Chapter 5
Lionpaw woke with the oddest feeling that he was being watched. He blinked the sleepiness out of his eyes and twisted his head around lazily. Then he spotted Leafpool's amber gaze eyeing him from a corner of the den.
"How long have you been standing there?" he asked groggily.
"A long time," Leafpool told him. "I'm worried about you." Then she shook her head and changed the subject. "Are your wounds healing?"
The golden apprentice stretched his limbs and sighed. "They're alright," he mewed. "I'm still a little bit sore, but the wounds don't sting or hurt." He gave his forepaws and front legs a quick look before standing up on all fours and facing the medicine cat. The two cats had formed a new friendship since Lionpaw had told Leafpool about Heatherpaw.
"That's good," Leafpool purred. She padded across the den, her brown tabby fur rippling like waves in the early morning sunlight. She headed straight for him and reported, "you can go back the apprentice's den now, if you don't hurt anymore. I'm sure Ashfur is eager to get you training again. He probably isn't too proud of you after the incident with the thorns." Her eyes gleamed with amusement.
Nodding, Lionpaw backed out of the den. "Thanks, Leafpool," he murmured. "You've been a big help." He smiled at her before turning and bounding towards the warrior's den.
"Ashfur!" he hissed. "Are you in there?"
The gray speckled tom emerged from the den and yawned. "Up already, I see," he purred. "You know what they say; the early cat gets to go on dawn patrol." He snickered at his own joke.
Lionpaw flicked his tail back and forth impatiently. "Can we do battle training today?" he pleaded his mentor. "Please, Ashfur?"
Ashfur looked over at him, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile. "Promise me you won't fall into any thorn bushes this time," he meowed.
"I promise," Lionpaw laughed. His eyes sparkled. "Can we just go, please?"
"All right," purred Ashfur. He slipped out of the camp entrance, Lionpaw close behind.
Thoughts of Heatherpaw clouded Lionpaw's mind the moment he set foot outside of camp. Suddenly he turned to Ashfur and asked, "Ashfur, have you ever been confused about someone?"
What did I do that for? He scolded himself silently.
"What do you mean?" Ashfur questioned, tilting his head slightly.
Lionpaw shook his head. "Like, you think you love someone, but you aren't sure if it's right?"
His mentor was silent for a moment, but then spoke slowly. "Once, yes." Then he turned to Lionpaw. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason."
It wasn't hard to tell that Ashfur didn't believe that, but he didn't say anything else about the matter. "Let's go, then," he mewed stiffly.
Lionpaw winced. He hadn't meant to ask that question; it had sort of just come out. Since he was thinking about Heatherpaw, he pretty much spoke what came to mind.
"Let's stop here," Ashfur suggested. This clearing was different from the one that they had been in previously, and this one had no thorn bushes surrounding it. Lionpaw galloped to the center of the clearing and lashed his tail, waiting for instructions.
Ashfur stood in front of Lionpaw. "Let's practice your leaps again. It's basically the same drill as last time, but I'd like you to leap when I come at you." He flicked his tail across Lionpaw's nose and stalked across the clearing. When he reached the other side he turned around, facing Lionpaw. "Are you ready?"
"I'm ready." Lionpaw's eyes narrowed in concentration as Ashfur raced straight for him. Lionpaw bunched his muscles to spring, and leaped into the air as Ashfur came down on him.
"Oof!" grunted Ashfur as the wind was knocked out of him. Lionpaw stood over him triumphantly, his paw resting lightly on his mentor's throat. "Give up yet, Ashfur?"
Laughing, Ashfur pushed Lionpaw off of him. "Very good," he purred. "I'm impressed, Lionpaw." A tingle of satisfaction ran up Lionpaw's spine.
"Now that that's taken care of," Ashfur mewed calmly, his body loose. "Let's work on your reflexes!" He jumped suddenly towards Lionpaw, who rolled out of the way a heartbeat before Ashfur came crashing down. Lionpaw turned and leaped onto his mentor, beaming at his performance.
Ashfur thrust Lionpaw back, catching him off-guard. "Always be ready for anything!" he told his apprentice. "Real battles don't automatically stop if you've done well on a move."
Lionpaw bowed his head. "Sorry, Ashfur," he muttered.
"Don't be sorry!" Ashfur purred. "You did well! It's just that you need to learn to be ready for an attack, no matter what the circumstances are."
"Alright," Lionpaw purred. He lashed his tail. "Can we go hunting? I'm tired of battle training." What Lionpaw didn't add was that they could get closer to the WindClan border by hunting.
"Hunting?" Ashfur asked in disbelief. He shook his head. "Good grief, you apprentices have so much energy. First battle training, then hunting- I'd give anything to be you!"
Not if you knew what I'm going through, Lionpaw thought. He simply smiled up at his mentor and mewed, "c'mon, let's go towards the WindClan stream! I want to catch a rabbit!"
Ashfur tilted his head. "Rabbits are WindClan prey," he meowed. "And besides, they're stringy anyway. Forest hares are much better; they're more full-bodied. We can find some at the edge of the forest." He trotted ahead of Lionpaw. "Follow me," he ordered.
