Warriors: Broken Trials (WIP)

Chapter Five

It's been a few moons since GooseFeather's ceremony. For not knowing the cat they'd still manage to see a lot of him. "WillowPaw can you collect Moss for the elders?" BerryPelt instructed. WillowPaw had wondered when that task would be brought up again, since then she's been doing nothing but hunting practice, her paws were sore. WillowPaw just nodded in response and padded away into the forest. It'd been a while since she'd done this and forgot where to look. Well looking around she had lost track of where she had been going. "Ow!" She looked forward to see she had ran into PumpkinPaw, his herbs quickly fell to the muddy ground. "I'm so sorry!" WillowPaw stuttered as she scrambled to help gather the herbs for him. "November worries," PumpkinPaw said calmly, scooping up the rest with his tail so he could scoop them back up in his teeth. "I just wish you wouldn't have had me drop them in mudstream." He finished. She remembered BerryPelt showed her that place well touring the territory. Something about how there's a stream of water by the trees behind the bushes that cause the ground over here to be mud. "What are you doing anyways? If your trying to hunt here the water Moccasins usually get to the prey first" he stated. "Water whaa-" WillowPaw asked in confusion. PumpkinPaw and her set the herbs onto a rock so they won't get stained more and she sits down."Their basically snakes, you know like Adders, or rattlesnakes, however.. their smaller then those kinds, and they hang around muddy places, like swamps or even, here" he explained. Snakes that swim?! But two areas of our territory are like that including this one, here and SwampRocks... "how do you know when their coming?" WillowPaw asks him, the scent of fear washing over her. He shakes his head. "You don't know, you see also unlike snakes, they'll be silent before attacking. So one moment you could be walking around here, and just when you think your safe.."

"Bam!"

He pounces at her and pins her underneath, WillowPaw is frozen in fear. "One can bite you and leave you seriously injured!" He yells. Her pelt relaxes as she feels PumpkinPaw get off of her. "But that's just if your not careful" he finishes calmly, his joking tone calms as he sees the fear in her eyes and helps her up probably feeling guilty. That was not funny! "Heh, sorry.. WindShadow says I can get carried away sometimes.." she can smell guilt from him as he doesn't make eye contact. WillowPaw feels she should try to save the situation."heh, we'll at least I know what to look out for now.." she gives a nervous chuckle but smiles. She sees PumpkinPaw's eyes lighten a bit at her response. Nailed it!, "so, where were you off to again?" He asks her. "Oh, I forgot where to find Moss, Elders task" she replies sympathetically. "Aw, we'll your in the right place then. Just right over there, I pasted it earlier." He says flicking his tail towards the path he came from. WillowPaw looks over to the spot then looks back at him. "Thank you PumpkinPaw" she finishes as she walks off. Walking to where PumpkinPaw had shown, she finally caught sight of the moss. She scrambled to pick up as much as possible when a patrol came walking by. "Hey, need help?" She perked her ears up to the stranger and turned around, her mouth filled with moss. Her gaze stopped at a familiar white Tom. "Oh, hey GooseFeather!" Her words muffled through her teeth, Cleary embarrassed by her mouth being to full to speak. The white Tom seemed didn't say anything about it though and gripped some of the moss from her mouth and pulled half of it from her. She looked at him confused.
"How about I help" he offered, his words now muffled and he gave a purr. She purred more embarrassed then before. I can't tell if your mocking me or trying to help out of pity. She thought towards him, giving the tom a suspicious gaze. "Why are you helping me? Your a warrior now you shouldn't have to do the elders task anymore, and speaking of which won't the rest of the patrol eventually see your gone and come looking for you?" She muffled suspiciously. GooseFeather just blinked at her words. "Well, just because I don't have to help doesn't mean I don't want to" he replied before looking around them then steadying his gaze back on her. "Besides, I bet we could get it done so fast they won't even know I was gone" he finished. We?! Before this I didn't even know you existed, and now you think there's a we involved?!. WillowPaw just gave him a nervous chuckle not knowing how to respond to his confidence. "I guess some help wouldn't hurt.." she responded shyly.

***

The two carried the moss back to camp, cats looked at the two strangely. "Hey WillowPaw!" She looked up to see MoonPaw sitting next to PongoPaw who was licking his pads. She turned to GooseFeather before running off towards the two. "Hey guys!" She greeted placing the moss onto the ground. "What's up," the she-cat smiled. "I thought you and GooseFeather didn't know each other" MoonPaw questioned. "Not that much, but he offered to help me carry some moss back" she replied. PongoPaw looked up from his his pelt giving her a suspicious gaze. "Wasn't he on patrol?" He asked. "You don't know him much either so how would you know?" She rasped. Her tone becoming irritated.

PongoPaw flicked his ear alarmed and continued to clean his fur hearing the inpatients in her voice. "Listen, we need to get back before his patrol realizes he's gone to begin with.." she said scooping the moss back up with her jaws. With that she pads back over to GooseFeather who seems very calm regardless of her wasting his time. "Sorry, Toms" she groans. "No I get it" he interrupts, his voice patient. "Come on, let's get this moss back to the elders now" he says walking past her. WillowPaw reluctantly followed him.

"Figured you were talking to ShadowStar about the gathering" EmeraldShine purred. Was the gathering almost here already? If so that could mean I'll get to attend my first gathering! "Actually GooseFeather here was helping me collect moss" she says embarrassed. "Why don't you ask her?" RavenLeap asks her softly. "Maybe.." WillowPaw replies. "Well I'm coming, maybe I could ask her for you? GooseFeather asks calmly. Why doesn't this sit right for me.. "well, sure of course!" She says cheerful.