Silentmelody's Dream

Chapter 20

Echopaw gasped. Everything seemed to be moving as fast as a WindClan warrior. The fighting patrol suddenly screeched and ran towards the distraction. It seemed to Echopaw that the air was no more and death lingered through the sky instead. She wasn't ready to defend herself as a small snake wrapped himself around her paw. She hissed and bit it off, killing it with one bite. These snakes where small, weak, and easy to kill, but there were more than there were trees in the forest. Warriors gathered around in one area, Echopaw followed to see what the commotion was. Apparently, the ThunderClan warriors were taking turns scraping Mouthclaw, dodging away to let another one do the same.
What a dumb way to fight! Echopaw thought, then pounced on top of another small snake. This is ridiculous!
A blur of fire blasted of energy from behind, fighting mercilessly upon the shower of snakes. "Hey! Silentpaw!" Echopaw called to her friend. But before answering, the mute grabbed two small snakes in her jaws and swung them away into the trees. "No, Silentpaw!" Another voice sounded. Echopaw looked over to see Wolfheart. "You don't want to spread them all around our territory!" He hissed. Still looking at her mentor, Silentpaw sunk her claws into another weak snake the was slithering towards her. Echopaw felt something wet crawl across her back. Suddenly she whipped around smushed the creature into the earth. The blue-grey apprentice stood up and scented the air. Looking ahead, she spotted larger snakes coming from behind. Almost as big as Mouthclaw. Echopaw caught up with Silentpaw as they watched the larger snakes slither closer towards them. Silentpaw fluffed up her fur, making her look twice her normal size. The amber-colored apprentice pounced, landing on one of the green, slimy creatures. Echopaw reached to help her, but her tail was caught suddenly by a harshly sharp bramble. Panting, she turned around and bit deep into the thorns, making it become looser. She was still trapped as massive weight toppled on top of her and the bramble dug deeper into her flesh. With much effort, Echopaw stumbled and turned around planted her teeth into large snake, letting all her pain surge through. The blue-grey apprentice ripped her teeth out, and threw the heavy snake off of her. Trying to catch her breath, she turned back to fix the brambles stuck to her fur.

Echopaw jumped to all fours and hit back into battle. She noticed more large, dangerous snakes slithered in as they pleased, acting as if this was their own territory.

"We need more warriors!" Thunderheart yowled, then got crushed under a huge swarm of slithering beasts. Hawkfire dashed away to help him, but she too got trampled over. The snakes aren't killing us, Echopaw thought. They're just trying to get ahold of us!

"Echopaw," Metalclaw leaped beside her. "I need you to go to ShadowClan camp and ask Lightningstar to help us."

"What? Are you mousebrained? I'm not doing that!" Echopaw screeched.

"Well, you better do it if you want ThunderClan to survive." Metalclaw replyed.

"Me alone?" Echopaw asked, but the senior warrior was gone.

I can do this, Echopaw urged herself. There was a reason why Metalclaw asked me to go. I need to do this!

Echopaw ran like she never ran before. Without hesitating, she burst through the pine trees, leaving her pelt itchy with the leaves. The ground was poking her paw-pads with pine needles.

"Hey!" A ShadowClan patrol yelled. But Echopaw ignored him, and dashed right through him. The ground sunk beneath her paws as she felt her scruff being pulled up by a ShadowClan warrior.

"What are you doing here?" A blue-eyed black tom called Crowtalon asked, standing in front of Echopaw. The blue-grey apprentice growled. "I need to talk to Lightningstar--it's an emergency."

"Ha!" Crowtalon laughed. "ThunderClan having trouble as usual?" Echopaw was placed again on the ground. Without warning, she burst into ShadowClan camp. Crowtalon and his patrol was racing after her, hard on her tail. But she made it. "Now to Lightningstar." Echopaw murmured under her breath.