A brown-and-white blur of fluff flew at Firepaw, an attack from Cloverpaw which he barely avoided. Whirling around, careful not to trip on any of the pebbles beneath his paws, Firepaw leapt to the side at a sudden strike from behind as some cat's paw jabbed at his leg.
"Got you!" Graypaw crowed, yellow eyes lighting up. His dark tail whisked back and forth over the dampened rocks and his ears perked at the excitement of winning a battle. Well... a training session.
Their mentors—Runningwind included—had decided it was important to train them on different terrains. Last time it had been marsh-like battling, near a cool spring close to the Thunderpath, and the time before that it had been amidst thick grasses near an abandoned twoleg place. This time, it was a dried up creek bed with lots and lots of pebbles. One had to be careful where he stepped... otherwise, he could wrench a paw.
The fiery tom couldn't help but grin at Graypaw. "Nope!" he laughed, turning around from Cloverpaw, whom he had initially been focusing his attention on, to attack Graypaw, leaping at him, and this time not missing.
Good thing Whitestorm made the foreleg-and-under doesn't count rule, he thought as he tumbled over the dusty riverbed, claws tangled in Graypaw's thick fur. Graypaw kicked at his stomach, forcing Firepaw to flip away.
Panting hard, fur fluffed out still, Firepaw turned to face his opponent, taking note of Cloverpaw, who sat a few tail-lengths away, drawing a paw through the kicked-up dust, eyes locked still on Graypaw's. "Think you've got me still, Graypaw?" he taunted, unable to suppress a snicker at his friend's disheveled appearance.
"Still think you've got me?" Graypaw questioned back, grinning. He straightened up, allowing his fur to de-fluff.
From between a tree's roots, the golden frame of Lionheart shifted as he stood up. "Well done, Graypaw! Good technique, Firepaw." His amber eyes flitted to Cloverpaw. "And—Cloverpaw, good teamwork."
Cloverpaw glanced up and gave a small nod, indicating he had heard. Weird. He used to take training more... seriously. Firepaw thought to himself, dodging a light cuff to his shoulder from Graypaw absent-mindedly.
Finally, Lionheart spoke again. "Cloverpaw... a word," he meowed, nodding with his shaggy head for the apprentice to follow him.
Graypaw looked to Firepaw, who shrugged, watching his brother go. "Where do you think he's going?" the tom asked, watching the apprentice trot behind a tree to speak to Lionheart.
"Doesn't matter," Mousefur stiffly mewed. "Come on. Back to camp, both of you."
Something was definitely up, decided Firepaw as he dragged himself out of the riverbed, directing Graypaw with his tail to a more gradual slope when the tom nearly fell flat on his face. Subsequently padding back to camp, he couldn't help but think. I wish Cloverpaw would put his heart into it... he sighed, and before he could think another word, another thought, Graypaw broke in.
"Um, well," he mewed, glancing to the left. "I'd better go. I uh—have training and stuff to work on..." he trailed off. If it's fighting, I could help him—.
"What type of training?"
Graypaw seemed to be having trouble speaking. "Oh, you know," he finally mewed, a horrible liar. "I've gotta go... work on my... climbing... skills."
Firepaw decided to play into the lie. "Huh. I thought you did a pretty good job climbing out of the riverbed." He allowed a smile to break out onto his face, but Graypaw was already laughing, giving him a hard nudge with his shoulder.
"Yeah, okay, not everybody's a natural like you." He straightened up, smile staying on his face. "If you must know, I've got a she-cat who's really into me. We'll probably be mates."
Firepaw thought back to the conversation Dustpaw and Sandpaw had had going back from the Gathering, and stopped, begging StarClan that it wasn't the option Dustpaw had suggested. "It's not Sandpaw, right?"
Graypaw looked taken aback. "No way. I flirt, but it's a friendly flirt. Not a..." he waved his tail, gesturing, "romantic flirt."
"Could'a fooled me," Firepaw uttered under his breath, purposefully just loud enough for Graypaw to hear, and received a smack with his friend's tail.
