Hollowed Shadows- Rise of the flame book two

Chapter 6

Hollypaw woke up to someone cuffing her ear sharply. She jerked awake, finding herself lying on her side with loops of thorns around her paws. She glanced over at Cloverpaw, who was similarly bound with said thorns. The loops were connected to a bush that formed the den, and the den looked suspiciously like ThunderClan.

"Good, you two are up." Grumbled a brown flecked tabby she-cat. The flecks of brown were splattered all over a snow-white pelt, looking like she had been jumping through mud. Her paws were a similar shade of brown, imitating the idea still. "Ivystar would have a fit if you hadn't gotten up. "

"Ivystar? Who's Ivystar?" Cloverpaw voiced the question in Hollypaw's head. His sandy pelt was bristling, and his green eyes were flashing. Grogginess hung in her head like a very persistent fog.

"Ivystar is the leader of HawkClan. She was deputy when Hawkstar's deputy, Petalwing became the leader. Petalwing was an okay leader, but Ivystar came in and shaped everyone up. " The she-cat explained. "I'm Glorypaw, by the way."

"Nice to meet you..." Hollypaw drawled, looking carefully at the cat. She looked a little big to be an apprentice. "Glorypaw." The name sounded very strange. "Now why are we here?"

"Ivystar'll explain that. Stormbush will come in here later and swap out your thorns so you can come out here."

"Also," Cloverpaw started. "Why are we tied to our dens?"

"We don't need such precious prisoners getting out, do we?" She smiled. Hollypaw shivered at the icy grin. A grey mottled tom strode in, his yellow eyes identical to Glorypaw's.

"Ah, Glorypaw. I see you came to meet the apprentices." He smiled. "C' mere, I'll take off your cuffs."

"Thank you, Stormbush- Er, Father." Glorypaw purred. Confusion washed through Hollypaw and Cloverpaw as Stormbush began to gently take off their ' cuffs'. Hollypaw bristled and folded her ears against her head. She recoiled from his paws and backed away quickly, her tight bonds sticking into her ankles. She hissed, crouching in an attack stance. It was unlikely she could attack at this rate, but she still readied herself. Blood began to drip from the thorns.

"Relax." Stormbush meowed soothingly. "I was taking them off." He stepped out of the den, picking up some long strips. They appeared to be made of prey pelts. He set one down and approached Hollypaw with a black one. "Glorypaw, go get Needlestep. We need to fit our guests with their collars."

" Collars?! " Cloverpaw exclaimed. He jumped to his paws. "Are we kittypets?"

" If we give you them, there will be no need for those. " He flicked his tail to the 'cuffs'. Glorypaw nodded, leaving the den. Glorypaw soon returned with a grey and white mottled she-cat holding a couple of porcupine quills and some cobwebs. In a few minutes, both apprentices had collars around their necks and another long strip hooked up to them, rooted in the center of the camp. Hollypaw's ankles were still bleeding, but she refused to let anyone plaster them with cobwebs. Stormbush shooed the apprentices out of the den. Hollypaw and Cloverpaw walked out into the camp. The leaf-fall leaves were scattered across the ThunderClan-like camp like tongues of flame, capturing the earth beneath the apprentices' paws in a false wildfire. The remaining droplets of blood coming from Hollypaw's ankles left reddish pawprints on the hardening earth. They sat down with the rest of the 'Clan', who were gathering beneath a large rock. A white cat with black spots and green eyes jumped onto the stone.

"Welcome, HawkClan. Welcome, young apprentices. I see you are safe. " She nodded to Cloverpaw and Hollypaw. Cloverpaw's green eyes flashed in fury as his grey pelt bristled. Hollypaw herself was furious and scared. She forced her own pelt to lie flat. The black-furred she-cat leaned over and muttered in her best friend's ear.

"Bide your time, Cloverpaw. We need to stay polite. "

"We've been kidnapped." He hissed in reply.

" And we'll probably be dead if we don't stay polite. " Hollypaw snarled. "Stay cool. We don't know the way back."

"Fine. But clean your paws. " Hollypaw began obediently washing her paws.

"Apprentices, please introduce yourself." The white and black cat said smoothly.

Hollypaw settled on the ground, and so did Cloverpaw. "I am Hollypaw. This is Cloverpaw. Why are we here and who are you?"

"I am Ivystar, leader of HawkClan." Ivystar hissed, her voice echoing around the camp. "And we need to save our Clan."

" How does that involve us? " Cloverpaw piped up.

"Our cats have been dying. We need to rebuild our Clan before HawkClan dies."

" Hey, I've heard stories about you! " Hollypaw meowed. "HawkClan tried to take over the Clans and killed our leaders!"

Ivystar stared at the apprentices thoughtfully. "We need to break the curse on our Clan. We will repopulate HawkClan with the cats of other Clans. "

"We're not staying here!" Cloverpaw protested. "We have a life back home!"

" Forgive me young one. " Ivystar hissed. "But I'm afraid you don't have a choice." The cat lashed her tail. "You are all dismissed." Hollypaw hissed in frustration and stormed over to the fresh-kill pile, taking a vole, settling down, and eating it out of spite. Cloverpaw sat down next to Hollypaw, munching on a rabbit.

"Lionclaw saw us get kidnapped." Cloverpaw said quietly. " I'm sure ThunderClan will follow our tracks and find us anytime soon. "

ThunderClan didn't save them that day.

In fact, Hollypaw and Cloverpaw spent the next moon continuing their training in HawkClan, trying several times to escape but failing every time. As optimistic as Cloverpaw was, even he was beginning to lose hope.  As of now, both of them had been beaten up severely by multiple warriors because of their latest escape attempt(burrowing out through a hole they found in camp), and despite their best efforts, they were left half dead in a hole with the entrance guarded by four warriors at any given time.

The worst part was, their wounds had been left untreated.

"Ow! Hollypaw, be gentle!"

" Gentle isn't in my vocabulary, mouse-brain. " She snapped, continuing to lick at her friend's wounds. "I don't want you to die from infection!"

" What if we just stayed here in HawkClan? " He offered. "Maybe then they'd leave us alone. "

"What do you mean, stay in HawkClan?" Hollypaw recoiled at the idea.

"Our friends and family clearly aren't coming to save us." Cloverpaw muttered quietly. "Its been over a moon."

" Hey. " She stopped licking and cuffed him over the ears. "Stay optimistic. They'll come for us."

Needless to say, when ThunderClan didn't come for yet another moon, things seemed hopeless. Both apprentices were a shell of their former selves, being treated as pretty much nothing inside the Clan. Over the past two moons, litters of kits had been stolen, so at least they had somebody to take care of. When the third moon passed, even Hollypaw, the stubbornest of them all, finally gave in and lost hope.