A Dangerous Path

Chapter 6

Frosttiger dropped the mouse at Stripepaws paws, recently he had been trying to extract information from the silver she-cat but she refused to talk. Understandably so, she was still suffering trauma from her injury. Now infection had become a problem but Sablepaw had been treating it with sweet-sedge that Rainpebble had gotten from Lakemist and some horsetail.

Now the small she-cat could eat but she stopped talking completely. "Give her time." Rainpebble mewed from where he sat, taking out some wet moss that had been left carelessly by the small pool near the entrance of the herb store by Sablepaw. "Sablepaw, I shouldn't be the one doing this!" He called, glaring at the small ginger she-cat as she as-sed. "You told me to take the stems off the tansy!" She accused, "Don't chastise me for following orders." 

Rainpebble snorted but didn't reply, "Stripepaw," He mewed gently, "Can you tell us what happened?" The aforementioned looked up, but didn't answer. The gray tabby let out a soft sigh and turned away, "Frosttiger, your not a medicine cat, go to warrior things." The tom said without looking up, flicking his tail to point to the entrance of his den.

Frosttiger was about to object, but he knew that it was true. He hadn't been out in the forest for two days, but instead had been wallowing in the medicine cat den, attempting to coax an answer out of the silver apprentice. 

Accepting defeat, he nodded and walked out of the den. The warm air of green-leaf did little to help the cold claw that gripped his heart. He knew that Lionclaw had attacked his own apprentice, for what purpose it was unknown but unless he had hard evidence he knew Graystar would dismiss him. He sighed, shaking his head to clear his tangled thoughts and padded over to Eagletalon, who was setting up a Dawn patrol.

"I want to join this patrol." He mewed, earning a shocked look from the russet tom before he nodded quickly, "Chestnutflight is leading it, Foxfur, Sparkpaw, Goldenspruce, and Tangledpaw are joining." His ear flicked slightly when he said Tangledpaw.

A couple of warriors, and the elders, had been muttering about the tom lately, irritated that Heatherpaw, who should of been a warrior, was the sole reason he wasn't a warrior. The she-cat had been splitting time between training and being with Frosttiger so that she was able to train well. She was expected to be able to be a warrior a half-moon after the Gathering, that was in a quarter-moon, much to the relief of Blueheart who was getting aggravated with her. 

He smiled at his former apprentice, despite the whispers and obvious disapproval, Tangledpaw took it happily. He got to normal warrior duties and helped out whenever he could, he was proud to have trained such a respectable tom. 

"Eagletalon!" Chesnutflight flinched at the roar of Lionclaw making Frosttiger shoot him a confused look that wasn't noticed as the brown tom had snapped his attention to the tom trotting up. 

His muzzle was stained with blood, but it was obvious that the tom didn't care, there was also many cuts and scrapes on his flank and neck but Frosttiger was snapped from analyzing as Lionclaw practically yowled, "Kittypets invaded our territory!"

Frosttiger snorted, "So? Their kittypets." He sneered, earning a glare from Featherfur who was laying a couple of tail lengths away. He shot her a apologetic smile before continuing, "They can't be that harmful."

"These one are." Lionclaw mewed grimly, eyes darkening.

Chestnutflights eyes narrowed, "Oh I'm sure." He mewed, tail flicking. Lionclaw tore his gaze from his paws to the longfurrred cat. The air around them was tense, Frosttiger could see both of the toms muscles tensing, ready to defend themselves if the other leaped.

But that didn't happen.

"Lionclaw!" Rainpebble growled, "Come here and let me dress you properly, now!"