Mud Puddle Visuals S
Frostpaw blinked awake in the apprentices' den in her nest beside Autumnpaw's at the sound of what she thought was light footfalls from outside the den. Frostpaw peered into the darkness inside the den, trying to see out into the camp through the narrow entrance of the holly bush. All seemed still and quiet; the other apprentices in the den were curled up and sleeping soundly. But, Frostpaw felt the fur on her shoulder's rise. She had a nagging sense something wasn't right. She felt like she was being watched.
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Frostpaw prodded Autumnpaw's flank with her hind-leg, her ears pricked, still tensely scanning the den with her gaze.
'Huh, wha—?' Autumnpaw mumbled, stirring, his eyes blearily blinking open.
'Shh!' Frostpaw hissed at him, flicking her ears to indicate the area around them.
'I think something is wrong,' she breathed in a barely audible voice. 'I heard paw-steps close to the den.'
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Autumnpaw's ears pricked and his gaze flickered warily from side to side.
'I don't hear anything,' he whispered back. 'It was probably just someone going to the dirt-place.'
Frostpaw clenched her jaw.
'I'm going to go look,' she muttered.
Frostpaw slowly rose to her paws. Despite Autumnpaw's reassurance that it was nothing, he watched Frostpaw with a wide, worried gaze as she crept over to the entrance of the den. Frostpaw slunk outside, sticking close to the shadows cast by the holly bush as she tensely crouched. Her gaze scanned the clearing. It was a moonless night, so the camp was cast in darkness, illuminated only by the glimmer of a few stars above. Everything seemed quiet and normal. No fear-scent or blood tinged the air, only the comforting ever-present scent of ShadowClan was on the breeze. She didn't hear any movement, and she could see there were no enemy warriors swarming in the shadows.
Frostpaw breathed a soft sigh of relief. Autumnpaw was right. It was nothing.
As Frostpaw started to take a step back into the den, she felt the fur on her back stir in a breeze, then in the next heartbeat, she had been tackled into the ground, rolled away from the den.
'Frost—!' she heard Autumnpaw start to cry as he saw her pounced on, but then he was abruptly silenced.
Frostpaw felt a heavy weight on her back, pinning her to the ground, and she felt a paw pressed to the back of her head as her muzzle was shoved into the damp earth to keep her from yowling out.
Frostpaw's heart hammered in fear as she buckled under her attacker, twisting and writhing to try to escape his paws. Frostpaw surged upwards wildly, and was surprised to feel the grip holding her down suddenly vanish, allowing her to spring unencumbered to her feet. Frostpaw whipped around to face her attacker, tail lashing, her teeth bared…
'Swoopstrike!' Frostpaw hissed, finally recognizing her mentor.
Frostpaw could barely make out Swoopstrike's expression in the darkness, but she could see that his green eyes gleamed with mischievous amusement.
'Finally recognize me, huh? Took you long enough,' he said, licking a paw to smugly drag it over his whiskers.
'Why did you do that?' Frostpaw spat, digging her claws into the ground.
Normally she wouldn't dare speak to Swoopstrike so aggressively, but right now she couldn't help it; her blood still felt hot in her veins, ready to fight, and her heart was still racing in her chest.
'I'm explain in a moment,' he said, twitching his ears. 'But, first, let's go rescue your incompetent den-mates.'
Swoopstrike flicked his tail towards the entrance apprentice's den, indicating for Frostpaw to go first. Frostpaw's brow furrowed, but she obeyed, cautiously creeping around Swoopstrike, keeping a half an eye on him to make sure he wasn't going to attack her for a second time.
'Don't worry. I'm not going to pounce on you again,' Swoopstrike said, his voice rough with amusement. 'At least… not right now.'
Frostpaw huffed offendedly and scampered the rest of the way around him, pushing back inside the holly bush. Frostpaw's eyes widened in surprise at the sight that greeted her there. The den was crowded with bodies—every apprentice had been pinned to their nest by their mentors. Even Grovepelt, the deputy, was there, standing over Pinepaw, who's tail twitched mutinously from her position trapped beneath his paws. Swoopstrike squeezed inside next to Frostpaw. As he brushed past her, she noticed that he smelt like toadstools. Swoopstrike raked his critical gaze over the apprentices in their nests.
'Attacks can come at anytime!' Swoopstrike meowed. 'As ShadowClan warriors, we must always be prepared! But, none of you were. Only Frostpaw had the whisker of sense to wake up and try to investigate, but she still didn't detect the threat!'
'Yeah, well maybe we didn't consider that our trusted mentors attacking us in our sleep could be a threat,' Poolpaw muttered sourly, shooting a glance with narrowed eyes at Fogfur.
'We could have been any Clan's warriors,' Grovepelt cut in. 'You wouldn't have been able to tell by scent that we were your mentors since we disguised our scents. You think the other clans aren't clever enough to do that as well during an ambush?'
No apprentice argued with him, although Frostpaw thought Poolpaw still looked annoyed about his sleep being interrupted.
'You all must heighten your senses,' Dappledpelt meowed from on top of Mosspaw. 'So, even in a moonless night as dark as this one, you will be able to tell that an attack is coming.'
