Post by wetstream on Nov 24, 2010 22:55:53 GMT -5
Prologue
Mist looked at her small little kit, Citrine, she had dark grey fur and had just opened her tinted yellow eyes. She was a beautiful kit, but living in BloodClan was harsh, she knew soon Rage, their leader, would kill the tiny bundle of fur. Even though Rage was the father of Citrine, he was still so cruel.
"We need to escape Citrine...." She whispered.
Rage burst into her small den and growled, showing his sharp teeth eyes full with anger.
"Mist." He spat with his raging voice. "You must come with me."
Mist looked to her kit then to Rage with big, fearful eyes. "Rage no!" She said in a deep voice, almost to a growl. "I can't let you kill my kit."
Rage glared at Citrine, suckling milk from one of her mother's teats, warmth flooding in her.
"Then you must come with me." His grin flooded across his face, eyes narrowed evily.
Mist was then dragged by force out of the den by Rage, the little kit shivering slightly in the Leaf-Fall wind.
Cold. Citrine shivered and looked around.
Where was she? And where was her mother?
She waited a long time, almost until moonhigh, until she heard the faint rustle of someone coming into her den. Her father Rage, stood before her, his gloomy black pelt hidden by the red patches of blood. Citrine hid back looking at him with big, horrorable eyes.
What has he done to my mother!
Chapter One- Faint Dreams and Memories
Wetpaw shifted up from her dream glancing around, she was shivering and felt a brush of cold run over her spine. She was only seven moons old, and joined RiverClan a moon ago after escaping her old home, which her old home she no longer remembered, as she was knocked out from a fall after escaping. But yet she had spine-chilling dreams, they were hard to understand, faint and weird.
It was when she was a small kit, there was a warmthing she-cat, and a dark black tom. The she-cat always was tooken away by the tom and Wetpaw always saw the black cat come back, with blood stained on his pelt. It frightened her, yet she had seen the same dream for almost a quarter-moon, but each time she saw it, it was more clearer.
She never got the reason though, never got how these dreams entered her small head, and how she remembered them. She couldn't even remember what she ate for breakfast in the morning.
"Wetpaw?" Her ginger colored mentor Dawnfur, poked her triangular head in the small apprentice den.
Wetpaw looked to her lifting her head, to her bright mentor. "Yes Dawnfur?" She meowed blinking the last bit of sleep from her eyes.
Dawnfur ruffled her pelt from the chilly wind that entered the den. "Some light patches of snow have been spotted on the ground, Sparrowstar says he wants us to check out the river to see if it has iced over yet."
"Wow, snow already...And it's only late Leaf-fall." Wetpaw licked her paw, swiping it over her ear. Her pelt was beautifully groomed.
Dawnfur shrugged. "Late Leaf-fall means early Leaf-Bare." He fur rippled across her spine.
Wetpaw nodded and stretched to her long legs, it was unusual how she was the only apprentice but Leafpelt's kits would be on the way to apprenticeship in three more moons. The two padded out of the den and Wetpaw stepped into some frosted mud. She shivered off the cold dirt and looked at her paw, now brown from the mud.
The weather was cold and the air was moist, the ground damp. Easily it detirmined some snow late this afternoon. She looked to some warriors, Snowheart, Creampelt, and Grayfeather all building some more protection for the dens, looks like they were preparing. Wetpaw finally noticed she was trailing behind Dawnfur and quickly caught up with her. Then the two padded out of camp.
"Wetpaw! Over here!" Wetpaw's mentor called over from the east side of the river.
Wetpaw perked her ears, whiskers twitching and ran over. She saw some patches of ice in the river and saw they had rigged edges, looks like no fish today. She saw the water, her reflection didn't show in the black pit.
Wetpaw raised her head to her mentor. "Should this be alerted to the Clan?" Another chilly wind made Wetpaw wince.
"Yes, definitely." Dawnfur didn't take her eyes off the river, even through the freezing spray of the rushing river. "We need to get to camp now."
Wetpaw's eyes widened, what troubled Dawnfur so much? It was only some thin patches of ice.
Wetpaw sat at the entrance of RiverClan camp, the Clan had just gone out to battle with WindClan, at the lake. Wetpaw, and Grayfeather were left to guard. it was quiet and boring.
"Grayfeather, what are we suppose to do?" Wetpaw groaned after another blow of freezing air made her breath appear. "We've been guarding the camp since Sun-high, now it's almost nighttime."
Grayfeather glanced to Wetpaw who was shivering lightly over by the entrance. "Wetpaw, I guess their attack is going on longer than I thought....I guess you can rest if you want, but I'll be waking you up at Moon-high." His long feathery gray fur blew like a horse's mane in the wind and his light yellow eyes looked amber in the shadowing clouds.
"Really?" Wetpaw's ear flicked up her face brightening, she was very tired after guarding the camp for such a long time. He fur ruffled at her flanks and she stretched to her long limbed legs. "Thanks Grayfeather!" She raced to her den, faster than she even wanted.
Wetpaw lay down in her nest, fluffy up the moss before flattening down a nice spot for her body to lay, she laid her tail tip lightly over her nose and closed her eyes. Now was the time she would rest. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted to sleep, the wind blocked out by the tough pieces of brambles and the on going branches that connected to her den. Then she slowly went into dreaming, another dream.
Wetpaw was startled, she was on her paws running fast. But why? She tried to run the other direction but her paws were glued to were she was going.
What's happening? Wetpaw tried to mew but she couldn't say a word.
She looked behind her and the hair on her neck stood up, there was herself, running from that same black tom, but this time with a white tom by his side. Wetpaw started to run faster, air gasping from her. She felt younger, almost two moons and it was a bit warmer than back at camp.
What do you want from me! Wetpaw still tried to cry out.
She decided just to run faster away from the gloomy, mean, angry cats. The toms ran faster at her but Wetpaw just couldn't stop running, until she tripped. She tripped on a small rock and she saw a pit of sticks and leaves.
YIKES! She still couldn't speak.
"Citrine!" She heard a cry.
She heard another voice. "It's fine, she's probably dead like we wanted."
She gasped, this time out loud. She wasn't in her body, well was she? Everything started to grow blurry, then blurrier until she felt a deep tense in her muscles then everything turned dark, then black. Wetpaw felt uncontrollable spinning, and everything was turning blurry again, figures of some light grey cat that she remembered in the first dreams. She heard a voice.
Wetpaw? It meowed.
WETPAW!
Wetpaw was pushed awake by the prodding Grayfeather. "Wha...?" She muttered.
"Wetpaw," Grayfeather meowed, with frost bits on his pelt, making it look grey with white spots. "The Clan is back from the attack."
Wetpaw lifted her small head, eyes brightening. "Really?"
Grayfeather nodded, looking graceful. "We won, they let us over-come the field, the place where they took over."
"Yes!"
Chapter Two- The Competition
"Run! Run faster!" Dawnfur ordered, her eyes narrowed.
Wetpaw wanted to win the contest the apprentices were having at the gathering. She felt like her long legs could run for hours, while she rain across the ever-stretching field, she thought about her dream. How she ran, but not from her mind, running from something, that made herself terrified. She kept thinking about it, until she blinked into reality haulting before running into a tree.
Dawnfur ran toward her. "Wetpaw, you could've run into a tree, what were you thinking?" She sighed.
Wetpaw shuffled her feet, the cold wind fluffing her fur. "About my dreams." She said seriously.
Dawnfur's eye whisker raised. "They're getting bad aren't they?"
"Yeah, I had a dream I was running from two, big cats. They were mean and I couldn't move myself, I just kept running...Until I fell into a big pile of sticks and leaves." Wetpaw nodded and looked to her paws, shuddering.
Dawnfur thought for a minute. "We found you in a big pile of sticks and leaves, when we took you into RiverClan." Dawnfur's eyes widened. "It's when you said you had no memory on what happened before."
"You mean...It might not be just a dream?" Wetpaw gasped.
Dawnfur nodded sincerely. "More likely a memory."
Wetpaw glanced to her frail paws. "You mean...I might've got this scar on my flank from falling into that pile?" She looked to her flank, it had a long scar across it.
"Maybe, there's no way we can make sure, I mean if you don't remember much it could've happened when you were younger." Dawnfur meowed flicking her paw.
"I guess you're right, there is no way we can put our paw on it if it might not even me true." Wetpaw shrugged.
Dawnfur nudged her shoulder. "Just keep your eyes on the prize for the gathering, you were the chosen apprentice." Dawnfur grinned.
Wetpaw laughed. "I'm the only apprentice!" She smiled. "I'll race you to camp."
Dawnfur nodded and the two raced to camp.
Wetpaw stretched as she sniffed the prey from the fresh-kill pile. She hardly felt hungry since the gathering was tonight. She decided on a small thrush. It was some of the best prey since the weather turned harsh and cold.
She took a deep breath as Sparrowstar padded toward her, he was a brown tom with a white muzzle and paws.
"Eat up." He smiled. "You need streangh for the competition." He nudged the thrush toward her.
Wetpaw nodded and took a bite, carefully spitting out the feathers. "I know, but Im so excited!" She swallowed the warm meat, licking her lips.
Sparrowstar looked at her. "Well eat as much as you can, when I was an apprentice RiverClan was ruled by a cat named Smokestar, we had a contest amongst RiverClan, we would have competitions with all the RiverClan apprentices. I didn't eat and in the middle of a contest I was so hungry that I lost the contest because of lack of energy." Sparrowstar sighed.
Wetpaw pricked her ears after swallowing another featherless bite. "What was the contest?" She mewed.
"Running." Sparrowstar answered.
Wetpaw swallowed hard. Running was her streangh, expecially in competitions. If she didn't have energy she would surely loose.
"I gotta eat." Wetpaw assured herself as Sparrowstar padded off to call out the people who were going to the gathering.
At the gathering Wetpaw bit her lip, waiting for the competition to start after the leaders talked about their Clans. WindClan said their prey was getting a bit harder to find but they would survive, ShadowClan said they were rich in prey, ThunderClan said their prey was nice but they knew it would get scarcer and RiverClan didn't say much except that the prey was normal. Finally Sparrowstar called onto the apprentices for the competition.
I padded behind Sparrowstar on the split-rock. Spiderpaw, a black tom with grey eyes and brown flecks padded behind ThunderClan's leader, Beetlestar. Hollypaw a black she-cat with white paws and green eyes padded behind the WindClan's leader, Cloudstar. And finally Blackpaw, a black tom with yellow eyes padded behind ShadowClan's leader, Swiftstar.
"Now we will start the Leaf-bare apprentice competition." Beetlestar announced to the Clans.
Meows of encouragment rippled across the cats. Some even cheered for the apprentice that represented their Clan, even Wetpaw heard some cats cheering her name.
