Chapter 29: A Trick

Dust paced around. He sniffed the air, apparently impatient. Where is Diamond and Ash? He wondered. He had seen Diamond go into the bushes after Charlotte took off. Dust didn't stop her, but she was running off in the direction of where they had came from, where Kabu had organized the groups.
Dust turned to Rusty, "Where's Diamond?"
"I don't know," Rusty shrugged. He kicked a rock and it hit Twig in the head.
"Hey!" Twig growled, unsheathing her claws.
Rusty recoiled, "Sorry!"
Twig looked like she was about to pounce, but Nyx stopped her. "Don't do it, Twig."
The she-cat looked at her owl friend, then back to Rusty, glaring at him, and then sighed. She padded away, and Nyx flew after her, calling her name.
Crystal lifted her head up from her paws. "So now what?"
The bushes rustled. Out came Tiggerkat. "Hi guys!"
Rusty groaned.
"What?" Dust turned to his brother.
Rusty whispered, "She's been watching us train the whole time, relaxing, and did no work!"
Dust looked at his brother, but then realized he was right. Now Dust was angry. He looked at Tiggerkat, "What do you want?"
Crystal watched as Tiggerkat jumped off a boulder to in front of Dust. "Aww, someone's up tight!" she poked him in the nose, and Dust wrinkled his nose and backed away. "Anyways, I'm just here seeing what you're doing!"
"Well, we're training, while you relax doing nothing," Rusty said coldly.
"Yep, maybe one day you'll be as great as me and you will get to relax!" Tiggerkat exclaimed, "That'd be fun! Two buddies just jumping around, searching for reese cups..."
Crystal laughed, but Rusty and Dust didn't.
Suddenly, Dust had a plan. He grew wide-eyed, as if in shock, and shot his ears up. "Did you say reese cups?!"
Tiggerkat, Crystal and Rusty were all staring at Dust, confused.
"Well, of course!" Tiggerkat shrugged, "it's the one thing I live for!"
Dust stifled an eye roll and gasped, "Is it..." he tried remembering the times Tiggerkat described them. "Is it dark brown and small like a circle?"
Tiggerkat flinched in alarm. "Yes! Yes, it is! Why do you ask?" she said, apparently excited.
"I saw some!" Dust exclaimed, "They were..." he looked east, "That way!"
Tiggerkat dashed off, crashing through the bushes.
"Um... Dust, are you sure that was okay to do?" Crystal said cautiously.
"Of course, she'll be back, she's not that stupid," Rusty snorted.

Author's Note:
What's gonna happen to Tiggerkat? o3o Anyways, check out The Four Elements Of Bending Field Guide please! Link it to your story blog, and on the field guide you can write chapters, learn spoilers and about important events, give ideas, and more! The link is on the sidebar, please visit! =D

