Gaining Height - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"How was your first day?" Hawkpaw asked Smokepaw gently.

For a second, her friend didn't reply, merely staring blankly at Hawkpaw. Hawkpaw looked down at her dishevelled pelt; she didn't really care how she looked, but she had wanted to groom the brambles and thorns out of it if only so that Smokepaw felt a little less on edge.

Eventually, Smokepaw slumped to the cave wall beside Hawkpaw, her long vine leash getting tangled up with her paws. She tried to untangle it, only getting more tangled up in the process. She stared up at Hawkpaw with sorrowful eyes.

"To be brutally honest," she murmured faintly. "It was terrible."

Hawkpaw padded over to her and began to help her try to untangle the vine. She had to use her teeth, since she didn't have the extra claw some of the CometClan warriors had. Smokepaw watched Hawkpaw tiredly as she worked with the vine.

For a brief moment, she wondered if she should snap the vine off of Smokepaw's neck with her jaws. Then, she stared at the partially barred entrance to the small cave they were in, and the CometClan cats that were surely outside. It was no use for now; CometClan would only get more hostile if they tried and failed to escape.

Once Smokepaw was free of the vine, Hawkpaw settled next to her, standing rigid, her own vine leash showing the trail of where she had gone to help her friend.

"There are some really sick CometClan cats," Smokepaw admitted softly. "On the verge of Greencough, I mean." Her already drooping frame seemed to droop further. "An elder already died, and Dashpaw..." She winced. "They're thinking of exiling her. In fact, they're thinking of sending the lot of them to StarClan!"

"I'm sorry," Hawkpaw meowed, seeing how tired and drained Smokepaw was. She bared her fangs, feeling angry at how helpless her friend was and the cruelty of CometClan.

Smokepaw shrugged her shoulders, staring ruefully at the vine that was wrapped around her neck.

"Some cats were decent enough," she sighed. "Mostly the ones that were sick, but Juniperberry offered to collect me all the herbs I need to treat them..." her voice trailed away. "I just feel so confused! Are they the enemy? Because some of them are horrible, and some are decent cats?"

Hawkpaw shook her head. "I'd like to claw out some of Nightstar's fur, and that cold she-cat, Ravenfeather, who's deputy," she muttered under her breath so that no CometClan cats could hear her. "But I've been listening this past day, and some warriors are against her leadership."

Smokepaw glanced up at her, eyeing Hawkpaw's bound wings and ragged vine leash that was tightly woven around her neck. The smoky she-cat winced as she examined Hawkpaw more closely, seeing all the scars and thorns and brambles stuck to her pelt.

"You had a terrible day," she meowed, voice quivering.

Hawkpaw shrugged, staring out at the partially built thorn and bramble barred entrance. Bits of the dying sunlight trickled in coldly, casting lined shadows on her and Smokepaw's pelts.

"It could have been worse," she said at length. When Smokepaw looked on curiously, Hawkpaw went on. "Nightstar was out with Flamepaw, so it was mostly just some warriors with her orders telling me what to do."

Hawkpaw's memories flashed to all the jeering CometClan warriors, almost all of them relishing in toying with their enemy. She had jumped one of them after they tried to make her roll over, which had only made her situation worse.

She had spent the entire day working on building up the bramble bars that now caged the entrance, working until blood ran down her from all her scratches. The CometClan cats had then taken turns getting her to call them 'Master,' and then they'd forced her to roll over for an abysmal amount of time. Smokepaw didn't need to know that, though.