WARRIORS - Fading Hope

Chapter 1

Spicepaw's POV (Applejack)

(A moon and a half ago...)

"You're a medicine cat, aren't you?" I asked the brown tabby she-cat. Her green eyes widened and then darkened. She looked down and her ears lowered. 

"I... was," she finally replied, "a long time ago. Though I was taken away from my Clan many seasons ago, and I've never found a way to return." After a few moments of silence, she continued. "My name is Bramblestep."

I gave her a gentle smile and rested my tail over hers. "I'm Spicepaw, it's nice to meet you." Bramblestep smiled back, and suddenly the young tom from before climbed back to where we were laying. He was a light gray cat with some white patches and pale green eyes. A second cat joined him, a white she-cat with silver markings and bright blue eyes.

"Are you a forest cat too?" the tom, Cloudy as I remembered Bramblestep called him, asked. "Bramble told us all about them, they live around a lake, right? I wanna see the lake!" Bramblestep chuckled at Cloudy's excitement, before noticing my confusion and turning to face me.

"'Bramble' is just what most of the cats here call me," she clarified, "I suppose it makes it easier for them, they're used to simple names that are quick to memorize."  I nodded. remembering how long it took to get the hang of calling my friends my their Clan names instead of the names I was familiar with. The ones like Duskpaw, Dashpaw, and Lightpaw, which were similar to the original names, were much easier than the others. Sometimes I'd even forgotten that I wasn't called "Applejack" here.

I turned my attention back to the small gray and white tom. "To answer your question, Cloudy, yes, I'm a warrior apprentice of ShadowClan."  His pale green eyes shined with curiosity and enthusiasm, and he quickly jumped up with another question.

"Apprentices train to hunt and fight, right?" Before I could respond to tell him he was right, he was already continuing. "I wanna learn all that too! And- and.. uh, well I'm not sure what else but I wanna do that. Winter and I love the idea of being apprentices- oh that's my sister, she's right there." He flicked his tail toward the white she-cat, and I dipped my head in greeting.

Her eyes suddenly lit up as she got an idea. "Um.. since you're an apprentice already, and you probably already had some training, could.. could you maybe teach us some of that stuff?"

I smiled and nodded. "Sure," I meowed, "I don't have that much since I was only training for a moon, but I'd be happy to teach y'all."

"Yay!" Cloudy exclaimed, while Winter's whiskers twitched excitedly. "Oh hey, can we call you Cinnamon? Your fur is kinda cinnamon coloured." I thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I can work with that, Cinnamon it is."

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Winter leapt upward, swiping at the rat before it could escape and giving it a killing blow. I gave her a proud smile and padded toward her, however I was distracted by the sound of pawsteps coming from the barn entrance. A light brown tom with cream patches and yellow eyes slowly entered, looking unsure and a little frightened.

"Hey, I hope it's not a problem I came here," he mumbled, "I didn't realize it had gotten so late, and it didn't seem safe to go back through the forest." Bramblestep trotted forward and gave the tom a couple sniffs, noticing a few scratches along his shoulder. She led him to one of the many bales of hay to lay on and grabbed some cobweb hanging on the wall. "I'll head back home in the morning, don't worry."

"It's no problem at all," I assured him. 

Bramblestep nodded, trotting back toward the tom and pressing the cobweb on his scratches. He watched her work for a moment before looking back at me. "My name's Cookie by the way. What's yours?"

"I'm Spicepaw, but those two over there call me Cinnamon," I meowed, gesturing over to Cloudy and Winter. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Cookie."