Between the Lines

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Thanks to @LeafpoolM for making me the cover for this oneshot. It's exactly what I wanted! Remember guys, I'm willing to work on request fics for you guys (I'm not posting it as a fic in fear of being swamped with requests). For those who are wondering, I AM working on Wrath of the Storm but I'm also doing a few contestfics and as such I'm all over the place working on everything at once. Feel free to comment on anything!

The forest was silent at first, everything quiet and steady, nothing moving as the pure white tom stalked through the undergrowth, tracking his prey. As he stilled, tasting the air, his eyes caught sight of little movements in the forest. He observed the rustling of leaves, the wind flitting through the trees, soft chattering of squirrels high up in branches, and his target, the plump mouse scavenging on the forest floor underneath a tree root in search of seeds.

He let out a little pant, taking in shallow breaths and creeping forward, not taking his eyes off of his oblivious prey. The white tom froze suddenly as the mouse looked up from its seed, ears twitching and tail flicking as it listened for what had disturbed it.

Cloudpaw jerked up from his bent position, startling as a loud crow of laughter came from beyond the trees where he was hunting. He cursed as the mouse, having heard the cry as well, scurried back into its den, a wasted piece of perfectly good prey. Now annoyed, the strong but temperamental apprentice padded over to where the disturbance had risen, ready to yell at the other cats that had disturbed his assessment. When he walked into the clearing, however, his eyes narrowed for a different reason. 

Two large warriors of his Clan, a brown female named Hazelleaf and a dark brown tom Volepelt, stood over his newest denmate, Pricklepaw. Pricklepaw was caught in a thick thatch of bramble and thorns, head stuck in a loop of Twoleg fencing. He was struggling futilely to wriggle his way out of the painful trap. The warriors were laughing at his plight, even, Cloudpaw noticed, going as far as to push him deeper into the thorns.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" Cloudpaw asked sweetly. These two warriors were obviously the bullies of the Clan, and he had seen countless times as apprentices and warriors were forced into submission. Other cats either didn't notice, ignored it, or were too scared and weak to fight back.

Cloudpaw had never been affected, as they often just left him alone for a reason he could not figure out. But Cloudpaw could see the stress in each cat in his Clan, and he was fed up. He was not going to take it anymore.

The white tom squared his shoulders and faced them head on when they turned, eyes glinting with something Cloudpaw couldn't recognize. He was surprised however, when their faces turned cheery and they approached him with their tails happily waving.

 "Hey Cloudpaw, just the cat we were hoping to see! How's your assessment going?" Cloudpaw fumed as he suddenly realized that his useless mentor probably wasn't watching, or was too scared or curious to interfere with Volepelt and Hazelleaf. The ignorant tom could have stopped this torture ages ago!

"Well seeing as you just interrupted it; it's not going very well." Cloudpaw tried to keep the iciness in his voice very low. Volepelt didn't seem to notice.

 "Hey, sorry about that, Cloudpaw. But hey, they'd be crazy not to make you a warrior! After all, you're huge, a great fighter and hunter, and you're smart. Speaking of, we wanted to ask you a question." Cloudpaw forced himself to stay still as they both stepped closer to him. His nose wrinkled minutely as he could smell Volepelt's fishy breath. Evidently the tom had been breaking the rules again, and was hunting in the river.

"We wanted to ask if you would like to join us. Be our friend, you know? Go on patrols with us, catch the best food together, that sort of thing." Hazelleaf's slippery tones slithered through the air, making him take a step back. Was that why they never bothered him? Because they thought that he would be a good, willing teammate to them? He had assumed it was because he was almost as big as them even though he was younger.

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⏰ Last updated: Dec 17, 2015 ⏰

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