Warriors: Rising Tide

Chapter 31: Puddlesplash

Tanglestripe has a bit of a cough this morning, and to make sure it wasn't greencough Moonwater had him stay in camp for the rest of the day. So I volunteered to help Jaggedpaw with his apprentice chores today. I was scrapping a bit of moss of the tree stump and listening to Jaggedpaw mumble.

"Stupid moss... why do I have to...battle training..." the apprentice kept trailing off as he scrapped at the moss. I stifled a laugh as it reminded me of Mapleclaw when the two of us were apprentices. A memory flashed across my vision of the time when we started throwing moss at each other, and Skyleaf and Applestar ended up joining too. Ravenclaw was so annoyed. I smiled to myself and placed the moss I just scrapped off into the small pile we had made.

"I think this is enough Jaggedpaw, we should head back"

"Finally!" Jaggedpaw groaned. The spiked apprentice grabbed a bit of the moss in his mouth before I did. I grabbed the rest and the two of us walked back to camp. Above I heard a distant clap of thunder and I shuddered a little at the thought of cold rain. "I hate storms" Jaggedpaw muttered through his moss.

"A lot of cats do" I replied. I couldn't help but glance at the young tom. His green eyes weren't filled with spite, hate, or even irritation, but clouded sadness. I wonder how much he remembers? He was still young enough to be forgetful. Jaggedpaw stopped and dropped moss. I stopped and turned myself to face the apprentice. "Jaggedpaw?" I asked after dropping my moss.

"Dad doesn't talk about dad... about Luckywish" I pinned my ears back a little. "And Tanglestripe tells me the bare minimum... I guess they both miss dad too much to talk about him..."

"They cared a lot about your dad" Jaggedpaw looked at me quickly.

"What was dad like? You were his litter mate, so you must have fun stories and-" he stopped quickly, "Sorry, I bet you don't wanna talk about him either". He looked at the moss at his paws. I felt an urge to cuddle the spiky mess of a cat, even if he protested. My parent senses were kicking in again.

"I would love to talk to you about your dad" I said softly, Jaggedpaw looked up at me again with happy surprise. I couldn't stop myself from smiling encouragingly at him.

"Could you tell me a story now?"

"Well-"

"Please!"

"Hehe okay" I looked up at the tree branches above me. The mixture of branches swayed in the strong leaf-fall wind as I thought of story. One quickly came to mind and I laughed.

"What so funny?"

"Here, I'll tell ya" I sat down and he did too. "When we were about 7 moons old we went out hunting by ourselves as young rebellious apprentices do. We were walking for a bit trying to find a place to start hunting when Foxhop stopped and looked up into a tree. Your dad and I stopped out of confusion as Foxhop stared up into the tree with a determination. He stated 'Look guys! There is a big black bird'. Your dad went 'Really?'" I laughed as my memory flashed ahead the end. "Well, your dad ended up trying to climb the tree looking for the black bird and but got stuck between two branches. His butt was hanging down"

Jaggedpaw laughed a little, "I bet you two started panicking"

"Oh we definitely started to! I ended up running back to camp to get help with Foxhop pleading because he didn't want to get into trouble" Jaggedpaw and I started laughing. He stopped and smiled at me.

"Can I tell this story to Blizzardpaw?"

"Of course" I smiled at him before picking up the moss again. He did too and as we finished our trek back to camp he had a little spring in his step. It felt good to help Jaggedpaw. He was rough around the edge but once you got past that he was a happy cat. We entered camp and another clap of distant thunder could be heard.

"Should we be worried about the storm?" Jaggedpaw asked nervously. I looked up at the sky as sun high was reaching its head and the colors slowly began to drift into sun set. There were a few white fluffy clouds drifting by fast but no large storm cloud. I looked back at the black cat and shook my head.

"No, I think it's just gonna pass us"

"You sure?"

"No, but could just be a normal storm" Jaggedpaw shook his head and left to the elders den to give Rainstripe and Ravenclaw their new moss. I sighed and walked off towards the medicine cat den. Coldheart wanted some of this moss for his stores. I pushed myself through the tendrils and my eyes quickly adjusted to the dark den. I blinked a little and looked around for the black medicine cat. He was off to the side sniffing his herbs stores for bad herbs. "Coldheart?" I asked through the moss. The medicine cat flicked his ear in acknowledgment and continuing his chore. I placed the moss into a store and looked at Coldheart again. "Do you need anything else?"

"I have a question for you" Coldheart said, not giving eye contact.

"What do ya wanna ask me?" I sat down. I liked being in here, the smell of herbs prickled my nose always made me calm.

"I haven't been honest with you," he sighed, stopping what he was as doing. Coldheart still wasn't making eyes contact. He just sat there looking at the wall with distant sight. "When you were a kit still, I went to the moonpool looking for answers"

"I-I think I remember that" I thought, the images of memory where blurry in my head. I was very young still when he did.

"Starclan told me that I needed to take you on as an apprentice, but I refused... I mean it is obvious that I didn't"

"So-wait...what? I was suppose to be your apprentice? I was suppose to be a medicine cat?!" I was shocked. My eyes went wide and I took a small sharp intake of breath. "Why?"

"Why? Cause I despise Starclan... a powerful mysterious force that clearly can see the future yet gives us cryptic prophecies and signs that most are figured out too late. A group of dead cats who has sudden say so over the living" he grumbled. He turned his head away from me as he avoided eye contact. "I didn't take you on out of spite and because you wanted to be a warrior apprentice, and I believe I made the right choice". I sat there in silence. My mouth open like fish as I tried to take hold of what I was just told. "They gave you a powerful gift just to make you a medicine cat. They were planning on dictating your life by giving you your powers"

"You-you knew I had powers since I was a kit?"

"Mostly I was just waiting for your powers to show up, though I did see a small glimpse of it when you were a kit" Coldheart chuckled. He stopped and finally made eye contact with me. The toms soft blue eyes that were usually cold and irritated were instead soft and apologetic. "I am sorry I did that, I have felt the guilt of acting just like Starclan and not letting you make your own choice in the matter. I will understand if you think less-"

"I don't Coldheart" I interrupted after finally gathering my thoughts. "Really, I bet I would have chosen the path of a warrior on my own"

"Heh" Coldheart made a small smile. That smile was so rare for Coldheart. It wasn't sarcastic or a smirk but actually genuine. As quickly as the smile appeared it had disappeared and Coldheart had went back to checking his herb stores. "Now get out of here, I got a lot of work"