She took a deep breath. "Im ready." She murmured.
The other cats looked a tad more confident than Wetpaw, but inside Wetpaw felt like she could win it all. Wetpaw hissed at the other contestants.
"Don't worry about me, I may be small but Im powerful." She growled.
The cats eyed her, expecially Blackpaw. Blackpaw eyed her with more than anger, suspiciousness and something that Wetpaw couldn't put her paw on.
His voice was deep with frightening anger. "Don't bet on it tiny idiot." He snarled.
Wetpaw flinched back.
Finally the competition began. Wetpaw was relieved, first up was the tree climbing contest. Spiderpaw and Blackpaw raced up and down the tree, from Spiderpaw's great climbing skills he won by a mouse-leangh. Next up Hollypaw and Wetpaw.
Wetpaw took a deep breath.
"Ready, set, GO!" Cloudstar called out.
Wetpaw climbed, but her long limbed legs barely let her hold on tightly. Hollypaw climbed like a squirrel and won even before Wetpaw got to climb down. Wetpaw kept calm and congatulated Hollypaw.
As the contests went by, hunting, obstacle courses and even doing rock climbing up a rock hill, Wetpaw lost them all.
"I'm losing..." Wetpaw murmured to Dawnfur.
Dawnfur sighed. "Don't worry, running is up next." She grinned with confidence.
Wetpaw nodded and the Clans were lead to the field for the last challenge.
Wetpaw was in her running stance with all the other apprentices, Blackpaw on her left side, Spiderpaw on her right.
"You're not gonna win shrimp." Blackpaw sneered.
Spiderpaw sighed at Blackpaw's remark along with Hollypaw, obviosly both of them were getting tired of him being such a jerk.
Wetpaw narrowed her eyes. "Let me win, but if I do not win let me be brave in the attempt." She meowed with complete confidence.
"You think that will make you look cooler?" Blackpaw growled.
"GO!" Beetlestar called out.
Wetpaw raced out across the field, everything else blocked from her mind but running. She ran and ran her feet felt like air from how fast she was going, she turned and raced back. Finally she was out of breath and was at the finish line.
Beetlestar nodded in approvel. "Wetpaw wins."
Blackpaw growled clenching his teeth. "Congratulations shrimp." He sneered.
Wetpaw ignored Blackpaw's comment and enjoyed the praises of her clanmates and other cats.
"Good job Wetpaw." Spiderpaw congratulated.
Hollypaw nodded. "Yeah, you did great." She smiled.
Wetpaw finally won, it took awhile but finally she found something she was actually good at. Wetpaw ran over to Dawnfur and grinned brightly.
"Good job Wetpaw, when we get to camp you can have the biggest piece of prey you want." Dawnfur slowly nodded happily.
The Clans said their goodbyes and each padded out to their camps.
Wetpaw lay in her nest after eating the biggest vole she could handle. It was wonderful to be praised by the warriors. She hoped Leafpelt's kits would become apprentices soon, it would only be a moon until they were ready.
I just need to wait for the next gathering and they'll be ready. Wetpaw thought.
There was only three little kits only two moons old when Wetpaw joined MistClan. Two she-kits and one tom. One she-kit named Hazelkit had creamy-brown fur and hazel eyes like her mother, the other she-kit was named Ripplekit, she had blue-grey fur like her father; Grayfeather, her fur looked like ripples and she had blue eyes. The last one, the tom, was named Tigerkit, he had brown fur with black stripes.
Wetpaw kept wondering about the apprentices while she laid on her back. She yawned getting tired, she wondered if how Hazelkit told Wetpaw that Tigerkit liked her was true. She didn't know if she actually liked him back. But then Wetpaw decided she needed some rest. It had been a tough day.
Wetpaw yawned and shut her eyes, her fur shimmered in the moonlight that streamed through the cracks in the roof her den.
Chapter Three- The Apprentice Ceremony
Wetpaw poked the bark of the tree, seeing if the moss was dry enough for the nests.
She stripped it off the tree, thinking about Leafpelt's kits.
"Tomorrow they become apprentices." She meowed to herself.
There was almost some sort of excitement in her mew, Wetpaw was very excited about the kits being apprentices. She wondered what type of apprentices Tigerkit, Ripplekit and Hazelkit would be. Would they be loyal, strong and proud? Wetpaw sighed. Dawnfur had told her all apprentices had a different way of showing the way the were loyal to the Clan. Wetpaw was independent, Tigerkit showed streangh, Hazelkit showed the perfect loyal apprentice, and Ripplekit showed the same thing Wetpaw always wanted, sympathy.
Wetpaw wadded the moss into balls and stuck it into her jaws, then she padded back to camp.
Whitewhisker got up from his nest so Wetpaw could replace the moss. He was the newest elder, and not a very old warrior. He retired early dew to stiffness in his bones, something that made it hard to walk.
Wetpaw gathered up the last of his used nest and replaced it with the springy new moss.
"Good day Wetpaw." He meowed with a deep voice.
Wetpaw turned her head before she grabbed the used moss. "Hey Whitewhisker." She meowed to the white tom with yellow eyes.
Whitewhisker nodded. "Leafpelt's kits are being apprenticed today." He meowed.
"Really? I gotta hurry or Im gonna miss it!" Wetpaw gasped.
"I can make my own nest, just hurry Wetpaw.." Whitewhisker ordered.
Wetpaw nodded and ran out of the den, she saw Tigerkit, Ripplekit and Hazelkit on the River-rock. By them was Sparrowstar waiting patiently.
Wetpaw didn't notice he already called the Clan meeting. Excitment surged through her, but as she looked at the kits she imagined her being almost in kit form snuggling around her mother from her dreams. She shook away the thought and listened to the apprentice ceremony.
Sparrowstar cleared his throat. "By apprenticing kits we show that RiverClan is strong and will never back down." He called out to the Clan.
Many murmurs of approvement rippled across the clearing.
He continued. "Tigerkit, Ripplekit and Hazelkit, until you have reached the state of warriorship you are now Tigerpaw, Ripplepaw and Hazelpaw. Tigerpaw's mentor is Pebblefoot, Ripplepaw's mentor is Snowheart and Hazelpaw's mentor is Creampelt." His voice rose among the cats.
The three warriors padded up to the rock and the three apprentices jumped down and touched noses with them. Pride and joy exploded inside Wetpaw, she remembered becoming an apprentice, he saying the same speech and Dawnfur padding up to her. It was a memory Wetpaw would never forget.
After the cheering and yells died down the three new apprentices crowded over to Wetpaw.
"Now you won't be alone in the apprentice den!" Ripplepaw cheered.
Hazelpaw had a huge smile. "Will you teach us some stuff that will make us the coolest apprentices around?" Hazelpaw pleaded.
Tigerpaw blushed and looked to his paws. "Can I put my nest next to yours?" He meowed a bit embarrassed.
Wetpaw blushed. "I will teach you some cool stuff, and sure you can put your nest next to mine." She smiled happily.
Leafpelt rushed over to her kits. "Guys, go put up your nests and leave Wetpaw alone. She has her own duties to do." Leafpelt ordered.
Ripplepaw groaned. "Aw mom!" She sighed as the three padded to their new den with their mother trailing behind them.
Wetpaw laughed a bit. It was hilarious to see new apprentices emabarrassed by their own mother.
Dawnfur padded up to Wetpaw, her sleek ginger fur was glossy and shimmering. "Wetpaw, can you come on the patrol with us? The river has froze again and we need to check it out." She bit her lip.
Wetpaw hadn't noticed the cold so much since she was warming herself from running and moving around all the time. But then she noticed patches of frosty snow in the clearing. There was even bits of frost stuck on her fur.
"Okay, I'll join the patrol. Who is all in it?" Wetpaw asked.
"Pebblefoot, Grayfeather, and me." Dawnfur meowed.
Wetpaw nodded and the two ran over to the other cats and set out of camp.
Pebblefoot was talking to Grayfeather and Dawnfur as they padded toward the river. "So do you think it's over frozen?" He meowed.
"Probably, the weather is a bit colder at the river than in the camp from all the cats moving around." Dawnfur nodded.
Grayfeather entered the conversation. "But don't forget there is that rush of fish in the river, it could keep enough warmth." He meowed.
Pebblefoot smirked. "But haven't they all gone to warmer places for leaf-bare?" He asked.
Dawnfur nodded. "We must keep that it mind."
Wetpaw looked from warrior to warrior as they talked about the river, she wondered why she was the only apprentice on the patrol, but then she remembered Tigerpaw, Hazelpaw and Ripplepaw were just settling in to their new lives. It would be hard to go on a patrol just after being apprenticed.
Finally the reached the banks of the river.
"Frozen on the top, yet very thin." Pebblefoot meowed.
The other two nodded, agreeing.
Wetpaw spoke for the first time since they left for the patrol. "Don't you think we should test it? Like throw a rock on it to see how thin or thick it is." Wetpaw introduced her idea.
Grayfeather nodded. "Wetpaw is right, just to make sure we should try doing her idea." He agreed with Wetpaw.
Dawnfur smiled. "Okay, I'll go find a rock." She dissapeared into the undergrowth.
"Good job Wetpaw." Pebblefoot smiled looking to her.
Wetpaw felt happiness rise in her, she finally did something good for the Clan.
Dawnfur came back with a rock and threw it out on the ice of the river. It left a dent in it, but it didn't go through.
Pebblefoot gasped. "It's solid," His eyes widened.
Grayfeather bit his lip. "We should report this to Sparrowstar right now."
The other two nodded and they all padded back to camp.
Chapter Four- True Friend
Wetpaw was snuggled into her nest, she was tired after the long day. After they reported the news to Sparrowstar it was sun-down, and once Wetpaw was finished chatting with the new apprentices and having some prey it was already moon-high. Wetpaw hadn't relized she was pressed against Tigerpaw, since the icy winds blew into her den she was cold and needed more warmth so she just pressed against Tigerpaw. Tigerpaw didn't seem to mind it at all.
Wetpaw smiled as she suddenly relized she was pressed against him. She didn't stop though, she was still a bit cold and Tigerpaw was being nice letting her do this.
She yawned and went back to sleep.
Wetpaw awoke to Tigerpaw still against her. She stretched and slowly crept out of the den, not wanting to wake up the new apprentices. She padded into camp and shivered at the frosty air. Suddenly she heard Tigerpaw come out of the den.
"Hey Wetpaw...I was wondering," He meowed to her.
Wetpaw glanced over and smiled seeing it was Tigerpaw. "Hello Tigerpaw, what is it?" She asked.
Tigerpaw bit his lip. "Can you come training with me in the Pebble hollow?" He blurted out.
