Warriors: Rise of the Shadows (Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Iceblaze twitched his ear as he met the gazes of the other she-cats, clearly infuriated at his comment. "What?" He meowed and they dropped their gazes in annoyance.

Suddenly Moonswirl, the medicine cat for DawnClan, raised her head and her ears. "Dawn will be here soon, we need to return to our Clans before any cat wakes up and notices we're gone." She meowed, breaking the silence that settled in.

The other two cats nodded and Iceblaze thanked the skies he would leave the others and go home. Just as he was about to leave, Kinksnow spoke up.

"We should meet up soon on the island." She meowed, looking at Lilyleaf. "In case we have any more information about the message we were told about."

Lilyleaf nodded and rose to her paws, shaking her fur out. "Good idea, see you guys in a half-moon." She meowed and bounded away, the other three splitting up and returning home.

**********

"Iceblaze!" Meowed Wolffur, his eyes shining with happiness. "Wake up!" He meowed, prodding his son with a paw.

Iceblaze grumbled and rolled onto his side, longing for sleep to take him away again. He'd returned from FireClan territory just before dawn and managed to snatch a bit of sleep.

"Get up, you big oof, and come see your brothers and sisters!" Wolffur grasped Iceblaze by the scruff and tugged him away from his warm nest. "Look what they caught on their first hunting patrol!"

Growling in defeat, Iceblaze opened his eyes and rose stiffly to his paws, stretching and yawning. "Okay, I'm up." He meowed and followed his thrilled beyond belief father out of the den with less of a spring in his step.

When his eyes adjusted to the blinding light of the sun, Iceblaze managed to spot Brokenpaw, Pinepaw, Ravenpaw, and Lilypaw chatting like starlings on catmint with an abundance of prey piled next to them.

Iceblaze admitted to himself that what they caught was impressive, but they didn't have to boast about it!

Brokenpaw was the first to see his father and half-brother heading for them and shot to his paws. "Iceblaze!" The black apprentice meowed proudly, puffing out his chest with pride. "Look what I caught by myself!" Pointing with a jet-black paw to a giant bass, Iceblaze yawned at the sight of the fish.

"I could've caught a much bigger trout!" Meowed Ravenpaw, batting her brother with a snow-white paw. "At least I brought back more than one piece of prey! You only caught one fish and you think that'll feed everyone?" Iceblaze's sister snorted in amusement and looked at a sparrow and two trout.

Lilypaw butted in, her eyes glimmering. "I caught a robin and a crow!" She argued and chaos broke out between the siblings.

Poor Pinepaw was caught in the crossfire and lowered his ears. Iceblaze noticed the young tom didn't look as proud as his siblings and gestured with his tail for him to come over. "What's wrong, Pinepaw?" The eldest brother asked, watching as Pinepaw studied his paws with a sudden burst of interest. 

"Well," the black tabby tom began, shifting his paws. "I didn't catch anything other than a few minnows." He admitted sadly. Iceblaze smiled warmly and flicked him on the ear with his tail. 

"That's okay," he comforted gently. "At least you caught something, right?"Pinepaw didn't look any better and only shrugged. 

"I guess they'll be warriors before I will." Iceblaze shook his head and pressed against his brother, who raised his gaze to meet his. 

"You should've seen it when I was an apprentice under Hawkwhisper," purred the warrior. "I couldn't catch anything because Softstream caught all the good prey!" Pinepaw purred with amusement and laughed, looking much better than he did seconds ago. 

"I bet it was because the fish would rather die than see her face." He meowed slyly, both toms snickering. 

"Or maybe it was because Hawkwhisper didn't teach me how to fish because Softstream would take all the prey!" Iceblaze joked and straightened at his former mentor's sharp call. 

"I heard that!" The tom yowled.