FINDING OUR PLACE
"It's raining again, perhaps we should stop and let the apprentices rest, Rainpaw is probably exhausted again" The deputy BrownNose said softly to his leader, RyeStar. RyeStar looked over at his clan, their eyes were dull with exhaustion and the rain didn't help them look any better, making their pelts cling to their skinny bodies. The hunting on the way to their new home had been bad, they had lost a lot of good warriors and the last one was his mate ShimmerMoon. RyeStar had been forced to keep moving after she fell from that damned mountain, unable to even bury her. RyeStar studied their surroundings and saw a thick clump of trees ahead "Once we make it to those trees, we can rest and hunt in the morning, BrownNose I need you to organize the hunting pa…" glancing over his clan he saw the dismal amount of warriors they had, sighing with grief, he corrected himself "Take all the warriors we have to hunt, we need as much as we can catch tomorrow if we ever want to find the place of glowing rocks" His clan looking back at him with hopeful eyes and stood taller, their leader nodded to them and struck up a quick pace, even exhausted, the thought of shelter gave them wind in their paws, the rain slowly stopped and the clouds cleared as they reached the outside of the trees. Rainpaw took a tentative step forward, out of the line of cats and began to sniff at the trees "Rainpaw, is something the matter" RyeStar asked, concerned by the usually un-phased young medicine cat apprentice. "I-I'm not sure, there's something strange about these woods, nothing bad, just…. Strange" The youngest apprentice, Shredpaw walked out and sniffed the nearest tree "They aren't the usual trees from our old home, they smell much stronger and have thicker trunks, good for climbing, and their canopies are much larger, keeping out a lot more rain than the old birch trees" Shredpaw looked back to see everyone staring at him "What?!" he challenged, looking all of them in the eye before looking at ThunderCloud, his mentor for an explanation "You seem to be trying to convince us to stay here without knowing the territory Shredpaw, plus we need to find the Glowing stones before we even consider finding a place to stay" ThunderCloud said softly, he voice considerably low after a fox sprang at him not far back after he alerted it with a shout of surprise, though he quickly dealt with it, RyeStar asked him to keep him voice low for now. Shredpaw scuffed the ground "I'm just saying what it is, a good place to stop and rest" he glanced at RyeStar, who nodded with a smile, slightly amused by the young apprentices enthusiastic grin as he walked back to the other apprentices, his mud covered coat clinging to his skinny legs, revealing just how badly the apprentices needed food.
RyeStar slowly walked past the treeline and into the large forest, his clan slowly following behind, a rustling caught their attention, Pheonixpaw, one of the newer apprentices, crouched low and slowly walked over to the bush, sniffing before lunging headfirst into it, "Pheonixpaw!" ThunderCloud said a bit too loudly, everyone cringed as wings and scuttling shook the forest as prey scattered in every direction, many mice and squirrels came shooting through the bushes, apparently unable to pinpoint where the noise came from, the other apprentices and warriors, even RyeStar, sprang about and caught as much as possible. Once the sudden rush of prey stopped, everyone looked at the bush where Pheonixpaw had jumped, to see him pulling a large rabbit out of it. The rabbit was at least twice his size and he had a small scratch on his left ear but otherwise he was unharmed. Rainpaw came over and sniffed his ear, checking for other wounds, other cats were laying down to eat and rest. Pheonixpaw bumped his head against Rainpaw's telling him he was fine apart from the scratch, Rainpaw glanced around, his ears down a bit "I don't know if there are any herbs around here that I can use for stopping infection" Pheonixpaw's ears dropped "Let's see if we can find some Chervil leaves, and collect anything we know while we look" Rainpaw blinked at him appreciatively and they looked at RyeStar, he nodded to SlyFox, who got up and walked over with a smile, even though his body ached for rest.
It didn't take long for them to come across different varieties of plants, Rainpaw started sniffing each of them, trying to find one that smelled right, soon he came across a bush that looked familiar "Chervil, Rainpaw, over here!" SlyFox called from a few rabbit leaps ahead, Rainpaw bounded over, his eyes carrying a glint of hope and sure enough SlyFox stood by a large chervil bush which was strong and healthy. Rainpaw walked to it and nipped off some of the leaves, beckoning Pheonixpaw with his tail as he chewed it into paste, Pheonixpaw sat down and waited till the paste was applied to his ear. "No grooming that ear till it hardens a bit, we may have a good supply but I won't waste it because you were careless about grooming" After several minutes of picking leaves and being scolded by Rainpaw if he though too many were picked, they left with some good stocks of herbs, Chervil leaves and roots, coltsfoot, horsetail, marigold and some yarrow. Once the three worked out what direction they came from, they slowly trekked back to where the rest of their clan resided. The clan was resting peacefully when the returned, the moon was just rising and already several cats were lying down to sleep, others already there, some stood guard. SlyFox nodded to ThunderCloud and SharpEye as they passed, the two warriors smiled at their new medicine cat, Rainpaw curled his tail as his mouth was full of herbs. Pheonixpaw began to realize something and looked for RyeStar, seeing him in a shallow dug out near a tree, he walked over and meowed softly, RyeStar lifted his head and smiled "Come in Pheonixpaw, I see we have a good supply of herbs, Pheonixpaw realized his mouth was still crammed with coltsfoot and horsetail, setting it down before speaking "RyeStar, I know this isn't something an apprentice should ask his leader but…. How can the clan survive without any she-cats?" RyeStar looked at him for a moment, before looking out at his clanmates, realization struck him "ShimmerMoon was the last she-cat…." RyeStar lowered his head and sent a silent prayer to our ancestors in MoonClan for ShimmerMoon before opening his eyes and looking at Pheonixpaw "We must hope that MoonClan can aid us, if not…." RyeStar lowered his head to the ground and sighed "If not, then our clan has till the youngest apprentice to survive" Pheonixpaw nodded, getting up, taking the horsetail and coltsfoot with him and walking over to the other apprentices, after leaving the herbs with the pile beside Rainpaw, who sat under a young sapling. Carefully stacking the herbs Rainpaw looked up only to nod and thank him before getting back to his work, his tail taking a moment to twitch and point out the other apprentices who were huddled under a large bush. Careful not to step on Shredpaw's tail, Pheonixpaw managed to huddle in between Shredpaw and Steadypaw and huddle down, laying his head down to finally get some sleep. A loud shout woke all the apprentices as Rainpaw darted past, calling for RyeStar; everyone was stirring and gathering around RyeStar's dug out, Rainpaw pushed past them all, shouting for them to move back and give him space, everyone shuffled to a reasonable distance as Rainpaw began to push on RyeStar's chest, everyone's eyes fixed on the scene before them.
A/N I'm always happy to accept constructive feedback, please review and tell me what you think.