Up Until Now: A Warrior Cat FanFic

Chapter Seven*

Thornpaw's POV

"Focus a bit more, Thornpaw," Lionfur mewed to me. "You can do this. You had a great hunter's crouch earlier, what happened?"

"I'm sorry," I murmured. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Why was this so challenging? I'd had it perfect when we practiced. But for some reason, now that we were doing it for real, this was challenging. Why was hunting so hard?

"It's alright," Lionfur mewed, nosing me. "You can do this. I have faith in you, Thornpaw."

I was happy we were hunting by ourselves. It was ridiculous that I couldn't even do a proper hunting crouch. I didn't want Sunpaw and Thistlepaw seeing me messing up like I was. It was stupid that I kept messing up. I needed to clear my head, to focus. It was the only way for me to be a great warrior.

I went down to the ground, and cleared my head. I positioned myself for the hunting crouch, and Lionfur mewed, "Stop swishing your tail. You're going to attract all this noise, and it's going to make all the prey run away!"

I sat up quick. "I'm sorry that I've only been an apprentice for little over half a moon! I'm sorry that I'm not great at hunting right now. But I promise that I'll get better. I have to."

Lionfur nodded his head. "That's great, because I'll be looking forward to the moment you can do a proper hunter's crouch, and can catch some proper prey."

Lionfur was a great mentor, but to be honest, I missed Redhawk. Redhawk had been such a fantastic mentor, and I was upset that I'd only gotten to known him for a little over a day. And that may not seem like long to some cats, and it may not seem like it was long enough to know some cat to where you'd be grieving once they died, but it was hard. I didn't know many cats who went through two mentors, even with having one for only a small amount of time. I missed Redhawk. He'd been kind to me, and easy-going. He wasn't as strict as you may think, considering how he had been deputy.

Lionfur in contrast, was the opposite. He took his position as deputy extremely serious, and didn't allow for slack. It was like I was expected to be the model apprentice, perfect in every way possible, just because I was Lionfur's apprentice, and he was the deputy. I could almost believe that he thought that if he had an imperfect apprentice, he would lose his position in the Clan.

So, I was trying. I really was, but something about the hunting part of training just was extremely hard for me to get down. There was something about it that made it extremely difficult, and I couldn't quite figure it out. It was so unlike hunting, which was about the slashing and the attacking, and was pretty easy. I wished hunting could be the same way, so that I would be good at it too.

After all, I wanted to be leader. The leader of a Clan wouldn't be able to get away with only being able to fight. He had to be at least able to catch some prey, otherwise the other Clans might not think he was worthy of being leader. And then his Clan would start talking, and thinking that maybe he wouldn't be worthy of being leader.

"Alright," Lionfur mewed, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Let's get you back to the camp. It's getting late out."

"Are we practicing more tomorrow?" I asked, hopeful.

"Actually, I'm going to go ahead and tell you that you're cleaning out the elders' den. Birdsong and Brownpelt have been complaining about how it's soaking wet after the rain yesterday. Sunpaw and Moonpaw cleaned it out yesterday, but they're still complaining. Jaypelt and Thrushclaw both said they were being crazy, but I don't know. They might have some honesty in there. Crowpelt volunteered Snowpaw to help with it."

I nodded my head. Sure, I was slightly disappointed that I was missing out on great training just to take care of the elders, but really, I understood. The elders were an important part of the Clan, and I completely understood that they needed to be taken care of just as the rest of the Clan did. It wouldn't be fair otherwise.

----

The next day, Snowpaw and I had just finished cleaning out the elders' den, and was working on taking care of their ticks, when Birdsong spoke.

"Would you two like to hear a story?"

"Yes please!" Snowpaw mewed. "Can you tell us the one about Hardstar, and how he became leader?"

Thrushclaw let out a chortle of laughter. "Yes, of course, Snowpaw. Well, back when Hardstar was a warrior with the warrior name of Hardstone, he was a well respected cat in the Clan. He was very popular with the Clan, young and thinking he could do no wrong. Then, there was a period of time when he'd seem a little more distant with the Clan, and everyone got worried. The leader back then, Darkstar, was one of the wisest leaders ThunderClan had ever had. But he had this belief that ThunderClan should be in constant war with ShadowClan. The deputy, this beautiful she-cat, Runningwillow, happened to die in such a battle. Hardstone took and hurt a lot of ShadowClan warriors that day, inflicted fear into many of them. It's part of the reason why Ashstar and ShadowClan hold this grudge against them in general. Hardstone had killed the current deputy, Flintwhisker, who'd been Ashstar's father.

Anyways, Darkstar saw this as something great, and decided to give Hardstar the position of deputy, even though he'd only just gotten his first apprentice, Lilypaw, about a moon prior."

"Lilypaw, as in Lilyfur?" I asked. "As in my mother? So, my father was my mother's mentor?"

Brownpelt let out a sigh. "Yeah, I remember Hardstar as a warrior. He was amazing. Your mother was lucky to of snatched him up when he did. I remember when he wasn't looking for a mate. He'd been so focused on becoming a great warrior, that he would ignore how all the she-cats would look at him. Lilyfur must've really been special for him to give her his heart."

That story there, warmed my heart. So, Hardstar, my father, had been a well respected warrior, even when he was young, and he'd fallen in love with my mother, Lilyfur.

I want to be just like him. I'm going to be a great warrior. I'll be deputy. And then I'll get a mate and have kits for the Clan. I'll make my father proud. 

Edited on 2/28/2016