Chapter 28: The Stranger

Ash set his paws down by the bush. A breeze ruffled his fur into his eyes. He shook his head quickly to move it so he could see where Twig was. She was standing away from him, Diamond explaining something to her. Twig nodded, then got into a hunting-like stance, which Ash had seen cats do before. Ash looked away.
He couldn't hear anything coming. Ash relaxed his shoulders. Twig was apparently taking a while to get going. Maybe she was asking Diamond for suggestions. "Come on, Twig, hurry up..." Ash mumbled.
There was a blow to his side. Ash collapsed onto the ground. Claws dug into his shoulders. Ash's first instinct was to kick it away. Ash did so and there was a yelp, and the attacker fell into the bushes. Ash got to his paws and yowled, jumping after it. He found himself pinning a stunned Twig.
"Ash! Take it easy on her, she's a beginner!" Diamond shouted.
"I'm not that young!" Twig grunted, trying to slip out of Ash's grip. Ash got off of her, and she gave him a quick scratched in the face. "Next time think before attacking me!" she dashed out of the bushes.
Ash sighed. He got to his paws. Then, he was hit to the side again.
"Twig! I surrender, okay?! I won't attack you again!" Ash shouted. He looked up, shocked to see that it wasn't Twig who attacked him, but a white male wolf. When Ash looked into his attacker's eyes, he saw himself. The wolf seemed strangely like Ash himself.
"No... Keep him alive... Don't let him be killed..." the wolf was whispering.
Ash was creeped out by this wolf. He tried to get out of his grip, but was stuck, the wolf was very strong-built, but seemed to be the same age as Ash. "P-Please, let me go."
"Don't... Let him get away. Let him live." the wolf let go.
Ash turned and dashed, but hit something. He fell down, and Charlotte was standing over him. "Um... Ash... Diamond wants-" she stopped as her eyes laid on the white wolf. "Who... Who's that?" she seemed a bit spooked by him too.
"His friend... His friend... Death..." the wolf panted.
Charlotte turned tail and ran, frightened. Ash went to follow her, when Diamond came through. "What's going on?" she demanded, and looked at the white wolf. She was mystified by him. "You... What do you want?"
The wolf didn't reply. He just stared at Diamond. Diamond stared back. For a while, their eyes locked together, and for the longest time they just stared at each other.
"Let's get this wolf to The Bending Tower," Diamond nodded. She turned around and flicked her tail, signaling for Ash and the wolf to follow. Ash took up the rear as the white wolf followed Diamond, and as he stared at the white wolf, a shiver ran down his spine.

Leaves crunched as Goldwing walked through the forest. He sniffed the air, and then followed a scent trail, apparently looking for something, or someone. Full of confidence, Goldwing ran through some bushes and skidded to a halt as he found Airwing.
"Airwing, what are you up to?" Goldwing asked.
The old elder stared up at the sky. He kept looking as clouds slowly moved across the gray sky. Goldwing just looked at his grandfather curiously, and then sat down. After what seemed like moons, Airwing spoke.
"Harsh times are coming..." Airwing whispered. He got to his paws and walked for The Bending Tower.
"What?" Goldwing perked his ears, and walked after Airwing.

Author's Note:
Very creepy, huh? Who do you think this white wolf is, and what does Airwing mean? :O

Chapter 27: Patrol Training

Ash trudged off into the forest with his group while Kabu continued sorting other groups for other events. Twig was now revealed to be a light brown female cat, an apprentice learning to Waterbend. She only seemed to know Nyx, but not the others.
Dust was busily talking to Charlotte, but Charlotte looked rather bored with his constant chatter, and here and there she'd nod, shake her head or shrug. She looked at Ash with an eye roll, showing him that Dust was talking too much.
Twig looked at Nyx, "What are we doing?" she asked.
Nyx began explaining, "We're training to be like full Benders."
"That's cool! I wish I were a full Bender," Twig remarked.
"Me too," Nyx nodded.
Ash joined in, "I want to, too."
"But you're further ahead, you wouldn't need to hope as much as we do!" Twig protested.
"Well it's taking me long to," Ash said. "It takes more than a moon, that's for sure. I don't know when I'll be a full Bender, could be tomorrow, or five moons from now."
Twig sighed, "Why does it have to take so long?"
"They just want to make sure you've learned everything," Charlotte replied.
"But I can learn things fast!" Twig exclaimed.
Ash knew she was acting like a normal apprentice; wanting to be a full Bender and anxious to learn everything. Ash looked ahead. Diamond had them stop, "Okay guys, as you have hear from Kabu, we're doing patrol training. Full Benders go on patrols to check the territory, because there could be Firebenders, loners awaiting to give a message, or anyone else. For this you need good sensing skills, and good stalking skills."
Everyone nodded, showing they were paying attention.
"So pretend you're all full Benders," Diamond said.
"I wish I were..." Twig sighed.
"Don't worry, someday you'll get there," Diamond smiled.
"Unless you're murdered by Firebenders like Susan was," Dust laughed.
Twig wildly looked at Dust, "I'm gonna get killed?!"
Diamond gave Dust a warning glare. Ash knew Dust was her son, so she could easily punish him.
Dust quickly turned to Twig, "No! Of course you won't!"
Twig growled a bit and walked away from Dust. Dust rolled his eyes, and turned to Charlotte and began murmuring something to her.
"Alright now..." Diamond nodded, "let's see your skills so far. Charlotte, you can go first."
Charlotte nodded, "What do you want me to do?"
Diamond turned to Dust, "Dust pretend you're a Firebender."
"Okay... RAWR! I'm an evil Firebender! Bow to my paws or you all shall feel the power of our mouse leader, Ironfang!" Dust exclaimed, looming over the group.
Everyone laughed. But Diamond wasn't amused, "Dust, Firebenders have to be taken seriously, this isn't a time for one of your jokes! Now stand over by that bush!" Diamond nodded to a bush that was about ten yards from Charlotte.
Dust ran over to it. Diamond turned to Charlotte, "Okay now, you see Dust the Firebender on a patrol. You need to stop him from getting into any trouble. Go after him."
Charlotte nodded, and crawled among the fallen leaves, a cold breeze ruffling her. She stalked through the bushes, heading for Dust. She finally leaped and tumbled into Dust, pinning him to the ground.
"Good job!" Diamond nodded, "Twig and Ash, I'll use you next."