'And, ShadowClan must not only be able to detect threats in the dark, but to fight in the dark as naturally as in the light,' Thornheart said from next to Murmurpaw at the back of the den.
'Tonight we will train you to do that,' Beeclaw added, looking down at Autumnpaw.
Autumnpaw's gaze flickered over to Frostpaw and their eyes met.
'Sorry,' he mouthed to her from under Beeclaw's paws, an apology for not believing her warning.
Frostpaw's whiskers twitched in amusement at the sight of his rumpled fur, and she just shrugged, indicating all was forgiven.
'Take a moment to compose yourselves, then meet us at the Burnt Sycamore,' Fogfur rumbled. 'We will train there until dawn.'
'That is, as long as you all make it to the Burnt Sycamore…' Swoopstrike said, his tail twitching mischievously. 'Be wary of the things that lurk in the darkness of the woods.'
Then as quickly as the mentors appeared, they were gone, wiggling out from under the holly bush and streaming away from the apprentices' den. Frostpaw followed Swoopstrike out the den's entrance and watched as his tail vanished through the bramble-lined tunnel, heading outside the camp. After he had gone, Frostpaw turned back around and slipped back into the apprentice den.
Everyone was now out of their nests. Pinepaw was shaking moss out of her dark fur, and Murmurpaw was rhythmically licking her side, trying to flatten her nervously pricking pelt. Autumnpaw padded up to Frostpaw, his eyes bright.
'Okay, you were right. We were under attack,' he meowed to her with a purr.
'I told you,' Frostpaw said with a flick of her tail.
'Well since you know everything,' Autumnpaw said teasingly. 'What do we do now?'
'Swoopstrike said that there will be things in the woods,' Murmurpaw said, her voice wavering slightly, her eyes as wide as an owl's.
'Our mentors will probably be watching us as we head to the Burnt Sycamore,' Frostpaw said. 'Waiting to ambush us again if they get the chance.'
'Yeah, there won't be any real enemies,' Autumnpaw said, blinking reassuringly at the younger apprentice.
'Swoopstrike sounded so gleeful when he said it, though, that snake-heart,' Poolpaw grumbled. 'I bet jumping on us from the shadows will be the best part of this whole season for him.'
Pinepaw shoved past all of the other apprentices and pushed her way out of the den without a word.
'Hey, where are you going?' Autumnpaw called after her.
'To the Burnt Sycamore, obviously, frog-brain,' she said over her shoulder with an eye-roll. 'We haven't got all night to stand here and talk about it.'
'Yeah, but we should go together,' Autumnpaw argued, padding out of the den after her. 'Our chances against them are better if we are in a group. More ears and eyes to be on the lookout.'
Pinepaw huffed.
'Fine,' she said.
'You all ready?' Autumnpaw said, turning to peer back into the apprentices' den.
'Yeah,' Frostpaw said, following him out, Poolpaw, Murmurpaw, and Mosspaw close behind her.
The group made their way to the bramble barrier, and one by one slipped out of camp. The forest outside was deeply shadowed. The faintest hint of the indigo sky peeked down through the thick canopy of pine branches above. The trees themselves were only shades of grey and black, and they all blended together in a tangled net of wood in every direction Frostpaw looked.
The apprentices trekked through the forest in the direction of the Burnt Sycamore in a tight formation, each casting wary glances over their shoulders every so often to make sure that there was no one behind them.
'This feels so weird,' Autumnpaw murmured, breaking the silence of the group. 'Normally apprentices aren't allowed out after dark without our mentors.'
'We aren't without them though,' Frostpaw whispered back. 'You know they must be close by…'
Murmurpaw shivered at her words, shooting nervous glances from side to side.
'Ugh, I can't believe they're making us do this,' Poolpaw grumbled, narrowing his eyes in annoyance.
'I don't know,' Mosspaw chimed in, giving a small bounce of excitement. 'I think it's kind of fun.'
'Well, you weren't pounced on by Fogfur,' Poolpaw said with a wince. 'He's the biggest of all the mentors! I'll be sore for a week!'
'Well you're the biggest of all of us,' Autumnpaw pointed out. 'So, if anyone could take it…'
'Shh!' Pinepaw said, whipping around to hiss at them. 'You all are chattering like starlings! Do you want to give away our position?'
Silence fell back over the group. Frostpaw picked her ears, hoping to catch any sound of their mentors, but besides the hooting of an owl, the forest was totally silent around them.
After they had walked for a while longer, Autumnpaw broke the quiet again by clearing his throat. Pinepaw shot him a scorching look, but Autumnpaw began to speak regardless.
'Look,' he whispered. 'I get that we need to be quiet, but we also need a plan. What are we supposed to be doing out here?'
'Get to the Burnt Sycamore,' Pinepaw hissed back in a hushed voice. 'Without being caught again. It's an assessment of our senses and night-stalking skills.'
'Obviously,' Autumnpaw whispered with an eye-roll, one ear twitching back in annoyance. 'But, how exactly are we supposed to do that? As is, no way we will make it through the woods without them catching us. They could be watching us right now, shaking their heads at us just bumbling along!'
