Into the River

Into the River Chapter 14

On the way back to camp, Leafpaw noticed that Clawpaw had gotten much quieter. This time she only tripped over her tail 5 times and only fell on her face 3 times. The best part was that she took a little unintended detour into the lake. Twice. Oh well, it's still better than the 5 times she fell in when we were going to ShadowClan. Luckily, the fox dung smell wore off by the second time Clawpaw fell in. Clawclumsy.
Leafpaw padded into the camp first. She silently leads Lavapaw and Clawpaw into the apprentice's den. Clawpaw fell on her face. Leafpaw and Lavapaw hurriedly padded into the apprentice's den, leaving Clawpaw behind. Icewind padded out of the warrior's den then and Lavapaw barely made it back inside."Clawpaw, why are you up at this time?" They could hear Icewind talking to Clawpaw."Oh!" Clawpaw quickly stood back up, "I was just, umm, going to the dirtplace and I, umm, got turned around. I'm still, umm, not used to sleeping in the apprentice's den."Leafpaw cringed at Clawpaw's terrible excuse, and Icewind didn't seem to buy it either, as she told Clawpaw that she'd be telling Raincall about this. Leafpaw noticed that Lavapaw had already returned to her nest and fallen asleep, so she curled up too. When Leafpaw awoke, she could see Lavapaw thrashing and fighting off some invisible cat, and that she had some injuries that weren't there when she fell asleep. She must have scratched herself or something. I'll get Marshleaf to look at it later. "DAWN!" Leafpaw yowled.Lavapaw suddenly fell still. Too still.Clawpaw yawned and pulled some more moss over herself. "CLAWPAW, WAKE UP!" Leafpaw yowled. Slowly, Lavapaw got up. There was something wrong with her."Stop yelling," Clawpaw complained and slowly pulled herself up.They eventually got out of the den, with some more complaining from Clawpaw, but Leafpaw could tell that she was still unnerved from Raincall hearing about her turn around back from the dirtplace tunnel. Their mentors were waiting in the clearing."We're going to go hunting," Doveripple mewed."Okay," Leafpaw replied, but she was watching Clawpaw.Clawpaw approached Raincall warily and Raincall gave her a few sharp words about the dirtplace and then they joined her and Lavapaw. Lavapaw was acting strangely — and she had some wounds. She turned towards Lavapaw."Did you scratch yourself in your nest? You have wounds." She askedNot meeting her eyes, Lavapaw avoided the question, responding to Doveripple instead "Can we do battle practice?" She asked as if she learned something more about fighting and wanted to try it out. But that's impossible, she was sleeping. But a thought hung in the back of her mind, like reminding her she was forgetting something, if she tried to reach it, it would just float away. "We're hunting today," Doveripple replied to Lavapaw."Okay," Lavapaw looked disappointed and nervous, but she was trying to hide it, but it didn't work.They streamed out of the entrance and headed toward the river. They arrived a moment later panting a bit."Lavapaw," Leafpaw hissed, "You need to tell me what's wrong.""I- I" Lavapaw stammered, then sighed, "Okay," she said hesitantly, "Moonhigh, here.""Okay," Leafpaw agreed.Doveripple was saying something, "—and then you scoop the fish out of the water.""Okay?" Leafpaw mewed."Now you can try it." Doveripple mewed.Leafpaw took a breath. "Okay,"She positioned herself by the water so she was close but her shadow was not over the river, she saw Clawpaw and Lavapaw doing the same, but Lavapaw was asking to do battle practice again."I feel like there are more things that I haven't learned yet," she was saying, trying to sound bright, but Leafpaw could hear nervousness in her littermate's voice."We could do some after sunhigh," Stormfrost mewed, apparently not detecting anything suspicious.She returned her focus to the river. A group of minnows had swan by her, quickly she swooped her paw and scooped two minnows out of the river as the rest of them scattered and swam away. The two that she had caught were flipping around on the riverbank and she quickly gave each of them a bite to the neck."Good catch," Doveripple mewed."Thanks," Leafpaw replied.Clawpaw immediately fell into the river as they were talking and somehow splashed out with 4 minnows."You must stay balanced," Raincall scolded."But I caught some fish," Clawpaw complained as Lavapaw "fell" into the river. Catching on to what Lavapaw was doing, Leafpaw also "fell" into the river right after her. More like jumped. "And besides, Lavapaw and Leafpaw fell into the river too! Maybe this part is just slippery" Clawpaw huffed. "Really?" Raincall padded over to the "slippery" part and didn't fall in. "Because it doesn't seem slippery to me!" Leafpaw threw some lichen she picked off a rock at Raincall's paws while distracted from talking to Clawpaw. Raincall immediately "fell" in. "That doesn't count, you pushed me!" Raincall told Clawpaw"I didn't even touch you!" Clawpaw retorted."She didn't," Doveripple came to Clawpaw's aid for some reason. "You can go clean the elder's den right now!" Raincall scolded. "And you can help her!" Raincall told Doveripple."I am a senior warrior, and you have only been a warrior for a few moons," Doveripple pointed out calmly, "You have no right to give me orders like that."Raincall narrowed her eyes at Doveripple, clearly displeased. "I might not be a senior warrior, but I know how to handle discipline," she retorted.Stormfrost moved away to help with the fishing to avoid being forced to take a side. Clawpaw, Leafpaw, and Lavapaw had a fish fight, consisting mostly of throwing fish at each other. Lavapaw couldn't catch much because every time she saw a fish, Leafpaw would throw a fish at it. Lavapaw would respond by throwing the same fish at her. The whole fishing practice dissolved into flying fish and Clawpaw falling into the river.