"I would love to Tigerpaw." Wetpaw purred.
Tigerpaw let out a breath of relief. "Well we better go now or my sisters are gonna decide to tag along with us." He urged.
Wetpaw nodded and they padded to the Pebble Hollow.
Wetpaw looked at the sandy hollow with pebbles rimmed around the edges. Willow trees swooped around them, it was a nice shady place to train. Yet it gave some warmth that distracted Wetpaw from the constant cold.
Tigerpaw perked his striped ears. "What do we do first?" His breath looked like a puff of smoke from the freezing air.
Wetpaw thought for a moment. "We should learn some blows, they could damage an enemy cat badly." Wetpaw told him.
"Im ready to learn it." Tigerpaw meowed.
Wetpaw spent a long time teaching Tigerpaw the blows, everytime he did something wrong Wetpaw would help him out and make it right. Sometimes both of them even did something wrong which made them laugh.
It was about sun-high when they finished and Wetpaw purred swiping her tail across the ground.
"You were great Tigerpaw, I never thought you could learn so many blows in just a day!" Wetpaw grinned.
Tigerpaw glowed with satifaction. "Thanks Wetpaw, it's only possibly because you taught me." He blushed.
Wetpaw was about to say something until a screech echoed through the forest.
"We better get back to camp!" Wetpaw gasped.
Tigerpaw nodded and they raced to camp.
Wetpaw and Tigerpaw burst into camp, cats turned their heads to face them. The faces Wetpaw could see clearly were Snowheart, Creampelt and Ripplepaw.
"What happened?" Wetpaw meowed shivering as another freezing wind blew.
Ripplepaw shook her head. "ShadowClan happened...They attacked us out of blue, and they wanted out territory. They tried running us out." She choked on some words.
Tigerpaw butted in. "Who screeched? Wetpaw and I heard a screech from the Pebble Hollow." Tigerpaw meowed.
Ripplepaw looked away and Snowheart sighed deeply.
"Tigerpaw, your mother was attacked. She was hit with a killer blow. The last thing she did was screech and she fell to the ground." Snowheart then looked away like Ripplepaw.
Tigerpaw's eyes widened. "Is...Is she dead?" Tigerpaw gasped.
Snowheart slowly nodded.
Tigerpaw wailed. "No!" He ran over to the middle of the clearing where his mother's body lay.
Wetpaw was filled with sorrow and she padded over where Tigerpaw sat, Hazelpaw was beside him. Ripplepaw was too sad even to pad over to her mother and moarn with her siblings.
"Im so sorry Tigerpaw..." Wetpaw murmured.
Tigerpaw looked to her and smiled weakly. "It's okay Wetpaw." He licked her cheek. "I still have my sisters my father and you..."
Wetpaw blushed but she could still see the pain and sadness In Tigerpaw's eyes. "You shouldn't have to go through this..." She muttered looking back at the body, anger exploded in her heart.
I need to get back at those ShadowClan low lifes... Wetpaw growled to herself.
Tigerpaw had tears running down his eyes, he was truly sad. Nothing could compare to the loves his mother gave him, not even Wetpaw could cheer him up.
Wetpaw sighed and watched some she-cats take Leafpelt away to put rosemary and other sweet smelling herbs to block off the scent of death for the vigil for her.
Wetpaw could still scent the stench of death, it filled the clearing. The only thing that made this day worse is that even Tigerpaw was sad.
"Wetpaw..." Tigerpaw whispered to her.
Wetpaw looked up. "Yes Tigerpaw?" She whispered back.
Tigerpaw sighed and looked to the sunset. "Im gonna have to use those blows you taught me on some ShadowClan cats." He narrowed his eyes.
Wetpaw slowly nodded. Right now she wanted to fight.
Wetpaw was picked with Tigerpaw and Hazelpaw as the only three apprentices along with a bunch of warriors to fight at the edge of the border with ShadowClan. This battle was called on when Sparrowstar and two other warriors went out to ShadowClan to ask why they attacked, tthey came back saying ShadowClan wanted to battle at the border the bridged their Clans.
The deputy, Flamefall was leading the patrol. His orange tabby fur looked dim in the clouded sunlight. The cats were very quiet. Ever since the death of Leafpelt the cats just wanted to attack ShadowClan.
The cats finally got to the border, there was ShadowClan just waiting for them.
"It'd about time." A black tom sneered.
Sparrowstar narrowed his eyes. "Where's Swiftstar?" He growled.
The tom smirked. "He died, I came in and I was chosen to be leader. My name Is Ragestar and I want to end this battle and take your territory." He hissed.
Wetpaw looked at his eyes, and how he looked. She gasped. This was no ordinary tom from ShadowClan and Wetpaw knew who he was.
This was the tom named Rage from her dreams.
Chapter Five- Extrodinary Battle
Before Sparrowstar could call on the battle Wetpaw ran in front of Sparrowstar and Ragestar.
"Wait!" She yowled. "We can't fight! This cat isn't suppose to be leader! He use to be a murderer!" She growled at Ragestar.
Ragestar narrowed his eyes. "Im gonna kill you first." He hissed in her ear and looked to the cats. "She is obviously misunderstood, Im not a murderer." He meowed.
Wetpaw clenched her teeth. "Look at me Rage." She hissed.
Ragestar stared at Wetpaw, his eyes widening. "Citrine?" He gasped.
"Who?" Sparrowstar said confused.
"I thought you died! When we were chasing you....You fell into a pile of sticks and rocks! You could've never survived!" He snarled.
Wetpaw narrowed her eyes. "I did Rage, and you understand that I know your secrets! You killed my mother!" She looked away before a tear ran across her face.
Sparrowstar growled, now knowing what had happened. Dawnfur must've told him about Wetpaw's weird dreams.
"So you're just a killer? I think you killed Swiftstar so you could become leader!" Sparrowstar hissed.
Ragestar curled his lip. "No," Ragestar sneered. "I killed his deputy too."
Sparrowstar gasped.
Wetpaw dug her claws into the ground. "You killed my mother!" Tears streamed down her face. "I was so small, and you...You took her! Then you wanted me to die!" Wetpaw cried.
Ragestar spat in her face. "I don't allow kits Citrine, and I never did. All kits must die! I made it a rule in BloodClan!" He yelled.
The cats became silent, it was then so clear.
Sparrowstar looked to Wetpaw. "You're from...BloodClan?" His eyes widened.
"You're darn right she is!" Ragestar growled. "Citrine has BloodClan blood in her."
Wetpaw tore the grass from beneath her paws "Im not Citrine! Im Wetpaw!" Wetpaw hissed and clawed at Ragestar's eyes.
Ragestar snarled and pinned Wetpaw down by the chest with one paw. Wetpaw held her breath, the cold wind made it even harder to breathe. But then suddenly the pressure on her chest was thrown off.
Wetpaw struggled up and saw that the three apprentices, Ripplepaw, Hazelpaw and Tigerpaw all attacked Ragestar at the same time. But soon were thrown off, luckily Ragestar was hurt pretty bad from the strong blows the three made.
Sparrowstar then attacked Ragestar and the battle had begun, claws to claws and teeth to teeth. A large warrior jumped aiming for Wetpaw. Wetpaw gasped and dodged it starting to run.
Something held down her tail and Wetpaw looked up. She gasped to see Ragestar holding down her tail. She bit Ragestar's paw and aimed at his throat. She slashed but missed and only slashed at his shoulder.
She imagined him with the coating of blood that she had memories about. She shook the memory away from her head and focused on running. She was terrified that Rage would come and kill her.
Wetpaw looked at Rage. "You won't kill me Rage!" She spat and ran.
Ragestar narrowed his eyes and just sat there, in the middle of the splattering blood. Wetpaw hadn't relized her dark grey fur was turned scarlet red, half of it was other cat's blood that hit her instead. Wetpaw bit her lip and closed her eyes hoping nobody would attack her.
She felt somebody brush against her pelt.
"Tigerpaw!" She sounded relieved, yet the blood and clumps of fur were everywhere.
Tigerpaw purred. "It's okay...If we just stay hidden in the undergrowth nobody will get us." He looked around.
Wetpaw sighed. "I must get out of here!" She shuddered.
Tigerpaw looked at the battling cats. "I will come back Wetpaw. Go back to camp, when the battle is over I promise I'll pad into that camp." He dipped his head.
Wetpaw heasitated but she knew she had to go. She looked at Tigerpaw sadly and scurried to camp hidden by the undergrowth.
Wetpaw sat by Ripplepaw, Ripplepaw looked to Wetpaw.
"Are you okay? You seem troubled." She meowed.
Wetpaw looked to Ripplepaw, she was a little smaller than she was but yet Ripplepaw was younger.
She sighed. "It's Tigerpaw, he let me escape while he told me he had to stay in battle." Wetpaw twitched her tail.
Ripplepaw looked to the setting sun as the first star came out. "He is brave...If he dies, his death will be avenged." She sat up settling her look to her paws.
"He will make It, he promised me." Wetpaw held back the tears that were behind her eyes.
"Wetpaw, I may be younger but I know this. Promises in battle can be broken, not by the cat who promised but by the cat why broke it." Ripplepaw closed her eyes sadly.
Wetpaw looked to her. "So, he might not make it?" Wetpaw's fur rose.
Ripplepaw nodded. "If a cat is so cruel enough just to fight for the kill." Ripplepaw sighed.
Wetpaw looked to the rising moon.
Please come back Tigerpaw...Please. Wetpaw pleaded to herself.
Hazelpaw prodded Wetpaw in the middle of the night. Wetpaw opened her eyes and yawned sleepily.
"What is it Hazelpaw?" Wetpaw meowed groggily.
Hazelpaw purred. "Wetpaw, ShadowClan was forced to retreat. But it was almost dawn when they decided to quit." She looked tired.
Wetpaw saw it was light out. "Did you get any sleep?" She asked.
Hazelpaw shook her head. "Nor did Tigerpaw, we came in here to tell you the good news. Well I did, Tigerpaw is snoozing outside." She yawned.
"He's alive?" Wetpaw's eyes brightened.
Hazelpaw nodded, still wanting to end the conversation. "Yeah, he barely made it out. Sunnywhisker tended to his wounds when it was almost dawn and we came back. I'm telling you, being the only one that hid from the battle was pretty weak." She moaned thinking about it.
Wetpaw thought about Hazelpaw. "You are a young apprentice. Don't worry, I mean the worst battle I've been through was the one when we battled WindClan and I was just guarding camp! Now just get some rest." Wetpaw nodded her head to Hazelpaw's nest and headed out of the den.
Some of the scratches on her pelt still stung a bit but it didn't compare to what Tigerpaw's state was in. She saw him laying by one pine tree, shading under the little flecks of snow that drizzled down.