'We should take turns being look-outs,' Frostpaw whispered. 'Some of us can concentrate on listening and scenting for our mentors while others are in charge of navigating, leading the group to the tree.'
Pinepaw nodded thoughtfully, her amber eyes lighting up as a plan began to form in her mind.
'Let's fan out and put look-outs at each point,' Pinepaw whispered. 'Mosspaw, you take the rear. Poolpaw, the left. Autumnpaw the right. Murmurpaw, Frostpaw and I will navigate from the middle. But, look-outs shouldn't go too far, we should still be able to see each other, so we can signal if anyone notices anything out of the ordinary. The signal will be to raise your tail straight up if you think something is off.'
'We should disguise our scents too,' Frostpaw whispered. 'Like our mentors did.'
Frostpaw eyed her pale-colored pelt. Her creamy-white fur seemed to glow faintly in the weak star-light.
'And, maybe I'll roll in some mud,' Frostpaw said.
Frostpaw saw Pinepaw's nose wrinkle up in disgust at her words, and Frostpaw's mind flashed back for a heartbeat to Pinepaw's cruel kit-hood nickname for Frostpaw— Dirtface.
I wonder if she'll call me that… I mean I did just volunteer to roll in mud.
But, if the dark-furred apprentice's thoughts followed the same path through her memory as Frostpaw's, she hid it well.
'Good idea,' Pinepaw murmured. 'Why don't we all roll in mud? It'll disguise our scents as well as hiding our fur colors. Murmurpaw is a fairly pale golden too. And, Poolpaw has some big white-patches.'
Pinepaw signaled for the group to follow her, and she led them to a mud puddle gathered at the roots of a nearby pine.
Autumnpaw gazed down at the mud, his brow furrowing.
'But, your fur and mine is already dark enough that we don't have to,' he complained to Pinepaw. 'I'll be grooming mud out of my fur for a moon if I roll in that!'
'Too bad. It'll disguise our scents, so we're all doing it,' Pinepaw whispered, narrowing her eyes at her brother. 'I'm leading this group, and I said so.'
'What?' Poolpaw chimed in incredulously. 'You're the leader?'
'Yeah! We never decided on that,' Autumnpaw argued.
'Well if it wasn't for me, you all would still be milling aimlessly around in the apprentices' den!' Pinepaw hissed.
'Well Frostpaw is the one with all the good ideas!' Autumnpaw growled. 'And, she was the only one that noticed our mentors outside our den. So, maybe she should lead!'
All the apprentice's turned to gaze at Frostpaw. She felt heat rush to her ears at their sudden undivided attention, and her stomach swirled like moths were trapped inside it. She shook her head quickly, staring intently at the ground.
'No. I think Pinepaw is right,' she said. 'She should be in charge.'
Frostpaw's gaze flickered up from the ground, and she saw Pinepaw raise her chin proudly.
'That's settled then. Come on,' Pinepaw said.
Despite the disgusted expression she made when Frostpaw first suggested rolling in mud, Pinepaw led the way and measuredly walked into the mud puddle, her face neutral as she began to coat her pelt with it. Frostpaw followed her into the puddle, shivering as the slimy mud splashed up her legs, dragging down at her long fur. Frostpaw crouched down to let it soak into her belly and side fur, steeling herself for a moment before quickly rolling to get it on her back.
'Yuck,' Frostpaw muttered as she stood up, feeling the slimy excess mud sliding down her sides.
She padded out of the puddle, her paws squelching at every step as she walked through the mud then back onto solid ground. Everyone else was still coating their fur with mud besides Autumnpaw, who was standing at the edge of the puddle with an uncertain look on his face.
'Your turn,' Frostpaw whispered to him, nodding at the mud puddle.
'Please… do I have to?' Autumnpaw whispered back, his expression pleading. 'It looks awful. My pelt is so thick, the mud will soak through it all! I mean, look at your fur! No offense, but you look like some sort of mud-monster-cat.'
Frostpaw purred, a mischievous feeling creeping over her.
'Well you have two heartbeats to get into that puddle, before this mud-monster-cat makes you,' Frostpaw said, giving a playful growl.
Autumnpaw's eyes shimmered playfully, and he made his gaze go wide.
'Please, oh great mud-monster, don't trap me in your slimy, mud territory! Have mercy; let me go free,' he said.
'Time's up!' Frostpaw growled, giving Autumnpaw a heavy shove.
He stumbled forward a few steps into the puddle, the mud splashing up his legs and his sides.
'Ugh!' he grumbled, peering down at his muddy pelt in dismay.
'Stop playing around, frog-brain,' Pinepaw whispered to Autumnpaw, her tail twitching. 'Coat your pelt quickly, and let's keep going!'
Autumnpaw grudgingly obeyed her, and then the gang of apprentices was off again, slipping into their designated positions. Frostpaw and Murmurpaw were left alone with Pinepaw. Frostpaw matched Pinepaw stride for stride, while Murmurpaw stuck close to Frostpaw's side, her eyes wide with nervousness as they crept through the dark trees. Another owl hooted in the distance, and Murmurpaw pressed herself even closer into Frostpaw's fur, her gaze flittering around the pine tree branches above them anxiously. Frostpaw flicked her tail reassuringly against the younger apprentice's side.
