Warriors: Starfaith's Fate (SOB short story) (COMPLETE)

Chapter 6

Starpaw awoke to sunlight shining through the roof of the gorse den, leaking onto the ground in pale glowing dapples. She stretched out her front paws and yawned softly before climbing out of her nest. 

"You slept a long time. It's nearly sunhigh," Silverberry spoke, and Starpaw saw her mentor sitting a little ways away from her, organizing herbs. She didn't look up from them as she worked.

Feeling a rush of guilt, she quickly padded over, blinking away sleep. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She meowed, her fur hot with embarrassment. "Did you need me for something?"

Silverberry shook her head as she swept loose catmint leaves into a pile. "Whitefrost was complaining about a bellyache, but I gave her some watermint." She paused and turned to face Starpaw, her green eyes inquisitive. "Why are you so tired? You've been like this for a long time now."

Starpaw hesitated. It had been two moons since she and Dewpaw had spent part of the night under the thunderpath. Ever since, they had been meeting every few nights, sometimes two nights in a row. They would exchange clan news, joke around, race to the thunderpath, and sometimes just lay in the grass and look up at the stars of silverpelt. They had a lot of fun together, and she couldn't deny that he felt like her very best friend. There was no cat in WindClan quite like him, not even her siblings made her feel quite as happy as Dewpaw did.

Few cats her age understood what it was like to be a medicine cat apprentice. Because Dewpaw was one as well, he was easy to get along with and understood everything she would tell him about herbs and StarClan. Talking to Silverberry about these things wasn't quite the same. She was an older cat, and being her mentor was a bit different from being a friend. Starpaw admired and had great respect for Silverberry, but the connection wasn't the same.

Though Starpaw saw nothing wrong with meeting a fellow medicine cat, she decided not to tell Silverberry. What if she disapproves and stops me from meeting with him? "I-I've been having trouble sleeping lately," She lied, hoping she sounded convincing. "Remembering all the herbs and remedies is difficult, and I can't help but try to memorize them when I close my eyes. It keeps me awake at night."

Silverberry's green eyes grew soft. "Starpaw, you're a great medicine cat apprentice, and you already know your herbs very well. You have nothing to worry about."

"Thank you." Starpaw awkwardly shuffled her paws, unsure of what to say to change the subject. "I-"

"Silverberry!" An alarmed yowl sounded from the clearing. The medicine cat immediately abandoned the catmint pile and hurried out of the den, Starpaw on her tail.

Several cats were by the gorse tunnel, murmuring to one another anxiously. The medicine cats pushed their way through the crowd and saw Jaggedear and Soakedears with their apprentices, Tornadopaw and Scorchpaw. Starpaw gasped. Both warriors had minor wounds, and Scorchpaw looked unharmed. But Tornadopaw had long slashes across his shoulder and muzzle, and he limped on his right paw.

"What happened?" Silverberry demanded as she crouched by Tornadopaw, and the apprentice staggered, dripping blood onto the sandy ground. Scorchpaw watched him anxiously.

"We were having a training session," Jaggedear explained as he licked a cut in his foreleg. "Soakedears picked up the scent of fox, so we told the apprentices we would go back to camp and report it." He shot a glare at his apprentice. "But Tornadopaw decided that he could handle it all on his own and ran off."

Soakedears sat down and snorted. "He's lucky we got there before he got himself killed, taking on a fox on his own like that!"

"It was just a stupid fox!" Tornadopaw hissed, clearly enraged by his failure. "I could have-"