Ravenblaze's Determination [Warrior Cats Fanfiction]

Chapter 1

Ravenblaze padded into camp, her black fur making her hotter than she ever wanted to be. She carried two plump rabbits in between her teeth as well as fresh, wet moss dripping with water under her chin, holding it in place with her head ducked down, keeping the moss against her white chest as well.

It was the middle of greenleaf, and the sun had reached it's highest point. As Ravenblaze looked around the camp as he dropped her rabbits into the fresh-kill pile in the old, hollow tree stump, she could see the brindle she-cat Willowstrike chatting with Eelface, the gray tom. Ravenblaze's apprentice, Stonepaw, was sitting with them. He seemed to be interested in whatever the two warriors were talking about.

Ravenblaze, the moss still under her chin, trotted over to the three. They all stopped talking as they turned to see their friend joining them.

"Hey, Ravenblaze," Eelface greeted. Ravenblaze knew there was no sense in speaking to reply, so she flicked her tail as a friendly gesture. She took a step forward to Stonepaw and lifted her chin to look at him, the moss dropping to the ground and in front of Stonepaw's paws.

"Hello, Eelface, Willowstrike," Ravenblaze greeted. As she said their names she looked at them. She turned to Stonepaw, who had gotten his paws slightly wet from the wet moss. "Bring this to the elders, Stonepaw. You're lucky enough you didn't have to go out in this heat," Ravenblaze told her apprentice jokingly. Stonepaw moaned, "Do I have to? I hate water!"  Eelface gave Stonepaw a look that told him that he should do what his mentor instructed him to do. With that, Stonepaw clenched some moss in his jaws and the rest under his chin, and trotted over to the elders' den.

Willowstrike turned to face her friend. "He must be such a handful," She mewed to Ravenblaze. "No, he isn't," Ravenblaze replied. "Just hates getting his paws wet, that's all."

Ravenblaze told her friends farewell as she walked away to check out what else was going on in camp.

She passed the warriors' den, which was a large den carved out of the side of the sloping camp walls, where the ginger tabby tom Troutstripe was eating a fish. The tom loved to fish, and he was determined to do as much of it as he could before the river across the Thunderpath was too dried up to find anything in it.

Next, Ravenblaze saw the smoky-black tabby tom Ebonystripe padding out of camp for a border patrol, his mate, the brown-and-white tom Barktail close behind him. Ravenblaze smiled as she remembered how good of a mentor Ebonystripe had been to her. She remembered how disappointed Barktail had been when he hadn't gotten an apprentice yet-maybe he'd get one when the kits in the nursery were finally apprentices.

Speaking of the kits, Ravenblaze decided to see how they were doing. As Ravenblaze neared the nursery, she could already hear the tom kits thrashing around inside.

"Shush, kits, Ravenblaze is here," a she-cat's voice said as Ravenblaze appeared in the nursery and sat. Darkkit and Spiderkit immediately stopped play-fighting and sat up straight in front of Ravenblaze, less than a mouse-length from her paws.

"Hi, Ravenblaze!" Spiderkit squeaked. The tortoiseshell kit looked delighted to see the black-and-white she-cat. Darkkit's expression itself said hello as well.

Darkkit lunged forward as if attacking and started to play at Ravenblaze's right front paw. Spiderkit didn't want to miss out on the fun, so he rushed behind Ravenblaze and bit her tail. She winced, but allowed the two kits to keep playing-she barely felt Spiderkit's teeth anyways.

As the two kits were playing, Ravenblaze looked up to chat with the two nursery queens. She could only talk with one, since the pregnant Streamwater was sound asleep.

The dappled brown Athena looked slightly ashamed of her kit's jumpy behavior. "I'm so sorry about the kits," Athena said. She paused, then opened her muzzle again to tell her kits to behave themselves, but Ravenblaze purposely cut her off. "Let then play," Ravenblaze interjected. "It's great early warrior training!"