Splashflight's Mistake (book one)

Chapter 14

Brightpaw gave Splashpaw a look of sadness before he padded up to his mother. "I'm ready, mom," he said loudly, his voice wavering a slight bit. Aquastar looked fondly at her son, with sad and proud eyes.

"Splashpaw wishes to train in the ways of medicine. Nightgaze, come forward please?" She called.

Splashpaw touched noses with Nightgaze and smiled, puffing up his chest in pride to hide his twisting, knotting belly. Aquastar hugged her only son, tears of pride in her eyes.

"Splashpaw, I wish you could have been an amazing warrior, and that one day, you could stand beside me as deputy, but that is not the path StarClan has laid for you. I respect your wishes, my son, and I send my luck along your journey as a medicine cat," she said to him. Splashpaw dipped his head and retreated back beside Nightgaze.

Suddenly the tom whipped around. "Remember your duties," he said in a low voice, his blind eyes boring into Splashpaw's. Splashpaw gulped.

"I-I don't know what-" Nightgaze interrupted him with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Just remember your place, Splashpaw. You are no longer a warrior apprentice. This code is different, I expect you to know that," he said seriously, flicking his tail subtly at Brightpaw. "Keep your head out of the clouds," he finished.

Splashpaw stared at him, dumbfounded. "Nightgaze, what are you going on about now?" A worried mew came from the entrance of the den. Splashpaw let out a sigh of relief when Nightgaze forgot all about Splashpaw and turned to Redstrike.

"Nothing. What do you need?" He asked, sitting down and curling his tail-tip around his paws. Splashpaw looked fondly at his former mentor. Venomrain and Redstrike had been inseparable since Venomrain's warrior ceremony, and now she was expecting his kits. He purred.

Redstrike gave a worried glance at his mate, laying in the clearing. "Venomrain's getting pains in her belly. I'm worried. Its too early!" He cried. Splashpaw had never seen Redstrike this fidgety before. He was always so calm and collected!

Nightgaze nodded. "Calm down. It's plenty natural for a kitting to begin a bit early. Sometimes the kits come a few days late, sometimes they're earlybirds. She'll be fine," he soothed the tom. Turning to Splashpaw, he listed the herbs he needed. "I need chervil, borage, poppy, cobweb, marigold, and a few sturdy sticks. Meet me in the clearing. Redstrike, you come with me," Nightgaze ordered, and left Splashpaw to race into the store, grabbing the herbs he was already so familiar with.

Scrabbling his claws around, he sniffed, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light. He saw the bright flowering bud of a marigold, and he snatched a few stems up in his jaws, placing it into a pile outside the entrance to the store. Then he wrapped cobweb around his paw, and shook a few poppy seeds onto a beech leaf, and smothered it in honey to ease it down a queens throat. He got the chervil, borage, and wrapped it all up with a vine in a big bundle. Then he took it up in his mouth and raced outside to his new mentor. His first kitting! He had to get it right.