The Unexpected Path of a Kitty-pet

Chapter 7

"Again!" Clover started tackling Volepaw, an apprentice from Meadowclan. Her brother, Firepaw, watched eagerly as his sister was fighting off the new clan member. Venomstorm paced back and forth, watching the two she-cats fight. Volepaw slapped Clover with a sheathed paw, knocking the silver tabby off of her. Clover landed on her feet and shook the dizziness away. She pinned her ears and hissed, running at Volepaw again. The apprentice dodged out of the way. Clover quickly turned and chased after the apprentice, using her back legs to leap on top of her. Volepaw fell with a loud thud, snarling as she struggled under the larger she-cats grip.

"Clover wins." Greymoon—Volepaws mentor—announced. Littlestorm, who was Firepaws mentor, groaned in annoyance. Clover got off of Volepaw and helped the she-cat up.

"You beat me this time, but never again." Volepaw playfully cuffed Clovers ear.

The silver tabby she-cat chuckled as Firepaw and Volepaw switched places. Firepaw wasn't as nice as his sister when it came to battle training. Before then, he was a goofball with a good sense of humor. But knowing Littlestorm, Clover knows that the short she-cats temper was rubbing off on Firepaw.

Greymoon glanced at Clover and Firepaw as they got into their defensive positions. Firepaw dropped to a hunters crouch. Clover did the same, but wasn't as close to the ground as Firepaw was.

"Begin!" Firepaw leaped on top of Clover just as she began sprinting away. She fell to the ground, quickly swiping at Firepaws face. The ginger-and-white tom dodged Clovers blows, backing away from her. Clover barred her teeth, circling him slowly. Littlestorms eyes were wide with anticipation.

"What are you doing?! FIGHT HER!" She screeched. Firepaw jumped at Clover again as though his mentors words automated him to do whatever Littlestorm wanted.

Clover was barreled over by the muscular tom. Firepaw held the she-cat down, keeping a back paw on her tail so she couldn't move. Clover relaxed her muscles, trying to trick the tom into thinking he won. Firepaw scoffed, beginning to get off of her as Clover shot up again and knocked him into a large rock that poked out of the tall grass. Littlestorm ran over to him with a worried look on his face, glaring at Clover.

"That's not fair! She could have killed him!" Clover angrily looked at the ground, wishing that Littlestorm would just shut up. Lynxtuft—who had been watching Clover fight—calmly walked over to Firepaw. He nudged the apprentice who looked up at the dark grey tom.

"Hmm." He inspected Firepaws bleeding cheek. "You ok?" Firepaw nodded, rubbing his cheek painfully. Lynxtuft coolly looked at Littlestorm.

"He seems ok to me." He shrugged. Clover looked up slightly, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry Firepaw. I got carried away."

"No, it's ok ma'am. I did too." Firepaw chuckled, heaving himself up.

"Let's head back." Greymoon announced.

***

Clover sighed, sitting beside Lynxtuft as the two shared a rabbit. After the battle training, Littlestorm had dragged Greymoon away to (probably) complain about Clover. Why doesn't she like me? The silver she-cat wondered. Lynxtuft nudged her slightly, a concerned look on his face. "You ok?"

Clover smiled slightly and nodded silently. "I'm fine." Lynxtuft pinned his ears. "You can talk to me, you know."

"I know that!-" Clover snapped, unsheathing her claws. Much to her surprise, Lynxtuft barely even flinched. He gave her a 'are you sure your ok?' Look. She frowned and dragged the rabbit away from him, grumbling as she took another bite out of it.

"Listen, I've come to learn that the smaller a dog is the less friendly they are." Clover raised an eyebrow. "Are you calling Littlestorm a dog? Besides, I know that. My neighbors had this old snappy chihuahua who hated my guts." She picked a tuft of rabbit hair out of her teeth, still not used to eating actual animals. Lynxtuft chuckled, giving Clover a warm feeling that was only brief before she felt sad again.

She sighed and slumped her head down on the ground. "What did I do to make Littlestorm so upset?"

"Well," Lynxtuft sighed. "Cats like them think that cats like us don't deserve to be equal to them." His voice turned grim. Clover looked up at the grey tom. His eyes were burning with anger. It scared her.

He looked down at Clover and his gaze softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't have the best of luck with clan cats back when I was younger."

"There are other clans?" Clover raised her head.

"Yeah, Copperclan. It got taken over by rouges though. They got what was coming to them." He snorted, taking the rabbit back from Clovers paws. "What do you mean by that?" Clover asked nervously. Lynxtuft looked away.

"I'm not the only one who Stormstar turned away." Lynxtuft said grimly. "Stormstar?"

"I'm gonna' get some sleep." Lynxtuft said without another word, heaving himself up. Clover frowned as the tom walked away, wondering what he was hiding from her. She sighed and turned to go see how Honeysplash was doing before running into Venomstorm.

"Hey Cl-" He muttered before bumping noses with her. Clover pulled away and rubbed her muzzle painfully. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

Venomstorm muttered something under his breath. "Shadestar has given you permission to go on the dawn patrol with him to see how you've been doing."

"So I might finally get my warriors name?" Clover asked excitedly. The tom nodded briefly.

"Get some rest, you'll need it for tomorrow." Clover dipped her head to Venomstorm as he walked away, trying to hide her excitement. It's finally happening! I'll be one of them!

And maybe, just maybe, Littlestorm will accept me as a Meadowclan warrior.

**GREETINGS! I just wanna say that I used a base for Volepaw and Firepaw (sorry for those who get upset by this, but I'm not very confident in drawing cats. If this does upset a lot of people I will take it down and just try to draw it on my own) *although I drew a little bit for another book of mine*. I'm hoping that I'll stray away from using bases so credits go to the original artist. (AluxThereOwn)