Russetfur gulped down the last of her tiny frog, her stomach complaining for more. She stifled the rumbling noises that emitted from her belly and stretched. Nightpaw was still asleep, so she decided to visit the kits in the nursery. Almost half a moon had passed since the Gathering, but she had yet to fully interrogate Hollyflower about Fuzzypelt. It was hard to get her alone, especially as she got closer to term, though she still had a while to go. She stepped into the den, and was immediately pounced upon by Vinekit. "Russetfur!" she cried happily, putting her front paws up to the older she-cat's chest.
"Well, hello Vinekit." the warrior chuckled. "I think you're getting bigger again," she frowned, looking the kit up and down. "Soon you'll be as big as I am!" Vinekit puffed out her chest and stood tall.
Her green eyes sparkling, she announced, "I'm going to make Raggedstar get you as my mentor when I'm six moons old.
"Are you, now? And just how do you plan to force the Clan leader to bend to your will, hmm?" Russetfur asked teasingly.
After pausing to think about it, Vinekit piped, "I'll get Runningnose and Littlecloud and Nightpaw and my brothers to help me! We'll pin him down and make him promise!" she giggled, imagining the scene.
Russetfur laughed, too, and started to reply, "Good lu-" before being cut off by some cat yowling her name outside the den. "Guess it's time for me to go. Duty calls." After mussing Vinekit's piebald fur with her tail, Russetfur winked and left the den. Nightpaw was pacing restlessly in the clearing, and he opened his mouth to call again- Russetfur recognized the voice as his now that she thought about it. "I'm right here, Nightpaw." she said with a bit of tiredness showing in her voice.
"What are we doing today? Hunting? Battle training? Patrol? An assessment?" he asked rapidly, his eyes shining with excitement.
Half-smiling, "I'm afraid today you are going to do something you probably won't particularly want to do. It's my turn to go herb-gathering with Runningnose, since Littlecloud's busy, so you're on elder duty. When you're done with that, either find someone to train with if I'm not back or help the queens out and play with the kits, okay? I'm sorry. Tomorrow we'll train, okay?" She was unsure really of why, since every apprentice had days like this, but she desperately wanted Nightpaw to be okay with it.
"It's fine, Russetfur. I'll see you later. Have fun collecting herbs." He turned away and walked away normally, but she noticed that his tail was significantly less raised. Sighing slightly, she slunk towards the medicine den.
"Runningnose!" she called into the mouth of the den. "Can we go?" The older cat merely grunted in response as he slid from the shadows of the dark den. "Okay," she asked as they walked side by side towards the camp entrance, "What exactly are we looking for here?"
Shooting her an annoyed glance, the grumpy old cat answered gruffly, "You are looking for catmint in the Twoleg gardens, and I am looking for goldenrod and horsetail. we'll be lucky to find anything, but if you happen upon any catmint, take as much as you can without totally killing the plant. We'll need it, with the weather and all those...kits, running around licking each other." A look of disgust came over his face, and Russetfur had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at the thought of Vinekit dashing around camp, licking every cat in sight. Knowing that if she opened her mouth she would burst out laughing, she merely nodded and turned in the direction of Twolegplace, waving her tail in farewell.
Reaching Twolegplace, or the part of it on the ShadowClan side of the Thunderpath, she started looking in the gardens for catmint. She leaped onto the thin wood fence and peeked over. There was none of the plant in the first three gardens, and only one tiny plant of it in the fourth. Russetfur promptly snatched up what she could, but only two small leaves could be harvested if the plant were to live. The fifth and sixth yards did not have anything to offer, but she found a glorious amount in the seventh. Half of the Twoleg's garden was filled with the stuff. She hopped down, setting the miniature leaves from her jaws and onto the ground. She leaned forward to bite off the first leaf when a deep voice made her tumble backwards, startled. "Whatcha doing?" the cat asked.
Russetfur looked up to see a big white and light gray tom with kind light green eyes looking at her curiously. Knowing any explanation she could give him would sound fairly ridiculous, she told him the truth. "I... I am stealing some of your Twolegs' plants so that I can makes sure my Clan doesn't get sick."
Looking a bit bewildered, the tom replied, "Well, okay. But what are Clans and how can these help them?" Tilting his head to one side, he let a small smile adorn his lips. "And what, fair she-cat, is your name?"
Embarrassed, the warrior got slowly to her paws and stammered, "I-I'm Russetfur. A Clan is a big group of cats, families and kits and warriors and elders, and we all live under our leader and make sure the other cats don't get hurt or sick or hungry, and we help them when they do. These plants can help heal whitecough or greencough, which cats die from almost every winter."
"Oh. I'm Charlie! D'you want some help getting those leaves? How many do you need?" He asked as she bit a leaf off.