"Come on, you need some she-cat. Be glad I'm so generous as to let you have a shot at 'er." He flashed a smile, wiggling his eyebrows. It was Firepaw's turn to smack Graypaw.
"Fine," he laughed, nodding in the direction of the RiverClan border. "Go train with this mysterious she-cat." Graypaw snorted, but said goodbye and bounded off.
Firepaw watched him dash off into the undergrowth, taking note of the scent of herbs coming at him. It's probably Spottedleaf, he thought. To his surprise, however, he found himself face-to-face with his own brother.
"Oh, hey, Cloverpaw!" he chirped, seeing the familiar brown-and-white figure before registering by his scent that of course it was him. In Cloverpaw's mouth, a bundle of mint was stuffed, one of the few herbs Firepaw knew.
The tom looked more alive than he had during training and gave a short nod in greeting. He doesn't exactly look happy or fulfilled, though... "I have an idea," Firepaw finally announced, not having thought through the idea or made a fully-thought-out plan at all.
Cloverpaw raised his brows, nodding for Firepaw to follow him to the camp. Quickly catching up with his brother, he spilled his thoughts out onto the cold leaf-bare ground. "We should go visit the littermates." Immediately, Cloverpaw's eyes lit up and he nodded quickly, trying to speak (and saying something unintelligible through a mouthful of herbs). Then, he dashed off into the trees. That's probably a yes. And so, Firepaw followed after him, wondering who it could be that Graypaw was so madly in love with.
By the time Firepaw clawed his way out of camp, Cloverpaw a tail-length behind him, he was out of breath. For some reason, Cloverpaw had decided to sprint back to camp, with a mouthful of plants, which left Firepaw no choice but to follow him. Could've been worse, though. He could've shot off at break-neck speed... oh wait, he did. So no, it couldn't have been worse, but at least they were to see the littermates.
And so, through the forest they went. A couple of times, Firepaw glanced over to see Cloverpaw nearly trip over a root or a log or something but... Being a great warrior isn't as easy as it looks. He ducked, barely missing a low-hanging branch, relieved to still have both of his eyes. Heh.
Finally, the fence came into view. Its warm colors were appealing and homey for Firepaw, and he felt a certain warmth in his chest. It was sort of... a home, at least. He wasn't fully clan, or fully kittypet. It was an odd balance to be sure, and he was reminded even more of how odd balancing in itself was when he nearly toppled off the slender planks. Beside him, Cloverpaw wobbled a bit before casting him a grin and lashing his half-tail, regaining his balance. "You good?" he asked, a somewhat gloating glint in his clover-colored eyes.
Firepaw threw a grin back. "Of course! The question is... are you?"
Cloverpaw rolled his eyes, and simply nodded a few houses over to where the littermates usually met. "I won't even dignify that with a response," he mewed, dignifying the question with a response, before starting over to the yard. "Come on!"
Firepaw leapt off the fence, dashing towards the yard, clawing up one fence, hopping from another, up one, down another, until he finally reached the semi-circle of what he considered to be his family.
Butters laid out, licking her paw, listening to the youngun's chatter, occasionally putting in a word or two. Princess and Luna were chatting about different foods, and it sounded like Filou and Smudge—who weren't enemies, as they used to be—were becoming closer. At least, from an outsider's perspective. It was like walking into a memory.
Luna looked up from her conversation with Princess, eyes lighting up upon seeing Firepaw and Cloverpaw. "Guys, they're back!" she hollered to the toms, who were only a tail-length away, before bounding forward and touching noses with first Cloverpaw and then Firepaw. Princess trotted behind her, a smile on her face.
"Hi Firepaw. Cloverpaw. How's ThunderClan?"
Cloverpaw gave a shrug, ignoring the incredulous look of Filou upon seeing his battle wounds... which consisted of a scratch and a small blood clot on his shoulder by then. "Pretty good. Been protecting 'em," he said, a sly smile creeping onto his face.
"I told you ThunderClan couldn't heal him! Look at that blood," Filou triumphantly mewed, coming forward, hazel eyes alight with the slight victory. Princess rolled her eyes, but Luna spoke before she could.