They walked undisturbed for a while, and Frostpaw began to cautiously hope that maybe they would be able to sneak past their mentors and make it to the Burnt Sycamore safely after all. But, then she saw Autumnpaw's tail go up in alarm. Pinepaw signaled for the group to halt, and everyone cautiously scented the air. Frostpaw drew a deep breath of the thick, humid air over her tongue slowly.
'I don't smell anything,' Pinepaw said in a voice barely above a breath to Autumnpaw.
'I heard weird rustling,' Autumnpaw whispered back.
Everyone stilled again, attempting to discern anything unusual. Frostpaw closed her eyes to block out visual distractions—she knew their mentors wouldn't be so careless to have themselves be easily seen anyway. Frostpaw imagined stretching out her hearing and her scenting as far as it could reach, like she was probing the woods around her with them.
With her ears, she could make out a hooting owl in the distance, and another hooting much more closely, in a nearby tree, as if in response. She could hear the wind softly sighing through the pine needles above her, and a few frogs croaking in a marsh. Sensing nothing out of the ordinary, she shifted her focus to her nose. She scented mud most strongly, but she knew that was only because it completely coated her and her den-mates' pelts. Frostpaw pushed that aside and searched deeper, teasing apart the scents of the forest around her. She smelt musty peat moss and the sour-tinged scent of bog. She smelt crisp, cool pine needles, and the nutty scent of a squirrel that passed by here not that long ago. She smelt toadstools and damp ferns… Frostpaw returned to the toadstool scent, remembering that it was what their mentors had disguised their scent with when they ambushed them at the den. Frostpaw rolled the scent over her tongue thoughtfully.
How am I supposed to tell the difference between real toadstools and our mentors?
Frostpaw honed in on the toadstool scent, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She lifted her nose to point it into the breeze, sniffing as she tried to pinpoint it's location.
The toadstools are… above us? She thought in confusion.
Frostpaw's eyes snapped open, her shoulders tensing as she understood.
'They're in the trees!' Frostpaw hissed the warning.
Everyone crouched down, eyes flying upwards. Frostpaw heard another owl hoot, then in a nearby tree, she watched the owl's shadow move farther down a branch. Frostpaw narrowed her eyes, looking closer… not an owl's shadow… a cat's!
'Run!' Pinepaw barked the order.
The group took off, barreling through the dark forest.
'Can you see any of them?' Mosspaw asked, her eyes flying wildly around as she tried to pick out anything in the branches above them.
'I think there's one behind us!' Murmurpaw exclaimed. 'They're jumping from branch to branch!'
'What?!' Poolpaw meowed in shock.
Frostpaw risked a glance behind her, and sure enough, caught a shadow of movement flashing through the branches of the trees.
'They're no SkyClan though. We'll be much faster than them on foot than they will be in the trees!' Pinepaw panted. 'We should be able to make it to the Burnt Sycamore without them catching us!'
Frostpaw heard more hooting someways in front of her, and her ears pricked in alarm.
'I think they're communicating with 'hoots!' Frostpaw hissed in a low voice that carried only to her den-mates' ears. 'And, I think they are spread out. They may still be able to surround us!'
'Snake-dung,' Pinepaw swore, correcting their direction so they weren't running right at the noise anymore.
'I think we may need to split up and rendezvous at the Burnt Sycamore,' Pinepaw said, her brow furrowing.
'We'll be weaker alone!' Autumnpaw protested through his panting.
'True, but they'll surround us if we keep going as a group, and as long as we can make sure they don't catch us, we don't have to worry about being weaker separately,' Pinepaw said. 'And, we already made it over half-way there. We don't have much further to go.'
'We'll be harder to find and track alone too,' Poolpaw added.
'So it's agreed,' Pinepaw panted. 'Ready? Split!'
Frostpaw turned hard to the right, whipping her tail around to keep her balance as she sprinted away from her den-mates. She turned to look over her shoulder, and she watched their group split like seeds from a dandelion, being blown in all different directions by the wind. Frostpaw saw their pelts flickering through the trees only for a moment, before the dark mud-stained colors vanished, blending into the rest of the dark forest. Frostpaw turned her attention back forward. She had to get to the Burnt Sycamore alone now. And, she had to do it fast before their mentors could catch her. Or, her only other option was to somehow ensure she ditched any cats tracking her from the trees, and then snuck to the Sycamore without them finding her.
Frostpaw's mind flew as fast as her paws as she tried to come up with a plan. If a cat had eyes on her right now; she would be at a disadvantage. But, judging by the amount of hooting Frostpaw remembered hearing coming from other parts of the forest, she was sure that there could have only been one or two cats directly tracking the group, three at the most, and the rest were scattered throughout the forest and were getting updates on their location via hoots. And, when the apprentice group spilt up, the chances were good that the cats that was tracking them decided to go after one of the other members of the group, and not her.
So, the first thing I need to do is to see if I'm being followed.
