StarClan's Wrath

Chapter 8

"Stay behind us!" Willowtree hissed to Stubbypaw, Weedpaw, and Brightpaw. He charged at the ThunderClan mentor and pinned him to the ground, while Beestripe was taking on two cats at once. There was no way that the two warriors could take on two patrols!

Brightpaw stepped forward, but was pulled back by Stubbypaw. "We have to do something!" he hissed.

"But we only had this unfinished training session!" Stubbypaw hissed back. "The only way we could actually use this battle move is if something convenient happens, like one of the apprentices just stands in front of us! But that's like expecting prey to fly into our paws." Then, an apprentice strayed away from the battle and approached the cats.

Talk about irony! Brightpaw thought.

The apprentice sneered. She was much bigger than the three, suggesting she had trained longer. "What, aren't you gonna attack me?" she hissed. "Oh wait, is this your first day of training? This will be easy! But I'll let you give the first move. Go ahead. Make my day."

Brightpaw hissed and lunged, grabbing the older apprentice's shoulders and locking her on the ground. She yowled in surprise and tried to bite. "Not so easy now, huh?" he growled, using his hind claws to scrape at the belly of the apprentice. Immediately she rolled over and got up, running a distance and hissing. Brightpaw whipped his head to see the other apprentice fighting with Stubbypaw. He was rather impressed at the short-tailed apprentice's skills, as he knew that Stubbypaw usually struggles to keep his balance.

But then, he saw Weedpaw. "I can't do it!" she wailed as she fought the older warrior. He pinned her down and kept trying to bite at her ears. "Help!" Weedpaw shouted helplessly as she thrashed her head back and forth.

Brightpaw hesitated and then shouted "Roll over!" Weedpaw did as directed, and confused the large tom. She leaped up and bit the tom on his back, only to be thrown back down. "Play dead!" As the warrior pinned down Brightpaw's sister, he grew confused when she was limp. His grip loosened, and then Weedpaw sprung up and gave the warrior's ear a nice slice. The warrior shrieked out of pain and ran off. Weedpaw gave her fur a few quick licks and took a deep breath. "You did it!" Brightpaw purred.

"Yeah, but I needed you to assist me." she growled. "There's a lot more coming, and they're all ganging up on our mentors!"

Stubbypaw ran up to the others, coughing rapidly. Then, he spit a tuft of fur out. "Ripped the fur outta some mangy apprentice. Now what?"

"Willowtree and Beestripe are being grouped up against by all those other cats!"

The apprentices rushed toward the warriors. but were all immediately pinned down. Brightpaw spat at the warrior who held him. "Let me go!" he growled. But all the bigger warrior did was growl back. His claws were deep inside his skin, so it was hard to focus on defending and escaping. He looked over and saw Stubbypaw and Weedpaw struggling as well.

Stubbypaw was wincing. Brightpaw noticed that there was blood coming from his cheek, and his one white paw was turned red. "That's what you get for being such a small, worthless, untrained apprentice!" the warrior taunted. Stubbypaw sneezed in his face, and followed with a spit. "You're disgusting!" the warrior then hissed. He raked his claws along the shoulder of Stubbypaw, listening to him cry out.

"Release them!" a voice yowled from ShadowClan's side of the border. It was Honeydrop! Honeydrop and her warriors sped down to the clearing, butting the warriors off of Brightpaw, Weedpaw, and Stubbypaw. Now the battle had really begun.

Weedpaw stared in horror at the fighting cats. "If this is what a battle is like, then I want to be a medicine cat!" she frowned.

There were fighting cats all over. The apprentices knew they had to get somewhere safe. They ventured along the running river, full of fish. I wonder if the fish have Clans and fight over borders too? Brightpaw thought. Then, he was suddenly interrupted by two warriors battling dangerously close. One of them bumped into him, knocking him down. "Brightpaw!" shrieked Stubbypaw. Brightpaw rolled down the hill, rapidly trying to keep his balance, then fell into the river.

Brightpaw shut his eyes. He didn't want to get water in his eyes, and as much as he wanted to cry out for help, he couldn't. Out of terror, he scrambled to find the surface, only to hit his head on a rock and feel dizzy. There was a ringing in his ears as he tried to get a grip on something so he could make his way to the surface. Even though his eyes were closed, he thought he could see Tigerstripe and her cats approaching him. "This isn't the end," she whispered. "You will still fulfill your destiny,"

He tried to protest. But then he remembered-- he was underwater. Warm water spilled into his mouth. Brightpaw blindly fought for the surface. He started to feel weak. Then, he saw the outline of Tigerstripe. "This isn't the end," she repeated. Yeah yeah, I know it's not the end... I think. But I'm not going to be a medicine cat!

"You were made to be a medicine cat." Tigerstripe murmured. Leaping lizards, this StarClan cat could read his thoughts!

Just when Brightpaw remembered he was feeling weak, he again, scrambled for a surface, only to have something grab his scruff and pull him out. He opened his eyes and saw that it was his mother. "Honeydrop!" he exclaimed. "I never want to swim again!"

Stubbypaw and Weedpaw ran up to Brightpaw. "Are you okay? We were lucky to get Honeydrop to come here! I thought you were going to drown!" Weedpaw mewed. "The leader of ThunderClan called his warriors back."

"I don't want to answer!" Brightpaw wailed. Honeydrop embraced Brightpaw and began licking his fur. He was trembling under his mother's front legs.

"You're okay now," Honeydrop murmured in between licks. She began rocking him back and forth, just as she did when he or Weedpaw had a nightmare, or if there was a storm. "Let's go back to camp and get you fixed up."