Thanks to reviewers: Mikaceous, Stacy Rockfall, Leafshadow, & guest
My apologizes for 2 months late. Weird story is that my computer didn't want to open up Microsoft Word for about a month and then I decided to take off winter break. I can't guarantee any regular uploads from here on out as I am in my final semester at college and I get to stress out about assignments. I will try to get something out though ever so often, so stay tuned. One of these days this will be a great story to binge read from start to finish.
So I actually have a chapter of Downyclaws and Halfshine's meeting, but that is something you'll have to experience with Fawnfur, the past-seer, in "Shattered Stars".
Chapter 12: Sprout
Halfshine wrapped his tail around the shuddering tom cat. Downyclaw's coughing was wet and labored. His barreled chest, heaving with his struggles, did not seem to expand enough to gather sufficient air.
"Will it hurt?" Downyclaw asked through his gasps.
"Not for long," Halfshine promised.
-Line-
"Did you see that?" Bravepaw demanded.
"What?" Halfshine meowed.
Her mentor's voice was calm and he didn't look at her as he headed for the herbstore to collect the herbs needed to prepare Downyclaw's body for burial. They were alone in the medicine den for once. Cedarberry and Hedgepaw had passed them on their way to say their farewells to Downyclaw. Bravepaw now could talk about what she'd seen without causing panic in her Clanmates.
"Downyclaw's gums!" Bravepaw exclaimed. "They were red!"
Halfshine's ears flicked. "And?"
Bravepaw felt a shock rush through her like a gust of cold air. Her steps paused as he carried onward. Why did he sound so disinterested? Of course he'd noticed. He'd wiped the redness from Downyclaw's mouth!
"They were blue only days ago," Bravepaw meowed. "You showed me. I remember you telling me it was because he didn't have enough breath, so why would they be red now?"
Halfshine glanced back at her. She watched his eyes dart toward hers and then dance away again as he shoved his shoulders into the storage. "He over exerted himself by leaving camp. His heart was pounding before it burst. That would be enough to send blood to places it hadn't in a while. It may have leaked from his lungs."
"That wasn't blood," Bravepaw meowed. "It was brighter red, like the crimson in the vis—"
"It was blood," Halfshine interrupted. "It just looked brighter because you aren't used to seeing it on his anemic coloration. The paleness made the blood look brighter."
Bravepaw's brow furrowed. She couldn't believe her ears. Was he really trying to say that to her? Would he lie to her and make her believe something that hadn't happened? She glanced at his paws, but he'd wiped the liquid off long ago. She couldn't verify the correct color now, but she knew what she'd seen.
"No," Bravepaw snapped. "You can't tell me that. I know what I saw. It was red like in the vision. If he ate something that killed him, we need to look."
"Not everything has to do with the vision, Bravepaw," Halfshine sighed. "He wasn't a kit. He wouldn't eat something off a bush because he felt like it. Downyclaw left camp knowing full well he might not come back. Let his spirit rest."
Bravepaw thrashed her tail. She glared at her mentor, willing him to look at her as he said those words, but he stubbornly continued to sift through the herbs as if he didn't know exactly what he was looking for. This was the second time today he was avoiding her questions. She'd had enough.
"If you aren't going to talk to me, then I don't want to talk to you!" Bravepaw snapped. Now it was her turn to stalk from the den. Compared to his rush from the den, Bravepaw's departure was one of disgust. Her claws sunk into the hardened earth as she stomped from the entrance. She didn't look back and only regretted her brash action when she remembered she slept in the medicine den. Where would she spend the night now?
As much as she respected Downyclaw, she hadn't known him well enough to keep vigil for his body. And although Halfshine would tend to the herbs needed, he wasn't likely to sit vigil either, and she wasn't going to sleep in the same den as him, not if he was going to keep telling her she hadn't seen what she knew she had.
He didn't want the conversation. He refused to respect her as his apprentice by listening to her and she was not going to put up with that anymore! Until he was ready to listen to her, she was not going to deal with him. Not tonight.
