Warriors: The Darkness Within

Chapter 12

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The air was stretched with tension, Firepaw honed in on his target, the log sat at least three fox-lengths away, he focused his energy on the area.
"Now, release the energy into the log." Gorseflower prompted.
Firepaw tried but struggled to control it, it felt very unstable, then suddenly, he felt his built up energy dissolve back into him.
"I can't do it." Firepaw admitted, feeling his disappointment in himself growing.
He had been trying to control his power of fire, over the last three nights, training with Gorseflower and he still hadn't even made so much as a flame.
"Yes you can. Believe in yourself Firepaw, you hold more power than you know, you are destined for great things." She said coming to sit in front of him.
"I must leave now, try and practice when you are alone, don't let anyone see you." His StarClan mentor started to fade and Firepaw knew the dream was ending. He shut his eyes and waited for himself to wake, he eventually felt his nest beneath him and, when he opened his eyes, could see splinters of morning light shine gently into the den from between the cracks in the den roof.
"Should we tell someone?" A voice whispered from behind him near the entrance, Firepaw thought it must have been Rockpaw from the sound of the voice.
"No mousedung! We'll be thrown out and made to live as rogues!" Another voice whispered, he was sure it must have been Tidalpaw. "That was good... now we just have to convince those rats we..."
"Hey! Tidalpaw! Rockpaw!" A voice called, confirming Firepaw's suspicion. "Come on you two, patrol!"
"Yes Lighteningstreak, should we wake Firepaw?"
"Yes, he has been asleep for far too long, I want him to go for a training session." At his father's words, Firepaw sprang to his feet, trotting over to Lighteningstreak and the two apprentices who stood with him.
"You were awake?" Tidalpaw stared at him, horrified.
"Yeah, don't you have a patrol to go to or are you going to tell someone." Firepaw teased, Rockpaw and Tidalpaw's eyes widened and they looked at each other in shock.
"Tell someone what?" Lighteningstreak asked in confusion.
"N...nothing." Rockpaw stammered and the two of them bolted away, Firepaw felt triumphant, though he was very suspicious of the two.
"Right, now. Nettlestar is waiting." His father told him, before bounding across the clearing to speak with the senior warriors. Firepaw felt a rush of pride over his father, since Waterclaw broke his leg in the battle 3 days ago, Lighteningstreak was named fill-in deputy while Waterclaw was recovering.
He shook himself, sending bits of moss flying everywhere, and ran over to where his mentor was waiting, Nettlestar gestured with her tail towards the camp entrance and they exited camp.
"So what are we going to do?" Firepaw asked, following his clan leader over a small fallen tree and around a bend, this wasn't the way to the training ground so maybe they were going to be hunting.
"We are going to work on your powers." She said, without stopping.
Firepaw's breath hitched and his paws stopped working, he tripped and fell on his face, he immediately stood up, rubbing his muzzle with his paw. Had Nettlestar just said that?
"Firepaw? Are you ok?" She asked, walking back to him.
"Wha? Yes but d-did you just say..." he stuttered.
"Yes, I did. I was visited in my dream by a cat called Gorseflower, she told me you have a power and I must help you practise it." She said calmly.
"B-but..." Firepaw's head spun, his clan leader knew of his power.
"Come on." She said turning to head further into the forest, Firepaw stumbled after her still in shock.

