☆2 - Marigoldpelt, please.☆

As Corvidstorm sat down by the small rock Goosestep was sitting on, he noticed his mother walking up to him, eyes widening and pace quickening as she noticed he was waiting for cats to patrol with.

Oh no. Not again.

The same words were flashing through both Goosestep's and Corvidstorm's mind.

"What are you doing?" She hissed to Goosestep. "You can't have him lead a patrol! What if he gets hurt? What if he steps into a thorn, or what if his fur clings to a branch! Then he won't be precious anymore!" She scalded Goosestep, who was all just taking it. This was nearly a daily occurrence. Marigoldpelt despised it if Corvidstorm was let out of camp, what if he slipped and broke his neck?

"Mum, please-" Corvidstorm tried to tell her, but she completedly ignored him and kept yelling and hissing at Goosestep. Corvidstorm looked at his paws awkwardly, ears and whiskers drooping.

When Marigoldpelt was finished with summing up all the reasons Corvidstorm really, really shouldn't go out of camp (Including that he was 'sick and going out could - no, would worsen it') Goosestep was just staring at Marigoldpelt's shoulder vaguely. "Have you been listening to me at all!?" She hissed.

"Marigoldpelt.""What?""Your son is a full grown tom with brains of his own. Leave him alone." Goosestep looked the other she dead in the eye. Marigoldpelt's eyes widened in shock for a moment, but then they narrowed as she scoffed and turned away.

"Thanks, Goosestep. I'm so sorry about her." Corvidstorm apologized. "Don't be. She should learn you've grown your own wings, and that you've left her nest moons ago. Now, you're going to lead a border patrol. Take Dappletail, Applepaw and Heathertail with you. Ratpaw is going to do his assessment with Pearleaf, so they're not going to come."

×

The four cats padded out of the camp with instructions to patrol the Thunderclan border and refresh the markings. Both Dappletail and Heathertail were walking uncomfortably close to Corvidstorm, and he found it hard to breath.

As they neared the border, Applepaw stopped and stuck his nose in the air. His mentor, Dappletail, asked him what's wrong.

"I smell something weird. I'm not sure what it is, though. I haven't smell it before," he curled his lips. "It stinks." Now the three warriors were sniffing the air too.

"You're right Applepaw, I think it's, uhmm," Corvidstorm turned around to see a big, red figure emerge from the bushes, crossing the Thunderclan border, racing towards the cats in the Shadowclan territory.

"Fox!" He screamed, ending his sentence. He felt a small, familiar tingling in his right cheek, in his scar.

The fox lurched for Corvidstorm, who was closest by. Corvidstorm swerved, and unsheathed his claws to jump onto the fox's back. He hissed loudly, and bit and scratched the fox wherever he could. He saw the cinnamon coloured haze that was Applepaw lurch for one of the fox's legs, and the she's were scratching it's snout and ears.

The fox shook himself out, made a weird foxy noise and kicked away all the cats. Then, it lurched for Corvidstorm once again, this time managing to get to the dark tomcat in time.

Corvidstorm let out a scream of anger and pain, saliva flying around as the fox bit into his ear. The only mistake it made was letting go, instead of clinging on the cat.

Corvidstorm (now having a torn ear and blood trickling down his cheek) was enraged, and lurched at the fox's throat. The fox skidded sideways, and so Corvidstorm missed. Instead, he bit the fox deep in his leg, and it whined to run back to where it came from - the Thunderclan territory.

Corvidstorm was panting a bit, but he purred proudly. "Good job guys! We scared that piece of flea-filth half to death!" He smiled at his fellow clanmates, expecting purring and smiling in return. All they did was stare at him in horror.

Applepaw started stuttering. "You- your-"

Corvidstorm looked over his shoulder, but there was nothing there. Utterly confused, he asked; "What- what's wrong?" He looked around him again.

"Your ear!" Dappletail screamed in horror, staring at the top left part of his head.

She was right. Thick, red blood was trickling down his cheeck, but he came to realize it was practically gushing down. The adrenalin was wearing off, and he could feel a sharp pain marching around in his left ear - except most of the left ear was gone. He blinked away some tears that were pricking his eyes, and looked around again.

There it was.

A dark, with blood stained, tufted ear.

His ear.

On the grass.

Corvidstorm felt like he was going to vomit.

Then, everything went black.