Why have wings if you don't want to fly?
That's what Monarchwing has been wondering her whole life, ever since she was a kit. She belongs to ButterflyClan, a clan made up of cats with both wings and horns. Yet use of magic and flying are strictly p...
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A/N This chapter took so long to write because I was soooooo bored, but it was nessescary. I tried to add as much humour as possible so you don't fall asleep. I drew this map so freaking long ago in August that's how long this chapter took. ~Goldenfeather
Monarchpaw awoke to concerned faces peering at her. "What happened?" she asked.
"You passed out, but lucky for you Snowwing has some basic medicine knowledge and knew what to do," mewed Tigereyes calmly.
Monarchpaw blinked, her head fuzzy. She couldn't remember much of what happened before she passed out. Something bad... the details escaped her.
"Can you stand up?" Peacockpaw asked.
"We don't want to rush her, Peacockpaw. Don't be impatient," Larkstar mewed at the same time Monarchpaw replied "I think so."
She got to her feet, and besides a rush of dizziness and vertigo as well as darkness lining her vision, she felt fine. "Are we going to see the rest of the territory now?" she asked.
Jayfrost sighed. "Two near-disasters on the same innocent territory tour. Two more and we'll set a record."
Monarchpaw briefly wondered what happened on the one holding the current record, and why they kept count at all.
They headed in a diagonal away from the cliff, and Monarchpaw felt herself feeling better the further she went from the mist. She scanned her memory for what they were doing next. The bramble patch, or was that later? She couldn't keep track of all the instructions since they were said only once. As one of the mentors confirmed her guess, she was surprised.
A few minutes later a large tangle of thorns came into view. It looked like a larger, messier version of some of the dens in camp without the decorations. She assumed this was where they got it from.
"This is the Bramble Patch," mewed Snowwing. "Pretty self-explanatory."
"Any brambles we take grow back almost immediately," elaborated Jayfrost. "It is one of the three magical Gifts on the island, from the ancient times."
Crowblaze rolled his eyes. "Now look what you've done! Once you've got Jayfrost on the topic of the ancient days he'll never stop talking."
"I think it's fascinating, from what little information I gleaned from the elders before they all died. The medicine cat knows a little about the Gifts also." Jayfrost did indeed look like he could continue all day, but the others were shifting restlessly and so he snapped his mouth shut, looking a little dejected.
As they continued moving Monarchpaw felt sorry for Jayfrost, who was now walking slowly at the back of the group. She dropped back to speak with him. "I think it sounds fascinating."
Jayfrost seemed to visibly light up. "Really? You think so?" Monarchpaw nodded. "This is basically my life's work. I have discovered everything I can about the history of our island, from the elders that were alive before the Sickness. But even they didn't know much, though they talked of a "rule of silence" they heard about from their elders. Even they didn't know because it was passed from before they were born. But it sounds like something happened long ago, and no one was allowed to talk about it. And after awhile, it was forgotten that there were things that we forgot about. Except for me. I feel like I need to find the secrets of our past, because no one else seems to care our ancestors were keeping something from us."
