Chapter 8

Day slowly turned to night, and both Shard and Crushedpaw were required to return to their Demanding Chambers. Shard was in Deminding Chamber Eight, which is one of the six chambers for cats born into PineClan. Crushedpaw trudged sluggishly toward Chamber Six. The day had been exhausting. Minkstripe came back to check on them every few moments, and every time, Shard accidentially slipped into her. During that day the two spent together, Crushedpaw learned a lot about her 'mate.' Apparently, Shard's father had tried to convince Shard to escape with him that night, but Shard had had a dream the night before that his father would get slaughtered when trying to escape, so he had firmly rejected the suggestion.

"It's like I...saw into the future," Shard had said. "And even though it had been a dream, it had felt all too real, and I feared I, too would get slaughtered. I really didn't want to leave my father to face those PineClan warriors by himself, but I was too young. I didn't have the courage to go with him."

Now, as Crushedpaw slid into her spot in the Deminding Chamber and stared up at the half moon, her thoughts drifted back to her Clan. How was Mossflower? Did she think Lichenpaw was dead? Was she at the Dew Tree right now, asking StarClan for guidance? Did Phantomheart even know Crushedpaw was missing? And if so, did he even care? And what about Silverbrook? What did she think about her kits being taken from her? Or Finchstar? Did she care that every apprentice in the Clan had suddenly disappeared? What would she do about it? Would she send out a search party?

All these thoughts raced in Crushedpaw's head as her eyelids drooped, and she soon fell asleep muttering the word "Shard."

The next day, Group Six returned to the Prison Chamber to be evaluated by Pinepaw and to return to their jobs. Just like yesterday, Pinepaw had his prisoners form a line in the exact same order as they had the other day. Crushedpaw took her position at the back of the line. When Crushedpaw was up, she stepped onto the stone platform on which she had stood when she had been given her job.

"Crushedpaw," Pinepaw meowed, his eyes empty and emotionless. Lichenfur sat in her usually position, grooming her mate's pelt. "Minkstripe says that you are doing exceptionally well, and that you were extremely involved in your job."

Crushedpaw shuddered at these words.

"She also says," Pinepaw went on. "That she thinks you should remain with Shard for a moon before she moves you on to your next mate."

Crushedpaw nodded, sending a fervent prayer of thanks to StarClan. Now she would be able to escape!

"You may all return to your positions!" Pinepaw announced. Crushedpaw darted up the first tunnel as quickly as she possibly could, praying that Shard would already be there when she arrived so that they could discuss escape plans.

When she arrived at her post, she skidded to a stop, the excitement dissolving from her eyes like mist in a fire. There was Minkstripe, standing in front of her hollow. "Ah, yes," the black-and-white she-cat meowed when Crushedpaw padded over to her side. "Welcome, Crushedpaw. Today, I am going to evaluate you and Shard. I am going to be observing the chemistry between you two and..."

A sudden screech sounded from above Crushedpaw's head. She looked up to see a golden blur falling from the top of the wall.

"Vermi!" Minkstripe cried. "Vermi has fallen from Row Thirty!"

Crushedpaw gasped. Row Thirty was as high as the rows went. The hollows in Row Thirty were practically a part of the ceiling. Some said that if you fell from up there, you could break every bone in your body. Minkstripe darted over to where Vermi had fallen and was laying, bloody and broken, on the ground. Crushedpaw felt nauseous.

"Psst," A hiss sounded from within Crushedpaw's hollow. Shard's familiar gray head poked out of the hollow. Crushedpaw darted inside.

"What are you doing in here?" Crushedpaw hissed. "I thought you were supposed to be in the Junior Father's den!"

"You're welcome," Shard meowed.

"For what?" Crushedpaw asked.

"I pushed Vermi out of his hollow so we could escape!" Shard replied.

"Escape?" Crushedpaw repeated. "Right now? But I thought we were going to wait!"

"There's a tunnel underneath your hollow that leads right outside, but it's pretty long, and it could take us a few days to get to the end of it."

"Then how are we supposed to get out of here alive?"

"I got food." Shard scattered Crushedpaw's bedding, revealing a pile of squirrels and mice. "Take as many as you can. We'll eat on the way. But we have to cover up our tracks."

"How?" Crushedpaw asked.

"If we roll in these pine needles, it should cover up our scent pretty well." So they did. After they had completely eliminated their scents, Shard and Crushedpaw each grabbed five mice, two squirrels, and a sparrow, and headed off. Shard lead the way to the back to Crushedpaw's hollow, where he pressed against the back wall. It swung open, and Shard crept inside. Crushedpaw followed quickly, just as the door began to close. As soon as the opening was covered, there was silence. No sounds could be heard except for that of Shard's purposely heavy, noisy pawsteps. The two of them sprinted through the hollow as quickly as they could. Crushedpaw found difficulty running with her infected flanks and her twisted paw. And besides that, her nose was crushed, which made it hard to smell anything.

It seemed like three moons had passed before Shard finally whispered, "Let's eat. Then we have to keep moving."

Crushedpaw heartily agreed, and so two of them shared a sparrow and a mouse. Then they picked up the rest of the prey and continued to race down the tunnel, their strength restored.

The tunnel had many twists and turns in it, and since she could not see or smell, Crushedpaw relied on the sound of Shard's pawsteps to see where the turns came in. At times, the tunnel seemed to slope steeply downward, at others upward. It seemed as though several more moons had passed before Crushedpaw caught her first glimpse of light. There was a small hole in the top of the tunnel. Shard advised Crushedpaw to stay away from the light, in case there were PineClan warriors looking for them. He tried to convince the young apprentice that they could rest at the next point of light, and that they would be there in about another day. Crushedpaw refused, insisting that they should rest there.

"But we have to get as far as we possibly can!" Shard protested. "If we stop now, they'll catch up to us for sure!"

"But they don't even know where we are!" Crushedpaw cried. "We should rest!"

The arguement went on like that until the sun finally rose again. Since it was daytime, Shard finally gave in and agreed to let Crushedpaw sleep. Together, they sank down onto the dirt and fell asleep.