Post by |g.O.l.d.Y| on Apr 6, 2006 5:58:30 GMT -5
Undying Love
Blossoms Bloom
Heather Spitz
Chapter One[/center]
Gold fur was ruffled in the breeze as its owner walked through the mud toward the strong bracken that served as the nursery. Tiny head lifted high and proud as the creature neared it. Voices could be heard inside and the pitiful mewling of hungry kits. He was no longer the youngest kit since Lightstorm had kitted last night and soon Grassheart would too.
“Goldkit, step forth.” A calm and elegant voice called out. The kit turned around, having just about to enter the nursery to see a large blue she-cat standing a few feet from him on top a pile of reeds and moss. Rainstar! What did she want with him? Possibility after possibility ran through his mind as he sprinted back toward his leader quick as his short, golden legs would allow. This young tom was not the fastest cat in the clan, but since when was RiverClan fast?
The kit slowed down as he neared the noble she-cat, panting heavily from his hard run across the camp. As he looked around cats of all sizes gathered around an impatient Rainstar came into focus. Once again his mind wondered why he could possibly be wanted at a clan meeting. My apprentice ceremony! Goldkit decided at last. Excitement overtook him, joined with a stab of pain. His mother would never see him become an apprentice of RiverClan or a warrior for that matter.
Two moons ago Goldkit’s mother, Tawnywing, had been claimed by greencough, the most deadly sickness known to RiverClan. Raindance, a young queen with kits of her own, had taken him in as her own, giving him the same gentle touch she gave her own kits. Goldkit would have loved the time with her, had it not been for one of her own two kits, Kashpaw. The gold kit had to surpass treacherous teasing and overpowering while Kashpaw dwelled in the nursery with him, and now things were going to be the same way as soon as he set paw in the apprentice den.
“Goldkit, step forth, please!” Rainstar’s voice was louder and irritable, snapping Goldkit back to the clearing around him. A satisfying taut Kashpaw sat next to his sister, Brookpaw. Lightningpaw, a newly made black she-cat apprentice, sat close to the treacherous tom, their flanks almost touching. Goldpaw’s eyes narrowed with jealousy and forced himself to look back up at Rainstar. Slowly, and self-consciously, Goldpaw stalked forward out of the crowd. His skin burned under his pelt and his muscles tensed, daring to sprint away as fast as possible.
“Goldkit, you are of age to become an apprentice of RiverClan. From this day forth you shall be known as Goldpaw, may StarClan light your path. Berrytail, it is by time you are to be given your first apprentice. You will mentor Goldpaw, may you teach him all the skill your own mentor has taught you.”
The newly named Goldpaw’s heart thumped with excitement as he looked around wildly for Berrytail, waiting for her to emerge from the crowd as they chanted his new apprentice name and ceremonially touch noses with her new apprentice. Golden tail drooped slightly when no cat stepped forward and he sat down, looking up at Rainstar questioningly.
“Lightningpaw, Goldpaw, search the camp for Berrytail, if she is not here go out and search the forest and the fishing gorge.” Rainstar turned and retreated into the ferns that served as her den after she gave the order.
Goldpaw watched her go and gaped slightly. He slowly turned to Lightningpaw and flicked his ear. She obviously wasn’t pleased at the slightest bit. The golden tom had never actually worked side by side with the young she-cat, perhaps she was easier to get along with in a working condition. This may be his only chance to get Lightningpaw to see his true colors.
Berrytail could not be found in the camp and Lightningpaw was in a nasty mood. Goldpaw held his tongue as they walked down the narrow strip of land above the river and toward the forest, Lightningpaw in the lead. He restrained from suggesting they search the fishing gorge, knowing it wouldn’t end well no matter how good of an idea it may be. Never did with her.
The black she-cat led them into the forest and weaved in and out of the trees with a hard expression that was all too easy to read: She’d rather be anywhere, but here, with Goldpaw. He kept a solemn expression and smiled whenever she turned her head to glare at her, flinching back slightly.
As they neared the center of the forest a cold wind blew past them and made the tiny green leaves of the trees flutter wildly. Greenleaf was well on its way and soon the prey would be thriving. As if to prove it, a sparrow chirped from up in a tree and Goldpaw looked up at it hungrily. He remembered the elders discussing how lightly they punished apprentices for eating when on duty nowadays. Goldpaw, of course agreed right away to gain their approval like any sensible – and hungry - kit.
He snapped back into reality when he bumped into Lightningpaw who had stopped to sniff the air. Her pelt bristled and she hissed angrily, arching her back, she spat viciously. “Stay away from you stupid, fleabag! Go and chase your little tail while I actually try to find your mentor!”
