AN: So......it's been a long time since I've done anything on Wattpad, and I'm not sure if anyone would even read any of my stories anymore but I've decided that I at least wanted to publish the rest of this story, so, here it is.
Nightpaw sulked as Sunleaf scolded him.
"She attacked me!" he retorted.
"You still shouldn't have fought back!" the deputy growled.
"I've got scratches that are bleeding on my chest, back and nose! I was defending myself!" Nightpaw snarled, losing his temper with Sunleaf.
"You should have known better! You could've walked away, or not have provoked her in the first place!" Sunleaf yelled, stepping toward Nightpaw.
Nightpaw scoffed. "I didn't provoke her!"
"Don't lie! I've heard some of the things you've said to her! Now go get your wounds looked at in the medicine den."
Nightpaw fought the urge to continue arguing with the deputy and stalked off into the camp clearing. He noticed Flowerpaw exiting the medicine den with cobwebs stuck to her ear and flanks. He felt proud of himself for giving her those wounds, but a twinge of guilt hit him when he thought that. He shook the thought away and shot a glare of pure hatred at Flowerpaw as she padded past him with Beetleclaw, Brightsun and Cherrypaw. He could see her fur bristling and he desperately wanted to swipe her tail as it lashed in front of his face, but he pushed the urge away and squeezed into the medicine den. Beepaw was in there, sorting herbs. Maplefur must have been out of camp.
"Hey, Beepaw," Nightpaw greeted his brother. The ginger-and-black medicine cat apprentice turned around and relief flooded his eyes.
"For a moment I thought Flowerpaw was back," Beepaw told Nightpaw as he grabbed some marigold. "She wasn't lying when she said you were in worse shape," Beepaw commented as he saw the blood clumping in Nightpaw's fur.
"Oh come on! She took me by surprise!" Nightpaw defended himself.
"She's still got sharp claws," Beepaw meowed, starting to chew the marigold. After turning it into a pulp, he spat it onto his paws and started to rub it into Nightpaw's scratches on his chest.
"As long as you don't say that I started it," Nightpaw grumbled.
"You did," Beepaw said simply.
Nightpaw stared at his brother, shocked. "What? How did I start it?"
"I've seen the way you treat her," Beepaw meowed, rubbing more poultice into the scratches on Nightpaw's back. "You call her names, go out of your way to insult her and you're the one who unsheathed your claws during training."
"But she's so annoying! She gets in everyone's way!" Nightpaw retorted angrily.
"Okay then, if you think that's a good reason to be a rude mouse-brain," Beepaw meowed calmly, applying the last of the marigold poultice to Nightpaw's slashed nose.
"Ow!" Nightpaw jumped away as the ointment stung him, and he tried desperately not to rub his nose.
Beepaw chuckled, making Nightpaw even more annoyed.
Everyone always blames me! Even my brother!
Nightpaw stormed out of the medicine den angrily, not even waiting for Beepaw to put cobwebs on his wounds. He just wanted some air, and a cramped split in a rock that smelled of herbs was not helping. In the camp clearing, cats looked at him as soon as he stepped out of the medicine den. His mother, Juniperleaf, padded up to him. Her eyes were filled with worry, but also disappointment. Without saying a word, she leaned down and sniffed at his wounds. She straightened up, looked into the medicine den, then back at him.
"Beepaw's getting very good at healing," she commented mildly. Nightpaw wished she would say something about his fighting skills, but she just stared at him sternly, her eyes giving away how disappointed she was in him.
With a flick of her tail, she padded away towards the fresh-kill pile. Daisywhisper and Pinespots both leaned in close to her and started whispering things. She cast a worried glance back at Nightpaw, then turned back to her friends.
Fine! Be like that! Nightpaw thought crossly. His tail swishing and whiskers twitching, he turned tail and raced out of camp. Angry thoughts whirled through his head. He had never wanted to run away from his Clan, but now that was all he could think of doing.
