Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own, warrior cats.
"Hollypaw!" the impatient meow seemed to shatter the apprentice's sleeping state, and she rose her head slowly to see snowtuft's ice-blue eyes glaring at her.
"Get up!" he demanded, and a hefty, white paw collided with hollypaws head. She scrambled to her feet, shaking her head to chase away the stars that rattled in her vision from the blow to her head. She snorted in annoyance at being brought back to the dark forest, but stared her mentor evenly in the eye, and asked,
"What are we learning today?" snowtuft grinned maliciously, and replied,
"Oh… just a little battle move I came up with myself… It goes something like this!" on his last word, snowtuft exploded into action, sliding underneath hollypaw and kicking upwards. His hind legs collided painfully with hollypaws stomach, and she was sent flying into the air. She landed on her back with a thud, and snowtuft was there in a heartbeat, digging his claws into her neck. Snowtuft relieved the pressure on hollypaws throat and stepped back.
"You try." He indicated, standing perfectly still to let hollypaw execute the attack. She ran forwards, just as snowtuft had, twisting onto her back and sliding underneath him, but snowtuft sprung away before she could kick upwards, raking a claw over her cheek as he leapt.
"Not fast enough." Stated snowtuft plainly, flicking the blood from his claws as he spoke.
"Try again."
Hollypaw raced forwards again, but this time kicked up earlier, however she only managed to unbalance her mentor, who soon regained stability and bit down hard into her foreleg. Hollypaw shrieked in pain and rolled away, licking her injured leg furiously to take away the agonising burning sensation.
"You aren't kicking hard enough now!" hissed snowtuft in exasperation.
"Go and practice kicking against that tree."
Hollypaw limped over to the tree, lay on her back and carried out what snowtuft had told her to do. She struck the bark again and again until her pads were raw and her muscles were burning. She stopped for a heartbeat, trying to ease the pain in her legs, but the moment she stopped, pain sliced through her ear and blood began to drip down her face as snowtuft shrieked,
"Don't stop, you lazy piece of fox dung!"
Hollypaw resumed the exercise, until snowtuft finally demanded her to stop.
"That's enough. Now try the move again."
Hollypaw lowered her head in concentration and charged, flipping onto her back and lashing out hard. Snowtuft flew into the air and crumpled onto the ground, where hollypaw placed her paw on his throat and slid her claws into his neck fur. Beads of blood began to bubble from the wound, and hollypaw narrowed her eyes. If she could kill him now, she would never have to come back! New strength flooded into hollypaw, and she dug her claws deeper, but her hopes seemed to die as the white cat suddenly twisted in her grasp and flung her to the side.
"Enough!" yowled snowtuft, aiming a claw swipe at hollypaw's head, grazing the fur above her eyes.
"Get out! Now!" he continued to yell, and the dark forest seemed to spin, as hollypaw collapsed to the ground, her eyes snapping open back in her own nest. Sunlight was streaming in through the entrance, and all the nests were empty.
"Mouse dung!" hissed hollypaw, leaping to her feet, but crumpling back down again as pain seared up from the bite-marks on her leg. She got up again hesitantly, her leg throbbing in pain. Oh well. Back to see jayfeather I guess…
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"What is it now?!" hissed the irritable medicine cat, whipping his head round from a pile of wizened leaves.
"I-I got hurt in training yesterday, and it's started to hurt so I thought I'd see you." Hollypaw lied, flinching as jayfeather hissed in her face.
"You again?! Can't you be more careful?!"
Hollypaw swallowed, unsure of how to react, but sighed in relief as the blind medicine cat left for his herb store. Hollypaw settled down in her nest and sighed. She reflected on how hectic the last few days had been. Hunting, fighting, lying, talking, praising. Everything replayed its self, and she hardly noticed jayfeather returning. Suddenly, something sharp dug into her leg, and hollypaw whipped her head round to see jayfeather, eyes narrowed in anger. At that moment, the black apprentice realised what she had done. She snapped up her mental barrier, but it was too late. Jayfeather had already seen it.
"You…" he hissed.
"Training there?! You traitor! You dark forest apprentice! Get out! Get out!"
Hollypaw's ears swung flat against her head.
"I'm sorry!" she yelled back
"I'm so sorry!"
A/N: This chapter is longer than the last one so I'm happy about that, and I also want to say a massive thankyou to all everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited this story. Thankyou!
