Gaining Height - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Hawkpaw expected to hit the bottom of the gorge soon. With each passing heartbeat, with each desperate imaginary stroke of wings, she felt as though death was inevitable. Hawkpaw stared up at Smokepaw and mouthed two words.

"I'm sorry."

Hawkpaw didn't see Smokepaw's reaction, but she felt her best friend's paw squeeze her own tightly. Hawkpaw scrunched her eyes shut, desperately trying to regain her wings, and fly.

She imagined flapping her wings madly, although panic and shock had set in so that she could hardly feel even the limbs she knew were real. Suddenly, she heard a gasp from Smokepaw, and looked up.

They were moving towards the top.

Hawkpaw didn't have time to think, but she kept on desperately clinging on to the hope that she knew what she was doing. She gagged with the exertion of pumping her wings to keep Smokepaw afloat from above her.

Suddenly, Hawkpaw felt moonlight light up her face. Opening her eyes just a crack, she saw fresh ground only a mouslength away. Her and Smokepaw had nearly escaped the rocky jaws of the gorge.

With one last powerful and desperate wing stroke, Hawkpaw felt the earth above her and Smokepaw, and collapsed to the ground.

She cushioned Smokepaw's fall, but the weight of the fluffy she-cat knocked the breath out of her. Gasping, Hawkpaw rolled a bit to the side, and felt snow settle its claws into her pelt. For once, it helped soothe her, since the tiny scratches all along her body started aching, and most of all, her wings.

They were fully back and bright blue as ever. Hawkpaw stared at them through narrowed eyes. "About time," she grumbled, trying to hide her fear.

Smokepaw was beside her, laying on her side still. Her wings were back, similar to Hawkpaw's in strength. Her eyes stared not at the gorge, but at some cat on the other side of it. When Hawkpaw followed Smokepaw's desolate amber gaze, she saw Coalpaw.

Hawkpaw limped a couple paces so that she was just standing beside Smokepaw. The smoky she-cat stared up at her with those same sorrowful eyes. Then, she stood up, and pressed herself against Hawkpaw.

"Thank you," she gasped. "You-you saved my life." Her eyes were glazed as she stared down at the gorge. "I don't know what to say..."

She fixed her gaze on Coalpaw once more. Then, she tentatively spread her wings as though thinking about going back over, and talking to her brother. Hawkpaw could tell Smokepaw desperately didn't want to, but there was a desperation in her to love her brother in spite of how fox hearted he was becoming.

"Coalpaw... I'm"

Hawkpaw and Smokepaw we're both suddenly tackled to the ground.

Astonishingly quickly, their assailants got them on the ground, and flipped them over so that their soft underbelly was completely exposed. Coalpaw screeched from somewhere in the distance.

"What's all this talk about leaving?" The calico she-cat who had pinned Hawkpaw down growled. "There's no leaving once you're on CometClan land unless we say so."

CometClan. As the calico's claws dug deeper into Hawkpaw's chest and wings, she felt her heart begin to pound wildly. There seemed to be a threat popping up at her at every new angle...!

The ginger cat, who was the third CometClan cat and the one pinning Smokepaw and Hawkpaw down snarled menacingly in the direction of his two hostages. He padded right up to Hawkpaw.

"We should eliminate them and have it over with," he hissed. "FalconClan doesn't deserve to live on our land."

The calico, Swiftslash, seemed to agree. She eyed Hawkpaw, clearly musing that FalconClan would be significantly weaker without two aspiring young cats. She clearly saw Hawkpaw's flash of fear, because she purred, voice dripping with inferiority.