Waging War Book 4: Empty Peace {COMPLETE}

Chapter 23

Blossomtail sank her claws into the bark as she hoisted herself up the side of the trees. Her belly scarped against the sharp bark but she pushed herself higher. She grit her teeth and pulled herself up to the next branch. She balanced herself on the thickest part of the branch and looked down. Her head spun a bit as she was higher than she was used to.

She quickly averted her gaze from the floor and took a few moments to catch her breath. She had climbed more than halfway up the large oak tree and her muscles were aching, but she was happy with the progress she made.

In her desperate attempts to feel better about herself, Blossomtail had started doing all the training she possibly could. She had decided to turn her attention to climbing trees, figuring it would be a good way to strengthen her muscles and sharpen her claws. She had been climbing this exact tree every day for the past three days and she made more and more progress each time.

She decided to stop for today, knowing that she had a hunting patrol to get to. She carefully leapt down to the lower branches. She made it down fairly easy, until the final branch cracked under her weight and she fell into the snow bank below, the branch following her and hitting her in the head.

It wasn't a dangerous fall, but Blossomtail felt hard onto her shoulder and let out a sharp hiss as he body sent up a flurry of snow. Her pelt burned with embarrassment, she was just grateful that no one had been around to see her clumsy mistake.

She sat up with a huff and shook the snow from her pelt. The moment she put weight on her injured shoulder she felt a sharp sting of pain. She let out another hiss and licked her shoulder. The last thing she needed was all of her family fretting over her.

She sighed in annoyance and adjusted her shoulder a bit, testing the injury. She wasn't a medicine cat, but she didn't think anything was broken or dislocated, most likely bruised. After all, it had been a short fall.

She kicked the branch away in anger and walked slowly back to camp, trying her best to hide the ache and sting in her shoulder. She didn't want to see the medicine cats, her biggest fear was being told she couldn't hunt. She knew her shoulder was fine, she would be okay.

She made her way back to camp, hiding her limp well despite the pain it caused her. She looked around camp, she still had a little bit until her hunting patrol was scheduled to leave so she headed to the warriors den to allow herself a moment a rest.

There were a few cats staying warm inside and talking, some napping. Blossomtail settled in her own nest and stretched out her leg, wincing a bit at the pain but it provided relief to stretch it out. She rested her chin her other paw and breathed out a bit. It felt nice to relax, something she hardly ever let herself do.

She hadn't slowed down for even a moment since she earned her warrior name, unable to ignore the doubt deep inside of her that she still didn't deserve it. She couldn't justify why, she knew didn't make sense and she knew no one else would understand.

She had been isolating from her family, her brothers and she felt like she didn't really have any friends. The loneliness got to her often, she would often fall asleep after her brothers and Rushtail always made an attempt to talk to her, but she was always busy.

She felt guilty about it, but she had to keep working. She had to keep training and working hard until she convinced herself that she was good enough, that she was good as the other warriors in SunClan.

She felt the familiar ache in her heart as she faced her own desperation. The loneliness and despair was taking its toll, but as long as she kept training, kept pushing herself, she was convinced that she could make it all go away. Once she proved to herself that she was as good as everyone else, then she could finally find happiness.