"Yeah, okay, 'cause a couple a' scratches'll disprove generations of herbery."
"Obviously, he can't be healed by plants."
"Actually," Cloverpaw cut in, answering Filou's objection, "you'd be surprised at how planty the stuff in the claw-tube-thingies smelled. And then the white cobweb thing on my tail had some sort of herb-ey poltice under it. So."
Luna flashed her brother a pleased look, giving Filou a queenly, victorious, smirk. "Told ya so." Filou, meanwhile, humphed, returning to sit beside Smudge, who purred upon seeing his two returning friends.
"Sure is good to see you two. Butters had us worried."
Cloverpaw dramatically sighed, starting to pace slowly, as if he were performing in front of an audience. "Butters, what exactly did you tell them?" he mewed, a spring in his step.
Butters stretched out her lanky form, taking her sweet time, and eyeing Cloverpaw with a familiar don't-get-your-whiskers-in-a-bunch, not-everyone's-as-quick-as-you-whippersnappers look. "Now, I don't want any a' you kittens getting worried," she begin, being met with an 'awh come on' from Luna, "but I do have some bad news."
Firepaw perked his ears, swivvelling them to the old creamish-yellow she-cat, who finally sat up, coat bathed in warm sunlight, turning it a glittery light gold color.
"But one a' my friends recently... was murdered." Firepaw's brows furrowed, and no cat said anything until Butters elaborated. "By a clan cat."
"By a clan cat? But... that's impossible! Clan cats are good," Cloverpaw interjected, green eyes big and concerned. "We wouldn't do something so bad... like that..." he trailed off.
Butters cast him a saddened look, but continued. "You youngun's didn't know 'im, but he was a tom named Jake. A real friendly fella'. Anyway, one day, I was out for a walk, and I got the smell of blood. So I followed the smell and... there was Jake. All bloody and broken." Her amber gaze portrayed absolute sorrow at his death, but her body did not. She hid it well.
"Do you know what clan? Could it have been a rogue? Wait—how do you even know what clan cats smell like?" Firepaw couldn't stop himself from asking. His eyes were glued to Butters as he tried to read her every movement.
The she-cat shrugged. "You boys carry the scent. And..." she hesitated, making Firepaw and Cloverpaw lean in more with anticipation "...I've had run-ins with them before." She shook her head. "I'm just warnin' y'all's all. Don't get hurt out there in the big forest."
Firepaw shivered despite the warmth of the sun on his back. "Well... warriors don't kill," he said, trying to mumble but failing, voice clear as a cold winter day.
"Well. This one did." Butters' gaze was dark already, and then she shrugged. "Just be careful's all."
The conversation ended. Luna obviously wanted to say something. She really wanted to say something, clearly. From the way she picked at blades of grass beneath her feet, to how she kneaded her claws into the ground... she had something to say. Finally, she spoke, an intensity and curiosity in her green gaze bright and clear as dawn. "So... how's liberating ThunderClan going?"
Firepaw shrugged. "It's going okay."
"Mhm. Going great, actually."
"Yeah, clan's getting fed." Firepaw glanced over to Cloverpaw, his somewhat partner-in-crime, taking note of how he side-eyed him back. Luna was, however, unconvinced.
"Not cutting it. What's going on? What's life like there?"
Princess butted in, curling her fluffy tail over her paws like Bluestar did, ears pricked and eyes bright. "Are there kits there? What's the food like?"
Filou looked to his sisters, then spoke finally. "And what's the weather like over there?"
Firepaw's chest warmed. His family wanted to know about ThunderClan. And so, he began to tell the story of his adventures... that far. And when it was time to go home, he felt a sort of accomplishment. Padding back to ThunderClan with Cloverpaw at his side, he couldn't have guessed what would happen the next day. But Cloverpaw did; in fact, he was a key player in the following events.
A/N: GUYS! We reached 1.2K! Thanks so much, I can't believe it! What do you want to see as an extra chapter? A POV? Character designs? What're you looking forward to? ~Pringles