Brambleberry's Fury

Chapter 2:

"Y-yes, Brambleberry?" He stuttered quietly.

"Let Rabbitpaw pick himself up." The dark tabby hissed. "You wouldn't help the enemy up in battle, would you?!"

"Well, no, b-but-" Sorrypaw began, but immediately cut himself off when he saw the look the massive warrior gave him. He felt like he wanted to melt away into the ground underneath the intense glare Brambleberry had mustered and began to shuffle nervously once more, looking down at his paws in shame.

"But I'm not an enemy. I'm a clanmate. And more importantly, his brother." There was a hint of a challenge in Rabbitpaw's voice as he shakily stood up and stared at Brambleberry with narrowed green eyes. The dark tabby glared at Rabbitpaw and he bared his fangs, his fur beginning to bristle. Frogleap immediately stepped in front of Rabbitpaw in a slightly protective manner, regarding the warrior with a stern gaze.

"I think we should discontinue this training session. Rabbitpaw obviously has quite a lot more to learn about fighting techniques, and it won't do any good to have him learn by observing his brother." He mewed cautiously. "Rabbitpaw will do some training on his own before he will start any matches against other apprentices." Frogleap mewed finally, turning to his apprentice with a stern yet soft gaze. "Are you ready to begin training?" Brambleberry's amber eyes narrowed at Frogleap before he got to his paws and began padding out of the training area.

"Come, Sorrypaw." He commanded, and Sorrypaw threw an apologetic and guilty glance at his brother before he hurried after his mentor, gaining on the large warrior rather quickly. "Your roll was sloppy. My former apprentice could do that move better in his sleep." Brambleberry hissed, making Sorrypaw flinch and immediately feel panicked. He had let his mentor down, he knew that, and it made his stomach twist in despair. What if Brambleberry gave up on training him? What if he deemed Sorrypaw unworthy of becoming a warrior? Then what would he do? He wasn't good enough to be a medicine cat, he would end up worrying over hurting his clanmates too much to even start to patch them up. His only other choice was to train as a warrior.

"I'm sorry Brambleberry." He choked out, feeling tears begin to prick his eyes. The massive warrior glanced back at his apprentice and sneered before sighing.

"We'll work on it later. Right now the only other training we could possibly do is hunting." He grumbled, ignoring Sorrypaw as his ears perked up and his eyes shone with a new light.

"You're going to teach me how to hunt?" He asked with hope.

"No, I'm going to teach you how to fly." Brambleberry snapped sarcastically, his amber eyes shimmering with impatience. Sorrypaw flinched and glanced back down at his paws, muttering a small apology. Brambleberry rolled his eyes and led Sorrypaw through the forest towards the lake. Once they reached the shore he stopped and turned to face his apprentice with a stern expression. "Get over here and get in a hunting stance." He ordered, sneering at Sorrypaw. The ginger tom slowly made his way to his mentor's side and kept his gaze away from the massive dark tabby, not wanting to anger the warrior any more than he already had.

"Hey Sorrypaw!" The ginger apprentice jumped and his gaze snapped up from the rippling water to see Thrushheart swimming towards the shore with Frogleg behind her. "How's training going?" The she-cat chirped, purring when she got onto land and near the ginger apprentice.

"G-good..." Sorrypaw managed to whisper, still afraid to look at Brambleberry.

"Are you alright? You look shaken up." Thrushheart asked gently, her eyes softening as she took in the ruffled appearance of her half-brother. "Did something happen?"

"N-no. I'm fine. Sorry for making you worry." Sorrypaw muttered under his breath after he answered the brown she-cat.

"Thrushheart, we should probably get back to camp. I think we're taking up all of Sorrypaw's time for training." Frogleg mewed softly to the brown warrior, amber eyes glancing warily at the furious Brambleberry as he glared at the two warriors. The she-cat frowned but nodded her head in compliance and began following the black and white tom back to camp, casting a worried glance over her shoulder at the small apprentice one last time.

"Sorrypaw!" Brambleberry growled and the ginger apprentice jumped in fright before crouching down beside the lake, his paws planted firmly beneath him as he stared into the water with frightened hazel eyes.

"Sorry!" He exclaimed, his breath stirring the water. Brambleberry rolled his amber eyes and slammed his paw down on Sorrypaw's twitching tail, making him yelp out in pain.

"Stop moving!" He snapped. "You won't catch anything if the fish spot any movement from you." He lifted his paw from Sorrypaw's tail hesitantly with narrowed amber eyes, and the ginger apprentice bit back a whimper. "Lower your hindquarters more. You look like you're about to fall in." Brambleberry growled. Sorrypaw did as told, his body quivering slightly.

'I guess I have a lot to learn,' Sorrypaw thought to himself sadly. 'Am I good enough to be a warrior?'