"Briarpaw! Come quickly!" Millie's frantic call echoed around the clearing, and Briarpaw looked up to meet her mothers startled and panicked gaze. The brown apprentice shrugged in indifference. Stop bothering me- This mouse is tasty! She bent her head to take another bite out of her meal, when an earth shaking shudder rattled the sandy ground.
Briarpaw twisted her head to see a large tree beginning to lean in one direction, making creaking and awful sucking noises as the roots gave way to the sodden earth.
"ThunderClan, evacuate the clearing!" Firestar leapt onto the highrock and yowled, a trembling Dovewing standing next to him. The leader then took off to the elder's den, ushering Longtail and Mousefur out of their den. Briarpaw watched the elders make their slow progression as she was half pushed, have shoved by Millie to join the cluster of ThunderClan cats that had gathered at the entrance of camp. The apprentice rolled her eyes.
"Millie, stop pushing me! I have legs, you know!" Briarpaw hissed, lashing her tail in a frustrated manner. Millie parted her jaws as if she were preparing a retort, before whipping around and stalking away. Briarpaw fixed a glare at the back of her mother's head. I'll prove to her that I don't have to be babied all the time.
By then, Firestar, Longtail and Mousefur were padding up behind her. Briarpaw pricked her ears at the sound of Mousefur's irritable mumble.
"But I was eating a nice, plump mouse!" Longtail gave him de mate a friendly jab in the side.
"Don't be silly, Mousefur. The den's almost collapsed!" The cream tabby meowed, and Firestar nodded in agreement.
"And if we stay any longer, then we'll be crowfood. Come on! We must-" The flame coloured leader urged, and he paused mid-sentence at the sight of Briarpaw. "We can't leave you behind either." Briarpaw sighed and heaved herself up onto her paws, the squabble between the two elders and the thundering storm continuing behind her
"I'm not leaving without the mouse!" Mousefur pouted, and firmly planted herself onto the ground like a tree. Briarpaw smiled at the thought.
Longtail sighed. "If it's that important to you, then i'll go get it." Mousefur with a pleased smile and turned and walked away, muttering to herself. Briarpaw was about to follow the dusky elder, when the sucking sound suddenly grew dangerously loud, and the breeze that was ruffling her brown pelt grew stronger.
Widening her eyes in fear, she turned around. Longtail's cream colored tail snaked into the elder's den and disappeared. Glancing upwards, Briarpaw saw that the tree was leaning dangerously low and close to the den- steadily declining onto the elder's den... Longtail!
Briarpaw filled her lungs with air as she prepared to yowl a warning, but stopped herself at the last second. I can be a hero. I can save Longtail by getting Mousefur her mouse. Her smile stretched wider as she thought of how surprised and pleased Millie would be. That'll show her that I can do the right thing- even without her help! With a decisive shake of her head, Briarpaw delved after Longtail into the elder's den, ignoring the thundering sound of the tree plunging onto her.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she made out the furry pelt of Longtail, and a small lump of fur. The mouse! Twisting onto her back, she grasped it in her jaws, and prepared to back out of the den. She inched her hind leg backwards.
The tree is falling...
Her other hind leg.
Almost there. Just a little farther...
Suddenly, everything was dark.
I was like nothing Briarpaw had ever felt before. She was plunging down an endless abyss, and around her were hundreds of faces. The face of Millie.
"I only wanted to protect you!"
"I never meant to upset you, Briarpaw."
"I love you, Briarpaw." The Millies meowed, and Briarpaw felt dizzy.
Millie...
"Briarpaw!" She blinked open her eyes to see a blurry gray blob. Blinking a few more times, she realized that it was Millie. "Are you alright?"
Briarpaw ignored the pain that was raging through her hindquarters. Parting her lips, she gasped out a few words-
"I'm sorry."