Sweettooth was walking beneath the shelter of pines and oaks near the border with ShadowClan. The fish were beginning to return to the thawed streams of RiverClan territory. Though there were enough fish in the rivers and lake to feed the entire clan, Reedstar ordered not to hunt them all, to ensure the clan's growth for the seasons to come.
Out of need to take care of his clan, Sweettooth opted not to join the fishing patrols he missed so much. He was the best land hunter in the clan and the fish they are allowed to hunt won't feed them enough to remain as strong as they can.
Tensions are rising around the lake. With every heartbeat that passes, a war between WindClan and ThunderClan looms closer. Our clan must be strong.
Three sunrises had passed since the half moon medicine cat gathering. Sweettooth was surprised not to have Willowshine's gaze following him with every step he took.
After the last medicine cat gathering, Willowshine told Sweettooth about her vision that implied he was destined to become a medicine cat. Sweettooth was quick to dismiss the suggestion, unwilling to relish the idea of not being allowed to take a mate and father kits. During his warrior ceremony, Sweettooth thought about the dreams he wishes to achieve. While becoming a warrior was one of these dreams, a much sweeter one was becoming mates with Shelldawn and raising their kits. After the conversation they held in the earlier moon, Sweettooth felt reassured that this dream would come true, and with every passing moment, the thought of moving to the nursery and raising his kits warmed to him more and more.
Hearing scuttling in the undergrowth, Sweettooth dropped low into the hunter's crouch and began stalking towards the tiny noise. When Sweettooth was four tail-length away from his target, the prey reared up on its hind legs to look for danger. Unfortunately for the prey, which Sweettooth could now see is a shrew, Sweettooth was hidden well in the undergrowth and the shrew did not notice him.
After two more steps in the direction of the shrew, Sweettooth realized he was close enough. Sweettooth wriggled his haunches into place and pounced on the prey, finishing it off with merely a nip to its spine. Finding a patch of burnet flowers in a sunny clearing, Sweettooth carried the shrew towards it and buried his piece of prey next to the patch.
Sweettooth opened his mouth to taste the scent of prey, finding the trail of a squirrel. Sweettooth began following the invisible track until he found a fluffy tail bobbing up and down. Silently reaching closer, Sweettooth saw the squirrel nibbling on something near an oak tree.
Quietly sneaking up on his target, Sweettooth got into pouncing distance, prepared, and finally leaped on the squirrel, trapping it between his paws. After killing the squirrel swiftly, using his big tooth to shred open the prey's neck, Sweettooth carried the squirrel to the burnet patch where he left his earlier kill and buried the new one with it.
Heading in the other direction, Sweettooth began to notice a hint of ShadowClan scent, and immediately afterwards he saw brown-and-white prey scrabbling at the ground with its forepaws. Stalking towards his prey while making sure he was downwind, Sweettooth knew he would be able to surprise and kill his target, who was too intent on digging up ground near a patch of daisy.
Sweettooth jumped on his prey's back, hearing the cracking of bones, and bit down on the lower part of its spine, rendering it motionless.
As soon as he lifted his head up, Sweettooth saw two more pieces of prey, a mouse and a vole, in the hole his fresh-kill was digging. Sweettooth checked the dug up prey and was reassured when he saw it was quite fresh.
Sweettooth dragged his new pieces to the burnet patch where his earlier catches were buried, and unearthed them. Looking at his gatherings, Sweettooth saw that while he had four rather scrawny pieces of prey, his newest kill, even while being lithe structured, was much bigger than the others.
Sweettooth glanced at the sun, going down quickly in the direction opposite of the lake, and knew some of his prey would be wasted. But the clan must be strong.
Sweettooth hurried over to a Twoleg structure that lay near the halfbridge. He knew Sorrel and Chamomile grew there. Sweettooth located the patches of the strengthening herbs and quickly picked some stems of them.
Now rushing back to where he left his fresh-kill, Sweettooth spotted the daisy patch he saw before and picked some flowers from there as well. With the different herbs in his mouth, Sweettooth reached the burnet patch where he left his prey and laid down his herbs next to it.
I can't take the big piece all the way to camp with the sun so low. I'll just use it to plump up the other pieces.
Sweettooth began working in a familiar fashion, carving out pieces of flesh from the bigger prey, and stuffing them in the smaller ones, while massaging their throats to ease the pieces of flesh down to their stomachs.
Once Sweettooth was satisfied with the sizes of his fresh-kill, he buried the mostly wasted piece of prey where the other pieces were buried earlier, near the burnet patch.
Sweettooth began making four mixtures of his gathered herbs, like he saw Willowshine make for Reedstar before a gathering when the leader was weak.
