Poisonberry's Vengence

A Malicious Couple

Tumblesoar above! Base by Louixie

The dawn wind shrieked, weaving its way through stone and snow, and into Hopepaw's fur as she trekked the rocky ridge above the camp. In front of her, three more cats padded steadily along. Bluepaw, Pinestalk and Tumblesoar.

She shivered as another gust buffeted her stubby frame, and she couldn't help but gaze longingly down at the green forest far below. Snowgone season had come, but up on the mountains, it was still cold. The wind and the early hour only added to the bitterness of the cold.

"Wouldn't it be more helpful to hunt down there, and not freeze our tails off up here? There's plenty of prey in the forest." She grumbled, gasping as the stones under her paws shifted. "We're patrolling the border." Pinestalk rumbled, bushy ginger-and-gray speckled tail swishing stripes into the thin layer of snow. "For what? There's no cat alive, dumb enough to trek through moons of icy mountains to reach one measly camp." Hopepaw retorted, still grumpy from being woken up at the break of dawn for the patrol. 

Tumblesoar turned his head and gave the apprentice a hard stare. "And I didn't think there'd be any apprentice dumb enough to talk back to a senior warrior." He hissed, obviously at the end of his patience. She opened her mouth to give a stinging reply but then decided against it. It was too early to be in trouble already. Bluepaw glanced back at her and curled his lip into a nasty, sneer-like smile. She sneered right back and continued to walk. 

                                                                             ~❆~

When the last border had been marked, the sun was high in the sky. Weary and sore, she headed straight for the fresh-kill hole and found something to eat. Luckily, a hunting patrol had just returned, laden with Snowgone-plump prey. Even a hawk, fierce and difficult prey lay on top of it all, dark tawny feathers ruffled from the scuffle. But she left the hawk, instead choosing a small, silver-coloured fish. 

She'd only had fish once, and it had been quite literally writhing of a type of small, thin white worm. As a result of the worms, the fish tasted rancid. Warily, she took a bite, relaxing when she didn't find any trace of the worms. In fact, the fish tasted amazing, like fresh water, and she devoured it. Those RippleClan cats have it figured out...

 While enjoying her food, she heard Tumblesoar pad up behind her. "Once you're done eating, we'll do a quick battle training session. After that, you have the rest of the afternoon off, to rest. Tonight is the night of the gathering." Hopepaw's eyes went wide. "The gathering? I didn't realize it was tonight!" Her mentor nodded, blue tabby tail twitching. "You're lucky I'm letting you come after talking back to Pinestalk." Isn't that how a conversation works?  "Thanks, Tumblesoar." He dipped his head and padded away, to wait by the entrance to the tunnel. 

Finishing the last of her fish, she quickly cleaned the scales from her whiskers and hurried over to the lanky tom. "Where are we training? And with who?" Without looking back, he simply replied: "You're going to be fighting me today, at the Rock Tumble. You've been an apprentice for four moons, so I think you have a chance." He announced, before quirking an eyebrow teasingly. "Even if you do have short legs." 

"Try me, if you're so tough. Snake-tail."

"I never said you'd beat me. I'm a trained warrior." 

"Well, you implied it." Purposely walking faster to outpace her mentor, she headed for the Rock Tumble. Maybe he's not as bad as I thought. 

                                                                             ~❆~

"Okay, we're working on ambush fighting for the moment. I'll give you a few seconds to hide. You have to catch me off-guard and hold me down for at least three seconds. Ready?" Hopepaw nodded, bristling with excitement. She liked fighting and training better than hunting, so any day was a good day when she got to skip out on her least favourite activity.