The Elementals Trilogy [REWRITING]

Chapter 17

(Rainpaw's POV)

Rainpaw chattered excitedly with Hazelpaw and Cherrypaw. Sure, he'd been coming to these once-every-three-moon meetings between OakClan and TorrentClan, a tradition started by some Royal who'd fathered kits in both clans or something along those lines. He never really paid attention to the history of the clans, it was just so boring when he could spend time on doing other things.

"I'm an apprentice now! Isn't that exciting?" he purred, every word tripping themselves up on the former in his excitement to depart the information.

"Congrats, Rainpaw," Hazelpaw purred. "And we're warriors now. I'm Hazelshine and Cherrypaw is Cherryspark now.

Rainpaw's face fell as he looked at the OakClan Heirs. He'd wanted to be an apprentice at the same time as them so they could all train and play together.

"Don't worry though," Hazelshine rushed to speak again. "Just because we're warriors doesn't mean that our inner kits have dissolved. We can still play moss-ball and other things whilst our parents talk."

"Yeah," Cherryspark piped. Rainpaw beamed. He quite liked Cherryspark's bright, bubbly personality over Hazelshine's rationality and calmness. He could associate and find himself in Cherryspark. "Race you to the tree. Last cat there is a moldy mouse!"

Rainpaw giggled as the three cats rushed towards the tree at the edge of the clearing.

[TIMESKIP]

Rainpaw's muscles ached from exerting himself against the OakClan Heirs. They may be young warriors, but they were definitely a lot stronger than before.

"Time to go, son," Cavestar meowed, his father's deep voice reverberating through his body.

Rainpaw's face fell again but complied, turning back to call to the OakClan Heirs, "Bye Hazel and Cherry! It was so fun. Can't wait to see you at the Gathering."

He bounded along behind his parents, occasionally sniffing flowers or catching a bug. Featherstar and Cavestar spoke between themselves, but their voices were too low to be audibly heard. He shrugged. If they weren't going to let him hear, he wouldn't strain every muscle in his ears to hear them.

Eventually they stopped talking and turned to Rainpaw, their faces solemn.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Did OakClan do something bad?"

"No, Rainpaw," Featherstar meowed earnestly. "We must ask you something of high importance though."

"What is it?" Rainpaw inched closer, evidently excited to be involved in something so important.

"What if..." his mother's voice was barely above a whisper. "We told you that your former sister, Mountainmist, was still alive?"

Rainpaw's visage was scrawled with confusion as he processed the information before concluding with a fierce hiss, "Even if she was, I don't care. I'll go kill her when I'm stronger and a warrior. She's worthless to me, worthless to the clan."

Pride and relief flashed within both Featherstar and Cavestar's eyes. His father purred, 

"Excellent, Rain. You must preserve this mindset. You cannot be attached to your kin for they are volatile and may easily become, like Mountainmist, worthless. You must prioritise yourself and the clan over anyone and anything else."

Rainpaw nodded as he crossed into TorrentClan's territory, his mind fixed. He was going to eradicate Mountainmist from the clans for good. He wouldn't allow for the TorrentClan Royal line to be tainted by her presence.