She couldn't tell by the hoots. After the apprentices split up, the hooting had gone silent, probably because their mentors that were tracking them were too busy bounding through the branches to update their position. Frostpaw couldn't smell any toadstools, coming from above at least, at the moment, but she felt like to be sure that she wasn't being tracked, she would have to check visually if she could see any shadows moving through the branches. Frostpaw whipped around the trunk of a thick pine tree and came to a screeching stop, crouching down low in the shadows of the roots. She hoped that if there had been a cat following her, they would have been looking away, distracted by leaping from branch to branch, and when they looked back, it would have appeared as if she had simply vanished into the forest.
After a cautious hesitation, Frostpaw peeked around from the edge of the trunk, keeping her ears flat to disguise her silhouette and creeping her face around the tree as slowly as possible to not draw attention to her movement. Her gaze flickered through the dark tree-tops around her. The branches of the pines seemed to be still grey tendrils against a black star-studded sky, but Frostpaw had learned enough of ShadowClan ways to know that things weren't always how they appeared. If someone had been following her, she would have to out-wait them, in case they were doing the same thing as her right now—crouching hidden and still, searching for any sign of movement.
Frostpaw felt like she stayed crouched at the roots of that pine tree forever. Her muscles started to stiffen up from going so suddenly from running to motionless. She waited until she couldn't wait any longer… and she saw no movement in the trees around her.
Okay… no one is here. But, I still have to get to the Burnt Sycamore without them finding me.
Frostpaw's brow furrowed. It would be a difficult trying to avoid them the whole journey, but if luck was on her side, and the mentors were busy looking for everyone else… she hoped she would be able do it. Frostpaw gazed out in the direction that she knew led to the Burnt Sycamore, sighing softly to herself as she prepared to head out. But, then her gaze flickered back upwards towards the branches, and an idea struck her like a lightning bolt, causing all her fur to stand on end.
I could travel in the trees! It would be the best place to hide— in plain sight! The mentors won't be able to recognize me unless they get super close because it's so dark, and my pelt is covered in mud, disguising my color and my scent!
The idea seemed so clever, but so obvious at the same time, that Frostpaw hesitated for a moment, doubting if it could really be so easy. But, when she could think of no glaring flaws in the plan, she quickly sprung into motion.
Frostpaw easily clawed her way up the pine tree that she had been hiding behind, making it to one of its sturdy lower branches. She turned to face in the direction of the Burnt Sycamore, cautiously eyeing the distance between the end of the branch of the tree she was in, and the closest branches on the next one. Luckily, in this part of ShadowClan territory, the pine forest was thick, and the trees grew in dense groves. It would be impossible to perform this same trick of leaping from tree to tree in other parts of the territory, which were mostly marsh, where the trees grew more spread out.
Frostpaw took a deep breath, steading herself. She sensed that she would have to run out to the end of the branch, and leap the few tail-lengths into the branch in the next tree in one fluid motion like she saw squirrels do. The ends of the branches seemed too thin and like they would sway too much under her weight for her to hesitate on them before jumping.
Frostpaw's stomach clenched in nervousness as she had one worried thought about falling, but she did her best to push the thought away.
I've jumped a lot farther than this on the ground all of the time! It can't be that hard.
Frostpaw took another deep breath, feeling the heavy air settle reassuringly into her lungs, calming her.
Here I go!
Frostpaw bounded forward, feeling the limb swaying slightly under her paws as she ran, but she felt her muscles naturally making almost imperceptible corrections to keep her feet firmly on the branch. As the branch thinned and tapered, the swaying beneath her became more dramatic, and Frostpaw felt an instinctual certainty in some deep part of her mind that she had never known before, that it was time for her to leap. Frostpaw's hind-legs bunched under her, and she sprang, sailing easily from the one tree into the next. Frostpaw dug unsheathed claws into the branch of the next tree for better grip, but didn't try to fight the momentum of her leap forward, instead she harnessed it, using it to continue to run down the branch, heading towards the trunk of the pine.
I did it!
Frostpaw felt a thrill of excitement run through her chest. Not only did she do it; it felt so strangely easy. Nothing else she tried in training had come that easily to her before.
I bet if Dampfang tried this, he'd fall flat on his face.
Frostpaw sprung again into a neighboring branch, a feeling of confidence growing inside her at the capability of her paws. Before long, she was springing from branch to branch, tree to tree, as easily as a squirrel, making quick time through the forest towards the Burnt Sycamore.
Frostpaw could tell she was growing closer, and that she would be at the clearing that surrounded the Burnt Sycamore soon. Frostpaw felt a rush of excitement at that thought, but then her attention snapped to the rustling of some pine needles on a different tree. She slowed, coming to a stop on the branch that she was on; her gaze searched the shadowed tree intently for the source of noise. She saw a shadow slipped down the length of a branch. It was very cat-like, much too large to be a squirrel. As the cat came to a stop, Frostpaw could just make out the outline of the cat's head in the darkness. Its ears were pricked in her direction. It had definitely noticed her. Frostpaw tried to swallow, but her mouth was suddenly dry.
I can't let whoever it is get too close. Then they will know that I'm not one of the mentor! But, what do I do?
