My Tail Leads, Chapter Fourteen

Each shift fought for two hours. Threepaw was wiggling with excitement. He was one and a half hours away from defending his Clan!

He padded into the medicine den. "Anything I can do?" he asked, looking around.

"Yes." Jayleaf said, his jaws clamped on cobwebs as he wrapped Brookpaw's shoulder in them. Get a fresh wad of cobweb and put it on Spiderleg's leg. It's really bleeding."

Threepaw carefully wound the thin strands of dusty web around the black warrior's hind leg. There was a big gash in it, and blood oozed from it.

He patted it when it was done, and Spiderleg nodded, his face screwed up with pain.

"Threepaw!" It was Bramblestar, looking in the den. "Get some sleep now! You're fighting next!"

"Yes!" Threepaw ran to the apprentice's den. Foxpaw and Nightpaw slept soundly, healing as they rested.

Icepaw was settling down too. Threepaw curled up alone and closed his eyes.

XXX

"They're due in five minutes!"

Threepaw jolted awake. Icepaw, Foxpaw and Nightpaw had left the den. He jumped up. Had he missed his shift?
He sighed with relief. Ashfur and Icepaw were gathering in the corner. Mousefoot padded over to join them, stretching. Threepaw bounded over.

"Are we ready?" Ashfur asked them. There were a few scattered nods.

"Here they are!"

The other shift dashed into camp through the tunnel, wheezing and gasping. Blood littered their flanks.

Instantly, Lionheart sprinted to the medicine den with his shift after him.

"Let's go!" Ashfur's shift stood up. Threepaw felt the adrenaline surge through his veins as he raced after his father through the forest. They saw WindClan: Six of them. Three were fresh and three were already bloody from fighting minutes earlier.

They were surging foreword, trying to claim the forest while their enemies had returned to camp.

Ashfur let out a shriek.

"LEAVE OUT TERRITORY!" he bellowed. Without another word he fell upon the cats with a scream.

Threepaw watched Icepaw barrel into a tabby tom, throwing him to the ground. Threepaw looked for an apprentice, and spotted one from the gathering. Sedgepaw.

He launched himself foreword, paws stretched out. He raked his claws across her flank. She let out a yowl, whirling to face him.

Threepaw opened his jaws to bite her on the shoulder. She jumped out of the way and reared up. She was fresh, like him, and she came crashing down.

Threepaw flipped over and kicked Sedgepaw when she came down. She ran up after she had been flung away.

He ran foreword too, and they met each other, snarling. He tried to flip her over by gripping her shoulders, but she was stronger and tripped him. He face hit the ground as her teeth made a cut in his ear. Screaming with rage and rearing up, he caught her across the jaw. He felt it crack against his skull and looked up to see her jaw flying through the air, trialing blood.

Sedgepaw looked at him in rage and shock, her tongue dangling down. Then, without another word, she raced as fast as she could for her camp.

A black she-cat, whose name was Nightcloud, stared after Sedgepaw, then with a screech, she whirled to face Threepaw, launching herself toward him. She was obviously the apprentice's mentor. She sent a rock hard paw at his mouth, and he fell back to avoid it, exposing his underbelly. Nightcloud leapt on it and started raking at his fur.

Threepaw screamed, and out of desperation, choked her with his tails and then flung her far into the air. She lay coughing and wheezing.

He stood up, but Nightcloud was back, this time aiming to rake his neck with her claws.

Threepaw leaped foreword as she came in for the blow, twisting so she rocketed to the ground mid-jump, He landed on her back and pummeled her with unsheathed claws.

She let out a yowl, twisted, and started scratching his back.

Suddenly, Mousefoot started up a yowl. "INTRUDERS!" Two WindClan cats, several yards from the fighters, were streaking through the forest, circling in on the camp. Their jaws were parted as they panted, but they were fresh.

Threepaw wrenched himself from Nightcloud and raced after the new cats. Icepaw joined in beside him. He neared in on the first cat, faster because he was better at running through trees and undergrowth. He took a giant leap and knocked the cat over, and together they tumbled, rolling quickly through the forest.

Threepaw untangled himself from the cat, a brawny, tan colored male named Harefur.

Harefur screeched when he saw it was an apprentice and lashed his claws at Threepaw's face. Threepaw gasped as blood welled all over his cheeks. As the pain seared through him, Threepaw dropped down, squashing the air from Harefur.

