Hi again! I hope you enjoy chapter 1 :)
Keep in mind that this takes place generations after the Great Battle, and all the Clans (except SkyClan) are peacefully living by the lake. Everything is pleasant, because it's new-leaf, and at the moment, it would seem that there's absolutely nothing out of the ordinary for the Clans.
A huge thank you to Honeyflame, Sapphire-Glow, RavenblazeOC, Fastbreeze37, Hissing Mist, Skyblossom, and Flamewing for reviewing the prologue! 7 reviews already is insane, I'm so glad (and really relieved) you're enjoying so far!
(Hissing Mist, to answer your question, he'll show up a little later, and you'll find out for certain *evil laugh*)
(And Skyblossom, to answer yours, about every week, if not sooner!)
I don't own Warriors!
CHAPTER 1: BEGINNINGS
The curtain of lichen tickled Hawkpaw's night-black pelt as she pushed into the medicine den, flicking the last trace of vole from her whiskers.
It was past sunhigh, and she would probably have to restock the supply of borage sometime in the next few days, in plenty of time for Cedarfang to have her kits. Of course, the earlier she or Leopardwish went out to look for the blue-flowered herb, the better, since it wouldn't hurt for Honeypool to keep her milk coming healthily for Ivykit and Sorrelkit.
She brushed past Stormwhisker's prone body on her way to the back of the den and decided to check on his wounds. The dark brown warrior had been severely injured in one of the many scuffles with ShadowClan over the border territory, and Hawkpaw unsheathed her claws and sunk them into the soft ground beneath her paws as she considered the prospect of ThunderClan losing territory to those fox-hearts.
The marigold poultices on the sleeping warrior's flank and throat still seemed to be fresh, and Hawkpaw shook herself. A medicine cat had no place in such issues, though she often wondered if she had made the right choice in apprenticeship.
It always seemed that these border scuffles bothered her more than they did her mentor, or at least, for different reasons. Yes, of course they were a pain to treat, and a major drain of marigold, comfrey, and cobwebs, but they were sort of a waste of good hunting and battling power as well, weren't they?
Stormwhisker had lost major amounts of blood and fur over a stray shrew. A shrew. It wasn't even leaf-bare!
The tom's chest rose and fell faintly, and Hawkpaw gently brushed her tail over his ears before padding into the depths of the medicine den, where she could check on the borage supply in one of the rock clefts. The pungent scents of a variety of herbs washed over her, and Hawkpaw inhaled deeply, relishing the fragrant concoction of the sweet and tangy plants that Leopardwish had taught her to locate and gather in the past moon.
She froze as she saw another cat peer out from the back of the den. "Leopardwish!"
Her mentor scampered out, dropping a collection of stems to one side before resting her muzzle briefly on Hawkpaw's head. As much as the gesture warmed her from her paws to her tail-tip, Hawkpaw pulled away, clenching her jaws. Leopardwish shouldn't have been back for another day, having traveled around the lake to help the RiverClan medicine cat with a particularly interesting injury or something.
Part of Hawkpaw wished she still had another day to care for ThunderClan on her own, even though she was still a relatively new apprentice.
"What are you doing here?" she mewed, hoping her disappointment wasn't too evident. She hadn't even noticed her mentor's return to camp.
Leopardwish shook out her dappled ginger fur, as if she could read Hawkpaw's thoughts. "One of the RiverClan apprentices was still having trouble breathing a quarter-moon after he nearly drowned. Birchfrost was giving him coltsfoot, but it turns out the shock hadn't completely worn out, and there was still some water trapped in his lungs."
"Is he okay now?"
"Yes, of course." Leopardwish flicked her plumy tail indifferently. "Did anything change around here? I noticed Stormwhisker is still asleep."
Hawkpaw tensed. It was true; the young warrior hadn't improved much for the better, though at least his condition hadn't worsened. "He woke up a few times since you left, but he doesn't stay awake long," she reported. "Just enough to eat some fresh-kill and insist on returning to his duties, and then he falls asleep again."
Her mentor nodded, as if she'd been expecting it. "And you changed his dressing a few times, right?"
"Just as often as you told me." Hawkpaw searched Leopardwish's gaze. "What else is wrong with him?"
"Oh, probably nothing," Leopardwish mewed, not a hint of uncertainty or alarm in her amber eyes, and Hawkpaw relaxed. She'd been worried for Stormwhisker since even before her mentor had left for RiverClan, and if she'd lost the warrior, it would have most definitely meant that the medicine den was not her place. "Sometimes, it takes a warrior a little longer to recover. He lost a lot of blood, even if nothing important was wounded; it makes sense that he's so exhausted."
