Heartstar's rise : Book one

Ch. 53

            "Wake up," whispered a voice. Heartpaw blinked his eyes open. His body was stiff but at least he wasn't frozen or dead. He cringed as he slowly got up. 

             "Waa?" he murmured. Lavender peered down at him. 

             "What time is it?" muttered Heartpaw, looking around. The place was quiet and a soft blanket of snow covered the ground outside. 

              "Way past noon," said Lavender. Heartpaw gaped. He jumped onto the windowsill.

              "I haven't even started hunting yet," he wailed. 

              "Then get to it," Lavender said. 

               "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" cried Heartpaw. 

              "I just got up," Lavender told him with a shrug. 

               "Why didn't the others wake me up?" Heartpaw said. 

              "What did I tell you about you owing them?" Lavender sighed. "If you slept through the day and didn't hunt for them, you'd owe them even more." 

             "Don't they want to eat?" muttered Heartpaw. 

             "They can easily hunt for themselves," Lavender explained. "And they need you for things they'd rather not do." Heartpaw frowned. Lavender was being confusing again. Couldn't she just talk normally. He snorted and leapt outside. A cold breeze blew on him. He shivered but made his way into the Carrionplace. He sniffed the air. It was still but he could still smell a lingering scent of rat. He heard the squeaking of rats and he spotted a few footsteps were the rats had run around in the snow. He hesitated, he didn't want to get bit again. 

              "Watch," came a voice. Lavender. She slipped past him and through the snow, barely making any noise. Then she peered into a small hiding place. She crept next to it and positioned herself so she could see in without the rats seeing her. "Now, you can either be like Tristan, who will go in himself and get the rats. Or sane and smart like me, I'll wait till one comes out. Won't be long." Heartpaw watched and waited. Suddenly, two dark shapes scurried out. One stopped at the entrance and sniffed around and the other scrambled in the middle of a pile of snow. It was a dark spot in white snow and easy prey to see. Lavender pounced on the one near the entrance and Heartpaw leapt for the one in the snow. He clutched it in his jaws and without any mercy or hesitation, bit down as hard as he could. He bit down harder and harder, even when he heard a bone crunch and the rat's spine snap. Lavender padded to his side, rat in her jaw. 

               "You can let go, pretty sure it's dead," she murmured though the rat. Heartpaw dropped it with a sigh of relief. Lavender put down the rat next to his and he buried it in the snow. 

               "Where are you going?" asked Heartpaw as Lavender padded away. 

               "Why?" she snorted back a laugh. "It's none of your business, get hunting." Heartpaw frowned but nodded. He watched her walk away and leap over the fence. He still had many more rats to catch. He positioned himself like Lavender near another small shelter and waited.  

               "Ah, good job," Rio smiled. Heartpaw had piled up the rats near the big room with the soft floor, or what Rio called, the bedroom. 

               "Huh," snorted Gingerfern, snatching a rat in her jaws. She brought it to her corner and ate it in big gulps. Each cat regarded Heartpaw with a glare but served themselves to one or two rats. Finally, Lavender took one of the last rats. She nodded to Heartpaw in approval. One rat was left. Heartpaw bent down to take the evil looking thing in his jaw when Cole brushed past him and snatched the mouse. Heartpaw almost growled but took a deep breath. He counted till ten. Rio, having finished his rat, padded up to Heartpaw.