Fallen Leaves

Chapter 4

        "Hollyleaf, no!"

        The ghostly tom heard the tunnel roof start to cave in, and watched in horror as rocks came pouring down. He ran to the site and to his dismay rocks were scattered all across the floor. Boulders, pebbles, you name it.

        Fallen Leaves was about to turn back and walk away, seeing that the rocks had nothing to do with him, but noticed a black paw between two large rocks.

        He quickly rushed over, nudging the paw to see if it would twitch. He then peered in the rocks and saw a slender black cat trapped between rocks. He grabbed the forearm of the cat, and pulled. After attempts to get the cat out, he finally managed. What he saw pained his heart. A she-cat all battered up, cuts and scrapes all over. He quickly licked furiously at her fur, trying to stop the bleeding.

        "Wh-who are you?" The black she-cat croaked.

        "I'm Fallen Leaves. What's your name?"

        "Hollyleaf."

        He was sure he's heard a name like that somewhere, but he quickly dismissed the thought.

        "I'll be right back, I'm going to find some cobwebs, don't move."

        The black she-cat opened her eyes, and shocked Fallen Leaves with her brilliantly stunning green eyes.

        "Hurry...please," she managed to get out, but in a hoarse voice.

        He ran towards a tunnel which he knew had a bunch of cobwebs laying around.

        Once he got there he stuck his forearm out and put a paw into many cobwebs, twirling his arm around so it would stay secure on him.

        He raced back, afraid that if he wasn't fast enough, she would die without his help.

        He ran toward her side and started patching the cobwebs in her cuts and gashes, hopeful to stop the bleeding.

        She started to close her dulling eyes, but he encouraged her to keep them open.

        "You can't go to sleep now! Keep fighting for your life! You're not gonna die down here!"

        She decided that she didn't  in fact want to die down here, and that she wanted to survive and keep living. She wanted to see her brothers again.

        He ran over toward the river and swatted a fish up and out of the water, sinking his teeth into its head until it finally stopped its squirming.

        He picked it up and went back to the she-cat, placing the fish in front of her face.

        She scrunched her nose up, and for a second in her battered and beaten form, he thought she looked cute.

        "I don't like fish."

        "Well, it's all we have down here, so you better start liking it now," he joked.