Honey'paw's Sacrifice

Chapter 4, I was too lazy to be creative.

"Meadowpaw!" Honeypaw heard Mothpaw's unmistakable hiss of annoyance. "Oh... Right, we were sneaking, huh?" Meadow mewed softly, trudging up to Mothpaw and nuzzling him, triggering Mothpaw to deathstare Silverpaw in case she thought of teasing the two of them. Instead, to Honeypaw's surprise, Silverpaw just looked away, her expression unreadable. "So, this is the place where you two come to mope, huh? I'll keep that in mind." Mothpaw snorted, curling his tail around Meadowpaw. "What? No! I just find it... Pretty-" "Uh-huh, sure." Silverpaw just gritted her teeth, Honeypaw noticing how she wasn't even looking at the two of them.

Honeypaw of course acted on instinct. "Well, if you two love bunnies have come to sicken us with your forbidden, mushy rabbit dung, you might as well leave." "You wouldn't have the guts to snitch, besides, we aren't even mates!" Mothpaw scoffed, self consciously scooting away from Meadowpaw, who surprisingly hadn't annoyingly stuck up for Mothpaw.

"Yeah, yeah." Silverpaw muttered bitterly, rolling her eyes. "Mothpaw, quit being so... So rude!" Meadowpaw mewed, the unsureness in her voice bare and visible. Mothpaw just shook his head, and sat down about two tail lengths away from Honey and Silver, Meadowpaw at his side.

They sat there in intense silence, until Honeypaw couldn't handle hostility between the four of them anymore. "What were you two even doing here in the first place?" Honeypaw piped up, causing Mothpaw to furrow the eyebrows he most definitely has. "We came here to check on Silverpaw, dummy! She's OUR friend too, ya know." Mothpaw grunted, his eyes still observing their frozen surroundings, still getting used to the distasteful amount of light it reflected.

Honeypaw bit her tongue, savoring the pain that bursted aflame. Meadowpaw nodded her head. "It was Mothpaw's idea, actually." Silverpaw's drooping ears perked up at this amusing statement, and couldn't help but giggle at the now flustered Mothpaw. "What!? No, it was Meadowpaw's idea!!!" "Daw, admit it, you still care about me mawthy-pawthy..." Silverpaw purred in teasingly, rubbing up against him, Honeypaw was more than inclined to join her in irritating the grumpy tom.

"I told you not to call me that!" "Oh come on, we all had nicknames for eachother when we were kits... Like how you used to call me beehive!" Honeypaw purred affectionately, pressing against Mothpaw from the other side, knowing that it would make even more uncomfortable than he already was. "It wasn't supposed to be nice!" "And what did you call Meadowpaw and me again? Silvy and Madow?" Silverpaw reminded him, causing Meadowpaw to fall backwards into the snow laughing.

"Meadowpaw! Who's side are you even on!?" Mothpaw hissed, trying the shove Silver and Honey off of him. "Ha! Now you're outnumbered!" "Now you have to surrender!" Honeypaw added confidently. "NEVER!" Mothpaw yowled, tackling Silverpaw into a snowbank. Nobody won as they came out shivering. "You look like cold baby bunnies!" Meadowpaw mrrrrrowed with laughter, Honeypaw joining in.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Mothpaw grumbled, shaking the snow off of his pelt and leading the way out of the entanglement of branches. "Goodness, there you are!" Honeypaw heard a warrior exclaim with relief from a nearby patrol. "What are you all doing out here? Volestar ordered that all apprentices stay in camp unless they have a warrior escort." "What!?" Silverpaw shouted, the other three apprentices sharing the same look of shock.

"Well, it does make sense, it isn't safe anymore" Meadowpaw murmered soothingly as she made her way to Silverpaw's side. "It isn't fair though! We can defend ourselves! Except Meadowpaw, no offense." "None taken." Meadowpaw sighed in reply to Mothpaw's protesting. "Sorry, rules are rules." Elkdash said with a shrug as he came up with Petalskip on either side of the bunch to escort them back to the safety of Breezeclan camp.

"We know where it is..." Honeypaw heard Silverpaw mutter under her breath bitterly.
Once they made it back, the gang was split up for their different duties. Honeypaw and Mothpaw were stuck cleaning the Elders' den, while Silverpaw went with a hunting patrol, and Meadowpaw to tend to her two patients, Tumblekit and Falconkit. The litter of two had learned of the loss of their mother, and were having an emotional breakdown in the medicine den as we speak.

Silverpaw couldn't find anything on her trip, the biting cold had chased all of the clan's prey into their safe, warm burrows, which frustrated the hunting party immensely. At sundown they returned with nothing but a pitiful shrew, not enough to feed a a litter of kits, more less a clan. "For Starclan's sake!" Silverpaw hissed furiously, mostly in anxiety as the empty pile of fresh-kill came into sight.

"Who do we feed first...?" "With what? That skinny thing?" "It's better than nothing..." "I know! Let's make them fight for it!" "Petalskip!!!" "What? I'm bored..."
The conversation that carried on throughout Silverpaw's starving clanmates seemed to fade into white noise, giving her the quiet she needed for an idea to click.

"We could steal." She muttered, half hoping they didn't hear her. "What?" Pondripple asked, turning his attention to Silverpaw. "I said, we could steal from another clan." She mewed, looking the her clanmates in the eyes. "That's ridiculous!" "What else do we do? Sit here and starve?" Petalskip snapped. "She's right..." Twigtrail murmered uneasily, shocking Pondripple.

He stayed quiet for a moment. "Fine. But YOU get to bring it up with Volestar." Pondripple snorted as he dragged himself to the warrior's den. Silverpaw grinned, feeling a sense of triumph burst to life within her anxious soul.