Hydrowhisker's Friend - A Warrior Cats Fanfiction

Chapter 4

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"Can we rest?" Hydropaw pleaded again, panting, and peeked through the trees towards the brightening horizon. The sun wasn't visible yet, but enough for the cats to tell they had been traveling from midnight all the way through the early morning.

"We're almost there," Greentwig responded, "keep it up for a little longer." Hydropaw still noticed her slowing down.

Of course, Greentwig could have gone much faster without the apprentices, however Hydropaw and Swashpaw were already having trouble to keep up at a normal pace of the medicine cat. It had also been surprisingly difficult to climb up the mountain. At least the border was calm this early in the morning, so that didn't cause extra trouble.

Hydropaw had to shake her fur every once in a while just to get rid of the feeling that some sort of bug was stuck in her pelt after she walked through the thick bushes. She glanced at Swashpaw, who was trudging a bit behind her, and waited for her friend to catch up. "Sorry if I dragged into this."

Swashpaw blinked sleepily. "What do you mean?" She looked up, and her eyes shone. "Oh. It's fine. We are going to learn a lot, and it will be fun! I mean, hopefully we can help Barkleg."

"I know you —" Hydropaw said between puffs, "— had some... unhappy experiences with SaplingClan."

"It's fine." Swashpaw repeated. "That's true... but I don't hate them. And we are supposed to help cats, remember?"

Hydropaw still felt slightly guilty about bringing Swashpaw to SaplingClan and not thinking long enough before she gave this suggestion.

"... Still." Swashpaw breathed.

Hydropaw opened her mouth to speak, but ended up keeping quiet.

✤

"There it is." Greentwig signaled towards the SaplingClan camp entrance, which was a wide gap between tall bushes, quite well hidden compared to ValleyClan and SeaClan camp. The condensed water drops resting on the leaves glowed brightly under the early sun. "Let's slow down a bit. Cloverstar doesn't like strangers, watch out."

Hydropaw and Swashpaw followed the instructions. "Strangers? Isn't she expecting us?" Hydropaw asked.

"Well, actually, no, she isn't." Greentwig replied, barely looking back. Hydropaw expected her to explain. A pause later, the medicine cat spoke again. "I... sort of didn't tell Cloverstar when I left yesterday. She had been trying to convince me that SeaClan wouldn't want to help us because we are at war. Though it did take some time to persuade Deltastar..."

"It's in the code that medicine cats should help cats in danger, no matter their clan." Hydropaw pointed out.

"It's complicated." That was all Greentwig managed to say. As if stepped on a sharp stone, she suddenly turned around and gazed behind Hydropaw. A heartbeat later, Hydropaw sensed it too -- a SaplingClan cat had arrived. She turned around to see the black-and-white leader, shocked.

"Cloverstar." The two apprentices greeted, dipping their head respectfully, followed by Greentwig.

"Greentwig," Cloverstar purred, dropping a rabbit from her jaws, "I just got back from hunting. And if I'm not mistaken, you are Swashpaw from SeaClan and Hydropaw from ValleyClan?" She scanned the apprentices one after another.

Hydropaw blanked for a moment. She hadn't dealt with leaders too much in the past.

"Yes." Swashpaw answered finally.

"Nice to see you." Nodding slightly, Cloverstar turned towards Greentwig. "You actually brought them."

"I told you they would be willing to come." Greentwig mewed. "But... you're not mad?"