Shattered Hopes

Chapter One
“Three will come again; the bright-eyed Jay, the prickly Holly and the brave Bolta.”

Hollypaw jolted awake but the words still whispered in her ears. She didn’t understand. Was StarClan giving her a message? And if they were, why weren’t they giving it to Flightfeather? After all she was the medicine cat. And Flightfeather knew what to do. Hollypaw had no idea.

“Hollypaw!”

Hollypaw looked up from her nest. Rowanberry stood at the entrance to the apprentices den. “Come on,” she mewed. “Time for battle training.” Hollypaw briefly wondered if she should share her dream with her mentor but quickly shook the idea out of her head. Rowanberry would get worried, and anyway she was a warrior; she wouldn’t know what to do either. Getting to her paws, Hollypaw shook scraps of moss and bracken off of her pale ginger fur. She leaped out of the den and followed Rowanberry through the thorn-tunnel. It seemed like moments to get to the training hollow, probably because she was still half-asleep and thinking of her dream. Rowanberry stopped in the centre of the training hollow, Hollypaw by her side. "Right," she mewed. "Attack me." Hollypaw blinked. She then remembered this was battle training and dropped into a hunter's crouch. She studied Rowanberry carefully. Judging by the way she was leaning slightly to the left meant she was going to dodge to the right. Hollypaw sprang forwards. She had guessed correctly; Rowanberry did leap to the right.

Hollypaw managed to push her over onto her back. She did an easy but useful move and clawed her belly, making sure her paws didn’t actually touch her mentor. Rowanberry had gone limp so it was quite easy. But she had to cling on tightly because she knew any second she wound leap upwards. When Rowanberry did lunge upwards, Hollypaw was already ready. She clung tightly to her dark ginger belly.

“Okay okay,” Rowanberry panted. “You’ve squashed me as flat as a leaf!” Hollypaw realized her mentor was in pain and quickly jumped off. Rowanberry shook sand off of her fur. Hollypaw, now completely awake, noticed how clumsy Rowanberry was. Usually she could beat her every time they did battle training but this time Hollypaw had managed to knock her over. She had tired her mentor out with a simple move! What was wrong with Rowanberry? Was she ill? Hollypaw then realized she was staring and looked away quickly.

“I think that should be enough for today,” Rowanberry meowed, still panting slightly. Hollypaw knew something was wrong now. Usually if they did battle training they would do it until it got dark, laughing and joking the whole way through. “Come on.” Hollypaw nodded and followed Rowanberry into the undergrowth. Hollypaw sat and wolfed down her fresh-kill. Her sister Snowpaw was approaching and the last thing she wanted was to have to talk to her.

She didn’t want to talk to anyone. All Hollypaw wanted to do was curl up in her nest and think things over. But before she could escape Snowpaw was by her side.

Snowpaw studied Hollypaw and for a moment it was hard to believe that she couldn't actually see her.

"Hey," Snowpaw meowed. Hollypaw couldn't help but noticing that Snowpaw was staring past her. Glancing behind her she saw Blackpaw.

Blackpaw, Hollypaw thought furiously. Why does she like Blackpaw? He's nothing but an annoying furball!

"Hi," Hollypaw meowed, finding it hard to keep her voice cheerful. "What's up?" Snowpaw jumped and turned her gaze back to Hollypaw.

"Nothing much," she meowed. "Have you seen Nightfall?" Hollypaw shrugged. Then she noticed the dark tom talking to Icepool below HighLedge. She flicked her tail towards him and Snowpaw leaped forwards towards him.

Well I'm glad that’s over.

Hollypaw licked her lips and then turned back to the apprentice's den, suddenly exhausted although she had nothing to tire her out.

Hollypaw woke at dawn the next day. Three will come again, the bright-eyed Jay, the prickly Holly and the brave Bolta. The words still played over and over in her mind, louder this time. She spent a while in her nest trying to remember her dream.

But it had slipped from her mind.

“Hollypaw,” a paw prodded her side. Hollypaw blinked realizing she had fallen asleep.

“Battle training,” she croaked. “Yeah I know. I’m just coming Rowanberry.” Scrabbling to her paws, Hollypaw shook out her fur and stretched, blinking sleep out of her eyes. How come she was so tired all of a sudden? Surely she hadn’t caught whatever Rowanberry had? But at the same time it felt likely, she could barley open her eyes. Hollypaw turned around and felt her fur grow hot with embarrassment. She had called Robinsong Rowanberry! Eyes round, she mumbled hurried apologies.

“It’s okay,” Robinsong mewed, looking slightly amused. “Come on. Rowanberry doesn’t feel she’s up to training today.” Hollypaw nodded. It didn’t come as a surprise; she had kind of expected it. Hollypaw followed Robinsong out into the hollow. Now this surprised her. The whole of the hollow was covered in a thick layer of ice. Yesterday it had been just fine. Carefully she padded across the hollow. Robinsong wrapped his tail around her neck as they came to an especially slippery bit and soon they made it across the camp. They plunged into the tangle of brambles and ferns and emerged, not at the training hollow, but at Sky Oak.

“We’ll do some hunting practice today,” Robinsong told her. “First I want you to tell me what you can smell. Close your eyes.” Hollypaw did as she was told and began to explore the world around her. A mouse was scrabbling around at Sky Oak’s roots. She could hear its tiny heart beating and its paws scratching. In the top most branches of the Sky Oak was a squirrel. She could hear its bushy tail sweeping across the branch that it was sitting on. Hollypaw let her senses flow further, out towards the lake. She could hear fish splashing in the lake and to her surprise she could hear ShadowClan warriors by the shore.

“Elderflower, get back!” meowed one of the warriors. “You’re not a RiverClan warrior anymore!”

“Oh come on, Yewtail,” meowed a soft voiced warrior. “Don’t tell me you don’t miss the feeling of water.” Yewtail let out a longing sigh and Hollypaw could imagine her gazing out at the rippling lake. Then Hollypaw sensed another cat beside them.

It was another she-cat; she was keeping back from the other two cats.

“I won’t tell,” meowed the she-cat. “I promise.”

“Thank you Honeypaw,” Elderflower mewed. “Come on Yewtail!” Hollypaw heard a loud splash as the two former RiverClan warriors plunged into the water.

“Hollypaw,” Hollypaw jumped and her eyes flew open. She had completely forgotten about the training session.

“Oh yeah,” she meowed, dropping into a hunter’s crouch. “I’ll go get the mouse.” Hollypaw stalked forwards to the base of Sky Oak. The mouse was just inches away. She sprang but before she could land, the mouse sensed her and scurried into the hollow trunk. Hollypaw followed it. The inside of the Sky Oak was slightly scary. It was quite small but the very tall; she guessed it went all the way to the top most branches. Then, just as Hollypaw was about to spring she scented a familiar scent. Closing her eyes, she drew in her breath. It was her own scent! And Snowpaw’s! But as Hollypaw continued to draw in the scents, she found the smells of three unknown cats. Two she-cats and a tom. All the scents carried the same milky smell so they must have been there at the same time. Milky scent, Hollypaw thought. A queens milky scent and her four kits milky scents. But this queen was not Cloverpool. This cat was another cat all together...