Hollowed Shadows- Rise of the flame book two

chapter 3

Hollypaw woke to the sun rising and Cloverpaw stepping on her tail. The sun shone on her closed eyes and stirred her awake. She felt peace and quiet, feeling calm and ready to begin her day on the right paw. That feeling lasted about five seconds until Cloverpaw's large, bony paw crunched down on her tail and she heard a pop, either dislocating the lower half of her tail or cracking a kink in the bone. Based on the great amount of pain, Hollypaw seriously doubted the latter. 

"CLO-VER-PAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"  her yowl echoed around the hollow and acted in the same way some cat stepping on every cat's tail. Cats jumped out of their dens and rubbed their ears. Cloverpaw himself had his ears covered and was hissing in the pain it caused to his ears.  Hollypaw's fur was sticking up like needles and she was nursing her tail while either whimpering and hissing in pain. She muttered an inaudible curse that could have been, "Great StarClan,""Fox-dung," or "I swear by StarClan that cat will catch greencough one day." Hollypaw was lashing her tail in pain. "Why thank you for waking me up so rudely." she sarcastically hissed. She scoffed. "I'm going to Emberspot. You probably broke my tail or something. " She trudged out of the apprentice den and watched as some of the warriors crawled out of their den and began eating. Tigerkit was munching on a vole and hissing at anyone who offered to help eat it. She headed into the medicine den and saw Larkstalker, Patchscar, and Ambershadow both somehow still asleep. Emberspot was applying poultices to the three cat's wounds. 

"What is it now?" Emberspot asked without looking up. Emberspot never ceased to amaze her. Spottedpaw was back in another section of the cave, the rustle of dry leaves and herbs hinting to the fact she was in the herb store. 

"Cloverpaw stepped on my tail." she explained. Spottedpaw ducked out of the store and dropped a pile of sweet-smelling herbs at Emberspot's paws. 

"Did you come here to be healed or come here to tattle?" he smoothly teased. 

"My tail really hurts." she grumbled.

"Of course it does. Tails are sensitive." He rolled his eyes. "Come here, let me have a look at it. "  Hollypaw crawled over and moved her tail over to Emberspot. "You've dislocated it." He placed his paws in two different places on her tail, and with a pop she felt the bone slide back into place. She wove her tail to make sure it still worked.  Whisperkit, Rabbitkit, Cherrykit, and Greykit were playing outside. Whisperkit, with his ginger pelt and black stripes was swatting a mossball back and forth. This looked like a battle to the death for the mossball, minus the blood, scratching and gore. The kits were pouncing and wrestling, and the center of camp was now a writhing ball of kits. Duskkit and Pinekit joined in. Duskkit and Pinekit were six moons, and that put them close to being apprentices. Rabbitkit, with his sandy coat was teetering on top of the squirming pile. She trotted outside. 

Noticing a large, partially squished mossball, she scooted the lump of foliage to the kits. "Looking for this?" she purred. Duskkit and Pinekit pried themselves from the pile. She jumped. She had last looked either of them in the eyes about a moon ago. Since then,  their eyes had changed from blue to a bright, staring yellow. Hollypaw stepped back a moment instinctively, startled and taken aback by their piercing yellow stare. The pair picked up the mossball and the kit-brawl rebegan. She sighed, and walked over to Novastar. "Novastar, Duskkit and Pinekit need to be apprentices.   They are old enough. In fact, in a quarter moon they will be seven moons." This was a lie, of course. They would be seven moons in a moon, but they were old enough already. 

"Duskkit and Pinekit?" he asked. "Oh yes! Thank you for reminding me, Hollypaw. I was going to apprentice them today. " Hollypaw was surprised.

 "I suggest that Cinderfall should have another apprentice. She is very wise and-"