He hared down the slope of the moorland until the lake came into view. He slowed down to a trot, his sides heaving as he panted. The cold wind whipped his ears, and he squinted as he walked against the wind. His sleek pelt pushed against his skin, and he felt like flopping down to the ground in exhaustion. He stayed on his paws and pushed on, walking beside the lake and heading in the direction of Horseplace.
As he scented the air, he noticed a strange scent being carried on the wind. It was cat-like, but had a hint of horse. Horseplace cat, Nightpaw concluded. The wind died down, and he opened his eyes fully, seeing a small shape at the edge of the lake near Horseplace. Sighing, he padded down to the cat that was sitting on the pebbly shore.
As he neared the cat, he could make out its brown spotted pelt as it watched the lake lapping at the shore. He drew in another breath through his nose, and confirmed that it was a she-cat. He stalked up behind the new cat, and he was about to pounce, when a twig cracked beneath his paw. The brown spotted she-cat jumped around in fright, her fur bristling and green eyes wide.
"Who are you?" she asked Nightpaw, her voice trembling.
"I'm on my territory, and it seems so are you," Nightpaw growled, unsheathing his claws.
The she-cat started to back away, but she stepped into the water and quickly jumped forward again.
"So, y-you're a Clan cat?" she asked, stumbling over her words.
"WindClan," Nightpaw told her, still keeping his claws unsheathed.
"I promise I'm not stealing prey," she meowed, her tail quivering. Nightpaw scanned her up and down; she was no bigger than him, even a bit smaller, and her pelt was soft-looking and sleek. She was no threat. He sheathed his claws and sat down.
"I'm Nightpaw," he stated. She looked at him suspiciously, as if she thought he was tricking her into letting her guard down. He gestured for her to sit down, and she cautiously obliged.
"J-Jenga. I'm Jenga," she replied, looking down at her paws.
Nightpaw rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Jenga looked up, and her eyes widened as she noticed the scratches on him surrounded by dried up blood.
"It looks like someone has hurt you!" she exclaimed.
Nightpaw looked down at his wounded chest. "Just an annoying Clan-mate."
Jenga stared at him in disbelief. "But, aren't Clan-mates supposed to be on each other's side?"
Nightpaw nodded. "She attacked me," he explained.
"That's horrible!" she blurted out.
Deep down, he knew that Flowerpaw's actions were justified, but Jenga didn't need to know that. Nightpaw nodded, his eyes wide and full of fake sadness.
"She's always so annoying, and today she just snapped and attacked me, unprovoked," Nightpaw lied, looking at his paws. He was a bad liar, and always started to heat up when he did. "I fought back, but she surprised me, and overpowered me."
"Sounds like she's got anger management problems," Jenga meowed thoughtfully. "I have a friend who lives in the stable with me, he's got some anger issues, but I know how to calm him down."
What's a stable? Nightpaw thought to himself.
"How?" he asked the Horseplace cat.
"I reassure him that he'll always have me as a friend, right by his side. A friend always helps," she told him. "Maybe you should try being friendlier to your Clan-mate."
"She'd claw my ears if I tried that," Nightpaw mewed. He knew Jenga was right, and that Flowerpaw never would've hated him if he was kind.
"Just talk to her," Jenga meowed kindly, he eyes full of sympathy.
"Jenga!" a voice called out. A stocky white long haired tom padded up to the two of them, eyeing Jenga sternly. "You should head inside now, the sun is going down."
Nightpaw looked up to the sky and saw that the white tom was right; the sun had started to sink and the sky was powdered with pink and purple.
"I need to go as well," Nightpaw told Jenga hurriedly, wondering if his Clan was worrying about him.
"Who's this?" the tom asked.
"This is Nightpaw," Jenga meowed, her eyes lighting up. "He's not a threat, I promise." She turned to look at Nightpaw. "This is my friend, Yeti," she told him.
Yeti looked at Nightpaw through squinted eyes, dipped his head, then turned and started padding back to Horseplace, flicking Jenga's flank in signal for her to follow.
