Warriors #5: Heart of Fire

Chapter 15

Goldenshine's POV

I almost felt as if I was sprinting across ice as I pelted through the forest after a small tuft of fur. Faster, Goldenshine, faster! I told myself. You can't afford to lose even one scrap of prey right now!

When I decided that the time was right, I leaped forward with my claws outstretched, bowling over and trapping the scrawny shrew in my grip. I sank my teeth into it, then tossed its limp body to the ground.

I let out a small grunt of satisfaction. And that is how you do it!

"Did you catch it?" a voice called from behind me. I picked up the prey in my jaws and turned to see Nightwing approaching. Her green eyes lit up when they fell on the shrew. "Oh, thank StarClan!" she purred as we began to pad side by side to return to the rest of our hunting patrol.

Thank StarClan, indeed!

"To be honest, I was almost sure that you weren't going to catch it!" Nightwing continued.

"Gee, thanks," I meowed through my full mouth of fur. Support from your best friend is the absolute best, I thought sarcastically.

Nightwing then purred with amusement as she nudged me with her shoulder. "No, silly. That's not what I meant," my friend purred, her gaze now full of concern. "You just seemed in your own world when it started to run off. I had to snap you out of it!"

Yeah, that's true... unfortunately, I thought to myself, taking a moment to dig up a small hole in the ground and bury my prey. I could've cost a few cats a meal if you hadn't yelled into my ear.

Nightwing and I, on our hunting patrol with Toadstep and Rosepetal, had spotted a small shrew at nearly the same time. Nightwing was going to scare it into my direction, then I was to get a hold of it and make the killing bite.

But thanks to me, things hadn't gone to plan. I was so stuck in my own thoughts, that when the shrew dashed past me, I had had no idea.

But thank StarClan, I caught it, I tried to tell myself. I can't imagine the amount of guilt I would feel if I lost a piece of prey just because I got caught up in personal problems.

I sniffed in response to Nightwing's words. "The only excuse I can give you is that I could've gotten more sleep last night!" I lied.

And I say "lied" because yes, I was completely lying. Well, I suppose that frequently going on dawn patrol didn't help me, but that's not why I almost missed the shrew.

I had had a lot on my mind over the past moon. I mean, I always did, considering I had the stress of Swiftpaw's suspicious behavior, as well as Snowpaw hanging on my shoulders.

Since Dustystorm had begun to train Swiftpaw, he would always give me a brief report after their training sessions, as I had asked him to. But, as time went by, I think Dustystorm's reports were becoming more out of concern for Swiftpaw rather than curtesy to me.

I had begun to feel dizzy when my mate, along with Icecloud, had brought Snowpaw into camp, blood oozing from her belly. Once Dustystorm had helped her into the medicine den, he had been quick to approach me to tell me what had happened.

I hadn't been shocked at all, but sickened as he revealed to me that Swiftpaw had hurt Snowpaw, and what looked like on purpose. What had been even more nauseating was the fact that Swiftpaw had not returned to camp with Snowpaw, Icecloud, and Dustystorm.

Rather, he hadn't returned until the sun began to set. A few cats had given him suspicious looks as he emerged through the camp entrance. My son's eyes had been dark, but unreadable, as he padded through the clearing and disappeared into the apprentices den without a single word.