Frostpaw's mind whirled rapidly as she tried to come up with a behavior that the other cat wouldn't find suspicious. Frostpaw gave a slow wave of her tail to the other cat.
'Whoo-who,' Frostpaw said in a low voice, doing her very best owl imitation.
She saw the other cat's head nod.
'Whoo-who,' the other cat hooted back.
It turned and started bounding off, away from Frostpaw. Frostpaw heaved a sigh of relief, standing in place for a moment longer, before she continued her journey towards the Burnt Sycamore. As she bounded along a few branches, the nervousness and relief that she had felt during the encounter with the other cat faded away to be replaced by a feeling of warm satisfaction in her chest. She almost couldn't believe it. She had fooled the mentor!
Frostpaw could see the Burnt Sycamore's stunted and twisted form through the tree branches. Frostpaw narrowed her eyes, trying to peer down at the area around the tree's roots through the tangled mess of pine needles and branches. She could see a few dark cat forms milling around there, but whether they were mentors or apprentices that had made it, she couldn't tell.
I'm so close! I just have to make it to the tree.
Frostpaw leapt along the few branches left until she reached the tree on the edge of the clearing that surrounding the Burnt Sycamore. She saw the heads of the three cats sitting by the roots of the Burnt Sycamore turn towards the sound of her rustling. Frostpaw scampered down the tree head-first like a squirrel, moving as quickly as she could without losing her grip on the somewhat slick bark with her claws and falling flat on her face. Frostpaw hit the ground with all four paws and then sprinted towards the base of the Burnt Sycamore.
'Snake-dung!' Frostpaw heard hissed from somewhere behind her, followed by violent rustling.
Frostpaw panted, her paws flying across the ground as she heard the sound of a cat scramble down a tree and chase her. But, whoever it was, was too late. Frostpaw slapped her fore-paws against one of the gnarled roots of the Burnt Sycamore, springing on top of it to whirl around victoriously and face her pursuer.
'I made it!' Frostpaw declared, her eyes gleaming.
Swoopstrike had slowed to a trot and approached her, panting and shaking his head.
'Fox-dung, I can't believe you got past me!' he grumbled, but Frostpaw thought she could maybe almost detect a hint of pride in his voice. 'I should've known it was you in the tree!'
Frostpaw's brow furrowed, as she wondered what she had done to make Swoopstrike suspicious it was her. She opened her mouth to ask, but before she could, the other cats already at the tree padded over. Frostpaw turned her head to see Grovepelt, Pinepaw and Murmurpaw approaching.
'Well done, Frostpaw,' Grovepelt said with a purr. 'Pinepaw and Murmurpaw also arrived together successfully at the Burnt Sycamore.'
Pinepaw raised her chin proudly, and even Murmurpaw who scuffled her paws shyly, stood a bit straighter.
'It was clever of you to use the trees just like the mentors were doing and blend in with them to hide,' Grovepelt continued to Frostpaw in a rumbly voice. 'That kind of creative thinking is just what we were trying to encourage with this exercise. You have the makings of a very cunning battle tactician.'
Frostpaw's tail raised happily at the deputy's praise. She shot a glance over at Swoopstrike and was delighted to see her mentor nodding along with him.
'You may have gotten through, though, but there are still three apprentices hanging out in the woods,' Swoopstrike added, his eyes gleaming as the thrill of the hunt settled back over him. 'I'll make sure that they don't.'
Swoopstrike turned and ran back into the trees, vanishing quickly from sight. Frostpaw glanced over at Grovepelt.
'Are you going to go back with him?' she asked.
Grovepelt purred.
'My old bones are too tired for that,' he said good-naturedly. 'Swoopstrike has a lot more energy than I do these days. I'll leave hunting down your den-mates to him.'
Grovepelt's ears flickered.
'But, in the meanwhile, I'll teach you three night-stalking techniques that will allow you to disappear into the darkness like you are one with the shadows.'
Grovepelt showed Frostpaw, Pinepaw, and Murmurpaw how to find the deepest shadows, the ones that were so inky black that not a whisker of light escaped them, and instructed them on how to keep their ears flat the whole time so that they didn't make silhouettes that enemies would identify immediately as cat-like. Grovepelt was in the middle of explaining how they needed to also keep their eyes slitted so they didn't give away their position from light reflecting in their eyes, when the sound of pounding paw-steps interrupted him. Everyone turned to look towards the sound, waiting to see who would emerge from the darkness.
What appeared to be a cat-like creature came running towards them, but Frostpaw's brow furrowed in confusion at the strange, spindly shapes that poked out of this creature's pelt in all directions. When the cat got closer, a loud purr of amusement burst from Frostpaw's chest, and she could hear Pinepaw, Murmurpaw, and even Grovepelt laughing along with her. As the cat reached the Burnt Sycamore, Frostpaw could now tell that it was Autumnpaw. He was of course still coated in mud, just as Frostpaw, Pinepaw and Murmurpaw were, but on top of that his pelt now had a layer of leaves and twigs, which stuck out in all directions like he was some kind of strange porcupine.
