Berrystar's Experience

Chapter 7

"Ahem." A meow came from the left of Berrypaw. Berrypaw opened her eyes, and grunted.

"Wha-" She noticed it was the sassiest cat of them all, Duskpaw. Berrypaw felt her heart drop, she felt like she was going to get bitten on the neck like a piece of prey.

Duskpaw huffed. "Did I wake you up? Not like I care, but you shift a lot in your sleep. So, you ended up at the entrance of the den." She snorted. Berrypaw looked to her right. To her right, there had been the rest of the camp.

She jumped up to her paws. "My bad, Duskpaw." Berrypaw moved out of the way as Duskpaw made her way out of the den. Berrypaw let out a sigh of relief. No other cat was in the den as she looked around at the empty nests. "Ashpaw..." Her voice trailed away for a moment until it came back. "He left me to sleep?" She whispered to herself.

Before leaving the den, she stretched and got herself freshened up for the day. She marched out of the den, but skidded to a stop. A tortoiseshell warrior was standing in front of her. Staring up at the cat's face, they let out a meow.

"Hollowstar wanted me to let you know that your job right now is to clean out the elder's ticks. Not because she doesn't like you, but that's just your job right now. You'll have to get used to it, every warrior has done it in their apprentice ages." The she-cat meowed. "I'm Leapfire, by the way. If you have any questions, just ask me. Or Birdshade, the medicine cat."

"...Okay." Berrypaw let out a long sigh. I was really looking forward to training today. Before Berrypaw knew it, Leapfire had left her sight. With a sigh, Berrypaw made her way to the elder's den. An elder had already meowed before Berrypaw could say anything.

"Do you even know how to remove ticks?" The orange elderly tom meowed. "Oh, I'm joking, you youngster. You don't have to remove our ticks, we just got them removed yesterday." He purred.

"That's a relief-I-I mean.. thank you." She huffed. Berrypaw dipped her head to the elder. She was about to leave before the blind elder meowed,

"Don't expect to not ever clean our ticks though." He rasped. "Oh, and I'm Squirrelthistle, and you use mouse bile from Birdshade to clean ticks. A little tap of mouse bile should do the trick." He coughed, then finished. Quickly nodding to Squirrelthistle, she bounded out of the den in happiness.

"I'm going to do something interesting!" She meowed to herself. She wanted to go out in the territory, but how would she get past the cats guarding the camp entrance? She remembered hearing the tanish tom's name called at night. Immediately, she had an idea.

"Pssssst. Ryeberry." Whispering, she inched closer, but she stopped as soon as Ryeberry turned around. Berrypaw noticed he was going to talk, she hissed, "Shhh! That cat's sleeping, right?" She asked.

The young warrior, Ryeberry tilted his head, wondering why Berrypaw was doing this. He slowly nodded.

"U-uhm... well, a elder called for you, the elder was coughing." She came up with a lie. Ryeberry's pupils grew a big larger in alarm. Without thinking, he raced to the elder's den with worry. Berrypaw snickered, realizing that she had actually convinced him to go away. She quickly but quietly went past the napping warrior, who's pelt was very sleek, and dark.

As soon as she was outside of the camp, she felt very excited. Then, she realized so many cats were on patrols, so she would have to be cautious. She hid in the brambles, hoping she wouldn't be seen by the hunting patrol returning. Her ears flicked when Brackenpaw snapped as soon as Berrypaw made a rustling sound in the brambles.

"Intruder!" He snarled viciously. "Show yourself!" The deputy, Caninefur turned her attention to the brambles. She snorted as Berrypaw collapsed from the bramble bushes with her fur tangled with thorns. Brackenpaw had a look of sorrow on his face for snapping at his friend.