Bravepaw lowered her ears and headed for the place where her brothers slept. While the older members of the Clan huddled near the Rock Pile for the vigil, there was a cluster of cats around a grassy curve of the hollow. This was where the apprentices slept. She could hear their whispering voices as she approached. Bravepaw quickly recognized Sprout's voice.
He was telling a story, she realized, watching tail swish side to side and his paws move as he emphasized his words. Hunterpaw and Flickpaw laughed when the other tom paused. Only Nico looked bored as if he'd heard the story before. At least he'd joined the circle, unlike Sugar who restlessly stelp in a nest a few tail-lengths behind the group. The black tom leaned against Flickpaw. He was the first to notice Bravepaw.
Nico's ears twitched forward, distracting Sprout. The white tom stopped and turned his green gaze onto her. She felt warm under the gazes of the apprentices. She felt guilty although she knew she shouldn't as she hadn't been eavesdropping. She wasn't sure if she was welcome among the other apprentices. Not after their hunting trip earlier. Would her brothers want her here? There didn't seem to be any angry expressions at her presence.
"Bravepaw!" Sprout smiled. "Come over!"
Bravepaw quickly padded over and joined their circle.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Hunterpaw and Flickpaw wanted to know what we do as Travelers. I think I got carried away." His whiskers twitched in his grin. "I'm sorry. I didn't give any of you the chance to talk."
"That's okay," Hunterpaw meowed. "Go on, what did the hedgehog do then?"
Sprout looked at Bravepaw and Flickpaw as if asking permission to keep going. Bravepaw was not about to stop him.
"So then the hedgehog. . ."
Bravepaw didn't know how long she listened to Sprout, but when he finally stopped talking, she looked around to see the others were sleeping. Now only she and Sprout were awake.
"Is there a puddle nearby?" Sprout coughed. "I feel so dry."
"There is a spot outside of camp," Bravepaw meowed. Recent rains had brought it back, but by the time Greenleaf gripped the moor, the puddle would have dried. It wouldn't be too far in the dark for the pair of them to venture into the night without a warrior.
She led the way to the camp exit. In the darkness no one paid them any attention. She glanced over her shoulder, barely making out the gathered cats near the Rock Pile. She could hear their soft conversations. They were too distracted by their own thoughts and the vigil to pay attention to a pair of apprentices. Bravepaw was becoming aware how easily Downyclaw had been able to leave camp.
"What is a vigil?" Sprout asked.
It was as if his thoughts ran parallel to her own. The frustration from earlier, momentarily dispelled by the other apprentices, returned. She tried to keep it out of her voice. Sprout didn't need to know the tension between her and her mentor. She'd rather forget again anyway.
"A vigil is to honor a warrior's life well-lived. It is how we tell him we appreciate his service to our Clan," Bravepaw explained.
"Why not tell him when he's alive?"
"I suppose we forget," Bravepaw meowed. She padded through the grass, following the scent of water. The hollow she took him too was a jagged narrow cut beneath a grassy overhang that blocked the water from the sun.
"We grew too used to Downyclaw that we forgot," Bravepaw continued. "But now he can look down at us from StarClan and realize that we did care by how many cats sit with his body. I mean, not everyone has to stay up all night if they didn't know him well, but at least we share kind words that he'll hear."
"StarClan?" Sprout tilted his head. "Oh, the cats who live in the stars. Your. . . dead." He sounded uneasy, but also interested.
"Our ancestors," Bravepaw agreed. "They guide us and watch over us. We all go to StarClan when we die. Don't the Travelers have a StarClan? An afterlife?"
"No." He paused to crouch beside the water and drink.
Bravepaw dipped her head to drink as well. The water was muddy, but it was satisfying. When she was done, she pulled back, watching the reflection of the stars ripple in the water.
"Then where do your dead go?" Bravepaw asked. "How do they guide you?"
"They don't. We don't believe in spirits. That's why it's important to tell someone you appreciate them when they're alive. You won't get a chance otherwise."
"Don't you honor your elders when they die at least?"
Sprout tilted his head as if thinking about his reply. "We don't have elders. We don't bury our dead. When someone is too old to travel, we leave them behind."
"You. . . you leave them do die? Alone?" She stared at him, horrified at the thought.
