Nettlestar's Atonement {BEING UPDATED}

Chapter Ten

Finchpaw woke Nettlepaw up that morning. He had fallen asleep in the medicine cat den, but Applebreeze was nowhere to be found.

"Come on, lazy." She purred. "We have to go train."

"All three of us?" Nettlepaw asked groggily.

"Yes, Thornpaw is coming too." Finchpaw said with a sigh. "You two are my closest friends. I wish you could get along better."

I would get along with him if he stopped teasing me, Nettlepaw thought. But closest friends with Finchpaw? For some reason that made him really happy.

He followed the older apprentice out of camp and to the Blazing Maple. The leaf-fall chill had caused most of the moss there to dry up, but it was still a great place to train. If you like having countless obstacles in the way, that is.

Nettlepaw awkwardly stepped over a root wad and into the space where Cloverwing, Stonesong and Applebreeze were waiting as well as Thornpaw.

"We will work on battle training today." Stonesong announced. He always seemed to take control of the training, which made sense as he was a senior warrior, but sometimes it was annoying.

"I understand Nettlepaw hasn't had much experience with this, so he will work alone with Applebreeze before joining us. Then you will split up in pairs to train. Remember, always keep your claws sheathed during training."

Applebreeze and Nettlepaw split off and began to work on some basic moves.

"The first thing you need to know is your vulnerable areas. Your belly and neck, mostly. If you give your opponent access to those areas the battle will quickly change course." His mentor instructed him.

Nettlepaw nodded, remembering how the gray tom had tried to force him on his back during the border fight where both areas would be exposed.

"I want you to try to attack me without letting me at your belly or neck," Applebreeze said. "Now."

Nettlepaw hesitantly took a step forward. "Go on," Applebreeze encouraged.

He lunged, hooking his paws on Applebreeze's shoulders. She took a swipe at his belly, but he clambered onto her back and dodged quickly. As he was reaching to paw at her neck, she fell on her back, knocking the wind out of Nettlepaw. Gasping for breath, she placed a paw on his neck.

"I liked your approach," she said, eyes glinting. "But you need to think through what could happen. When you landed on my back, you didn't think of how I could have done that, did you?" Nettlepaw shook his head.

"Try again." Applebreeze mewed.

This time Nettlepaw immediately went for her belly. As she was defending, he slipped away and grasped her shoulders. He used his weight to push her to the ground, exposing her belly and neck. But she kicked out her hind legs, landing the blow on his belly and sending him flying backward.

"That was better, but you have to be careful doing that because though you exposed my belly, you also exposed yours." Applebreeze commented, panting for breath. "Now I want you to defend while I attack."

This went on for a while until Nettlepaw had learned a considerable amount. He felt like he could have gone back to sleep but Applebreeze had other plans.

Applebreeze smoothed out her fur. "Now we'll train with Thornpaw and Finchpaw. I want you to have practice fighting cats who are also young and quick."

"Wait, before we go." Nettlepaw began. "I have a question for you."

Applebreeze tilted her head. "Okay, ask away."