Newleaf will be here soon.
Yellowpaw and her littermates were following Deerleap, on their way out of camp for a training session. As she leaped over a broken branch, she spotted a hint of green. She turned back, pushing the branch aside, and discovered a few delicate shoots poking up through the covering of rotting leaves. Very gently Yellowpaw scraped away the debris, giving the shoots a chance to reach the sun. Bending down to give them a good sniff, she thought, I’m sure I’ve smelled this in Sagewhisker’s den before. It must be an herb.
As she straightened up, she heard yowls of excitement, and the two newest apprentices, Foxpaw and Wolfpaw, hurled themselves over the branch. Yellowpaw leaped backward to avoid being knocked over. Two sets of flying paws stomped down hard on the tiny shoots, crushing them into the earth.
“Mouse-brains!” Yellowpaw called after them, her fur bristling in fury. “Watch where you’re going!”
Brightflower, Foxpaw’s mentor, and Blizzardwing, who was mentoring Wolfpaw, followed their apprentices more slowly. Brightflower gave Yellowpaw an inquiring look as she passed, but Yellowpaw just shrugged and brought up the rear.
The rest of the apprentices and their mentors had gathered in a clearing not far from the marshes. Wolfpaw and Foxpaw were charging around the edge, shouldering aside Nutpaw and Rowanpaw if they happened to get in the way.
Rowanpaw padded over to Yellowpaw. “They’re even more annoying than Raggedpaw and Scorchpaw.”
Still angry over the damaged shoots, Yellowpaw nodded. “They’re acting like kits.”
Deerleap called the cats together. “Today we’re going to do a hunting exercise,” she announced.
“Aww, do we have to?” Wolfpaw interrupted. “That’s so boring! I want to fight!”
Deerleap gave him a freezing glare. “If you like, Wolfpaw, you can go back to camp and search the elders for ticks.”
“Uh… no.” Wolfpaw’s tail drooped. “I guess hunting is okay.”
“Thank you so much,” Deerleap went on, an edge of sarcasm in her tone. “This morning you’re going to work in pairs. Nutpaw and Rowanpaw, you can work together. Yellowpaw, you go with Foxpaw.” Her tail-tip twitched. “Wolfpaw, seeing as there isn’t another apprentice to partner with, you’ll have to work with me.”
Yellowpaw was torn between enjoying Wolfpaw’s appalled expression, and dismay that she had to work with Foxpaw. She glanced at the younger apprentice, and saw that Foxpaw was giving her a dubious glance in reply.
Okay, you don’t like this any more than I do, Yellowpaw thought. But we have to put up with it for the sake of the Clan.
Deerleap directed Yellowpaw and Foxpaw to head through the marshes and toward the Thunderpath. “Come back here when you’ve each caught one piece of prey,” she directed. “And remember, you’re working together.”
Yellowpaw padded carefully across the swampy ground, practicing her mentor’s instructions to look, listen, and scent. Meanwhile Foxpaw leaped from grassy clump to grassy clump, often landing instead in the shallow pools and splashing muddy water over her bright ginger pelt.
Yellowpaw rolled her eyes. I suppose it’s one way of disguising your scent from the prey. She could hear the distant roar of the Thunderpath when Foxpaw gave an excited little bounce. “I can smell a pigeon! This way!” She dashed off.
“She won’t catch a pigeon or anything else racing about like that,” Yellowpaw muttered. She had picked up the pigeon scent at the same moment, but she had also scented something else.
“Cats—and not ShadowClan cats,” she mewed softly as she followed Foxpaw. “This could mean trouble.”
She caught up to Foxpaw within sight of the Thunderpath. The young ginger she-cat was standing in the middle of a puddle of feathers, gazing down at them with a look of dismay.
“Some other cat got here before us,” she told Yellowpaw.
“I can see that.” The scent of strange cats was stronger than ever. “And not a ShadowClan patrol.”
“How do you know?” Foxpaw asked.
Yellowpaw ignored the question. If she can’t smell that… She cast around the pool of feathers, her nose to the ground, until she spotted cat paw prints leading away in the direction of the Thunderpath.
“Look at this,” she meowed, beckoning Foxpaw with her tail. “See how small and light those paw prints are?” she pointed out when Foxpaw reached her side. “I’ll bet a moon of dawn patrols that they were made by WindClan cats.”
“WindClan!” Foxpaw exclaimed. “Stealing our prey! They can’t do that. Let’s get them!”
She was ready to charge off, but Yellowpaw stood in front of her. “Wait!” she snapped. “Are you mouse-brained?”
“Are you scared?” Foxpaw retorted.
“Never!” Yellowpaw’s voice was low and furious. “I just have some sense, that’s all. What do you suppose two apprentices are going to do, alone on WindClan territory? What we have to do is go and find our mentors.”
She raced back across the marsh. Foxpaw pelted alongside her, looking mutinous. When they reached the training area, only Brightflower and Blizzardwing were there.
“WindClan!” Yellowpaw gasped.
“Stealing our prey!” Foxpaw added, bouncing on her paws. “Are we going to attack?”
“Hold on!” Brightflower raised her tail. “Settle down and tell us what happened.”
Yellowpaw began to explain what they had seen, trying to ignore Foxpaw’s attempts to interrupt. While she was speaking, Deerleap and Wolfpaw returned, closely followed by Nutpaw and Rowanpaw.
“We can’t let this pass,” Brightflower meowed when Yellowpaw had finished. “We need to take a look. Yellowpaw, lead the way.”
Yellowpaw was proud to pad at the head of the patrol as she took them through the marshes to where the pigeon feathers lay. Brightflower dipped her head to sniff at the cat paw prints.
“Fresh,” she murmured. “And definitely WindClan. Two of them, I’d guess. Well scented, Yellowpaw.”
“You have the best sense of smell,” Deerleap meowed to Brightflower. “Why don’t you follow these tracks and see where they lead? Take Blizzardwing with you in case the WindClan cats are still lurking around. We’ll wait for you here.”
Brightflower nodded and headed toward the Thunderpath, with Blizzardwing hard on her paws. Yellowpaw waited impatiently until she saw both warriors racing back.
“The paw prints lead to that new tunnel the Twolegs made under the Thunderpath,” Blizzardwing reported. “And we know where that leads: WindClan territory!”
“What are we going to do?” Rowanpaw demanded.
Brightflower and Blizzardwing both looked at Deerleap, as senior warrior. She thought for a moment. “Blizzardwing, you should go back to camp and fetch reinforcements,” she replied at last. “Foxpaw and Wolfpaw, go with him, and stay in the camp.”
“What?” Wolfpaw exclaimed, dismayed. “We want to fight!”
“Yeah, we know some awesome moves,” Foxpaw added.
“Certainly not,” Deerleap meowed. “You’re both too young for battle.” Turning to Yellowpaw and her littermates, she added, “Do you feel ready for your first attack on an enemy?”
Yellowpaw’s belly flipped over. “Yes!” she choked out.
Her littermates’ eyes were wide with shock; they glanced at each other, then nodded.
“Not fair,” Wolfpaw muttered. “We can fight as well as them.”
Deerleap ignored his comment. “We’ll wait for you near the tunnel entrance,” she told Blizzardwing.