Moonpaw gazed at the camp enterance. Did she really have to go in? Twigpelt would ask where the roots were. And the kits and Gingertail would be all abuzz, what with Moonpaw leaving them with so little information when she left.
The silver apprentice felt somewhat better after telling Paleflower her secret, but the relief was almost completely negated by the guilt of breaking a rule.
Right after she had left the moonstone, Twigpelt had asked her if there was anything she wanted to tell him about her visit to StarClan. Moonpaw had said no, obviously - she couldn't very well just inform her mentor that he was going to die. But maybe she should say something to him...
No!
But she couldn't just leave everything to rot. Moonpaw took a deep breath and entered camp.
It was between sunhigh and sunset, and a batch of patrols and hunting parties had just returned. The clearing was full of cats chattering.
Moonpaw noticed Barkkit and Flamekit animatedly describing something to a group of younger cats. "And she said that RiverClan was invading!"
"But if it had been a badger, I would have scratched it in the eye!"
Oh, dear. She had better hurry up and explain the invasion to Brackenstar, since there clearly was absolutely no chance of keeping it secret, even if Moonpaw wanted to. She hadn't thought much about it earlier. Her mind was filled with other things.
"Hello, Moonpaw!" Wingfoot, her half-sister, called. "I just heard that Briarpaw's going to get a new mentor soon. Branchtail finally decided to move to the nursery. I'm glad; that should probably be better for her kits. Hopefully it will be newleaf by the time they're born. I wonder... Moonpaw, is something wrong?"
"Yes." Moonpaw didn't care who knew anymore. "Bye."
"Wait! What-"
Something else had occurred to the tabby apprentice. She, Mistblossom, and Twigpelt were all to die on the same day. It seemed like an awful coincidence that three such intertwined cats would all leave for StarClan at the same time. Unless, of course, their deaths would be connected.
Moonpaw swerved away from her route to the leaders den - from the scent, she guessed that he wasn't even there. Instead, she strode towards the medicine cat's den.
Twigpelt looked up from sorting some watermint leaves. "Ah, you're back." He stretched. "I think I found a pretty good mix of herbs for Rainbreeze's cold. He's resting in his own den now. Where's the burdock root?"
"Why does Mistblossom hate you?"
The brown tom stared at her.
"Why?" she repeated.
"I do believe that I just asked you a question. You would do well to answer it."
"This is important. Tell me!"
Twigpelt yawned and sharpened his claws on the stone wall. "Burdock roots are pretty important, too."
"Yeah, well I think my question's more important. And you want to know why?"
"Actually, n-"
"Because," she snarled, "the three of us are all going to die on the same day!"
Twigpelt jerked up. "Wh- what- when..."
"StarClan told me at the half-moon." Moonpaw hadn't meant to tell him the prophecy. It had just... slipped out?
"Silver..."
"And so," she said, putting on a nonchalant tone, "I was kind of wondering why we'd all die. It's going to be during a battle, you know. And I thought, maybe the two of you will grab each other and fight to the death. And maybe a RiverClan warrior was about to kill me, but you were too busy shredding each other to notice. And so the RiverClan cat would kill me, Mistblossom would kill you, and you would kill Mistblossom."
"Silver!" Twigpelt's eyes flashed wildly as his fear-scent filled the air. "Stop that!"
The tom closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath to compose himself.
Several moments passed before he opened his eyes. "Silver," he said coolly, "stop being ridiculous. Neither Mistblossom nor I would ever kill a Clan mate-"
"That," Moonpaw said, "may be the nicest thing you've ever said about my mother."
"What is wrong with you?" Twigpelt hissed. "You've gone mad! Just haphazardly plowing through... through... everything! Demanding I tell you secrets, informing me I'm going to die... I don't even want to know what else you did today!"
Moonpaw scratched her claws violently against the earth. She knew she was being a total jerk. But the knowledge didn't make her feel any better.
"Listen, Silver. You've... If you told me the truth about this... prediction, then you have every reason to be upset and every reason to act poorly. But your Clan needs you, and you can't just give up. You have to stay loyal-"
"You're a hypocrite."
"Excuse me?"
"When your mentor died, you abandoned the Clan. Two cats died because you left them! And I get the impression that you never apologized. Did you apologize?" she challenged.
Twigpelt stared at her. "Silver-"
"Yes or no."
"I don't have to answer with a yes or no if I-"
"Yes or no."
Twigpelt let out a long hiss. "No, but-"
"Alright, then. And it wasn't just that time, either. After that first battle this leafbare with RiverClan, you were so upset that Jumpfoot died of greencough that you ignored the fact that there were three injured cats right in front of you, asking you to help them! You didn't really learn anything since your mentor's death, did you?"
"Stop that!" Twigpelt yowled. "You wouldn't know. You've never had a cat close to you die!"
"But I will! The prophecy-"
"And you most certainly will not screech about your prophecy loud enough for the whole Clan to hear!"
"You're louder than I am."
"That," Twigpelt snarled, "is exactly the kind of argument a kit would make. Now, go away."
"Sure, send me away. Looks like you're running from your problems - again."
"What do you think you've been doing all day?"
"Oh. Alright, then. I made a mistake too - that makes you killing Honeyfur okay." Moonpaw whirled around and stormed off.
Many thanks to everyone who wrote a review! It's really encouraging to read through my review archives.
