Legacy: Timeless (Book 2)

Chapter 27: Spark A Fire

Chapter 27: Spark A Fire

Scorch sliced her claws through the fuzzy little shoots. The growing pile of moss besides her was half full of dried pieces that would have to be tossed out, but she was too touchy to be bothered with an interruption in her system of clawing up the spongy substance.

"That's enough, let's take it back to camp now," the order came from Flashpaw who was helping her. The smaller size of the RiverClan apprentice's moss pile didn't spark any pride in Scorch though. No one would notice anyways and she certainly didn't care at all.

"Okay, but I have to sort through it and make sure there are no thorns in it," Scorch mewed quietly, shifting her paws away and ruffling through the pile.

"No need, there are no elders in the camp, and the warriors can handle a thorn," Flashpaw mewed, sounding awkward under the oppressing atmosphere that enveloped them.

"Normally, I would chance it, but those warriors are injured. A thorn in a wound would both really hurt and renew the chance of infection; lets just do the extra work now and not risk the life of a warrior," Scorch sighed.

After thinking her words over for half-a-second, Flashpaw agreed and they threw out the pieces of moss that were stiff and the ones that had thorns or briars. Then, in silence, they picked up their bundles and started back as they walked shoulder-to-shoulder but far apart enough that neither could guess the others thoughts.

It had been four days since the failed raid and although some cats were still happy to blame her for the defeat, the wounds were healing and they were forgetting. But Scorch was having a hard time forgetting, between her fear of Nightwing, anxiety over the loyalty of the cats, and the worries about the future, she had been forced to go find her own poppy head and lap up a dose of the seeds every night before going to sleep.

And she had done so in secret. Flickertail had lectured her before about how the seeds were meant to be used; only if injured cats couldn't sleep or were hysterically distressed. She supposed she could fall over the hysterically distressed circle, but the doses she was taking were heavier and put her to sleep instantly in such a state that she was oblivious to everything else and she stayed just like that until the sun rose.

No cat else had noticed, and she doubted they would. But it felt like she was doing something wrong, unhealthy even, by taking the coward's way to sleep in order to escape her own mind. It will go away after this war, when I'm not dealing with this anymore, she told herself that and prayed it would be true.

Now they were at camp and entered along the long wooden log that the cats had rolled through the marsh so that they could enter and exit camp while keeping their paws dry. "Lets take this to Flickertail, and then put the rest in the warriors den in case anyone needs more moss in their nests," Flashpaw mewed.

Scorch nodded and followed her across to the medicine-cat den, a small fern den interwoven with pine branches to keep it dark and covered. Scorch felt as ease in the den with the smell of pine and familiar herbs wafting toward her. She peeked in the herb stocks, nervous about how low they were.

"Will there be enough for another fight?" Scorch asked cautiously.

Flickertail let out a long sigh as he finished his thanks for the moss, "It would be very close, if no cat is seriously injured then it would be okay but..." Flickertail shook his head, his tail flicking restlessly behind him in agitation.

"Lets go put the rest n the warriors den," Flashpaw nudged her as she kept totaling up the amount of herbs left. Scorch nodded and they left, putting the two balls of moss inside the warriors den where a few cats were sleeping.