ωαяяισя ¢αтѕ // Mintpool's Venom

Chapter 31

"Robinflight." Iceclaw spoke, his voice breaking through the excited chatters of Spotfrost. "Is that a scar on your muzzle? How did you get that?"

Mintpool felt as if her belly dropped. She'd given Robinflight that scar. How was she going to talk her way out of this one?

The thought was frightening, but already the gray tabby's mind was spinning up stories and ideas to tell the Clan; ones that'd paint her as the victim. It was all up to whether or not Thistlestar and Spotfrost believed it, though. However, the gray tabby was fairly certain that they would.

Time to test our their loyalty.

"Mintpool was the one who gave it to me, actually." Robinflight turned to the gray tabby, gaze glimmering smugly, challenging - no, daring - Mintpool to try and get out of this.

The gray tabby lifted her muzzle, accepting the dare smoothly. "Indeed I did," she meowed, earning glares and looks of shock from the AirClan cats. "But," Mintpool added, "only because she provoked me."

"Provoking you is no reason to attack her," Skystorm piped up. The deputy's pelt was ruffled, surprise glimmering in her gaze, but other than that had her voice leveled and reasonable.

"Perhaps not normal provoking," the gray tabby agreed, "but how about bringing up my reasoning for exile?" The cats remained silent as Mintpool spoke. "As you all probably know, I've been gone for two days. I should have told some cat why, but I was out searching for herbs, and found a scent trail that gave me hope of finding something. I kept following different scents until I found myself out of Clan land, yet I kept trying because I wanted to do my best for you all."

In that moment, Mintpool remembered Ivy; how she'd made a similar speech whilst accusing Holly. The gray tabby felt more and more like the brown tabby every moment, but she wasn't completely against the thought. Ivy may be cruel and sick, but she was also powerful.

"Yet I was unsuccessful. When I returned, I was accused by Robinflight of many things. First, she accused me of killing Echoleaf, Flowershine, and Adderclaw."

A gasp of horror rose from Spotfrost. The black-and-white she-cat's eyes were widened with disbelief. "Robinflight." Her voice was only a little croak, extremely broken. And Mintpool knew why: being Flowershine's daughter, Robinflight hadn't had as much of a prejudice against her. So the two she-cats were actually quite close, and Mintpool seemed to recall a fuzzy memory of Robinflight being deemed Spotfrost's godmother.

So, from Spotfrost's perspective, hearing such extreme accusations thrown around by a cat close to her to another cat close to her... Well, it must be very overwhelming.

"After that," Mintpool continued, barreling on, "she accused me of returning to my "scandals" with Leafwhisker." The gray tabby twitched her tail-tip, watching as Thistlestar bristled. "Now, I'm sure every cat remembers Leafwhisker, right? He's supposedly the father of Stormpaw and Fernpaw-" He is "-and I'm supposedly the mother." Which I'm not.

At those words, the gray tabby scouted out Stormpaw and Fernpaw in the crowd. Both apprentices ducked their heads awkwardly, although Mintpool didn't even bother to try and find it in herself to care.

"Well, Robinflight had decided to accuse me of such a thing again." Mintpool lifted her muzzle. "After two days in the freezing weather, desperately trying to find herbs to help this Clan, I come back and get accused of this. It would've been enough for any cat's anger to get the better of them."

Thistlestar nodded. "Indeed it is. Robinflight, you should know better."

The brown she-cat's jaws gaped open then shut, glaring at Mintpool with hatred gleaming in her gaze. "Sorry, Thistlestar."

"It's not me you should be apologizing to."

Robinflight bit out a quick sorry towards Mintpool, fury alight in her brown eyes.

"Now, it's time for every cat to return to their dens," Thistlestar ordered. "Go along now. And I don't want to hear the news of any other cat accusing Mintpool of such things, am I clear?"

As cats nodded, beginning to pad away to their dens, Mintpool called out a quick, falsely sweet, "Goodnight, Robinflight!" All she received was a glare in response, yet Mintpool felt smugness bubbling up inside her.

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"Morning!" Spotfrost's voice greeted the gray tabby when she first awoke. "How are you feeling?"

Mintpool climbed out of her nest, shaking off any last bits of moss from her pelt. "I'm fine, thanks." 

Spotfrost had been fussing over the gray tabby nonstop since she returned. Mintpool would've loved to go and visit the rogues, to check on Holly and to get away from her niece's worrying. But she figured she'd stirred up enough trouble already and should lay low.

"Would you like to go to EarthClan's camp with me?" Spotfrost asked, swishing her tail hopefully. "Cloverleaf said that they had some spare catmint that we could have in trade for some yarrow."

Mintpool nodded. Spotfrost was adapting into her role of a medicine cat so easily. It was good to know that the gray tabby's absence wouldn't be missed much. She could leave AirClan's camp to visit the rogues knowing that her Clanmates wouldn't get hurt and desperately need her. It was good.

"I'd love to," Mintpool meowed. "I haven't seen Cloverleaf in a long while."

Spotfrost beamed. "Okay! Great! We're leaving at sunhigh. I'll go pack the yarrow." With that, the black-and-white she-cat skipped away into the herb storage.

Mintpool stretched, padding out of the medicine den. The leafbare air, like always, brought gusts of nipping frost. However, today, the gray tabby felt the winds become less harsh, just slightly, but notacible. Newleaf was going to arrive soon.

With newleaf, Mintpool knew, would come the final war between the Clans and the rogues. The final date hadn't been settled, but the gray tabby remembered Moonstar declaring it somewhere in early newleaf.

Gazing around at the camp, Mintpool saw her Clanmates whispering in tight groups. Probably about her. But looking at their appearances, she observed that they'd gotten stronger. Many had now developed more muscles, a result from their hard training over the cold weather.

So the Clans had gotten stronger. They were ready to fight.

But the rogues were ready, too.

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Word Count // 1040

Not Edited

Hi! I'm not a huge fan of the second half of this chapter, it was very much a filler, haha. But don't worry, action will be coming in the next chapter! And if not the next then most likely in the chapter after that. Just know that action will be arriving in the near future!!

Uhhh I put a picture of catmint on top. Honestly, I don't know why. Just because why not, LOL. Also, at the time of writing this, we are one vote away from 300 votes, which I found super cool!

Have a lovely day! Bye!