After making the mixtures, Sweettooth took one and chewed it well before pouring it inside the forcefully opened mouth of the mouse.
Sweettooth repeated the process for the rest of his fresh-kill. Making out the gentle buzzing of bees reaching his gray tipped ears, Sweettooth spotted a bee's nest and saw honey dripping from it. That should help with the bitter taste of the other herbs.
Reaching it carefully, Sweettooth managed to snag a good amount of honey from the drip and took it back to where he left his modified fresh-kill. Sweettooth smeared the honey on the prey's mouths, scratches, and pelts—in order to let the sweet taste of honey be felt in every morsel, and to give the land prey a more fish-like feel when first taking a bite from it.
The sun was on the trees' last branches, the twilight giving off a violet colored light. Almost the same color as Shelldawn's eyes. Sweettooth picked up his prey by their tails, the fluffy tail of the squirrel tickling his palate, and rushed back to camp, he didn't want his clan, and most of all Shelldawn, to wait for a good meal.
It was already dark when Sweettooth reached his camp. While using the stepping stones to cross the river entrance to camp, Sweettooth could see a shape running towards him. Sweettooth immediately recognized Shelldawn's beautiful body and hurried to cross the last final stone.
"Sweettooth!" Shelldawn called to Sweettooth with relief filling her voice. Sweettooth's body became covered in licks before Shelldawn continued. "I was worried about you, and I've missed you. I saved a fish for you, but it seems like you don't need it anymore. Thank StarClan prey is getting plumper and the fish are returning to the river." Shelldawn paused. "Though this Leaf-Bare wasn't so bad, thanks to you." She finished while eyeing him in an affectionate way.
"I wanf fo lick you foo," Sweettooth replied, flinching at every movement of tails inside of his mouth, as happiness overflowed him. "Buf lef me puf zhis gown firf."
Sweettooth and Shelldawn padded alongside each other to the fresh-kill pile, the rest of the clan greeting him, as he walked by, with cheerful faces. Sweettooth gently dropped his hunting's loot on the pile and turned his head towards Shelldawn.
"Have the queens, kits, and elder's eaten already?" Sweettooth asked his mate.
"Mistfeather ate a fish and fed her kits." The silver tabby answered. "The elder's decided to wait for you to come back. They really liked the prey you brought a moon ago and thought you'd have similar luck today. Let's go tell them they were right."
Sweettooth picked up the squirrel he caught and carried it towards the bramble thicket of the elders' den. When they reached the entrance, the pair was approached by Mothflight looking hungry-eyed at the squirrel that lay in Sweettooth's jaws.
"Is that for us Sweettooth?" The former medicine cat asked Sweettooth as she began to turn her head toward Shelldawn. "See, I told you he's only taking so long because he had too much to carry." Mothflight continued as she turned back to Sweettooth. "Did you put anything special in there, like last time."
"It seems as though tensions are rising between WindClan and ThunderClan." Sweettooth answered half embarrassedly, as if he was caught in a crime. "I wanted to make sure the clan is strong so I used the traveling herbs mixture. I've also used honey to help ease the bitter taste of the herbs."
"Aw Sweettooth," Shelldawn meowed to him in a comforting tone. "That's very thoughtful but ThunderClan and WindClan have their own problems, we won't be dragged into their fight."
"I know but I didn't want to take any risks."
As he finished talking, the bramble thicket behind Mothflight began to rustle and two more elders, Duskfur and Minnowtail came out of their den to see the squirrel Sweettooth had brought them. Sweettooth noticed that Mossfur wasn't with them and began to worry for her.
"Where is Mossfur?" Sweettooth asked the other three elders. "Has she gone to sleep already?"
"I assume you meant Mosspelt." It was Mothflight that answered. "She is with Willowshine right now, she became sick and lost her appetite."
"Does Willowhine have sorrel in her stores? I can go and fetch some right now, I know where it grows."
"Don't tire yourself Sweettooth," Mothflight meowed reassuringly. "Mosspelt has lived a long time and I'm sure Willowshine can give her the best possible care. Thank you for bringing us this squirrel, but go take yourself something nice as well."
"Thanks Mothflight"
Mothflight opened her mouth to protest but Shelldawn began meowing before the elder managed to let out a sound. "Come Sweettooth," Shelldawn meowed to Sweettooth as he became lost in her deep violet gaze moving closer to him and heading towards the fresh-kill pile. "Let's share the shrew you brought." As they padded together to the pile, Shelldawn leaned closer to Sweettooth "Her name is Mothwing." She whispered in his ear with chuckles hiding in her throat.