Dark River

Chapter 11

“For StarClan’s sake!” Ashfur bounded from the ferns and glared angrily at Lionpaw. “How did you miss it?”

The wagtail, which had whisked away from Lionpaw’s outstretched paws only moments earlier, perched on a branch above the training hollow and called an alarm before fluttering away into the trees.

Lionpaw hung his head. He should have caught it, but his paws felt like stones. “Sorry.” The midnight trek to the beach with Jaypaw had left him exhausted. He quivered with irritation. He had left Heatherpaw early last night so he could catch up on his sleep. Why had Jaypaw dragged him out to the lake instead of letting him rest?

“You’re lumbering around like a badger today,” Ashfur scolded.

Spiderleg and Mousepaw padded out of the ferns with Honeypaw and Sandstorm.

“More like a hibernating hedgehog!” Mousepaw teased.

Lionpaw glared at his denmate.

Honeypaw flicked her tail at Mousepaw. “It wasn’t long ago you missed a squirrel,” she reminded him.

Lionpaw’s ears grew hot. He didn’t need Honeypaw to defend him.

“Honeypaw’s right.” Spiderleg nudged Mousepaw’s shoulder with his muzzle. “And your climbing could use some practice.”

Mousepaw flattened his ears. “Well, let’s go practice, then!”

“You’d better not try the Sky Oak!” Honeypaw called out as the two cats headed for the trees. Mousepaw’s tail quivered with annoyance as it disappeared into the undergrowth.

Sandstorm turned to her apprentice. “Come on, Honeypaw, we’ll see if there are any mice around the old beech.”

“Can we come too?” Ashfur looked pointedly at Lionpaw.

“I don’t think we’ll find many birds around here now.”

“Of course.” Sandstorm bounded up the slope out of the hollow and then headed into the trees. Ashfur hurried to catch her up.

“Don’t worry,” Honeypaw whispered, falling in beside Lionpaw. “I missed a sparrow yesterday.”

Lionpaw snorted and hurried ahead of her, bristling.

The ground beneath the beech was littered with empty husks. This was a great place for hunting mice attracted by the ready supply of beechnuts. Lionpaw pushed ahead of Honeypaw into the ferns that ringed the open ground beneath the tree. Ashfur and Sandstorm were waiting for them, sat beneath the arching fronds.

“Let’s hope we manage to catch something here,” Ashfur meowed. “We don’t want the Clan to go hungry.”

“They won’t!” Lionpaw snapped. Why couldn’t Ashfur give him advice instead of pointing out his mistakes?

“Look!” Honeypaw jerked her head toward the clearing. A mouse was sitting between the snaking roots of the beech, a nut between its forepaws. It was busy nibbling at the shell.

“That’ll be easy to catch.” She blinked encouragingly at Lionpaw. “It doesn’t even know we’re here.”

“Why don’t you catch it, then?” he hissed.

Honeypaw’s eyes clouded. “I thought you might want the chance.”

“I don’t need help!” Lionpaw snapped. Did she think he was a helpless kit?

Honeypaw dropped her gaze and he felt guilty. She had only been trying to help. He turned and peered out of the undergrowth. He’d catch the mouse to show her he was sorry.

But it had gone.

Something else was stirring the leaves only a few tail-lengths away. Lionpaw dropped into a hunting crouch.

Willing away the tiredness that made his limbs feel as heavy as wet wood, he began to creep forward. The leaves moved again and a tiny nose peeked out. Tensing every muscle, Lionpaw prepared to leap.

“Keep your tail down!” Ashfur hissed.

Lionpaw pressed his haunches down harder to the ground.

Then he darted forward.

He wasn’t fast enough. The vole scuttled beneath a root.

Lionpaw glanced at Ashfur, expecting some comment, a word of advice or even disappointment, but his mentor turned away without saying anything.

Brambleclaw looked up as Lionpaw followed Ashfur into camp. The ThunderClan deputy’s eyes narrowed as Ashfur dropped two mice and a sparrow onto the fresh-kill pile.

Lionpaw had nothing to offer.

“Prey still running?” Brambleclaw padded over to them.

“There’s certainly plenty around,” Ashfur commented.

