When she woke, the sun was high over her head. So was Beechstar.
"I need to talk to you. In my den." He hissed, twitching his tail.
Graypaw followed Beechstar, her paws treading lightly, trying not to attract attention. All the cats in the clearing still stared.
Beechstar turned into his den, settling down on his bed of moss while Graypaw stood, awaiting her punishment. Then, with a sudden rush of confidence, she had the courage to say something.
"You know Stonepaw and his gang started it! I was just walking to the apprentice den and they started fighting me. It was self-defense!"
Beechstar snorted in annoyance. "They said you started it. They were just walking along and you started clawing them like no cat's business! They were taken by surprise and had to defend themselves against your wrath. I believe them over you, obviously. Stonepaw is a little StarClan angel."
Graypaw huffed, knowing Stonepaw's true personality. Beechstar looked thoughtful, his brain working for a punishment. "I know!You will be the only cat to clean the elder's den this moon! That should teach you not to bully!"
Graypaw sighed. You're punishing the wrong cat! She thought. Beechstar dismissed her with a flick of his tail. "Start right now!" He called after her.
The she-cat huffed, steering to the elder's den. She reached the den and stated simply, "I'm cleaning this den." The elders creaked and groaned, shuffling out of the den.
"About time." Blubberfur muttered. Graypaw almost smacked him.
Graypaw began clawing dirty moss toward herself, thinking about the fight last night. She thought about why, and answered herself.
Because you were born. She remembered the taunting and the jeering, she remembered the catfish, she remembered the attack from Beechstar, but most of all, she remembered all the times her mother slashed her flanks open when she was a kit.
Graypaw snapped to attention when she realized that she had been clawing at dirt until there was a hole in the elder's den. Theere was a pile of bedding beside her. She filled in the hole with her back paws, trying to ignore the thoughts racing through her mind. She quickly separated the bedding into smaller piles and rolled each pile into a ball of stinky moss.
Graypaw picked up a moss-ball in her mouth, regretting it after she tasted how foul it was. She quickly tucked a moss-ball under her chin and began rolling the other balls out of the den with her paws.
The black and gray apprentice made it out of the den and out of camp with the moss-balls. She made her way slowly to a tree. Graypaw dug a shallow hole and dumped the moss into the hole. She then covered the disgusting moss in dirt and raced away.
She found a nice big oak tree with moss crawling around the bottom of it after following the river to a cove of trees. She began clawing squares of the soft, green moss off the tree and rolling them into fresh-smelling balls. Graypaw found a bush with huge leaves and plucked the largest leaf off. She took a long blade of grass and wrapped it around the leaf, turning it into a sort of container.
Graypaw picked up her balls of moss and tucked them into the leaf-container. She then picked up the container in her mouth and padded to camp, looking without a care in the world but really just hiding the thoughts bouncing off the walls of her mind.
She reached the elder's den and took out some moss-balls. The apprentice began spreading the moss out over the hard floor. She had two moss-balls left over, so she went to the nursery. She gave the balls to some kits who began playing with them instead of their mothers' tails. Their mothers looked at Graypaw in a silent, Thank StarClan we don't have to deal with them for a little while.