'What happened to you not wanting to get stuff in your pelt?' Frostpaw asked through her purrs.
'You look like you got in a fight with a bush! And, the bush won!' Pinepaw exclaimed, almost breathless with laugher.
'Very funny,' Autumnpaw said, twitching his tail, but he didn't look that upset. 'I did it to camouflage myself, for your information. And, it worked, since I made it here didn't I?'
'Yes, well done,' Grovepelt said with a nod. 'I was just telling these three the importance of disguising the silhouette of your body during night-stalking. You embodied that lesson well.'
Autumnpaw twitched his whiskers with a pleased expression. Frostpaw padded over to him.
'Do you want any help getting all this leaves and sticks out of your fur? Or are keeping them for mementos?' Frostpaw meowed teasingly.
Autumnpaw flicked his ears.
'Ugh, yes please. My skin is itching like crazy!' Autumnpaw said.
Frostpaw began picking leaves and twigs from Autumnpaw's pelt.
'So, how did you guys make it here?' Autumnpaw asked the group.
Frostpaw explained how she had leapt from branch to branch in the trees like the mentors, while Pinepaw and Murmurpaw said how they had just ran together as fast as they could to the Burnt Sycamore, taking turns navigating and being on the lookout for pursuers.
'Sometimes the simplest plan is the fastest,' Grovepelt said, nodding approvingly to Pinepaw and Murmurpaw.
'Hold on, though, I thought we all agreed to split up?' Autumnpaw said, sounding slightly accusatory. 'Why did you two end up staying together?'
Mud Puddle Toys
'Murmurpaw didn't want to be left alone,' Pinepaw said, glaring at her brother.
Murmurpaw ducked her head, looking a bit ashamed.
'I don't know the forest that well yet, and things look different at night. I was afraid that I'd get lost,' she muttered.
Frostpaw felt a flash of sympathy for the younger cat, but it was Pinepaw that turned to her.
'Hey, don't worry about it. Autumnpaw is just being a frog-brain,' Pinepaw said to Murmurpaw, swiping her tail down Murmurpaw's side reassuringly.
'Sorry, I didn't mean it like that,' Autumnpaw muttered, scuffling his paws on the ground.
Their conversation was interrupted when the sound of cats talking made everyone's ears prick.
Rounding the Burnt Sycamore from the other side, was the rest of the cats in the patrol that had left camp, mentors and apprentices both. Poolpaw and Mosspaw were in the center of the group, and Swoopstrike was leading them, his head held high.
'We caught some apprentices for you!' Swoopstrike said in a very unusually cheery voice, waving his tail at Grovepelt.
'Ugh!' Poolpaw exclaimed when he saw the other apprentices waiting by the Burnt Sycamore. 'No wonder all of the mentors were after us! You all already made it here, so they didn't have anyone else to chase!'
'Well, then you should have been faster,' Fogfur quipped lightly to his apprentice in his deep voice.
'What was your plan?' Grovepelt asked the two apprentices as the two groups joined, all settling down by the roots of the Burnt Sycamore.
'I was going to sneak around to the other side of the Burnt Sycamore and approach it from behind,' Poolpaw said. 'I thought there'd be less guards on the look out there.'
'I had the same idea,' Mosspaw said. 'Poolpaw and I ran into each other on the far side, but that's when the mentors surrounded us.'
Grovepelt nodded.
'Your plan was good; you are right that the less traveled path will have less guards. But, the execution needed work. Pinepaw and Murmurpaw ran here directly, yet they were able to make it by taking advantage of the chaos that happened when you all split up; not all the guards were at their correct post. But, because you two took a longer path, you took more time, which is where the mentors got the advantage,' Grovepelt meowed.
Grovepelt settled down, looking over the whole group.
'Now that everyone is here, let's go over the lessons we learned tonight,' he said.
Grovepelt's gaze flickered over the other mentors, waiting for one of them to chime in.
'Splitting up was a good idea,' Thornheart meowed, beginning. 'I was tracking the group when you did that, and it made it impossible for me to follow you all.'
Grovepelt nodded.
'But, in a real battle, you never want to split up without a plan about when and where to converge,' Grovepelt said. 'You all arrived at the Burnt Sycamore at different times. If instead of the Burnt Sycamore, this was an enemy camp, you would be fighting alone, not knowing when the rest of your patrol would arrive.'
Grovepelt flicked his tail, indicating for the other mentors to continue.
'It was also smart of you all to disguise your scents and pelt colors with mud,' Dappledpelt spoke up.
Mud Puddles Sherwood Or
Grovepelt nodded, now turning his attention to the apprentices.
'Who can tell me what makes something a good thing to disguise your scent with?' he asked.
'It has to be strong enough to cover our own scents,' Poolpaw said, his tail flicking behind him.
'Right,' Grovepelt said. 'But, strong smell itself isn't enough. If you rolled in fox-dung, you'd hide your scent rather thoroughly, but then you'd risk attracting cats to you, who came searching for a fox.'
Grovepelt's gaze swept over the apprentices.
'What else?' he asked.
Frostpaw remembered the out-of-place toadstool scent that had tipped her off that a mentors was in the trees above her.
