Crawling Ferns: A Warrior Cats fanstory.

Chapter 1: Beginnings.

Content warnings: None! :D 

Pebblepaw crept carefully through the underbrush, paws skirting softly over dry, precariously crunchy leaves. The strong scent of pigeon hit his nose like a flicked branch, making his mouth water. Gotcha!

The bird foraged mindlessly near a tree ahead of him, hardly a tail-length away. It waddled as it went, pulling up tiny pieces of bark and drenched leaves.

With one smooth move, he leapt onto the bird, paws landing sharply on its feathers. The apprentice grabbed it lightly, dipping his head and spinning around.

His mentor emerged from a bush nearby, purring with soft eyes. "You did well."

"Did I?"

"Oh yes." Rosesplash chuckled, dropping his other prey. "Very well, in fact. Skyclan is lucky to have you in its ranks. I'm sure Palmstar will agree."

The young tom's tail flicked excitedly, and he beamed. The two dashed back to camp, quickly launching through treetops and deftly digging their claws into the bark. By the time Pebblepaw got back, his paws were aching satisfyingly.

The Skyclan camp lay deep inside the gorge, protected by steep climbing rock and with nothing but trees as mode of descent, making it especially hard for dogs or foxes to get in. Or other clans, Rosesplash would remind him sternly.

The time of clans being at war is long gone now, he reminded himself with a grin, deftly avoiding thorns in the dense lattice that made up the way down to camp. They'd never attack us, not anymore.

At this time of sundown, cats were starting to finish sharing tongues in favour of turning into their dens. A duo of kits evaded their mother's grasp, bounding down the variated slopes between dens to hide among the vines. Cloverclaw sighed, flicking her tail in greeting to her mate. Rosesplash grinned softly, joining her in faux-kit hunting and valiantly ignoring Brightkit and Sneezekit's giggles.

The tom trotted off to the fresh-kill pile, dropping his contribution proudly. Shadefrost was there, glancing over his shoulder with a cheery laugh.

"Looks like you did well, Pebblepaw!" He chortled, deftly hooking a squirrel with his paw. "I'm glad, actually. You were gone for quite a while."

Pebblepaw shook his head definitively. "Rosesplash wanted me to do all the assessments during one sunrise. That's why."

"Of course! You go on now, then. I'm sure you have a lot to tell your friends." The elder purred, thudding off into his den.

He glanced over and spotted the other apprentices among the fern patch and darted over, sitting down tiredly. The other three - Bluepaw was probably out on sundown patrol - were batting a ball of moss around half-heartedly to fight off boredom.

"Oh, hey! How'd it go?" Snailpaw purred, huffing when a younger apprentice batted the ball into their side.

"I'm not sure..." Pebblepaw hummed, paw scuffing the dirt. "I only caught two prey today, and-"

"That's so cool!" Flamepaw gasped, eyes gleaming. The much younger apprentice sprung to his paws, knocking into his sibling, Briarpaw. "What were they? Foxes? Badgers? Twolegs?"

They laughed, the tom shaking his head with a wide smile. "Not quite, sorry to disappoint! Just a pigeon, and a squirrel."

"Those aren't even prey items..." Briarpaw gruffed sleepily, pawing at her brother.

Snailpaw purred, stretching. "Well, that's awesome! More than most warriors bring in around now, so you're fine. Duh."

Leafbare had been especially hard for Skyclan's warriors this time. He remembered quiet nights when he was supposed to be asleep, but instead snuck out to listen to the senior warriors murmuring about the crisis. Illness had wracked the camp viciously, and Pebblepaw could remember nearly slipping off of branches whenever he so much as walked a fox-length.

The eldest apprentices shuddered in unison at the thought. This coming newleaf, they had to hope prey would be more plentiful.

Starclan knows their lives depended on it.