Lionpaw waited for Ashfur to tell Brambleclaw how useless he had been today. He blinked in surprise when Ashfur meowed, “Lionpaw’s hunting is coming along fine. He just needs to work on his crouch.”

Why didn’t he tell Brambleclaw the truth? Had Ashfur given up on him? Or was he being soft on him because his father was deputy?

Brambleclaw cuffed Lionpaw softly around the ear. “I thought you’d mastered the hunting crouch before you left the nursery.”

Didn’t anybody care? Irritation pricked his paws. He had been floundering for days, but nobody had mentioned it. Why weren’t they taking his training seriously? With all the talk of battle, surely it was more important than ever that he was doing well. He glanced at Brambleclaw, but the ThunderClan deputy was already padding away with a mouse in his jaws.

“You might as well have something to eat too,” Ashfur meowed. “It’s been a long morning.”

“What about training?”

“Rest first.” Ashfur began to head across the clearing.

“We’ll do some battle training later.”

It looked as if Ashfur really had given up on him. Maybe his mentor thought training was a waste of time. Lionpaw felt a flash of indignation, but it died as he stared wearily at the fresh-kill pile. He was too tired to eat. All he wanted was to curl up and sleep. He headed for the apprentice den, ducking beneath the low branch of the bramble bush. With a sigh of relief, he coiled down into his nest and closed his eyes.

“Lionpaw!” Berrypaw’s voice woke him. “Time for battle training!”

Lionpaw struggled awake like a drowning cat fighting its way to the surface. Berrypaw was standing over him, shaking his shoulder with a paw.

“Okay, okay!” Lionpaw mewed. “Put your claws away! I’m awake.” He shook Berrypaw away and heaved himself to his paws. A fog filled his brain, and his body felt as though it was weighted down with boulders. His nap had only made him feel more tired.

“Ashfur and Brambleclaw want us to do some battle training together.”

Lionpaw sighed.

“What’s the matter?” Berrypaw leaned forward. “You normally can’t wait to try and beat me.” His whiskers twitched.

“Are you scared?”

“No!” Of course he wasn’t scared. I just want to sleep!

He stumbled out of the den after Berrypaw and blinked in the afternoon sun. Ashfur and Brambleclaw were already waiting by the camp entrance. They nodded at Lionpaw and headed out of camp.

Slow down! Lionpaw felt hardly awake as he hurried after Berrypaw and the two warriors. He stumbled through the forest in a daze of tiredness, tripping over brambles and stifling yawn after yawn. He half slid down the slope into the mossy training hollow where Berrypaw was waiting with Ashfur and Brambleclaw. Stretching his claws, Lionpaw padded to join them. He shook himself, hoping to jerk himself awake, but a numbing fog still clouded his mind.

“Let’s get started,” Brambleclaw meowed. “Berrypaw, I want you to pretend you’re defending your territory.” He flicked his tail. “Lionpaw, attack him.”

Berrypaw dropped into a crouch, hackles bristling and tail lashing. His eyes were narrowed to slits and his chin glided back and forth over the ground like a snake’s.

“Come on, Lion kit!” he teased.

Anger flashed in Lionpaw’s pelt. Without thinking he rushed at Berrypaw, his sleepy paws stumbling over the ground. He hurled himself at his denmate, forelegs splayed.

Berrypaw reared up and caught him under the chin, flinging him backward. Before Lionpaw could roll out of the way, Berrypaw sprang on top of him. Lionpaw struggled but the other apprentice’s weight pinned him to the ground.

Berrypaw looked up triumphantly at Brambleclaw. “That was easy!”

As his attention slipped, Lionpaw darted out from underneath him. He butted Berrypaw’s creamy flank with his head, but Berrypaw hardly flinched. Instead, he rounded on Lionpaw and swiped at him with a forepaw. Lionpaw only just managed to duck in time. What now? His mind was sluggish with sleep. Working on instinct, he dived beneath Berrypaw’s belly and tried to leap up and unbalance him. But he hadn’t bargained for Berrypaw’s greater weight. Berrypaw merely dropped on top of him and squashed him to the ground.

Lionpaw, defeated, went limp. Every move he had made had been badly thought out. Berrypaw stepped off Lionpaw and sat down beside Brambleclaw, curling his tail over his paws.

