Perfection [ warriorcats fanfiction ]

vii.iv

Thunder shook the trees and wind and rain battered the apprentices.

"Run, Nightpaw!" Lightning flashed in the darkness.

"No!" As Nightpaw looked back she slipped on the wet leaves, her paw catching on a rock as she fell. Dawnpaw limped along behind her, carefully picking her way around the worst of the rocks and leaves.

Nightpaw ignored the pain in her paw and stumbled into the camp, Dawnpaw directly behind her.

At first glance, the camp was deserted. Upon closer inspection cats were found, trying to shelter in the piles of branches around the trees in the camp. Stormpetal tried to keep her three remaining kits in the nursery, even though they obviously wanted to look out at the rain. Froststar was nowhere to be seen, probably sheltered alone in her safe den.

"Dawnpaw! Nightpaw!" Blackpaw motioned with his tail to where he was hiding with Puddlepaw and Rosepaw.

Dawnpaw ran over right away, sliding under a large piece of bark and sitting down between Blackpaw and Puddlepaw. Nightpaw padded over more slowly, debating whether it was better to avoid Rosepaw or shelter with her friends. She sighed and entered the small shelter, subtly claiming a space next to Puddlepaw.

"What happened?" Puddlepaw looked down at Nightpaw's paw which, she then noticed, was bleeding profusely.

"I tripped." Nightpaw looked at her paw in slight curiosity. That's quite a bit of blood.

"Here." Blackpaw produced some slightly damp moss out of what appeared to be nowhere.

"Try not to bleed all over us," Rosepaw meowed wryly.

Nightpaw grimaced as she pressed the moss to her paw. "I'm not," she sniffed, looking at Rosepaw.

The ginger apprentice wrinkled her nose and looked away.

Nightpaw smiled. Whatever.

Blackpaw picked a leaf out of Dawnpaw's fur. "Where were you?"

"We went to the river," Dawnpaw replied, "Nightpaw was teaching me how to fish."

"Isn't your mentor supposed to do that?" Nightpaw wanted to push Rosepaw out into the rain.

"Well, yes," Nightpaw replied, "but you see, Ravenstep has neglected his mentor responsibilities, and I've decided to help Dawnpaw instead."

Nightpaw was sure Rosepaw very slightly rolled her eyes. "That's cute that you're helping her."

Nightpaw ignored her and turned to Puddlepaw. "What were you doing here?"

Puddlepaw pointed outside with his tail. "Blackpaw and I were collecting branches for the apprentices' den when it started to rain- that's why we're not over there. Part of the side is completely gone."

"No!" Rosepaw wailed, "Our nests will be ruined!"

Dawnpaw laughed. "We can always make new ones. Blackpaw has some sort of moss collection right here-" she looked at Blackpaw, who shrugged- "Where in the name of Starclan did you get all that?"

Blackpaw grinned. "Puddlepaw thought it would be a good idea to patch the holes between the branches in the apprentices' den with bits of moss," he explained, "And I collected some here before it started to rain."

The five apprentices sat in silence for a while, listening to the steady sound of the raindrops above them. Nightpaw narrowed her eyes and looked outside, and if she pretended she didn't know where the other members of her clan were, she could believe the apprentices she was sheltered with were the last remaining cats in the clan. The last in the entire forest itself.

Dawnpaw stood up. "The rain's stopping. Let's go outside."

Nightpaw was the last to leave, and by the time she had exited their makeshift bark shelter the rain had dissipated into a steady mist.

"What's that?" Nightpaw followed Dawnpaw's eyes to where she was looking in the sky, over the treetops, and had the same question as her sister.

Rosepaw smiled. "It's a rainbow."

"Can every cat in the forest see it?" Blackpaw's eyes were now on the rainbow as well.

"Probably." Rosepaw looked back down at the ground and began to pad away, probably to survey they sodden ruins of her nest.

"Can cats in Starclan see it?" Rosepaw barely stopped to answer Dawnpaw's question.

"I don't know."

"I think some cat in Starclan gave us the rainbow," Blackpaw mused, "Like how we got the storm when they cried."

Dawnpaw smiled. "Thanks for the rainbow, Snowykit."