Chapter 9:
Rosekit woke up. She opened her eyes and breathed in the warm breeze of newleaf. The dawn light was seeping through the branches that made up the walls of the nursery. Rosekit looked around the nursery to see who was awake. I guess I'm the first one up. She mused. After stretching carefully so as to not wake her mother and brother, she slipped out of the den and padded over to the fresh-kill pile. There, she spotted Dawnstar and the senior warriors having a talk about something or other. I'm starving! She thought. Then she remembered what Dawnstar has said.
"The first lesson you'll learn as apprentices is that the Clan has to be fed first, before yourselves." she had mewed.
I guess I'd better think about someone else before myself. But the elders are still asleep...I know! She thought. I can take some fresh-kill to Snowbelly!
Picking up a shrew in her jaws, she bounded over to the medicine cat den.
"Snowbelly?" she hissed outside the entrance.
"Yes?" the black and white she-cat asked, then spotted the fresh-kill in Rosekit's jaws. "Is that for me?"
"Yep!" Rosekit announced proudly. "May I come in?" she asked shyly.
"Sure!" Snowbelly replied. "Would you like to share?"
"Yes, please!" Rosekit replied enthusiastically.
The two cats shared the shrew, and then sat up and washed themselves.
When they had finished, Snowbelly asked, "Would you like to help me sort herbs?"
Rosekit's eyes sparkled. "I'd love to." she admitted.
Snowbelly nodded. "Good, I could always use some help in here." she mewed. "Now, we need to get rid of all the brown, dried herbs I've been saving since leaf-fall, because they've lost all their healing juices."
"Okay!" Rosekit began to pick out the useless herbs. "What is this?" she asked, picking out some brown stems with dried leaves and flowers that used to be blue.
"That's borage." Snowbelly replied. "It is great to give to nursing queens to help them make milk. Also, it brings down a fever very well."
Rosekit nodded thoughtfully. "What about this?" she held a long stem with tiny little black seeds on the end.
"Those are poppy seeds." Snowbelly explained. "We need those dried in order to use them, so put them back."
"Okay." Rosekit obediently put them back in their hole. "What do you use them for?"
"We use poppy seeds to soothe pain, help if a cat is in shock, and it will also help a cat sleep."
"And these?" Rosekit held up large, crinkled leaves.
"That is dock. It's great for soothing scratches or tired pads. In fact, I need to go gather some." Snowbelly mewed. "I'd ask you to come with me, but I think you'd better stay inside the camp until you're apprenticed." Snowbelly's eyes twinkled.
"You're probably right." Rosekit followed Snowbelly out into the ThunderClan camp. "Bye, Snowbelly!" the medicine cat disappeared through the camp exit, and Rosekit headed back to the nursery. Maybe I can take a nap. She yawned, and before she could enter the nursery, three kits came tumbling out.
"Rosekit!" Acornkit yowled.
"Tell us what its like outside camp!" Sunkit squeaked.
"Yeah!" Beekit agreed. "Is it scary?"
Rosekit gave a mrrow of amusement. So much for my nap. She thought, and sat down to tell the story when Nightkit pushed through the nursery entrance.
"Nightkit, I was just about to tell them about our hunting patrol." She mewed. "Would you join me?"
"Sure." her brother agreed, plopping down next to her. "So, there was no fresh-kill in the camp, and the warriors were having trouble catching what prey there was. So we decided to take a patrol of our own, to help the Clan." Nightkit explained.
Rosekit nodded. "So we left camp -"
"Did a warrior let you out of the camp?" Beekit interrupted.
"No, we snuck out through a secret tunnel." Rosekit admitted, then quickly continued: "When we got out to camp, we saw -"
This time Nightkit interrupted her. "- A pack of wild dogs!" they were on our tails, but climbed a tree and then jumped on them! We managed to give them a few scratches and bite marks they'll remember for a long time." he licked his chest fur as his younger den-mates opened their eyes wide and glanced at each other.
Rosekit suppressed a giggle at her brother's outright lie. She noticed Owlpaw had settled a careful distance away, close enough to listen but not be involved as he slowly chewed a chaffinch.
"Then," Nightkit interrupted her thoughts. "We heard a WindClan patrol hunting on our territory!"
"Really?" Sunkit asked.
"What did you do?" Acornkit wanted to know.
"We taught them a lesson!" Nightkit declared.
Rosekit, getting into Nightkit's tall tale, interjected, "They won't be back on ThunderClan territory anytime soon."
Nightkit nodded. "So then we decided to find some prey, 'cause we were starving after winning so many battles. I spotted a squirrel, but he was so skinny we didn't even bother with him, we just left him to fatten up some."
"Then, I spotted a huge vole!" Rosekit mewed excitedly. "He was as big as...As big as..." Her eyes darted to and fro, trying to find an acceptable vole substitute. "As big as that rock over there!" She darted over to a rock the size of large rabbit.
"Woah!" Heartsong's kits let out a collective murmur.
"That's a huge vole!" Sunkit announced.
Nightkit took over. "And Rosekit leaped on top of its head and knocked it out with a swift blow to the head."
Rosekit nodded her head enthusiastically. "Yep! And then, it was so heavy Nightkit and I couldn't even drag it back to camp, we had to eat it all ourselves." her eyes glistened with excitement.
"Then what happened?" Beekit asked.
"Then, we tried to find more prey, but after Rosekit killed the giant vole so well, everything was terrified of us and stayed in their dens." Nightkit replied. "So we decided to wait in a tree hollow until the prey forgot about us."
Rosekit began to wash her face, but stopped and added, "But we were trying to be so quiet, we accidentally fell asleep."
"Yeah." Nightkit agreed. "Then, a ShadowClan took us as their prisoner. There was eight of them, and only two of us -"
"Greyfoot said there were only two ShadowClan warriors and an apprentice!" Beekit protested.
"He hasn't finished yet." Rosekit explained.
"That's right." Nightkit nodded. "Anyway, so we managed to fight them off, sending five of them crawling back to their Clan-mates, then we escorted the three remaining cats back to camp."
"Yeah." Rosekit agreed. "And then that's when every cat saw us, and Dawnstar kicked out the ShadowClan cats and told them to never tresspass on our territory again, or they'll have to deal with Nightkit and I."
"Wow." Sunkit said, with eyes the size of a full moon.
"I bet I'll be just as strong as you guys are when I'm an apprentice!" Beekit boasted.
"I'll be even stronger than you, Beekit!" Acornkit puffed out his chest. "Lets play ShadowClan Invasion and then we'll see who's stronger!"
"Yeah!" Beekit and Sunkit agreed.
The three younger kits raced over to the Halfrock, ready to begin their game.
Rosekit watched them play for a heartbeat, then turned to Nightkit. "Now what?"
"We could ask Owlpaw to teach us apprentice moves?" he suggested.
Just then, Snowbelly entered the ThunderClan camp and padded over to Rosekit. "Would you like to help me again?"
Rosekit's eyes lit up. "Can I?" she asked.
"If you want." Snowbelly blinked encouragingly.
"What are you, a medicine cat?" Nightkit asked sarcastically, and padded off to find Owlpaw.
Maybe that wouldn't be so bad... Rosekit thought as she bounded after Snowbelly.