Patchpaw watched Seapaw and Runningwish leave. She glanced around camp and spotted Barkfur, her substitute mentor while Cheetahstep was being kept in the medicine cat den. The young she-cat glanced around again and spotted Rainpaw and Winterpaw.
She trotted over to them.
"Have you learned to hunt yet?" Patchpaw asked, sitting down with them. Winterpaw smiled in greeting.
"Yeah. Mousepelt took me hunting a few times and on a patrol." She glanced at her brother. Rainpaw had been keeping an eye on the medicine cat den, but was brought out of it by his sister nudging him.
"What?" He asked curiously. Patchpaw and Winterpaw chuckled at him.
"You mouse brain! Patchpaw asked if we had learned to hunt yet. Has Lionpelt taken you on a patrol or anything?" The light brown she-cat asked. Rainpaw nodded.
"Yeah. The first day of being her apprentice she took me into the forest and taught me to hunt immediately." Rainpaw said. Patchpaw tilted her head at him.
"Huh. I guess that means you've had the most experience then. Wait, you know what we should do?" Patchpaw's eyes lit up as she got an idea. Winterpaw leaned in with a grin, Patchpaw's enthusiasm rubbing off on her.
"We should all go hunting together!" Patchpaw suggested.
"You mean us three or all the apprentices?" Rainpaw asked.
"The three of us!" Patchpaw giggled at him. Winterpaw glanced behind them towards the warriors den.
"Don't we need one of our mentors with us or something?" Winterpaw asked. Patchpaw spotted Barkfur again.
"We can just ask Barkfur. I'm sure he would go with us." Rainpaw and Winterpaw smiled at the mention of their father. They had nearly forgotten he was taking Cheetahstep's place while she was healing.
"Thats a great idea! We can show him what we've learned." Rainpaw agreed. Patchpaw smiled proudly at her idea being accepted. They ran over to Barkfur and told him what they had in mind. The large tom agreed and lead them out into the forest.
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Swiftrise, a Shadowclan rebel, watched the group leave. He couldn't help overhearing them. He was sitting beside his friend Smokewind.
"I'm still worried these Thunderclan cats might turn on us." Smokewind muttered. Swiftrise scoffed at him.
"What reason do they have to do that? Why would they want to wipe out Shadowclan?" The tom asked. Smokewind was silent a moment.
"Because we are the ones who always create or bring trouble to the other clans." He responded. Swiftrise paused and sighed. He didn't have a strong argument against that since it was true. Shadowclan had brought many burdens upon the other clans and he honestly could see himself opposing Shadowclan if he weren't apart of it.
"Well they're helping us, letting us stay here. That says something." He finally said. Smokewind sighed.
"They wont let us leave and they never let us hunt. All we do is sit here like volunteer prisoners. You need to talk to Greystar and get him to trust us." Smokewind said. Swiftrise shifted his jaw.
"We can't just demand to be treated as equals in their clan. We're supposed to be against each other and I don't want to ruin this safe shelter because you want to kill their prey in their forest. And we have newly made apprentices. We don't even know these woods. We could get lost." Swiftrise added. Smokewind rolled his eyes and huffed.
"Whatever you say, Swiftstar." The black tom replied smartly. Swiftrise swatted him.
"Stop calling me that!" He said chuckling.