Leopardwish padded in a circle around Stormwhisker's temporary nest, studying the barely-moving shape and sniffing at the poultices occasionally, and Hawkpaw tensed. Did I do it wrong?
But to her relief, the medicine cat simply nodded appreciatively and picked up the leaves she had dropped to carry them into the back, and Hawkpaw followed, hissing as she stumbled on a stray root and brushed against the moss of the empty nests. She racked her brain for the name of the herb as Leopardwish stuffed the stems into an empty crevice, but though she recognized the scent, she couldn't place her tail on the word.
"What is that?"
"It's burnet." Leopardwish sounded surprised. Right! "Do you remember what we use it for?"
"Energy, and traveling long distances," she mewed promptly.
"Right. Until one of us gets more borage, I'm going to keep Cedarfang's energy up. Kitting is hard work, you know." Something akin to amusement flashed in her eyes, though Hawkpaw thought she could sense something else pulsing from her mentor.
"If you went out to get burnet, couldn't you just have gone out for borage?"
Leopardwish twitched her whiskers. "Yes, but this serves two purposes. Don't you remember what today is?" When Hawkpaw didn't answer, staring down at her white forepaws and lapping at her dark chest fur self-consciously, her mentor licked the tip of her ear affectionately. "It's the half-moon! You finally get to meet the other medicine cats and share tongues with StarClan."
"So soon?" Hawkpaw had missed the last Gathering, having just been made an apprentice days before, and she had only heard her mentor's tales about Birchfrost and the other medicine cats.
"Don't tell me you're disappointed!"
"No, no, I'm not. I'm just—what are they going to think about me?"
"Don't worry, Hawkpaw, they're all going to love meeting you."
Hawkpaw scuffed her paws in the dirt, suddenly warm under Leopardwish's knowing stare. "I haven't even learned all the herbs yet," she muttered, half to herself. "And I've never met StarClan before."
"StarClan don't worry about all that."
"Then what do I need to do?" Her mew came out much higher than she had intended, and Hawkpaw lowered her twitching tail. "Do I need to go ask the elders about all the StarClan cats? I'm sure they remember all of the important ones, but I didn't really hear too many as a kit—"
The medicine cat swept a paw out forward, pushing a collection of poppy seeds into the crack where the rock met the dirt ground. "No, nothing! StarClan will accept you as you are, and guide you on your way to becoming a full medicine cat. Haven't you heard the stories of the greatest medicine cats?"
Hawkpaw wasn't completely convinced, but she rolled her shoulders and sat back, resisting the urge to push that subject any further and seizing the opportunity to appease her own apprehensions. "Like what?"
"Spottedleaf, Littlecloud, Jayfeather, Alderheart, Willowshine—" Leopardwish cut herself off, swiveling towards Hawkpaw. "Oh, go check the elders for ticks if you want a story that badly. I'm telling you, you don't need to. And we have work to do."
Her words were stern, but the lightness of her mentor's tone left Hawkpaw purring along with her. "Do you want me to go look for borage?"
Leopardwish appeared to hesitate for a heartbeat before nodding. "Okay, but be quick. It's a half-day's journey to get to the Moonpool, and we want to be there in plenty of time. If you can't find any, come back immediately, and we can go look for some together tomorrow."
"Yes, Leopardwish."
"Do you remember what we use borage for?"
That was an easy one. She'd known the scent of borage even as a kit. "To help with a queen's milk."
The medicine cat's ears perked, and she turned back to the herbs she was sorting. "You learn quickly. Now hurry, get back before the hunting patrol does."
Hawkpaw dipped her head respectfully before padding away, feeling the familiar liveliness that sprung into her feet every time she headed out to look for herbs or observed a new patient, but paused near the entrance of the den, doubt wreathing itself around her.
Borage... borage... She knew what it would do, what it looked like, how it smelled, how much to give a nursing queen for how many kits, but... it was in the forest near the lake, right? Was she sure enough to travel all that way?
She opened her jaws, hesitating, but Leopardwish must have sensed her lingering, because she poked her head out. "It's in the dense woods," the medicine cat reminded her. "By—"
"By the lake," Hawkpaw finished, silently cursing her misgivings.
Her mentor's eyes glimmered. "See, you know all this. There's no need to keep second-guessing."
Yes, there is, Hawkpaw thought glumly as she waved her tail in farewell and dragged her paws out of the medicine den and into the broad clearing. Tonight I'll figure out whether or not I'm destined to be a medicine cat, or if I'm just playing at the wrong thing.
Please, remember to review! Any sort of review is appreciated :) I hope you enjoyed!