Warriors: From Terror to Torture

Chapter five- the wind, it whispers

So sorry for that month's wait, I've been extremely busy. However, I managed to squeeze out a chapter for y'all despite having lots of homework I should be doing.

Silentpaw rears up in the air, reaching for the leaf, paw burning. She thumps to the ground with a yowl. I can't keep doing this. It hurts too much. Bloodfang was doing a training exercise with her to train her to balance on her hind legs better, and to reach up as tall and high as possible. Silentpaw was supposed to rear up on her hind legs and stretch towards the lowest leaf on one of the low hanging branches of a beech tree.

This exercise wasn't supposed to be easy, but not super hard, either. However, with a twisted paw, Silentpaw was finding it very hard to reach. Bloodfang sighs loudly. "Birchpaw and Heatherpaw were supposed to be joining us for a group training session, but I guess we'll call it quits for today. As much as I believe you should work through the pain, that will only make your paw worse. You can still pick ticks off the elders with one paw," she said.

"Ticks?" Silentpaw yelped. "I don't-"

"Would you rather we keep training?" Bloodfang snapped. Silentpaw shook her head. "That's what I thought," Bloodfang growled. "Let's head back to camp."

Silentpaw limped all the way back to camp, Bloodfang shooting annoyed glances at her every few steps. Silentpaw wanted to snap something at her mentor, but didn't know what. I should be happy she's not asking about how it really happened. Silentpaw limped into camp behind Bloodfang. "Silentpaw! Are you okay?" asked Oneflower, who was eating a sparrow with Doveheart, a light gray she-cat with yellow eyes. The light brown she-cat with dark brown spots and stripes bounded over. "You're limping!" she exclaimed.

"She's fine, she's fine!" Bloodfang growled in annoyance, lashing her tail.

"I don't know, she's really limping," said Mothshine, a pale orange and white tabby, who had been grooming herself nearby. "I think she should go to see Spruceheart."

"Don't you have a patrol to go on or something?" Bloodfang snapped at her.

"No, so I can go get Spruceheart for you," Mothshine replied innocently. Bloodfang looked ready to rake her claws down the tabby she-cat's face.

"Thanks, Oneflower, Mothshine, I'm okay, I'm going to go to Spruceheart, you don't have to worry," Silentpaw said quickly. Mothshine nodded and walked away.

"That's good, tell me if you need anything," Oneflower meowed, quickly touching her nose to her ear tip. Silentpaw felt warmth spread through her body at the kind gesture.

"Get going," Bloodfang growled.

Silentpaw limps ahead, slipping into the medicine cat den. She blinks her eyes, adjusting to the gloom. Spruceheart was sitting with his back to her, nose-to-nose with the stone wall. Silentpaw hesitates.

"Um, hello? Spruceheart?" she calls. The tom whipped around, making Silentpaw flinch in surprise.

"Oh. Hello Silentpaw. I didn't see you there," he said slowly. His eyes were far away and distant, like he wasn't really there, looking at her. "Come closer. What's wrong?" he asked. Silentpaw shuffled closer, muscles tense. She was afraid Spruceheart would snap out of his trance at any moment, teeth ripping at her neck. Silentpaw shook that visual away. I'm being silly. Spruceheart is a medicine cat! He's probably just distracted by something. Silentpaw stuck out her paw.

"I twisted it," she replied, just as Bloodfang slipped in behind. Please don't ask how! Spruceheart didn't, just sniffed her paw. He then instructed her to place it on the ground.

"I'm going to apply some pressure, tell me if it hurts," he said. He placed his paw on hers, pressing it into the ground.

"Ouch! That hurts," Silentpaw yelped, and Spruceheart took his paw off.