A Misty Path (A Warrior Cats Fanfiction)

Chapter 29

"Mistflower!" The silver tabby gritted her teeth, and turned to face the familiar voice that sent pangs of conflicting love and fury through her heart.

"Father," she greeted him, her voice strained.

The dark gray tom, who she had been purposefully avoiding ever since he was moved out of the medicine den, smiled, although it seemed less warm than his usual beaming grin. "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages." He let out a light chuckle and nudged his companion. "Honestly, it felt like my brother here was stealing all your attention during your apprentice days."

Mistflower didn't reply, eyes carefully trained on her paws. Perchscale let out a curious hum. "Is that so?" he asked, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Absolutely! Oh, I still remember those days." Beetleshell let out a breathy but sincere laugh. "The proudest Cloudpool and I had ever been..." His voice trailed away, ending his sentence on a bitter note, and he paced around his daughter to bend over his mate. She lifted her head and turned to look at him, watching him staring at her in concern, not daring to wake her for fear it would disturb the already-weak she-cat.

"So." Mistflower jumped, and whirled around to face him. Eyes deep green, pelt dark gray and mottled, face lightly curious yet not particularly thrilled to be talking to her. "It's been quite a while."

Mistflower nodded. "I suppose."

"I heard you were caught with that rogue tomcat." The ice-cold rage in his voice sent shivers down her spine, but she choked down her fear. She refused to give her old mentor the satisfaction of knowing he scared her.

"The one who saved Mossystone's life, yes."

Perchscale frowned, but his expression didn't darken beyond that. "I know." His voice was mild, so different from his earlier rage.

Mistflower shuffled from paw-to-paw, and glanced behind her to see if her father was leaving the medicine den yet. But he remained by Cloudpool's side. She looked back at Perchscale, her face settling on a stony indifferent expression. Perchscale blinked at her. "Palestar needs you," he meowed finally, pushing past her to accompany his brother. Mistflower turned to hiss a retort back at him, but he had already sat down beside Beetleshell, their pelts pressed together. Her father had not reacted once to Perchscale and Mistflower's conversation. She didn't know if he hadn't heard or just chose to ignore it, and she didn't know which one she hated more. She turned and left the medicine den, not bothering to check on her mother one last time. She'd already been stalling for far too long.

"We are to be attending the Gathering in three days," meowed Palestar coolly. His yellow eyes flashed with disapproval. "You will not be going."

Mistflower barely suppressed a flinch, ears flat against her head and eyes lowered in shame. Perhaps it was a mistake to tell him. A small voice piped up in her mind. Perhaps it was a mistake to go. To break your Clan's trust in you.

"I understand, Palestar," she mewed quietly. She hesitated suddenly, remembering her earlier encounter with her old mentor. With Perchscale. She felt disgust and terror building up in her chest, screaming to be let out. She remembered the nightmares that frequented her sleep, of her old nurserymates, of her friends. She could think of a multitude of things to tell her leader, all much more important than her one venture out of camp, but in the moment, looking into his narrow golden eyes, she couldn't form the words to express any of them.

The pale tomcat nodded, his eyes icy. "I don't want you visiting those rogues again, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"You will never leave the camp again without supervision."

"Of course."

"You will never attempt to harm or kill that ShadowClan warrior - or any other Clan warrior, for that matter."

"I - I understand."

The RiverClan leader nodded. "That will be all."

"Yes, Palestar." Mistflower got to her paws and bustled out of the leader's den, head bowed in humiliation as all the cats in the camp froze in their movements to see her hurrying out of the leader's room, fresh from a lecture.

She looked around. There wasn't much to do. The hunting patrols had already been organised without her, and it wasn't like she could go out hunting on her own. All the chores had been done, the moss freshly gathered, the herbs all collected. She turned back to the medicine den to check up on her mother again, when she noticed the pretty tortoiseshell cat exiting.

"Mistflower!" Mistlefrost smiled at her sympathetically, knowing probably full well what had just happened. "How are you?"

Mistflower twitched an ear, not quite knowing how to respond. "Where's Speckledleaf?" she asked as she glanced past the medicine cat into the small den, where there was no sign of the younger she-cat. She couldn't think of anything they'd want to collect that hadn't already been.

"Oh, out looking for herbs. Don't worry about it, Whitefrost's with her, she'll be back soon," mewed Mistlefrost, waving her tail dismissively.

"What herbs?"

A twitch of the ear. "Ones that'll help treat this... illness, hopefully."

Mistflower bristled uncomfortably. "Do you know where it came from? It's pretty cold, it could -"

"It's nothing I've ever seen before," meowed Mistlefrost, cutting over the young warrior. "I doubt it's something as simple as a cold." She sighed. "I... I don't understand where this could be coming from. The best bet is these new... living conditions." She waved her tail at their surroundings, the dim uncomfortable Twoleg hut a miserable stand-in for the old RiverClan camp. "I'd say, the sooner we get back to our old home, the better."

Mistflower's ears pricked. "We're going back?"

Mistlefrost chuckled. "I forgot you weren't here." She flicked her tail over Mistflower's back in a reassuring gesture. "That's what we're going to the Gathering for. To negotiate for our old territory back."

Mistflower frowned, thinking back to the attack. To the ruthless warriors,  jumping on their fellow Clan like a rat leaps on uneaten fresh-kill. "Will they give it back so easily?" she remembered her few run-ins with the new ThunderClan and ShadowClan patrollers. They seemed to relish their new hunting-grounds, even if they knew little about the river they had restricted from the suffering Clan.

Mistlefrost flicked her ears, looking unconcerned. "After they hear what has happened, I can't imagine they'd reject us. This goes against every code they've grown up with."

Mistflower's ears flattened. "What if... they don't listen to the warrior code?"

The older she-cat's dark blue gaze fixed on Mistflower. "Everyone has to listen to the warrior code," she reminded her lightly, a slight warning in her tone. "It's what makes us Clan cats."

Mistflower's eyes narrowed, but she merely nodded. "I'll take your word for it."