StormClan Nursemaid

"I can't believe Blackriver agreed to something like that." The words echoed throughout camp, spoken from the mouths of multiple cats. All eyes were on the nursery, where an unfamiliar gray she-cat was sitting. She was bigger than a HollyClan warrior and was possessed of a certain radiance that could only be found in the bearing of a single Clan: StormClan.

"It's true." Littlepaw meowed in awe, transfixed by the StormClan cat. "She's beautiful. I thought StormClan cats being prettier was just a myth."

Four of the apprentices were lounging outside of their den, going over Clan gossip for perhaps the thousandth time. Berrypaw and Duckpaw were waiting for Squirrelfoot, who had been instructed to go over some of their basic tree climbing skills. Wingpaw and Littlepaw had just come off of an early morning patrol and were sharing a sparrow between them.

"She isn't even the prettiest." Duckpaw remarked. The gray and white tom was one of the older apprentices and had attended several gatherings in the past.

"There's nothing special about her other than the fact that you could see her coming from six tree-lengths away." Berrypaw snorted derisively. While he did agree that her appearance was rather striking, it seemed to him like hunting with a pale pelt like that would only make things difficult. He was also used to the more earth-toned coloration of his Clanmates, and the fact that the StormClan cat was so different only made him uneasy and slightly aggravated. She didn't need to be here.

Two sunrises ago a StormClan warrior by the name of Graynose had come to HollyClan's camp to see Howlingstar. Apparently one of the queens in his Clan had died kitting and the Clan's only other female close to kitting had not yet begun producing milk. He told them that the kittens were getting weaker by the second and they needed someone to nurse them while they waited for the other queen to start producing her milk. According to the tom, that would happen in only a few days. Howlingstar was a kind leader and of course he would not let innocent kits die, but it was convincing his daughter, Blackriver, to donate her milk that was the trouble.

Berrypaw had never been fond of Blackriver. She was the polar opposite of Meadowlark, who was as laid-back and self-centered as a cat could be. Blackriver was a strict she-cat, which made it all the more surprising that she had taken the frivolous Squirrelfoot as a mate and produced two spunky she-cats: Littlepaw and Wingpaw.

Through some miracle of StarClan, Blackriver's milk had not dried up once her kits were weaned. At least, not completely. This was because she was nursing another kit, one that was not hers. Berrypaw had never really thought about it, but the kit was Slatefur's… although the old tom seemed to have disowned the meek little scrap. He often heard Wingpaw and Littlepaw speaking in disapproving of his mentor's behavior toward his own flesh and blood, but he could say nothing on the matter. He wasn't involved as they were.

It had taken a long time for Blackriver to begrudgingly accept. From what Berrypaw had heard from his Clanmates, she had been utterly against the idea when she first heard it. Blackriver was a strong-willed she-cat and fiercely loyal, which made it difficult for her to offer milk from her own body to kits that would one day threaten the livelihood of her Clanmates. Maybe they would even clash with her own kits someday. Yet as loyal as all Clan cats were to their respective Clans, each and every one of them would bow to the higher power of the Code. Every warrior makes an effort to save kits in danger, be they loner, kittypet, or enemy Clan. Kits are sacred and are to be protected by all.

And that was why Snowbriar was here. In Berrypaw's mind, she could not leave soon enough.

"She doesn't need to hover around the nursery like that. Blackriver knows what she's doing." He grumbled ill-temperedly, glaring at the outsider from across camp. "If some of our kits had to go to another Clan for help, we'd want someone there watching them, too." Wingpaw pointed out lightly.

"She can't even really go in because of Palekit." Littlepaw said, half amused and half sad. "He hides behind Blackriver whenever anyone else comes into the den."

"What happened to make him so scared?" Berrypaw asked, forgetting his animosity toward the strange she-cat in favor of his curiosity about the Clan's only kit. When Berrypaw had become an apprentice the little tom had been less than a moon old, and that was all he had seen of him. All he knew was the kit's lineage and that he was a sandy sort of color. He realized that he should have noticed the kit's absence throughout camp. He would be about a moon and a half by now, still young, but plenty old enough to totter around and cause trouble.

"Nothing happened to him. That's just how he is." Littlepaw said, glancing at Wingpaw.

