Chapter 6

"Look! We found it!" Orchidpaw howled, as the patrol tumbled down the hill in joy. Except Mintpaw, since, she was still sad about her father's death, finally finding the catmint did not excite her.

Mintpaw perked up, Wait, I should be happy. Now, I can save Swiftpaw!

Mintpaw hopped down the hill, more happily now, since her change of thought.

"Hey, Mintpaw! Take a huge mouth full!" Brightsky spat out some of her mouthful as she spoke.

Mintpaw padded over to the catmint, and as she looked at the sweet scented plant, she had an idea.

"Come here everyone!" Mintpaw yelled, and the patrol gathered around her and the plant.

"Yes?" Dawnwind asked her apprentice.

"Well, if we make huge bundled wheels of catmint, we can roll it and have a mouthful! We could take all of it!" Mintpaw exclaimed.

"Great!" Dawnwind smiled.

"Yeah! That's a great idea!" The rest of the patrol agreed, and then started building their bundles.

Mintpaw stacked up mouthful after mouthful in a pile. When she had enough, she ripped up a water reed and tied the bundle together.

"Everyone got a bundle and mouthful?" Brightsky asked.

The patrol cats nodded, since they couldn't speak with mouthfuls of catmint.

Each cat had a mouthful of catmint, and a huge wheel larger than themselves. Mintpaw filled her mouth with mint leaves, and put her front paws on her wheel.

She put all her wait on the wheel, and it began to roll. Every cat, even Merrykit, got there barrels rolling, too.


The cats steered the giant barrels of mint over the grassy hills, until Brightsky halted. Brightsky spat out her mouthful, and clawed at her barrel to stop it.

The rest of the patrol copied.

Brightsky cleared all the leaves from her mouth,"We will camp here tonight. Secure your barrels, so they won't roll away."

The patrol followed her order, and settled down to sleep.


Mintpaw woke to a yell in pain. She jumped up from where she had slept the following night, and searched the hills for a cat in pain.

But, there were no cats in pain, or awake for that matter. Every single cat from the patrol was fast asleep.

Mintpaw searched the area around her clanmates. Then, as the sun began to rise, and Mintpaw let her thoughts run wild, Who or what had yelled in pain? Everyone was safe, so who or what caused that noise? Had she heard Swiftpaw's death? She always had felt an odd connection between them.


"Lets get a move on everyone! We must hurry back to our clan! And save the victims of greencough!" Mintpaw howled, as her tempered rose.

The rest of the patrol cats were sleeping at their leisure, while greencough was rampaging through her clan, maybe killing innocent cats, like Swiftpaw. This made Mintpaw's temper rise rapidly.

"Get up!" Mintpaw yelled furiously.

Dawnwind hopped up,"What's wrong?"

"Nothing! We just have to get moving!" Mintpaw spat.

The rest of the patrol began to stir, and they prepared to transport the mint again.

Merrykit pushed at her smaller barrel of mint, and got it to move. Mintpaw kicked her barrel in fury to get it moving. Pain, worry, and anger burned fiercely inside her, which provided fiery energy.

She pushed her mint, along side her clanmates, for hours.


As the moon began to rise, Sootpaw gasped with happiness,"Home! We're home!"

Mintpaw yelled after him,"Wait! Sootpaw! Stop! STOP!!"

Sootpaw halted, and stopped his barrel, too.

"What!?" Sootpaw whinnied,"I wanna go home!"

"Yeah, so do I, but we must find a way to cross the river while keeping the mint dry," Mintpaw explained.

"Oh."

"I know!" Merrykit giggled.

"How?" Sootpaw asked anxiously.

"Four cats swim across , and hold the barrel on their backs, so it won't get wet!" Merrykit meowed proudly.

"Wow! That may work!" Sootpaw meowed.

"Problem is, we only have two big enough cats, and four young cats," Brightsky pointed out.

"No! I am big enough!" Mintpaw butted in.

"Me too!" Sootpaw agreed.

"I am a bad swimmer and Merrykit is to small, so we'll go on top," Orchidpaw meowed.

"Mintpaw, Sootpaw, are you sure you can do this?" Brightsky asked.

They both nodded.

"Ok, Merrykit direct us."

Brightsky, Dawnwind, Sootpaw, and Mintpaw padded into the water, and made a square.

Merrykit and Orchidpaw rolled the first big barrel onto their backs.

Mintpaw and the other three cats swam strongly across the river, and rolled the barrel onto the shore. Mintpaw felt the weight lifted off her back.

They swam back for the second barrel. Then, the third, and the forth, with no problems.

But, by the time, they got to the fifth barrel Sootpaw was struggling to keep his head above the currents.

Mintpaw watched him go under, and then bob back up, only to be pushed down again by the catmint barrel's weight. Mintpaw swam harder and stronger to lift extra weight off Sootpaw's back.

Each barrel had to be at least as heavy as forty pieces of freshkill. So, even Brightsky and Dawnwind were struggling.

But, Mintpaw had a deep feeling that they would succeed.


Mintpaw's prediction was right. Sootpaw had worked up the remaining strength to continue on with the last roll. Now, every cat and every roll of mint was dry, and safely on the PoolClan island.