Breathe (Warriors & Wings)

Paws (Chapter 1):

Moonpaw had been battletraining since dawn and her paws were aching. "Flamefang, when canwe be done?"

"We can go once Firfur-I mean, once Fir, Sunpaw, Mossheart and Dustpaw are ready," heanswered.

"But my paws hurt."

"Your enemy won't giveup just because your paws hurt!" Flamefang snapped, his tailflicking in frustration.

"O-okay..." Moonpaw mewed, backing down and going back to the Badger Attack move.

"Flamefang, Sunpaw'sdefinitely ready to go now!" Firfur called.

"Okay, Fir!" Firfur was one of the few cats who got to have their name shorted, becausehis name was so confusing. I wonder why Nimblestar was so mean that he gave Firfur such a ridiculous name... He must really hate him! She thought. One of the others was Flameblaze, as his both his suffix and his prefix meant basically the same thing.

"Flamefang, Dustpaw'sready to go!" Mossheart called one heartbeat later, and Moonpawimmediately dropped to her paws, letting out a long, slow sigh.

"Let's go home, then!" Flamefang called. "Come on, Moonpaw. Life isn't all about battletraining." Says the one who forces me towork till my paws are about to fall off! She thought resentfully, but had enough sense not to speak it outloud. If I said that, I'd be on Tick Duty and Dirtplace for moons! So she followed slowly behind, her tail dragging.

Sunpaw and Dustpaw exchanged a look. "What happened in your trainingsession, Moonpaw?"

"My paws are about to fall off and my tongue thinks it's been ripped out and thrown onto a desert!" She exclaimed. "I asked if we could leave, and then not long later he says "'Come on, Moonpaw. Life isn't all about fighting, you know.'" She meowed in a mocking accent.

"Oh wow. You really got the worst mentor, didn't you?" Dustpaw said. "That's just sad!"

"Yeah, but I have an idea." Sunpaw told them. "How about whenever we need something, we'll scatter some leaves loudly, and then the rest of us will know somethings off, or they need to be done, orsomething. And then we can all say we're done so that we can leave!"

"Hmm...But what if we don't hear it?" Dustpelt asked.

"Simple! We'll just tell our mentor really loudly, and then we'll all have to hear it!"

"Butwhat if the mentor forces them to stay?" Moonpaw tilted her headquestioningly.

"Thenwe'll run home and tell Nimblestar or Hawkheart that they're makingus train for too long, of course. And if it doesn't work, then itwon't work. But then when we get home that day, we can tellNimblestar or Hawkheart that they wouldn't let us leave and our pawsare about to fall apart!"

 "I'dfeel kind of bad getting Flamefang in trouble, though..." Shemurmured, only to break off as she saw the entrance to the camp. "We're finally here!" Moonpaw announced, running inside and thenlying down in the shade. "Ahhh, finally..."