Topic: Waiting
Minimum Words: 500
Thorngaze pace back and forth. His apprentice, Cherrypaw, stood nearby, watching anxiously. A pained yowl echoed through the clearing. Thorngaze seemed to move faster. Cherrypaw stepped forward.
"Thorngaze, stop! Your paw is bleeding." The brown tom looked down, surprised to see a thorn sticking from his pad. Cherrypaw stretched her head forward and gently pulled it out with her teeth.
"You must sit down." She said. Grudgingly, Thorngaze obliged. The small red she-cat sat next to him.
"Flamefeather will be fine." Cherrypaw soothed. Her dark green eyes shone from the gloom, sending a dash of comfort through the older tom. Then a silver tabby emerged from the den.
"Cherrypaw! Fetch Redtail!" Cherrypaw shot the tabby a look of alarm and confusion before she ran off to the medicine den. Thorngaze ran toward Silverfeather.
"What's going on?! Is she alright?!" The frantic tom tried to force his way into the nursery, but was blocked by the small she-cat.
"Iceheart! Firesoul! Hold him back!" A white she-cat with ice blue eye and russet tom stood and ran to help. Eventually, Thorngaze gave up the fight. As he deflated onto the ground, his apprentice returned with a ginger and white tom behind her. Cherrypaw returned to his side while the tom ran into the nursery. Thorngaze's eyes were dull as he looked at the small cat at his side.
"She has to be okay." He murmured. Cherrypaw pressed closer to his side.
"She will be. Have faith."
Redtail walked from the den with his tail on the ground. His gray whiskers drooped, and his blue eyes were dull. He looked up when the voice he'd been dreading to hear sounded above him, and he jerked his head toward the nursery. The uneven pattering of paws running across the ground reached his old ears, and he shook his head sadly. Sighing, he headed to his den, trying desperately to block out the mournful wailing coming from the bramble thicket.
Sparkkit crouched underneath the ferns by the warriors den, waiting for her father to exit. Finally, a cat stepped from the opening and she leaped, realizing to late that it was not Thorngaze as she had originally thought, but Cherryflame.
"Oops! Sorry Cherryflame!" She giggled. Dark green eyes shone with laughter underneath her, as her tiny claws pressed into the warriors shoulder.
"Oh no! The badger's got me! Whatever shall I do?!" Sparkkit squealed when Cherryflame suddenly rolled over, trapping the smaller cat beneath her.
"What have you done to my daughter Cherryflame?" The deep mew came from the entrance to the warriors den. The weight lifted from Sparkkits body, and she scrambled up, panting. Thorngaze stood there, shaking his head with amusement. Cherryflame purred.
"She's perfectly all right." But Thorngaze's eyes still shone with worry for his small daughter. He leaned forward and licked her head, flattening the small tuft of fur that stuck up from her earlier scramble. With a mew of protest, Sparkkit backed away and ran her paw over her head. Her bright green eyes shone with indignation and her Tortoishell pelt was bristled along her spine. Thorngaze let out a mrrow of laughter at the sight of his only kit trying to look threatening. It wasn't working.