Sparks of a Fire

Chapter 51

The bright light from the early morning sun blazed down on a young apprentice, her sleek short fur protecting her from the chilly early morning air as she studied the water. It was finally the day when she would be starting her first swimming lesson but Splashpaw was nervous. What if she drowned? Or what if her paws got tangled in seaweed? Would she even be able to pull this off? All these thoughts were racing through her mind like a raging wave crashing against the rocks. The sight of the clear blue water was making her paws shake and her vision started to blur. Splashpaw's breathing quickened and her heart started hammering in chest like a tittle wave as she tried to regain her composure.

"Splashpaw!"

Splashpaw let out a mewl of surprise and spun around to see her mentor, Graypelt, staring at her with a calm yet worried gaze. "Are you ok?" He asked her. Splashpaw took a shaky breath and slowly nodded, her tail twitching nervously as she returned her gaze back to the water.

"Are-Are you sure I can do this? What if I'm not ready?" Splashpaw blurted out her fears as she slowly neared the waters edge. Graypelt sighed heavily and patted over to sit beside his apprentice.

"I understand how you feel, Splashpaw." He meowed, brushing his tail across Splashpaw's shoulders.

Splashpaw stared up at him with wide and fearful sky-blue eyes. "Y-You do? But you've never been afraid of the water." She tilted her white head to the side in confusion.

Graypelt sighed and flattened his ears, then meowed quietly, "I almost drowned on my very first day as an apprentice." Splashpaw's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open in shock. "Wait, what? B-But how?" Graypelt sighed again and told his apprentice what happened that day he almost drowned.

...

"I-I can't do this, Ashlily!" Graypaw meowed, his yellow eyes wide with terror as he looked back at his mentor. "Can't we just hunt on land instead?" The dark gray apprentice mewed, his paws shaking as he inched away from the water.

Ashlily sighed and smiled softly down at her apprentice. "You can do this," she meowed encouragingly. "I believe in you, Graypaw, just take it slow and put one paw in front of the other."

The dark gray tom gulped and took one step forward. His paws came in contact with the water and he gasped and began to panic. His paws flailed under the water and he felt something collide with his front left paw. A scream of terror rose in his throat and before he knew it, his head went under and he felt water filling his lungs at a rapid pace.

"Graypaw! Graypaw!" His mentor's voice sounded muffled, and it almost seemed like he was hearing things through a water-filled tunnel. For all the young apprentice knew, his ears could very well be filled with water and he wouldn't know it. Water filled Graypaw's mouth as he tried to cry out for help, his paws felt like they were stuck in quicksand. Through the darkness that was pulling at the edges of his eyes, Graypaw trued as hard as he could to swim upwards, but he soon realized that he had no clue with way was up or witch way was down.

As his vision began to darken, Graypaw could faintly make out a cat swimming toward him, he recognized the smoky-gray pelt of his mentor. As Graypaw's head broke the surface, he gasped for breath. His vision went fuzzy and he collapsed in a heap on the sandy ground.

...

When Graypaw came to, he found himself in Flowerpool's den. His head hurt and his front left paw ached as if he'd just gotten in a fight with a fox. "Hay, Flowerpool! Graypaw's awake!" Meowed a small blue-gray she-cat. Graypaw recognized the she-cat to be Waterpaw, Flowerpool's apprentice.

"Graypaw! Oh thank StarClan you're ok! I was so worried when I saw Ashlily bring you back to camp soaking wet and unconscious, Flowerpool told me not to worry, but I couldn't help it! You're my only surviving kit!" Graypaw looked up to see his mother, Nightwing, her black fur fluffed up and her purple eyes shining with happiness as she stared down at her son.

"What happened?" The dark gray apprentice mewed, looking up at his mother with wide eyes. Nightwing sighed and twitched an ear. "Well, you and Ashlily went out of camp so she could teach you how to swim," she began, her voice shaky as she tried to hold back tears. "Ashlily said that you had just gotten into the water when your paws slipped on the rock and your head went under."

Flowerpool came over followed by Waterpaw, the young she-cat had a mouthful of horsetail and cobwebs in her jaws. "You're lucky that a sprained paw is all you sustained," the dark-furred medicine cat meowed while wrapping cobwebs around Graypaw's injured paw.

...

Splashpaw just sat there wide-eyed, not saying anything as she stared up at her mentor with wide and horrified sky-blue eyes. "B-But how are you not scared of being in the water?" She tentatively asked him, blinking and tilting her white head to the side. Graypelt's whiskers twitched and his ears flicked from side-to side.

"It took me a very long time to get over my fear of water," the dark gray tom meowed truthfully, sighing softly and staring down at his paws. "But Ashlily and Flowerpool helped me out by teaching me other things until I was ready to go back into the water."

Splashpaw blinked and twitched an ear. "So... you're basically telling me that I need to just go for it?" She inquired, twitching her tail back-and-forth and staring up at Graypelt with wide sky-blue eyes.

Graypelt shook his head and curled his tail over his front paws. "No, I'm saying that it may take some time, but eventually you will learn how to swim." He told his apprentice with a reassuring smile on his face.

"I'm ready to try again, Graypelt!" Splashpaw meowed, her eyes gleaming and her paws needing the ground in anticipation.

"Ok then," the dark gray tom meowed, "let's teach you how to swim!" Graypelt meowed proudly. And with that the two cats made their way back to the river.