Chapter 8
Silentstorm padded up the trail, her tail barely twitching behind her. Besides her, Thornpaw followed closely. "Where are we going?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Don't you like adventure?"
It was true, but Thornpaw shook his head. "But... what about my mentor? Mudscar is going to be so mad at me when I get back..."
"Well, you were the one annoying me to death yesterday, with all that talk of sneaking out of camp," Silentstorm retorted. She knew she should be more responsible than this, but she was quite close to him and usually gave him what he wanted.
Thornpaw didn't answer, just stared out into the horizon, whiskers still.
The next morning, I found the nest besides me to be empty.
"Cloudkit!" I tried to say, but my mouth was nearly full of moss and the words were being muffled. I spat them out, trying to get rid of the muddy taste on my tongue. "Cloudkit!"
"I'm over here," she muttered, back turned to me. "You're just like those other kits, sleeping 'til noon. When you're an apprentice, you'll have to get used to waking up earlier. I've heard that most of the mentors are pretty grumpy when it comes to that."
I felt a twinge of annoyance. "Well, aren't you going to be a warrior's apprentice too?"
"Warrior's apprentice?" she hissed. "Why fight pointless battles when you can mend them? Why kill someone you don't know and be honored for it?"
I tilted my head. "So, you're going to be training for a medicine cat? But doesn't that require special signs from StarClan or something?" The moment I said the words, I felt stupid. Of course she would. She had seen way too many "signs" already for any cat.
Cloudkit seemed to read my mind. "Yes, but they're not gonna listen to a kit about important things-" here she gave a resentful spit at the ground- "especially when it's about medicine cat stuff. Oh, let the older cats take care of it."
I wanted to argue. I didn't know why, I guess that I had already grown used to arguing with her by now, so it was almost comforting. Still, I couldn't find anything to argue about. "Sure," I said, not really certain what I was agreeing to.
Cloudkit was silent for a moment. "Stormkit, what would Nightfall say about this?"
"What would she say about... oh, that." My heart sank for a reason I didn't fully understand. Of course, my mom. 'Nightfall.' Did Cloudkit think of her as a mom anymore, I wondered? "Well, there's still Leopardfur. He's more... open to these kind of things," I added.
"Maybe," Cloudkit muttered, but I could see that she was still uncertain. "Maybe, they would see the light for once."
Her eyes shone with a light that was too full of wisdom for her age.
OoOoO
"What- a medicine cat?" Nightfall hissed. "Fine. I'll go ask Froststar to see what he thinks."
Something about that seemed off, although I couldn't tell what. "I'm sure it'll be okay," I reassured Cloudkit.
But there was something wrong about today. There was a strange sound in the air that I had never heard last for so long before.
Silence.
Vixen shook off the dew that clung to her pelt desperately. "This place is so cold!" She complained.
Blue cleared his throat. "Look, our Lifebringer must be around here somewhere. You're not used to that word, I suppose?"
Vixen shook her head reluctantly. She hated not knowing everything. "That's your leader?"
Red nodded, despite himself. "There she is. Her deputy's here, too, it seems."