Ashfur stared down at his apprentice. “Was that the best you could do?”

Lionpaw shot to his paws, his ears burning. He was wide awake now, his body tingling with anger. “It’s not my fault you taught me all the wrong moves!”

Shock flashed in Brambleclaw’s eyes, but Ashfur’s gaze remained calm. “Do you think anyone would believe I taught you that clumsy display?”

“Well, if you had it would be the first thing you’ve taught me today!”

That managed to ruffle Ashfur’s pelt. The gray warrior’s eyes blazed.

Brambleclaw stepped forward. “A warrior never blames his Clanmates for his own mistakes, Lionpaw.” He turned to Ashfur. “I think you need to speak with your apprentice.

Come on, Berrypaw. Let’s carry on training over there.”

The fur along Ashfur’s spine quivered as he watched Brambleclaw pad to the other side of the clearing. Lionpaw suddenly felt cold as his anger slid away. He had gone too far.

“I’m sorry,” he mewed.

Ashfur swung his head around and glared at Lionpaw. “I have tried to make you the best apprentice in your den,” he growled, “but lately it’s been like training a slug. You only seem to hear half of what I tell you and the things you do hear, you forget. You used to have an instinct for hunting and fighting, but it’s gone and I don’t know where.”

Lionpaw’s whiskers trembled. He couldn’t deny that he had been distracted lately, but he thought no one had noticed.

“I promise I’ll try harder.”

“You’ll have to if you don’t want to get left behind in the apprentice den and watch Foxkit and Icekit become warriors before you!”

“I will!” Fear squirmed in Lionpaw’s belly, not of Ashfur, but of failure. Everything had come so easily before. The idea that he might struggle to keep up filled him with dread.

“Good.” Ashfur nodded curtly. “Let’s start again.”

Lionpaw squared his shoulders. “Okay.”

“We’ll try the badger defense.”

Lionpaw blinked. “B-but that’s one of the hardest.”

“I know.” Ashfur crouched. “Watch carefully.” He reared up and leaped forward, high enough to clear a badger’s back.

He landed without dropping onto his forepaws and spun around so fast that Lionpaw marveled at how he kept his balance. Then he ducked down, back onto four paws, and twisted to the side, snapping his jaws as though clamping them into a badger’s hind leg.

“Now you do it,” he ordered. “And don’t forget, a badger is twice as big as a cat, so make the leap as high as you can. You don’t want to end up on its back. If it rolled over, it could crush you.”

Heart pounding, Lionpaw reared up. He tried to leap forward, but lost his balance and fell to one side, slamming his forepaws onto the ground.

“Again!” Ashfur demanded.

Lionpaw pushed himself up and tried to leap forward once more. This time he managed to spring a little way, but he top-pled over and fell down onto four paws again.

“Put more power into your jump,” Ashfur meowed. “Most of your strength is in your hind legs—use it!”

“But I can’t get my balance,” Lionpaw protested.

“Then keep trying until you can!”

“Ashfur!” Brambleclaw called from the other side of the clearing. “I want to try out a double attack on Berrypaw. Can you come and help?”

Berrypaw was ready to take on two warriors? Lionpaw’s pads tingled with jealousy. They’ll never let me try that!

Ashfur narrowed his eyes. “Keep practicing,” he commanded and bounded away to join the ThunderClan deputy.

Lionpaw felt despair drag at his paws. Why had Ashfur given him something so impossible to practice? Was he trying to make him look even more useless? Halfheartedly, he reared onto his hind legs. He staggered even before he tried to jump, the forest swaying in front of him. Frustrated, he dropped onto four paws. I’ll never get this!

“Of course you will!” A pelt brushed his, nudging him so roughly that it sent him sprawling across the wet moss.

Lionpaw scrambled crossly to his paws. “What are you—?”

He broke off.

Brambleclaw, Ashfur, and Berrypaw were still on the farside of the clearing.

Who pushed me?

“Keep your eyes fixed on something in front of you,” a voice growled. “It’s the only way to keep your balance.”

Lionpaw stared in alarm. Two eyes burned against the background of the forest. A hazy outline moved like mist against the ferns.

“Tigerstar!” Lionpaw glanced nervously toward his Clanmates. Could they see him?

