Leafpool's Choice

Chapter 8

"C'mon! C'mon! Leafpool, wake up! We're going battle training!" 

"Squirrelflight!" I'm still trying to sleep!"

"I'm not going to let you!" Squirrelflight declared.

Leafpool sighed, getting to her paws. "Stop it! I wanted to sleep!" 

"Leafpool! It's sunhigh already!" Squirrelflight flopped onto the ground, looking exasperated. 

"Fine...." 

Squirrelflight leaped to her paws, bounding towards the camp entrance.

"Squirrelflight where are we going?" Leafpool asked.

"Don't talk. Just walk," Squirrelflight said slyly. 

Squirrelflight was beginning to return to her energetic self, and seemed much more like the Squirrelflight that Leafpool knew and loved. As Leafpool followed her sister, she thought about all the time that they had spent together as apprentices. Reminiscing on old times made her feel happy, and reminded her better days, although she loved being with Crowfeather. Leafpool, like anybody away from her clan, missed her family, friends, and the people that she grew up with.

"What you thinking about, little sis?" Squirrelflight asked.

"Forgetting something, Squirrelflight?" Leafpool asked. 

"Huh?" Squirrelflight meowed. 

"I'm the older one!" Leafpool sighed with exasperation.

"We're here!" Squirrelflight exclaimed!

Leafpool looked around. Squirrelflight's pushed through the tall green grass, revealing a hollow in the ground. There was no grass in the hollow, and it look like at one point the hollow was been used for many dens for foxes or badgers. However, it appeared that most of the old dens have been filled in, probably by Squirrelflight.

"Wow, Squirrelflight! This is so neat!" Leafpool looked around. She couldn't believe that Squirrelflight had done all of this for her, even though she was a Medicine Cat, not a warrior.

"It was the least I could do. You and Crowfeather let me stay here, so it's right that I repay the favor. You were never trained as a warrior, so I feel it's right to teach you. Even just a little bit, but you still need to know how to defend yourself in the wild. I don't want anything to take you by surprise." Squirrelflight stood up a bit straighter. 

"What should I know?"

Squirrelflight begin to demonstrate some basics, then moved on to more challenging maneuvers. Leafpool obviously wasn't a pro, but she was a quick learner. 

However, Leafpool tired quickly.

"Leafpool, what happened to the cat who would trek through the forest for so long searching for herbs to cure every clanmate in need? Where is your endurance?" Squirrelflight shamed her older sister.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired," Leafpool meowed, trying to scoot past Squirrelflight and back towards camp. 

"I woke you up at sunhigh! You slept for so long!" 

"I don't know about you, but I'm going back to camp," Leafpool edged around her sister.

Squirrelflight reluctantly followed, dragging her paws and tail on the ground like a whiny apprentice. 

***

The stars twinkled in the night sky, far above Leafpool's head. She looked at her sister, fast asleep next to her, curled up in her nest. Leafpool, on the other hand, couldn't sleep.

Crowfeather was watching the camp, on guard near the entrance. I can talk to him. 

Leafpool slipped out of her nest, padding through the shadows, the white bits of her fur seeming to glow in the pale light cast by the moon.

"Crowfeather," Leafpool whispered, "I need to talk to you."

Crowfeather turned to look at his mate, his blue eyes glittering and standing out against his black fur. "You look like you've been putting on some weight there," Crowfeather joked.

"That's what I need to talk to you about," Leafpool meowed, although she looked very serious. "I think I'm expecting your kits."

***

A/N

1. Leafpool is actually the older sibling.

2. Thanks so much for over 700 reads! We are so close to my goal of 1k!

Thanks so much for reading!

~Hollyfeather