Thistle's Mistake

Chapter 15

"Why her? You could've killed me and no one would've cared." Thistle still had his head held down. No matter how bad he wanted to, he couldn't bring Lillypaw's body up onto the raise bank of the creek. So he snagged her on a rock so she wouldn't drift down stream.
"That's to easy, and it wouldn't have been enough to make you pay for the horror you brought me." Birch hissed at him. Rage flared though him. He quickly whipped around, heading straight for the smaller, battle scarred tan tabby she-cat. He took her by surprise and managed to get a few, well trained blows in before Curly pulled him off.
"Fight me!" Thistle snapped at the two cats.
"If we do that, the rest of 'your' clan will notice that your tore up limb from limb and expect something when the realize that the kit is missing." Birch talked as though nothing had happened.
"I don't care! Tear me up til I'm nearly dead!"
"Not today at least. Now, help me take over this bunch of cats, and no one you love will be killed. Got it?" Birch asked sinisterly.
"Never!" Thistle hissed again, he was determined not to kill snouts clan cat."
"Well then, say goodbye to that she-cat you hang out with, because she'll be next. If you haven't killed a cat within a quarter moon, say goodbye to her." Thistle was dropped onto the ground right before Birch ran off with Curly across the creek.

What if they find out? Will they kill me or just exile me? What if I can't plan a murder by a quarter moon? What if she kills Darkmoss anyway? Thistle's thoughts became fogged, unable to think straight. Thoughts filled his head left and right. None of them where good. He began pacing back and forth on the creeks edge. Darkmoss probably doesn't even care about me anyway, especially after what I said last night. Thistle reluctantly padded over to fallen tree, heavily slumping against it's rough bark til he fell to the ground. He needed to get his thoughts straight before he returned to camp.

After what seemed to be a moon of waiting, Thistle was pretty sure he could hunt now. He padded down to the creek again, forcing himself not to look down stream and lapped up a bit of water. He decided that he should hunt near camp to the ravine, where hopefully no cat would bother him. After getting closer to camp, Thistle could hear more noise from inside. It was about time for Coontail to assign patrols for now. He saw Darkmoss follow Blazefire, Brambletail, Patch, Adderclaw and another cat that Thistle put a name it. The silvery grey she-cat's name began with Willow, which was all he could remember.
Willow, Willow, Willowshine! That's her name. Thistle figured out. He was still getting used to knowing so many cat names as well as there ranks. The bad thing was that more cats would become apprentices soon, Finchwing had given birth half a moon ago, to three kits, Hollowkit, Sapkit and Whitekit. Brambletail glanced back at Thistle, hopefully not seeing him.

Thistle quickly padded off into the undergrowth. He opened his mouth, trying to find some prey. Nothing immediately touch it, but the scent of a vole carried him. He wanted to stop when he was heading back to the creek, but the clan needed to be fed. Especially after loosing an apprentice. He pushed on, trying to ignore is own thoughts. He followed the scent trail to a tree stump. He sniffed around trying to find where it entered at. Eventually he found a hole leading to the roots of the stump. Thistle gave a quick sniff to make sure that an added was hiding in the hole, which there wasn't. He laid on his side, suddenly feeling vulnerable laying down in the open. He shoved any bad thoughts aside and pushed his unsheathed claw into the hole, which was just big enough for it. He pawed around in there, trying to catch the small rodent. After a few more moments, his claws hung of to it's pelt. He quickly pulled it out and bit behind it's neck, trying not to let it squall to much. Thistle dug out the soft earth and place the vole in it, burying it til he would head to camp.

Thistle once again sniffed around, hopping that the squeal of the vole hadn't scared any prey off. Me moved away from the creek, heading to the ravine. Nothing touched his tongue til he could just about make out the scent of a squirrel a live him. Thankfully Darkmoss had began to tech Thistle how to quickly climb a tree. But it was a few days ago, when Thistle was helping Darkmoss train Lillypaw. Thistle let out a sigh then threw himself up the maple tree. He skidded down a little bit before his claws dug into the bark. He continued to climb up it til he hit the first branch. He carefully pulled himself onto the branch before leaping up to another branch. He could see the squirrel now, chewing on some sort of nut. Thistle carefully climbed up til he was on the same branch as the brown squirrel.

Within a few more steps, Thistle was in pouncing range. After a moment of hesitation, the squirrel looked back, shock spreading across it's face. Thistle quickly lunged at the squirrel. The quick lunge was a bad one, nearly sending him off the branch. The squirrel had darted out of the way, only leaving a bare branch. He quickly gripped the branch with one paw. His claws quickly gripped the bark, keeping him from plummeting down. After a quick breather, Thistle hauled himself back up. His paws a bit shaky. He lowered himself down, and went back for his vole.

Thistle walked into camp a few moments before Adderclaw's patrol. DarkMoss and Patch where arguing over something, Blazefire, Willowshine and Adderclaw looked a bit annoyed while Silverpatch and Brambletail where trying to stop the arguing cats.
"Well don't bite me and I won't argue with you." Patch tried to compromise with Darkmoss, most of the patrol had broke away at this point, on Silverpatch stayed with them.
"I wouldn't have bit you if you didn't do that!" Darkmoss shoved Patch into Silverpatch.
"Hey! I'm down here you know!" She protested. Thistle put the vole into the prey pile and picked out a thrush. He padded over between the medicine den and the nursery. He started to pluck feathers out of the thrush as Darkmoss padded over with the vole That Thistle had just caught.
"Hi Darkmoss." Thistle spat out a mouthful of feathers.
"Hello Thistle." Darkmoss sat down next to him. "Have you seen Lillypaw by any chance, I haven't seen her all day." She continued. The horrible image of Lillypaw's flailing limbs then falling into the water haunted him again. He took an in audible deep breath, trying to calm his voice.
"No I haven't." Thistle lied, a pain struck in his chest as it slipped out of his mouth. Thistle would have to get used to it though, if he wanted Darkmoss to live.