"I think it's because of Brambleheart dying." Wingpaw theorized. "Although it's hard to compare his personality now to his personality then since he was so tiny…"

"Maybe that's just how he's supposed to be. He might just be broken." Duckpaw said. His tone was flat, and he was pawing absently a tuft of feathers that had drifted out of the apprentices' den.

Berrypaw knew that he didn't mean anything by it. Duckpaw's humor could be odd. It was hard to tell when he was just messing around and when he was seriously telling you something. Wingpaw and Littlepaw clearly didn't understand this about their denmate, because they instantly rounded on him, bristling.

"He is NOT broken." Littlepaw hissed.

"How could you say something like that?" Wingpaw asked, sounding more shocked than angry.

Duckpaw looked at them with a puzzled expression. "You sound upset."

Both sisters were speechless.

"He's our kin! Of course we're upset!" Wingpaw managed.

"He's teasing you guys, you know. He isn't being serious." Berrypaw sighed, giving Duckpaw a hard stare to let him know he should stop tweaking their whiskers.

"I should hope so." Littlepaw sniffed, tail lashing back and forth.

The two she-cats settled down, but the four apprentices fell into a tense silence. Only Duckpaw seemed unaware of the fact that his Clanmates were displeased with him. He simply sat there, observing his claws as he flexed and un-flexed his paw. Berrypaw briefly wondered what it was that clattered around in that empty head of his and then turned his attention to the two warriors walking toward them.

"Berrypaw, Duckpaw." Squirrelfoot greeted them warmly as he approached. Beside him was Wildbreeze, a brown she-cat with an astonishingly untamed pelt.

"Are we still going to practice our climbing?" Berrypaw asked, confused by the presence of the she-cat. Squirrelfoot was late, which wasn't unusual, but it was unusual for him to bring along another warrior for a tree-climbing lesson. As his name might suggest, Squirrelfoot was an excellent climber and did not require the presence of another to aid in his demonstrations.

"Well… no. There's been a change of plans." Squirrelfoot explained. Berrypaw could tell by the way his ear kept twitching that whatever they were doing today, Squirrelfoot would rather be doing something else.

"We're going out on a hunting patrol with the StormClan cat." Wildbreeze's disdain was evident. Of all the cats in the Clan, Wildbreeze hated StormClan the most zealously for reasons unknown to Berrypaw. He didn't exactly relish the prospect either though.

"We're… babysitting?" Berrypaw was immensely disappointed.

"Not babysitting." Squirrelfoot said with some amusement. "We're guarding Snowbriar. We have to make sure that she doesn't learn anything about our land."

The thought caused Berrypaw to brighten up considerably. He had not thought of it that way before. He took for granted that every step along the forest floor was familiar. It had not occurred to him that a StormClan cat would be as lost as a blind kit without its mother.

"Cheeky furball wanted to hunt." Wildbreeze was speaking angrily, pacing in front of the apprentices. "But StormClan cats are cunning. She told Howlingstar that she wanted to contribute at least as much as she ate to the fresh-kill pile. Everyone knows she just wants to learn our secrets!"

"What secrets?" Wingpaw asked, wide-eyed.

Wildbreeze snorted. "Apprentices!"

"She thinks that Snowbriar is here to scout out our territory so that her Clan can attack from an advantageous position." Duckpaw explained.

"They could do that?" Littlepaw cast a wary glance at the gray she-cat outside the nursery.

Not wanting to see the she-cats become as paranoid as Wildbreeze, Berrypaw said, "Yeah, but even then StormClan cats wouldn't know how to deal with the undergrowth."

"You're right, Berrypaw." Squirrelfoot meowed, whiskers twitching. "But it never hurts to be safe. Now come on you two. While I'm still young."

Duckpaw and Berrypaw got to their paws as Squirrelfoot loped across camp to speak to the StormClan cat. He had said her name was Snowbriar? Although the name was in the familiar Clan style, Berrypaw felt as though it were completely alien.

A sigh escaped his lips as Squirrelfoot padded back toward them, Snowbriar just behind. Although he would probably spend the rest of his life picking their fur out of his claws and licking the wounds they gave him, he knew that he would be expected to be polite to this StormClan cat.

