Train

Episode 5 of Anarchy.

Please enjoy and comment below what you think.

Sandpaw woke to a strange den filled with many strange smells. It reminded her faintly of the time she went to visit Fawnpaw in the Hunter’s Sector. It smelled faintly like an injured cat and a faint scent of a nursery. Sandpaw’s head was clouded and ached like something hit it hard. She didn’t know where she was or who the cat shuffling around the den was or what that strange much that clung to her fur was. The strange cat looked up from what he was doing as Sandpaw tried to shuffle feeble to her feet.

“Hey don’t try to stand,” the growled at her.

“Where am I?” Sandpaw asked. Harsh rays of sun light flooded through the entrance of the den and blinded Sandpaw as she tried to raise her head. She grunted at the throbbing pain in her head caused from lifting her head too fast.

“You are in the camp’s medicine den.” The small tom meowed gruffly. His fur was patched with light brown spots that blended in to his sandy coat. His eyes were glazed over in concentration, his paws stained green from mixing poultices together. Sandpaw felt come of the sticky concoction mated on the top of my head. It smelled foul and Sandpaw had no idea why it was there. She swiped at the itchy substance but the small cat came up and swiped her paw away with surprising force.

“Don’t do that, that it there to help you concussion,” The cat snarled. He started muttering about how nobody appreciated his help and how everybody took him for granted.

“Excuse me, what is a concussion?” Sandpit asked the pacing cat.

“Its when your head was hit too hard and it can cause problems unless you treat it immediately.”

“But I never hit my head hard,” Sandpaw said confused.

“Well apparently you did kid, unless you wouldn’t be in my den. You are lucky it wasn’t worse with the size of your bump.”

“Wait, I have to get back to elite training! I am going to fall behind and loose for sure.” “Blah, blah, blah. You will be fine, training hasn’t started yet. I have been required to get you well again when the sun is at its peak today. So you have a while, don’t worry. All you selected cats, thing your the best and think its your first priority to be taken care of.”

“Hey I'm sorry but this is very important to me.”

“Yeah, thats what they all say.” Sandpaw was very taken back by this small cat’s rudeness. One thing that stood out about this cat though, was a large scar on his flank that led up to his front paw. It looked very old but no knew fur had grown on the scar so Sandpaw assumed it was quite deep and sever when it was open. Sandpaw decided to change the subject to something a little less hurtful.

“So are you an elite mentor?” Sandpaw asked.

“Yes, as a matter-of-fact I am. And you need your sleep to stop this idle chit chat and get some rest. I will wake you when you are fit to join the opening introduction.” Now that he mentioned it, Sandpaw was quiet tired. She obeyed and played her head down on the soft outer lining of the nest. It seemed like only a few moments before her mind was sliding into the land of dreams. The throbbing in her head dulled as her eyelids drooped. She could faintly hear the tom shuffling behind her. The scrape of dried leaves on the hard ground soothed her to sleep. Huh, I don’t even know this cats name but her didn’t mention it so I guess I will leave it alone. Sleep crowded her thoughts and before she even knew it, her breathing was deep and regular and she was asleep.

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Sandpaw was awaken by a sharp claw prodding her side. She groaned and weakly tried to swipe the paw away but the prodding continued. She groggily opened her eyes, but immediately closed them as harsh rays of light that came in from the entrance blinded her.

“Ugh let me sleep,” Sandpaw growled at the cat who was poking up.

“Its time for your training,” the voice she recognized as the medicine healer cat who was taking care of her earlier.

“But I don’t want to.” “You were just earlier on complaining about how you need to get to training so get off your lazy rump and go meet with the other selected. They are about to get their mentors assigned.” Sandpaw was not happy to be disturbed from her deep sleep but she reluctantly sat up to give herself a quick grooming. Might as well not look like mouse droppings if I have to do this. Butterflies built up in her stomach, making her squirm nervously as she continued to pat down tufts of fur that stuck out. “Hey, I never asked, what is your name?” The cat never even looked back at her. He gruffly meowed: “Elmleaf.” Sandpaw could sense that this wasn't something to pursue so she just went back to grooming herself. She twisted her head in awkward ways to try to get a tuft of fur that was sticking up on her back, but had no luck. She heard Elmleaf snickering at her attempts. She angrily twisted around and gave him an angry glare. “We really need to go now,” he said trying to recover himself. Sandpaw gave up on the tuft and stood up, sticking her chin up in the air and brusquely walking out of the den. The hanging vine made a soft swishing as she made her dramatic exit. She opened her eyes and had to blink many times to try and get her eyes to adjust to the bright mid-morning sun. Once she was able to get her bearings back, she looked around at the small clearing that led to Elmleaf’s den. It was very secluded, Sandpaw could only see one small entrance on the far side of the clearing. Out here, an assortment of herbs were laid neatly across many flat rocks that were neatly organized along the border of the clearing. Tall oak trees surrounded the clearing but opened up to let much sunlight into the clearing. Sandpaw saw that the trees thinned out, hugging the tunnel to the main part of the large base but opened up again in a large radial pattern. Sandpaw could barely see the tips of the trees that were at the back end of the main camp.

“This way,” said Elmleaf as he strut past her and disappeared into the small tunnel. Sandpaw growled softly but followed him into the dark gorse tunnel. She had to sink to her belly to be able to fit. It was very difficult with her long limbs. No wonder Elmleaf is so short. She softly giggled at her joke. Sandpaw felt the tunnel open up as she came into main part of the base. The base was huge, stretching far in many directions, the treed becoming thick once again in what seemed like thousands of tail lengths. A large group of cats were streaming into a small trail on the left side of camp. Sandpaw caught a glimpse of Fawnpaw’s light brown speckled coat and bounded over to the steady flood of cats. She did not recognize most of them but assumed they were just ShadowClan spectators coming to watch the mentor ceremony.

