Oh, I forgot! I do not own anything of this story besides the plot and NoClan (who will not be NoClan much longer o.0) The rest is Erin Hunter's!!
"Hey, Thorn-twisted-paw!" yelled Bluepaw, "Get your fat bum off the ground and help! We're here, doing all the work! Get up!"
Ravenpelt looked up sharply, her blue eyes glittering brilliantly against her dark hair.
"Bluepaw! You know that Thornpaw's foot is badly hurt. He. Is. Not. To. Move." Ravenpelt ground out between clenched teeth. The other apprentices converged around the warrior, faces twisted into pouting grimaces.
"Come one," weasled Whitepaw, "If we have to do all the stupid work, can't he too?"
"Yeah!" chimed in Skypaw, "It's not fair!"
Ravenpelt's eyebrows raised.
"Life. Isn't. Fair," she hissed, swiping a hand in their direction, like she meant to smack them upside the head. They ducked, scowled, muttered a few insults, and got back to work. Thornpaw stretched out on his sleeping bag, foot propped up, then sat bolt upright.
"Ravenpelt, why can't I work? My ankle just throbs a little. Please? It's not fair...And the others'll be mean to me!" he asked."And I'm really, really bored." he added as an afterthought.
Ravenpelt sighed, her patience wearing thin.
"Thornpaw. Life isn't fair." she spat. This wasn't the first time she had heard that particular argument. "Those kids over there are pestering me contantly that it isn't fair. Can you please, come up with anotherargument? Then I might think about letting you do something..." Thornpaw quietly digested this while the other apprentices gave him dirty looks.
"I know." He said. "We'll get things done faster!" He looked quite pleased with what he thought was a pretty reasonable argument. Ravenpelt let out a long, exaggerated sigh.
"No, Thornpaw. Better than that lame excuse." Thornpaw sent pleading looks to his den-mates, but they all turned their back on him as if he had hurt himself on purpose.
"Well," he said. "When an apprentice does something wrong, they have'ta work, huh? I fell over, cause I wasn't listening to my mentor..." he trailed off, obviously quite happy again with this idea, but Ravenpelt, on the other hand, wasn't.
"Good point," she conceded, "But they always waited until they were better to begin their punishment. Wrong again." Thornpaw, who by now was quite annoyed, scowled darkly and turned away. He had always been the popular one and he hated being shunned by the others. Suddenly there was a pounding of many little feet on hard stone coming straight towards Ravenpelt.
"Ravenpelt!" Ravenpelt whipped around, her eyes flicking over each apprentice in turn as they came running over to her, eyes wide with fear.
"Raven-raven-Ravenpelt!" gasped Whitepaw, who was leading the pack of wide-eyed children to the warrior. He had obviously taken Thornpaw's place as leader. "Ravenpelt, help."
Ravenpelt raised her eyebrows.
"If this is some kind of trick to get out of wo-" she paused, staring in horror at the hand Whitepaw was holding in front of her face. The small hand belonged to Bluepaw, who was the second youngest, only older than Grasspaw, youngest, by a few months.
"Oh my gosh. Your hand it's freakin'-" Bluepaw started to cry, and Ravenpelt pulled herself together for his sake.
"Bluepaw, listen. It's ok. Nothing major. We'll have you better in no time. We'll just wait for Leafear to come back, and she'll fix you right up. You know how fast she fixed Thornpaw's foot." Bluepaw wimpered, and Skypaw but her way in.
"Ravenpelt. My hand hurts too. And look, it's all red and small and...hairy." Normally the rest of the small children would have broken into fits of laughter at the word 'hairy', but today, laughter was the last thing on their minds. They were all inspecting their own hands, while a panicky light lit their eyes.
Suddenly, they all rose up as one.
"Yeah, look at my hand! My hair is white. Yours is ugly and brown."
"Hey, no fair! You look like a fuzzy marshmallow!"
"No way!"
"Yes way!"
"My hand hurts Ravenpelt! Make is stop!"
"No, mine hurts worse!"
"Does not!"
"Does too!"
Ravenpelt went very still and white, and closed her eyes while she took three great, deep breaths. She held up a finger.
"One." The apprentices kept yelling
"Two." Skypaw stopped talking to look at her.
"Three... Four" They quieted somewhat, but still bickered animatedly.
"Five." Ravenpelt's voice shook with barely controlled rage.
"Six. Seven." They didn't want to know what would happen when she got to ten.
"Eight. Nine..." They were almost quiet.
"...Ten." she sighed, and popped her eyes open.
"But my hand huuuuuuuuuuurts!" whined Thornpaw, blithely unaware of the impending doom he was bringing down upon his own head.
"You idiot!" hissed Whitepaw, the brightest of the five.
Ravenpelt exploded.
"You- You- youyouyouyouyou!!" she stuttered, searching for a good, strong word. "Annoyingarrogantlittlepersonneedstogetagoodpunishment!!"
She took another breath, trying to get her frustration under control. All I want to do is patrol, but I get this dumb duty instead. I ask nicely. I threaten. And this is what i get.
"I don't know why my nerves are so thin today, and trust me, you guys don't want to see the ugly side of me!" She finished lamely. Thornpaw tittered nervously. Whitepaw kicked him, but he kept on doggedly.
"This isn't ugly?" Ravenpelt bashed her fist into her own forehead. Then she changed, as Sunfur and Whiteclaw and Tigerstripe and Thornpaw had. She was replaced by a hissing, spitting jet-black cat. The apprentices were not surprised, not after the day before, but it did come as a jolt. They took a collective step back.
"Whoa!" said a voice. "What's going on here?"
Sorry I've taken so long, people! Summer break, and all, family coming and going. Yeah. Sorry again! -.-
Owly
