𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 | 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

-Chapter Ten-

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The best you could hope to be is now just a bittersweet memory 

And you make breaking hearts look so easy.

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After two moons of being an apprentice Lionpaw had finally gotten used to it, most of it at least. RowanScar made sure her training was pure torture always happy to demonstrate a battle move she got wrong on her, and her den mates weren't exactly the nicest cats but all together she felt she was getting as used to as possible of her new life. 

The leaves were falling around her as she went to soak moss for the elders PaintedSky and HalfBrook who were suffering from stiff limbs. The best place to get water was at the border between DuskClan and SunClan, no one owned the stream that separated their territories, because  both clans put their scent markers on the bank. When she reached the stream red leaves were already bobbing in it, she paid no notice to them and started soaking the moss, this is the fourth time in a row RowanScar's made me look after the elders! She thought bitterly, though she loved the three elders and this was more of a break from her usual training than a punishment, she had a feeling that RowanScar had something bad planned and whatever it was it was going to hurt. She stopped soaking the moss as it had gotten almost as heavy as the pheasant she'd caught when she was a new apprentice, RowanScar had said it was tiny but she and PaintedSky (who ate it later that day) did not agree. She walked up the mountainside carefully and quickly so she could get the moss to the elders. By the time she reached the buckbrush tunnel she was completely and utterly exhausted, and I have to hunt for the elders after this! Her mind moaned woefully as she trekked through the tunnel. When she got to the elders den HalfBrook was having a nap, Oatfur was nowhere to be seen, typical  she thought, Oatfur had never really recovered after Brown Birds death, and PaintedSky was nibbling halfheartedly on a scrawny grey mouse. 

"Lionpaw!" PaintedSky bounced up "Yes! your back! Do you have the wet moss" She added looking at her expectantly her sage green eyes watching her carefully. Lionpaw nodded down at the moss and gestured for her to take it, "Thankyou! my tongue is so parched!!!!!!!" PaintedSky rambled as she took the moss from her. Lionpaw walked towards the exit briskly, PaintedSky needs food, she told herself, that scrawny mouse isn't going to feed her! PaintedSky looked up at her from where she was drinking the moss, "Where are you going now Lionpaw?" She asked the younger cat.

"Just going hunting for you guys." She responded calmly her tail flicking casually from left to right. 

"Have you had any food yet?" PaintedSky asked her gaze sympathetic, she must have noticed how scrawny Lionpaw was looking, the prey had started going into their nests for Coldfrost, so some people had to go to sleep on empty stomachs most nights.

"No not yet." She meowed trying not to sound wistful as she looked at the mouse near PaintedSky's dainty white paws. 

"Well I can't finish this one," PaintedSky meowed warmly "come have the rest." Lionpaw dipped her head in a thank you then sat down beside her to finish the mouse, it was fresh from that morning and the taste of it was a wonderful sensation that Lionpaw hadn't felt for the last three days. She finished it quickly and purred a thank you to the kind old elder and walked out the exit and into the forest where she would be spending the rest of the afternoon hunting. The mountain had lots of shelter some trees like the evergreens didn't lose their leaves and provided that shelter. Lionpaw was quietly walking through the forest searching for prey, the forest floor was coated with red leaves and there were barely any leaves left on the trees (Except for the evergreens, they were still filled to the brim with leaves), she heard a rustle in the bushes, it wasn't big enough to be anything dangerous, a rabbit perhaps? she silently looked over the other side of the bush a rabbit was there fossicking for herbs and nibbling at some grass it wasn't as plump as she would've liked but it was food none the less. She checked the wind to see which way her scent was flowing, it's flowing away from the rabbit! this is perfect! she crept around the bush, the rabbit still hasn't noticed me, Lionpaw mused to herself as she got in a position to leap onto the rabbit, she was in perfect range now when suddenly , SNAP! a twig cracked under her alerting the rabbit who pricked up his ears listening for anything else that might mean danger, Pika-Dung! she thought gritting her teeth as she sprang forward clumsily and caught the rabbit, it squirmed between her forepaws and she nipped its neck quickly before it could get out of her paws, that wasn't as clean as I would have liked, she brooded to herself quietly as she dug a hole to put the rabbit in so she could come back for it later. She continued through the leaf strewn forest hunting here and there and by evening time she had three voles two pikas and her rabbit. She had finally decided this was enough to feed the elders and she had started going back to camp, she wasn't as far away from it as she was when she was at the border stream but it was still a long trek up the mountain. Lionpaw eventually got to a tree where she decided to put down her prey and rest, she watched as the sun set behind the mountains, it was a truly beautiful display of pink, orange, purple and yellow and it made her feel warm inside as she went back to camp, the warmth stayed as she delivered the prey to the elders, HalfBrook was awake and she was as grumbly and rude as ever saying things like

"These voles are too scrawny!"

or

"Why would you bring wet moss inside the elders den do you want me to catch greencough!"

But the warm light inside Lionpaw's chest couldn't be diminished by the grumpy old molly and it stayed with her then. It stayed with her all the way to the fresh kill pile, but it diminished when she heard RowanScar utter 6 horrible words,

"Your mothers watching us train tomorrow."