Wetpaw shook off the frosty bits as she ran toward him, he had cobwebs all around his two hind-legs, and seemed to keep those two stretched out, it looked as if his legs hurt more than the scratches and wounds on his side.
"Are you okay?" Wetpaw sat by his side.
Tigerpaw lifted his head. "Wetpaw?" He yawned.
Wetpaw nodded. "Tigerpaw, what happened to your legs!" She meowed.
Tigerpaw looked to his cobwebbed legs. "My first severe battle wound." He laughed and looked to her. "Some ShadowClan warrior threw me across some rocks and my legs got like hurt badly. Sunnywhisker told me they aren't broken but yet they hurt like nuts." He smirked.
Wetpaw licked his ear. "It was brave of you to stay in battle so I could escape." She smiled.
Tigerpaw blushed. "It was nothing..." He bit his lip.
Wetpaw shook her head. "No Tigerpaw, you were wounded for me. It takes a true friend to do that." She purred.
As Wetpaw started to pad away Tigerpaw looked to her. "Hey Wetpaw, thanks for being my friend." He looked to his paws.
Wetpaw nodded and padded off smiling.
Chapter Six- The Beginning Of Them
Wetpaw felt the snow come down on the white forest floor, it was a beautiful sight. The banks of the trees were white and the bark on the trees had flecks of frost. All topped off by the white blanket of snow that rested on the forest floor.
Wetpaw thought about Rage, she knew her dreams were real. But she was called Citrine and the last she saw of Rage in those so called memories is when he was chasing her almost over five moons ago. She looked to see that the rest of the teaching patrol was with her, Hazelpaw, Ripplepaw, and Sparrowstar was with the three apprentices.
Sparrowstar looked to them. "Halt and sit." He meowed to them.
Wetpaw swatted her tail and the snow making it melt down so she could see on solid ground. Hazelpaw fluffed her fur up, she had that thicker fur since she was still new to being an apprentice. Wetpaw knew it took time fur her fur to become glossy. Though she still had some fluffy areas here and there.
Sparrowstar nodded to them. "Since the lake has iced over we can't train. But in three more moons the lake will melt then we may train, but for now we'll use the snow as a substance." He meowed.
"How can we use it Sparrowstar?" Ripplepaw asked flicking her tail. "I mean, it's freezing!" She shivered.
Sparrowstar sighed. "I guess you're right, If I was you trudge hard in the snow you might get white-cough." She meowed.
Hazelpaw shrugged. "So do we call off training today?" She mused.
Sparrowstar shook his head. "We will hunt instead. With the lowness on prey we need all we can catch." He looked to the distance ears perking for the slightest sound of a mouse scurrying around.
Wetpaw felt her stomach grumble and she nodded, they desperatly needed prey. Not only for her but the elders, even Whitewhisker seemed almost too old the bare, since the moons had passed he seemed to care even less about taking care of himself.
She shook the thought from her head and looked back and Sparrowstar nodding. She looked to the iced over ferns and sighed. Today it would be harder to catch prey than any other day in Leaf-bare. Instead of hunting Wetpaw dodged those patrols and went on the border ones. Which were way easier even with the snowy border markings.
Wetpaw slipped through the ferns and sniffed around for the slightest scent of prey in this snow full area. There was nothing, it looked like the Clan would become hungry once again.
Wetpaw came back to camp empty pawed, Hazelpaw and Ripplepaw both got a mouse but sadly Wetpaw kept searching but never found anything.
Tigerpaw ran to her. "Wetpaw! Dawnfur ran off, she told me she was going to the river! But it's iced over!" He breathed.
"Oh no!" Wetpaw gasped. "I need to find her, you stay here!" Wetpaw ran out of camp.
Wetpaw ran threw the snow. "Dawnfur!" She cried.
There was no site on the ginger warrior, where was she?
She could've already got to the river so Wetpaw ran in the direction of the river, she kept running ignoring the frosty pain in her feet from the freezing snow.
Finally, she caught site of a ginger color in the bright whiteness that covered the land.
"Dawnfur!" She yowled and ran to her.
Dawnfur slowly turned and looked at Wetpaw pain in her eyes. "Wetpaw...Leave now."
"But...Why Dawnfur? The river is iced over, what are you doing?" She murmured.
Dawnfur shook her head and dissapeared in the ferns.
Wetpaw gasped and heard ice crack, she ran into the ferns and saw Dawnfur sputtering and splashing in the water.
"NO! Dawnfur!" Wetpaw cried loudly and ran to the edge of the river.
When the current pushed Dawnfur closer to her Wetpaw grabbed her scruff and heaved her up.
Wetpaw looked at the wet ginger warrior.
"Dawnfur...Why did you go over the river? You knew it was iced over..." Wetpaw's lip quivered.
Dawnfur heaved in a heap of air. "Wetpaw, I need to tell you something....I wanted to die, I needed to. So you didn't now what I did. But it's time I tell you the truth...When your mother was taken by your father, It was me who killed her. I nver told you because I left, I never wanted to kill her, I was forced to. But I left to here for a new start, but then I met you and you became my apprentice...Im so sorry Wetpaw...But this is a start of a new goodbye."
Wetpaw gasped. "Dawnfur...No please, don't go...I will avenge this, Rage will die....." Wetpaw cried.
Wetpaw looked at the soaked body, she couldn't believe her own mentor had killed her own mother. But why Dawnfur? How could this happen? But she knew this was bad, Ragestar was killing too many cats, and not from claw and teeth.
The dawn light bursted into the apprentice den as Wetpaw woke up. Grief tugged at her pelt as she felt anxiousness churn in her belly. Her new mentor was Flamefall, it was an honor to be mentored by the deputy but Wetpaw was sad from the loss of Dawnfur. Nothing could compare to her, she was with Wetpaw even in the gathering competition. But when Wetpaw had to tell Sparrowstar she said she saw Dawnfur accidently fall into the river while trying to fish over the iced river. But that lie would linger in her mind forever.
She shook away the thought when she saw Tigerpaw pad to her.
"Hey Wetpaw..." He meowed softly, just like when he became an apprentice.
Wetpaw looked to him and she faked a smile. "What's up?" She meowed.
Tigerpaw bit his lip. "Well you're gonna become a warrior in two moons...Then I have to wait three moons after you become a warrior so I can..." He sighed.
"So? What's wrong about that?" Wetpaw looked confused.
"I wanted us to be warrior together..." He shuffled his paws looking down.
Wetpaw blushed. "Oh...I may be able to squeeze some things by Sparrowstar so you and your sisters can become...Well, warriors with me." She smiled.
Tigerpaw's eyes widened. "R-really! That would be great Wetpaw! Thank you! Thank you!" He purred.
Wetpaw nodded but then stopped. "Tigerpaw..." She whispered.
Tigerpaw looked to her. "What is it Wetpaw?" He asked.
"We can't deny it any longer Tigerpaw! I love you!" She cried out.
Tigerpaw looked stunned. "Are...Are you serious?" He meowed softly.
Wetpaw nodded blushing.
"Wetpaw...So it's true, I love you too." He meowed smiling.
Wetpaw grinned. "Then in a moon we can be together." She closed her eyes purring.
Flamefall shivered against the bits of snow that stuck to his fur. "Wetpaw, have you learned the water combat moves?" He asked, even though the lake still was frozen over along with the river they practiced some of the water moves in the snow since the snow had died down.
Wetpaw nodded. "Dawnfur taught me some and you taught me the rest." She choked a bit saying Dawnfur.
"Good good. And all the regular basic moves?" He flicked his tail.
Wetpaw nodded once more. "Yes Flamefall. I learned those in the my first three moons of training."
Flamefall stiffled a purr. "You will be a wonderful warrior."
"Thanks Flamefall." Wetpaw dipped her head. "You were a good mentor."
"And you were a good learner." He meowed.
Wetpaw looked up. "When will I take my final assisment?" She asked, curiousity in her eyes.
"Soon my apprentice. When the time comes you will know and I will know." He closed his eyes.
"Okay." Wetpaw nodded, wishing with anticiapation that her assisment would be tomorrow.
Flamefall looked to the setting sun, the air getting colder as the sun went closer to the horizon. "Go back to camp Wetpaw, I'll stay here and hunt." He looked back to her.
Wetpaw perked her frost studded ears. "Shouldn't I stay and hunt to?" She mew sounded sad.
"No. It's getting cold and I need you to check up on Grayfeather and Ripplepaw." He bit his lip. "They're both in Sunnywhisker's den, they've been coughing all day." Then he murmured something else to himself.
Wetpaw flinched. What if they have green-cough? She thought frightened.
She nodded and headed to the closest path to camp.
Wetpaw skidded to a stop at the entrance to RiverClan camp. She slowly rustled in through the ferns that guarded the scent of RiverClan so intruders couldn't scent RiverClan camp so easily. The burst into camp, seeing Tigerpaw sleeping under a tree, a new bundle of cobwebs wrapped up his legs.
She turned her head over to the medicine den, seeing faint shadows from inside. She slowly padded to the medicine den, and saw Sunnywhisker looking over two cats. Grayfeather and Ripplepaw.
Wetpaw gasped. "A-are they okay?" She swallowed hard.
Sunnywhisker's fur was dull and she looked sad. "No...They're both very sick, and I don't think I can save them."
"Is there any hope?" Wetpaw pleaded.
Sunnywhisker stayed silent until she shook her head.
Wetpaw closed her eyes, no wonder the den seemed dimmed and dark. StarClan was trying to tell them that these cats weren't going to survive.
Wetpaw turned her head when Ripplepaw sniffed, her nose runny. Wetpaw winced, she couldn't bare loosing one of her denmates, and she knew Tigerpaw and Hazelpaw wouldn't bare loosing two members of their family.
Grayfeather flicked his tail in his sleep, he murmured, "ShadowClan has fallen..." Then he murmured other words in his rest that were too low to understand.
Those words stung in Wetpaw's mind, then she remembered what ShadowClan's leader had done to her Clan, Rage or so called "Ragestar" had almost crippled Tigerpaw, had killed Dawnfur and put her Clan into battle once two many times. She knew her promise to herself, she needed to find a way to kill that horrible leader, and she would have Tigerpaw by her side.
"Thank you Sunnywhisker." Wetpaw dipped her head and padded out of the medicine den.
Chapter Seven- The Time Begins
Wetpaw slowly trotted through the snow, it came belly high on her. A white kit would surely be lost in this ocean of snow forever if it got loose.
She was following after the clan. Tonight was the gathering. She was scared, would Rage follow the gathering rules? She bit her lip hard.