They came to a clearing not much smaller than the training ground, Nettlestar padded to the edge and dragged out a stick, she laid it in the middle of the clearing at Firepaw's paws.
"What do you want me to do with this?" Firepaw asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Use your powers. Set it alight and quench it." She said, as if it was the most simple thing in the world, he felt worry creeping over him, what if he started a bushfire because he failed to put it out?
"Firepaw?" His clan leader asked, frowning.
"I'll try.." he replied, stepping away from the stick and gathering the energy within himself.
"That's it Firepaw, now once you think you have enough, you know what to do. I believe in you." Firepaw heard Gorseflower's voice and saw her faint silhouette, he gasped but soon realised that Nettlestar couldn't see his Starclan mentor.
Firepaw felt his power awaken and released the energy onto the stick, suddenly, a brilliant blaze erupted from it and both Nettlestar and himself leaped back in surprise. The blaze rose high and the flames licked at the price of wood, devouring it.
"Put it out!!!" Nettlestar exclaimed.
"How?" Firepaw cried, starting to panic.
"Relax Firepaw, now absorb the energy by drawing it into you." Gorseflower instructed, she sounded soothing and he immediately felt better. He focused on the blaze using his power to draw the energy to him, the flames swirled around leaving the stick and curling through the air, Firepaw felt his control slipping and fought to gain it back, the fire slowed and came back towards him. The orange flames didn't stop and by the time Firepaw realised they weren't going to, it was too late, they engulfed him, but there was no pain, no heat... nothing. He looked at his body and gasped, the fire was laced into his pelt, his body was literally on fire, it danced with his fur and he felt incredible, he was finally completely in control. He focused on a spot and gathered a ball of flames and threw it at the point he had his eyes fixed on. The fire flew and hit the patch of ground, sending long orange figures of flame reaching towards the sky, he summoned it back and it came to him.
"Well done Firepaw! You did it perfectly!" Gorseflower's eyes were visible now, glistening with pride. Happiness at the Starclan cat's words filled him, he closed his eyes and pushed back the power and energy surging through him until he could no longer feel the flames on him, when he opened his eyes they were no where to be seen, the only evidence being a charred stick and a burnt patch of ground.
"Firepaw, that was incredible!" Nettlestar looked at him with wide eyes, filled with awe and surprise. "You are incredible." She praised. He beamed at his leader's compliment but it faltered when a question surfaced.
"Why did you want me to practise?" He asked, watching her expression carefully, Nettlestar sighed and cast her gaze far away.
"There was a prophecy, a prophecy that you and two others are involved in."
A prophecy? Me? Firepaw thought,he knew Birdpaw must have been involved somehow, but who was the third cat?Nettlestar continued to explain, interrupting his thoughts;
"The prophecy is, one will join the black stars, young but powerful, Trees will fall and rivers will burn as the sun sleeps. There will be two, as young who will quench the fire and there will be peace as the sun wakes." She said, eyeing him gently.
The black stars? Burning rivers? Falling trees? What does any of it mean? He asked himself, trying to pull apart the words Nettlestar was saying.
"But... can't Starclan do something?" He asked, a question intended for Gorseflower more than his leader.
"I don't know." His leader replied, a flicker of hope crossed Firepaw's mind but was stopped by Gorseflower's reply; "It is out of Starclan's control." The Starclan cat's words instead sent shivers down his spine, Starclan was powerless against this threat, how was he supposed to defeat it?
"Let's get back to camp, we've been out here for a while, and you're probably famished." Firepaw nodded, and followed her the whole way back to camp, thoughts and questions thrashing about his mind, only one stayed stationary, he had to talk to Birdpaw.

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Birdpaw stretched in her nest, wincing when her cuts protested, they were much better after 2 days of rest. She washed her fur and sat up, extending a paw out of the nest she stepped out and gave herself a shake. She wandered out of the medicine den and ventured up to her father who was talking to the senior warriors, "That is good to hear, I'll inform Nettlestar when she returns." Ambercloud and Silverwater nodded in reply to Lighteningstreak and walked away.
"Where did Nettlestar go?" She asked, Lighteningstreak spun around and his eyes softened as they landed on her.
"Just for a training session. What are you doing out of your nest?" He asked, greeting her with a lick on top of her head.
"Pebblefoot said I could help around camp remember?" She reminded him.
"Oh yes, that's right. This deputy thing is really stressful, I don't know how Waterclaw made it look so easy." Birdpaw shrugged, and replied; "He had a lot of experience, he is almost an elder now." She noticed a flash of sadness and worry cross over her father's face.
"What is it?" She asked him.
"Waterclaw... he is going to remain an elder. His leg will never heal enough to return to his deputy duties and he feels that he is ready to become an elder. But you cannot tell any cat!" She nodded, Birdpaw felt sorry for the old deputy but was proud that her father would most likely be named deputy in his place.
"Can I do anything around camp?" She asked, he nodded and replied;
"You could replace Crowpaw on watch." He said and Birdpaw licked her father's ear and took off across the clearing to the lookout tree, she spotted Crowpaw's black pelt half-way up the tree and called out to the small black apprentice. Crowpaw was 2 or 3 moons older than herself but they were almost the same size, Crowpaw met her below the branch the lookout usually uses to sit on and watch for intruders.
"Birdpaw? What is it?" She asked, Birdpaw told her she was there to switch and the black furred apprentice nodded and leaped gracefully down landing perfectly at the base of the tree.
Birdpaw sat on the branch, gazing out across the vast scape of their territory, the trees waved gently in the wind, the pond, visible from here, it's water still and clear, she spotted Featherpelt sunning herself on the rocks at the shore of the pond, the retired queen was washing her fur, Waterclaw laying beside her seeming to be asleep, with them stood Branchfall, probably to help Waterclaw walk and for protection. The clan was still on edge from the attack, even though there had not been any sight or smell of intruders since, Birdpaw sat and watched for a while before she spotted her brother, Firepaw and his mentor Nettlestar returning from their training session. They entered camp and Nettlestar went to talk with Lighteningstreak while Firepaw went over to the fresh-kill pile, choosing a piece and settling himself down to eat, Birdpaw thought he seemed more preoccupied than usual, she scolded herself for getting distracted and turned her attention back to keeping watch.

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Hey hey peeps! Thx for reading! I am so happy to have so many reads, i honestly thought no one would read this! Plz comment! I really would loooooove some feedback!