Horsemoon's Silence

Chapter 10

The next day, Horsepaw walked out of Creamleaf's den after visiting Birdtail. She was doing good, Creamleaf had said. Horsepaw could still hear the tremor in her voice, though. All that Horsepaw had learned, didn't really help with Birdtail's injury, except poppy seeds to ease the pain, so Creamleaf has told Horsepaw to stick with warrior training for now.

Horsepaw was padding to meet Bounceheart for warrior training. It was about noon, so it was time for the lesson with the older she-cat.

"Why did you fight in that battle? You knew what was at stake." Barktooth whispered to Honeypelt as they were walking by Horsepaw to go do some hunting. They had become very attached lately.
  
"The kits aren't bothering me yet. I can manage for a little bit longer. It's okay, so stop..." Honeypelt answered, her voice fading as they passed. 
   
Horsepaw's heart skipped a beat. That means there's going to be three queens, because Cinderstripe moved back to being a warrior after we became apprentices. She thought. That's a lot for this greenleaf. And that means a lot of apprentices. We're going to be a big clan! Her heart swelled with pride that her clan was the biggest!
  
"Horsepaw, over here!"
  
Horsepaw turned to a voice. Bounceheart was smiling and waving her tail near the place where apprentices trained, the little area outside of camp. She followed Bounceheart out of camp and into the training area.
   
"Okay, let's see your hunting crouch." Bounceheart instructed. "Since we worked on this yesterday, you should know it. But it doesn't have to be perfect, so let's see it!"

Horsepaw crouched down, but she stumbled because of the missing leg. She gained her balance a little and winced at her leg nub stretching. Bounceheart circled by, using her tail to make adjustments at her crouch. Soon she stepped back and gave a small nod.
  
"Not bad, but could use more work. Now, wanna test it out?" Bounceheart meowed excitedly. She looked eager to show her apprentice how to kill prey.
   
Horsepaw's eyes glowed. "Like hunting!?" She mouthed. Bounceheart nodded happily. Horsepaw jumped, partly with trying out her crouch, and partly that Bounceheart understood her words.
  
"Let's go to the meadow to try. I know you might not be able to run as fast, because... ugh..." Bounceheart's eyes trailed down to Horsepaw's missing leg. "But anyway, you probably will  still run pretty fast, fast enough to catch a rabbit, I think." She looked awkward.

They began to walk towards the meadow. Soon, they arrived and the smell of rabbits was everywhere.

"There's a lot of prey today. You'll see one in a second and you'll catch it. You know, there's probably one right under our noses!" Bounceheart laughed, but then stopped as she saw that Horsepaw didn't.

Horsepaw was too concerned and focused on hunting to laugh. She inhaled, and caught a scent of a rabbit immediately. It was a few fox-lengths in front of her. She crouched with a smirk and crept forward. She saw its ears up in the grass. She made sure that she was down-wind of the rabbit so it didn't smell her. She held her breath when she was close enough to pounce, and she jumped on the rabbit. Surprised, the rabbit squeaked and ran. Horsepaw was determined to catch it, so she followed it.

Bounceheart bounded after them.

Horsepaw looked her jaw, and ran faster than she thought was possible. She was getting so close...

Until she tripped on a rock.

Horsepaw tumbled head over paws and rolled on the ground. She rolled on top of the rabbit, squashing it. It wailed as it was caught under a cat more than half its weight heavier than it. Horsepaw was happy she caught it, but was embarrassed as she made the killing bite after they stopped rolling. She padded proudly back to Bounceheart.

"Well done, Horsepaw!" Bounceheart praised her apprentice. "Definitely not how I would catch a rabbit, but it works! Still, it was just luck that you caught it. If the rabbit was farther in front of you, you would've fell on the rock and ruined your chance to catch it. That means you have to be aware of your surroundings while you're running. But it's okay because we'll work on that too." Bounceheart instructed. "Now, let's get that big rabbit back to camp so we can work on battle training!" She began to walk back to camp. Horsepaw followed, smiling. She had caught we first rabbit! Maybe this was going to work, fitting two rank training into one.

Horsepaw could do it.