by Whitney
(Hawley, MN, USA)
{For people outside of the Warrior Cats community, this is a Warrior Cats story by Whitney, who I believe participates in Warrior Cats RPG (role play games) and who is on this occasion participating in a competition that PoC is running on story telling in the style of Warrior Cats}
….A few years ago, when I was just about to get my apprentice name, the medicine cat, Blacklet, walked up to our leader and whispered something in her ear.
Our leader, Mudstar, said, “I am sorry, Darkkit, you can’t be apprenticed today, now go to the nursery with your mother.” But, right now, “Yes now”.
I padded slowly over to my mother, Spottedtail. She said, “I wonder why you can’t get a mentor yet? Would you like me to talk to Mudstar?” I said nothing, then went into the nursery.
After awhile, my mother fell asleep. I quietly stood up and walked out of the nursery. “Now, where is Mudstar?” Then I remembered, “In the leader’s den.” I walked quickly across the clearing and over to her den. “Mudstar?” “Yes” “It’s me, Darkkit.” “Oh, come in.”
I walked in and sat in front of her. “How come I can’t be an apprentice?” I know the answer to that.” Then, out of the shadows came Blackleg. He looked at Mudstar, and she gave him a nod of approval. Then he spoke: “There was a message from Starclan, saying the one who is dark will become leader!” I just sat there staring at him. “We were discussing the prophecy, and we think it means you.” Then, Mudstar added, “At first, we thought it was your father, Nightclaw, but he doesn’t have ‘dark’ in his name.”
I let out a mrreow of laughter. “I become leader.” I looked up and they weren’t laughing. “But, how can I be a leader? I was just about to become an apprentice.” Then everything went black. I awoke in a very strange place, then it hit me. I must be in the medicine cat’s den. Then Blackleg came over and started rubbing a herb between my ears. He said, “You got quite a scratch on your head.” “How did I get a scratch on my head?” “Well, when you were shouting about the prophecy, you fell down on the floor and you hit a rock.”
I sat up, pushed his paw away, and walked out to see Spottedtail waiting for me. “What happened, Where were you?” I padded towards her slowly and sat in front of her. She looked down at me and said, “Go get us something from the fresh kill pile and I’ll meet you in the nursery.” She turned and went into the nursery. I went and brought back two mice.
“Darkkit, when you’re done eating, go to the leader’s den.” I turned to see who was talking, but whomever it was had vanished. When I finished my mice, I quickly padded out of the nursery and over to the leader’s den. But, before I got there, Mudstar called me from high bush. I bounded up to her and she said, “Cats of Mudclan gather beneath high bush.”
All the cats poured into the clearing. Then I knew what was happening… I was going to become an apprentice! “Darkkit, do you promise to train hard to become a warrior?” “I will train as hard as I can.” “From this moment on, you shall be known as Darkpaw, and I will be your mentor.”
I padded closer to my mentor and touched noses with her. My paws felt so tingly with excitement I almost fell off! “Come with me. We’re going to look at our territory.” I followed her out of the rock tunnel.
After a while, Mudstar said, “Did you know your father was the leader of Dawnclan?” “He was?” “Yes, but the terrible sickness of green cough went through his camp, and many warriors died, including my brother, Brackenpaw.” “Then your father asked to live here and I let him. He changed his name from ‘Nightstar’ to ‘Nightclaw’.”
“What happened to his clan?” “Well, they either died or went to join Moonclan.” “Why was your brother in Dawnclan?” “I used to be there to, but I fell in love with a rogue cat and we left to form a new clan.”
We padded in silence for what seemed like forever, unless when Mudstar pointed out the best places to hunt, where we will be working on battle moves, and things like that. Soon after, Mudstar stopped and asked, “Do you smell anything?” I sniffed the air. “Mouse! It’s over there!” I said as I showed her with a swish of my tail.
“Watch carefully. I’m going to show you the hunting technique for catching a mouse.” She crouched low to the ground and without making a sound, she inched closer to the mouse. When she was close enough, she leaped into the air, grabbed the mouse, and gave it a quick bit to the neck.
“Now you try.” she said. I sniffed the air, crouched to the ground, drew closer to my target, and leaped off the ground. “I caught it!” I exclaimed. I gave it a bite to the neck and brought it to my mentor.
“Very good. now we’ll bury this and come back for it later. We scraped dirt over our catch and moved on. She brought me to the edge of our border and she said, “We never cross the border unless we need help.” “Yes, Mudstar, I will never cross the border.”
We went back to our kill, picked it up, and padded to camp. When we got there, we were in for a surprise. A pack of dogs had invaded the camp. Big, black dogs with brown under bellies and paws were rampaging through the camp……..Go to Part 2
Whitney
