Warriors #4: Darkness Awakens

Chapter 32

Swiftpaw's POV

"Tell me about the battle all over again!"

"Were you ever scared?"

"Did anyone try to kill you?"

My patience was definitely being tested as Cherrykit and Molekit had seemed to want to do nothing but ask me about the battle since it had happened.

It had been almost two days now. Currently, Snowpaw and I were sharing a vole near the fresh-kill pile while Cherrykit and Molekit basically circled us, asking me constant questions. Snowpaw had been answering them for me mostly, because I had managed to give her the full story, while I growled and rolled my eyes.

I had to admit, I was growing a bit of a big head, considering that I was trying to act like now that I was an apprentice, Cherrykit and Molekit were "lower" than I was, and that I didn't necessarily need to give them my time.

Unfortunately though, Cherrykit and Molekit seemed to notice more and more that I wasn't putting my word in. "Swiftpaw!" Cherrykit exclaimed. "Snowpaw's already told us about the battle. Tell us your point of view."

I let out an annoyed huff. For some reason I feel like I can't say no... I thought as I looked into Cherrykit's eager eyes. "Fine," I muttered, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. "I have to admit, just before the battle, I was pretty nervous."

"I could tell!" Snowpaw commented. "When I was walking up to you to wish you luck, I tripped on my own paws and fell on my face, but you didn't say a word!"

"Maybe I just didn't care?" I teased to Snowpaw before going on. "Anyways, once the battle started, it was absolute chaos. I feel like cats noticed that I was pretty young to be put into a battle, so they seemed to go for me."

"What did you do?" Molekit asked with wide eyes.

I couldn't suppress a smile as I saw how captivated Cherrykit and Molekit looked. "Well, I just gave it everything that I had! It took me a bit, since some of the cats I fought were bigger than I was, but I managed to fight them off. I even helped Lilypetal scare off Tawnypelt!"

"Wow!" Cherrykit squealed.

"I know! Then, when things seemed to be getting tense, Brambleclaw came up with a really smart plan," I continued, becoming more and more animated the more I noticed the two kits were getting into my story. "ThunderClan created a second patrol that attacked ShadowClan from the trees, and it completely threw their warriors off of track!"

"And then you won, right?" Molekit asked excitedly.

"Heck yes, we did!" I exclaimed. "But it was a tough battle. I don't know if some of the bloodshed was worth it, to be honest."

I wasn't sure if I should have been so honest with Snowpaw, Cherrykit and Molekit, but it was how I felt. Now that I knew that it had been Tigerstar's plan all along to get this battle to happen, I wondered if his intentions were truly good. Because of this battle, Firestar lost a life, and ShadowClan lost their deputy. Is this what the Dark Forest wanted? I highly doubt that Ivypaw actually received a sign from StarCla. Tigerstar had said he was discussing something with a Dark Forest apprentice. There's no reason why it all couldn't be true.

The thoughts almost disturbed me so much, that I tried to ignore them and pretend that there was another underlying good reason that I just wasn't as aware of. The fact that ThunderClan had won made me feel a little better about all of it, at least.

"But at least you won!" Cherrykit squealed, echoing my thoughts. "And everything's okay now!"

I wish I could say that.