Ravenpaw stirred. She carefully stood up and shuddered. Her eyes stung and she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Letting her eyes focus, she looked at her shoulder and was surprised to see a long gash across it. She limped out of the den and looked around. Her mind was groggy and it took several heartbeats before she noticed it. But when she did, it was as if her whole world imploded.
Everywhere around her was the burned remains of trees and bushes. The camp- no, the whole forest! - was burned down to the ground.
How could this happen?! How come I didn't wake? She tries to think back to the previous day. She remembered her complaining to Falconpaw about the dawn patrol and her training with her mentor Rippledstream around sun-high. After that though, nothing. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't remember what had happened.
In shock she sat down and looked around.
Falconpaw.... FALCONPAW!
Where was her brother? She stood up and ran around the clearing, desperately searching for her Clanmates and family. But there was no one there. Still, she kept looking until the sun was high in the sky and her paws ached from the singed grass beneath.
Falconpaw, Mistyflight, Brackenclaw... Even Dreamstar and the rest of the Clan! she thought hopelessly. They are all gone. How could they leave me?
Ravenpaw walked to where she thought the entrance to camp had been and carefully walked up the slope. Everything had been so perfect. She had been a good apprentice with an excellent mentor. She quickly excelled in both hunting and fighting, training happily alongside her brother. Her parents were also excellent warriors, even her uncle was well-known! And Hawkpaw... Everybody had talked about Hawkpaw and how we was so brave to go with Falconblaze, and she had been so proud of her other brother! Now, everything was in ashes. Literally.
On top of the slope she turned and looked down, searching with her eyes for any movement. When she saw nothing she was about to turn again when she felt something drip onto her paw. Lifting it up for inspection she saw it was a drop of blood, and traced it back to her shoulder.
It must have started bleeding again after moving around so much. I should see if any herbs are left in the medicine cat's den. Ravenpaw decided. She stumbled back down into camp and walked into the cool den.
"Hello?" she called, out of habit. And even though she expected no one to answer, she still felt disappointed at hearing only her own voice. Luckily, the stone walls had protected most of the frgile herbs and she managed to pick out some cobwebs and horsetail to put on her wound. She chewed up the horsetail and out in on her shoulder, then covered it with cobwebs to make it stick. She winced as the plant juice sing, but didn't try to take it off. when she was sure the cobwebs held everything in place she walked out again.
The sky was clear, with no hint of rain coming. The sunlight illuminated all the damages though, and Ravenpaw itched to get away from there. Carefully picking her way back out of camp again she walked into the forest without looking back. She didn't need to. Because ahead of her everything was pretty much the same; fallen trees, singed bushes, and complete silence. The silence was what bothered Ravenpaw the most. The silence was what made her black fur bristle all the way down to her one golden paw. It made her amber eyes widen and flick from side to side in search of enemies.
Before, there would always be the gentle wind in the trees, singing birds, and the scurry of prey in the undergrowth. Now there were no leaves to rustle, no birds to sing, no prey to run around and hide from her. It was so silent she could hear her heart pound.
Ravenpaw walked on through the ashen leaves scattered on the forest floor and different feelings threatened to overwhelm her. Sadness that everything she knew was gone, confusion because she didn't know what had happened, anger that everybody had left her, and regret that she hadn't understood nothing was perfect before now.
