eternal: hyacinth || warrior cats

chapter 17

mintpaw

~~~

ANOTHER WEEK PASSED, and one night, after Mintpaw awoke from another nightmare about Berryfern's crazed eyes and terrifying words, threatening her, she found herself pondering a question.

Each of her nightmares about Berryfern included the orange she-cat's warning words. "I have descendants in the living world who are more than happy to assist me in whatever I need."

And that got Mintpaw wondering. Who were Berryfern's descendants? She'd been panicking about them, worrying that the moment she turned around, she'd see a cat with orange fur and insane green eyes trying to kill her, but after thinking about it, there was nobody like that in ShadowClan.

Who in ShadowClan shared a bloodline with Berryfern? They were sleeping here right now, only dens away from Mintpaw. Would they really be willing to kill her at their dead ancestor's bidding?

The gray tabby couldn't fall asleep after this, her mind too caught up on the fact that a Clanmate may be the one to end her life if she did something that upset Berryfern. And whenever she closed her eyes, all she could see were imagines her Clanmates, charging at her with snapping jaws and sharp claws.

Finally, unable to take it, Mintpaw rolled out of her nest and padded over to the pool, lapping a few mouthfuls to help her parched throat. Then she sat, staring into the clear water, just thinking. She stayed like this until the sun came up and the dawn patrol had left camp, until Clearfrost yawned and rose from her nest.

The ragdoll didn't say good morning, she never did. She didn't even acknowledge Mintpaw's early consciousness with more than a twitch of her pelt. "Go clear out the back of the herb storage," was Clearfrost's greeting instead. "And when you're done, lay out the tansy we picked yesterday to dry a little."

It had rained the day previously, so whatever herbs the medicine cats had collected were wet and still glistening with droplets. 

Mintpaw nodded, doing what she was told despite still feeling quite tired. Even though she only slept half the night, it was time for work, just as it always was.

~~~

AS THE NIGHT APPROACHED, Mintpaw was reminded of an event that had completely slipped her mind with everything that was happening.

The Gathering.

This was her first ever Gathering, along with her brothers. It's technically supposed to be her second one, but the actual first one happened too close to RiverClan's attack, so Ivorystar had canceled it.

But now, after more than a moon with no sign of a RiverClan cat, the ShadowClan leader deemed it safe enough to go. It was all any of the apprentices could talk about, other than Mintpaw, of course, who cared about very little things in this world right now.

She didn't know why, she supposed it was upsetting that she couldn't hype herself up about the Gathering. She remembered being so excited to attend when she was a kit, but now everything just felt gloomy. 

She couldn't remember the last time she felt happy. Well, maybe when she met Dapplepaw, but she was a hundred percent sure being friends with the silver bengal was against all sorts of rules.

On the way to the Fourtrees, she couldn't help but notice thick tension among her Clanmates. RiverClan had stopped coming to Gatherings moons ago, after the war began, and now with WindClan allied with them, there's wonder as to whether or not the moor cats will show up as well, and how to behave toward them.