Chapter 7 – Surrounded

"That's it! I'm going to look for them!" Ravenpaw tried to sound just abnormally mad, but he failed largely; his words came out as a roar.

He quickly ran out of the dense, dying tree, and charged blindly out into the forest. He was making such a racket that he was sure cats in LunarClan could hear him and Spottedwing as she called his name, telling him to stay.

"Ravenpaw stop!"

The said black cat halted suddenly in his tracks, skidding a bit, but swiftly, albeit not gracefully, gaining his balance again. Spottedwing burst from the shrubbery behind him and grabbed his tail between her teeth and started to pull back, just as Ravenpaw realized what she was doing.

"Get back!"

"No."

He ripped himself free and tore through forest without another thought. Spottedwing began to pursue him again as he rampaged. Ravenpaw knew by now that Spottedwing would only follow him if he ran; so he did. He charged through the undergrowth, undoubtedly scaring prey and trampling the objects in his path. He could tell Spottedwing was still chasing him in pursuit; she was making just as much noise as he was.

Ravenpaw was nearing the volcano as something pounced less than gracefully on him. As luck would have it, not only was he nearing the volcano, but there was also a ledge about a tail length ahead. His legs buckled right as he was about to leap down from it. Ravenpaw and whatever was on top of him went tumbling down the ledge from the tackle. Fortunately, the ledge was only a couple tail lengths itself, so the impact wasn't too bad.

He let out a caterwaul as he went down the stoop with his assailant. They both landed with a thud at the bottom, and they didn't move.

To him, it only took about a nanosecond for Ravenpaw to regain consciousness, which in reality, was true. When he did, he slowly lifted his head to look around for his mugger, which to no surprise, turned out to be Spottedwing. Ravenpaw was on her right, so she was lying on her right side, facing away from him, seemingly unconscious.

Ravenpaw struggled to get up; the rampage he had started, that had finished moments before, was just starting to take effect on him; it had been tiring; their territory was quite large, which was good, or else the other clans would have more hunting grounds. His legs buckling and the tumble down what felt like a ravine were added bonuses to his pain as well.

Ravenpaw eventually managed to get to all four of his paws, but now he had to wake up the "sleeping" cat several tail lengths away. His mind screamed for him to stop, but he kept taking small paw steps to the said unconscious cat lying in the forest debris.

When he finally got to Spottedwing, he hesitantly prodded her with his paw. His muscles were a bit looser now, so he wasn't in as much pain.

"Spottedwing, you need to wake up. We need to get to the border, to the volcano; I have a strange feeling the Swiftheart and Mudshadow are over near there."

"I know," even as she was coming to, Spottedwing still seemed to have heard the young tom next to her, "Apprentices are absolutely not allowed in the volcano unless they're either becoming a warrior, or their leader has invited them in; and you…" she trailed off, as if for dramatic effect, "are an apprentice, as you should know, and if you don't, you are quite slow."

Ravenpaw grimaced at her last few words then walked a little ways away towards the border. He turned back to see if she was managing to get up, and she was, so Ravenpaw continued on his way to the volcano.

It wasn't long before Ravenpaw picked up the scent of MoonClan cats. He knew Spottedwing couldn't detect it in the air though, as she was calmly padding forward as she had been doing seconds before. Ravenpaw didn't want to be heard, so he whispered.

"Spottedwing, I can smell MoonClan. Let's hurry up, but keep quiet."

Spottedwing nodded in response as the two cats started to trot swiftly, but quietly, across the forest floor; almost the exact opposite of what they were doing before they fell from the ledge.

Before Ravenpaw realized they were so close to the volcano, he emerged from the forest foliage out into the volcano's grassy terrain around it.

But he didn't care about that. Something that stood in the middle of the terrain horrified him.

Spottedwing emerged few moments later, and at the sight of his expression – his widened ice blue eyes, his slightly agape mouth, his ears flattened against his head – she gave him a confused expression. Though when she understood the fact that he was staring at something, she soon followed his gaze to the scene of what was horrifying him.

Mudshadow and Swiftheart were surrounded by a MoonClan patrol of five.