~Water~ (Part two of a warriors tale)

Instructions

Hey, It’s me, Airstreak. Listen, this is book two, so if you haven’t read book one, Wind, this probably won’t make any sense. This takes place three moons after Wind’s end. Anyway, remember Birdflight? She had kits. I learned it from Blazepaw. We were fishing and all of a sudden he said: “Birdflight’s kits are so cute!” “What do you mean?” I said. “Don’t you know?” he said. “She had kits last night!” Well, no one told me. Blazepaw looked at me. “If you want to go and see them, that’s fine. I can carry our catch home,” he said. “Thanks” I said. I ran into the reeds and took off. I heard Blazepaw start to mutter. “Funny that cloud looked like a flying cat.” I flew most of the way to camp. I tucked my wings under a few tail lengths away and when in. The kits were cute. Especially this blueish silver tom. The other kits were white and calico. “The girls are Snowkit and Zoomkit, because she’s so fast. And the tom is Streamkit,” she said. Something clicked in my head as she said the tom’s name. My head was spinning, my vision blurred, and here’s the bad part. My wings dropped from out from under my fur. “YOU-” that was Birdflight. I tucked my wings under again. “Sh, sh, I know, I’m part of a prophesy and I think Streamkit is too.” Just then, Mintstar walked into the den. See, he had lost a life during a bad greencough, and he only had two lives left. “Hello, Birdflight,” he said, ignoring me. “I thought of good mentors for most of the kits. I think it would be good to give Zoomkit to Sootfeather, and Streamkit should go to Blueclaw.” I was horrified. All of a sudden, I thought, I knew, I had to mentor Streamkit. “Mintstar, please let me mentor Streamkit!” I said. “I’ve told Blueclaw she could mentor one of the kits, and Sootfeather has his heart set on Zoomkit,” said Mintstar. “Please Mintstar you can give Blueclaw Snowkit, I need Streamkit” I said, desperate to mentor the tiny ball of fluff. Mintstar looked at me. “I’ll consider it, but you’ve only been a warrior three moons.” “Not by the time these kits get apprenticed,” I said. “Than you can have Snowkit,” said Mintstar. “No, please, I need Streamkit!” I said. “I want Airstreak to mentor Streamkit,” said Birdflight. “I think Blueclaw would rather mentor one of the girls, anyway.” Mintstar looked at me to her twice, shrugged and walked away. “I just want him to fulfill that prophesy!” she said. Birdflight has a big sense of honor “So do I,” I sighed. “So do I.” I padded out of the nursery. Now was time to wait. Soon I would know. Could I mentor that cat? If I couldn’t, who would fulfill the prophesy? Hey, I just skipped ahead six moons. To the apprentice ceremony. Now I would see if I could mentor Streamkit. "From this day forward, until she has earned her warrior name, this apprentice will be called Snowpaw. Blueclaw, we honor your courage and loyalty. May you pass down all you know to this your apprentice." So far, so good. Blueclaw was mentoring Snowpaw. "From this day forward, until she has earned her warrior name, this apprentice will be called Zoompaw. Sootfeather, we honor your enthusiasm and spirit. May you pass down all you know to this your apprentice." Good, Sootfeather got what he wanted. Would I? "From this day forward, until he has earned his warrior name, this apprentice will be called Streampaw. Airstreak, we honor your strength and honesty. May you pass down all you know to this your apprentice." I thrill went threw my body. YES! I went forwards to touch noses with my apprentice. As I looked into his eyes, I then knew what I must do. After the ceremony, the cats all hit the hay. All except me and Streampaw. “Okay, Streampaw, follow me,” I said. Then I whisked away out of camp. I showed him my wings and made him promise not to tell anyone. Then I led him to the Cave of Shining Stones. The six rocks glowed softly. Streampaw stared at Waterheart. “Okay,” said he. He ran forwards before I could stop him, hurdling towards the blue crystal. He skidded to a halt and jammed his nose against it. A shiver ran through his entire body. I saw his pupils dilate, then expand. He collapsed on the floor in a heap of blue fur. I ran to him and shook him. He opened his eyes, got up, and shook himself. Then Waterheart told him something, and he repeated it. “Find Heat After Fire?” he said. Waterheart nodded. I walked him back to camp and told him about Starclan and how they were being threatened by who-knows-what. I told him to tell anyone, because they would freak out. He didn’t look different, though. He still had a short, bluish pelt, and long legs, bright blue eyes and sharp ears. He didn’t have wings that I could see. I was about to find out how he had changed, but that was tomorrow. We were walking down to the river to teach him how to swim and catch fish with Sootfeather and Zoompaw. Nothing really happened on the way, but when we were there, Sootfeather demonstrated how to catch a fish. Zoompaw copied him and caught one. Streampaw stood on the shore and planted all his paws firmly on the ground. Then he began to raise his nose. A small orb of water with a fish in it began to rise… I saw it coming and tackled him out of the way. It appeared Sootfeather and Zoompaw had been watching Streampaw and not the water. “Um, excuse us,” I said and took Streampaw up stream. “What did I do?” he asked as soon as we were out of earshot. I didn’t reply, but I did toss him ears-over-tail into the river, with best intentions at heart, of coarse. I leaped in after him. Then I held him down. It appeared he could swim, and better than fish could. I held him down under water. His eyes widened. He kicked and scratched me. Bubbles of air floated from his mouth. I was using my powers over wind to make a spot in the water where I could breath. I looked back at Streampaw. His chest was heaving. And he was still underwater. I let him go, and he shot for the surface. “Why did you try to drown me?” he demanded. “I think that would be impossible. I have powers over Air, you seem to have powers over Water,” I said. He looked at me. “Yeah, Waterheart said something like that.” “You could breath underwater,” I told him. He didn’t seem to have noticed. “I could?” he said. He dived down to through the waves, and I followed him, because all Riverclan cats like to swim. He was obviously breathing. I swam into the cool blue depths of the water, when I saw them. See, we were swimming on the Windclan river-boarder. And Windclan was trespassing. Streampaw boldly followed me to the surface. I expected him to stop there but he didn’t he kept swimming strait up in a huge wave. “I am Waterheart!” he bellowed in a deep voice. “From Starclan! It is not our wish that you invade Riverclan!” Then he brought the wave crashing down on the petrified Windclan cats! They were absolutely soaked. Streampaw hissed. They fled. “Streampaw!” I yelled at him. He was glowing with pride. “Did you see their faces? I mean they really believed I was from Starclan!” he burst into laughter. “Yes, I don’t believe they will be coming back anytime soon, nor will they hunt near this river for a while,” I said. “But please, please do not do that again. Once is fine, but like I said, this needs to be a secret.” “Six crystals for six cats!” he said. “Oh, I can’t wait to see who gets powers next!” He was clearly not listening. Oh, what the heck. He had found a point that I had not, Six crystals for six cats. Look for Heat After Fire. That was what Waterheart had told him. And just like him, I couldn’t wait to see who was next. ~~~~~~~~End~~~~~~~~~~~