The Greatest. (CLosed for Swirlpaw)

Hawkswoop groomed his fur briefly, he had just returned from the dawn patrol, deciding that it was around the right time to wake his apprentice. His vigil had been the day before. He had left the pile higher with two rabbits and a thrush and was sorting inedible prey out, taking it to the Dirtplace. Then, he peered into the apprentice den. "Swirlpaw, wake up, we're starting your first day early." He meowed, looking down at the young tom.

The white tom opened a single distorted eye with irritation."Are we now?" he asked, yawning. He slowly got to his paws." I was hoping to get some shuteye. Gotta grow big and strong, right? Those enemy clan cats won't fight themselves, now, right?" Swirlpaw yawned once more, stretching out his legs. Of all the cats that could mentor me, he thought, I get the early bird. The tom laughed to himself at the thought. Haha. Bird.

"Yes indeed, and you sound very excited." he said, presenting his own bit of sarcasm. Hawkswoop backed out the den and looked up into the bare branches above camp. "You're very lucky to be born only now if you knew what happened just before you were born you'd know why we need to work early and with purpose." he meowed sternly, "I can bring you up to speed as we head out." with that, he left camp.

As Hawkswoop turned to walk, Swirlpaw realized what he was doing and quickly sped up to catch him. Thoughts of the fire seared through his mind as he left the camp. "You mean the fire?" he asked," my mother talked a little about it, but not much."He can tell me what she didn't, he realized, several questions popping up in his head.

" What actually happened that day? Will our forest grow back? What does fire taste like? What does fire look like?" He had several more, but just limited his queries for now until his most important were answered.

"Swirlpaw, the fire was near the end of the struggle. I will get into the fire later, however, to truly understand I'll have to start much, much earlier. Before I was born, a loner arrived from the Twolegplace. He took shelter in the barn my parents lived in." the large tom slowed his pace only slightly to allow his apprentice an easier speed. "His name was Bear. I will warn you now, his son is in ThunderClan, I expect nothing less of you to not insult the dead in front of their kit, you will answer to me if you do. Bear began forcing cats into his clan, kidnapping clan cats as well as killing them. As a kit, in order to be promoted, I had to battle the other kits. I was supposed to lead his clan once he died." the tom reflected over the uneasiness his parents expressed around Bear, he felt ashamed of the praise he had given Bear when he brought a bloodied, terrified medicine cat into the barn. "When he was killed, his kits were taken, the other kits scattered throughout the clans. My parents sent me with Blizzardstar. That was only the first struggle for the forest." Hawkswoop searched for any healthy greenery, he would have them try live prey after visiting the Sandy Hollow for practice. His bushy tail flicked dismissively when he didn't see much.

Swirlpaw sat still for a moment, Hawkswoop still continuing. His mind was still scrambled, much like the irises of his eyes. Had to fight other kits? he wondered, thinking about himself having to train at an even younger age. The white tom glanced at the warrior. 'Supposed to lead the clan when he died....' Swirlpaw was astonished. Hawkswoop must be really strong to survive and thrive in an environment like that.  Has he killed before?

"Who's his son?" asked Swirlpaw, thinking of a massive hulking beast of a cat. And why would we let him into ThunderClan? he wanted to ask. He didn't, though. He just continued to pad after his mentor, listening further. "And you said that was the first struggle. There's more? Is this where the fire comes in?"

"His son is Barkpaw, now, don't treat him any different than your other denmates,
he has it bad as it is. I may not be entirely proud of what Bear did but, I will still honor some of his wishes to take care of his kits.'' the tom answered. The large tom shook out his fur. "The fire is coming up but, first you'll need to know the source. Just before I arrived,
a kit named Rowan, you'll know him as Falconpaw, was brought to the clan, an apprentice had killed his mother and brought him back. That apprentice was Rockpaw, he died a moon ago under the name Rockthorn. Though now I am not happy with my decision, I did try to kill him early on. If I had known what he'd do, I would have finished him off that day." he sighed. I may not know all he's done but, when he was made a warrior, he attempted to murder one of Leopardclaw's kits after being called out on it. He said he wanted his own kits to be slaughtered as well. Soon after,
Ashstar came into camp claiming one of her apprentices was horribly maimed by Rockthorn. Darkfilght, Darkstar at the time, decided to kill him in camp but he escaped. The fire happened soon after, Rockthorn had set the forest ablaze, ruining ThunderClan territory, and poisoning the river for a good while. His mate Cloudstorm was a queen at the time, raising his kits. He had torn her to shreds and left her in the forest's ashes missing her tail and lower jaw." With a grimace, he looked out to the Sandy Hollow. "We returned to camp after RiverClan told us to leave Sunningrocks. Darkflight stepped down, the ranks changed, here we are.'' he meant that in two ways, he had brought them to the hollow and up to date in the tale.

Falconpaw?! thought Swirlpaw in his head at the mention of his friend. His mother was killed by....Rockthorn? And that's the cat who started the fire? "Where's Rockthorn right now?" he asked, realizing Hawkswoop mentioned nothing of the evil tom's death. There's no reason someone like that should be kept alive. "Hawkswoop, I don't think you were wrong to want to kill Rockthorn. He doesn't sound like someone you'd want breathing." The white furred tom realized they were at a hollow of some sorts. I guess I'm lucky to have been born after all of this. If I had been alive, Rockthorn may have tried to kill me.... Swirlpaw shuddered.

"Rockthorn was killed by Ashstar,'' he said calmly. "Now that you know, we can train. Prepare for the next time something like this happens. It will certainly happen again but, we can try our best to reduce the harm caused. We'll start with hunting, prey is rare right now. We will mix battle training along with all of our outings." the sand was mixed with ash. "Kits usually pester apprentices, what do you know already?"

"I know how to crouch while hunting, I guess," mewed Swirlpaw, his brow creased with thought," apart from Birdpaw and Falconpaw, I didn't really pester too many apprentices. Sorry about that. I'll try to be more of a nuisance next time." He began to do what he remembered. The white-furred tom crouched low, his bellow scraping the ground as his paws were evenly balanced out. He took a few steps, delighting in his silence. Satisfied with his crouch, he got up on his haunches again."Other than crouching, I don't know much. When it comes to catching tails, however, I'm quite adept." He laughed naturally, a pleasant sound escaping his throat.

Hawkswoop took note of all the things he could shape up in the crouch. "Well, there's plenty of prey with tails, we can put that to use." he said with an amused purr. "Let's see how far you can leap from a crouch, the further you can be from the prey, the better chance of not alerting it." he meowed. Settling down, he waited to watch Swirlpaw's jump.

"Alright!" chirped Swirlpaw, crouching low," One leap, coming right up!" He took a deep breath, getting deep in his legs before leaping with all of his might, shooting at an imaginary mouse a sky-length a way. He was actually pretty impressed by his own length, but it was soon transformed into alarm as he failed the landing, tumbling upon contact with the ground. When he finally stopped rolling, several tree-lengths from Hawkswoop, he ended up on his back, staring up at the blue sky above him. "Well," he murmured, somewhat taken aback," that happened."