Taking Flight--a Warriors fanfiction

Chapter 4

"Twitchpaw, wake up! I have a brilliant idea for a prank!"

Twitchpaw groggily opened her eyes to see Eeveepaw standing in front of her with a mischievous look. She stretched out as much as possible in her little hiding place and blinked at him curiously. Why is he up so early?

The small apprentice swished his white-tipped tail from side to side enthusiastically. "It's going to involve Lichenpaw and Splashpaw too. Come on, they're waiting!"

They are? Twitchpaw immediately sat up in her warm hole in the tree trunk and started to groom herself. "I'll be there soon," she murmured, running a paw over her back.

Eeveepaw purred with delight. "I spent all of last night forming the prank in my mind. You'll see how genius it is later on!" Twitchpaw could only shake her head at him fondly as she licked a patch of tufted fur on her leg. Once that was done, she headed with Eeveepaw toward the main part of camp.

Vixenpool, the deputy, was trying to organise the day's patrols. "Oh, Mistleswoop! You can go on dawn patrol, right?" The dark grey she-cat nodded immediately, determination sparking in her gaze. "Okay, great! Hey, uh, Moosebloom and Parsleyclaw can go too." Parsleyclaw's black pelt prickled uncomfortably as she padded up to the patrol getting ready to leave. Twitchpaw felt sorry for her. I know I wouldn't want to go on patrol with Mistleswoop either. The older she-cat was way too bossy and strict.

"Trailblaze, you have a lot of warrior training to catch up on." Sparkstar told the ginger-and-white warrior. Trailblaze gave what Twitchpaw guessed was a yeah, I know expression. "Maybe you can do the hunting patrol with..." The leader's olive green eyes scanned the camp. A few cats were still asleep, some just waking up under the warm leaf-fall sunlight. His eyes finally landed on Sparrowberry. "Yes, Sparrowberry. Maybe take along Kestrelflame too."

"Good," Kestrelflame huffed in her unusually deep, rough voice from a branch above. "I can teach him how to not be a weakling." Vixenpool twitched her whiskers in acknowledgement to the pale ginger she-cat.

"Sparrowberry. Hello? Oh right." The deputy leaped down briefly to tap the deaf silvery-white she-cat on the shoulder. Her friend turned as Vixenpool waved her tail at Trailblaze, and Sparrowberry got the message and nodded agreeably. Trailblaze's face lit up with a smile.

"Come on, Twitchpaw!" Eeveepaw meowed from up ahead. Twitchpaw looked away from the scene and scrambled across the branch to catch up with him. "I'm coming!"

As she caught up, Eeveepaw pointed his muzzle at two furry shapes sitting in the apprentice den. The engineers had woven sticks into circles and filled them with moss and feathers, creating something like bird nests for each RobinClan cat. Twitchpaw had one in the den too, but it was fresh from being unused. "Splashpaw! Lichenpaw!" Eeveepaw called. "Do you have the honey?"

Sure enough, the grey-and-white apprentice held up a stick of honeycomb. "Here it is," Splashpaw mewed happily.

"Wow, you actually got it!!" Eeveepaw exclaimed, leaning in to sniff the honeycomb.

"Splashpaw knew just where to find it," Lichenpaw meowed proudly as she grinned at Splashpaw. Her brother ducked his head and purred.

"Okay, what exactly is this prank about?" Twitchpaw felt like she was missing something. Splashpaw's smile was a little guilty as he told her, "Well, Eeveepaw suggested we play it on Tricklepaw..."

"It'll be really funny," Lichenpaw offered with a more devilish look on her face. Eeveepaw nodded excitedly. "While he's still asleep with Squishypelt and Creekstorm, we'll pour the honey all over his fur!" The tom's bushy tail curled up in amusement. Twitchpaw was pretty much convinced he had gone crazy.