"Can you get Raincall?" Leafpaw asked Lavapaw.
"Sure, but I honestly think you'll have a harder time convincing Birchstar to listen to the words of three apprentices over a full warrior," Lavapaw answered her.
As Leafpaw padded off to the leader's den, Lavapaw made her way to the warrior's den. She knew Raincall could be rather intimidating, but she had to try. Lavapaw took a deep breath before entering the den.
"Um, Raincall?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
"What is it now?" Raincall asked, sounding irritated.
"C- Can you come with me?" Lavapaw stuttered.
"Why?" Raincall demanded.
"J- Just come," Lavapaw pleaded.
"Not until you tell me why," Raincall said.
"I can't tell you that," Lavapaw said.
"Then enjoy a night of cleaning up fox dung," Raincall said, "And maybe you can have a bath in mouse bile too."
"Can you just come with me?" Lavapaw sighed.
"No. I insist you tell me where we are going," Raincall said, "And for wasting my time, you can go sleep on the bramble bush by the SkyClan border. The sharp one."
"Fine, I'll tell you where we're going. Birchstar wants to see you," Lavapaw said.
"Now, was that so hard?" Raincall said.
"I guess not," Lavapaw said, "Now will you come?"
"Fine, but I'm giving you 6 moons of elder duties for waking up a warrior when they are sleeping," Raincall said, his tone sharp.
"But that's like, forever!" Lavapaw complained. Wow. I sound just like Clawpaw now. Maybe being around Raincall makes you sound like Clawpaw.
Lavapaw followed Raincall out of the den, not listening as he listed creative ways to punish apprentices. One particularly nasty one involved being forced to hang onto a high-up branch from sun-high to sun-down. If you fell, you would land belly first on a large stick. Lavapaw shuddered at the thought. What happens if you land a little off target? Wouldn't the stick- I'd rather not think about that. When they arrived at Birchstar's den, Raincall told Lavapaw that she would have to test each one of his punishments. If she missed one, she'd have to do all of them over again.
Lavapaw didn't respond, instead running inside so Raincall would have to follow her. When she pushed through the thick lichen into the den, she saw Leafpaw and Birchstar sitting. Sloefur was sitting in a corner grooming herself. Raincall pushed through the lichen after her.
Birchstar called Raincall over, "Leafpaw here tells me not only have you been unfairly punishing Clawpaw but also starving her into submission. Is this true?"
"I-I-I- No!" Raincall said, pretending to be shocked, "Of course not! Why would I do that?"
"That's what I thought," Birchstar said, "Okay, you may leave."
Birchstar's gaze shifted towards Lavapaw as she spoke calmly, "I know she was lying and I won't tolerate it. Also, I have noticed Raincall becoming more and more unstable and cruel since her kits and mate died ten moons ago. I believe this is when you were born?"
Leafpaw interjected, "We are nine moons old now."
Lavapaw playfully swatted her and said, "Don't argue with the Clan leader!"
"It's quite alright Leafpaw," Birchstar told her, "Raincall has been displaying unstable and cruel behavior for some time now. I have let it go so far, but I can no longer ignore it."
"What will you do though? What can you do? It's not like you can banish her or something. Right?" Leafpaw said, "Right?"
Birchstar ignored her, instead calling a Clan meeting, and announcing "Over the last few moons, I have witnessed Raincall's behavior become increasingly unstable and cruel. I know some of you have already seen this happening. Raincall, you have one moon to change your ways or I will have no choice but to banish you."
Raincall narrowed her eyes, "Very well. I will stay then."
"She makes it sound like we're forcing her to stay," Lavapaw whispered to Leafpaw.
After the meeting, Raincall padded over to them, his eyes filled with absolute hatred. "Come with me," she said.
She led them out of camp and Lavapaw just had a moment to think that they shouldn't be doing this when Raincall halted.
"Catch some prey," Raincall instructed, "Catch a fresh kill pile's worth of prey."
Lavapaw stared at Raincall, "Hurry now," he told them, "You have until sunhigh."
"How long until sunhigh?" She hissed to Leafpaw.
"Half an hour?" Leafpaw hissed back.
"We can't do that!" Lavapaw hissed.
"Well, we can try." Leafpaw hissed.
"I'll leave you to it then." Raincall jumped onto a rock and settled into a comfortable position.
"How are we going to do this?" Lavapaw hissed.
"Let's stay together. Try to catch some fish." Leafpaw hissed back.
"Ok," Clawpaw said.
They bounded toward the river. They stopped at the riverbank. As they fished, Raincall padded over and ate a bunch of their fish. Then she pushed the rest of the pile back into the river. "Whoops. I guess you have to start over now," Raincall said.
"Let's stay away from Raincall," Clawpaw hissed, jumping into the river to retrieve the fish.
"Yeah, we can bury the prey and cover the scent with marigold," Leafpaw added.
"I have an idea," Lavapaw said, "What if we put something in the river?"
"Good idea!" Clawpaw replied, "Then all the fish would come to us."
After they set up the fish catcher, fish started jumping out of the river right into them. In just five minutes, they had caught a whole fresh-kill pile of fish.
After that, Raincall made them climb a tree and jump into a small hole surrounded by brambles. The only way out was to have someone let them out from the outside. For the rest of the day, Raincall dumped more and more disgusting things into the hole while the three of them attempted - and failed - to climb out.
When Raincall finally let them out, they were all forced to sleep on a big pile of sharp brambles by the SkyClan border. Since the bramble pile was small, Lavapaw and Leafpaw had to sleep on top of Clawpaw, crushing her into the brambles and thorns.