He was safe and warm, curled up next to his mother. All was well. But there was something wrong. He just couldn't place a paw on it. Wait, a shadow that belonged to no one, moving. . .
"Do you have to twitch in your sleep?" Pinepaw's mew jolted Bearpaw out of his sleep.
"Now, let me guess," interrupted Pinepaw as Bearpaw opened his mouth to speak. "You'll say 'I was having this great dream about a mouse. . .' blah blah blah. Again."
"Shut up, you stupid furball," mewed Bearpaw angrily, who was rapidly losing his patience with Pinepaw. "I was going to say 'Thank you for waking me up from my nightmare,' except you didn't give me a chance."
"You're a stupid furball!"
"So are you!"
The two toms arched their backs, pelts bristling, hissing and spitting insults at each other.
"Mousebrain!"
"Frogbrain!"
"Kittypet!"
Bearpaw recoiled, hurt and rage evident on his face. "Fox dung!" he spat, though not as menacingly.
Pinepaw raised a paw, prepared to swipe.
Bearpaw glared at him, and unsheathed his claws.
"Whoa," mewed Petalpaw, stepping between the two hissing toms. "Relax, guys," She glared at Pinepaw. "And he's not a kittypet."
"Besides, I'm older than you. You were just made an apprentice," growled Bearpaw. "I could make crowfood out of you."
"Yeah, right."
"Guys?" A new cat had joined the argument, Birchpaw. "I kind of agree with Petalpaw. So shut up!"
A shadow suddenly loomed over the apprentice's den. Scarpelt looked down at Pinepaw.
"We're collecting moss today, so come on," he mewed.
Pinepaw obeyed, pretending not to hear the snickering apprentices. Soon the mentors for rest of the apprentices arrived.
"We will be hunting today," mewed Talonclaw to Petalpaw.
"Today we're going to do border patrols," mewed Foxpelt to Birchpaw.
Finally Lizardpelt arrived for Bearpaw. She had the most exciting message of all. "We're doing battle training!"
"Yes!" mewed Bearpaw, springing to his paws. He stuck out his tongue at Pinepaw. "Ha!"
Pinepaw bristled, his claws digging in the ground, but he kept his mouth shut.
"Hurry up, Pinepaw!" called Scarpelt.
"Ok," relented Pinepaw.
Bearpaw scrambled after his mentor to the training hollow.
"Bearpaw, we're going to practice the Lightning Strike. You do it like this. . . ." She demonstrated, glancing at Bearpaw, whose eyes were wandering towards the trees. "Hey, pay attention!"
"Sorry," mewed Bearpaw. He could've sworn he saw a flash of white between the leaves. "Just thinking."
Normally he would've been jumping with excitement being showed this move, but his dream was too real, simply too real to ignore. . . .
Wait. There it was again, but this time a loving face gazed at him longingly, wishing that. . .
Foxdung. It was gone.
Oh well. At least now I can learn this awesome move. thought Bearpaw.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Great job, Bearpaw! You did the move perfectly! Let's go home," mewed Lizardpelt. She paused. "What are you looking at?"
"Nothing," mewed Bearpaw hastily, wishing he could see who was looking at him, but he wasn't even sure it was there.
"Goodbye," he breathed.
As they came to the camp, they were greeted by anxious faces.
¨Have you seen my kits?¨ asked Moonpelt.
¨Uh . . . no.¨
Moonpelt let out a wail.
"My kits!" wailed Moonpelt. "My kits; they're gone!"