“Hey Fawpaw, wait up!” Sandpaw called to her friend. Fawnpaw spun around, causing many cats to bump into her. “Sandpaw!” she screeched, bounding out of the crowd. She almost ran directly into Sandpaw, but skidded to a halt just in time. “How are you feeling?”

“Good, a lot better. More on that later, but now we need to go.” “Yeah right,” Fawnpaw said, shaking her head as if to clear out her thoughts. “Aren’t you excited? We get to learn from an Elite!”

“Yeah sure. I mean we are only with our mentors for a few days, then we are thrown out into the desert to try and not die,” Sandpaw said, sarcasm heavy in her voice.

“But still!” Fawnpaw pretended to not hear her friend’s last remark. “Lets go, we don’t want to be late.” “Yeah.” Sandpaw followed Fawnpaw into the slowly thinning crowd of cats trickling in. They had to push and shove their way in. The gathering clearing was huge, a large rock sitting in the far end. This sparked a faint memory for Sandpaw, she remembered this as the place she fainted. Dark rays of sunlight bathed the cleared, filtered through the trees. Sandpaw saw the space where the selected were supposed to be and guided Fawnpaw over. The roars of many gathered cats made it impossible to be heard. Sandpaw took her seat at the back of the selected next to Fawnpaw. She could feel her best friend shaking with excitement next to her.

Frankly, Sandpaw couldn’t understand why her best friend was so excited about this. ''We are just going to probably wind up dead in the desert anyways. ''Sandpaw knew that annually, at least half of the selected were able to find their way back. Last year, nearly all selected had made it back, but some went mentally insane. She remembered how she had been so excited to be selected, it was perceived as a huge honor but now Sandpaw wasn’t so sure.

“Welcome cats of the Selected and cats of ShadowClan!” A booming voice came from behind the rock. A very important looking cat stepped out from behind followed by a beautiful cat and a tom that looked about Sandpaw’s age. The whole family seemed to radiate importance.

Sandpaw already hated them.

Cats around her oohed as the family lined up on the rock.

“What is their deal?” Sandpaw muttered out of the corner of her mouth at Fawnpaw.

“Sandpaw! That is the royal family.” Fawnpaw hissed at her. Sandpaw’s mouth formed a small O shape. The royals cast their stern eyes over the gathered cats as if evaluating each one of them.

“Well I guess you all know what you are here for. Oh, where are my manners. Excuse me, I am your king, Birchstar,” at that a huge cheer broke from the crowd and Birchstar beamed at his subjects. “And this lovely she-cat right here is your Queen and expert huntress, Violetwhisp!” another huge cheer broke out, but the jet black queen merely glanced at the crowd then went back to looking at her paws. She seemed to fade in and out of the dark background, her fur occasionally looking almost purple. The king cleared his throat and silence immediately fell around. “Finally, this handsome young tom,” a collective sigh broke out from he she-cats, “is my son and your future king, Hawkpaw!” A huge cheer erupted from the crowd, causing Sandpaw to wince. The prince’s fur was the same dark brown as his father, with piercing amber eyes that matched his fathers. Hawkpaw also had a black tail tip and ears.

“Now, time for the mentor ceremony.” Once again, the cheering vanished once the King opened his mouth.

“We will start with the hunter. Will you five please come up?” Sandpaw shakily stood up and followed the other five of her base-mates to the rock. The king nodded his head and one by one, they leaped on. Duskpaw shot her a arrogant glance as he barged in front and Sandpaw hissed at him. She was the last one up and awkwardly stumbled as she lost her footing on the slick rock. She came to the pack and saw what seemed like a thousand cats were staring at her.

“Lets start with Duskpaw!” The King welcomed Duskpaw up, Duskpaw licked his shoulder and the King assigned Duskpaw some random black tom called Ravenleap. The cat surely looked like a raven, with greasy back fur and hunched shoulders with grey, soulless eyes. ''Just like Duskpaw. ''

“Next we have, Sandpaw!” She heard Fawnpaw whoop somewhere in the sea of cats. Sandpaw felt heat flooding through her pelt.

“Sandpaw, your mentor will be,” Sandpaw silently hoped that her mentor would be good, “Violetwhisp!” ''The Queen! ''Sandpaw thought dumbfounded. She could hear gasps of the cats below her as Violetwhisp stood up and padded towards Sandpaw. Sandpaw bowed her head in respect and licked the beautiful she cat’s shoulder. Violetwhisp guided her off of the rock and back onto the dusty ground.

“Hello Sandpaw,” Violetwhisp meowed, her voice stern and solid but Sandpaw could detect another tone in there. One of kindness and compassion.

“Hello Queen Violetwhisp.” Sandpaw bowed her head low as a respectful gesture.

“There is no need for that now, Sandpaw. I am your mentor and you are now my apprentice. You are to call me Violetwhisp or even Violet if you please. That was the name my mother gave me before I became Queen.”

“Of course, Violet.” Sandpaw felt strange calling the queen as she once called Snake. Violet gave her a warm smile.

“Come now Sandpaw, we have much to learn. Sandpaw followed Violet out through the bushes on a very worn path into the depths of the forest around them.

End Episode 5

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