Story originally written at- "http://warriorsfanfic.wikia.com/wiki/Whispering_Rivers"
Mist looked at her small little kit, Citrine, she had dark grey fur and had just opened her tinted yellow eyes. She was a beautiful kit, but living in BloodClan was harsh, she knew soon Rage, their leader, would kill the tiny bundle of fur. Even though Rage was the father of Citrine, he was still so cruel.
"We need to escape Citrine...." She whispered.
Rage burst into her small den and growled, showing his sharp teeth eyes full with anger.
"Mist." He spat with his raging voice. "You must come with me."
Mist looked to her kit then to Rage with big, fearful eyes. "Rage no!" She said in a deep voice, almost to a growl. "I can't let you kill my kit."
Rage glared at Citrine, suckling milk from one of her mother's teats, warmth flooding in her.
"Then you must come with me." His grin flooded across his face, eyes narrowed evily.
Mist was then dragged by force out of the den by Rage, the little kit shivering slightly in the Leaf-Fall wind.
Cold. Citrine shivered and looked around.
Where was she? And where was her mother?
She waited a long time, almost until moonhigh, until she heard the faint rustle of someone coming into her den. Her father Rage, stood before her, his gloomy black pelt hidden by the red patches of blood. Citrine hid back looking at him with big, horrorable eyes.
What has he done to my mother!
Chapter One- Faint Dreams and Memories
Wetpaw shifted up from her dream glancing around, she was shivering and felt a brush of cold run over her spine. She was only seven moons old, and joined RiverClan a moon ago after escaping her old home, which her old home she no longer remembered, as she was knocked out from a fall after escaping. But yet she had spine-chilling dreams, they were hard to understand, faint and weird.
It was when she was a small kit, there was a warmthing she-cat, and a dark black tom. The she-cat always was tooken away by the tom and Wetpaw always saw the black cat come back, with blood stained on his pelt. It frightened her, yet she had seen the same dream for almost a quarter-moon, but each time she saw it, it was more clearer.
She never got the reason though, never got how these dreams entered her small head, and how she remembered them. She couldn't even remember what she ate for breakfast in the morning.
"Wetpaw?" Her ginger colored mentor Dawnfur, poked her triangular head in the small apprentice den.
Wetpaw looked to her lifting her head, to her bright mentor. "Yes Dawnfur?" She meowed blinking the last bit of sleep from her eyes.
Dawnfur ruffled her pelt from the chilly wind that entered the den. "Some light patches of snow have been spotted on the ground, Sparrowstar says he wants us to check out the river to see if it has iced over yet."
"Wow, snow already...And it's only late Leaf-fall." Wetpaw licked her paw, swiping it over her ear. Her pelt was beautifully groomed.
Dawnfur shrugged. "Late Leaf-fall means early Leaf-Bare." He fur rippled across her spine.
Wetpaw nodded and stretched to her long legs, it was unusual how she was the only apprentice but Leafpelt's kits would be on the way to apprenticeship in three more moons. The two padded out of the den and Wetpaw stepped into some frosted mud. She shivered off the cold dirt and looked at her paw, now brown from the mud.
The weather was cold and the air was moist, the ground damp. Easily it detirmined some snow late this afternoon. She looked to some warriors, Snowheart, Creampelt, and Grayfeather all building some more protection for the dens, looks like they were preparing. Wetpaw finally noticed she was trailing behind Dawnfur and quickly caught up with her. Then the two padded out of camp.
"Wetpaw! Over here!" Wetpaw's mentor called over from the east side of the river.
Wetpaw perked her ears, whiskers twitching and ran over. She saw some patches of ice in the river and saw they had rigged edges, looks like no fish today. She saw the water, her reflection didn't show in the black pit.
Wetpaw raised her head to her mentor. "Should this be alerted to the Clan?" Another chilly wind made Wetpaw wince.
"Yes, definitely." Dawnfur didn't take her eyes off the river, even through the freezing spray of the rushing river. "We need to get to camp now."
Wetpaw's eyes widened, what troubled Dawnfur so much? It was only some thin patches of ice.
Wetpaw sat at the entrance of RiverClan camp, the Clan had just gone out to battle with WindClan, at the lake. Wetpaw, and Grayfeather were left to guard. it was quiet and boring.
"Grayfeather, what are we suppose to do?" Wetpaw groaned after another blow of freezing air made her breath appear. "We've been guarding the camp since Sun-high, now it's almost nighttime."
Grayfeather glanced to Wetpaw who was shivering lightly over by the entrance. "Wetpaw, I guess their attack is going on longer than I thought....I guess you can rest if you want, but I'll be waking you up at Moon-high." His long feathery gray fur blew like a horse's mane in the wind and his light yellow eyes looked amber in the shadowing clouds.
"Really?" Wetpaw's ear flicked up her face brightening, she was very tired after guarding the camp for such a long time. He fur ruffled at her flanks and she stretched to her long limbed legs. "Thanks Grayfeather!" She raced to her den, faster than she even wanted.
Wetpaw lay down in her nest, fluffy up the moss before flattening down a nice spot for her body to lay, she laid her tail tip lightly over her nose and closed her eyes. Now was the time she would rest. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted to sleep, the wind blocked out by the tough pieces of brambles and the on going branches that connected to her den. Then she slowly went into dreaming, another dream.
Wetpaw was startled, she was on her paws running fast. But why? She tried to run the other direction but her paws were glued to were she was going.
What's happening? Wetpaw tried to mew but she couldn't say a word.
She looked behind her and the hair on her neck stood up, there was herself, running from that same black tom, but this time with a white tom by his side. Wetpaw started to run faster, air gasping from her. She felt younger, almost two moons and it was a bit warmer than back at camp.
What do you want from me! Wetpaw still tried to cry out.
She decided just to run faster away from the gloomy, mean, angry cats. The toms ran faster at her but Wetpaw just couldn't stop running, until she tripped. She tripped on a small rock and she saw a pit of sticks and leaves.
YIKES! She still couldn't speak.
"Citrine!" She heard a cry.
She heard another voice. "It's fine, she's probably dead like we wanted."
She gasped, this time out loud. She wasn't in her body, well was she? Everything started to grow blurry, then blurrier until she felt a deep tense in her muscles then everything turned dark, then black. Wetpaw felt uncontrollable spinning, and everything was turning blurry again, figures of some light grey cat that she remembered in the first dreams. She heard a voice.
Wetpaw? It meowed.
WETPAW!
Wetpaw was pushed awake by the prodding Grayfeather. "Wha...?" She muttered.
"Wetpaw," Grayfeather meowed, with frost bits on his pelt, making it look grey with white spots. "The Clan is back from the attack."
Wetpaw lifted her small head, eyes brightening. "Really?"
Grayfeather nodded, looking graceful. "We won, they let us over-come the field, the place where they took over."
"Yes!"
Chapter Two- The Competition
"Run! Run faster!" Dawnfur ordered, her eyes narrowed.
Wetpaw wanted to win the contest the apprentices were having at the gathering. She felt like her long legs could run for hours, while she rain across the ever-stretching field, she thought about her dream. How she ran, but not from her mind, running from something, that made herself terrified. She kept thinking about it, until she blinked into reality haulting before running into a tree.
Dawnfur ran toward her. "Wetpaw, you could've run into a tree, what were you thinking?" She sighed.
Wetpaw shuffled her feet, the cold wind fluffing her fur. "About my dreams." She said seriously.
Dawnfur's eye whisker raised. "They're getting bad aren't they?"
"Yeah, I had a dream I was running from two, big cats. They were mean and I couldn't move myself, I just kept running...Until I fell into a big pile of sticks and leaves." Wetpaw nodded and looked to her paws, shuddering.
Dawnfur thought for a minute. "We found you in a big pile of sticks and leaves, when we took you into RiverClan." Dawnfur's eyes widened. "It's when you said you had no memory on what happened before."
"You mean...It might not be just a dream?" Wetpaw gasped.
Dawnfur nodded sincerely. "More likely a memory."
Wetpaw glanced to her frail paws. "You mean...I might've got this scar on my flank from falling into that pile?" She looked to her flank, it had a long scar across it.
"Maybe, there's no way we can make sure, I mean if you don't remember much it could've happened when you were younger." Dawnfur meowed flicking her paw.
"I guess you're right, there is no way we can put our paw on it if it might not even me true." Wetpaw shrugged.
Dawnfur nudged her shoulder. "Just keep your eyes on the prize for the gathering, you were the chosen apprentice." Dawnfur grinned.
Wetpaw laughed. "I'm the only apprentice!" She smiled. "I'll race you to camp."
Dawnfur nodded and the two raced to camp.
Wetpaw stretched as she sniffed the prey from the fresh-kill pile. She hardly felt hungry since the gathering was tonight. She decided on a small thrush. It was some of the best prey since the weather turned harsh and cold.
She took a deep breath as Sparrowstar padded toward her, he was a brown tom with a white muzzle and paws.
"Eat up." He smiled. "You need streangh for the competition." He nudged the thrush toward her.
Wetpaw nodded and took a bite, carefully spitting out the feathers. "I know, but Im so excited!" She swallowed the warm meat, licking her lips.
Sparrowstar looked at her. "Well eat as much as you can, when I was an apprentice RiverClan was ruled by a cat named Smokestar, we had a contest amongst RiverClan, we would have competitions with all the RiverClan apprentices. I didn't eat and in the middle of a contest I was so hungry that I lost the contest because of lack of energy." Sparrowstar sighed.
Wetpaw pricked her ears after swallowing another featherless bite. "What was the contest?" She mewed.
"Running." Sparrowstar answered.
Wetpaw swallowed hard. Running was her streangh, expecially in competitions. If she didn't have energy she would surely loose.
"I gotta eat." Wetpaw assured herself as Sparrowstar padded off to call out the people who were going to the gathering.
At the gathering Wetpaw bit her lip, waiting for the competition to start after the leaders talked about their Clans. WindClan said their prey was getting a bit harder to find but they would survive, ShadowClan said they were rich in prey, ThunderClan said their prey was nice but they knew it would get scarcer and RiverClan didn't say much except that the prey was normal. Finally Sparrowstar called onto the apprentices for the competition.
I padded behind Sparrowstar on the split-rock. Spiderpaw, a black tom with grey eyes and brown flecks padded behind ThunderClan's leader, Beetlestar. Hollypaw a black she-cat with white paws and green eyes padded behind the WindClan's leader, Cloudstar. And finally Blackpaw, a black tom with yellow eyes padded behind ShadowClan's leader, Swiftstar.
"Now we will start the Leaf-bare apprentice competition." Beetlestar announced to the Clans.
Meows of encouragment rippled across the cats. Some even cheered for the apprentice that represented their Clan, even Wetpaw heard some cats cheering her name.
