Whitepaw woke up at dawn in a happy mood. She felt no pain in her left leg at all, since the cuts were completely gone. She opened her eyes to sunshine streaming into the den. Outside was quiet, other than birds chirping. Whitepaw knew it was going to be a good day.
The other apprentices were still sleeping, but Cherrypaw was missing. Whitepaw shrugged the absence off and got to her paws. She steadily crept out of her nest and walked to the entrance to peek her head outside. Her clanmates were apparently awake, but just quiet. Whitepaw hesitated to go into the forest, but knew Jayfeather wouldn't approve until he checked her.
The she-cat laid back down in her nest and tried to sleep again when she heard someone enter the den. Expecting it to be Jayfeather who decided to check her early, she turned around to see Cherrypaw with a large ball of moss. The she-cat walked to a moss pile the right-most side of the room and dropped the ball onto other moss.
The apprentice noticed that Whitepaw was watching. She turned to her and smiled. "I thought I could help you with changing out the bedding, since I'll be missing training for today, too."
Whitepaw appreciated the help so much, once she remembered about her punishment at that moment, but didn't understand one thing. "Thanks, but wouldn't Bramblestar have picked an alternative mentor for you?"
The ginger cat shrugged. "He's supposed to, but since he hadn't told me who will be training me yet, I figured I would have to miss a day or two worth of training either way." Her cheery attitude fell when she said, "And I think Foxleap will be in this shape for a while." She looked down sadly.
"It's okay, I think he'll manage his wounds just fine." Whitepaw hoped that what she said would help. She then added, "And we can redo the bedding when the rest go out for training." Cherrypaw nodded in agreement.
The day went by slowly, since Whitepaw just laid in her nest for some of the day. The day itself was sunny with a few clouds drifting above, and thank StarClan it wasn't cold, or else Whitepaw would spend another long day freezing her pelt off.
Cats outside began to chatter and move around more, which Whitepaw took the scene as entertainment while she waited for her friends to leave. Something about the talking and mood of the day reminds her of something, but couldn't remember what.
Eventually each apprentice were called to leave for training around mid-morning. Whitepaw and Cherrypaw got out of their nests and grabbed a ball of moss. They each went to their own nests and started to change them out.
Whitepaw still tried to figure out what made the place familiar. Suddenly the place came to her, and she smiled. She told it to Cherrpaw. "You know, now that I think about it, the forest right now is kind of reminding me of a camp I go to in the mountains almost every spring." She began to rake the moss out of her nest.
"Like this camp?" Cherrypaw asked, without looking up, yet sounded interested in the topic.
"Not exactly. This camp is where you go live in cabins, which are mostly made of wood, and do a bunch of activities. You can go swimming, hiking, fishing, play games, put on skits, and a few other random events that the adults put on."
Cherrypw lifted her head up and stopped working. "What's a skit?"
"A skit is when you make a...um...that's actually a bit hard to explain." She restarted what she was saying and did her best to define it. "Well, you create a story. Yes, that. You create a story and you reenact it in front of an audience. In front of an audience in the camp, I mean. The camp usually has the skits done at a campfire."
"Cool! What kind of stories do they make up?" Suddenly, the apprentice showed a fearful expression, her fur pricking. She cried, "Wait, campfire? You have fires in your camp?"
Whitepaw tried not to worry Cherrypaw. "No, no, no! Campfire's are completely safe! They have these places where they create fire near the Twolegs. The fires can't spread."
Cherrypaw's fur flattened and she sighed. "Oh, thank StarClan. I would have thought Twolegs were even more mouse-brained if that wasn't the case."
Whitepaw took no offense to that. "Good, I guess."
Whitepaw switched topics. She began to think of a type of skit to tell about. There was a particular one she knew best. "But one of the skits that is repeated every year is a song performance."
"I think I heard Blossomfall say something about you doing that; the singing thing."
Really? "Well, whatever." She moved right along. "The song is a silly little campfire song that all the Twolegs sing together."
"Can you sing it to me right now?"
Whitepaw refused. "Sorry, but how about another time? I guess I could maybe sing that song in front of you, but not when everyone could hear me." She pointed her tail to outside.
"Okay."