A little surprised at his eagerness to help, she replied," Umm, sure, Charlie. I need as many as possible, but I have to be able carry them back to camp. It's pretty far away, and we can't take too many or the plants will die and I can't come back for more next time we need them... Just start taking two or three leaves from each plant and I'll tell you when to stop, okay?" He nodded amiably and they started picking leaves, both smiling. Soon they had accumulated a big enough and pile, and Russetfur called it quits. "This will be plenty." she eyed the pile apprehensively, not wanting to have to carry them the whole way.
"You sure? That seems like an awful lot to carry all the way to your camp, wherever it is. I could help you carry them aways! I don't have to be back inside until dusk, so I could help!" he offered happily.
Russetfur shook her head. "That's...probably a bad idea. You could get lost, or one of my Clanmates might see you and think you're an intruder..."
Giving her a look, he stared into her eyes. "Come on. It'll be fine. let me help you, Russetfur. I don't really know you, but I want to. " Finally, the warrior dipped her head, acquiescing. "Great!" he said cheerfully, grabbing a big mouthful of the leaves and hopping onto a counter that stood about half as tall as the fence. Russetfur grabbed the rest and joined him before they both leaped to the top of the fence. Getting a bit off-balance, Charlie waved his tail to steady himself and looked doubtfully down to the ground. Feeling playful, Russetfur shoved him off the fence and jumped down with him, her laughing muffled by the leaves.
They hit the ground and Charlie gave her a mock sour glance, which only made her laugh harder. She led him in the direction of camp until they could only just see his yard. She set down her leaves and he copied her. "I suppose you should go back." Russetfur said a bit reluctantly.
Charlie nudged her with his head, twice as large as hers. "You're right that I shouldn't go any further than this. But that doesn't mean we have to go our separate ways just yet." He winked.
"Hmmm. I suppose that's true..." she murmured before tackling him. He fell over in surprise, a challenging light entering his eyes. Dancing away, Russetfur crouched playfully. "Come and get me. I dare you!" Mock growling, Charlie sped at her, if clumsily. She dodged out of the way nimbly and ran between his paws, tripping him. Impressively, he kept his ground after a stumble and pinned her before the warrior could get away. "Gotcha!" he chuckled, purposefully squishing her a little before getting off. "Maybe once, but I'll get you this time!" Russetfur challenged and sprang at him. Before they knew it, the sun was sinking lower and the sky was scarlet.
Panting from exertion, she glanced at the sky and shot to her tired paws. "Mouse dung! I have to go; Nightpaw's probably looking for me..."
Looking a tad disappointed, Charlie dipped his head. "Yeah, I should probably go as well. Will I see you again?"
"Maybe. I'll see what I can do but don't get your hopes up, okay Charlie? I really had fun today, and thanks for all the help with the catmint." She butted heads with the tom before scooping up the load of leaves, miraculously left unscattered by their play, and walked away, glancing back a couple of times to see him trotting back to his yard. As she got closer to the camp, a tom's voice made her jump out of her skin for the second time that day, only this time she dropped half of the catmint. Tigerpaw stepped out from behind a bunch of tall, dead grass, his eyes unreadable.
"Who was that?" he asked emotionlessly.
Russetfur started scraping the catmint back into a pile with her claws. "Just a kittypet. He helped me carry some of this catmint some of the way home an- wait. What are you doing in ShadowClan territory, Tigerpaw!" she realized the danger they both were in by him being here, and so close to camp. She shoved him back into the grass and looked at him urgently with a little difficulty; she couldn't get over how huge he was, especially since he was at least a moon or two younger than her.
"I just came to tell you something." he said a little resentfully nosing some grass off his shoulder. "Bluestar made me a warrior yesterday. I'm Tigerclaw now."
Her eyes widening in surprise, she couldn't help but smile. "Congratulations, Tigerclaw!" she said, putting emphasis on the new part of his name. "But you should've waited until the Gathering! It's too dangerous for you to come here, and you know I promised to kick your tail if you ever came here again." she tried to sound stern but all she could manage was slightly disapproving.
"I know. But you're my best friend, Russetfur. I couldn't wait half a moon to tell you. And I missed you. I only see you once a moon, and I miss you every day in between." He said, his eyes sad and desolate.
She lowered her head. "I miss you too. I wish we were in the same Clan."
Tigerclaw tipped her head up with his nose and looked deeply into her eyes. "I love you." he told her in an urgent whisper.
A/N: Wow. Umm, first, I feel just awful about how long it's taken me to update this story, especially since this is the one story of all that I have written for fanfiction that I love the most. This chapter was rather awful, but I did start making new paragraphs every time a new kitty speaks. I always found that rule irritating. Do you find the many mini paragraphs annoying or do they not bother you? Anyway, this chapter went a little different than how I originally planned, but I think the plotline was pretty good if the writing itself made me want to shove a spoon down my throat. Like I've said before, I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, but my dog just died and I transferred to Honors English so my work load is huge, as well as the enormous stress of preparing my solo for Music Festival in a couple days... My life is crazy. Not as nuts as Russetfur's, though! Ha ha ha ...ha ...ha...ha. *Coughs* Reviews are appreciated even if I don't deserve them.