Author's Note:
Patrols FTW.

Chapter 26: A New Training

It had been at least a moon. Today was finally the last session of the hard work the senior Benders had them doing. There were so many holes now, it was practically like a minefield. Everyone had to move around the holes, which was hard to do since there was so many. At the top of the hill, there were so many rocks it was like a wall. With all the running they did, there was a clear path around the territory.
Ash put his paw on the ground and a twig snapped. He looked around. His shoulders relaxed. The last day of training, he thought. All morning he had been bracing himself for the pain he'd go through today, as he went through everyday since the past moon. Everyone had gotten used to running and working hard, so Kabu didn't yell as much as he did on the first day, nor did the senior Benders. No one necessarily liked the training (excluding Max, Raoul and Miguel), but were kind of used to it. But no one was still used to the fact that Spots was dead.
Kabu jumped on top of his usual boulder. "We're going to be doing something different, more fun today, as an award for you coping with training so hard."
Everyone exchanged looks of excitement. No one had had any fun since the past moon. Ash couldn't help but wondering if it would be fun to Kabu and not fun to them, or if it would be fun for all of them and Kabu was telling the truth.
"So, some of you will be becoming full Benders soon." At that, all the apprentices started talking. "I said SOON," Kabu yelled, making everyone listen again. "Not now." Ash looked at Kabu and - was that amusement glinting in his eyes? - the deputy went on. "So for today, you'll all be pretending that you are full Benders. We're going to teach you how to patrol properly, hunt properly, and fight properly, and bend properly."
A roar of conversation spread out through the apprentices, but not necessarily the full Benders who were participating.
Mistletoe spoke up, "What about those of us who already are full Benders?"
Kabu nodded, "You'll be learning how to handle an apprentice."
Now all of the full Benders were talking.
"Lucky!" Ash heard Rusty whisper to Crystal, "I wonder who my first apprentice will be."
Ash agreed with Rusty, he was anxious looking to the time when he'd have his first apprentice. Would he be a good mentor? What would the apprentice be like? Ash left all of these questions unanswered as he turned his attention back to Kabu.
"The senior Benders will take groups out who will start with different subjects," Kabu explained, "Twister, Akumu, Dell, Windows, Miguel, Rusty and Slice will be in one group."
Ash looked at them all. Both Miguel and Rusty were looking at Slice, who was unaware of them watching. Uh-Oh, Ash thought, That'll cause some arguments...
"Ash, Charlotte, Dust, Crystal, Twig and Nyx will be in another group."
 Dust looked a bit excited. Ash knew who Nyx was, he saw Nyx the other day, but never heard of someone named Twig. Is she a new apprentice? Ash asked himself.
"Light, Max and Raoul will be in our last group. Now, River will take Rusty's group, Diamond will take Dust's group, and Creature will take Light's group. River, start your group out with Bending. Diamond, start your group out with patrolling. Creature, start your group out with hunting. Rotate around..."
Ash stopped listening to Kabu. Wonder what will happen? Ash thought to himself.

