Firetalon's Destiny: Chapter 11

I awoke from training to the sound of excited chatter outside of my den, blinking away my tiredness, I stood and stretched. Poking my head out of the den I watched as the dawn patrol returned with a group of at least five cats. All of them looked too young to be adults, with the oldest being maybe ten moons. My eyes narrowed in confusion and my tail curled as the stench of rogues filled my nose. What were a bunch of rogues doing in our camp? My attention was soon averted by a flash of orange fur as my father streaked out of his den and leapt up onto the Water Rock. My ears perked up as he gazed down at the new arrivals before letting out a loud mrow in order to summon the Clan for a meeting.

Begrudgingly the warriors started to creep out of their den, grumbling darkly about how it was way too early for a meeting. Quickly I joined them, my ears perked from curiosity as my gaze wondered back to the strangers. “Warriors of FlameClan, I call you here due to the fact that six rogues wish to join us and learn the ways of our Clan.”

Murmurs rose among the assembled cats and many eyes turned to focus on the small group of rogues standing separate from us. “Why should we accept a bunch of rogues into FlameClan?” a yowl came from one of the cats, I recognized him to be Jaggedstripes. A brown warrior with stunning orange stripes and green eyes that gleamed with pride. “Our Clan has always done well enough without accepting outsiders!”

“We’re low on warriors and this nursery isn’t as full as it could be… we should accept them as StarClan’s gift,” the black cat next to me, Whitefoot, reasoned and the older she-cat stared pointedly at the younger tom until her gaze made him wriggle.

“We can barely feed ourselves during leaf-bare,” Shadowstep growled and he glared at the nearest rogue, a spotted gray tom probably around my age, until he squirmed with discomfort. “We should worry about keeping ourselves feed instead of allowing a bunch of outsiders to steal what little food we have.”

Cries of agreement rose among our ranks and I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Flamestar knew what he was doing, the others should shut up and accept whatever he decides. “Silence!” my father yowled and slowly they grew quiet until only the rattling of branches overhead from the cold wind could be heard. “I have made my decision, these rogues shall live among us and, like the rest of us, shall work to earn their share. If they prove incapable of following Clan rules, than they shall be exiled.”

“We gave Nix a chance and he’s proven himself many times over,” Doveflight pointed out, and she focused her warm blue gaze at the former golden-pelted kittypet. He had been Sweetbriar’s mate and after her death, shivers rippled down my spine as the unwelcome image of her bloody body popped into my mind, he seemed to have engulfed himself into the work of a warrior. “I think we should give these rogues a chance.”

When no more arguments arose Flamestar gestured with his tail for the rogues to approach the Water Rock. The group shifted hesitantly until a dark ginger tom with a darker underbelly and defiant sky blue eyes boldly started forward. Soon after the others jerked into action, nervously joining their companion who now stood up front.

“Looks like you’ll finally have denmates,” Goldensong whispered into my ear and I smiled at my pale yellow sister. “Now that you’re not the only apprentice, I’m sure you’ll have much more fun.”

“Plus you’ll have so many friends to play pranks on,” Doveflight added and my other sister’s whiskers twitched in amusement as she grew lost in thought.

I was wrenched out of our conversation when Flamestar declared the gathering over and my Clanmates began to jostle pass me to begin their morning duties. “Firepaw,” Tailfur waved for me to join him and, after giving my sister’s a good bye nod, I quickly joined my mentor. “Today we will be working on your battle training. While it’s clear that you know plenty of offensive techniques,” his eyes slightly narrowed as he brought this up and I glanced away guiltily. Tailfur didn’t know about Moon and he probably found it very suspicious that I knew how to fight when he hadn’t taught me many battle techniques. “You don’t seem to have much of a handle on defensive maneuvers, which is what we’ll be focusing on today.”

“Sounds good,” I shrugged while trying to keep my disappointment out of my voice. I didn’t particularly like defensive moves. Moon was always saying how important a good offense was and that defensive moves were for those not strong enough to fight back. Still I guess it would be smart to know some defensive moves... I frowned, who was I kidding?

“And I was thinking after battle practice we’d see if we could catch anything on the way back,” Tailfur added as we padded out of the camp and into the freezing, bare forest.

“Cause we’ll definitely find something in this cold,” I grumbled under my breath as my fur fluffed out in order to keep me warm.

“Who knows, maybe we’ll find a rabbitcicle,” an unfamiliar voice joked from behind me and I whirled around to face one of the new comers. He was a lithe dark ginger tabby with bright green eyes that reminded me of fresh new-leaf grass. “Oh that’s right I need to introduce myself! I’m Rustypaw, nice to meet you.”

