Warrior Cats Fanfic: The banished clans

Chapter 4

Pebblepaw was suddenly pushed into consciousness, and opened her eyes warily to see a worried Honeypaw only a mouse-length away from her face. Her eyes lit up when she noticed Pebblepaw was awake, and she dashed out of her line of sight. Pebblepaw didn't have enough energy to watch her, so she just lay there, staring at the barren ceiling of.. not the apprentice den, no. The medicine den?

"Silverheart, she's awake!" Honeypaw called as she dashed back to Pebblepaw's side with Silverheart trailing behind her.
Pebblepaw pushed herself up and looked at the two cats.
"What happened?" She asked, she could remember the fox attack, and saving the kits, but anything after that was just blank.
"Pinekit came back to camp wailing that there was a fox and you were fighting it, so Leafheart and Ravenbeam went running out of camp. When they came back they had you and you looked well, um dead, and you were bleeding everywhere. That was four sunrises ago, and almost everyone thought you were dead, but you aren't!" Honeypaw mewed to the shaken Pebblepaw.
Wow.. Pebblepaw thought. She looked down at her belly, and it was plastered with cobwebs and marigold.
"When can I start training again?" She mewed, missing out on training was the last thing she wanted.
"Not until for at least a half moon, if not more. That fox got you pretty bad." Silverheart said seriously, but quickly went back to looking at her storage of herbs. "Can you re-do the dressings on Pebblepaw, Honeypaw?"
"Yup!" Honeypaw mewed as she followed Silverheart to the medicine storage area.
Pebblepaw's heart sank, Not for at least a half moon! That's going to be ages.

Pebblepaw heard the ivy at the entrance of the medicine den shuffle, as pawsteps grew nearer. She looked up, Frostedstream!
"Mum!" Pebblepaw mewed as she looked at her mother, who had just turned to look at her.
"Pebblepaw! Are you okay?" Frostedstream mewed as she nuzzled her nose into Pebblepaw's fur.
"I think so." Pebblepaw responded.
Silverheart turned back from organising the herbs and remarked to Frostedstream "She'll be in the den for just less than a half moon or maybe more, depending on how she heals."

Pebblepaw noticed that not only was Frostedstream there, but her kits were too! Pinekit was bouncing along with his sisters and they squished past their mother to head to Pebblepaw.
"You were so brave fighting that fox!" Pinekit mewed when he got closer to Pebblepaw.
"Thanks for saving us!" Ironkit meowed.
"I wanna be like you when I'm an apprentice! Super brave and strong." Sunkit added.
Pebblepaw lifted her head and turned to the trio of kits. "I couldn't just leave you there could I?" She turned to face Sunkit directly, "I bet you will be, you aren't far off now are you?"
"Yeah only one more moon!" Sunkit squealed excitedly.

Pebblepaw was happy that her siblings would be apprentices with her soon, but it made her feel worse that she would miss a whole half moons worth of training. She didn't want the kits to notice how upset she was, so she offered to play mossball with them. She knew she wouldn't win, but it would still be fun, after all she'd be here for almost a whole half moon, so she would have to find a way to entertain herself. She took a small bit of moss from her nest and threw it at Ironkit, who dodged it. Only a few moments after she began to play with the kits, Honeypaw had come to reapply the cobwebs so she had to stop. The kits didn't seem to care and bounded out into the clearing, and continued to play. Frostedstream followed her kits into the clearing and watched them play.

"You know, Mistpaw sat next to you for a whole day, but Rosastorm insisted he had to keep training so she forbade him from staying in here for long." Honeypaw told Pebblepaw as she took off the cobwebs and marigold.
"Really?" Pebblepaw asked. She wasn't shocked that the tom cared about her, but just that staying in the medicine den for a whole day would definitely not be fun, but then again, she would have to stay here for a lot longer than that. Before Honeypaw could respond, Mistpaw came bounding into the den.
"I saw Frostedstream in her a moment ago, is Pebblepaw okay?" He mewed anxiously, but as he stopped and saw her, he let out a cry of relief. "Oh thank Starclan you're okay!" He ran up to her and sat beside her.
"Pinekit was saying you fought a fox, is it true?" He asked.
"Yeah, it was certainly something." She mewed, the memories rushing through her head like a crashing wave.

Pebblepaw flinched as Honeypaw applied the dressings, but out of the corner of her eye she could see Rosastorm running into the den. "Mistpaw, I told you sitting in here won't help Peb-" Her eyes widened in shock when she saw Pebblepaw. "Oh she's awake! How are you Pebblepaw?"
"Alright I guess." Pebblepaw responded. She had no clue how she was feeling, but she didn't want to worry the others.

* * *

Pebblepaw watched as the two medicine cats trekked out of the camp, being in the medicine den was boring enough, but being on her own until dawn would certainly be worse. She tried to distract herself and go to sleep, but her efforts were to no avail.

The half-moon was rising in the sky, as strong as ever, and with every passing moment, the cave became quieter and quieter and soon, the main cave was empty.

The birds stopped chirping and soon, the only thing she could hear was her own mind.

After finally becoming tired, she curled up into her nest and drifted off to sleep.