"Spottedleaf!" Bluestar shouted. I watched as a pretty tortoishell rushed over, grabbed the little black and white tom by his scruff and carried him away to the back of the camp.
"Bluestar?" I asked nervously, looking around the camp.
"Fox-dung...Redtail...NO!" a small gray tom wailed.
Dammit! What's going on?!
Bluestar turned to me, a clouded look in her eyes.
"Redtail...was ThunderClan's deputy. If anything were to happen to me...he would have taken over."
I nodded and swallowed hard, my tail tip twitching in irritation. Greiving cats gathered in the center of the camp, and I just managed to see the limp body of a large fluffy tortoiseshell tom being dragged into the middle of the gathered cats. Firepaw whispered something to Graypaw, and Graypaw shook his head. They both padded away to a corner somewhere, leaving me standing alone at the edge of the clearing. Remembering the frail tom from earlier, I tasted the air and tracked him and the tortoishell to a flower-scented den farther in the camp. I poked my head in, instantly spotting the tom asleep in a moss nest. The tortoishell, who had been sorting plants, looked up.
"Oh! Metalpaw. Is something wrong?" she asked in alarm.
"No," I said quickly.
"I just came to check on..." I paused, realizing I didn't know the tom's name.
"him." I meowed.
Thw pretty she-cat nodded.
"Ravenpaw," she called softly.
"You have a visitor."
The tom, Ravenpaw, looked up, a dull, hopeless look in his eyes. He brightened slightly, then frowned again.
"Wh-who are you...and..." his eyes fell on my paws.
"What happened to yo-urg..." he ended in a moan, lifting a paw to his forehead.
I padded over and gently placed my tail tip over his mouth.
"My name is Metalpaw." I murmered.
"I...this is the way my paws are. It's...there was an accident when I was a kit." I lied. Well, it was sort of true...
The pretty she-cat padded over.
"Metalpaw, you should let Ravenpaw rest." she said, a nervous edge to her mew.
I narrowed my eyes, then nodded.
"I'm Spottedleaf, by the way." she told me.
"Whatever," I growled, suspision growing in the back of my mind.
"It's Metalpaw. Don't wear it out."
Me and Ravenpaw sat down at the back of the group, shoulders slumpped. Firepaw and Graypaw were practicing a new move we'd learned durring battle training. Our mentors, Lionheart, Whitestorm, and Tigerclaw, were sitting down watching and whispering things to eachother, occasionally gesturing towards the two. Ravenpaw stayed relitively quiet, a dull look of despair in his eyes. He seemed like a pretty timid, frail cat, but he was nice. And fun to hang out with. I'd even gotten a laugh out of him once. I guess you coud say we're friends. But his brother, Dustpaw, is always a jerk about it. Talking about how Ravenpaw is too weak and mouse-brained to become a warrior. He's got potential, I'll give you that. It's just something about his mentor, Tigerclaw, that's just not good for him. And to tell you the truth, I don't really trust that cat either.
"Let's ditch this training session." I whispered to Ravenpaw.
"But-" he started, but I cut him off.
"Whitestorm," I whispered to my mentor,
"Ravenpaw wrenched his claw on a stone. I need to bring him back to camp so Spottedleaf can take a look at it."
Whitestorm looked uncertain.
"We're not tht far from camp," he argued.
"Can't he go back himself?"
"He can't really walk on it." I lied.
"And if something attacks him, he'll need backup. He hurt it pretty badly."
Whitestorm nodded reluctantly.
"Alright. But hurry back."
I padded calmy bback to Ravenpaw, and, picking up quickly, he leaned on my shoulder an fake-limped towards camp. When we were a safe distance from the training hollow, we sat down, and Ravenpaw let out a sigh of relief.
"What is it with you?" I asked.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Ravenpaw asked nervously.
"I mean how you always act so scared around Tig-" I stopped and stared into Ravenpaw's innocent eyes and realized I didn't have the courage to ask him.
"Nevermind." I said, sneezing as the cold leaf-fall air hit my face.
"Let's get back to the hollow." Ravenpaw said.
If cats had eyebrows, I'd have raised one.
"You sure about that, Raven?" I asked him.
"Yes," he said firmly.
"Metalpaw, if you've taught me anything besides how to tell a convincing lie, it's to face your fears."
I nodded.
"'Kay. Let's go."