And that's when the two apprentices heard it. Something large was crashing though the forest, much bigger than a cat. Swiftpaw's ears flattened to her head. "We need to climb a tree!" She hissed. "Now!"
Emberpaw thought this was probably not the best time to bring up the fact that he's never climbed a tree before. His heart thudding in his chest, he quickly followed Swiftpaw as she ran to a suitable looking tree. She quickly scrambled up and looked down. "Quickly, climb up!"
Emberpaw didn't waste time nodding. He heard the thing crashing closer; and whatever it was, it sounded terrifying. He unshealthed his claws and tried his best to stick to the tree, but his hind paws couldn't seem to grab on properly, and he just ended up kicking scraps of bark of the trunk. "Emberpaw, you need to grip! Stick your claws into the bark!"
The thing was getting super close, and its growls sounded deep and menacing and he felt it to his bones. Emberpaw stretched out his claws as far as they would go. It gave him more grip, and he was able to go up a fox-length up the tree. But Swiftpaw was still at least three fox-lengths up, and in a branch where safety was. "Emberpaw, you can do it! Just climb!"
His heart beating frantically, he scooted up the tree. But it was too late. Swiftpaw's screech told him that a split second before he felt teeth close around the end of his tail. Before he could even react, he was yanked off by a thing much stronger than him, tearing out a few of his claws in the process. The next thing Emberpaw knew, he was flying through the air, and thudded on the ground a handful of tail-lengths away from the tree. His vision fuzzy, he saw a giant thing with fangs stalking closer. "Get up Emberpaw!" He heard Swiftpaw screech. Emberpaw shakily got his paws as Swiftpaw did something completely stupid: she abandoned all sense and leaped from her branch, landing on the creature. She yowled, swiping at its eyes with her paws. The thing barked, which sent a shudder through Emberpaw and finally knocked him back to his senses.
"Get ready to run!" Swiftpaw made one last swipe and jumped off, landing next to Emberpaw. Both of them immediately took off running, faster than they had ever gone before. They could hear it start to chase after them with excited sounding barks. It was much bigger than the largest warrior.
Unable to escape, the only option they were given was to run. If it wasn't for how the dog tripped on everything in its path, they would have been killed already. As it was, they could feel its nasty hot breath on their heels, just a hair away. The two apprentices didn't waste breath on trying to communicate. It would have cost them precious focus and air. They could only hope for a miracle.
Emberpaw's heart felt like it was going to burst, and his lungs screamed for him to stop. His legs were tiring, and his mind wheeled with terror. He hardly noticed how they lept over ShadowClan's scent line. The creature seemed to have boundless energy, and was obviously enjoying the chase, not showing any sign of stopping soon.
Swiftpaw and him wove in between the trees, always staying next to each other. It was an unspoken agreement that they would not split up. Even though the dog could only chase one of them if that happened, neither of them were leaving the other to get ripped apart. Once they couldn't go on any longer, they would turn around and make one last stand.
We've finally gotten to where the plot really gets started! I know this has gotten off to a slow start, but I really thought it was necessary for the book to start off this way, to illustrate character development later in the book. I hope you all are enjoying it so far, if you've stuck around this long. I really like feedback! *hint hint nudge nudge* Comments are what every writer hopes for. Do you think the two apprentices are gonna die? Leave your predictions! :) (btw the smiley faces on here are super creepy, just saying. So I will try to refrain from using them)