Author's Note:
I figured everyday writing about them training for a whole moon would be too much. 8P So I skipped ahead. ^^ Thanks to Maximumriderules for Twig! And forgot to add... Mia created Zapada, and Perry4464 created Nyx! And be sure to check out the new story blog I created!

Chapter 25: Return to The Bending Tower

Ash's head hung low as he walked with the group back towards The Bending Tower. His feet squished against the wet leaves; it was raining, the clouds seemed to be crying in grief for the loss of Spots.
No one spoke at all. Everyone was upset. Ash kept hoping it was some kind of nightmare, but knew it couldn't be. Ash didn't want to believe Spots was dead, but he figured it wouldn't be likely it'd be possible to fall down a waterfall and survive.
Suddenly, the doors at The Bending Tower opened. Two of the young came through, giggling and laughing.
"Leafy, Aimee! What are you doing?" Zapada asked.
"Playing!" stated a black wolf pup.
"What Leafy said," nodded a white wolf pup, "We're playing?"
"But what are you doing out of The Bending Tower?" River questioned.
"Oh! Rainbow's having kits," replied Leafy.
Everyone turned to look at a brown male cat. He was wide-eyed. "My mate's having kits?"
"Yes, Amur. She was wondering when you'd come," Aimee stated.
The brown tom seemed to forget the grief everyone is, and ran inside The Bending Tower. Ash watched him go.
After Amur ran in, out came Feather. "Ah, you're back! How was it?" Feather asked.
Kabu stepped forward, and seemed a bit ashamed. "Feather, we... Lost Spots."
"Lost Spots?" Feather echoed, "What do you mean?"
"He's dead," Rusty said, sadness in his voice.
"Dead?" Feather was now wide-eyed, "How could Spots possibly die in a training session?"
"He swept downstream, down a waterfall," Eclipse told her mentor.
"Because someone had us swim!" Rusty growled, rounding on Kabu.
Ash held his breath. He expected Kabu to scold Rusty for being disrespectful, but to everyone's surprise, Kabu just sighed. "You're right... It's my fault." And he walked into The Bending Tower.
Ash stared after Kabu, feeling sympathy for the lion. Even Rusty looked a bit sad for him. The one animal who Ash had loathed the whole day, who snapped at other animals for being slow and not going fast enough, was sad with himself.

Author's Note:
Poor Kabu... And Spots... :C

Chapter 24: Saving Spots

A female snowy owl swooped into the air and towards Spots. Ash wanted to help, but didn't know if Kabu would approve of it. She swooped in to Spots, but hooted alarm as she came too close to the water; her feathers skimmed it a bit, and she was forced to go onto land, to prevent herself from being unable to fly.

"Zapada! Are you okay?" A female barn owl flew over to the snowy owl. The few birds who were there weren't allowed to swim, had to glide in the air and fly in place.

The snowy owl got to her feet. "Yes, Nyx, go back to flying, we'll get Spots!" Zapada ordered. 

Windows and Dell suddenly jumped out of the water in unison.

Kabu was running to go get Spots. He looked at them. "Get back in the water!"
"B-B-B-But K-K-K-Kabu, it's f-fr-freezing!" Dell protested, "We're r-r-reptiles!"

"And what about reptiles is bad with doing that?" Kabu growled.

"IDIOT!" Windows snapped, "We're COLD-BLOODED! Meaning if we go in FREEZING TEMPERATURES, WE DIE!"

Kabu snarled at Windows, but turned to Skye and Willow, "Get these two to the healers' den and order Feather to start a fire, stat!"
Skye and Willow nodded. Skye grabbed Dell with her talons and flew in the direction of The Bending Tower. Willow picked up Windows, who snarled protest, and ran after Skye.

"C-Can I help Feather?" Eclipse asked.

"Keep swimming!" Kabu ordered.

"GUYS! HELP!" Spots yowled, trying to fight the current. Ash gasped as he noticed Spots was nearing a waterfall.

