Hostile

15

      "Over here." Frostcloud said.

  Foxpaw didn't seem to acknowledge Frostcloud's voice. She dawdled behind the mentor with her tail and head low. The warrior had to keep herself from rolling her eyes. A bored apprentice looks like a sulking kit. She thought to herself.

  "Can you tell me where to find moss?" Frostcloud quizzed.

  Heaving a sigh, Foxpaw said, "In the shade."

  "Er, more or less." Frostcloud considered, "But tell me where more specifically- you know this."

  Foxpaw flicked her ears, her dull eyes scanning the forest. Then suddenly, they lit up, "Ferretpaw!"

  Frostcloud followed her apprentice's sights, and her eyes landed on Doeface and Ferretpaw as they padded back towards the direction of camp. Though, they had halted in their tracks to face Foxpaw.

"Foxpaw!" Ferretpaw beamed as she bounded towards the fluffier apprentice. "Doeface just showed me how to climb trees!"

  "Lucky." Frostcloud could hear Foxpaw groan under her breath.

  "Why? What are you doing?" Ferretpaw asked with a tilt in her head.

  "Collecting moss." Foxpaw said quietly. Her back was towards Frostcloud, but the warrior could imagine the exaggerated look of boredom on her face.

  "For Needlepelt? That's so nice of you, Foxpaw." Doeface purred as she got close enough to the cluster of feral cats.

  "Doeface showed me the best places in PineClan to find moss already." Ferretpaw said sympathetically, "It is kind of dull."

  Frostcloud perked her ears slightly at the opportunity, "Oh? Then maybe you can help Foxpaw remember where to find moss then?"

  The tortoiseshell apprentice swung her head around with a glare, "I already told you where to find it!"

  "It's more complicated than 'in the shade'." Frostcloud said sternly.

  "In the shade." Doeface repeated with an entertained, light purr.

  "In moist, shaded areas." Ferretpaw answered Frostcloud, "Without too many weeds."

  "Well done." Doeface praised. Frostcloud eyed the wirey Ferretpaw. Of Leafear's litter, she was certainly the most level-headed. Though she could be just as rowdy as her siblings, Frostcloud had witnessed.

  "Let's help Foxpaw and Frostcloud find moss." Ferretpaw said, turning towards Doeface.

  "Would that be okay?" Doeface asked, picking her eyes back towards Frostcloud.

  "Of course!" Frostcloud beamed. Maybe some of Ferretpaw's attitude would rub off on Foxpaw. A cat could dream, at least. Then to Ferretpaw, "Why don't you and Foxpaw guide us to the moss?"

  "That sounds like a good idea." Doeface acknowledged while Ferretpaw and Foxpaw began weaving between the trees.

  "How is Ferretpaw so well-mannered?" Frostcloud asked Doeface quietly as they walked.

  Doeface shrugged, "I don't think I did anything. She just began to relax when we trained- like it was all the energy inside her that made her so aggressive."

  Disappointed, Frostcloud twitched her ears. Doeface went on, "Foxpaw will become less temperamental as time goes on, I'm sure."

  "Over here!" Ferretpaw guided, leading the cats to a partially up-turned tree. The sound of rushing water splashed not far off.

  "Well done." Frostcloud said. This tree in particular was one of her favorites to gather moss from. Had Doeface already shown Ferretpaw where to find it? That would have made the search a little easier, but maybe that didn't matter.

  Frostcloud poked her head into the tangle of roots. Unsurprisingly, moss was thriving. In the darkest crevices, small mushrooms spawned, along with one large, lone mushroom growing in the center of the moss.

  "Go ahead and gather some, Foxpaw." The warrior said, pulling herself away from the tree. "Enough for a nest- a little more even, since moss shrinks as it dries. Just be careful not to bite on the mushrooms."

  "On the what?" Doeface asked.

  "There's a mushroom." Frostcloud explained, "I just told Foxpaw not to nip it on accident."

  "Oh, I see." Doeface said after a pause.

  Eventually, Foxpaw was backing out from beneath the tree, a damp bundle of moss dragging after her. "Keep the moss off the ground." Frostcloud critiqued, "Otherwise you'll soak it in mud. Needlepelt doesn't deserve that."

  Something irritated flashed behind Foxpaw's eyes, but she lifted her head nonetheless. The front of her chest became wet as the moss clung to it and almost absorbed her legs into its mass.

  "Then let's go back to camp." Doeface said. With her tail high, she set a brisk pace back to the bramble-coated dip in the forest she and the other cats called home.

  And while, initially, Foxpaw could keep up, her speed began to falter. "We'll have to slow down a bit." Frostcloud announced.

  Frostcloud could remember being in Foxpaw's pawsteps. Wet moss was heavy and weighed down on her neck then, but Cricketlegs never carried the moss for her. She became stronger because of that.

  "We're almost there." Frostcloud consoled lightly as Foxpaw marched past her halted position. She masked herself with a proud demeanor, but Frostcloud noticed the wobble in her legs.

  Doeface seemed reluctant to move slower, so Frostcloud said, "You can go ahead without Foxpaw and I, if you'd like."

  "That's okay." Doeface replied, her voice suddenly higher, "I was just ready to collapse in my nest, is all."

  The cats travelled silently. Only their muffled paw steps escaped their bodies. Along with the sound of moss dragging lightly across the undergrowth.

  Eventually, the bramble that surrounded the slope into camp came into view. And at their same dull pace, the cats made their way into the clearing. "Set the moss on top of the collapsed tree." Frostcloud instructed, motioning her jaw towards the elders and warriors dens.

  Tired, Foxpaw did as asked. "Normally we should aim to collect dryer moss than what we did for bedding." Frostcloud explained, "But we can just leave this in the sun for a bit."

  Working to catch her breath from the hike, Foxpaw nodded. Sympathetic towards her exhaustion, Frostcloud opted to let the apprentice out of offering her help towards the medicine cats. "Let's take a break, then. And before dusk we'll give this bedding to Needlepelt."

  "Okay." Foxpaw murmured. There was no attitude in her tone, though she didn't seem thankful for the rest either.

  But Frostcloud shrugged it off. Every Pinecat seemed so sure Leafear and Dustclaw's litter would become more tame over time. Maybe they were right.