Incoming Storm

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Lightningpaw!"

Lightningpaw winced as he heard the sharp voice of his mentor ringing in his ear. He groaned, and stepped back as a paw nearly swiped his ear. He fell back onto the ground as paws flipped him onto his back. Suddenly, Heronclaw had him flipped over.

"Were you listening to a word I said about the move?"

Heronclaw's bright green eyes blazed right at Lightningpaw as he tried and failed to push her off. Humiliation mixed with resentment filled him as the warriors watched yet another one of his failures. The clan cats' respect for saving one of their kits had diminished, and now, many of the warriors didn't give him so much as a sideways nod.

"Look," he mewed through gritted teeth. "Where I come from, we don't do wolf-tactics like battle training."

Heronclaw stared at him irritably, and backed off. As Lightningpaw watched her, he saw the way her eyes glanced up at the warriors watching their training session self-consciously.

Darkstorm, the deputy, limped up to Heronclaw on her scarred leg. She eyed Lightningpaw. "Heronclaw," she meowed in her fierce voice. "You'd be wise to not bully this cat we've entrusted to you. If we feel the need to give him another mentor-"

Heronclaw stared at the ground. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm just used to working with more experienced cats."

And still she manages to throw an insult! If Heronclaw thought she was getting any pity from Lightningpaw, she was wrong. Every single time he watched her from the shadows after a long day of hunting and patrolling, she was always sitting by herself, wallowing in some pit of self pity.

Darkstorm nodded brusquely to Lightningpaw as she began to limp away on her scarred left hind paw. "I've seen enough. Good day."

Lightningpaw stared at Heronclaw as Darkstorm padded away. She was inwardly seething, and she was letting out little growls. For the time being, though, she didn't take it out on Lightningpaw.

While she began pacing the clearing up and down, Lightningpaw took the time to take a deep breath, and try to calm down his pulsing chest. The leaves blew eerily on the trees that gave a small bit of cover to the clearing. The season that these cats called greenleaf was coming to an end.

Every night when Lightningpaw went back to curl up for the night, he was unable to shake off his apprehension that something bad was going to happen. Every night, he lay awake for hours, trying to force his mind to remember what had happened, to remember anything further. It never worked.

Right at the moment, though, Lightningpaw was thinking of the voices he had heard in the cave, and how they were planning to attack in exactly seven nights from tonight. It had been a quarter moon since he'd heard them talking, but Lightningpaw knew that cats didn't give up easily.

"Hey Heronclaw!"

Lightningpaw turned as he saw a hunting patrol making their way down the ridge. Each cat held at least one piece of fish, but they were all beginning to lose the fat of greenleaf. It was Carptuft who had spoken.

Heronclaw nodded brusquely to him. "Greetings, Carptuft."

As the hunting patrol made their way into his eyesight, Lightningpaw immediately sent his eyes probing all the cats for anything suspicious. To his relief, the cats on the patrol, Carptuft, Ravenfur, Thrushheart and Wavepaw were all seemingly normal.

"So, how's it going?" Carptuft asked curiously. "Making friends at last?"

No.

Heronclaw stared at him slowly. Then she glanced at Lightningpaw. "It's a... work in progress," she managed out at last."