Without hesitating, Creature jumped into the river and swam for Spots. Spots kept trying to fight the current, which was threatening to throw him down the waterfall. Ash got very nervous, seeing the current was almost too much for Creature to handle. "Please! Get Spots!" Ash yowled.

Creature swam harder. Spots tried swimming for him, but wasn't moving. He spotted a stick on the ground. Spots jumped into the air and went to grab the stick. Ash watched nervously, barely remembering to keep swimming in the water himself.

As Spots grabbed the stick, his paw slammed down on it, and it flipped. With the stick, he fell down the waterfall.

"SPOTS!" everyone yowled in unison.

Author's Note:
Stupid current is stupid. >:U

Chapter 23: The Cold, Cold River

Ash looked uncertainly up at the sky. It was covered in clouds. A cold breeze ruffled his fur. He shivered. Then his eyes turned to the river in front of him. The same river Bone, the komodo dragon died in. He reluctantly put his paw in, then flinched at how cold it was.
"Kabu, do we really have to swim in this temperature?" Nightgale complained.
"It's not gonna kill you! Get in!" Kabu ordered.
"But... It feels like it's gonna turn to ice!" yowled Mistletoe.
"Now!" Kabu growled.
Scared, everyone plunged in at once. Ash winced at how cold it was, and his instincts told him to jump out, but he was stuck in there as long as he didn't want Kabu to yell at him. The river was threatening to push him downstream, but Ash treaded water and pushed against the current, his teeth chattering as the cold water ruffled his fur.
Dell was behind Ash, and she looked cold as well. It must be very tough for her, after all, she's a reptile, Ash told himself, still treading water.
"I-I-I'd r-rather be in M-Mt. Ice," Dust declared, who was in front of Ash.
A fish slithered past Ash's pelt. He tried to grab it, but it quickly swam away. Others tried getting it, too, but missed.
"Faster!" Kabu ordered.
Ash and the others quickly began treading water faster. It all seemed to be causing a big wave going downstream. Spots, who was last in line, got hit by it. Yowling, he got swept downstream!
"Spots!" Ash yowled.

Author's Note:
Oh noes! :o Will they save Spots?!

Chapter 22: The Rocks and the Hill

"Go, go! RUN!"
Ash found himself running faster up a hill, carrying rocks on his back. He quickly dumped them on the top, and didn't dare rest. If he did, River would certainly snap. Ash scurried back down the hill, passing... Slice?
"Hey, Slice!" Ash called out, "Why are you here?"
"They made the travelers join!" Slice called back down, running to the top of the hill and putting rocks down, "This is such a pain!" She ran back down to Ash's side.
Twister sprinted up the hill, put the rocks down, and ran back down to get more. Slice went to get more rocks. Miguel, Raoul and Max were holding a conversation, and putting rocks on top of the hill. Miguel seemed to be eyeing Slice, while his friends talked with each other.
Rusty and Dust were at the top as Ash got back. As Rusty turned around to go back, Dust tumbled into him. They rolled down the hill, shouting "ouch!" as they constantly hit each others' heads. They tumbled into Slice, who got caught in the mess; Spots, Mistletoe and Miguel got stuck in it, too, as they all yowled as they kept getting hurt, rolling for the bottom.
Ash found himself laughing, for the first time all day. Others joined in. The ones who got tangled up, however, didn't laugh.
Miguel had fell into Slice. He quickly got to his paws, looking a bit embarrassed. Miguel backed up, heading for Raoul and Max. They were laughing, but Miguel didn't seem to care, he looked a bit more spooked with the bumping into Slice.
Ash heard Kabu roaring, "Back to work! NOW!"
On that command, everyone ran back to the step they were in, getting rocks and putting them on the hill.

Author's Note:
Are you on the MiguelXSlice side now? :{D LOL, remember the Rusty and Dust hill episode from earlier? ;) BTW, Sorry for not posting much! D8> I've been busy with school and all. Also, I have a new story blog, it's about huskies - click here to see it! <:3