eternal: hyacinth || warrior cats

chapter 16

viperpaw

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VIPERPAW'S NOSE WRINKLED WITH DISGUST as he rolled the dirty moss into balls and tossed them into the dirt-tunnel.

One more time, he thought to himself. One last time.

Tigerstrike and Frostlight were ducking into the elders den as Viperpaw was spreading out the clean bedding.

"Oh!" Frostlight's ears stood up in surprise. "Sorry, we didn't know you were still working."

"It's okay," Viperpaw answered, straightening as he moved on to Tigerstrike's nest. "I'm almost done."

Tigerstrike twitched his pelt. "Where's your brother? Shouldn't he be helping you?"

"He's on the ThunderClan patrol," Viperpaw replied, trying to keep the jealousy out of his voice. He shouldn't be jealous, he knew that. He should be happy for Snakepaw. Snakepaw deserved it, after all, but he couldn't help but feel some envy that his brother was off on an important diplomatic patrol while he was cleaning the elders' nests. 

"Hmm," Frostlight hummed softly to herself. "Ivorystar chose a lot of young cats for this patrol."

Viperpaw's tail flicked in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," the pale gray she-cat meowed slowly, as if careful to not offend Viperpaw. "Just that other than Waspstrike, all the other cats she chose for the patrol are young warriors."

"Or in Snakepaw's case, not a warrior at all," Tigerstrike guffawed. "I wonder why she did that."

Frostlight gave Tigerstrike's head a gentle slap with her tail, jerking her head not so discreetly at Viperpaw. "I'm sure Snakepaw deserves to go on the patrol," she mewed to Viperpaw kindly. "It's just a little bit of a surprise, as these things are typically carried out by senior warriors. It must be because Snakepaw's really special."

"Yeah," Viperpaw meowed bitterly. "He's real special. You should hear the things our Clanmates say about him." He didn't know why he was so upset all of a sudden.

Frostlight tilted her head. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Viperpaw replied, finishing Tigerstrike's nest. "There you go, all done. Enjoy." He ducked out of the den before either elder could say anything more, returned the moss, and lay in the sun giving himself a long wash, trying to lick out all the negative emotions.

It wasn't Snakepaw's fault he got to go on the patrol and Viperpaw didn't. Plus, if Viperpaw was being honest, he truly wasn't as good as Snakepaw, not by a long shot. He knew he was extremely clumsy and always tripped. Snakepaw deserves this honor, just like Frostlight said.

"Viperpaw!" It was Frozenpaw's voice that brought the gray tom out of his fixed stare into the distance; the white she-cat appeared from the apprentices den, her amber eyes matching the beautiful shade of gold in the sunset. Sweetpaw was by her side.

"Hi Frozenpaw, Sweetpaw," Viperpaw greeted politely. "How were your first days of being an apprentice?"

"Great!" Frozenpaw answered cheerily.

"Exciting, more like," Sweetpaw meowed rather flatly, giving Viperpaw a cold look, "with everything that's going on with ThunderClan." 

"Oh, yeah! Speaking of which, are they back yet?" Frozenpaw craned her neck, trying to look around the camp. "Brooklight's on the patrol, and I'm still waiting for her to tell me what we're doing tomorrow."

"I'm sure she'll find you," Viperpaw offered. 

Sweetpaw flicked her tail. "Wasn't your brother on the patrol?" she pressed at Viperpaw, noticing the way his eyes flashed. "Why weren't you chosen also?"

Viperpaw shrugged weakly. "My mentor wasn't on the patrol, I guess," he replied, knowing that wasn't a completely accurate answer. 

But he didn't want Frozenpaw and Sweetpaw to know how much better Snakepaw was than him. It was unavoidable, considering the four of them would be training with each other, but for some reason, he wanted to delay it as long as possible.

"Hmm," was Sweetpaw's answer, rolling her eyes not so discreetly after Frozenpaw nudged her. "I'm going to go. I'm hungry." And with that, she picked herself up and padded away.

"So," Viperpaw mewed, trying to change the subject, "have you and Sweetpaw picked your nests yet?"

"No, we haven't had the time," Frozenpaw responded. "To be completely honest, I'm not sure there are any spare nests open."

The gray tom could see the logic in her words. ShadowClan hasn't had a lot of apprentices. The last before Viperpaw and Snakepaw that used the den were Foxstorm and his sister, Birdfrost, and who knows before then, with a large gap between the two groups. All the other unused nests had practically turned into piles of trash that nobody bothered to clean out.

"Here, let's go check," Viperpaw offered, pushing himself to his paws. "If there isn't any, I'll help you make some."

"Really?" Frozenpaw asked happily.

"Sure," the gray tom answered. "I know where all the moss and pine needles are kept, I had to spend a moon doing the elders' nests. Plus, I've got time."

Just as Frozenpaw predicted, there were no other nests. The two grabbed their supplies and hurried to fashion two new beds, positioning them beside Viperpaw and Snakepaw's. Viperpaw purposely pushed one closer to Snakepaw's nest, hoping Frozenpaw would take it. 

Snakepaw better thank him later.

By the time the two were finished, the sun was already well past set, and the ThunderClan patrol back at camp. Ivorystar jumped onto the Clanrock, announcing that they were triumphant, that Tigerstar agreed to ally with them. 

However, despite the beneficial outcome, cats were murmuring among themselves, wondering just why, exactly, the whole ordeal had taken so long. Most ShadowClan cats assumed Tigerstar would easily agree to the alliance. Soon, a rumor spread around, that perhaps the ThunderClan leader put some harsh conditions with the alliance that took a long time to hash out.

Ivorystar didn't address the rumor.

"So, how were the ThunderClan cats?" Viperpaw asked Snakepaw that night, when the two were settled into their nests in the apprentices den.

"Weird," Snakepaw grumbled in reply. "This one apprentice named Birdpaw kept trying to talk to me, I guess she thought it was cool that I was on the patrol."

"It is cool!" Viperpaw protested, lifting his head from his paws, flicking his brother teasingly with his tail. "You're only an apprentice and you're already on the diplomatic patrols. I guess you're shooting easily for leader."

"Maybe," Snakepaw mewed with a shrug.

Soon, Frozenpaw and Sweetpaw joined them, climbing into their new nests. 

"So, how were the ThunderClan cats?" Frozenpaw echoed Viperpaw's words. However, the gray tom didn't pay attention to his brother's probably boasting reply. 

All he noticed was that Frozenpaw hadn't taken the nest next to Snakepaw's. Instead, she curled up in the one closer to him, leaving the other to Sweetpaw; Sweetpaw wrinkled her nose and scooched it farther away before settling in.

Viperpaw shot his brother a sympathetic look. Maybe I made it too obvious, he thought.

Snakepaw didn't seem too affected by this, instead recalling the patrol to ThunderClan in much more detail and excitement than what he'd told Viperpaw. And with that, Snakepaw, Viperpaw, and Frozenpaw talked well into the night, until Sweetpaw woke up and grumpily told them to shut up so she could sleep.