The Roaring Winds

Chapter Four: Guilt and Blame

Chapter Four: Guilt and Blame

A shadow moved across the rippling creek. Mossypaw slashed a forepaw quickly, snarling as she brought up nothing except a small splash of water.

    "Bad luck!" Stonepaw chirped. Mossypaw's eyes drifted away from the stream to look up at the dark gray apprentice. He stood on the opposite side of the stream at the edge of the bank. At his side was a hefty pile of minnows along with a few larger fish. Mossypaw's tail lashed behind her, knowing she had caught nothing so far.

    She didn't respond to him, instead, she chose to glare at the stream bubbling only a pawstep away from her. The small stream was connected to five others, which all had a width that was barely larger than two of her paws. The water rushed, bubbled, and fizzed as it made its descent downstream. Small rocks came out of the rapid, acting as another barrier to the natural flow of the current.

    Mossypaw resumed her previous position: crouched down and concentrated solely on what was beneath her, searching into the depths of the pale, sky-blue waves. Her claws were half-sheathed, so she would be ready to strike, but also so she wouldn't plant herself into the earth beneath her.

    She heard the quiet roaring of the tiny torrent that could swipe any the little things that entered its path such as a reed. There was little power in its course, but it still kept churning on nonetheless, never taking a rest unless it was frozen over, making it impossible for the water beneath to move.

    Mossypaw realized her thoughts had withdrawn from her concentration as yet another fish passed by her vision. She tried to correct her mind's absence as she swiped her forepaw faster than lightning, but she still missed the creature by a hair.

    "Just try to focus on the water, look into each small bit of dirt and pebble at its bottom. Don't look 'above' the water, where it's all bubbling and fizzy," Stonepaw inputted.

    Mossypaw merely flicked her ear, trying to fight back the urge to stomp her paws in the running water. No prey would come to her if she did.

    She caught her reflection for a slight heartbeat in the glow of the creek. Mossypaw despised the light of desperation in her expression and sought to erase it. She gritted her teeth, tensing up her facial features. She blinked, shaking her head.

    Mossypaw felt her paws twitching with agitation, urging to attack something. She fixated her eyes back to the rivulet. She looked into its depths, starting to see the tiny, brown and gray pebbles that stood out at the bottom of its floor. There were a few sprigs of moss clutching onto the sides of the earth, on the verge of being whisked away into the tide. Miniscule, almost completely obscured, water plants were trapped between the little pebbles that covered the bottom of the streamlet.

    A blackness then passed by Mossypaw's senses, which reacted almost immediately. Her forepaw swung through the water briskly, dipping beneath the surface, in the attempts to grip the fish. Her claws hooked its tail, and Mossypaw threw it upwards in a surge of triumph. Its scales glistened as the sun caught the light of it. Mossypaw watched it for a moment just as it fell back into the water again.

    Mossypaw sunk and let out a flare of anger as her claws skimmed the runnel, drawing up more of the current. She brought her forepaw back to the ground, clenching her claws ferociously. She felt something in her grip as she opened up her forepaw to see a scraggly, water lily in her grasp.

    "Woah! Did you just score a water lily? We never get to see those!" Stonepaw's crystal blue eyes sparkled in delight. He leaped across the bank to Mossypaw's side. His gaze was primarily on the water lily, but he could also see Mossypaw's face in his vision.