I stared critically back at the tabby tom, he seemed kind of strange. “Ah…” I quickly looked away, not wanting to be caught staring and exclaimed. “I’m Firepaw.”

“Tailfur I hope you don’t mind if Rustypaw and I join you in training,” Oakbranch meowed as he joined us, the light brown tabby warrior had become a warrior not too long ago and from the unsure gleam in his amber eyes I could tell he wasn’t up for the challenge of training an apprentice quite yet.

“Of course, it would be an excellent way to gauge both of our apprentices skill,” Tailfur smiled before turning and leading us farther into the woods.

“Say, say what’s training like?” Rustypaw asked me and I could already tell he was one of those cats who had an insatiable curiosity. “Is it hard? Fun? Frustrating?”

“Um… I haven’t been an apprentice for very long so I really don’t know…” I hadn’t even started training yet, but I was already drained from this guy’s enthusiasm.

“Oh really,” his tail drooped for a second of mild disappointment before it sprang back up and he began to shoot questions at me rapidly. “What’s it like being in a Clan? Do you ever get in arguments with your Clanmates? How many cats live in FlameClan? Do you always have to obey your leader? Or more like, do you always have to obey the code? What-”

“Stop!” I practically screamed the word. “I can’t answer all those at once besides most of these questions will be answered by Oakbranch, so go and ask him instead.”

Oakbranch, upon hearing that comment froze and shot me a pleading look that said. ‘Please don’t sic him on me.’ I shrugged and gave him a sympathetic smile before picking up my pace to walk beside Tailfur. “Say Tailfur why did Flamestar give Oakbranch Rustypaw? I mean surely someone else would have been better for him.”

Tailfur didn’t respond for a minute as he searched carefully for the right words. “Your father has great faith in Oakbranch. By giving him Rustypaw, Flamestar is saying that he can overcome a challenge.”

“Oh is this the training grounds?” Rustypaw exclaimed loudly into my ear, making me practically jump out of my fur.

“Yeah, this is it,” we had stopped in front of a clearing covered in moss. Due to the soft spongy ground we didn’t have to worry too much about injuring ourselves if we fell or messed up a technique.

“So what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?” Rustypaw looked like he practically wanted to jump up and down with excitement as he gazed expectantly at our mentors.

“We’re going test your talent by having you and Firepaw battle each other,” Tailfur explained simply. “Claws won’t be allowed in this bought and the first one to stay pinned down for ten heart-beats loses.”

“I’m not going to go easy on you, Firepaw,” the older apprentice smiled confidently back at me and he strolled into the center of the clearing. He was so calm now, the change was disorienting and it took me a moment to nod and join him.

Tailfur and Oakbranch stay by the edge of the clearing, their gazes staring judgingly at us. “Begin,” Tailfur exclaimed.

As soon as the word escaped from my mentor’s mouth, Rustypaw let out a loud yowl and lunged forward. In a blink of an eye, he closed the gap between us and he loomed over me with a paw raised to strike me. Instinctively, I jumped aside and his paw slammed down on the spot I had been standing moments ago. As soon as I landed back onto the ground, I charged towards Rustypaw before feinting to the right and striking at his exposed side.

The darker ginger apprentice retaliated quickly, he whirled instantly to face me and his mouth enclosed around my raised front leg. He yanked powerfully and I felt my paws shift under me as I began to lose my footing. I can’t lose! With a yowl, I lashed out and my paws slammed against one of Rustypaw’s eyes. Letting out a startled yelp, he released me and I tackled into him. I slammed him to the ground before he could react, I planted my paws lightly on his throat and chest. I won.

Upon the tenth heart-beat, I stepped off of Rustypaw and beamed triumphantly back at our mentors. “How’d we do?”

“You’re both excellent fighters,” Tailfur came to our sides but his look was almost criticizing as he studied both of us. “While you both had good offensive moves, you’re defense was rather weak. You both took on unnecessary blows that, in a real fight, could cost you dearly.”

Tailfur’s wise words seemed to fly right over Rustypaw’s head as he leapt to his paws and grinned excitedly back at me. “You were amazing! Oh man, I sure hope I can fight like you sometime!”

With a sigh, Tailfur turned to Oakbranch. “You sure have your paws full with this one.”

“Hah… just wonderful…” Oakbranch sighed unenthusiastically.

Tailfur rested his fluffy tail reassuringly on Oakbranch’s shoulder before walking away. “Come on Firepaw, we’ll train over there,” he gestured towards the far side of the training grounds.

I obediently followed my dark brown mentor “So what are we going to learn today?”