Warriors: Black Rain

Chapter 22

      "Come on, Scarpaw, leap!" With a grunt, Scarpaw flew forward, crashing her smaller body into Leopardpaw with precision; paws outstretched, sliding to the side, she brought her friend to the mossy ground.

       Leopardpaw yowled, scrambling to get up, shaking wet soil from her pelt as she grumbled, "Mouse-dung! I can't land a hit when you're always jumping around like a rabbit!" 

      Owltail flicked an ear in annoyance, sighing, "Your enemy won't leap under your paws for you to catch them in the heat of battle. Again!"

      Stormspirit sat on the other side of the cats as the two apprentices practiced their fighting skills near the mud-hollow. Scarpaw's training had certainly been paying off, for she felt a new surge of accuracy and swiftness with every swipe of her paw. Leopardpaw was improving greatly too, she noticed, with visible muscles and powerful pounces. With a surge of pride, Scarpaw couldn't help but wonder if their training would soon come to an end.

      Leopardpaw didn't seem as enthusiastic, rolling on her back in the mud.
"This is impossible without fresh-kill in my stomach. I'm dying out here." Owltail shook his head, casting an apologetic glance towards Stormspirit, who smirked. 

      "Leopardpaw, you should've eaten this morning; it's not like you to miss out on a meal." Leopardpaw grunted, and Owltail sighed, shutting his eyes. 

      "I suppose we've been training for quite a while; go and hunt for your lunch, and bring it back here." Stormspirit waved his tail, the usual gleam shining in his eyes. 

      "You go along too, Scarpaw; bring me back something as well. I'm starving." Owltail twitched an ear with annoyance, and the two apprentices dipped their heads, bounding off into the undergrowth. It wasn't until they reached the far end of the hollow, past the encasing brambles, when Leopardpaw stopped, looking Scarpaw in the eyes.

      "Alright, we have some time to talk before anyone will get suspicious. What are you planning on doing about this prophecy?" Scarpaw gulped, anxiety gnawing at her stomach.  

     "I don't know. This seems like something that Snowstar should know about, right?"

     "Yeah, but we don't want him knowing about Venomsight, remember? If the two are somehow connected, we'd have to spill the truth." 

     "Right," Scarpaw's tail drooped in disappointment, "that's true; we can't tell him." She wanted nothing more than her leader's help in reading the prophecy, but she couldn't risk the possibility of revealing her secret suspicions towards Venomsight. "Oh, StarClan, send me strength..."

      Leopardpaw flattened her ears, looking thoughtful. "Well, we know for sure that you're connected to the prophecy somehow... but yours seems different than the one Snowstar had described to the clan. He was given the same message, but he spoke of monsters, blood and death..."

      "Right, I didn't see any of that; just a storm, and the rose bush."

      "So either you both were given two halves of one prophecy, or... he's lying about what he saw."

      Scarpaw felt her pelt bristle against the breeze. How could she have the second half to the prophecy, when all she saw was a strange cat and a storm? Snowstar's dream sounded different, violent; a scene playing out before his eyes. Scarpaw had experienced hers in first person, it all seemed so real... They didn't seem connected at all. Could Snowstar have really lied about what he had seen?

      "The only way to know is if I tell him," Scarpaw sighed, "and I can't do that; not yet."

      "Then what do you propose we do?"