'It can't be anything unusual or out of place for the environment,' Frostpaw said in a soft voice. 'I knew there was a mentor in the trees because I smelt toadstools above. But, toadstools don't grow on trees.'
Grovepelt nodded.
'Well done,' he said. 'I was hoping that you all would notice that. And, you are right. If we were, for example, planning for a battle in the WindClan moor, where the ground is often dry, it might not be the best idea to disguise your scent with marsh mud.'
Grovepelt glanced over at the mentors again.
'What else can the apprentices learn from this exercise?' he meowed.
'Frostpaw had the idea to disguise herself as a mentor by traveling through the trees,' Swoopstrike said, adding in. 'If we used that technique in a real battle, it would have been a very bold move because it would put us in the heart of the enemy, which would be disastrous if caught. But, if we were able to play the act convincingly enough, it would allow us to strike where our enemy was the most vulnerable.'
Everyone nodded along.
'Autumnpaw also chose to disguise himself, but he did so to resemble the territory,' Beeclaw said. 'He took a lower risk approach than Frostpaw, which may be more appropriate depending on the style of battle.'
'Good point, Beeclaw,' Grovepelt said. 'It is important to keep in mind that each battle is different. And, a technique that would work in one may not work in another. That is why we make sure to learn many different options, so we can always be prepared.'
'Are we expecting any battles soon?' Murmurpaw piped up. 'Since the battle with WindClan, the forest has been peaceful right?'
One of Grovepelt's ears twitched back.
'That is true,' the deputy rumbled. 'And, it is green-leaf now, so Clans should be content with full bellies, but we can't expect any peace to last. It is not in a warriors nature.'
'And, not everyone is happy,' Beeclaw chimed in. 'Remember how ThunderClan and SkyClan were at the last gathering? If they aren't at each other's throats right now, they will be soon enough.'
'Quite right,' Grovepelt said with a nod to Beeclaw. 'And, aggression is like fire, not like water. It doesn't flow downstream; it consumes in all directions. If ThunderClan and SkyClan go to war, we shouldn't relax, thinking that they will only fight each other. We must be wary of our own borders.'
'But all of ThunderClan territory is between us and SkyClan,' Mosspaw said, her ears flattening in confusion. 'How can they be a threat to us?'
Little Mud Puddles
Grovepelt purred lightly.
'When you have seen as many seasons as I have, young 'paw, you will know that distance means nothing to a power-hungry cat,' Grovepelt meowed.
Frostpaw saw Mosspaw's face furrowed deeply in concern, but Grovepelt was already rising to his paws.
'You've all done well tonight,' he said, addressing the group of apprentices. 'But, the sun's coming up now, so let's return to our dens. You all are welcome to sleep until sun-high, and then grab prey from the fresh-kill pile before reporting to your mentors.'
Frostpaw tilted her head backwards. She was surprised to see that Grovepelt was right, and somehow, the whole night had already passed. Through the few branches of the Burnt Sycamore above her head, Frostpaw could see pale grey tendrils of fog snaking up from the canopies of the pines, forming silky silhouettes against the dark blue, but lightening, sky. The first rays of the sun that escaped over the horizon turned the pine needles in the trees around her golden, and Frostpaw thought that there must not be any part of all the territories that was as beautiful as the ShadowClan forest.
The rest of the patrol had already entered into the trees. Frostpaw rose to her paws, and padded quickly after them, heading back to camp.
Author's Note:
This chapter was fun to write. I like exploring the dynamics between the apprentices, and I really enjoy fleshing out these sort of scenes that highlight (my version's of) ShadowClan training, since we don't really get to see anything like it in the books. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Reviews:
Firecat21870: Don't worry haha, Lizardkit will (at least) be around longer than Snowkit. Since Snowkit died so quickly, and the books hasn't seen another born-deaf character since, I wanted to explore what having a deaf character in the clan would be like.
Kitty-Guardian Hootryd: Thank you! Sometimes I just have writer's block or I get too busy with other things in life to write, but I feel bad about not posting anything. So, I really appreciate you saying that, it makes me feel better. Anyway, about your comment with Snakeeyes being half-deaf, I like to have my characters to have (mostly) realistic genes for fur color. So I wrote Snakeeyes with having a coat color 'dominant white' gene, which is the gene that makes cats all white, and it is also linked to deafness and blue eyes/heterochromia with one blue eye. So, she is deaf in one ear and she passed down the gene to Lizardkit, who is totally deaf!
Brian.H.H: Thank you! Yeah, I'm interested to see how Lizardkit's experience goes too lol. I haven't totally planned everything out yet with his story, but I expect he will face plenty of struggles trying to become a warrior.
Simitria: Haha yeah, I love Sedgestar because for some reason I feel like he's so much fun to write. Like he's serious, but not stuffy or overly strict, so something about that makes for fun writing idk. And, I'm glad you think he's a good representation of this version of ShadowClan! That's what I've been really trying to go for. And, yeah I agree. I felt sort of motivated to include a deaf character in the story because I felt like Snowkit's story would be interesting, but we never got to see it progress. So, we will definitely see it explored more here with Lizardkit.