A/N: I wanted to remind you that in this story nothing in The New Prophecy ever happened. The Twolegs did not tear up the forest. However, Mothwing and Hawkfrost still joined Riverclan. Ok? Good. On with the story...
Disclaimer- I do not own Warriors, Erin Hunter does. However, I do own the plot and some characters. So don't sue me.
CHAPTER 7
The next day I was woken up by a prod to my side. I opened my eyes and saw Grasspaw standing there.
"Come on, you don't want to be late for your first day of training!" she mewed
Remembering that I was going to train today, I was instantly up on my paws and out eating a mouse from the fresh-kill pile before Grasspaw had time to blink.
"Okay, Mr. I'm going to practice catching rabbits before I even get out of the camp." I heard her grumble and twitched my whiskers. I looked up to see Rippletail coming towards me.
"Hey, Rippletail, what are we going to do today?" I mewed excitedly as I crunched up the last of the mouse.
"We're going to tour the territory with Grasspaw and Hollytail."
"Who's Hollytail?" I asked
"She's Grasspaw's mentor." he said distractedly. "Oh, there they are. Let's go."
First they took me to the border with Thunderclan. "Smell." Rippletail told me. I smelled, and detected the scent of other cats, but they didn't smell like the fishy-smell of Riverclan. It smelled like the musty smell of the forest. "Is that Thunderclan?" I asked
"Yes, it is, the border is right across the river." Rippletail mewed. Then we traveled along the river until I suddenly smelled a new scent, like the marsh grasses. "What's that new scent?" I inquired. "That's Windclan, who live on the moors."
"Where's the fourth clan?" I asked
"Shadowclan lives across the Windclan and Thunderclan territory. You'll meet them at the Gathering." By now I was so tired I could barely stand.
"Let's go back, Mousepaw's tired." Hollytail observed. I was grateful to her. We got into camp when the sun was setting. After I picked up a fish at the fresh-kill pile, I went to the de and fell asleep.
The next day was fighting practice. Rippletail took me to the clearing where we would do fighting practice. "Attack me." he ordered. I circled him, deciding where to pounce. I decided that I would go under his feet and try to trip him. I bunched my muscles and jumped at him, sliding under his forelegs to make him fall over. "Good," he huffed as he got up. "But be prepared for the counterstrike." he swung a heavy forepaw at he, knocking me off balance. Then we began anew. "Attack me." he meowed once again. I leaped in the air and tried to come down on his shoulders. But he dodged to the side and I fell to the ground. He jumped on top of me. "Well done, but your eyes betrayed where you were going to land. Now get me off of you." Suddenly I had an idea. I struggled a bit, but then flipped over on my back as a sign of defeat, showing my stomach. "Next time don't give up so easily." Rippletail said, loosening his grip. "What you need to do is-" but he was cut off as I suddenly brought up my hind legs and pushed him in the stomach, knocking him in the air. He handed hard a couple tail-lengths away. "Very good. Surprise your opponent." he praised. I positively glowed.
Then he said "I'm going to teach you how to hunt now. This is the proper stalk for a mouse." he said. I tried to imitate him. "Almost. Put your hindquarters over to the side a little. That's good." We did the bird stalk and the rabbit stalk. "Tell me why you have to be so light when you do the rabbit stalk." he said. I thought a moment and then said "Because the rabbit will hear your footsteps if they're not light?"
"Exactly." Then he noticed the sun's position in the sky. "Oh, wow, it's late, and I have to be on a patrol! You go hunting for a bit and see what you can catch." he told me. "If you do get anything, give it to the elders, ok?"
"All right." I replied. I went off and promptly caught the scent of a mouse. I crept up on it using the technique Rippletail taught me. I got close, paused, and then pounced! I caught it and killed it with one swift bite. I caught a thrush and another mouse in a short time. Then I headed back to the camp. I gave one mouse and the thrush to the elders. When I entered the den Heavystep croaked "Are those for us?" I nodded. "Thanks" he said, and the elders ate them. I left to give the remaining mouse to the medicine cat Mothwing. Mothwing was the most beautiful cat I had ever seen. I came up to her and she turned her beautiful golden head towards me.
"This is for you." I mewed, putting the mouse down in front of her.
"Thank you, Mousepaw." she said.
"What's that?" I asked, noticing the green leaves and red berries she was sorting.
"The leaves are yarrow, which helps cats throw up if they ate something bad. The berries are juniper, which is good for lots of things." She said, and was cut off as Dawnflower came up to her. "Mothwing! My kits are sick and I don't feel good either. They just came back from wandering outside and I'm worried that they ate something!" Immediately Mothwing was at her side. "They went out alone? Without any warriors?" she demanded.
"Y-yes." Dawnflower replied.
"Bring them to me." she ordered. When Dawnflower brought them, she tried to heal them. One kit, Minnowkit refused to take the medicine. Another kit, a she-cat named Pinekit died. Suddenly Mothwing's eyes met mine.
"Mousepaw? Get Leafpool from Thunderclan. I need her help. Tell her to bring yarrow."
"Ok." I replied. I sped off, and swam the river hurriedly. I emerged on Thunderclan territory. I charged through the forest, following the scents of cats. I ran into the camp and was immediately jumped on by a couple apprentices. Suddenly a big fiery-orange tom came up to me. "What are you doing on our territory?" he demanded. I panted out my story. "Kits are sick-Mothwing needs help-Leafpool." A brown she-cat came up.
"What's wrong with the kits?" she asked
"No time-come-bring yarrow." I forced out.
"All right. Show me the way." she said after she had got yarrow. We ran and ran, crossed the river, and ran some more. We finally came to the camp.
"Mothwing!" I called
"Leafpool." she said, hurrying over to us. "Hurry, one kit is already dead, and one kit won't take the medicine." she said. "Willowkit is helping." Suddenly we heard a choking noise behind us. Tumblekit was choking on the yarrow leaves, and we were too far away to get him. Willowkit was beside him. As we watched, she reached a paw in his mouth and removed the obstruction. "Willowkit, you saved Tumblekit's life!" I mewed happily, scrambling over. Leafpool treated the kits and we heard the story of how it happened. It was Minnowkit who told us.
"My siblings and I were tired of being stuck in the nursery all day, so we decided to go out and explore." Minnowkit started. "We snuck out behind the nursery. We explored for a long time, and then we found this puddle of green stuff behind the Twolegplace. We were curious. We drank it." I heard a gasp from Mothwing. "Then Pinekit started feeling sick, so we came back here." She looked up at us innocently. "Am I in trouble?" she asked us.
"That is for Leopardstar to decide." meowed Mothwing sternly. Then she turned to Leafpool. "Thank you, Leafpool. How can I repay you?" Leafpool laughed. "Oh, Mothwing, no need to repay me. It's what medicine cats do!" Then she walked off, back to her clan.
