Escape from the Dark Forest

"What is that?"

Cinderpaw, Twigpaw and Flamepaw stood over a large bug, watching as it's legs whirled at the sky. The apprentices had been watching the skinny bug treach across the camp- and Twigpaw was the one to flip it over onto it's back. "It's gross, I hate bugs." Cinderpaw scoffed.

"Bugs are cool." Twigpaw meowed back, puffing his chest. "See, get a closer look at it." Twigpaw snickered as he picked up the bug in one paw and smacked it onto Cinderpaw's head. Cinderpaw screeched- shaking her head to fling off the bug.

"Get it off! Get it off!" Cinderpaw yowled, her fur ruffled. "Get it off of me!"

"It's just a bug." Flamepaw added, watching as the black she-cat jumped about, shaking her head. "Not like it's going to hurt you." He added as she began to growl. "What a kit. Afraid of a stick bug." Flamepaw grunted under his breath.

Cinderpaw finally stopped, the bug had fallen off awhile back. "Eww!" She scrunched her nose up in disgust and slammed her paw down over it. "There, it's dead. It won't bother me now." Cinderpaw meowed, puffing her chest. "And, Flamepaw?" Flamepaw turned to look at Cinderpaw. "Just shut up."

Flamepaw's ears dropped and he trotted up to Twigpaw's side. The three apprentices began to walk, but were interupted by a small yelp. "Wait!" Standing there was a young tom. He crouched down, prodding at the bug Cinderpaw had squashed with a claw. "You killed it." The tom concluded, looking up at the apprentices.

"Yeah, so?" Flamepaw was the first to answer. "What's it to you?"

"It's just a bug, Patchpaw." Twigpaw meowed, rolling his eyes.

"But it was alive." The tom shrugged. "And you killed it." He meowed, scooping out dirt with one of his front paws, keeping his eyes locked on the three apprentices. "What if it had a family? Like us. Bugs may be small, but they have feelings, you know." He said quietly, pushing the bug into the hole he'd made.

"Is he burying that bug?" Twigpaw whispered to Flamepaw- who heaved a sigh and nodded. Patchpaw heard right away, but ignored the two. After all- he was almost done burying. He pat down the soil- covering the bug from sight.

"Patchpaw, why did you bury that bug?" Patchpaw looked up again to see Cinderpaw. He quickly looked back down and made sure the earth was firmly pressed down. "Patchpaw." Cinderpaw said again.

"Yeah?" Patchpaw meowed, shrinking down into his shoulders. "What is it, Cinderpaw?" He knew Cinderpaw was very popular. The den was always so noisy because all the popular apprentices were chatting. All night, it felt. He'd hardly get any sleep. Cinderpaw was the son of one of the best warriors- Leopardnose.

"Maybe it's a Shadowclan thing."