"Snowbriar, this is Wildbreeze," The brown she-cat curled her lip at Snowbriar as she was introduced. Squirrelfoot went on as though he hadn't noticed. "the tabby is Berrypaw, and that gray and white thing is Duckpaw. Oh! And my daughters, Wingpaw and Littlepaw."

"Why am I a thing?" Duckpaw questioned with mock hurt. Squirrelfoot was his mentor, so they poked fun at each other at every opportunity.

"Wow, you nearly forgot us." Littlepaw harrumphed at her father.

"I would never forget you." Squirrelfoot said, aghast.

"They're lovely kits." Snowbriar spoke for the first time after nodding polite greetings to everyone.

"Made 'em myself." Squirrelfoot said proudly, causing his daughters to exchange mortified glances. Their father's jokes could be embarrassing. Berrypaw was glad that his father, whoever he was, never sought him out to humiliate him as Squirrelfoot did to his unfortunate kits.

"Stop embarrassing them and get to hunting." Wildbreeze scolded, nudging the reddish-orange tom toward the camp entrance. "It's what you're good at, isn't it?"

Berrypaw looked back to see Wingpaw rolling her eyes at her father before he fell into step behind Duckpaw at the back of the patrol. Seeing amusement on Snowbriar's features aggravated Berrypaw. If she hung out with Squirrelfoot all day, she would go home and tell her Clanmates about what a goofy bunch of jokers HollyClan cats were!

"Right then. Snowbriar, close your eyes please." Squirrelfoot told the StormClan cat. He looked almost apologetic as he met her bemused gaze. "We can't really let you look around our territory, so we're going to guide you to somewhere in the woods while your eyes are closed."

Snowbriar snorted. "Don't be a kit." Under the two warriors' unwavering stares, she relented, coming to the conclusion that she would have to do as he asked if she wanted to hunt. "Fine." She lashed her tail in annoyance and clamped her eyes shut.

"Keep them closed. I'll be watching." Wildbreeze growled. "Duckpaw, you lead her with your tail and make sure she doesn't fall on her face."

"No promises." Duckpaw said apologetically to Snowbriar, which caused her ears to angle backward in frustration.

"Off we go!" Squirrelfoot took them on a meandering path through the forest. He had gone out of his way to choose the longest, least-traveled path taken by the HollyClan cats. In some places he even took them through thick undergrowth and discreetly formed circles to confuse their guest. To the rest of them it was painfully obvious where they were, but to someone who didn't know the area it would be incredibly bewildering.

Snowbriar kept up surprisingly well, although they did slow their pace a bit to make up for the StormClan cat's lack of vision. She was a rather solidly-built cat and, now that Berrypaw could get a closer look at her, he saw that her face was crisscrossed with old scars, pale white against her light gray pelt. At first he had seen her as a young cat. He knew now that she was probably only a little bit younger than his mother, which was positively ancient to an apprentice. It occurred to him that she must be well-regarded by her leader to have been chosen to look after their beloved kits. She certainly looked as though she was willing to shred someone in their defense.

"Alright. Open your eyes now." Squirrelfoot halted their awkward march forward and turned to face the StormClan cat. They were near the absolute edge of HollyClan territory at this point, somewhere close to the RavenClan border. Squinting through the trees, Berrypaw could make out the sunny landscape beyond where there were no trees to offer shade. The edge of the trees in this direction was treated as an unofficial border, since they didn't really go out of their way to mark a border with no rival Clan on the opposite side. Kittypets were little threat. At most they would wander into the woods for a short amount of time and run back home the first time they heard an unfamiliar sound. Loners could be a problem, but only in large groups. The border here was also somewhat amorphous, since in hard times HollyClan cats would wander closer to twoleg dens, since there was always a steady amount of fat mice living off twoleg trash.

"Was all that walking necessary?" Snowbriar huffed, eyes flying open instantly.

"Absolutely." Squirrelfoot nodded emphatically.

"What's the matter, not used to walking? Does StarClan deliver your mice in a silver bowl?" Wildbreeze jeered.

