ThunderClan's Loyalty, Book One

Chapter Seventeen

-August 16th-
-Cloudpaw is 6 moons old-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cloudpaw woke up from her slumber and yawned. The warm body that had pressed beside her was now gone and she was alone in the medicine cats' sleeping den.

   She looked across to her empty nest and flattened her ears.

   A nightmare had wracked her dreams once more and she had resorted to bunking with Icetail; something that she did most nights now.

   I wish they would stop, Icetail doesn't say anything but I think he's at least a little annoyed by it.

   She sighed, shook the dark thoughts out of her head, and jumped up, determined to put her all into her training, as she did every day. The thing about her night terrors, is that they seemed to drift away in the light of day and only begin to rebuild themselves when the sky darkened.

   Icetail's long pale gray tail was poking out from the bramble screen. As she got closer, the scent of nettles reached her, confirming to her that he was setting some out to dry in the sun.

   She burst through the brambles beside him, an instant purr escaping her as the unusually warm rays of the sun beat down on her; unusual as these days the sun tended to stay covered in the mornings and come out near Sunhigh.

   “Morning!” she purred.

   Icetail spread out the last nettle stalk and waved his tail. “Hi,” he mewed.

   Cloudpaw rolled her eyes playfully and padded towards the center of the clearing where the prey-pile was sparse from last night's meal, but still held a small amount of plump prey.

   She grabbed herself a vole and then a squirrel, before starting to peel back the thick fur and skin off its belly and sides to make it easier for Icetail to eat. She took the prey back to the entrance where Icetail was waiting for her and dropped the squirrel at his paws.

   He gave her a stoney look which, she knew by now in the short amount of time she had been his apprentice, meant he was grateful.

   She dug into her vole and was satisfied to see that Icetail wasn't having much trouble at all. A few more decent meals and maybe he won't be so painfully fragile looking, Cloudpaw thought. He may be old but it wasn't like he was extremely ancient, and his thin build wasn't helping to promote that fact.

   “Well, come on, we have to check on the nursery today. Amberspark's kits are still young and weak and Lizardstorm's due to kit sometime soon. We need to check that everything's in order,” Icetail stated once he was done.

   Cloudpaw nodded excitedly. I want to know if Amberspark's named them yet! she thought.

   They headed across the clearing and Cloudpaw purred as the sound of tiny squeaks reached her ears. She pushed inside the warm bramble den, Icetail following at her tail.

   Amberspark was lapping the fluffy pelts of her two kits, who were nearly a half a moon old now, while Lizardstorm was chatting with Goldenfern, who sat beside the queen’s nest with her shoulders hunched.

   “I don't know, I just don't feel comfortable with. . . ,” Goldenfern trailed away as they entered, while the two queens perked up at their arrival, mewing in welcome and thanks to them coming. Goldenfern only stared at them. After a moment, her eyes glanced away and began darting between Icetail and the den entrance.

   Cloudpaw noticed and was puzzled, but got distracted as Icetail spoke, already beside Amberspark and sniffing the kits over.

   “Squirrelkit and Barkkit are doing great from what I've seen, but I'm glad you think so too," Amberspark purred, her golden eyes glowing with trust. Cloudpaw beamed with pride at that. She named Squirrelkit after my suggestion! she thought happily.