Chapter 20
Salmonpaw was running towards the camp, desperate reach it before the dog caught up to her. Her breathing had sped up almost as much as her heartbeat. The beast was close behind, gradually nearing her.
Suddenly, a white-furred tom exploded out of some nearby bushes and swiped his claws across the dog’s face before it realized what was happening. Icewhisker! Hailcloud was telling the truth, Icewhisker does love me!
Icewhisker dashed off and glanced back to see the dog chasing after him. She followed, knowing she had to stop him. “Icewhisker, no!” Salmonpaw screamed. “You’ll get yourself killed!”
“It would be worth it for you, but thankfully, that is unnecessary,” he responded. “I have a plan.”
It didn’t look like it. It looked more like he was running for his life. But as her mentor passed underneath a tree, a dark brown tom dropped out of a branch and onto the dog’s back. Before it could throw him off, Hailcloud had his teeth in its neck and it collapsed onto the ground. Icewhisker and Salmonpaw were both panting heavily. “We need to tell Troutstar the dog is dead,” the RiverClan apprentice wheezed.
The dark brown tom’s green eyes gleamed with anger. He didn’t respond to her comment. “What in StarClan’s name were you thinking?” Hailcloud screeched furiously.
Salmonpaw narrowed her eyes. “I was trying to defend my Clanmates!” she snarled.
“Would getting yourself killed help RiverClan?” Hailcloud responded.
“Maybe,” she replied. “It’s not like I do anything useful…”
“Salmonpaw, quit being ridiculous!” Hailcloud interrupted.
“It’s true!” she responded. “I bet half of RiverClan wishes I’d never come back!”
“Breezetail was the only one who wasn’t pleased to see that you’d returned! And if anything happened to you, I…I’d…” his voice faltered. “I’d be lost.”
“Same here,” Icewhisker growled. “Except I care about you more than Hailcloud.”
“Not true!” Hailcloud protested. “If you truly cared about her, you’d let her choose who she loves or whether she loves either of us on her own!”
“I’m the one who noticed her leaving the camp!” Icewhisker insisted. “She would’ve been dead right now if it wasn’t for me!”
Salmonpaw wished they’d stop arguing. Hailcloud seemed to notice the expression on her face. “That’s enough,” he meowed, clearly trying to calm himself for her sake. “Let’s not make Salmonpaw endure this.”
“As I was saying before, we need to tell Troutstar that the dog is dead,” Salmonpaw sighed.
“She’d never believe us,” Icewhisker muttered.
“Well, let’s carry it back,” she responded.
The three of them managed to drag the dog back to the island and not drown while they were swimming across the river with it. “Troutstar!” Hailcloud called.
The RiverClan leader looked up from where she was half-heartedly eating a fish in the shade of the RiverTree. Her eyes widened when she saw the dog’s dead body. “What happened?” she demanded.
“We killed it,” Icewhisker answered.
Troutstar leapt onto a branch of the tree. “Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the RiverTree for a Clan meeting!” she yowled.
The Clan was soon gathered. “Hailcloud, Icewhisker, and Salmonpaw have killed the dog!” she announced.
“Great!” Marshpaw’s voice declared. “Now we just need to get rid of Aspenpaw!”
“You better be quiet or I’ll cancel your final assessment,” Troutstar hissed. “Which is currently scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Salmonpaw has proven her bravery and she’ll be there with you.”
“What?” Aspenpaw shrieked. “She’s only been here for a couple of days!”
“She’s as good as I am at hunting and Icewhisker tells me that she already has progressed in battle training as much as Marshpaw and Flowerpaw!” Troutstar responded, looking at the white-furred tom.
“Yes, she learns really fast,” Icewhisker agreed. “It usually only takes her one try, sometimes two for the more complicated ones, to perfect a fighting move I show her. She’s naturally talented at everything, it’s truly incredible.”
My final assessment already? Only one more day of training and then I might be a warrior? I can’t believe it.