Take it From an Elder

"Ashfrost!"

The gray ticked tabby elder raised her head, her eyes glowing when she saw her grandkit bounding towards her.

"Hello, Rabbitpaw," Ashfrost purred, nuzzling against the ginger apprentice. "How goes apprentice life? I recall that you were so excited to be an apprentice…"

"Ugh, I regret that," Rabbitpaw growled. "I hate that I have to listen to Meadowbush every single day! And what's more, now that Owlpaw's going blind, I can't spend as much time with him, since he has to do some kind of 'special training' with Thornpaw or something." The young she-cat flopped down next to her grandmother. "Why would a medicine cat be so invested in training a warrior apprentice?"

Ashfrost sighed. "You wouldn't understand just yet, Rabbitpaw. It's something that leaders and deputies and most cats in important positions have to deal with."

"I hate cats saying that I'm to young to understand things!" Rabbitpaw bristled. "I'm an apprentice and technically old enough to listen to the leader and understand everything that goes on clan life!"

"Except medicine cats?" Ashfrost guessed.

"Except medicine cats," Rabbitpaw admitted.

"Calm down. I don't understand medicine cats much as I did when I was your age, and I'm currently denmates with one of the crankiest medicine cats that I've ever had the pleasure to know," Ashfrost joked.

"Hey!" Both apprentice and elder turned their heads to see the ginger tabby elder Ashfrost had referred to as a cranky elder. "I am not a cranky elder, thank you very much," he snapped.

"Then why are you snapping, Risingsun?" Ashfrost teased.

Risingsun flattened his ears. "Because every cat is cranky if two chatterboxes interrupt one's afternoon nap," the former medicine cat hissed. "What is Rabbitpaw doing here, anyway? She's supposed to be patrolling from what I've heard from Thicketpaw."

"Oh, Thicketpaw, Shimicketpaw!" Rabbitpaw hissed. "I could care less for patrolling right now."

Risingsun blinked a couple of times before narrowing his eyes. "Flamepool should have chosen Roseclaw as your mentor," the elder growled back. "She would have snapped a couple of manners into you."

"Now, both of you, calm down," Ashfrost interrupted as Rabbitpaw opened her mouth to retort. "How about this: Rabbitpaw, we'll tell you a story."

"We will?" Risingsun asked, only to get a mouthful of Ashfrost's tail.

"In return," Ashfrost continued, "you will hunt for us and change our bedding for today. I'll explain what happened to Meadowbush."

Rabbitpaw perked up. "Story first. Then bedding or whatever."

"Hmph," Risingsun grunted, setting his head between his paws.

"So when I was an apprentice and Risingsun over here was a kit…"

"Wait, why are you including me?" Risingsun inquired. His eyes widened at a sudden realization, a Cheshire cat-esque grin spreading across his features. "Oh. Oh. Ashfrost, you're really going to tell her – "

Ashfrost quickly slapped her tail over Risingsun's mouth again before continuing. "Anyway, we were quite young, and let's just say that we were both very hungry for adventure, like every apprentice and kit is." The gray elder paused for a moment. "So, one day, my mentor, Tinyspots, came yowling into camp, injured heavily. He claimed that there was a fox in the territory and while he had tried to drive it off, he had failed. I wasn't at camp at the time, but gossip around here spreads fast."

Rabbitpaw snorted. "You can definitely say that again."

"I caught wind of that eventually through Flamepaw – our leader, Flamepool, now – and naturally I became interested at the prospect of being respected by chasing the fox out."

Rabbitpaw nodded, eyes wide.

"However, as every good warrior knows, no attack patrol is good without backup, or you end up as dead as a mouse," Ashfrost continued. "I asked my good old denmates if they wanted to go fox-hunting with me. They all refused, opting out of a chance for glory and fame."

"Or ridicule," Risingsun interjected. Rabbitpaw attempted to hide her snickers, shuddering as she did so.

"So I wandered out of camp on my own as a solo mission," Ashfrost meowed, ignoring Risingsun's jibe. "What I knew was that there was a fox out there somewhere. One thing I didn't know was that a very certain little kit was following me." Ashfrost shot Risingsun a pointed glare. "He was ridiculously annoying with his entrance, too."

Risingsun shrugged. "A good clan cat has a large entrance," the ginger tabby elder replied. "Isn't that right, Rabbitpaw?"

Rabbitpaw nodded, albeit a little half-heartedly. "So, what did Risingkit do?" the ginger apprentice asked, body practically quivering with anticipation.

"He decided the best thing to do was to leap out at me from the treetops," Ashfrost grumbled. "I thought that he was the fox."

"And she ran screeching back to camp so quickly, you'd think that the Outsiders were attacking her!" Risingsun chortled. "Great Stars, I've never seen a cat look so freaked out about a kit falling from a tree!"

"And I bet you never saw anyone angrier than I was for the next few days," Ashfrost hissed. "I didn't even manage to see the fox for the rest of my apprenticeship. It probably went somewhere else." Ashfrost gave her grandkit a hard stare. "So don't get any wild ideas, you got that?"

Rabbitpaw nodded quickly. "Will a moss bed get me another story?" the she-cat chirped, her bad mood all gone.

Risingsun and Ashfrost exchanged a look. "Depends," Risingsun mewed. "Let's see how quickly you can get that moss."

Rabbitpaw zipped off, dashing past a startled Birdleap. The she-cat looked back at her daughter and looked back at the elders.

"What did you tell her to get Rabbitpaw that energized?" the warrior asked.

Ashfrost breathed a sigh. "Just some stories and some humor, that's what gets apprentices up and going every day," the elder murmured.