Harefur rocketed up, his teeth tearing some skin from Threepaw's cheek.

Raw agony pierced the black apprentice like a sword, and he let out an eerie wail as he fell back.

He could barely feel himself hit the ground; things were going black because of the pain.

XXX

"Threepaw? THREEPAW!" A harsh, rough tongue lapped his face. When it touched the raw part, Threepaw cried out.

"Hold still. I have to do it. Otherwise you're going to get infected."

He opened his eyes slowly, and saw a white face up to his as it licked. Blue eyes flickered to his but looked away quickly.

"Icepaw?" He whispered. She just grunted.

"Icepaw? What happened to the intruders we were chasing?" he asked.

"I managed to kill mine but the one you were chasing, Harefur, got to the camp," Icepaw said matter-of-factly, "His body was just flung out into the forest twenty minutes ago, and Featherpaw came to tell me Bramblestar had slaughtered him."

"Oh wow…" Threepaw breathed and relaxed against the ground. "Is it still our shift?"

She nodded, messing up the steady rhythm of her lapping. "We have about half an hour left. Mousefoot and Ashfur are still fighting. I stopped to see what had happened to you. You broke half your face."

"Half my face?" He cried, sitting up quickly. Icepaw backed away quickly, and followed him as he found some water.

Threepaw peered at his face. The skin on the left side of it was gone, with some flesh too. He could see a little bit of raw bone.

"No…" He rasped, and realized one of his eyes been slashed too, and he couldn't see from it.

"We have to go fight," Icepaw told him, "Come on." She padded briskly back up the stream.

Mousefoot and Ashfur were battered bags of bones. They could barely keep their balance against four WindClan cats.

Icepaw raced foreword, and Threepaw picked up pace behind her. They attack the other warriors harshly.

Threepaw raked his claws, hard, through one tom's flank until he bellowed. The tom whirled around, and Threepaw dodged the blow the tom had aimed at his face.

Threepaw tried to sink his fangs into the toms shoulder, but got his chest instead. To his shock and horror, he felt his jaws snap the rib bones as they sunk into the tom's chest. Aghast, he pulled away as the tom crumbled beneath him.

"What--," he gasped out, staring at the gaping, red hole in the tom's ribcage.

Threepaw whirled around as claws connected in his back, and a white she-cat raced over to the tom he had killed.

"OWLWHISKER!" She screamed, falling beside the cat that was obviously her mate, "WHY?"

"Whitetail?" A cat broke away from Mousefoot and bounded toward her. Taking in what happened, he whirled to face the ThunderClanners.

"You have become cruel. WindClan will no longer honor your fairness." The tom hissed. Looking at Threepaw, he hissed, "We will be back." He picked up the dead cat's body and padded up the plain.

Threepaw watched them go, as they stumbled over the cats body, and then fell, grieving, beside him.

Threepaw's blood pounded in his ears. What have I done? He thought, aghast.

"Our shift is over." Icepaw's soft voice ruffled his ear fur.

He whirled to face her as she turned her head to the ground.

Threepaw padded foreword, up to Mousefoot. "We won, then right?"

Mousefoot's shoulders slumped, and his head and tail were low. "Of course not," he barked at his son.

Threepaw pulled back, "They left." He said shortly.

"And said, 'We'll be back.'" Mousefoot snarled. He padded on slowly.

Threepaw slowly moved away from him. Was it more then his injuries that made the tabby and white tom seem to upset?

They slipped through the tunnel into camp. Ashfur reported quietly to Bramblestar, and the next shift silently left camp.

"Threepaw?" It was Brookpaw, looking up at him as he staggered into camp. She sprang up and approached him. "Your face! Are you ok?" He felt her pelt brush his as she led him to the medicine den.

He collapsed into moss and laid his head against the ground. Silently, Cinderpelt started putting fresh marigold leaves on his face. Jayleaf looked up as she started making his cobweb covering.

"Put some honey on that," Jayleaf commanded his apprentice, "It'll help sooth his face. The cheek is a really painful place."

Threepaw winced as the cobweb and honey rap went onto his cheek. Cinderpelt pressed her face to his and held it there, whispering, "Be ok, Threepaw." He watched her as she stood up and padded off.