They continued to replace the bedding. Once they finished their own nests, they moved on to another. And another. And another. They had some time delayed since they had to get a bit more moss, and have some fresh-kill, but they made good progress anyway. And with two cats helping, Whitepaw only needed to do one more by the time to sun was in the position of ten o'clock. Cherrypaw laid down in her clean nest as she watched Whitepaw do the last bed. Before now, Whitepaw had told Cherrypaw not to tell Bramblestar that she helped, since Whitepaw didn't get caught of only doing half the work. Cherrypaw agreed immediately.
Whitepaw was almost finished with the last nest when Bramblestar entered the den. Whitepaw and Cherrypaw looked at the leader in surprise.
The tabby leader said, "Good morning. I came by to tell Cherrypaw something." He gazed over to the ginger cat. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like Foxleap will recover anytime soon. You're temporary mentor will be Cloudtail until further notice."
Cherrypaw's face fell, and looked at the ground. "Oh. Okay..."
"Again, I am sorry." Bramblestar turned to Whitepaw. "How's your job going?"
"This is the last nest to do."
The leader's eyes widened a bit, but then smiled. "Oh, I guess you got an early start. You're quite lucky to get a small number of nests to do, since the others have to do over half the clan's."
Whitepaw could only imagine how long that would have taken. "Okay. So, when I'm done with this, can I leave?"
"Of course, but go easy on your wounds. You can be excused from patrols today."
Whitepaw kept quiet about her healed leg, since she wanted to keep her excuse from doing work, and continued with the nest as Bramblestar left. It didn't take her long, and when she was done she placed the unused moss in a pile where Cherrypaw first put them. She took a deep breath.
The apprentice left the den and breathed in the fresh air. The day was still wonderful, and she couldn't wait to finally meet up with Jayfeather. She walked over to the medicine den to get her check-up.
She looked inside the den and saw that Jayfeather was checking the medicine store, again. Whitepaw thought, Since when does he not check there? Briarlight was sleeping peacefully in her nest, and Foxleap was in a nest next to her's.
Whitepaw greeted Jayfeather. "Hi. So, is it possible you can check me early?"
Jayfeather heard the she-cat by notifying her by perking his ears up, but didn't reply until he finished looking through the supplies. "Sure. It will save time."
Whitepaw walked over to the pool as Jayfeather pulled something out of the store. He walked over to the apprentice, put the herbs down, and asked, "Is it hurting?"
Whitepaw told the entire truth without much hesitation. "About that...I had a dream where I was in the Dark Forest and one of the cats wanted information about a cat here. I said no, and then she attacked me. She gave me a scratch on my leg identical to the one I got yesterday. In a later dream, I escaped the Dark Forest, having the same wound, and StarClan healed me. And they said that the same wound in real life would be healed too." I sound like I'm making this up just to weird out my clanmates.
Jayfeather just stared at her. He then snapped back into reality and asked, "Wait. Is the Dark Forest plotting against us again?" His eyes widened, and his fur stood on end.
"No! It was just the one cat. But everything is okay now."
"Are you sure?" He then added, "Or are you making this all up?" Jayfeather accused.
"I'm not making it up! And StarClan handled the problem. Nothing else in my dreams will happen."
Jayfeather sighed, and then muttered, "You scared me out of my fur." The tom quickly calmed down after a few moments. "You should have told this to someone when whatever that was got serious."
"I told it to Foxleap, since he asked why I looked scared. But I don't think he believed me because he said if it happened again I should tell you, Leafpool, and Bramblestar."
"And you listened to him?" Whitepaw hesitated to nod, but remembered his blindness and answered with a 'yes'. Jayfeather continued. "Well, I can't blame you for being confused about this. But if anything else happens, tell it to Bramblestar. We can't have our own clanmates being tortured in their dreams."
Whitepaw noticed something in his sentence. "Did you just refer to me as...a clanmate?" She teased.
Jayfeather confessed what meant. "Fine. After these moons of being stuck with you, I now call you one of my clanmates." He added, "Happy?"
"Very."
Jayfeather walked away into the store again, and came back with a bit of moss. He dipped it in the pool and began to wash off the herbs that were still stuck on Whitepaw's leg.
When he did that, and went behind her and felt around her pelt. He commented, "Thanks to StarClan, you are well enough to help me gather herbs. We can leave now, if you like."
Oh my StarClan yes! Instead of speaking her thoughts, she calmly said, "Sure."
"Then let's go." Jayfeather led the way as Whitepaw was right on his tail.
