Warriors: A Twisted Path

Chapter 20

Brokenpaw was sharing a piece of fresh kill with Dizzypaw near the shade.
They were talking about how excited they were to be warriors, when Boulderpaw came over.
"Hey Dizzypaw!" Boulderpaw said. "By the way, what kind of name is that?"
"It's the one father chose for me." Dizzypaw replied, ducking her head down.
"Yeah, I bet he thinks you're weak, that's why!" Boulderpaw laughed.
Brokenpaw started growling.
"Aw, how sweet." Boulderpaw looked at Brokenpaw and laughed again. "What, are you guys in love or something? Wait until I tell everyone about this!"
Brokenpaw jumped to his paws, unsheathing his claws. "Shut up!"
"You have such a bad temper." Boulderpaw snorted. "How can you stand this mousebrain, Dizzypaw?"
"Brokenpaw, please stand down." Dizzypaw whispered.
"Yes! Stand down Brokenpaw!" Boulderpaw said mockingly. "Be weak just like her."
"I'll show you who's the weak one!" Brokenpaw spat, lunging at Boulderpaw. He heard Dizzypaw yell at him to stop, but he pinned Boulderpaw down anyways.
He clawed his ear, hissing. "Come on, fight back! Look who's the weak one now!"
Boulderpaw just grinned, blood dripping from his ear.
"Brokenpaw! Stop!"
Brokenpaw's eyes went wide as he looked over at his father. A bunch of his clanmates were crowded around them, their eyes round. Thistlepelt was staring at them with narrowed eyes, while Hazelfur's eyes were wide with shock.
Brokenpaw got off of Boulderpaw, and Boulderpaw slowly got to his paws.
Honeypaw raced to Boulderpaw's side. She glared at Brokenpaw. "What is wrong with you!?"
Tigerstar stepped forward. "Brokenpaw, explain now."
"Boulderpaw was mocking me and making fun of Dizzypaw!" Brokenpaw growled. "I was just teaching him a lesson!"
Tigerstar shook his head, looking disappointed. "You don't attack your own clanmate. Instead of that, you should have ignored him or gotten a warrior to help."
"Well I'm not weak! I stand up for myself, I don't need help when I can do something on my own!" Brokenpaw hissed.
"Brokenpaw, this isn't you." Tigerstar growled. "You will be punished for this. You won't be able to train for two days, and you'll have to take care of the elders in that time. You're lucky it's not anything worse."
"You're just going easy on him because he's your son!" Honeypaw snorted. "He's attacked Boulderpaw multiple times! He shouldn't be training to be a warrior at all!"
Tigerstar turned his head to the brown apprentice. "And if I remember correctly, Boulderpaw is the one who was making fun of Dizzypaw and Brokenpaw." He sighed, looking at Boulderpaw. "I've told you to quit it times and times again. The next time you do it, you will be punished like Brokenpaw is."
"I understand Tigerstar." Boulderpaw said, dipping his head.
"Brokenpaw, go to the elders den." Tigerstar turned to Boulderpaw. "And you go see Stargaze."
Brokenpaw watched as Honeypaw led Boulderpaw towards the medicine cat den, his eyes narrowed. The rest of the clan already went off to do their own things.
"I wonder what that was about." Dizzypaw said bluntly.
Brokenpaw turned to her. "What do you mean."
"Boulderpaw never does something like this without a reason." Dizzypaw said. "He must be up to something."