Warriors: Salmonstar's Fate

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

                Salmonpaw woke up just after her Clanmates had left for the Gathering. I wish I was going…

                Icewhisker had stayed behind. “So what’s the Gathering like? How big is the tree-bridge? What’s the Great Oak like? What will Troutstar have to report for this moon? Is the island crowded or not? Are the other Clans rude?” Salmonpaw asked all of these questions excitedly.

                “Great StarClan, Salmonpaw, I don’t remember you talking so loud before! I’m guessing most cats will think you’re noisy and annoying!” he purred.

                She ignored his remark. “Can we train? Please?” she begged him.

                “Yes, but only in camp. We’ll go to the Training Shore tomorrow,” Icewhisker responded. “We can train with Coldpaw and Aspenpaw right now if you want.”

                Salmonpaw nodded. “Sounds good! But could we do hunting instead of fighting?” she asked.

                Icewhisker hesitated. “Aspenpaw prefers hunting but Coldpaw likes fighting and I don’t want those two arguing with each other again. But I guess it’s fine,” he responded before calling the two apprentices’ names.

                “You’re Salmonpaw right?” a black-furred she-cat meowed. “My name is Coldpaw by the way. You’re, like, legendary! The elders told us about you and how Sandfur and Breezetail were so mean to you! And you left! Weren’t you scared at all?”

                Before Salmonpaw could respond, a brown-and-white cat that she guessed was Aspenpaw was stomped out of the apprentices den. Coldpaw seems a lot friendlier.

                “I bet she doesn’t know anything!” Aspenpaw complained.

                “Actually, I probably know more than you,” Salmonpaw growled.

                Aspenpaw rolled her eyes. “You were just made an apprentice today! And besides, what makes you so great, huh? What makes you better than me? Just because you were dumb enough to run away?”

                Salmonpaw closed her eyes and sank her claws into the grass, barely able to resist the urge to rake them across her face. “Don’t worry about Aspenpaw,” Coldpaw whispered. “She’s a worthless mouse-brain with no life.”

                Aspenpaw halted. “I heard that!” she hissed, spinning around and unsheathing her claws.

                Icewhisker glared at her. “Don’t even think about it,” he warned. “Troutstar only just ended your punishment.”

                Aspenpaw narrowed her eyes and kept walking. “What happened?” Salmonpaw asked.

                “Aspenpaw got in trouble for trying to fight with Flowerpaw a half-moon ago. She was confined to the camp until two days ago, actually,” Coldpaw replied.

                They’d reached the stream surrounding camp. “Aspenpaw, Coldpaw, demonstrate to Salmonpaw how to hunt,” Icewhisker ordered.

                Salmonpaw almost blurted out that she didn’t need any help, but she decided to watch the apprentices first. Aspenpaw sat by the edge of the river. Her shadow is falling over the water.

                Aspenpaw lunged a little too far, reaching out with her paw to try and grab a fish before they all swam away. With a startled yowl, she fell into the stream. Coldpaw burst out laughing. “I thought hunting was your favorite thing to do! Or is that just because you’re worse at fighting?” she chuckled. “You fell over while you were charging at me!”

                Aspenpaw shot a look at her. “Go ahead! Try to do it better yourself!” she snarled.

                Coldpaw settled down on the riverbank and leaned back. She reached into the water, but was a little too slow. “Fox-dung! I missed it!” she growled with frustration.

                Icewhisker sighed. “These apprentices have just given you a demonstration of how not to catch fish. So I guess I have to show you myself,” he meowed.

                “No, you don’t,” Salmonpaw responded. “Let me try.”

                Icewhisker looked doubtful but he nodded anyways. Salmonpaw sat down, carefully checking to be sure that her shadow was not falling on the water while maintaining her balance. She watched a fish swim by close to where she was sitting and anticipated where it would go. Her paw swung down into the water and she grabbed the fish on her claws. She brought it out of the water and towards her mouth, quickly dispatching it with a sharp nip to the spine.

                Coldpaw gasped with amazement. “How did you do that? You were so good!”

                “Beginner’s luck,” Aspenpaw grumbled.  “Bet she can’t do that again.”

                “I bet I can,” Salmonpaw growled. “And Coldpaw, I can do that because I hunted for myself every day after I left RiverClan. I’ve been doing it for moons.”

                “How did you learn?” Coldpaw wondered.

                “I taught myself,” Salmonpaw answered before turning her attention back towards catching another fish.

                But she never did. Because that’s when a terrified Flashfur appeared, running in their direction as fast as he could. Icewhisker swam across the river to meet him and the three apprentices followed. Salmonpaw noticed that she was the strongest swimmer, while Aspenpaw was the worst. Not that it surprised her that Aspenpaw wasn’t good at swimming either.

                “Flashfur, what happened?” Icewhisker demanded.

                Flashfur looked up. His tail fur was singed and his pelt was thoroughly soaked, as if he’d swam across the river recently. “It’s the Gathering,” he panted. “StarClan set the island on fire.”

A/N: Sorry for not updating for like forever(two days, whatever, forever and two days are very close to each other in size) :)

For some reason, this chapter was really hard for me to write, especially the part about Aspenpaw. It's always hard for me to capture an evil character's personality, particularly when they're not completely evil like Splashheart, Thornwhisker, Smokewhisker, or Whitefur. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed, please comment! :)