Snowbriar looked at her sharply, tail-tip beginning to twitch. She didn't bristle or spit, just stared hard at the brown she-cat. There was no doubt that she was offended by the comment and yet she made no scathing reply. She simply gazed at the HollyClan warrior with a silent rebuke in her eyes. Berrypaw was beginning to understand why it was Snowbriar and not someone like Flynose who had been chosen to accompany the kits to HollyClan. Her patience was amazing. If someone had spoken like that to Berrypaw, he knew he would have flown into a rage and probably tried to box their ears in.

"There's no need for that, Wildbreeze." A note of disapproval entered Squirrelfoot's voice. It was the closest Berrypaw had ever seen him to being angry. "Snowbriar is our guest. She may not be from our Clan, but she's deserving of our respect."

Wildbreeze looked meekly at the ground, mumbling a half-hearted apology. She was one of the youngest warriors in the Clan and must have been acutely embarrassed to be told off in front of a cat from another Clan. But knowing Wildbreeze, it wouldn't stop her barbed comments. She was as hot-headed as a cat could be.

"Everyone stay within earshot of me." Squirrelfoot instructed, focusing more on Snowbriar and the apprentices than Wildbreeze. "We'll hunt until the sun begins to set. That should give you plenty of time to do what you wanted, Snowbriar."

"Yes, Squirrelfoot." The apprentices chorused dutifully while the StormClan she-cat gave a curt nod.

Berrypaw wandered off as soon as Squirrelfoot gave them the okay to begin hunting. He no longer struggled when it came to hunting, although he was still not a hunting prodigy like Wingpaw or her father. At least now he knew he could feed himself if he needed to. Squirrels and certain bird species constantly eluded his claws. Mice though, and especially moles, he caught with no difficulty at all. He had never been quick enough to catch more than a glimpse of a rabbit, bobtail flashing white as it disappeared into the forest.

The young cat caught a robin before deciding it was time to move on to another section. Perking his ears and opening his mouth, he tried to catch sight of his Clanmates. There was a flash of orangey-red fur and then the sudden squeal of a rabbit. Satisfied that he knew the general area he could find Squirrelfoot, Berrypaw headed toward the open ground he had seen beyond the forest's boundaries. It was a slightly chilly day, and in the shadow of the tall trees the apprentice could feel his paw pads tingling with cold. It would be nice to escape the shade for a moment and hunt along the tree-line.

Beyond HollyClan's forest was a huge, open space that seemed to stretch on forever to the northwest and to the east. Straight ahead when you exited the trees was twolegplace. It was perhaps a sixth of a day's walk, according to the few warriors who had ventured there. As a rule, Clan cats avoided the place. Some old cats remembered visiting the area in a time of famine. There was even an elder, Tigerfang, who had gotten lost in it for days as an apprentice. He warned any cat who asked about it about the twolegs. Either they would chase a cat away, or they would try and transform the unfortunate feline into a tubby, content kittypet. Among the kits at that time, it had been a horror story. Thinking of it now though made Berrypaw glad that he would never have to go any closer to the ominous gray line of twoleg dens in the distance.

"I've never been so close to Twolegplace." Berrypaw nearly jumped out of his fur at the sound of Snowbriar's voice.

"Watch it!" He hissed angrily, trying to cover up the fact that his pelt was puffed up in alarm. The she-cat was not fooled. Her whiskers twitched in amusement and she shifted her pale blue gaze from Berrypaw to the twoleg nests in the distance.

"Have you ever been there?" Snowbriar asked him.

"Why in StarClan's name would I want to go to Twolegplace?" Berrypaw asked with disdain, giving his chest a few quick licks before twisting around to try and get the fur along his spine to lie flat again.

Snowbriar shrugged. "Curiosity I guess. If I lived so close to it I might have slipped away once or twice to see it."

"Tigerfang says it's just a bunch of thunderpaths and twoleg nests. He said the further you go, the worse it gets… no trees. No grass. Just twoleg garbage." Berrypaw found himself quoting the old, battle-scarred tom.

"Don't you wonder about what's beyond your borders at all?" Snowbriar sounded surprised by Berrypaw's dismissive tone when it came to twoleg territory.

The tabby tom thought about this for a moment, coming to the realization that he had never really given much thought to what was outside his Clan's domain. And if he did, it was to wonder how far RavenClan or StormClan territory extended. "No, not really." He answered finally. "There doesn't seem to be much point in wondering. Clan cats settled here, so there's probably not much worth mentioning out there. It's not like anyone's going to go and see. If someone does, it won't be me." The thought of so much space with no Clan to claim it set the tom's mind to reeling. He had been raised to believe that anywhere that was not in one of the three territories was just a lawless land where any unwary cat could be slaughtered by another with no moral code whatsoever.

