Echoes Off The Wall - Warriors.

Chapter Five

Skypaw stared down at the limp hawk in front of his paws. "What the - ?" he whispered, quite clearly confused about what had just occurred. That cat was obviously Swiftstar. Nobody else looked like him, or had that dark atmosphere that always seemed to surround the ancient leader. Skypaw grimaced and picked the hawk up in his jaws, beginning to pad towards camp.

Whenever he reached camp, he immediately headed towards the fresh-kill pile. For some reason, he didn't want anyone to see the hawk that he had killed under the watchful yet not-wise eyes of Swiftstar. Sighing, he dropped the hawk in the fresh-kill with the rest of the prey, before turning around and seeing Honeypaw watching him. The cream-ginger she-cat was one of Milkdrop's daughters, he soon realized, and they shared a close resemblance. Honeypaw, herself, however, was closer to her mother, Berrybush, then she ever would be to her father.

Skypaw could tell that Honeypaw was rather embarrassed to be caught staring at someone, nevertheless the medicine cat, of all the cats that she could've been caught looking at. Finally, Honeypaw took a deep breath and walked closer to Skypaw, as he could tell that she had been dying to do. "How did you - how did you get that hawk? And since when do hawks come here?" she asked, flicking her tail.

Skypaw's ears twitched. "I-it was almost dead, so I decided to end it's misery already." he meowed, coming up with a quick lie. It would be terrible if someone discovered his meetings with Swiftstar, and if anyone had to discover that he still planned on meeting with the dark leader, it certainly wouldn't be Honeypaw, and he'd make sure of that if it was the last thing he did.

"Oh," Honeypaw said, obviously disappointed about his answer. Skypaw could tell that Honeypaw had wanted him to have had to have done something heroic to get rid of the hawk, something brave ... it was hardly heroic, what he had truly done. He just did whatever Swiftstar had told him to do, because if he didn't, Swiftstar would've and could've probably killed him, anyhow.

Honeypaw looked at him some more, awkward. Skypaw wasn't sure about how to carry on this conversation. Really, the only cats that he's ever had a real, actual conversation with is Toadleap, Loststar, and Rockfall, and that was generally only because they forced him to talk to them. Honeypaw cleared her throat. "So ... how's that wound of yours doing?" Honeypaw eventually asked.

Skypaw blinked, turning his gaze down to that wound that was on his side. It had reopened, and was slightly dripping blood, but not enough so that he'd have to be required to go to the medicine cat's den. "It's been doing ... " he struggled for a word to grasp onto. " ... it's been doing good. Great, actually." he meowed, quickly leaning down and giving his side a few quick licks to wash away the blood.

Honeypaw looked unnerved by the situation. She was a popular apprentice, and had lots of friends, so she really wasn't sure about what to do whenever it came to an awkward situation, such as this one. Most of the time, she wouldn't have to worry about things like this. "How did you get that wound, anyway?" she asked, flexing her claws and sinking them into the earth.

"I'm really not sure," Skypaw had come up with this lie before, so it was easy to spill out. He looked at the sky. 'StarClan, help me ... ' he thought, though wasn't sure if they'd actually decide to pay attention to him or not ... afterall, he was still planning on visiting Swiftstar while he slept. And, that was quite clearly something that StarClan would never approve of. "I mean, I just sort of ... woke up with it this morning." That was only slightly a lie, considering that he did just wake up with the wound this morning, and he really hadn't expected that, either.

"Oh, okay." Honeypaw meowed. The conversation was still awkward, but not quite as unnerving as it was before. "So you have no idea at all how it happened?" Honeypaw asked, genuinely surprised, which Skypaw thought was strange.