DuskClan

Chapter Five

Foxpaw felt a paw prod him in the ribs. "Wake up, you have training." said Jaysplash.

Foxpaw jumped to his feet. "What are we doing today?" he asked.

"I'm going to show you the territory with Nightpaw and Badgerwisker, but first go eat something."

"Ok." said Foxpaw bounding out of the apprentices den and over to the fresh-kill pile. Bearkit and Squidkit were already there arguing about something.

"Hi Foxpaw, whats better, a squid or a bear?" asked Squidkit.

"I don't know. Whats a squid?" said Foxpaw picking a small vole out of the pile.

"Curlfur says that a kittypet once told him a squid was a huge creature that lived in water far away from here." said Squidkit.

"In that case a fox would be better." said Foxpaw taking a bite of his vole.

"No! A bear is always better. Nutstripe said she battled a bear once. She said it was the size of a monster with huge claws and teeth!" argued Bearkit.

"Come on. We are going to leave without you." called Jaysplash.

"Coming!" answered Foxpaw finishing his vole in a few bites and leaving Squidkit and Bearkit to continue arguing. He ran over to were Jaysplash was waiting for him with Nightpaw and Badgerwisker.

"Lets go." said Badgerwisker leading the cats out of camp.

Foxpaw looked around at the forest. He had never been outside of camp before. He saw some grass rustle and watched as Badgerwisker pounced and came up with a mouse.

"Can you show me that?" Nightpaw asked.

"Tomorrow." Badgerwisker said, his voice muffled from the mouse. He buried it and the patrol moved on.

After a little while the cats reached the edge of the trees.

Foxpaw looked at the huge strange things looming above him. He could scent all sorts of weird smells. "Are those twoleg nests?" he asked his mentor.

Jaysplash nodded. "This border gets patrolled a lot to keep out kittypets and rouges who live in twolegplace."

"We better keep going if we want to see everything today." said Badgerwisker and the cats started walking again.

Foxpaw stopped as a horrible and strange scent hit his nose. It was even worse then the scents of twolegplace.

"Thats the thunderpath you smell." explained Jaysplash nudging his apprentice forward. After a few steps the four emergerged through a clump of bushes and next to a flat black path. Beyond it was a long stretch of grass. Foxpaw watched as Nightpaw put his paw on the path and immediately lifted it off.

"Its hot." he said.

Foxpaw jumped back as a odd formed thing raced by.

"Was that a monster?" asked Nightpaw.

"Yes. Over there is more of twoleg place," said Badgerwisker waving his tail in direction the monster had headed, "and thats the moor." he nodded towards the huge stretch of grass in front of them. "We need to hurry if were going to see anything else."

The cats followed the thunderpath for a little ways then turned away from it and went through the trees. Foxpaw heard the sound of rushing water before he saw the river. On the other side of it the forest seemed to continue on forever. "Cool." he said gazing at the water.

"We don't usually go past the river except when prey is scare. The woods over there are full of foxes and badgers. Every now and then you'll find a bear or wolf to." Jaysplash informed the apprentices then looked up at the sky. "Its getting late, we'll show you Star Tree then go back to camp."

Jaysplash lead the way this time. The warriors paused at a fallen tree to help the apprentices over it as they trekked through the forest. At around the time Foxpaw thought his paws would fall off they reached a huge tree with branches stretching out in every direction and up into the sky.

"It got its name because of how its seems to reach towards the stars." said Badgerwisker nodding towards the branches stretching out and up into the sky.

Foxpaw let out a yawn just as Badgerwisker finished speaking.

"We better head back to camp before you two fall asleep on your paws." said Badgerwisker leading the patrol back toward camp.

When Foxpaw and Nightpaw reached camp they headed over to the fresh-kill pile. Echopaw was already there telling Sharpkit everything that had happened, and the other apprentices were all sitting around together sharing tongues by her. Bearkit and Squidkit had stopped arguing and were trying to catch Burningscar's tail.

"How was your day?" asked their sister as the each took a piece of prey from the fresh-kill pile.

"Ya, what do you think of the territory?" questioned Brownpaw.

"Its huge! We saw Star Tree and the borders." answered Foxpaw after swallowing a bite of blackbird.

"Me to." said Echopaw.

"I wish I could of gone." said Sharpkit.

"You'll be a apprentice soon." said Cinderpaw. "When me and Minnowpaw were kits, Mossstar made Brownpaw a apprentice before us because he was a moon older. He made me and Minnowpaw apprentices as soon as he could after he realized how much we wanted to be apprenticed together."

"Thats true." spoke up Minnowpaw shyly.

Bearkit and Squidkit tumbled over to the group. "Will he make us apprentices with Sharpkit?" they asked jumping up and down.

"No, your both much to young." said Nightpaw.

"But were big." said Bearkit stretching up and standing on his tippy toes.

"Yes, your almost as big as that harmless beetle over there." said Brownpaw pointing with his tail towards a bug crawling on the ground next to the kits.

Bearkit bunched up his hind quarters and jumped on it, squishing it with a paw. "See. We can be apprentices."

Brownpaw let out a snort of amusement, and Foxpaw rolled his eyes and went back to his bird.