Lionpaw obediently padded after his mentor as they strolled through the forest. The early morning sunlight was streaming through the trees, dappling the forest floor with gold and shadow. Lionpaw scented Thornclaw, Whitewing, Squirrelflight, and Dustpelt's scents somewhere nearby; they must have come by on the dawn patrol. The forest was so full of sights and sounds that Lionpaw thought he might faint from it all.
"Here we are!" Ashfur called at last. The thinning line of trees allowed the sun to shine its rays farther into the forest, bathing everything with light. Lionpaw gazed out onto the moorland, where he spotted the dark shape of a WindClan cat dashing across the plains, in quick pursuit of a rabbit.
"Who's that?" Lionpaw questioned his mentor, indicating the WindClan cat.
Ashfur glanced over at him. "That's not important right now," he mewed. "We need to hunt."
Lionpaw shrugged. "I was only curious," he told his mentor innocently. Secretly, though, he had been hoping it was Heatherpaw. He shook all thoughts of her out of his head and opened his jaws slightly to catch the scent of prey.
"Smell anything yet?" Ashfur asked quietly.
"Not yet," replied Lionpaw softly. He rotated his head and at last caught the faint scent of mouse and he dipped to the ground. His ears swiveled and picked up the sound of tiny nibbling and a short cracking noise. The mouse was patiently eating a seed near a tree.
Lionpaw glided forward towards his prey, paws sliding out in front of him. He felt as light as air as she stepped carefully over twigs and past clumps of bracken. He neared closer to the mouse, watching it intently with his golden eyes…
Suddenly, there was a cream-colored flash and Lionpaw hopped back in surprise. Not far away, Berrypaw sat up proudly, the mouse dangling from his jaws. "That was a pretty good catch, don't you think?" he boasted.
"Yeah, my pretty good catch!" snapped Lionpaw irritably. "I was going to get that mouse, Berrypaw."
Ashfur padded up to the two apprentices stiff-legged. "What did you do that for?" he accused Berrypaw. "Where's your mentor?"
"Right here," snarled Brambleclaw's voice from behind a fern bush. He emerged into the light and glanced over at his apprentice. "Berrypaw, that was Lionpaw's catch. You should have let him take it."
"But I had it first!" argued Berrypaw. "I don't see what the big deal is!"
"You're acting like a kit," Brambleclaw pointed out with a sort of chuckle in his voice. "It's embarrassing." He nodded towards Ashfur. "Sorry about that. It won't happen again."
Berrypaw turned to Lionpaw and smirked, nearly dropping his catch. "Thought you had it, didn't you?" he taunted, having to speak around the mouse. He dropped it at his feet and batted it a few times with his paws.
"I did have it," Lionpaw told him as calmly as he could muster.
"Well, you've got to be fast if you want to catch prey!" Berrypaw sneered. "A turtle could have gotten to that mouse faster than you, flat-foot!"
A surge of pure rage ran through Lionpaw's body, filling his veins with anger and making his eyes burn with a deep golden fire. "You're not in much of a position to say that, kittypet!" he snapped.
All three cats stared at Lionpaw in amazement. They had never heard Lionpaw talk to any cat like that before. He himself had kittypet blood! "Did you just say…?" Ashfur broke off, horrified.
The fire in Lionpaw's eyes died down and was replaced with worry. "Oh no," he muttered, "I didn't mean it like that…" But Berrypaw's hurt expression told Lionpaw that he wouldn't be forgiven so easily.
At last, Brambleclaw spoke. "You aren't one to call Berrypaw a kittypet," he mewed flatly. Even as he spoke calmly, his eyes flashed with anger, and Lionpaw knew disaster was coming next.
"Leave me alone, all right?" he snarled at Brambleclaw. "Just… leave me alone! I apologized already; isn't that good enough?" Then he spun around and raced for the border, not even daring to look and see if anyone was following him.
He ended up by the Moonpool. There was no sign of another cat around him. He let out a sigh of relief that echoed among the rocks. He glanced around and then, seeing no form of danger, lay down to sleep.
***
"Lionpaw?" Heatherpaw asked softly, prodding the apprentice with one paw. "What are you doing?"
Lionpaw awoke from his slumber and stared wide-eyed at Heatherpaw. "What are you doing?" he questioned her. "This is ThunderClan territory!"
Heatherpaw shuffled her paws awkwardly. "That may be so," she mewed, "but I saw you sleeping and I wondered what you were doing sleeping near the Moonpool in the middle of the day." Her whiskers twitched in amusement.
"I've been thinking about you all the time!" sighed Lionpaw. "I can't control my emotions, and it's killing me!"
Heatherpaw pressed her muzzle into Lionpaw's. "It'll be ok," she assured him. "I'm here now."
The two cats lay next to each other in a peaceful silence, and at last Lionpaw felt better. "Thanks, Heatherpaw," he purred.
"No problem." Heatherpaw smiled shyly as she stood up and stalked away. "Goodbye!" she called to him before jumping the stream.
As Heatherpaw walked away, Lionpaw noticed faintly the two pairs of eyes watching them from either territory- amber and blue orbs, observing carefully.