Taking Flight--a Warriors fanfiction

Chapter 16

Twitchpaw crouched in a nook between branches in the main area of camp, next to Splashpaw and Eeveepaw. It had been a full moon, and Splashpaw had finally recovered enough to move around slightly again, though he still winced occasionally if he moved too much. His broken leg was still wrapped tightly in a rush cast. Twitchpaw was glad that he was better, though. For a horrifying moment on the day of his accident, she had to face the fact that Splashpaw might be dead.

Twitchpaw spotted Lichenpaw listening to Mistleswoop on a lower platform. She still found the dark grey warrior a little scary, but other than being a bit strict she never used her claws on anybody, making Twitchpaw very relieved. And her mate Puddlesoar was Splashpaw's friend after all, so maybe she was okay.

She glanced over at Splashpaw. Instead of sticking with her family, Lichenpaw had started hanging out with the other engineers and older members of the Clan now. Twitchpaw wondered if she had anything to do with that.

She was happy staying with Eeveepaw and Splashpaw, though. That didn't have to change. Smiling, Twitchpaw bit into the squirrel they were sharing. The fresh-kill pile was dwindling now as the prey hid in anticipation of leaf-bare--more patrols had started hunting on the ground instead of just in the trees.

She perked her ears up as Sparkstar's voice reached her. "Claystar, going further into our territory?" He lashed his black tail. "How dare he...I thought he was trustworthy for sure." The leader's voice pulsed with exasperation. Twitchpaw thought back to their first few days in the forest; Claystar had been the one training their warriors. Why do that if he was just going to ignore their borders?

"We met a whole patrol of them," Kestrelflame confirmed lowly. "Do they not have their own territory?"

"I don't want to do this, but we might have to launch an attack." Sparkstar raised his head, olive eyes burning. Twitchpaw had only ever seen him so angry when talking about Twolegs.

"Whoa, slow down," Trailblaze meowed from beside Sparkstar. "As much as I support you as leader, we've never even been in a real battle before."

"Yeah, we barely have much battle skills." Kestrelflame pointed out, flicking her tail. "If you want to fight though, Tricklepaw and I will scare MarshClan off in an instant." Tricklepaw gazed up at his mentor, blue eyes glowing. "Do you mean I'm tough enough?" he meowed.

Kestrelflame dipped her head solidly to the small apprentice. "Of course." At that, Tricklepaw jumped around purring from the affirmation.

Vixenpool padded up to Sparkstar's side. "We don't need to battle!" she mewed to the surrounding cats. "I say we just carry on and I'm sure Claystar will stop sometime!" Her expression seemed like she really believed what she was saying. From the elders' branch, Twitchpaw saw Milowing nod in fond approval.

Sparkstar growled. "Vix is right, we don't need to battle yet, but I want to send back a warning. Whoever's going on patrol today, don't be afraid to push the borders a little too." His eyes were determined. Any lingering uncertainty about MarshClan had gone--he seemed to have accepted that Oakstar wasn't there anymore.

All the talk about battle made Twitchpaw's stomach turn. She stopped listening and turned her attention back to her fresh-kill, heart beginning to pound furiously.
"Something wrong?" Splashpaw tilted his head toward her.

Twitchpaw forced a smile. "Nothing important."

Eeveepaw licked his lips, getting to his paws. "Alright, you ready for training, Twitchpaw?" Their mentors often trained the two apprentices together, which Twitchpaw loved. It made her choice to become a warrior apprentice seem like the right one. She swallowed the last piece of squirrel and nodded at her friend. "Yep!"