Broken Honor

Chapter 4

Ebonystar had been missing for four days. There was an eerie sense of both silence and concerned voices throughout the camp. Some cats had been quieter and less talkative, still recovering from the shock of Palecloud's death and Ebonystar's disappearance. Yet others, specifically the ones who were convinced MossClan was responsible, were always discussing their ideas in hushed voices all around the camp.

Elmleaf had been the quietest of them all, barely speaking and barely paying attention to anything going on around her. The dark brown she-cat was sitting by herself beside nursery, looking down at her paws. Rushpaw peered out of the apprentices den and spotted her.

"Hey, um, Elmleaf..." Rushpaw quietly padded over to her mentor and sat down beside her. "You haven't given me any tasks in a while...are we going to have a lesson? Or, should I just go practice hunting?"

Elmleaf lifted her head for a moment and mumbled, "Do whatever you want. Practice hunting or spar with the other apprentices." Then she closed her eyes and looked down again, her gaze unreadable.

"O-okay! I'll do that." Rushpaw gave a fake smile and sped away awkwardly. She already sparring was not an option. Rubblepaw and Birdpaw were both much stronger than her and she knew trying to spar with them would just leave her embarrassed. Cliffpaw was far too new to being an apprentice to have learned anything about fighting. That is, if Viperfang had been mentoring him at all. Rushpaw hadn't seen the red she-cat do anything in the recent days but get all her friends riled up and yowl about how MossClan was behind everything.

Rushpaw gazed around the camp to see that Cliffpaw, meanwhile, had just poked his head into camp. He was gripping some wet bedding in his mouth. Rushpaw watched as the younger apprentice slipped into the elders den to drop off the bedding before coming back out and noticing Rushpaw.

Rushpaw read Cliffpaw's bored expression and mewed, "I see. Viperfang's too caught up in stirring up drama to give you any real duties?"

Cliffpaw shook his head. "No, actually, she hasn't even talked to me since my ceremony five days ago! I think she completely forgot she's my mentor, but I can't blame her, with all the things that have happened. I don't have any actual tasks so I'm just running around helping the elders and the medicine cat. The elders were really thirsty, so I got them some soaked bedding to drink out of."

Rushpaw frowned at this news and tilted her head in confusion. "So nobody has even toured the territory with you? How did you know where to find the moss? Or the water?"

"Oh, Autmnfire showed me around," Cliffpaw replied simply.

"I guess that makes sense. Autmnfire's a nice cat. Anyways, Elmleaf says I should just practice hunting today, do you want to come with me?"

Cliffpaw blinked in response and stared.

"What?" Rushpaw asked.

"Rushpaw," he started, sighing. "What did I just say? I haven't got any training. I can't hunt. And well...I know you're no expert at it either."

"Right. I guess I really do have to go on my own then." Rushpaw looked at her paws and then turned towards the bramble exit. She barely made it into the forest before loud shouting erupted out of the camp. She jolted to a stop and sprinted back. 

"What's going on?" she demanded to Cliffpaw, worried.

Cliffpaw was too shocked to turn around and face her. "Viperfang just jumped onto the Smallrocks, look!" he said.

Rushpaw lifted her head. There was Viperfang, standing boldly on the Smallrocks as if she was leader herself. Obviously, this caused an uproar of mixed emotions from the IvyClan cats.