Gaining Height - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 13

With that, she curved her sunrise-coloured wings and followed the rapid descent of her clanmates. "Use your tail to control yourself!" She glanced back at Hawkpaw.

I wish Frostwing had told me about any of this. Hawkpaw growled inwardly as she surveyed the cats. She could see plenty of them moving around below her. Frostwing had probably hoped she'd make a fool out of herself just so he could show how 'masterful' Master was.

Narrowing her eyes, Hawkpaw curved her wings and followed her clanmates in a more gradual descent. She felt air under her wings, a sensation she had never expected to feel before she met FalconClan.

The descent wasn't perfect.

Perhaps the thing that saved Hawkpaw from skidding right into a crowd of FalconClan cats was the tail tactic Smokepaw had taught her. She used it to swerve away, and landed in a pile of snow.

"She's a new one."

Hawkpaw turned to see one of her clanmates talking to an old dark ginger tom. In the moonlight, specks of the dark ginger tom glowed brightly. He was larger and heavier than all the FalconClan cats, with a large fish-like tail to top it all off. Hawkpaw would have examined him further if not for another cat jumping into the snow drift beside her.

"Got you!" Smokepaw purred cheekily.

"Hey tha-"

Hawkpaw's voice was abruptly cut off when she saw Coalpaw. The black tom's eyes were furious. He turned to an AquaClan apprentice.

"Yeah," he growled. "She's a rogue we picked up. Talonstar thought she'd be useful in killing more CometClan cats for us." He left the and killing AquaClan cats unsaid.

The little dark brown tom yelped in terror when he looked at Hawkpaw, then sprinted off towards a group of AquaClan cats. Hawkpaw rubbed her scarred eye self-consciously, feeling sad.

"What was that all about?!"

Smokepaw was beside Hawkpaw once more, her dark smoky fur fluffed up and filled with snow.

"I've never seen an AquaClan cat run that fast!" Then she met Hawkpaw's expression. "You look as though some cat just stole prey from right under you. What happened?"

Coalpaw was still watching, eyes narrowed to slits. Hawkpaw couldn't meet his gaze. She didn't want Smokepaw to fight with her littermate. She could deal with Coalpaw's hostilities on her own.

"It's just a lot of cats!" She meowed awkwardly.

"Smokepaw!" Dawnclaw's growl sounded, and Smokepaw instantly got to her paws.

"Got to go!" She raced towards her mentor, only looking over her shoulder once to throw a troubled look back at Hawkpaw.

Hawkpaw kept her gaze fixed on the ground as she saw a certain sort of grim pride well up in Coalpaw's expression. You've won this time, she thought. But only because I'm not going to hurt other cats emotionally or physically again, regardless of my grievances.

With Smokepaw gone, Hawkpaw was on her own. Unfortunately, Snowpaw and Icepaw hadn't been allowed to come to the gathering, since Talonstar hadn't wanted an overload of apprentices. Without any other cat she could lean on, Hawkpaw was on her own.

That part didn't scare her. She was an independent sort of cat. What made her uncomfortable was the way all the other clan cats eyed her, judging her, with no cat to contradict them.

"Hey there!"

Hawkpaw nearly jumped out of her pelt as some cat spoke from behind her. Whirling around, she saw Dashpaw, the same CometClan apprentice who had attacked her on her way to the Starlight Pool.