Firepaw left the squirrel in front of Yellowfang, intending to leave without saying a word.
"Where do you think you're going, Kittypet?" Yellowfang hissed between his snarled and broken teeth.
"Spottedleaf's den." She mewed as evenly as she could, irritated by the old cats 'kittypet' taunts. She flicked her tail and walked across the clearing toward Spottedleaf's den. Yellowfang shouted insults and taunts after her but she ignored the old cat.
"Hello, Firepaw. I thought I smelled you coming. About time too." Spottedleaf mewed lightheartedly. "You took forever!"
"Sorry. Bluestar asked me to take care of the prisoner." Firepaw muttered 'prisoner' angrily.
"Aw, don't feel too bad. Yellowfang is not the nicest but he is quite a valuable cat." The young medicine cat said and licked her ear gently.
"Why?" The pretty ginger apprentice mewed.
"Because he was a warrior before becoming a medicine cat. That's not very common." He called from inside the medicine den, leaving the shadowy space a few seconds latter with a bundle of herbs clamped in his jaws. "Come here, you pesky apprentice."
Firepaw laughed. Spottedleaf held none of the vehemency in his voice that Yellowfang would when calling her a 'pesky apprentice'. She sat down in front of the handsome tortoiseshell tom and let him treat the bites and scratches that littered her bright orange pelt.
"Were you ever a warrior, Spottedleaf?" Firepaw asked as the thought crossed her mind.
"No. I was never a warrior. It was never in my destiny to be a fighter." She felt good knowing this little thing about the medicine cat.
A loud hiss burst from her lips and she tore her tail away from the gentle tom. She curled the appendage under her belly and crouched so low to the ground she was almost laying on her tail. A darker shade of red streaked her belly fur from the still bleeding gouges on her tail tip.
"Sorry." He mewed in something akin to embarrassment. Firepaw just moaned softly in acknowledgement. His apology was sincere but the pain in her tail was far more real to her than the sincerity in his words.
"May I see?" Firepaw shook her fiery orange head and backed out of the medicine den with her tail tip hidden under her belly.
"Firepaw, please!" He begged. She shook her head again, turned tail and bolted right out into the forest. She could hear Spottedleaf calling out to her, but his larger shape prevented him from going as quickly as she could through the tangled undergrowth. Eventually, his panicky voice faded into the trees and she was alone with her thoughts.
She slowed down, then stopped at the Riverclan border. She just sat there and breathed, looking out at the wide expanse of water. She started making shallow claw marks in the earth, mocking the twoleg things she used to she around her old house. The tip of her small nose touched the scratches in the earth for only a second before the fiery little she cat stood up and began walking towards the border they shared with the twolegs.
Firepaw moved clumsily through her forest home, her balance thrown off by her tail, which was tucked tightly against her belly. On her way the the border her paws became tangled in a bramble, and she came away with half the fur from her paws still on the thorny branch.
The little apprentice sat just behind the scent line when she reached her destination. Looked out at the place she used to call home.
"Well well. Hello, kitty pet." A voice sneered from behind her. She wrapped her long tail around her paws in an attempt to hide the injury.
"Hello Sandpaw." The flame coloured cat mewed without turning around. Her voice was devoid of emotion, flat.
"Miss your twolegs? Gonna go crawling back?" Sandpaw snickered. He hadn't seen the wound.
"No. Just thinking." Her voice remain soft and monotone.
"About what, leaving?"
"No."
"The why are you here?" He growled.
"Because it was quiet until you showed up. Because I could think, remember, do whatever I pleased without being interrupted by nosy tomcats." Her monotonous voice became an irritated hiss.
"Am I annoying you?" He sneered.
"Yes. Please leave, Sandpaw."Firepaw's voice became the frustratingly calm meow again.
"Um, no." Her tail began lashing, scraping painfully across leaves and dirt.
"Hey, wh-" Sandpaw never finished his edgy, ill tempered sentence. A single extended claw sliced open his nose. he yelped in pain.
"Go. Away!" The lethal female hissed. The tom jumped at her, bowling her over as if she weighed nothing at all. Claws ripped at his sandy fur and he leaped away, examining the scratches. Blood seeped into his fur. He yowled and sprang at her, and his claws ripped across her brow. Blood seeped into her eyes, flooding her vision with red. His scent neared and she lashed out violently. The blow hit her head, hard, and she fell. Stayed there.
"Weak kitty pet. Can't even defend yourself against an apprentice!" He laughed.
"You forget... I'm just an apprentice too." She murmured and let herself fall still.
"Firepaw?" He mewed anxiously. She didn't reply.
"Firepaw are you OK? Please answer me." He begged. Her lungs screamed for air but she stayed silent and still. In the confines of her mind she asked herself why there was fear in his voice.
"Please..." He whimpered. She inhaled the slightest breath and muttered
"Go away..."
"No! I-" He tried but she cut him off.
"Just leave, Sandpaw." Firepaw was shocked, and saddened, when he obeyed her. He left her alone.
There you have it folks! Sorry it took me so long but my friends seem to have made it their sole responsibility to keep me out of the house :P
Hoped you liked it :D R&R, please!