"Bye, Nightpaw!" she called out to him as she trotted after Yeti.
"Bye!" he replied. He stood by the shore, alone. A warm glow melted his heart. Jenga was such a welcoming cat, and her fur looked so soft and smelled so sweet. She seemed around the same age as himself, and he wondered whether she'd ever want to see him again.
No, I need to get back to WindClan, he told himself, shaking the image of the brown spotted cat from his mind.
He raced across the moorland and up the slope and hurtled into camp just as the sun disappeared. There was still a hint of light, but most of it was gone, and the camp was mostly in darkness. He could see the glowing eyes of his Clan-mates, and quickly looked away when his amber eyes locked with Flowerpaw's soft yellow gaze. In the dim light, he could just make out Cherrypaw's and Pigeonpaw's shapes sitting in either side of golden-brown tabby.
As he padded deeper into camp, more eyes became fixed in him. He could feel their judgmental gazes burning into his pelt, and he hunched his shoulders and lowered his head. Tiredness gripped him, and sleep dragged at his paws. He ignored all of the Clan glaring at him and trudged over to his nest.
He curled up in his moss-lined nest, and let sleep pull him away from his Clan. He felt a paw brush his nose, and he flicked it away, fighting the urge to scream at Flowerpaw who was probably trying to get a reaction from him. The paw tapped his nose again. And again.
He got up to his paws in a flash, his fur bristling and teeth bared, but bundled backwards in shock as he saw the starry figure in front of him.
"StarClan?" he breathed. "Am I dead?"
"No," the cat told him. It was a tom with a light brown tabby pelt, and stars glistening in his pelt and green eyes. Nightpaw finally recognised the unmistakable scent on the StarClan tom's pelt; herbs. "I'm Nettlecoat," the tabby tom told him. "Maplefur told me to come talk to you when you reached the worst point between you and Flowerpaw."
"Of course she did! Maplefur meddles with everything!" Nightpaw exclaimed.
"Well it's my turn to meddle now," Nettlecoat chuckled, and stepped closer to Nightpaw so that their noses were nearly touching. The StarClan medicine cat reached up and placed his nose on Nightpaw's head, and suddenly heat pulsed through his body.
A tingle rushed up his spine, and his legs started to wobble. Pain gripped his head, then coursed through the rest of his body. He yowled as loud as he could, and fell to the ground. His tail quivered in pain, and suddenly a white light flashed around him.
"What's happening?!" he cried.
"What needs to happen," Nettlecoat replied.
The light swirled around Nightpaw for a few more moments, before it pooled into his eyes and blinded him completely. Darkness surrounded him, and he jolted awake.
The moon shone in the sky above Nightpaw, and he cringed as Flowerpaw's scent filled his nose. He placed his head back on his paws and tried to fall asleep again, still confused by his dream. Then realisation hit him like lightning. Flowerpaw slept as far away from him as she could, so how could he smell her? He lifted his head and shock pulsed through him as he tasted Flowerpaw's scent on his nest, and noticed her fur clinging to it as well.
He sat up in a jolt and stared down at his paws as the moon washed over the clearing. He fought back a scream when he saw that his paws, instead of being their usual black, were golden-brown. He sniffed at his fur, and Flowerpaw's scent filled his nose.
I'm Flowerpaw?! How?!
He looked across Cherrypaw and Pigeonpaw and saw himself sleeping in his own nest.
Is that Flowerpaw? Have we...no, we couldn't. Did we switch bodies?
He needed to find out, so he hopped out of his, well, Flowerpaw's nest, and padded over to himself. He could see that the other him was twitching and convulsing, then went still. He leaned down and grabbed his double's scruff, and roughly hauled him out of the camp and threw the imposter behind a bush. The other him composed himself and fear and shock pooled in their eyes.
"What is going on?!" Nightpaw asked, his voice sounding just like Flowerpaw's voice.