The Falling Sky

Chapter 6

Greenpaw forced her heavy eyelids open and did her best to stay awake. Smallstar had nine lives, the poor cats he had wounded only one! She and Foxears were both exhausted, spending every spare moment they had nurturing the wounded.

"Greenpaw" Foxears tired mew made Greenpaw jump. Guilty that she had been resting whilst she should've been helping her mentor, she hurried back to the medicine den.

"Is everything alright?" from the corner of her eye she recognised Branchpaws's brown fur and she quickly looked away. She didn't want to think about it.

"Could you fetch me some goldenrod? You know where it grows. A lot of the cats still have wounds that are too bad not to treat."

Greenpaw nodded, "how much?"

Foxears looked at her. "As much as you are able to carry,"he lowered his voice "leafbare's on its way, and our supplies are running low, we'll need all the herbs we can get."

Greenpaw looked at him "yes, I'll take as much as I can bring with me, should I ask one of the warriors to help me carry some?"

Foxears was about to reply when he was cut short.

"I'll come." They both turned around to see Snaketail struggling to his paws.

"No Snaketail!" The medicine cat mewed suddenly.

Foxears rushed over to the big warrior and tried to steer him back to his nest, but Snaketail held firm. "Everyone uninjured or lightly wounded is busy with patrolling borders and hunting for prey, we need more herbs, let me go with her."

"You need to rest," Foxears soothed, "the sooner you get better, the faster you will be able to help your clanmates."

"How am I getting better by sitting around and watching my apprentice writhing in agony!" Snaketail snarled back at him.

Greenpaw winced and looked away, why did he have to involve Branchpaw!

Foxears sensed her discomfort and glared at Snaketail. "You should know better than to bring that up!" Snaketail looked away guiltily.

For a few moments they stood their in silence, then Foxears sighed, "fine, let me refresh your poultices, then you can accompany Greenpaw, but be careful!" he shot Snaketail a hard look.

Snaketail nodded calmly, "I'll do what Greenpaw says."

***

Her mouth full of the long stems of goldenrod, Greenpaw padded into camp. The scent of the bright yellow flowers beginning to make her feel dizzy, she turned around to check on Snaketail.

Snaketail had been less of a pain than she had expected, he had silently followed her instructions, slowly limping after her and allowing her to order him around.

Although Greenpaw had never gotten to know her brothers mentor very well, she knew that this quiet, accepting manner wasn't usual for him. He rarely allowed apprentices to tell him what to do, and although he made out it was due to his injuries, Greenpaw could tell that he was worried about his apprentice.

Looking behind her she spotted Snaketail padding over the rise, and beckoned with her tail. He nodded and picked up his pace slightly, limping steadily towards her.

Although Snaketail's injuries had been bad, both Foxears and Greenpaw had been surprised to see him recover so well and quickly, he was doing well, hopefully he would be able to go back to warrior duties soon, it would help keep his mind off Branchpaw.

Stop thinking about Branchpaw, she told herself sternly, worrying about him won't help. She sighed, everyone was worried about Branchpaw, and everyone was doing a bad job of hiding it. "Please StarClan," she whispered, "he's only an apprentice, don't take us from him yet!"

 Greenpaw's starting at her duties as a medicine cat! If you are one of those silent readers, then please do come out of the shadows and say hi to me! I'm really friendly! Honest! Anyway, thank you for reading!

~Purple