Warriors: Return of the Breeze Book 1- The Rebirth

Chapter 5

     Hollypaw woke in a dark shadowed forest. How did she get here? She got up and noticed a dark figure slowly coming towards her. She could tell it was tom, and when he got closer she realized he was black with bright amber eyes, almost like Owlpaw, but this cat's were more golden.

     "Who are you?" Hollypaw called out bravely.

     The strange figure replied. "I'm Breezepelt. I've brought you here so I can train you to be a better warrior. With my help you become the best warrior in all the clans."

     "But why me?"

     "I see great potential in you Hollypaw, But you aren't the only one. I chose you because we are kin."

     "How are we kin?" Hollypaw asked, confusion weaved in her voice.

     "I am Lionblaze' s brother." Breezepelt answered. "It's time for you to go now. Should I expect you here tomorrow night to start your training?"  Hollypaw looked at her surroundings, contemplating what to do.

     "You can count on it Breezepelt."

     Hollypaw jolted awake in her nest.  She looked around as the contents of her dream came back to her. She was going to train with Breezepelt! Everybody else always seems that she was going to end up running away, just like Lionblaze's sister Hollyleaf, who Hollypaw was named after. Maybe they will finally start seeing that Hollypaw is not Hollyleaf, and she won't make the same mistakes as the cat she was named after. Lionblaze and Cinderheart always told her that Hollyleaf was a hero, and died saving Ivypool from Hawkfrost in the Great Battle. I'm going to be a hero someday, just like Hollyleaf.

     Hollypaw got up and walked out of the den in search of her mentor, Bumblestripe. She looked around the clearing. Squirrelflight was assigning cats to patrols, Sandstorm was washing herself in the entrance of the warriors den, and Amberpaw and Snowpaw seemed bored to death as they listened to another one of Purdy's stories. She finally found Bumblestripe sitting next to Dovewing sharing a piece of fresh-kill, and Hollypaw walked over to them.

     "So, what are we doing today?" She asked curiously. Bumblestripe swallowed his bite of vole, then spoke.

     "Today I'm gonna teach you how to how to hunt."

     "When are going?" She flexed her claws, anxious to get going.

     "What about now. The sooner you learn the better." Bumblestripe said as he stood up. Then Dovewing spoke.

     "Hollypaw, have you seen Mintpaw today?"

    "I think she went to get some fresh-kill with Owlpaw." Hollowed guessed.

     "Okay, thanks."

     Hollypaw followed Bumblestripe out of camp and he lead her deeper into the forest. Hollypaw hoped she caught something, if she did she would have something to impress Breezepelt with. Hollypaw ran into something, realizing a moment later that it was Bumblestripe. He must have stopped when she was lost in her thought.

     "Sorry." She muttered.

     "Okay. I'm going to demonstrate the hunting crouch, watch carefully." Bumblestripe dropped into a crouch, balancing his weight on his back legs, Hollypaw guessed it would give him more power in his leap. "Okay, now you try Hollypaw."

     Hollypaw nodded, and tried her best to imitate Bumblestripe, but he ended up shifting her position until she got it right.  Who knew a simple crouch could be so hard?

     Finally after practicing leaping, stalking and the hunters crouch, Bumblestripe finally pointed out a mouse and told her to go catch it. She dropped swiftly into a crouch, then started walking slowly toward the mouse. A breeze blew from behind her, and the mouse was alerted to her presence and darted off.

     "Mouse-dung!" She cursed.

     "You can learn from this Hollypaw, what do you think alerted the mouse."

     " uh..."

     "The breeze carried your scent right towards it. You need to make sure that the wind is going from the prey towards you, so you can't scent it, but it can't scent you." Hollypaw nodded, eager to learn everything she could. "That's enough for today, let's go back to camp."