"I suppose you are right. StarClan wanted us to live here." Snowbriar nodded, more to herself than to him.

"Have you caught anything yet?" Berrypaw asked rather abruptly, seeing that she was not carrying any prey. As far as he knew she had been sitting here all dreamy-eyed the whole time without doing anything.

"Not yet. I wasn't having much luck in the forest, although I saw plenty of squirrels and birds." Snowbriar admitted with a tinge of embarrassment in her tone.

"Oh." Berrypaw had forgotten about the difference in hunting style. Squirrelfoot hadn't though, he realized. That was why the reddish-orange tabby had brought them to this area. There was plenty of the wide-open space that Snowbriar was used to.

"Would you like to help me hunt?"

The question stunned Berrypaw. Meeting her eyes, the young cat could see from her sheepish expression that the offer was genuine. But she was a warrior. Surely she was able to hunt on her own, even if the territory was unfamiliar? He told her this. "You're a warrior!" He exclaimed. "You don't need my help."

"Well… I think if we work together we can catch a fat rabbit. Maybe two." Snowbriar explained hastily.

He could tell that his incredulous reaction had made her uncomfortable, so he made an effort to compose himself. It was unusual for HollyClan cats to team up on a hunt, so the concept was simply strange to him. And to be asked by a rival Clan cat made the situation all the more fascinating to the apprentice. Outlandish as it was, the prospect of returning home with a rabbit was especially appealing to him, since he had yet to catch one himself. Rabbit meat was also a favorite among HollyClan cats. "A rabbit? Where?"

"I saw one disappearing into the heather over there." The she-cat pointed with her nose to where a small grass tunnel had been formed by their unsuspecting prey. Berrypaw couldn't help but wonder how the rabbit had not attracted the attention of his Clanmates, leaving such obvious signs of its presence like that.

"If you sneak around and make some noise from the other side of this thick patch of grass here, I think it'll come out the same hole. I'll catch it as it comes out." Snowbrair laid out the plan with such ease that it was apparent she had hunted rabbits this way before.

"I'll give it a try. I'm not used to stalking through grass." Berrypaw said reluctantly. He didn't want to admit his shortcomings, but at the same time he didn't want the she-cat to have some overly optimistic impression of his skills.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. You HollyClan cats are supposed to be the best stalkers, right?" Snowbriar's tone was joking. It relieved Berrypaw to know that she didn't put too much stock in the ancient stereotypes.

Berrypaw found that the grass was awfully thick and tangled in places. He had to make a wider circle than he thought to get behind to where Snowbriar had indicated that the rabbit might be. As he worked his way around he caught a strong whiff of rabbit, too strong to be just one. Excitement quickened his pawsteps. Maybe it was a whole nest!

A sudden rustling from nearby caught Berrypaw's attention. He dropped into a crouch and held still, amber eyes unblinking as he watched a ripple in the grass approach slowly. At times it would pause and the sound of munching would reach the tom's ears. One of the rabbits!

With so many layers of intertwined grass stalks, he didn't want to risk moving. He could put a paw one place and then have the grass tremble a fox-length away as a result. So he waited. He was glad that the grass still had a sickly, brownish hue to it from Leafbare. His pale brown pelt would make him blend in perfectly.

The brown cottontail didn't know what hit it.

Berrypaw flinched and cursed inwardly as he cut off the dying creature's final shriek of pain. His first bite had been sloppy.

The following explosion of movement caused Berrypaw to flatten himself in shock. Frightened by the noise, a small herd of deer bolted in panic. One young buck with a broad set of antlers trampled the ground a mouse-length from the cowering apprentice as he passed by, white tail sticking rigidly up as a warning to others. Berrypaw was so alarmed by the appearance of the stag that he didn't notice the stampede of rabbits streaking from the compact mound of grass and heather that he had been skirting so carefully. It was like a flood of rabbits. They ran every which way, into the grass, out into the open, into the forest. Their numbers astonished him so greatly that he didn't even think to try and catch one until the last of the lanky animals was gone from his sight.