She took a deep breath. "Im ready." She murmured.
The other cats looked a tad more confident than Wetpaw, but inside Wetpaw felt like she could win it all. Wetpaw hissed at the other contestants.
"Don't worry about me, I may be small but Im powerful." She growled.
The cats eyed her, expecially Blackpaw. Blackpaw eyed her with more than anger, suspiciousness and something that Wetpaw couldn't put her paw on.
His voice was deep with frightening anger. "Don't bet on it tiny idiot." He snarled.
Wetpaw flinched back.
Finally the competition began. Wetpaw was relieved, first up was the tree climbing contest. Spiderpaw and Blackpaw raced up and down the tree, from Spiderpaw's great climbing skills he won by a mouse-leangh. Next up Hollypaw and Wetpaw.
Wetpaw took a deep breath.
"Ready, set, GO!" Cloudstar called out.
Wetpaw climbed, but her long limbed legs barely let her hold on tightly. Hollypaw climbed like a squirrel and won even before Wetpaw got to climb down. Wetpaw kept calm and congatulated Hollypaw.
As the contests went by, hunting, obstacle courses and even doing rock climbing up a rock hill, Wetpaw lost them all.
"I'm losing..." Wetpaw murmured to Dawnfur.
Dawnfur sighed. "Don't worry, running is up next." She grinned with confidence.
Wetpaw nodded and the Clans were lead to the field for the last challenge.
Wetpaw was in her running stance with all the other apprentices, Blackpaw on her left side, Spiderpaw on her right.
"You're not gonna win shrimp." Blackpaw sneered.
Spiderpaw sighed at Blackpaw's remark along with Hollypaw, obviosly both of them were getting tired of him being such a jerk.
Wetpaw narrowed her eyes. "Let me win, but if I do not win let me be brave in the attempt." She meowed with complete confidence.
"You think that will make you look cooler?" Blackpaw growled.
"GO!" Beetlestar called out.
Wetpaw raced out across the field, everything else blocked from her mind but running. She ran and ran her feet felt like air from how fast she was going, she turned and raced back. Finally she was out of breath and was at the finish line.
Beetlestar nodded in approvel. "Wetpaw wins."
Blackpaw growled clenching his teeth. "Congratulations shrimp." He sneered.
Wetpaw ignored Blackpaw's comment and enjoyed the praises of her clanmates and other cats.
"Good job Wetpaw." Spiderpaw congratulated.
Hollypaw nodded. "Yeah, you did great." She smiled.
Wetpaw finally won, it took awhile but finally she found something she was actually good at. Wetpaw ran over to Dawnfur and grinned brightly.
"Good job Wetpaw, when we get to camp you can have the biggest piece of prey you want." Dawnfur slowly nodded happily.
The Clans said their goodbyes and each padded out to their camps.
Wetpaw lay in her nest after eating the biggest vole she could handle. It was wonderful to be praised by the warriors. She hoped Leafpelt's kits would become apprentices soon, it would only be a moon until they were ready.
I just need to wait for the next gathering and they'll be ready. Wetpaw thought.
There was only three little kits only two moons old when Wetpaw joined MistClan. Two she-kits and one tom. One she-kit named Hazelkit had creamy-brown fur and hazel eyes like her mother, the other she-kit was named Ripplekit, she had blue-grey fur like her father; Grayfeather, her fur looked like ripples and she had blue eyes. The last one, the tom, was named Tigerkit, he had brown fur with black stripes.
Wetpaw kept wondering about the apprentices while she laid on her back. She yawned getting tired, she wondered if how Hazelkit told Wetpaw that Tigerkit liked her was true. She didn't know if she actually liked him back. But then Wetpaw decided she needed some rest. It had been a tough day.
Wetpaw yawned and shut her eyes, her fur shimmered in the moonlight that streamed through the cracks in the roof her den.
Chapter Three- The Apprentice Ceremony
Wetpaw poked the bark of the tree, seeing if the moss was dry enough for the nests.
She stripped it off the tree, thinking about Leafpelt's kits.
"Tomorrow they become apprentices." She meowed to herself.
There was almost some sort of excitement in her mew, Wetpaw was very excited about the kits being apprentices. She wondered what type of apprentices Tigerkit, Ripplekit and Hazelkit would be. Would they be loyal, strong and proud? Wetpaw sighed. Dawnfur had told her all apprentices had a different way of showing the way the were loyal to the Clan. Wetpaw was independent, Tigerkit showed streangh, Hazelkit showed the perfect loyal apprentice, and Ripplekit showed the same thing Wetpaw always wanted, sympathy.
Wetpaw wadded the moss into balls and stuck it into her jaws, then she padded back to camp.
Whitewhisker got up from his nest so Wetpaw could replace the moss. He was the newest elder, and not a very old warrior. He retired early dew to stiffness in his bones, something that made it hard to walk.
Wetpaw gathered up the last of his used nest and replaced it with the springy new moss.
"Good day Wetpaw." He meowed with a deep voice.
Wetpaw turned her head before she grabbed the used moss. "Hey Whitewhisker." She meowed to the white tom with yellow eyes.
Whitewhisker nodded. "Leafpelt's kits are being apprenticed today." He meowed.
"Really? I gotta hurry or Im gonna miss it!" Wetpaw gasped.
"I can make my own nest, just hurry Wetpaw.." Whitewhisker ordered.
Wetpaw nodded and ran out of the den, she saw Tigerkit, Ripplekit and Hazelkit on the River-rock. By them was Sparrowstar waiting patiently.
Wetpaw didn't notice he already called the Clan meeting. Excitment surged through her, but as she looked at the kits she imagined her being almost in kit form snuggling around her mother from her dreams. She shook away the thought and listened to the apprentice ceremony.
Sparrowstar cleared his throat. "By apprenticing kits we show that RiverClan is strong and will never back down." He called out to the Clan.
Many murmurs of approvement rippled across the clearing.
He continued. "Tigerkit, Ripplekit and Hazelkit, until you have reached the state of warriorship you are now Tigerpaw, Ripplepaw and Hazelpaw. Tigerpaw's mentor is Pebblefoot, Ripplepaw's mentor is Snowheart and Hazelpaw's mentor is Creampelt." His voice rose among the cats.
The three warriors padded up to the rock and the three apprentices jumped down and touched noses with them. Pride and joy exploded inside Wetpaw, she remembered becoming an apprentice, he saying the same speech and Dawnfur padding up to her. It was a memory Wetpaw would never forget.
After the cheering and yells died down the three new apprentices crowded over to Wetpaw.
"Now you won't be alone in the apprentice den!" Ripplepaw cheered.
Hazelpaw had a huge smile. "Will you teach us some stuff that will make us the coolest apprentices around?" Hazelpaw pleaded.
Tigerpaw blushed and looked to his paws. "Can I put my nest next to yours?" He meowed a bit embarrassed.
Wetpaw blushed. "I will teach you some cool stuff, and sure you can put your nest next to mine." She smiled happily.
Leafpelt rushed over to her kits. "Guys, go put up your nests and leave Wetpaw alone. She has her own duties to do." Leafpelt ordered.
Ripplepaw groaned. "Aw mom!" She sighed as the three padded to their new den with their mother trailing behind them.
Wetpaw laughed a bit. It was hilarious to see new apprentices emabarrassed by their own mother.
Dawnfur padded up to Wetpaw, her sleek ginger fur was glossy and shimmering. "Wetpaw, can you come on the patrol with us? The river has froze again and we need to check it out." She bit her lip.
Wetpaw hadn't noticed the cold so much since she was warming herself from running and moving around all the time. But then she noticed patches of frosty snow in the clearing. There was even bits of frost stuck on her fur.
"Okay, I'll join the patrol. Who is all in it?" Wetpaw asked.
"Pebblefoot, Grayfeather, and me." Dawnfur meowed.
Wetpaw nodded and the two ran over to the other cats and set out of camp.
Pebblefoot was talking to Grayfeather and Dawnfur as they padded toward the river. "So do you think it's over frozen?" He meowed.
"Probably, the weather is a bit colder at the river than in the camp from all the cats moving around." Dawnfur nodded.
Grayfeather entered the conversation. "But don't forget there is that rush of fish in the river, it could keep enough warmth." He meowed.
Pebblefoot smirked. "But haven't they all gone to warmer places for leaf-bare?" He asked.
Dawnfur nodded. "We must keep that it mind."
Wetpaw looked from warrior to warrior as they talked about the river, she wondered why she was the only apprentice on the patrol, but then she remembered Tigerpaw, Hazelpaw and Ripplepaw were just settling in to their new lives. It would be hard to go on a patrol just after being apprenticed.
Finally the reached the banks of the river.
"Frozen on the top, yet very thin." Pebblefoot meowed.
The other two nodded, agreeing.
Wetpaw spoke for the first time since they left for the patrol. "Don't you think we should test it? Like throw a rock on it to see how thin or thick it is." Wetpaw introduced her idea.
Grayfeather nodded. "Wetpaw is right, just to make sure we should try doing her idea." He agreed with Wetpaw.
Dawnfur smiled. "Okay, I'll go find a rock." She dissapeared into the undergrowth.
"Good job Wetpaw." Pebblefoot smiled looking to her.
Wetpaw felt happiness rise in her, she finally did something good for the Clan.
Dawnfur came back with a rock and threw it out on the ice of the river. It left a dent in it, but it didn't go through.
Pebblefoot gasped. "It's solid," His eyes widened.
Grayfeather bit his lip. "We should report this to Sparrowstar right now."
The other two nodded and they all padded back to camp.
Chapter Four- True Friend
Wetpaw was snuggled into her nest, she was tired after the long day. After they reported the news to Sparrowstar it was sun-down, and once Wetpaw was finished chatting with the new apprentices and having some prey it was already moon-high. Wetpaw hadn't relized she was pressed against Tigerpaw, since the icy winds blew into her den she was cold and needed more warmth so she just pressed against Tigerpaw. Tigerpaw didn't seem to mind it at all.
Wetpaw smiled as she suddenly relized she was pressed against him. She didn't stop though, she was still a bit cold and Tigerpaw was being nice letting her do this.
She yawned and went back to sleep.
Wetpaw awoke to Tigerpaw still against her. She stretched and slowly crept out of the den, not wanting to wake up the new apprentices. She padded into camp and shivered at the frosty air. Suddenly she heard Tigerpaw come out of the den.
"Hey Wetpaw...I was wondering," He meowed to her.
Wetpaw glanced over and smiled seeing it was Tigerpaw. "Hello Tigerpaw, what is it?" She asked.
Tigerpaw bit his lip. "Can you come training with me in the Pebble hollow?" He blurted out.
