WARRIORS // Uprooted

Chapter 5

The woods were unusually quiet. She supposed it must've been because of the fox fight that happened earlier in the morning; remembering the wounds littering Coot, Crow, Gullstone and Muntjacstone's pelts was unsettling and she tried to push it out of her mind.

She couldn't blame the world for going silent after that.

Today her assignment had been to look for herbs for Acornflower, the Medicine Cat. She'd never met Acornflower, and she wondered if these herbs were to help her heal the Clustercats that had been injured. Hopefully..

Oh, here's some marigold, she thought as she walked up to the pretty, wide flowers. She nosed around at the base until she made contact with the stem, and then snapped it off. Hopefully there'd be more along this trail - that'd make her life a whole lot easier, for sure!

Scattered around the woods she found some parsley, burdock and comfrey closer to the Great River. Its distant roaring made her curious, but she had a duty to fulfill.

Something strange caught Leechstone's nose. She wished Dunlin were at her side so she could ask what it was, but he was back home on domestic duties. So the only normal course of action was to go and investigate by herself.

She followed the strangely burning scent to its source in a small clearing with a stone in the middle. Atop the stone was a large torch, which still smoldered and burned with fire on the tip.

Fascinated, Leechstone set down her herbs and padded over. Someone must've lost it, she thought, or forgot it up here. No Burner would ever just leave their torch unattended, right? Especially a torch still burning. Maybe an apprentice left it, she thought. But she couldn't remember any Burners being mentors...

She crawled up the rock. If there was noone around it couldn't do harm to investigate it, right?

She nosed at the not-burning part, and stared into the fluttering light of the fire. No wonder Burners were so pretentious... This stuff was mesmerizing. She could sense its raw power, its naturalness, without even touching it. This was a creature of the natural world that could and would kill everything given the chance. 

She remembered how her uncle Mist once told her about the North Badlands: how it had been seared and choked by flames and now lay lifeless. Their homeforest could turn into such a wasteland, if the fire was given half the opportunity to...

"What. Do you think. You're doing."

Leechstone turned around and raised her ears. A queen with soft, sleek golden fur stood there, slightly bristly as they locked eyes. "Someone left a torch here," she mewed.

"I did."

"I wanted to check it out..." Fear began to set in Leechstone's chest. "I wasn't gonna do anything with it."

"Sure you weren't," the queen - Sheepstep, she remembered - said as she approached. "Look, kitten, you better watch yourself. You might get hurt."

"Wha-" Leechstone began, but was interrupted when Sheepstep slapped the torch, sending it hard flatside into Leechstone's side. She let out a cry and fell off the large stone, flailing on the ground as searing pain spread across her side. "Ow! OW! You hurt me!" she wailed.

"I know," Sheepstep said, picking up her torch. "Go get back to harvesting. Acornflower needs herbs for Sunnykit's cold."

As Leechstone stumbled back to her little bundle, she paused and turned. "What about the Thralls and Stones that got hurt in the fox fight?"

"What about 'em?" Sheepstep grunted, curling her tail. "We can make more."

The words stung Leechstone. "Oh," she mewed. "Okay."

She picked up the herbs, and she left.

***

"Mommy?" Leechstone mewed as they settled into their rations for the night. Each Stone had gotten one mouse, and Brindle had gotten a thin squirrel. "I have a question. It's about... RootClan."

"Yes?" Brindle asked, as she groomed Foxstone. "What is it, dear?"

"In the woods today, while we were searching for herbs, I found... a torch left behind by one of the Burners, Sheepstep. I went up to look at it and she yelled at me and threw the torch at me, and.. I was wondering.. why can RootClan have fire, and we can't?"

Brindle sighed, but didn't stop grooming Foxstone for a few moments.

"We don't have the intelligence to handle fire," Their dam said at last, "Of course we don't. That's why we're here, why we serve RootClan."

Leopardstone sat up a little from her spot with her head on Brindle's haunch. "I don't understand," she admitted softly.

Foxstone let out a hiss, surprising Brindle. "We're dumb," she snapped, baring her teeth. "We're stupid idiots and we're not good for anything but hunting and fighting. We'll never be as smart or as strong or as righteous as they are. Stop trying! Just shut your mouths and accept it!"

She let her head fall down hard on Brindle's foreleg, eyes narrowed with tears pricking their corners. Leechstone craned her neck and sniffed worriedly at Foxstone's face, but the ginger molly only flattened her ears and hissed viciously at her, a drop of drool coming off one fang. Leechstone withdrew and looked at Brindle.

Brindle sighed. "She knows more about RootClan's nature than you two now," she said gently. "Get some sleep. You'll understand sooner or later... unfortunately."

Leechstone curled up and gazed at her sister again from the corner of her eye. She's sobbing, she thought, seeing the spastic rise and fall of her side. She wanted nothing more than to go and cuddle her sister, lick the tears off her cheeks, make everything okay - whatever wasn't okay. But she didn't want anyone to be near her, except their mother.

She put a single white paw over her face and fought to sleep before the guilt-filled knot in her throat untangled itself.