“Only you can see me.” Tigerstar seemed to read his mind.

“I’m not here as far as they’re concerned.”

“Why are you here?” Lionpaw shivered.

“To help you.” Tigerstar narrowed his eyes. “It looks like you need it.”

Lionpaw felt hot with shame.

“I’ll be the badger.” Tigerstar crouched in front of him.

Lionpaw frowned. How would he be able to tackle this ghostly warrior? He could hardly see him.

“Try it!” Tigerstar commanded. “And don’t forget to keep your eyes on something solid.”

Lionpaw took a deep breath and stared at a birch at the edge of the clearing. Concentrating hard, he reared onto his hind legs. He was balancing! He tensed the muscles in his hind legs and sprang up and over Tigerstar, landing behind him. He turned and began to feel himself falling to one side.

Tigerstar shifted fast as a snake and pushed him back up so that he could complete the turn. Lionpaw regained his balance, ducked, and twisted to nip Tigerstar’s hind leg.

“Not bad.” Tigerstar dodged away. “But you won’t always have me to prop you up.”

At least I was better than before! Lionpaw padded back to his starting place while Tigerstar crouched in front of him again.

This time he tensed every muscle in his body before pushing up with his back legs and leaping forward. He landed perfectly and ducked, baring his teeth to nip Tigerstar’s hind leg.

But Tigerstar was already up and pacing. “That’s more like it,” he growled. “But you should slash out with your forepaw as you spin. That way, you could scratch the badger as well as bite it.”

Lionpaw’s heart was pounding with excitement. He hadn’t felt this awake in days. “Let’s try it!”

He managed it perfectly the first time.

Tigerstar dodged to avoid being raked by Lionpaw’s fast forepaw slash.

“Much better!”

“How are you getting on?” Ashfur’s call made Lionpaw jump. He spun around guiltily, and saw his mentor padding toward him. He glanced nervously over his shoulder.

Tigerstar was gone.

Ashfur narrowed his eyes. “You have been practicing, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” Lionpaw mewed quickly.

“Show me.”

Lionpaw performed the move even better than he had with Tigerstar. He finished in a perfect crouch and glanced up at Ashfur. His mentor’s eyes were glowing. “You might make a warrior, after all.” He beckoned to Brambleclaw with his tail. “Come and watch this.”

Brambleclaw bounded to join them, Berrypaw on his heels.

“You be the badger, Berrypaw,” Ashfur ordered.

Berrypaw crouched, and Lionpaw reared up and leaped over him. He spun and flicked out a claw that parted Berrypaw’s fur, then finished by grazing Berrypaw’s hind leg with his teeth.

“A badger wouldn’t stand a chance!” Ashfur meowed proudly.

“He could have jumped higher,” Berrypaw mewed.

“It would have slowed him down,” Ashfur argued.

“Brambleclaw?” Lionpaw was itching to know what his father thought. “Was it okay?” A troubled look seemed to be clouding the ThunderClan deputy’s gaze.

Brambleclaw blinked. “It was great,” he meowed. He turned to Ashfur. “Did you teach him the move with the claw?”

“No, he came up with that by himself.”

“Did you?” Brambleclaw’s gaze seemed to burn into Lionpaw’s.

Lionpaw nodded guiltily. Had his father recognized Tigerstar’s move? “Did you like it?”

“It’s a nice touch.” Brambleclaw stroked his tail along Lionpaw’s flank. “Let’s get back to camp.”

The ThunderClan deputy padded out of the mossy clearing, his striped tail disappearing into the ferns. Berrypaw made a face at Lionpaw before following his mentor into the undergrowth.

“Are you coming?” Ashfur meowed.

“In a moment.” Lionpaw wanted to see if Tigerstar would come back. He wanted to know why the dark warrior was taking so much interest in him. Jaypaw was the one who spoke with their ancestors. As Ashfur slipped into the ferns, Lionpaw scanned the clearing. There was no sign of Tigerstar, not even a scent. The tabby warrior had vanished.

Lionpaw shook away the doubt pricking in his pelt. He should be grateful. Tigerstar seemed to care more about his training than his mentor did.

“Thanks, Tigerstar,” he whispered into the trees, and followed his Clanmates home toward camp.