Mad Cow Disease [Cleaning]

[Deleted]

It was a bit of an understatement to say that Thrushpaw was nervous about being sent to clean Darkstar's den. She'd heard the stories, of course - sometimes apprentices wandered in here and never came out again! Maybe if she worked fast, the FireClan leader wouldn't pay her any mind. That was all she could hope for.

The orange tabby set down her bundle of clean moss and gasped. There were all sorts of bones in the dark dwelling! She didn't really want to get too close to the remains, but some of them seemed a bit large to be from prey.

Trembling slightly, she replaced the nest material. Then Thrushpaw grabbed the old bedding, turned tail, and scampered towards the exit as fast as she could. If she was lucky, Darkstar wouldn't emerge from the shadows and murder her. But it was always a gamble when you were around the black-furred leader...

[Darkstar]

A black figure loomed at the entrance of the den, he eyes following the tiny cat changing out her bedding.

[Deleted]

"Eep!"

Thrushpaw hadn't meant to squeal. At the sight of a living shadow blocking the exit, though, the smaller female dropped what she'd been carrying and tumbled backwards. Green eyes, wide with fright, locked onto leader when Thrush managed to pull herself back to her paws. She winced in embarrassment. Acting like a frightened kit in front of Darkstar probably wasn't winning her any favor.

"Sorry! I… you gave me a fright," breathed the orange tabby, breaking eye contact while she ducked to gather the moss that was now strewn across the ground. That done, she straightened up and forced her fur to lie flat; the scare had ruffled it.

"Do you need me to clean anything else?" She hadn't exactly gone around picking up every bit of dirt, especially since it was too dark in here to properly see what was where. But she definitely wasn't going to complain if it meant that Darkstar would be pleased. The black cat's stare was practically setting fire to her pelt.