Up Until Now: A Warrior Cat FanFic

Chapter Two*

Thistlepaw POV

It had been two days since I had become an apprentice. Right now, I was in the apprentice den, with Thornpaw and Sunpaw, and the other five apprentices, Ivypaw, Moonpaw, Owlpaw, Heatherpaw, and Snowpaw. Ivypaw and Moonpaw were brother and sister, and Owlpaw had lost his brother, sister, and mother in a bad bout of greencough last leaf-bare. He was the eldest apprentice, and would be made into a warrior soon. Heatherpaw, and Snowpaw were sisters, and close as well. They lost both their parents, father to greencough, and mother in a battle against ShadowClan.

"Ivypaw, Thistlepaw, time to join the dawn patrol!" Ivypaw's mentor, Featherfern, called out to us.

Ivypaw was sleeping, curled up in a little tortoiseshell ball. I decided to prod her awake with a paw. “Ivypaw!” I hissed to her. When she still laid curled up sleeping, I prodded her harder, rolling her out of her nest.

“What do you want?” she grumbled, blinking her amber eyes awake slowly. “I was dreaming about catching a mouse!”

“Featherfern wants us on the dawn patrol,” I told her. “C’mon, let’s go!”

She slowly got to her paws, blinking the sleepiness out of her amber eyes. She licked her paw, drawing it over her ear. “I don’t know how you can be so excited this early in the morning,” she grumbled. “I’m barely awake!”

“You’re just getting old,”I teased her.

“Hey!” she flicked her tail over my ear. “I’m only a moon older than you!”

“Exactly,” I purred. “Soon you’ll be joining the elders!”

She cuffed my ear, but before she could say anything else, we heard a gruff voice, “Get out here! We don’t have the whole day to waste.”

“We should get going,” Ivypaw purred. “Lionfur might claw our ears off if we don’t.”

I nodded my head to her, and we padded out into the clearing. Featherfern, Lionfur, and Dafttail were waiting for us. Lionfur, a golden tabby tom, hissed in annoyance.

“Calm down,” Dafttail mewed calmly. “They’re here now.” She turned to Ivypaw and I, and mewed, “You two ready for Dawn Patrol?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Ivypaw muttered, still looking extremely tired.

Featherfern flicked her tail against her apprentice’s ear gently, and then murmured, “Why don’t you and Thistlepaw run to the ShadowClan border? Watch out for any danger, and remark the scent markers. We’ll be right behind you, but a run should wake you right up.”

Ivypaw nodded, and then took off out of the camp, running as fast as she could. I followed behind, making sure to keep her scent on track, as I’d only been to the ShadowClan border once when Dafttail took me out to see the territory. I still didn’t know it as well, so I knew that unless I followed Ivypaw’s scent, I could get loss.

We ran all the way to the ShadowClan border, and Ivypaw stopped just short of our scent markers, which laid on the hard black surface known as the Thunderpath.

“I hate coming here,” Ivypaw murmured. “This place screams evil at you.”

“But we have to come,” I pointed out gently. “Otherwise ShadowClan will invade!” I’d never seen a ShadowClan cat in my life, but I’d heard nasty nursery tales about them from Lilyfur and Voletooth. They taught their kits to fight off invaders, and they were all cruel and vicious. I really had no idea if those tales were true, or if they were just that, tales, but I didn’t particularly want to find out. Especially when it was just me and Ivypaw here, and neither of us were what you could call an experienced warrior. All I really knew how to do was do a hunting crouch, and yesterday I’d caught a vole, but otherwise I had no battle training. And Ivypaw had only been training for one short moon.

I couldn't help but letting out a sigh of relief when Dafttail, Featherfern, and Lionfur appeared.

“Did you set the markers?” Featherfern asked.

“Yes!” I exclaimed.

Lionfur sniffed, and then nodded, his green eyes actually full of warmth. That surprised me, he was normally rather grouchy a lot of the time. “They did it,” he mewed approvingly.

“Let’s just check along the border quick, and make sure it’s quiet,” Dafttail mewed, walking along the Thunderpath, but staying far enough away so that the monsters that thundered on the Thunderpath didn’t harm her. Featherfern pushed Ivypaw and I to follow, while her and Lionfur took up the rear.

----

We were padding back into camp after our patrol, and we found everything in complete disorder. A lot of the cats were already up and awake, and they were all going crazy.

I found Sunpaw, Owlpaw, and Thornpaw sitting with each other near the apprentices’ den, whispering to each other. I pointed them out to Ivypaw with my tail, and we went over them.

“What’s going on?” Ivypaw asked.

Owlpaw looked at us, his yellow eyes filled with sorrow. “I’m sorry, Ivypaw. Redhawk has died,”

Ivypaw’s amber eyes filled with sorrow. “No!” she exclaimed! “You’re lying! He can’t be dead!”

“Ivypaw-” I started, but I couldn’t get another word out of my mouth before she took off running. And I really couldn’t blame her. Redhawk had been her father, and I knew that if Hardstar had died, I would have reacted the same way.

Sunpaw put her tail on my shoulder, “She’ll be okay,” she murmured. “Just giver her time to cool off.”

“That’s all well said,” Thornpaw growled, “but Redhawk is dead! Who’s going to be the new deputy? Who’s going to be my new mentor?” His voice cracked at the end there, and I wished I had answers for him. But I didn’t know what to say.

Edited 4/5/2015

Note added 4/5/2015. 

Unless the chapter has been edited, in which an * will be added after the chapter and the date it was edited will be at the end, do not freak if three of my cats have different names. You met one of them this chapter: Featherfern. Her normal name was Featherfur but I had too many 'fur's and 'pelt's, so I changed three cats. Featherfur is now Featherfern. Bumblepelt is now Bumbleheart. And Mossfur is now Mosscloud. Just a warning.