"I would love to Tigerpaw." Wetpaw purred.
Tigerpaw let out a breath of relief. "Well we better go now or my sisters are gonna decide to tag along with us." He urged.
Wetpaw nodded and they padded to the Pebble Hollow.
Wetpaw looked at the sandy hollow with pebbles rimmed around the edges. Willow trees swooped around them, it was a nice shady place to train. Yet it gave some warmth that distracted Wetpaw from the constant cold.
Tigerpaw perked his striped ears. "What do we do first?" His breath looked like a puff of smoke from the freezing air.
Wetpaw thought for a moment. "We should learn some blows, they could damage an enemy cat badly." Wetpaw told him.
"Im ready to learn it." Tigerpaw meowed.
Wetpaw spent a long time teaching Tigerpaw the blows, everytime he did something wrong Wetpaw would help him out and make it right. Sometimes both of them even did something wrong which made them laugh.
It was about sun-high when they finished and Wetpaw purred swiping her tail across the ground.
"You were great Tigerpaw, I never thought you could learn so many blows in just a day!" Wetpaw grinned.
Tigerpaw glowed with satifaction. "Thanks Wetpaw, it's only possibly because you taught me." He blushed.
Wetpaw was about to say something until a screech echoed through the forest.
"We better get back to camp!" Wetpaw gasped.
Tigerpaw nodded and they raced to camp.
Wetpaw and Tigerpaw burst into camp, cats turned their heads to face them. The faces Wetpaw could see clearly were Snowheart, Creampelt and Ripplepaw.
"What happened?" Wetpaw meowed shivering as another freezing wind blew.
Ripplepaw shook her head. "ShadowClan happened...They attacked us out of blue, and they wanted out territory. They tried running us out." She choked on some words.
Tigerpaw butted in. "Who screeched? Wetpaw and I heard a screech from the Pebble Hollow." Tigerpaw meowed.
Ripplepaw looked away and Snowheart sighed deeply.
"Tigerpaw, your mother was attacked. She was hit with a killer blow. The last thing she did was screech and she fell to the ground." Snowheart then looked away like Ripplepaw.
Tigerpaw's eyes widened. "Is...Is she dead?" Tigerpaw gasped.
Snowheart slowly nodded.
Tigerpaw wailed. "No!" He ran over to the middle of the clearing where his mother's body lay.
Wetpaw was filled with sorrow and she padded over where Tigerpaw sat, Hazelpaw was beside him. Ripplepaw was too sad even to pad over to her mother and moarn with her siblings.
"Im so sorry Tigerpaw..." Wetpaw murmured.
Tigerpaw looked to her and smiled weakly. "It's okay Wetpaw." He licked her cheek. "I still have my sisters my father and you..."
Wetpaw blushed but she could still see the pain and sadness In Tigerpaw's eyes. "You shouldn't have to go through this..." She muttered looking back at the body, anger exploded in her heart.
I need to get back at those ShadowClan low lifes... Wetpaw growled to herself.
Tigerpaw had tears running down his eyes, he was truly sad. Nothing could compare to the loves his mother gave him, not even Wetpaw could cheer him up.
Wetpaw sighed and watched some she-cats take Leafpelt away to put rosemary and other sweet smelling herbs to block off the scent of death for the vigil for her.
Wetpaw could still scent the stench of death, it filled the clearing. The only thing that made this day worse is that even Tigerpaw was sad.
"Wetpaw..." Tigerpaw whispered to her.
Wetpaw looked up. "Yes Tigerpaw?" She whispered back.
Tigerpaw sighed and looked to the sunset. "Im gonna have to use those blows you taught me on some ShadowClan cats." He narrowed his eyes.
Wetpaw slowly nodded. Right now she wanted to fight.
Wetpaw was picked with Tigerpaw and Hazelpaw as the only three apprentices along with a bunch of warriors to fight at the edge of the border with ShadowClan. This battle was called on when Sparrowstar and two other warriors went out to ShadowClan to ask why they attacked, tthey came back saying ShadowClan wanted to battle at the border the bridged their Clans.
The deputy, Flamefall was leading the patrol. His orange tabby fur looked dim in the clouded sunlight. The cats were very quiet. Ever since the death of Leafpelt the cats just wanted to attack ShadowClan.
The cats finally got to the border, there was ShadowClan just waiting for them.
"It'd about time." A black tom sneered.
Sparrowstar narrowed his eyes. "Where's Swiftstar?" He growled.
The tom smirked. "He died, I came in and I was chosen to be leader. My name Is Ragestar and I want to end this battle and take your territory." He hissed.
Wetpaw looked at his eyes, and how he looked. She gasped. This was no ordinary tom from ShadowClan and Wetpaw knew who he was.
This was the tom named Rage from her dreams.
Chapter Five- Extrodinary Battle
Before Sparrowstar could call on the battle Wetpaw ran in front of Sparrowstar and Ragestar.
"Wait!" She yowled. "We can't fight! This cat isn't suppose to be leader! He use to be a murderer!" She growled at Ragestar.
Ragestar narrowed his eyes. "Im gonna kill you first." He hissed in her ear and looked to the cats. "She is obviously misunderstood, Im not a murderer." He meowed.
Wetpaw clenched her teeth. "Look at me Rage." She hissed.
Ragestar stared at Wetpaw, his eyes widening. "Citrine?" He gasped.
"Who?" Sparrowstar said confused.
"I thought you died! When we were chasing you....You fell into a pile of sticks and rocks! You could've never survived!" He snarled.
Wetpaw narrowed her eyes. "I did Rage, and you understand that I know your secrets! You killed my mother!" She looked away before a tear ran across her face.
Sparrowstar growled, now knowing what had happened. Dawnfur must've told him about Wetpaw's weird dreams.
"So you're just a killer? I think you killed Swiftstar so you could become leader!" Sparrowstar hissed.
Ragestar curled his lip. "No," Ragestar sneered. "I killed his deputy too."
Sparrowstar gasped.
Wetpaw dug her claws into the ground. "You killed my mother!" Tears streamed down her face. "I was so small, and you...You took her! Then you wanted me to die!" Wetpaw cried.
Ragestar spat in her face. "I don't allow kits Citrine, and I never did. All kits must die! I made it a rule in BloodClan!" He yelled.
The cats became silent, it was then so clear.
Sparrowstar looked to Wetpaw. "You're from...BloodClan?" His eyes widened.
"You're darn right she is!" Ragestar growled. "Citrine has BloodClan blood in her."
Wetpaw tore the grass from beneath her paws "Im not Citrine! Im Wetpaw!" Wetpaw hissed and clawed at Ragestar's eyes.
Ragestar snarled and pinned Wetpaw down by the chest with one paw. Wetpaw held her breath, the cold wind made it even harder to breathe. But then suddenly the pressure on her chest was thrown off.
Wetpaw struggled up and saw that the three apprentices, Ripplepaw, Hazelpaw and Tigerpaw all attacked Ragestar at the same time. But soon were thrown off, luckily Ragestar was hurt pretty bad from the strong blows the three made.
Sparrowstar then attacked Ragestar and the battle had begun, claws to claws and teeth to teeth. A large warrior jumped aiming for Wetpaw. Wetpaw gasped and dodged it starting to run.
Something held down her tail and Wetpaw looked up. She gasped to see Ragestar holding down her tail. She bit Ragestar's paw and aimed at his throat. She slashed but missed and only slashed at his shoulder.
She imagined him with the coating of blood that she had memories about. She shook the memory away from her head and focused on running. She was terrified that Rage would come and kill her.
Wetpaw looked at Rage. "You won't kill me Rage!" She spat and ran.
Ragestar narrowed his eyes and just sat there, in the middle of the splattering blood. Wetpaw hadn't relized her dark grey fur was turned scarlet red, half of it was other cat's blood that hit her instead. Wetpaw bit her lip and closed her eyes hoping nobody would attack her.
She felt somebody brush against her pelt.
"Tigerpaw!" She sounded relieved, yet the blood and clumps of fur were everywhere.
Tigerpaw purred. "It's okay...If we just stay hidden in the undergrowth nobody will get us." He looked around.
Wetpaw sighed. "I must get out of here!" She shuddered.
Tigerpaw looked at the battling cats. "I will come back Wetpaw. Go back to camp, when the battle is over I promise I'll pad into that camp." He dipped his head.
Wetpaw heasitated but she knew she had to go. She looked at Tigerpaw sadly and scurried to camp hidden by the undergrowth.
Wetpaw sat by Ripplepaw, Ripplepaw looked to Wetpaw.
"Are you okay? You seem troubled." She meowed.
Wetpaw looked to Ripplepaw, she was a little smaller than she was but yet Ripplepaw was younger.
She sighed. "It's Tigerpaw, he let me escape while he told me he had to stay in battle." Wetpaw twitched her tail.
Ripplepaw looked to the setting sun as the first star came out. "He is brave...If he dies, his death will be avenged." She sat up settling her look to her paws.
"He will make It, he promised me." Wetpaw held back the tears that were behind her eyes.
"Wetpaw, I may be younger but I know this. Promises in battle can be broken, not by the cat who promised but by the cat why broke it." Ripplepaw closed her eyes sadly.
Wetpaw looked to her. "So, he might not make it?" Wetpaw's fur rose.
Ripplepaw nodded. "If a cat is so cruel enough just to fight for the kill." Ripplepaw sighed.
Wetpaw looked to the rising moon.
Please come back Tigerpaw...Please. Wetpaw pleaded to herself.
Hazelpaw prodded Wetpaw in the middle of the night. Wetpaw opened her eyes and yawned sleepily.
"What is it Hazelpaw?" Wetpaw meowed groggily.
Hazelpaw purred. "Wetpaw, ShadowClan was forced to retreat. But it was almost dawn when they decided to quit." She looked tired.
Wetpaw saw it was light out. "Did you get any sleep?" She asked.
Hazelpaw shook her head. "Nor did Tigerpaw, we came in here to tell you the good news. Well I did, Tigerpaw is snoozing outside." She yawned.
"He's alive?" Wetpaw's eyes brightened.
Hazelpaw nodded, still wanting to end the conversation. "Yeah, he barely made it out. Sunnywhisker tended to his wounds when it was almost dawn and we came back. I'm telling you, being the only one that hid from the battle was pretty weak." She moaned thinking about it.
Wetpaw thought about Hazelpaw. "You are a young apprentice. Don't worry, I mean the worst battle I've been through was the one when we battled WindClan and I was just guarding camp! Now just get some rest." Wetpaw nodded her head to Hazelpaw's nest and headed out of the den.
Some of the scratches on her pelt still stung a bit but it didn't compare to what Tigerpaw's state was in. She saw him laying by one pine tree, shading under the little flecks of snow that drizzled down.