They entered the forest on their herb gathering session, for about the thousandth time. Whitepaw hoped she could have a conversation with him, have him finally warm up to her as some sort of friend. But that has so far been a very slow process.
It took them longer than she thought it would to get to the Twoleg garden where the catmint grew, so she decided to strike up a conversation. She at first tried to think of a topic, but then decided to ask Jayfeather for one. "So...is there anything we can talk about?" She asked, trying to sound cheery, while at the same time hopeful.
Whitepaw tried not to smile as Jayfeather responded. "I do have a question: Why is it that you like to be alone, but when you're with some other cat, you just love to talk nonstop?"
Whitepaw's giddiness faded a bit. Well, I tried to start this out friendly. "I actually don't really know. I like telling stories, but I think that's the only thing I talk nonstop about."
"That could make sense. Another thing: if you want to become a warrior, why are you still interested in gathering herbs with me?"
Whitepaw wasn't prepared for Jayfeather to ask that question. She tried to make up the best excuse she could, since responses like 'just cause' or 'because she likes hanging out with the medicine cat' would send the wrong idea or wouldn't be enough. Her mind just went blank in the end. "Because...it can be fun to learn herbs...and, uh..." She sighed and gave up. "I have no idea. But I can tell you that I do not want to be a medicine cat."
Jayfeather slowed his pace to let her walk beside him. He looked over to her and said, "There has to be some sort of reason. You have friends, so you don't need another. There hasn't been anyone who wants to help me with medicine cat chores recently..."
Whitepaw used all her will power to be quiet. The one thing on her mind was to tell a partial truth, meaning to say that she wants to be friends with him. But StarClan knows how that would play out if Jayfeather knew that a stranger he only knew for a few moons wanted to be friends with him. He might even take that the wrong way.
Jayfeather spoke another guess, "Is just because you're bored?" he suggested, sounding a bit sarcastic. "That bored to pick herbs?"
The guess rung a bell in Whitepaw's head. That can be it! Why didn't I think of that? "Yes, I guess that's why. It fills up my time in some sort of way."
Jayfeather seemed questionably satisfied with the answer. "I was joking, but I guess that works," he added, "Eventually cats are going to assume you want to be a medicine cat." The blind cat pointed out.
"Yeah, but in all reality I'm not."
The conversation ended, and Jayfeather looked back in front of him. Whitepaw thought, Wait, how come he was still able to know where he was going? Oh, duh, his other senses help him.
They both continued on the path to the catmint garden. Whitepaw had hoped there could have been a bit more talking on this trip, but she got what she got. Soon enough, they reached the place.
It looked like what Whitepaw had thought of in her head, but looks a bit more stable than she thought. She and Jayfeather walked towards the house, but was blocked by a wall. Jayfeather jumped up while Whitepaw tried. She pounced and struggled to keep balance. Once she did, the apprentice jumped down onto the other side.
They padded to the Twoleg garden and began to look around; or in this case, Jayfeather looked around while Whitepaw wondered what to do.
After a few seconds of looking, Whitepaw asked, "So, what does catmint exactly look like?"
The tom looked over to Whitepaw. "Catmint are small green stalks. If you find one, don't bite all of it off; leave a bit of it there to let it grow again."
"Okay."
Whitepaw looked around the garden, hoping for any hint of the plant. She looked under fallen leaves and dug at the dirt to find some. She then spotted a green color, and went towards it hopefully. She inspected it, but wasn't sure if it was the herb.
She looked over to Jayfeather. "Is this it?"
The medicine cat walked over to the apprentice's finding. He put his nose up to it, and began to bite a piece of it off. When he did, he then dryly said, "Well done."
Whitepaw smiled. She went back to look for more when Jayfeather called her back. He had found a bigger piece of catmint elsewhere.
Padding over to it, Whitepaw said, "Oh, cool." There were about five small stalks all clumped together there.
"Take a few and put it over there," instructed Jayfeather, pointing to a tiny pile of the herbs with his tail. Whitepaw began to help.
When she thought she had gotten what she could, she placed the bunch on the small pile. Jayfeather placed a few more onto it. When he did, he then split the bunch in half.
"We can take them back now," he said. He took one of the batches and began to walk in the direction of camp.
Whitepaw took the other half and caught up with him, padding alongside him as he kept going. They walked together in silence, but it was anything but silence in Whitepaw's mind. Okay, I need to know when we can hang out again. Or gather herbs, or whatever you call it. I think I just need to talk to him a bit more so we can have a friendly conversation eventually.
