Appletail's Quest I Ch. 3

Instructions

heh ------- The sun was high above the questing cats as the journeyed across the rolling hills. Appletail's paws were starting to hurt and she was hungery. Appletail, Burningpelt, Robinpaw, and Duckpaw had been traveling since dawn and they hadn't taken a break. Now, apparently Duckpaw was feeling the same thing, for he asked, "I'm hungery. Can we stop to hunt?" Robinpaw looked at her mentor expectantly. "Can we?" Burningpelt grumbled back, "No. We'll hunt when it gets dark." Duckpaw and Robinpaw glanced at each other. "But we're hungrey! We haven't eaten since we left!" Exclamed Duckpaw. "No." Burningpelt told him again. Appletail looked at the cast down aprentices. "Oh come on, Burningpelt. Leting them hunt would be good for their training and they have a point. We should eat." Burningpelt muttered something darkly under his breath then said, "Fine. But after we're heading straight to the other Clan's." The aprrentices looked happier now, and shot off to the forest on the left. Burningpelt sat down, glaring at Appletail before washing his paws. Appletail layed down, happy that they could finally take a break from walking. It wasn't long before they heard screeches from the direction Duckpaw and Robinpaw ran. Appletail jumped to her paws and started searching the distance. She could see Duckpaw and Robinpaw runing away from something, but she couldn't see what. Just then a massive dog came bounding from the woods, barking happily that it had found easy prey. Before she could move, Burningpelt ran to assist the apprentices. Appletail ran after him. They we're only a few fox lengths from the dog and the apprentices when the dog picked Duckpaw up by the scruff, it's tail wagging happily. It shook Duckpaw around and Appletail had a moment of pure terror before leaping onto the dogs back, clawing it with her back paws and biteing into it's scruff. Burningpelt was clawing it's muzzle, claws extened, while Robinpaw cowered behind him, the whites of her eyes as big as the dogs nose. The dog seemed to not want Duckpaw anymore, so it flung him to the side. Now that it was rid of him, he started snapping at Burningpelt and Appletail. Burningpelt dogged all the blows untill it caught his ear. Burningpelt screeched with pain as the tip of his ear tore off, blood welling at the tear. The dog started shakeing itself, trying to disloge Appletail from it's back. Appletail bite down harder, knowing that if she was flung off, she would damage the dog too. With a snap and a shake, the dog finally shook her off, but Appletail took a part of it's scruff with her. The dog howled in pain, then took off back into the woods, leaveing a trail of blood and whining for it's twoleg. Appletail got to her paws, panting, and shook out her pelt. She glanced around. Robinpaw was licking at Burningpelt's bleeding ear while he sat grudgingly. She kept looking around, panic filling her when she couldn't find her appentice. She finally spoted him lying at the foot of a tree. Appletail's panic got worse and she ran over to him. When she got there, he was deeply asleep and the only thing reasureing was the faint rise and fall of his flank. Appletail licked his forehead, urgeing him to wake up. As she did so, Burningpelt and Robinpaw approched them. "Is he okay?" Robinpaw asked, her voice hardly a whisper. A few fear stricken moments later, Duckpaw opened his eyes. "I-is the dog gone?" He asked Appletail in a small voice. "Yes. Yes the dog is gone." Appletail answered, releaved. "Okay... I'm just gonna take a nap real quick..." Duckpaw setled himself more comfortably under the tree. Robinpaw sliped in beside him. "I'm going to watch him for a bit... just incase." Appletail moved away so the littermates could have some space. Burningpelt motioned for Appletail to follow him with his tail. "This is all your fault!" Burningpelt hissed when they were out of ear shot. "Hey, I didn't know there would be a dog in the woods!" She shot back. Burningpelt snorted. "Maybe, but if you just listened to me Duckpaw wouldn't have gotton hurt, and maybe my ear would still be whole!" He motioned to his torn ear that had stopped bleeding. "At least it's not my fault that happened." Burningpelt glared at her. "But if you hadn't sent them to hunt, Duckpaw would have been fine." Appletail flinched. Perhapes it was her fault Duckpaw got hurt... Burningpelt stalked back to where the apprentices were, flicking his tail, leaving Appletail alone with only her thoughts. She sat down, and lowered her head. She thought that this journey would have improved her relationship with Burningpelt, not make it worse. -------