"No. When you leave the Travelers, it is your choice. When you realize you can walk no farther, you find a home and you stay there. Some cats become kittypets. Others have joined WindClan I am told. We see them sometimes when we return to familiar territory. But we don't have ancestors, not like you. I-I think it's. . .scary, but wonderful to think that spirits exist. It's like keeping your family with you always. That knowing when you die, you won't be forgotten. I kind of like that idea."
The tip of Bravepaw's tail twitched. What kind of life would that be to not know where she went when she died? To not realize her loved ones were still present somewhere? She couldn't imagine a life without the promise of StarClan.
"We kept the memories of our friends alive by telling stories," Sprout went on. "That is the only way."
"You are very good at telling stories," Bravepaw meowed.
"Thank you," Sprout brushed his tail across her paws. "I'm going to be the pathfinder."
"What is that?"
"Our leader," Sprout meowed. "They are the best storytellers in our group. It's how we chart our paths. We travel from the frosty mountains to the three barns surrounded by the crunching stalks of the harvest fields. Then we cross the hard stone in the twolegplace. We remember each dwelling to know the path to the forest on the other side. Stories tell us when to leave and where to go."
"I see," Bravepaw meowed. "Our stories are important too, but not like that. Our elders usually tell the kits stories. Or we hear them at Gatherings. I haven't been to one yet, but soon. When the moon is full."
"I wish I could go," Sprout meowed. "But we were told the other Clans don't know we visit WindClan. That they wouldn't like it."
"No," Bravepaw agreed. She remembered how not less than a day ago she hadn't trusted the Travelers either. How very different that seemed now. She glanced at Sprout to find his eyes on her. She felt her pelt grow warm and she looked away.
"Are you really going to be a medicine cat?" Sprout asked. Bravepaw felt relieved when he ended the silence.
"Yes. It's all I've ever wanted to be."
"But are you really going to. . . to. . ."
"What?"
Sprout's ears lowered and he looked away. "There are stories. Little rumors about what medicine cats do. Like speaking with the dead. Like taking off your sister's tail. That seems like hurting another cat rather than healing."
"We didn't do that without reason!" Bravepaw protest. "It was needed. I guess if you didn't know why, it would be cruel. But medicine cats are necessary for the health of the Clans. Even if we cause a little pain." Her heart winced at the memory. "Even poultices sting a little. It not that we want to hurt others, it just happens."
Sprout was silent a moment. "I think I can make an exception about liking medicine cats for you," he finally meowed.
Bravepaw felt her pelt warm once more. "Thank you, I think. We should head back to camp."
She stood and retreated from the overhang. Sprout was at her side as they made their way back to the gully. His shoulder brushed hers as they padded down the incline. They reached the sleeping apprentices without another word. Sprout curled beside his sister and tapped his tail beside them both as if inviting Bravepaw to join them.
Bravepaw felt her heart pound. Should she? Sugar suddenly shivered, distracting Bravepaw from her uncertain thoughts.
"Your sister doesn't look well," Bravepaw meowed.
Sprout glanced at her. The white she-cat was panting and her eyes twitched. She reminded Bravepaw so much of Hedgepaw she felt her gut clench. Bravepaw had been aware Sugar was feeling ill all day, but had done little to help. Was it only getting worse?
"It's a little sickness," Sprout meowed. "We met some cats in the Twolegplace a few days before we arrived at the moor. They weren't feeling well. She'll get better."
"Let me get some herbs to make her feel better," Bravepaw meowed.
"She won't eat them," Sprout meowed.
Bravepaw remembered Sugar's sudden fear when Bravepaw suggested visiting the medicine den to get herbs for her. Did this have to do with the Traveler's dislike of medicine cats?
"Then maybe you can talk to her about that," Bravepaw meowed. "I am a medicine cat worth befriending, remember?"
Sprout's ears lifted and he gave a chuckle. "Okay, I will. I'll try, but don't expect much. Like I said, she'll get better in a few days, it won't matter."
Bravepaw accepted the excuse to escape and hurried away. She leapt over the curled forms of Nico and Flickpaw as she padded to the medicine den. She was near the entrance when she heard a cat whimper from inside.
