Chapter Four
The journey to the Thunder Gorge, or just Gorge, had been rather silent for the five apprentices that followed behind Smokestar. Graypaw and another silver tabby, this one in a much lighter shade of silver, were absolutely nervous. Bloodpaw could understand that. This wasn’t really just for entertainment purposes. Smokestar had given them a rundown of what was going to be happening soon. Which he always reminded them time after time. And Bloodpaw could sense that he was about to remind them again.
“Before we get to the Thunder Gorge, let’s go everything one last time.” He mewled while ignoring the chorus of groans coming from the rest of them. “The other clan leaders want this to be a friendly bout between our clans. Just to see how the other apprentices are doing compared to one another. However, this is a chance to show that Shadowclan has raised some highly and strong warriors.”
At the mention of what Smokestar just said, Bloodpaw could hear the smirk coming from Sagepaw who walked only six whisker-lengths behind him. No doubt bragging to Creampaw. He could already hear the hushed tones getting snarkier as they began passing the Thunderpath and taking the wide circle through Windclan and then venturing into old abandoned twolegs nests. Flattening his ears and trying to tune out the voices around him, a loud squawk from high above them made Bloodpaw cast his gaze up towards the sky that held no clouds, but was the richest blue he’d ever seen in his moons.
Circling high above them, almost out of sight due to the sunlight filtering into his eyes, was a large crow that squawked several more times before banking away and off into the distance. ‘Why do I have a feeling I’ve seen that ... .no it can only be a coincidence. Is that the correct saying?’
Lowering his head a bit, Bloodpaw had to muse over the thought as he continued to follow behind his clanmates. It was around High noon that Smokestar and his apprentices’ managed to come upon the Thunder Gorge, and honestly Bloodpaw's mouth hung open at the sight. Surrounded on one side by scarce trees and patches of tall grass that were yellowing in places, Thunder Gorge split the earth in ten tree-lengths from end to end. The gorge itself was steep and looked about twenty tree-lengths deep. It was like some ancient cat had sliced open the earth with a claw in a jagged way.
Walking to the edge and peering down, Bloodpaw whistled a little at the sight. Here and there, bulky shapes of twolegs objects laid sprawled upon the rocky floor. “Careful, rookie, don’t wanna take a nasty fall from this height. Otherwise, you’ll end up as carrionfood.” Bloodpaw had to stop himself from tipping over the ledge as the sound of Sagepaw’s voice startled him. Chuckling and not pretending to feel sorry for surprising Bloodpaw, Sagepaw merely sat on his haunches with a wide smirk plastered across his face; ears angled sharply upwards in amusement. “Although for the record, it wouldn’t really be a waste of space if you, ah, somehow ended up down there.
Shadowclan doesn’t need unnecessary space that doesn’t belong.” Amusement no longer glinting in his emerald green eyes, Sagepaw began walking away from Bloodpaw; who was mentally confused on what he meant by that.
Once the oceanic blue tabby had left him alone, the blood-red ginger took one more look at the gorge, and was about to rejoin his clanmates. But he had to turn his head sharply downwards towards a clump of rocks that rested at the foot of the far overpass. Straining his head forward and squinting hard, he could barely make out the body of a cat that looked as though they were staring straight at him. It was hard to tell if it was a female or male, and what color their pelt was, but those greenish blue eyes of that cat were definitely looking at him. A sharp shiver suddenly wound its way across his spine.
Lifting and pausing his right forepaw as he was about to walk away, Bloodpaw took a moment to glance back down towards the gorge; only to find that the strange cat had already disappeared like some kind of ghost. “Bloodpaw!” Called out Smokestar from about six rabbit hops away. Flinching from the shout, the young ginger stepped towards his clanmates. However, a soft mewl coming from the gorge made his left ear flick backwards a bit and almost made him pause and turn around again. The look on Smokestar’s face, however, told him he better hurry up or else.