literature

Secrets of a Warrior II

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Published: May 2, 2016

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Literature Text

Chapter Two

Three days passed since the gathering and Galepaw couldn't stop letting the issue with the half-eaten squirrel gnaw at the back of his mind. Surely ShadowClan were just being their usual overly hostile selves… Galepaw shook his head attempting to shake away the thoughts and he prodded a paw into Deerpaw's side who was lying close by him in the apprentices' den.

"Psst… Deerpaw! It's a little past dawn. Let's see if we can go hunting."

"Huh…?" The golden she-cat blinked up at Galepaw sleepily, "honestly, Galepaw, you're as restless as a badger kit." Deerpaw grumbled and rolled back over while the young silvery tabby sighed and exited the den. A heavy mist clung in the air indicating that it had rained overnight. There were small puddles littered across the hollow.

Before Galepaw walked any further he heard his golden tabby friend stifle a yawn behind him as she approached him, blinking sleep from her eyes.

"You said you wanted to go hunting?" She gave him a sleepy smile.

"Yeah, let's go. Shouldn't we tell Falconswoop and Elmlegs though?" Galepaw asked.

"Hmmmm... Nah. Let's just go."

The two apprentices made their way through the tunnel entrance and out into the forest. It struck Galepaw that the dawn patrol was probably out and on their way back to camp. He hoped they would not catch the two of them wandering around the forest without permission.

Deerpaw must've been able to sense the tom's unease, "lighten up, will ya? Stop dragging your tail through the mud!"

"And if you don't be quiet, you'll scare all the prey away before we get a chance to catch anything," Galepaw retorted. The she-cat cuffed his ear playfully then padded off in a different direction and disappeared behind a gorse bush. Assuming she went to go catch something, Galepaw did the same.

He lowered his tabby body and moved across the wet ground with silent pawsteps. His ears pricked up instinctively when he heard a scuffling nearby. He spotted a squirrel nibbling on an acorn, completely oblivious to its surroundings. Galepaw sprang and dispatched the squirrel with a swift bite to the neck.

"Well done," Galepaw jumped when he heard a voice and spun around to see Ravenwing.

"Oh, thanks," the silver tabby let the fur lie flat on his back when he noticed it was just his father. He knew Ravenwing wouldn't rat him out for being out of the camp without permission and now if a patrol happened by them he wouldn't get in any trouble.

"What made you get up so early, son?" Ravenwing sat on his haunches and wrapped his fluffy tail around his forepaws.

"I've been restless… I keep thinking about Dovesong…" Galepaw's voice trailed away and he looked away from his father, refusing to let the tom see his weakness.

"You must be strong, Galepaw… Your mother would not want you to be sad. She would want you to be the best warrior you can be," the large tom nuzzled Galepaw's cheek. Warmth seeped through the silver tabby at his father's touch and it only made him miss his mother even more.

"I also can't stop thinking about that half-eaten squirrel that ShadowClan was grumbling about at the gathering the other night," Galepaw admitted.

"You mustn't let ShadowClan bother you. They will always be that way. Accusatory and contrary. They always try to make ThunderClan look bad."

Galepaw always took his father's advice. The young tom looked up to his father like he did no other cat. He was wise, loyal, and noble, brave and strong. Everything that Galepaw wanted to be but felt he couldn't.

"Galepaw, look what I-" Deerpaw came bursting through the undergrowth with a really fat mouse hanging from her jaws. She sat it down in front of her so it would not disrupt her speech, "hey, Ravenwing! Look how fat this mouse is!"

"Good catch you've got there, Deerpaw," the large black tom purred.

"Why don't I join you two?" Ravenwing suggested. "The clan could use some prey this morning."

The three of them together caught three mice, a squirrel, and a thrush. Before Galepaw headed back to the other two he wanted to catch just one more mouse. He assumed the hunter crouch and began to stalk forward. Before he knew it he realized he was standing right on top of the ThunderClan and ShadowClan border. He backed up before he stepped too far but then a smell caught his nose.

It was a bitter smell. It smelled almost rotten. He followed the scent not caring whether he was over the border or not; his curiosity never failed to get the better of him. The smell was getting more and more pungent and more and more unbearable. The tom pushed aside fronds of ferns and what he saw made his heart lurch. It was a dead, half-eaten squirrel. It's body was mangled while maggots crawled through it and really the only thing that made Galepaw recognize it was a squirrel was the bushy tail.

He wondered if it was the same squirrel from the last time but it couldn't be. This one was definitely killed more recently. Galepaw wondered with a knot in his stomach if the squirrel would smell of ThunderClan. He approached it slowly and just as he was a tail length away, he heard a yowl and a ShadowClan patrol stepped out of the undergrowth. The silver tabby stopped dead in his tracks and looked up. It was the ShadowClan deputy Snaketail along with Redfang and an apprentice he did not recognize.

"What do you think you're doing?" Snaketail's tail lashed back and forth and he snarled at Galepaw. "Is ThunderClan really pulling this fox dung again?!"

"No! It's not what it looks like!" Galepaw attempted to protest but Snaketail did not want to hear it.

"This is the second time in only five days that this has happened. Are ThunderClan really this mouse-brained?" The sleek black tom hissed.

Galepaw sent a silent prayer to StarClan when Ravenwing and Deerpaw burst through the bushes. Ravenwing's fur was bristling with hostility.

"Galepaw! Is this your doing?!" He asked, his face astonished.

"N-no, Ravenwing, I swear!" Galepaw mewed meekly.

"Then why are you over the border?!" Redfang yowled.

"I-I smelled something strange so I followed the s-"

"A likely story from a lowly ThunderClan apprentice!" Redfang retorted, breaking off Galepaw's words. Galepaw glanced at the ShadowClan apprentice. It was a gray mottled tom and his eyes were darting back and forth between the squirrel, the ThunderClan cats and the ShadowClan cats.

"Toadpaw! Fetch Tangledstar!" Snaketail ordered.

"That won't be necessary," Ravenwing meowed, "I will see to it that Galepaw gets proper punishment for his actions."

"But I-" the silvery tom's helpless mew was cut off yet again.

"Galepaw, you may deny the squirrel but you cannot deny that you entered ShadowClan's territory," Ravenwing said sternly. Galepaw's tail drooped and he hung his head.

"Next time there will be bloodshed," Snaketail hissed as he and the two others stalked away.

Ravenwing, Deerpaw, and Galepaw walked back to the ThunderClan camp in silence. Another dead, half-eaten squirrel, another mystery on Galepaw's mind. Why was this happening? Were ShadowClan trying to frame ThunderClan? Galepaw wished he'd gotten the chance to get at least one sniff of the squirrel to see if it smelled of ThunderClan. He didn't want his clan to be wrongly accused and there to be a battle over nothing.

At this point, the young silver tabby didn't care about being punished. He just wanted to get to the bottom of all this and protect his clan's reputation. Something was amiss, something was not quite right. He just had to figure out what…