She looked over to him. She wished she knew what the tom was thinking, so she could know if he at least thought of her in a good way. She even wondered what would happen if they did become friends. The thought made Whitepaw smile.
They reached camp, padded past their clanmates, and into the medicine den. Foxleap was still asleep, but Briarlight wasn't in the den at the moment, so Whitepaw assumed she was somewhere hidden in the crowd outside in the clearing. Jayfeather put the herbs on a shelf in the storage, and then waited outside the entrance of the storage while Whitepaw put her own bunch of herbs away.
The apprentice walked into the middle of the main room. She didn't exit immediately, since she needed to ask the tabby tom something. She turned to him and asked, "So...when can we do this again?" Did I seriously just quote that song?
"Are you sure you don't to be a medicine cat?" Jayfeather joked.
"Positive."
Jayfeather got up and sat down under the doorway of the medicine store. "You can help me again when I need you. Now, why don't you be a normal warrior apprentice and go on a hunting patrol."
Whitepaw somewhat agreed with him. "I might just do that, since Bramblestar may be trying to find me and put me on one." She wasn't able to remember that he wouldn't be putting her on any patrols that day.
Jayfeather didn't say anything more, and went into the herb store and looked around it. Whitepaw turned around to leave, saying, "Bye."
It was barely audible, but Whitepaw could have sworn she had heard Jayfeather reply with, "Goodbye."
Whitepaw smiled widely. She walked out into the clearing to find Blossomfall so she could tell about her day. Even though she would be giving hints away about her small feelings toward Jayfeather, she still wanted to share the recent memory with someone.
Fortunately, Blossomfall was seen near the warriors den. Whitepaw thankfully walked towards her, only to be halted by the clan deputy. Squirrelflight smiled she said to the apprentice, "Greetings, Whitepaw."
Whitepaw let her shyness take over her. "Oh, um...hi." She felt impatient about the small delay.
"I don't think we've spoken to each other much before. I just wanted to greet you for a moment."
"Okay."
Squrrelflight then padded away from Whitepaw. Ignoring what had just happened, Whitepaw continued padding towards Blossomfall. The dappled she-cat wasn't where the apprentice last saw her.
Whitepaw assumed she had left to go to the warriors den, but if so then Whitepaw would have wanted to just wait until she came out. She didn't want to go into the warriors den, and even if she did, she didn't want to ask anyone where Blossomfall is if she wasn't even in there.
Looking around for a different friend, the apprentice spotted Cherrypaw. Whitepaw sighed, and then walked over to the she-cat. Sadly enough, Cherrypaw was the only other she-cat friend she has that was close to her age; even though Blossomfall isn't around her age, Whitepaw assumed anyway, the dappled she-cat was a more mature friend.
Cherrypaw was munching on a sparrow as Whitepaw padded up to her. The white cat asked, "Cherrypaw, do you want to hang out with me?"
The young cat looked up, then nodded. "Sure. Want to walk in the forest?" Whitepaw nodded. "Let's go."
The two she-cats immediately ambled into the chilly, bright forest, which was under a late morning sky. Whitepaw still wished she could have found Blossomfall, but Cherrypaw wouldn't be suspicious of Whitepaw's story with Jayfeather; which by the way, she was still going to tell.
Walking down a path, Whitepaw stayed silent, as did Cherrypaw. It was only after Whitepaw thought they were a good distance away from camp when she let her excitement out.
"Cherrypaw, can I tell you a small story?" Whitepaw asked, sounding cheerful.
Cherrypaw's ears perked up when the word 'story' was said. "Sure!"
Whitepaw began. "So...earlier this morning, I went into the forest to pick herbs with Jayfeather. We talked a bit, and picked catmint. Then we went back to camp."
Cherrypaw looked at her with disappointment as huge as the plumpest mouse. "How is that interesting?" She tilted her head to the side a bit.
The answer wouldn't be that tough to answer, since Whitepaw had simply said, "I got to hang out with the medicine cat." Now hearing it out loud, Whitepaw thought it sounded wrong. I need to do better with my choice of words, Whitepaw thought.
"But you've done that before. Do you want to be a medicine cat?"
"No."
"Alright." Cherrypaw changed the subject. "So, singing." The apprentice's eyes lit up. She begged, "Now that we are out of camp, can you sing to me?"
