Umberkit's Climb

Chapter 5

"Who do you think your mentor will be?"

There was only a quarter moon left until Umberkit and Silverkit would become apprentices. At this point, there wasn't a cat in the clan who didn't know how much the former wanted to be medicine cat, and that the latter's ambitions were high. A rumor was going around that Goldstar was having a tough time deciding who would mentor the white striped-tabby.

"I'm not sure." Silverkit admitted. "I mean, I really want Needleclaw as my mentor, but-"

"It's rare for kin to be mentor and apprentice." Umberkit finished, quoting what Moonshine had told her.

Silverkit's ears drooped. "But if I'm going to be leader, I need the right training! Who better to teach me than the deputy?"

Umberkit stared at him with a serious expression. "How many times do you have to be told? You don't just get to be leader because you want to! You have to work for it!"

Silverkit's ear twitched and he got a smug expression. "Yeah, but since our father is deputy, I have an edge over the others."

Umberkit sighed. "I hope you realize that Goldstar has only lost one of her lives. She has plenty of fight left. And she's quite young. You'll be waiting a long time ever if you DO get to be deputy."

Silverkit's eyes narrowed. "But-"

Umberkit didn't hear what he said after that because she was darting towards the camp entrance. I smell blood! As she approached, the sunhigh hunting patrol consisting of Hawkflurry, Emberpaw, Needleclaw, and Lionblossom came in only carrying a couple frogs. Their pelts were matted and several had blood coming out of wounds. "What happened?!" She asked frantically.

Emberpaw answered. "Those mangy rabbit-chasers fought us for the stupidest reason!" He spat.

"And stole the prey we caught." Lionblossom growled, her tail lashing. "They only left us with the frogs because they're 'prey worthy for snake-hearts like us'."

Hawkflurry seemed the worst in terms of wounds, because he was limping on one of his paws. "They claimed that they spotted Emberpaw across the border when he caught a thrush."

"Even though I didn't! Needleclaw was watching me the whole time!" Emberpaw hissed.

Umberkit was weaving between the cats smelling their wounds, only half listening to them. "Emberpaw, lick the blood off of your paw. Needleclaw, take your tail off the ground and clean it or it'll get infected. Hawkflurry, that isn't dislocated, is it?"

"What in the world happened?" Came Goldstar's concerned voice. Umberkit could also smell Moonshine behind her, along with dock leaves. While the cats from the patrol restated the events, Umberkit and Moonshine applied the dock to their wounds, and Hawkflurry was taken to the medicine den to get a better look at.

"So what should we do about this, Goldstar?" Needleclaw asked.

Goldstar's ear twitched. "We can't ignore this, that I know. But I will not lead my cats into battle over a border skirmish."

Emberpaw's eyes narrowed. "So we're just going to let them get away with it?!"

Goldstar shook her head. "Of course not. I'll lead a hunting patrol near the Windclan border close to dusk. We'll see if anything happens then."

Emberpaw looked dissatisfied, but didn't argue. Umberkit sniffed at his paw again. "Emberpaw, you should grab something from the pile and share it with someone, then take a rest till the end of the day. I don't want you to put too much pressure on it."

Emberpaw looked like he was going to argue, but thought better of it. "You're gonna be the medicine cat." He sighed. "Do you want to share a frog with me?"

Umberkit's whiskers twitched in surprise. "Sure. Let's meet by the apprentice den. I wanna see how Hawkflurry is doing." Emberpaw nodded and Umberkit headed to the medicine den. When she got there, she poked her head in. "Was it dislocated?"

"Yes." Moonshine said regretfully. She had known Umberkit wanted to see how to fix it. "He'll be just fine it he rests for a day. He'll be able to keep training Emberpaw after tomorrow."

Satisfied, Umberkit left and went to the apprentice's den, where Emberpaw was waiting. She held a bright expression until she saw his appearance. His emotion was very serious.

So there was a reason he asked. Umberkit confirmed. I should've guessed. She sat in front of him and curled her tail around her paws.

He gestured to the frog with his tail. "You can have first bite."

Umberkit blinked at his offer and crouched to take a bite. When she looked up, he asked the question. "Why do you want to be medicine cat?"

Umberkit gulped down her bite of frog while Emberpaw went to get his own. "Well...because I'm not interested in being a warrior."

"You could be a queen, like Flowerpelt." He suggested.

Umberkit shook her head. "No, I don't like the idea of that. I mean, kits are super important for the continuation of the clan, but most she-cats end up having a litter at some point. I don't need to. But I want to be as useful to the clan as possible, so I want to help Moonshine heal."

"But you can't!" Emberpaw burst out. His ears drooped after saying it, and he looked ashamed.

"What do you mean I can't?" Umberkit asked, offended. "Do you think I'm not good enough?"

"No! It's not that! I just-" Emberpaw cut himself off. He looked really embarrassed.

Umberkit tilted her head. Then it hit her. "Emberpaw! I'm sorry! I didn't know!" She shouted, shocked.

"It's...it's okay." He said, though his tone betrayed disappointment. "You shouldn't give up what you want to do just for me. Besides, even if you knew, would you really have chosen against being medicine cat for me?"

Umberkit glanced at her paws guiltily. I guess not. "I still really would love to be close friends with you..."

Emberpaw gave a small grin. "Okay. As long as that's not too awkward for you."

Umberkit licked his cheek. "Of course not!"

Emberpaw purred. "Alright."