Trembling, the young tom hurried back the way he had come, not bothering to disguise his presence anymore. He just wanted to be back in familiar territory, where the ground was dirt and there was nothing tall enough to conceal a huge deer that might crush you with its hooves.

"Berrypaw! Did you see that?" Snowbriar seemed out of breath as she trotted up to him. Her eyes were alight with wonder. "I've never seen so many rabbits! They must have been breeding in this area for… for generations or something. We found a rabbit camp!" The she-cat's purr of amusement was cut short when she realized that Berrypaw looked shaken. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He said quickly, dropping his rabbit. "It was just a bit of a shock."

Snowbriar walked up and down the area, examining the mound of grass more closely. "Do you think they'll come back again?"

"I dunno." Berrypaw shrugged. He hoped not. Although he did wonder if he would be able to lure someone like Slatefur out here and scare them all out again. It seemed like a good prank. So long as there weren't any deer lurking about. "Did you catch anything?"

"Oh, yeah. I managed to grab two of them." Snowbriar's tail curled up in self-satisfied way. "Think that makes up for all the prey I've eaten here?"

"Definitely. HollyClan cats are crazy for rabbit." Berrypaw told her.

"You must be a lucky charm or something." Snowbriar shook her head in disbelief. "I've never seen anything like that, nor have I had such a successful hunt. We'll have to hunt together again before I have to go."

"Yeah." Berrypaw agreed, suddenly aware that he was actually having fun. Despite being nearly pulverized, hunting with Snowbriar felt more like getting into mischief with a fellow apprentice than actually working to feed his Clan. It was a feeling that he wished he could feel every time he set paw out of camp. Thinking of Wingpaw and Littlepaw, he began to understand that he could.

Looking up at the sun, he remembered that Squirrelfoot had told them that they would be returning when the sun started to set. The golden orb was just past its zenith, which meant his Clanmates would be gathering together for the return journey. "It's time to head back though. Let's go before Wildbreeze comes to hunt you down."

…

Pleasantly full and happy, Berrypaw was dozing lightly in his nest when he was awoken by Wingpaw's breath in his ear. "Berrypaw, wake up. Snowbriar is leaving. She said that she wanted to say good-bye to you before returning to StormClan."

"What?" Berrypaw blinked, instantly awake. His heart sank. Already?

Snowbriar was sharing tongues with her Clanmates when Berrypaw approached to say farewell. Flynose wasn't among them. Graynose, the one who had come to beg for help, was there, along with a fluffy, cream-colored she-cat and a sour-faced dark brown tabby tom who looked like he would rather be anywhere but here. The cream-colored cat already had the four kits pressed close to her flank, tail wrapped around them to shield them from the nighttime chill.

"Looks like we won't get our hunt after all." Snowbriar said wryly, rising to her paws as the apprentice drew near.

"It might be a good thing." Berrypaw gave a purr of amusement. "There wouldn't be any rabbits left in the forest."

"You'll have to catch enough for both of us." Snowbriar said. "It was nice hunting with you, Berrypaw. I'll see you at gatherings." Her gaze was drawn to the kits as one of them, a pure white she-kit, let out a wail of unhappiness upon realizing that the she-cat had no milk for her. "We need to go now. The sooner those kits have Redfern's milk, the better."

Each of the StormClan warriors delicately picked up a kit. The white she-kit was quick to mewl her displeasure, but the others hung limp and cooperative in the jaws of their Clanmates. Glancing at the nursery, Berrypaw saw the blue eyes of Blackriver glinting from within. While her expression was hard, he detected a hint of remorse in her gaze as the kits she had suckled for their first few days were taken away. At her paws was a pale tuft of fur, amber eyes stretched wide at the sight of his new denmates being carried away by strangers.

Howlingstar and Shadewing were waiting at the camp entrance with Greenwhisker and Foxclaw. Graynose set his burden down at his paws for a moment to exchange words with the leader and his mate before shrugging his shoulders and continuing out into the forest. The four HollyClan cats fell into step behind the StormClan warriors. Snowbriar glanced back at Berrypaw and raised her tail in a final farewell before she was swallowed by shadow.

Next time they saw each other, they would be rivals again.