The next day Grasspaw woke up early and left the apprentice's den. She walked over to Farseer's cave. Farseer was already up and preparing leaves to carry herbs back in.
"Moonpaw, wake up," Farseer hissed busily. "Grasspaw's already here."
Grasspaw widened her eyes in surprise as she entered the cave. She had never been inside before, and seeing piles of herbs stacked all around neatly, but in no particular order had erased the glorious vision on tall stacks of herbs all neatly sorted and precariously high, up to the roof of a tall cave. The cave, however was not tall, and the piles not stacked higher than chest high.
"Wow," Grasspaw meowed. "It's much different here than I expected."
"What did you expect?" Farseer asked kindly.
"Something less homely and more impressive...not that it isn't impressive..." Grasspaw trailed.
Farseer laughed, "I won't take offense at that. Come, Moonpaw is up and it is time to leave." She handed Moonpaw and Grasspaw each a bundle of leaves, which could be used to carry back more herbs than just a mouth could. "Let's go!" And Farseer led the two cats out the cave.
On the way out from camp, Grasspaw passed her mother, Treeear, who was guarding the entrance to camp.
"Mom," Grasspaw meowed, "can you tell Orangespot that I am out helping Farseer get herbs?"
"Sure thing! Have a good time." Treeear meowed after her.
"Um, wait a minute." It was a different kit this time. "I thought that most medicine cats had their apprentices help them fetch herbs, and that was enough. Why does Grasspaw have to go with?"
"Because their territory is much bigger than ours. All the Great Clans' territories were. So there was a good chance that they would have to spend the night outside if they had to go back twice for herbs, so the more cats, the more herbs that could be carried, the less times they had to gather herbs.
"So why couldn't StarClan make the shelter closer to the herbs?" asked the other kit.
"Because StarClan put it closer to the prey instead. Prey is needed more often than herbs. Are you done now?" Lionbreath had begun to lose his patience.
The kit nodded, "Okay..."
They had been marching for hours, when Grasspaw heard a sound of scampering underneath her feet. Hungry, she stopped, listening. Farseer turned around, and seeing Grasspaw's hunting stance, signaled Moonpaw out of the way. Placing her head sideways, near the ground, Grasspaw stepped as lightly as possible and began to walk. Within a few feet she came upon a hole, at which she silently crouched, unseen behind the tall grass. A few seconds later, two meerkats cautiously poked their noses out of the hole. Deciding it was safe, one scampered in the direction of the other two cats, the other stood guard. Slowly, Grasspaw shifted her weight, she bent her knees, and then SPRUNG! Flying through the air, and before the meerkat knew it, he was dead with a broke neck. Although not considered a real kill, or meal for that matter, Grasspaw picked it up to bring back to the medicine cats.
The inquisitive kit had fallen asleep, otherwise there would be some more questions about what meerkats are and why they aren't considered a full meal.
Grasspaw reached the other cats and found that Moonpaw had killed the other meerkat. She was sharing it with Farseer as Grasspaw walked up.
"Got it." Grasspaw said.
Moonpaw looked up, "Oh, I thought you'd heard a zebra, or something good."
Farseer glanced at her, "It still works, doesn't it? Good, let's eat."
The three cats ate the meerkats and continued walking.
"So how's your training doing?" Grasspaw asked Moonpaw.
"Just fine, thank you very much. And I don't need to have you catch prey for me. I'm perfectly capable of catching my own."
"You'll have to excuse her," Farseer told Grasspaw, "she's not much of a morning person. I think you annoyed her by getting up so early."
"Don't medicine cats usually get up early?" Grasspaw demanded, then wished she hadn't.
"I'll still be a medicine cat before you're a warrior," snapped Moonpaw. "I'm older than you and so my training will end first."
"I never said it wouldn't," Grasspaw rebuked. But she didn't respond anymore, preferring to spend her energy on moving forward than on arguing.
Soon they had reached the jungle, and Moonpaw and Farseer went out to look for herbs. This was the easy part of the journey; all Grasspaw would have to do was sit and wait.
