"Come on!" Hawkclaw yowls at Shadowblaze who is standing at the edge of the thunderpath yet to move. She turns her head towards Hawkclaw and her eyes widen with horror, her mouth opens and Hawkclaw turns to see what she is staring at. It's a monster. It bares down on Hawkclaw who freezes in terror, all he can think as the distance between him and his death rapidly shrinks is,
"Why am I not moving?" Hawkclaw just stands in the middle of the thunderpath and closes his eyes waiting for the sting of the monster hitting him, a force slams into him and he can hear the sickening crunch that was the sound of his body hitting the monster and, wait, what? Hawkclaw cautiously opens his eyes and realizes that he is not in Starclan, he is laying on the grass on the other side of the thunderpath, he is safe.
A cry of relief surges through Hawkclaw as he sits there stunned, he, Hawkclaw, managed to escape death. A thought suddenly occurs to him, 'If the monster didn't hit me, then what did?' He turned his head over to the thunderpath and he let out a yowl of shock, Shadowblaze is laying in the middle of the thunderpath.
Hawkclaw rushes onto the thunderpath and hauls her off of the hard surface and over to the patch of grass on the side of the thunderpath. Hawkclaw nudges Shadowblaze and tries to figure out her injuries, die to his not ever being a medicine cat Hawkclaw could only come up with a diagnostic of, 'she was bitten by a fox and then hit by a monster' Hawkclaw snorts and thinks,'Great diagnostic "Dr" Hawkclaw!" Hawkclaw paused, took a breath, calmed down and started figuring out his priorities.
1. Search for threats. Hawkclaw glanced around but he didn't see any predators, unless, of course, the fox came back to life and attacked. He glanced at the fox, observing it to make sure that it's flank wasn't moving. Once he was satisfied that the fox was indeed dead Hawkclaw decided that he should move himself and Shadowblaze away from the thunderpath before another monster came and decided to kill both of them. Hawkclaw fastened his teeth to Shadowblaze's scruff and dragged her further from the thunderpath.
2. Get items for survival. After Hawkclaw dragged Shadowblaze under a bush for shelter, he went off to see if he could find any water. Water was now a priority because there was a lot of prey rustling around in the undergrowth. Hawkclaw decided to keep looking for water even though it was getting dark and he could barely see his paws in front of him. After a while of expertly searching ,coughblindlyrunningintothingscough, Hawkclaw was rewarded with a large pool of water in a small clearing surrounded by bushes.
Hawkclaw though it was perfect so he went back to Shadowblaze and dragged her to the clearing. After he formed a nest in the heart of one of the bushes and placed Shadowblaze in it, Hawkclaw went to further explore the clearing. He discovered that there was a few gaps in the bushes and one of the gaps smelled like a large group of cats had repeatedly accessed the water her from that gap.
This worried Hawkclaw but he decided to follow the scent trail tomorrow, maybe the cats would be like a clan and help heal Shadowblaze. Hawkclaw then returned to the bush and settled down, curling around Shadowblaze and trying not to think about what she would do to him if he tried to do this while she was conscious. He tossed and turned for a while before finally falling asleep.
That night Hawkclaw had an extremely scaring dream. He dreamed that Shadowblaze woke up and began yowling at Hawkclaw for being curled around her. Then she ran straight at Hawkclaw and began to severely claw Hawkclaw, but the twisted part of this is that although the claw marks were deep, they wouldn't kill Hawkclaw. So Shadowblaze kept inflicting these kinds of wounds on Hawkclaw until she seemed to get bored of her twisted game. She sighed and meowed, "Well Hawkclaw, I have some bad news. I'm bored now so that means,"
she paused and looked at dream Hawkclaw as if he should know the answer. When he didn't answer dream Shadowblaze groaned and hissed, "It means that you die!" Then she lunged, her claws tearing through his throat. As he was dying Hawkclaw could swear that he could hear voices muttering in the distance.
Hawkclaw woke with a start, his heart in his throat. He looked around, calming down when he realized that, A. He was alive and B. Shadowblaze was still unconscious. He sighed in relief and a voice asked, "Hey, are you guys awake?"
Hawkclaw jumped, successfully hitting his head on the bush. The voice laughed and said, "Oops! Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you!" Another voice called, "Sia! Don't get too close to stranges! They might attack you!" The first voice, obviously a she-cat, groaned, "I'm fine, Argo! You don't need to treat me like a baby!" "Well you are my baby sister." "Argo!" There are then sounds of a scuffle out in the clearing.
Taking advantage of the strange cats scuffles Hawkclaw crept out from under the bush and got a good look at the two cats, the she-cat, Sia, was a light reddish-brown tabby with dark blue eyes, she had a thin wiry frame with few muscles. Argo, the tom, was a dark gray tabby with reddish-brown specks on his legs and muzzle, he had a lot of muscles and plenty of scars. His eyes were a strange greenish-yellow color. Just then another tom walked into the clearing. This new cat had a dark gray pelt with lighter gray stripes. His eyes were blue-green and he had a scar running from his muzzle to his chest.
The new tom stepped into the clearing and yowled, "Argo! Sia! You're supposed to be dealing with the stranges! Not play-fighting like kits!" Sia and Argo immediately sat up and dipped their heads respectfully. Then the cat walked over to Hawkclaw and asked, "Who are you and why are you here?"
Hawkclaw took a breath and said, "I'm here because my companion and I were on a quest, we stopped in a clearing to eat and rest and we ended up being attacked by a fox," at this Sia gasped, "We stopped at the thunder path where the fox died from getting hit by a monster. We were crossing the thunderpath when Shad- my companion stopped because of the wounds the fox gave her and I called to her from the thunderpath and a monster came and almost killed me." "How did you survive?" The tom asked, "Sh-my companion pushed me out of the way and the monster hit her instead." Hawkclaw turned his head away and blinked away the tears, he didn't want these cats to see.
