water_shadow

I was sitting in camp one day, sharing tongues with my sisters, Flamestride and Sprintchaser, when Cresentfur, another warrior rushes in. “IceClan is attacking!” he yowles, and everyone in camp jumps to there feet. “Blizzardtail, Hollyflame, and Lightningpaw are being attacked. Hollyflame sent me!”
The young warrior’s fur was bushed up so he looked twice his size, and his eyes were wide. Jasperblaze, his sister, ran to him, to try and comfort him.

Ivystar came forward too, and she called out warrior’s names. “Watershadow, Flamingstride, Sprintchaser, Pine-eyes, and Nectarsplash! Come! Cresentfur, show us where you were attacked.” Autumnpaw, Pine-eyes apprentice gave the leader a pleading look. “Let me come?” she asked, and Ivystar looked to Pine-eyes. He nodded, and the patrol set out.

They went out through the tunnel, feet pounding into the sand and making it tumble across the ground. Watershadow was excited. She had only ever been in one skirmish before, when she was Waterpaw, an apprentice. It had been over a mouse. She had followed it into DarkClan territory.

Loud yowls seemed to break her out of her autopilot run, and Cresentfur skidded to a halt, over a ditch that marked the border. Three cats battled many IceClan warriors, and they were losing, being backed out the other side of the steep dip in the land.

Ivystar jumped out, without hesitation, into the fray, hissing and spitting. The moment she landed, a cloud covered the sun, and everything darkened a shade. Nothing seemed to shine anymore, even Nectarsplash’s golden fur. A grey cat from IceClan was now black, and the ditch turned even more into an ugly border.

It began to rain, and mud seemed to rise as the cats fought. Watershadow lunged for a brown she-cat, with amber eyes, and scratched at her flank. The cat turned, and yowled, snapping at Watershadow’s ear, but where her ear had been a moment before was now empty air, and now, Watershadow scratched the cat’s shoulder, sending her yowling up the bushes on IceClan’s territory.

A flash of black fur knocked her over, and she landed with an ‘oof!’ Blue eyes over a hissing mouth. Watershadow twisted onto her stomach, and reared up, sending the cat into some mud. He was immediately tackled by Hollyflame, who’s pelt was covered in blood and scars.

“Thought you’d tackle a young warrior?” she hissed in his face. “Rippledstar?” Watershadow stared in surprise at the cat. The IceClan leader? He hissed, and squirmed away from Hollyflame. “Retreat!” he called to his warriors, and all at once the cats left, leaving OceanClan alone.

“To camp!” a loud yowl from Ivystar told them to go back and allow Dawnflower to tend the wounds. But before they could go, a loud wail came from the other side of the ditch. “Flamingstride is dead!!!”

First impressions are hard. They’re hard for everyone. But mostly for the people who’ve done something wrong. Like, if an evil two-leg came up to you, and introduced themselves, you’d probably stare at them. I can say, easily, with no one staring at me, “I’m from OceanClan, the best clan by the lake, made up of Warrior Cats. We can swim. And we can catch fish. Can DragonClan, DarkClan, or IceClan do that? No!”

Oops, that was off topic. But anyways, if Sparrowstar, the most evil villain in the history of the clans came up to me, I’d go and tell my clan, and they’d go and kill him. If he wasn’t already dead. Again with the off topic, sorry!

And, some cats, can see through fur. Especially medicine cats. It seems they’ve healed long enough to pick up feelings, and see the caged monsters in everybody. And see if the monster isn’t so caged. Really, it seems like medicine cats have lived forever…. Sorry, Dawnflower, not like that! I didn’t say you were old.

So more to the subject. The monster inside has a motive. Most cats, uhh, people, have a motive, even if it’s just to gain power. It can be the smallest thing, but, there’s almost always the motive.

Some people make the monster really tiny. Some people use it as fuel to do good things in the world. But then, some people use it as fuel to do bad things in the world. So anyways, medicine cats are very good at first impressions, because they see everything.

Me, I’m not so good at first impressions. I talk to much. Everyone tells me so. You’ll probably tell me so. My first impression of people is that they’re weird, and they put fumes in the air, and the seem kind of evil, always scaring away prey. But I’m sure you’re all fine…. Probably.

So anyways, I’m a Parrot Mouth, you’re all probably not evil: it all evens out. Oh, gosh. Hollyflame, now my first impression of her, is her teaching us the Warrior Code, which is super boring. So now, when I think of her, I think of sleeping.

Oops! Hunting patrol, bye!