Whitepaw's happiness turned to nervousness. I should have remembered that. "How about...you show me a cool place in ThunderClan territory?" Whitepaw quickly said.
Cherrypaw immediately went along with the suggestion. "Oh, good idea! I know the perfect place." The ginger cat shot ahead, making Whitepaw have to keep up with her, yet still relieved that she didn't have to sing.
Whitepaw had no idea where they were going, but she knew she would need to take a break from running soon before she would need to pretty much beg Cherrypaw to stop. Luckily, their sprinting didn't last long, and they entered into a different part of the forest that Whitepaw hasn't witnessed.
It was very far into the territory, since the place looked like RiverClan's place. There was a pool of water, about the size of a monster. It wasn't very deep, since you could see the sandy bottom. Two smooth, giant rocks were on the other side of the pool, sitting a bit lodged into the ground. The pool looked clean for an unknown reason, but Whitepaw didn't care. The place looked like a beautiful place to be at.
"Cool. How come this was never mentioned in the books?" Whitepaw asked herself, mystified how this place was never told.
Cherrypaw unexpectedly answered, "I don't know. But I found it when Molepaw and I were adventuring the territory. We call it the Water Shine Place."
Whitepaw sat down near the pool. "Why do you call it that?"
"Because since we were out venturing during the night when we found it, the moon was bright enough to make the water look like it was glowing."
Whitepaw realized something in the sentence. "Wait, you snuck out one night?"
"Yeah, and we were lucky we didn't get caught."
Whitepaw pointed out, "Very lucky."
Whitepaw padded over to the two rocks. They kind of reminded her of her home, since there were also two giant rocks in her front yard. She jumped up into the rock nearest of her, and immediately felt the warmth of it's surface. She laid down on it and let the heat seep into her pelt. The white cat thought, They should have found this in the day time.
Cherrypaw hopped onto the other rock. She laid down as well and seemed to enjoy the heat, too. Whitepaw would make this her new quiet spot, but she liked her current one too much; plus, Molepaw and Cherrypaw might already be hanging out here on a regular basis.
Whitepaw laid there for a few minutes, thinking. Out of randomness, she said, "Just to say, I have had a wonderful time in the Warriors world. I'm friends with you, the other apprentices, Blossomfall, and maybe Briarlight and Jayfeather. I got to fight, I helped gather herbs, I'm on my way to be a warrior, and I went to Gatherings. And if I ever go back to my human world, I would miss you guys."
Cherrypaw looked over to Whitepaw smiling. "I'm happy you like it here." She turned back and rested her head on the rock.
Suddenly, Molepaw ran into the clearing. He panted as he walked around the pool to the rocks. He quickly gained some of his breath back and looked up at the two she-cats. Cherrypaw didn't seem bothered by Molepaw's sudden appearance, but Whitepaw was questioning it. The she-cat shrugged it off, since she ended up thinking it wasn't that important.
Molepaw's eyes widened, and then glared at Cherrypaw. "I thought this would be a secret place, just between you and me!"
"I trust Whitepaw to keep this a secret, right?" Cherrypaw glanced over to Whitepaw.
Whitepaw agreed. "Yes, I will keep this a secret." She for some reason felt like she was lying, though, but didn't know why.
The ginger cat looked back to her brother. "See?"
Molepaw walked over to the base of Cherrypaw's rock and laid down. "Fine."
The three apprentices then laid there in silence. Whitepaw's mind wandered to the subject of Jayfeather. The longer she hung out with him, the more she was happy around him. She thought, Maybe the next time we hang out, I could figure out how to make him laugh. That's one way to get a guy to like you more, I think. And I need him to make the first move. He needs to be the one to ask me to hang out with him, on an official hang out. Wow, I sound like a total girly teenager.
Whitepaw shook the thought away from her head and focused on something else. But what else was there to talk about? She still wasn't used to having limited things to talk or do.
But complaining about it was useless. And what does it matter anyway if she had nothing much to think or talk about? She had to get used to change at some point. But that's just who she is.
And limited things to talk or do was worth being here.
Well this took forever. But it's done. So yeah, here's another casual chapter.
And just to mix things up a bit...
I want you guys to ask Whitepaw questions, sort of like an 'Ask Whitepaw' thing. In the next chapter, she will answer most of those questions in these little notes. So ask as many as you want!
See you guys later!