and patted closer to the older she-cat.

Bluepaw felt her spirits rise up a little bit as she let Meadowlight carefully inspect her from ears to tail. Maybe there was still some hope left after all, maybe she wouldn't have to stop her apprentice training, maybe there was a different way of fixing whatever was wrong with Bluepaw's hunting troubles. All she had to do now was wait and see what Meadowlight finds out.