A/N: This is my first challenge for "The Clan Cat Café". For the challenge we had to write about a cat who broke the warrior code and an elder r elders who teach the cat a valuable lesson.
Characters:
Spottedfall- Grey spotted she-cat with green eyes
Mintstream- Black she-cat with amber eyes
Molestep- Tan tom with dark brown legs, ears, and tail
Fenneltail- Light brown tom with darker stripes and golden eyes
Dawnrunner- Creamy tabby she-cat with blue eyes and white paws
Gorsestrom- Ginger tabby tom with green eyes and white paws
Eyes watched the large grey tom intently as he paced around. Some warriors were whispering to one another while others were waiting to hear the punishment of one of their warriors. The grey leader finally gazed at his mate.
"Creekstep, where is she," the large grey tom hissed, his eyes blazing with anger.
"Spottedfall's over here," a brown fleck she-cat answered in disappointment. Greystar nodded as a young spotted she-cat stepped forward, her head bowed with shame. The entirety of ShadowClan was watching her, waiting to see what their leader would do with the new warrior.
"What do you think you were doing," the tom demanded. Spottedfall didn't answer. For a moment, her eyes met Greystar's and all she saw was disappointment. She quickly diverted her gaze to stare at the ground.
"Well, I'm waiting for an answer," the tom stated as his anger bubbled down.
"Well it was just a stupid little prank! I didn't know that RiverClan tom would think of it as a fight," Spottedfall retorted.
"I don't care what you thought it was! Because of your idiotic behavior, the gathering had to end early and be the first to leave. Do you realize how embarrassing that was for all of us just because you couldn't follow one simple rule?!" The grey spotted she-cat sighed as her ears began to grow warm.
"Can we take this somewhere else," she mumbled to herself. Of course though, Greystar heard her.
"Oh are you getting embarrassed? Good, now you feel like the rest of us," the ShadowClan leader hissed.
"Father I'm sorry! I couldn't help myself, it was just too tempting! Please can we let this go? I've learned my lesson," the young warrior sighed.
"Let this go?! Of course not! Spottedfall, until the next gathering you'll be confined in camp taking care of the elders. Your punishment starts now," Greystar finished. Spottedfall nodded knowing she'd lost the argument and that there'd be no way to reverse it. The warrior dragged herself over to the elder's den to see what they needed. As she passed her Clanmates, she heard snickers, whispers, and remarks from each of them. Why couldn't we have done this in privet father, she thought in shame. When she reached the elder's den, Spottedfall entered with musty smell hitting her nose instantly. Recovering from the moment of shock, the warrior prodded one of the elders, Mintstream. The elderly black she-cat began to awake.
"What do you want," she grumbled tiredly.
"Just wanted to know if you and the others needed anything done," Spottedfall mumbled with reluctance.
"Well I know me, Dawnrunner, Gorsestorm, Fenneltail, and ol' Molestep have some ticks. You can start there," Mintstream suggested. Spottedfall nodded as she padded to the medicine den.
"Cloudfoot, you in here," Spottedfall called in.
"Yes, what do you need," the tom called.
"Some mousebile for the elder's ticks. Do you have any," the warrior asked. The white tom rolled his eyes.
"Of course," the tom replied. He quickly rummaged through his supplies until he found it. Quickly, Cloudfoot wrapped it into a large leaf and handed it to Spottedfall. The grey spotted cat wrinkled her nose to the scent as she picked it up.
"Here you go. Now, have a fun time with the ticks," the tom joked. Spottedfall moaned in annoyance, but grabbed the leaf and padded back towards the elder's den. Finally, the she-cat plopped down by Mintstream and began to work on finding the ticks. By then, all the elders were awake and waiting for their turn. For a few minutes, Spottedfall worked in silence, then Molestep spoke.
"So, why are you taking care of our ticks? You aren't an apprentice anymore Spottedfall. Is it out of the kindness of your heart," the greying tom asked. The young warrior thought about her answer before responding.
"No, I-I kind of got in trouble," the spotted she-cat grumbled.
"In trouble? Why," Mintstream pressed.
"Well I'm surprised you already don't know. Last night at the gathering, I kind of played a prank on another warrior. The stupid RiverClan tom took it to seriously and attacked me. I kind of sort of fought back," the she-cat finished.
"You disrupted the gathering?! With a fight too?! Oh gosh Spottedfall, you've done something serious," Molestep sighed. The young she-cat nodded slight as she folded her ears to her head. She didn't want to go through the embarrassment again.
"Spottedfall, have we ever told you of when we were apprentices," Fenneltail asked suddenly.
"I don't think so," the she-cat replied as she finished with Mintstream's ticks.
"Well that's good. How would you like to hear a story then," Dawnrunner asked.
"I guess I wouldn't mind it," Spottedfall responded awkwardly. By then, she moved to Gorsestorm's ticks. Fenneltail nodded and he began.
"As you know, all five of us were apprentices together. We became warriors together and were best friends. What you don't know though, we were just as bad as you, maybe even worse," the golden tom stated. His eyes were friendly, but it masked something else; sadness.
"You see," Dawnrunner continued, "we were carefree, lazy, and downright disrespectful to the older warriors. When they asked us to get new bedding for the elders or queens we'd go together and get it, but put something extra in the nest. Whether it was ants, small pebbles, or thorns, we'd always manage a way to add something to them." Spottedfall began to finish with Gorsestorm as he began.
"You see, half way into our apprenticeship we kept on adding things into the nests occasionally, so we wouldn't get caught as often. At that particular time though, we added some strange berries we found because we thought it'd be fun to have it stain the furs of the elders, queens, and kits. Of course we didn't know what they were, but we thought nothing of it except to play our prank. After the nests were made, we went to sleep and had a good night's rest," the tom finished with a yawn. The ginger tom then, he was half asleep. By then Spottedfall was working on Molestep.
"When we woke up the next morning, we found out that the queens, kits, and elders were stained with the berry juices. Of course being us, we thought it was one of the funniest things, but it was quite the opposite. The berries we hid in the nests were holly berries, which, as you should know are very deadly." Mintstream finished with a shake of her head. All the elders avoided one another's glances, each one sitting in silence. Spottedfall gasped, fully invested into the story.
"What happened next," she asked like an excited kit.
"We went hunting as punishment for our wrong doing, but we thought nothing of it. We thought it was something the Clan would soon forget, but we were so wrong. We were dead wrong," Molestep sighed. The elders were silent for a moment as Spottedfall worked on with the ticks. The grey she-cat waited for Molestep to continue. The tom finally did.
"You see Spottedfall, when we got back to camp after our long hunting day we found out a horrible even that occurred. Three of the elders, an expecting queen, and two kits died from our antiques while trying to clean off the berry juice. This happened all because we wanted to play a harmless prank. Six innocent cats, and who knows how many more, died because all we wanted was something to laugh at," the tom finished. All five elders were full of shame by the time the story was finished. Spottedfall was still with shock and a realization that something so harmless like little red berries could do so much damage. This made the she-cat think of her prank on the RiverClan warrior, Reedstripe.
"That was something harmless that could've turned to something worse," she mumbled to herself, thinking about the problems of last night.