Whisper: A Warrior Cat Fan Fiction

Chapter five: Sealpaw

Sunpool cast one last hateful at Greyfeather, and then spun around and rushed out of the medicine cat den, brushing so close to the thorns that she left tufts of golden fur on the branches.

Sealpaw twitched her ears. She realized that her tail was fluffed up to nearly twice its size.

With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to Greyfeather. "I'm sorry about this," she mewed, "Sunpool's been a little out of whack ever since Saltkit died."

The grey warrior dipped his head slightly in acknowledgment, but his gaze was locked on the den entrance, where Sunpool had disappeared.

"Well, I'll go get the marigold then," Sealpaw said after an awkward silence. She turned and squeezed through the gap in the boulders, padding down the narrow, damp-scented tunnel. The little cavern where Sunpool slept desperately needed a cleaning. Clumps of moss were scattered about the floor, mixing in with dry, discarded herbs.

That's probably going to be my job to clean that up, she thought, her tail twitching, How hard it keep your nest in one piece?

Luckily, the far wall was in better shape. There, pockets had been carved out in the packed dirt and herbs were tucked tidily inside of them.

Sealkit remembered when she was just a few moons old and would totter down here while her brother and sister were wrestling outside. Sunpool had shown her the most common herbs and their uses, and taught her the single most important lesson a medicine cat had to learn: know your herbs. Know where they are, what they do, what condition they're best kept in, when they lose their medical properties, their side effects and preferred habitats, know if their safe for nursing queens, know how they will effect little kits.

Thankfully, it would seem that Sunpool had obeyed the lesson she had taught. Sealpaw quickly identified the scent of marigold and her nose lead her to a large stash of fresh green leaves. She snagged a few on her claw, grabbed a clump of cobwebs and limped back up to under the thorn bush.

Emerging into the dim sunlight, she saw Silverpaw standing in front of Greyfeather, tail twitching. The grey tom was speaking to her.

"Look, we'll go for a tour of the island later, okay? I'll take you hunting later too, if you stop whining. But for now, you need to stick around camp. Cleaning the elder's den isn't that hard of a task. Maybe they'll tell you a story."

For a moment, Sealpaw thought that her sister was going to spit in Greyfeather's face. Silverpaw's tail lashed, the breeze sending tiny bits of moss flying into the air. Her eyes shone like pits of blue fire as she glared at her mentor, whiskers curled back to her cheeks. Greyfeather returned the stare, unintimidated and unapologetic.

"Fine," Silverpaw snarled, whipping around and stalking out of the den.

Sealpaw couldn't help but wince sympathetically. Even although her sister might get fussy whenever it came to chores, no apprentice deserved to spend their first day out of the nursery cleaning the elder's den.

She slipped to Greyfeather's side and began chewing the marigold in a pulp. "You know," she said though a mouthful of plant juice, "The wound on your neck really isn't a serious injury. I'll just plaster some of this on you and you can take Silverpaw out to see the territory. Just stay away from battle training for now."

Greyfeather stiffened, "You don't understand the situation."

Sealpaw snorted, "Don't worry, no one will believe Sunpool's story without a great deal of speculation. After all, her theory doesn't really make sense. If you killed Saltkit and Rosewhisker you did it with the advantage of surprise. If you were trying to kill another cat-"