Wetpaw shook off the frosty bits as she ran toward him, he had cobwebs all around his two hind-legs, and seemed to keep those two stretched out, it looked as if his legs hurt more than the scratches and wounds on his side.
"Are you okay?" Wetpaw sat by his side.
Tigerpaw lifted his head. "Wetpaw?" He yawned.
Wetpaw nodded. "Tigerpaw, what happened to your legs!" She meowed.
Tigerpaw looked to his cobwebbed legs. "My first severe battle wound." He laughed and looked to her. "Some ShadowClan warrior threw me across some rocks and my legs got like hurt badly. Sunnywhisker told me they aren't broken but yet they hurt like nuts." He smirked.
Wetpaw licked his ear. "It was brave of you to stay in battle so I could escape." She smiled.
Tigerpaw blushed. "It was nothing..." He bit his lip.
Wetpaw shook her head. "No Tigerpaw, you were wounded for me. It takes a true friend to do that." She purred.
As Wetpaw started to pad away Tigerpaw looked to her. "Hey Wetpaw, thanks for being my friend." He looked to his paws.
Wetpaw nodded and padded off smiling.
Chapter Six- The Beginning Of Them
Wetpaw felt the snow come down on the white forest floor, it was a beautiful sight. The banks of the trees were white and the bark on the trees had flecks of frost. All topped off by the white blanket of snow that rested on the forest floor.
Wetpaw thought about Rage, she knew her dreams were real. But she was called Citrine and the last she saw of Rage in those so called memories is when he was chasing her almost over five moons ago. She looked to see that the rest of the teaching patrol was with her, Hazelpaw, Ripplepaw, and Sparrowstar was with the three apprentices.
Sparrowstar looked to them. "Halt and sit." He meowed to them.
Wetpaw swatted her tail and the snow making it melt down so she could see on solid ground. Hazelpaw fluffed her fur up, she had that thicker fur since she was still new to being an apprentice. Wetpaw knew it took time fur her fur to become glossy. Though she still had some fluffy areas here and there.
Sparrowstar nodded to them. "Since the lake has iced over we can't train. But in three more moons the lake will melt then we may train, but for now we'll use the snow as a substance." He meowed.
"How can we use it Sparrowstar?" Ripplepaw asked flicking her tail. "I mean, it's freezing!" She shivered.
Sparrowstar sighed. "I guess you're right, If I was you trudge hard in the snow you might get white-cough." She meowed.
Hazelpaw shrugged. "So do we call off training today?" She mused.
Sparrowstar shook his head. "We will hunt instead. With the lowness on prey we need all we can catch." He looked to the distance ears perking for the slightest sound of a mouse scurrying around.
Wetpaw felt her stomach grumble and she nodded, they desperatly needed prey. Not only for her but the elders, even Whitewhisker seemed almost too old the bare, since the moons had passed he seemed to care even less about taking care of himself.
She shook the thought from her head and looked back and Sparrowstar nodding. She looked to the iced over ferns and sighed. Today it would be harder to catch prey than any other day in Leaf-bare. Instead of hunting Wetpaw dodged those patrols and went on the border ones. Which were way easier even with the snowy border markings.
Wetpaw slipped through the ferns and sniffed around for the slightest scent of prey in this snow full area. There was nothing, it looked like the Clan would become hungry once again.
Wetpaw came back to camp empty pawed, Hazelpaw and Ripplepaw both got a mouse but sadly Wetpaw kept searching but never found anything.
Tigerpaw ran to her. "Wetpaw! Dawnfur ran off, she told me she was going to the river! But it's iced over!" He breathed.
"Oh no!" Wetpaw gasped. "I need to find her, you stay here!" Wetpaw ran out of camp.
Wetpaw ran threw the snow. "Dawnfur!" She cried.
There was no site on the ginger warrior, where was she?
She could've already got to the river so Wetpaw ran in the direction of the river, she kept running ignoring the frosty pain in her feet from the freezing snow.
Finally, she caught site of a ginger color in the bright whiteness that covered the land.
"Dawnfur!" She yowled and ran to her.
Dawnfur slowly turned and looked at Wetpaw pain in her eyes. "Wetpaw...Leave now."
"But...Why Dawnfur? The river is iced over, what are you doing?" She murmured.
Dawnfur shook her head and dissapeared in the ferns.
Wetpaw gasped and heard ice crack, she ran into the ferns and saw Dawnfur sputtering and splashing in the water.
"NO! Dawnfur!" Wetpaw cried loudly and ran to the edge of the river.
When the current pushed Dawnfur closer to her Wetpaw grabbed her scruff and heaved her up.
Wetpaw looked at the wet ginger warrior.
"Dawnfur...Why did you go over the river? You knew it was iced over..." Wetpaw's lip quivered.
Dawnfur heaved in a heap of air. "Wetpaw, I need to tell you something....I wanted to die, I needed to. So you didn't now what I did. But it's time I tell you the truth...When your mother was taken by your father, It was me who killed her. I nver told you because I left, I never wanted to kill her, I was forced to. But I left to here for a new start, but then I met you and you became my apprentice...Im so sorry Wetpaw...But this is a start of a new goodbye."
Wetpaw gasped. "Dawnfur...No please, don't go...I will avenge this, Rage will die....." Wetpaw cried.
Wetpaw looked at the soaked body, she couldn't believe her own mentor had killed her own mother. But why Dawnfur? How could this happen? But she knew this was bad, Ragestar was killing too many cats, and not from claw and teeth.
The dawn light bursted into the apprentice den as Wetpaw woke up. Grief tugged at her pelt as she felt anxiousness churn in her belly. Her new mentor was Flamefall, it was an honor to be mentored by the deputy but Wetpaw was sad from the loss of Dawnfur. Nothing could compare to her, she was with Wetpaw even in the gathering competition. But when Wetpaw had to tell Sparrowstar she said she saw Dawnfur accidently fall into the river while trying to fish over the iced river. But that lie would linger in her mind forever.
She shook away the thought when she saw Tigerpaw pad to her.
"Hey Wetpaw..." He meowed softly, just like when he became an apprentice.
Wetpaw looked to him and she faked a smile. "What's up?" She meowed.
Tigerpaw bit his lip. "Well you're gonna become a warrior in two moons...Then I have to wait three moons after you become a warrior so I can..." He sighed.
"So? What's wrong about that?" Wetpaw looked confused.
"I wanted us to be warrior together..." He shuffled his paws looking down.
Wetpaw blushed. "Oh...I may be able to squeeze some things by Sparrowstar so you and your sisters can become...Well, warriors with me." She smiled.
Tigerpaw's eyes widened. "R-really! That would be great Wetpaw! Thank you! Thank you!" He purred.
Wetpaw nodded but then stopped. "Tigerpaw..." She whispered.
Tigerpaw looked to her. "What is it Wetpaw?" He asked.
"We can't deny it any longer Tigerpaw! I love you!" She cried out.
Tigerpaw looked stunned. "Are...Are you serious?" He meowed softly.
Wetpaw nodded blushing.
"Wetpaw...So it's true, I love you too." He meowed smiling.
Wetpaw grinned. "Then in a moon we can be together." She closed her eyes purring.
Flamefall shivered against the bits of snow that stuck to his fur. "Wetpaw, have you learned the water combat moves?" He asked, even though the lake still was frozen over along with the river they practiced some of the water moves in the snow since the snow had died down.
Wetpaw nodded. "Dawnfur taught me some and you taught me the rest." She choked a bit saying Dawnfur.
"Good good. And all the regular basic moves?" He flicked his tail.
Wetpaw nodded once more. "Yes Flamefall. I learned those in the my first three moons of training."
Flamefall stiffled a purr. "You will be a wonderful warrior."
"Thanks Flamefall." Wetpaw dipped her head. "You were a good mentor."
"And you were a good learner." He meowed.
Wetpaw looked up. "When will I take my final assisment?" She asked, curiousity in her eyes.
"Soon my apprentice. When the time comes you will know and I will know." He closed his eyes.
"Okay." Wetpaw nodded, wishing with anticiapation that her assisment would be tomorrow.
Flamefall looked to the setting sun, the air getting colder as the sun went closer to the horizon. "Go back to camp Wetpaw, I'll stay here and hunt." He looked back to her.
Wetpaw perked her frost studded ears. "Shouldn't I stay and hunt to?" She mew sounded sad.
"No. It's getting cold and I need you to check up on Grayfeather and Ripplepaw." He bit his lip. "They're both in Sunnywhisker's den, they've been coughing all day." Then he murmured something else to himself.
Wetpaw flinched. What if they have green-cough? She thought frightened.
She nodded and headed to the closest path to camp.
Wetpaw skidded to a stop at the entrance to RiverClan camp. She slowly rustled in through the ferns that guarded the scent of RiverClan so intruders couldn't scent RiverClan camp so easily. The burst into camp, seeing Tigerpaw sleeping under a tree, a new bundle of cobwebs wrapped up his legs.
She turned her head over to the medicine den, seeing faint shadows from inside. She slowly padded to the medicine den, and saw Sunnywhisker looking over two cats. Grayfeather and Ripplepaw.
Wetpaw gasped. "A-are they okay?" She swallowed hard.
Sunnywhisker's fur was dull and she looked sad. "No...They're both very sick, and I don't think I can save them."
"Is there any hope?" Wetpaw pleaded.
Sunnywhisker stayed silent until she shook her head.
Wetpaw closed her eyes, no wonder the den seemed dimmed and dark. StarClan was trying to tell them that these cats weren't going to survive.
Wetpaw turned her head when Ripplepaw sniffed, her nose runny. Wetpaw winced, she couldn't bare loosing one of her denmates, and she knew Tigerpaw and Hazelpaw wouldn't bare loosing two members of their family.
Grayfeather flicked his tail in his sleep, he murmured, "ShadowClan has fallen..." Then he murmured other words in his rest that were too low to understand.
Those words stung in Wetpaw's mind, then she remembered what ShadowClan's leader had done to her Clan, Rage or so called "Ragestar" had almost crippled Tigerpaw, had killed Dawnfur and put her Clan into battle once two many times. She knew her promise to herself, she needed to find a way to kill that horrible leader, and she would have Tigerpaw by her side.
"Thank you Sunnywhisker." Wetpaw dipped her head and padded out of the medicine den.
Chapter Seven- The Time Begins
Wetpaw slowly trotted through the snow, it came belly high on her. A white kit would surely be lost in this ocean of snow forever if it got loose.
She was following after the clan. Tonight was the gathering. She was scared, would Rage follow the gathering rules? She bit her lip hard.
Story originally written at- "http://warriorsfanfic.wikia.com/wiki/Whispering_Rivers"