The tom seemed to consider Hawkclaw's story for a moment and then said, "My name is Storm, the two mousebrains behind me are S-" "I know their names, Storm, the she-cat is Sia and the tom is Argo." Storm blinked, surprised and then he began to laugh, "Those mousebrains! No wonder they're still in training! They gave away their names!"
Argo frowned but Sia gently cut in, "Fa- I mean Storm, didn't umm I do believe you forgot to tell us your name," "It's Hawkclaw and my companion is Shadowblaze." "Thanks, didn't you tell us that your friend was hit by a monster?" "Yes! Can you guys help her?" Hawkclaw pleaded, "Of course we will! We're not heartless!" Storm meowed, surprised, "Argo, go help Hawkclaw get Shadowblaze out from that bush, we have to take her to the medics." Argo nodded and began to help me pull Shadowblaze from the bush.
~Page break~
Hawkclaw followed Storm, Sia and Argo as they headed to their home. His paws were tired but he refused to let anyone else carry Shadowblaze. Just as Hawkclaw was about to give up hope that they would ever reach the camp, Hawkclaw saw a long line of brambles, thorns and moss in the distance. After a few more moments of trudging along painfully, they reached the entrance.
Inside the barrier there was a huge clearing, Hawkclaw gaped as he looked around. The clearing was big yet it still felt small enough to be comfortable. Then he noticed that the whole clearing was too perfect to have been made looked at Storm and asked, "Did you guys make this whole clearing on your own?!" Storm looked over at Hawkclaw amusedly and replied, "Of course not, one of our peacemakers convinced a special twoleg to make this place for us." "How'd they do it?" "Well, let's just say that peacemakers are extremely good at what they do."
Just then Hawkclaw remembered that he had to get Shadowblaze to the medic or whatever it was so he asked Storm another question, "Uh, hey, Storm, where's the medicine, I mean medic's den?" Storm blinked and pointed towards a medium sized den at the edge of the clearing. As Hawkclaw was rushing off to the medics' den Storm yelled, "Hawkclaw! When you've settled her in the medic's den, come see me! I have a few questions for you!" "Ok!" Hawkclaw yelled back.
When Hawkclaw burst into the medic's den a pure black she-cat with a lot of scars turned around and hissed in surprise when she saw Shadowblaze, probably because of the condition she was in. The she-cat hurried over and instructed Hawkclaw to set Shadowblaze down on one of the empty nests, he did as she asked and set Shadowblaze down on the nest.
The she-cat roughly shoved him aside and told him, "Go get Storm and tell him to get the other leaders and the truth-seeker and come here, we need to know everything about you to be able to trust you." Hawkclaw nodded and slipped out of the den and found Storm, he repeated the instructions and Storm nodded and ran off to get the others while yelling at Hawkclaw to go back to the medic's den.
Hawkclaw did as he was told and went back to where Shadowblaze was, the black she-cat was still working on Shadowblaze. I went in and sat down in a corner because I got the feeling that if I decided to bother her while she was with a patient, I would end up with a few injuries. So I just sit and wait.
It feels like forever but, eventually Storm shows up with two she-cats and a tom. He sits next to me and the others follow his lead and sit next to him. "This is Pebble," Storm says, gesturing towards a speckled gray and brown tom, "Lis, and Glass." He waved his tail at the tortoiseshell with gray eyes and the strange colorless she-cat.
"Tell us everything about you and anything that you know about Shadowblaze, and don't try to lie. Glass will alert us if you lie." Hawkclaw nods and begins.
He told that that his name was Hawkclaw and his mother's name Viperfang, she died of greencough. His father was Branchfur and he was an elder now. And he told them that he had two littermates, a tom called Mulchtail and a she-cat called Finchpaw who had died a day after becoming an apprentice.
Then he told them about Shadowblaze. He told them that she had been a rogue and that she had joined the clan after her mother and sister were killed by a fox. Hawkclaw said that when she joined the clan she had already finished her training so she only had to train for two moons before officially becoming a told them everything about Shadowblaze even that he had a crush on her. When he finished he paused, breathless from talking so much.
He thought that they had more than enough information now but the truth-seeker insisted that he told them about his and Shadowblaze's quest. So he did, he told them everything after being assured that anything said inside this den would stay inside this den. When he finished he looked at Glass and asked, "Am I done explaining now?" "No," Glass said, "There's something you didn't tell us. Let me think." She paused for a moment and shut her eyes, thinking, then her eyes shot open and she grinned,
"I got it! You didn't tell us about Shadowblaze's family! Tell us about her family." "Umm ok," Hawkclaw said, "Well, her father is the leader of our clan, his name is Skystar. She has a brother, his name is Birchpaw, he's a medicine cat's apprentice, a medicine cat is kind of like a medic. Her sister was named Storm, she died from that fox, and her mother's name was Rain."
A shocked gasp left both Storm and the medic's throats, "What?" Hawkclaw asked, "Rain was the name of my sister who ran away after Shadow almost died." Storm said looking at the black she-cat who must be Shadow. "So that means..." Storm's voice trailed off as he looked at Shadowblaze. Shadow fills in,"Shadowblaze is our niece.
A/N Ok I know that this is Shadows and it's about Shadowblaze, but I wanted to write so much more before switching back to Shadowblaze's Pov so... You guys will have to deal with one more Hawkclaw Pov chapter. Then it'll go back to Shadowblaze, I promise.Also this is my first chapter past 2000 words! *grins, pats self on back*