The golden apprentice was taken aback by such a hostile tone coming from the small she-cat and took a few timid steps back until his tail met a tree trunk. “Right, sure thing, Lightningpaw, I’ll do that.”
Lightningpaw gave an aggravated hiss and turned, slinking off into the grass quickly. She obviously meant to leave the novice apprentice behind. The grass moved slightly then it was still, but Goldpaw was busy trying to pinpoint Berrytail’s scent and prove himself somehow. He had not often been around the red warrior as a kit so her scent wasn’t as familiar and proved more difficult to find among the stale RiverClan scents and…something else.
Goldpaw lifted his nose into the air and took a good, long whiff of the air around him, following the scent that clogged his scent glands. He looked quite foolish, with his short, golden tail straight up, along with his head as he padded forward unseeingly. The scent was getting stronger and how it reeked! It was cats, but they smelt like foxdung…or what he supposed foxdung smelled like.
Wait. He had smelt this before. When the cats returned from the Gathering they carried the faint odor of three other rival clans. This one was ShadyClan or something of the sort. Elders had told him many a time when he was small kit that the cold winds of their territory chilled their hearts. ShadyClan was always causing trouble, and it seemed like they were up to their old tricks.
Adrenaline pricked Goldpaw’s paws as he walked forward as stealthily as he could, keeping his belly and head low to the ground. Fur bristled as he poked his head out of the heather where he had taken refuge and saw three, rather large cats. One tom and two she-cats. It would be pointless to try and take them on by himself! Oh Lightningpaw! Where did you go? Goldpaw cried desperately in his mind as the cats neared him.
Immediately the small tom dove deeper into the heather and laid back his ears. Claws unsheathed as he waited for them to come closer, he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to fight, but his doubt was quickly replaced as he got a clearer view of the cats. They were holding limp and fresh prey in their jaws! RiverClan’s prey!
Just before the cats slipped into the heather a fierce battle cry sounded and from seemingly out of nowhere Lightningpaw flew down from the sky and landed square on the tom’s back, biting into the surprised warrior’s scruff fiercely. Goldpaw stood hooked to the spot in horror as Lightningpaw was flung easily from his back. She got up again bravely with a wince and growled angrily. “This is RiverClan’s territory our have you not noticed?”
The tom laughed and the two she-cats dropped their prey, bristling their fur and unsheathing their claws. They were lean and tough. No. They were scrawny, every rib visible, but their muscles shown as strong as ever. Their obvious lack of food obviously hadn’t affected their strength. No pity overcame Goldpaw as he stared at the hungry cat’s ribs, RiverClan was his clan and no cat would steal their prey, no matter how weak they may get. If they were so hungry they should just leave the forest! Besides, with these trouble-makers gone it would mean more prey for the other clans! “Do you think you will drive us out, apprentice?”
Lightningpaw didn’t take kindly to these words, her fur puffing out so she looked twice her size, which was still quite small. The wind seemed to stop its harsh blowing as Lightningpaw launched herself at the tom and two she-cats angrily, aiming tactlessly for his head. “You can bet your clan on it, Moonscar!”
“No need for that.” Moonscar replied with a dark chuckle and ducked his head with not that much effort, coming back up and diving at her hind leg nimbly. Goldpaw winced as his thorn sharp teeth sank into her tender leg, imagining it as his own. He jumped out at long last as the torture Lightningpaw was going through began to feel as if it were his own, a surge of protectiveness washing over him.
The apprentice’s unexpected attack took the other cats completely by surprise and stayed frozen to the spot momentarily as Goldpaw landed unevenly on Moonscar’s back, trying to bite into his ear and cling on at the same time.
Moonscar gave a mrreow of surprise and whirled around wildly, trying to fling the apprentice from his back, but Goldkit had a tighter grip. He tried to regain his pawing, but found his claws snagged deep in the black tom’s fur. The golden tom hissed in annoyance and began to rake his hind claws along the warriors’s sides weakly until he felt a cat’s powerful jaws bite into his skin roughly and drag him off. They released him and he fell on his back, exposing his sensitive belly.
The she-cat that had dragged him off, jumped at the chance and sank her teeth into his plump roundness, shaking her head roughly, getting a yowl of agony out of Goldpaw. He looked at Lightningpaw fighting Moonscar and felt a strong surge of power kicking out at the she-cat’s throat. She coughed and took a few steps back, stumbling slightly and running off into the bushes.
Goldpaw’s triumph did not last long. Moonscar hurtled toward him and gave the apprentice no chance to escape as he gave him a sharp and powerful bite to the neck. Darkness clouded Goldpaw’s amber eyes and he lay still, sides heaving lightly as if he were simply asleep. The last thing he heard was Berrytail’s battle cry…
