"Stone...Moss..." Sunpaw gave his head a shake, bewildered by this creature's strange name. "Stone-Moss..."
"Yis," the animal finished, nodding rapidly. It swirled around in a streak of brown, coming to rest wrapped around Shadowpaw's paws. The dark she-cat growled and flicked it away.
"Is this your barn?" Promisepaw asked. Sunpaw noticed how she didn't bother trying to pronounce the creature's name.
"Yis. The barn is ours." Stone-Moss-Yis seemed to think carefully. "But you may stay. For mice."
"You may enter the barn, but only for mice!" Sunpaw hissed. "Well, do you eat mice, er, Stone-Moss-Yes?"
"Yis! Yis!" it snapped. "Yis. We eat them. They taste pleasant to us. Ooh-hoo-hoo!" It broke out into little cackles. Sunpaw blinked hard at it. Something about this mysterious animal...
"You're a weasel!" Shadowpaw mewed suddenly. Stone-Moss-Yis nodded rapidly, its dark eyes gleaming.
"A she-weasel or a he-weasel?" Trickpaw asked. Stone-Moss-Yis giggled.
"We'll never tell such nosy kitties!" it squealed. "Not for all the mice in the moorlands. Yee-hee-hee!"
Sunpaw cast Wavepaw a nervous glance. The tom's eyes were closed blissfully. He was asleep. Sunpaw envied him."Listen, we need your help. We've been chased by rats and—"
"Rats go. Never come here. Only weasel knows how, yis." The weasel winked. "Take our scent when you hunt. Rats leave you alone." It brushed up against every cat standing. "Go now. Bring us lots of little mousies!"
Sunpaw winced, the harsh reek of weasel stinging his nostrils. They were foul-smelling creatures, and Stone-Moss-Yis was no exception. The ginger tom sighed. "Well, I guess that's it. Trickpaw, you stay here with Wavepaw. Shadowpaw and I will hunt for...the weasel. Promisepaw can look for herbs to help Trickpaw and Wavepaw."
"I'd feel much safer with an escort," Promisepaw murmured softly. Her gaze was fixed on the floor.
"Fine. Shadowpaw, will you help Promisepaw?"
"But then you'd be all by yourself!" Shadowpaw protested.
"I'll go with Promisepaw," Trickpaw offered.
"But that would leave Wavepaw alone with...the weasel."
"Stone...Moss...Yis!" the weasel grated angrily.
Wavepaw purred softly and made lazy swimming motions with his front paws. Sunpaw flinched slightly. Nothing was going right today. "Anyways, that's not something I want to do. StarClan put us on this journey together, and we'll stay together."
"On second thought, I'll go alone," Promisepaw mewed. "I mean, it's not like the rats won't smell...Stone-Moss...the weasel's scent on me."
"We will go with you, white kitty," Stone-Moss-Yis sibilated sweetly. "We know much about the healing of others...we learned it all ourselves."
The look on Promisepaw's face clearly said she'd rather go by herself than in the company of this weasel, but she gave in. "Fine. You can come and show me what I can find."
"All right. Trickpaw, stay with Wavepaw. Promisepaw, you and..." Sunpaw coughed to cover up the creature's awkward name. "...go look for herbs. Shadowpaw, we'll hunt for..." He coughed again. "Sorry. I think this hay's getting to me. Allergies."
The teams decided, the groups split up. Sunpaw gave Shadowpaw's ears a friendly lick and bolted out the window. He just barely heard the weasel trying to convince Promisepaw to slip through a knothole the size of an acorn. "Tricksy little beast, isn't he?" he murmured.
"It," Shadowpaw meowed. "It won't tell us its gender, and there's no telling by its voice. It's an it. And, yes. All weasels are like that."
"How did you know that's what...it was?"
"Its name is Stone-Moss-Yis. Think Rock, Plant, Yes. It's a weasel name, I suppose. Such things might not translate well into cat. Anyways, there are always a few weasels here and there along the SwampClan-DuskClan borderline. I've just never heard one speak before."
Sunpaw was amazed. "I've never seen anything like that before in my life. I though it was some sort of deformed kit."
"It has that blunt muzzle, I know," Shadowpaw replied. She shook her head to clear the weasel-scent from her nose. "Those things smell absolutely horrible, don't they? I have a feeling we'll scare badgers and foxes away smelling like this!"
Sunpaw let out a mrrow of laughter escape him. It was nice to be with Shadowpaw. He knew there was no more hiding it from the other cats he traveled with. He was deeply in love with her, and she with him. But there was a flicker in the back of his mind...a flash of gold.
Summerpaw!
The ginger tom felt his whiskers give a shameful swish, like windblown grasses in the fields. It was odd. Back in PromiseClan, the introverted, prickly Shadowpaw had never really appealed to him. He had gone out for the boisterous, friendly Summerpaw. He recalled the days when Trickpaw was still very new to the Clan...his jealous, guarding feelings for Summerpaw...Things had changed.
Shadowpaw!
Sunpaw felt a purr bubble up inside him and gulped it down quickly. He gazed lovingly at the near-black queen. Only after setting out had he noticed just how truly enchanting she was. Her calm, quiet air intrigued him greatly. Summerpaw seemed loud and annoying in comparison. Shadowpaw. Summerpaw.
Summerpaw!
She had some amount of affection for him, he knew. Possibly more than that. He was the same age as she was. Summerpaw would be old enough to start wrapping up her training. He could picture her now: that gleaming golden pelt, those snow white paws, those vivid green orbs. They paled in comparison to Shadowpaw.
Shadowpaw!
Sunpaw shook his head firmly. He was thinking too much about she-cats again! How he longed for the good old days: the days when he believed that all she-apprentices had some strange virus, and if they touched their nose to yours, you'd get the virus, turn blue, and die. But those days were over now. She-cats were no longer harbingers of that strange sickness, but beautiful creatures to be admired.
"You're awfully quiet, Sunpaw," Shadowpaw's mellow voice murmured.
"Just thinking about home," Sunpaw replied, which was partly the truth. "The cats we left behind."
"I know what you mean." Shadowpaw lifted her slim muzzle into the air and breathed in.
"You can't smell anything over the scent of weasel," Sunpaw complained.
"You can't. I can. You forget how sharp SwampClan cats' noses are." Shadowpaw nuzzled him fondly. "There's plenty of mice-scent around here. I'll get what I can. You just sit tight." She paused, then swiped her tongue over his ear. "Maybe a good wash will help you feel better." Her amber eyes glinted. "And whoever you choose, remember that you can always have friends."
She turned and bounded away before Sunpaw could ask her what she meant. The he-cat shuddered as a chill wind rippled the grass and parted his fur. He licked a paw and drew it over his other ear several times. Did she know I was thinking about Summerpaw? How could she have? His icy blue eyes were wide. How could I possibly choose between them? Summerpaw was always there for me...but Shadowpaw is so enchanting.
Sunpaw allowed himself a pleasant stretch and set to work washing up. He was in the middle of his tail when the grass rustled softly. Shadowpaw appeared, holding several mice by their tails in her mouth. She purred and dropped them at his paws. "Look at these!" she mewed. "Think Stone-Moss-Yis will let us stay with him?"
"For the rest of our lives!" Sunpaw rubbed his head against hers. He was starting to get used to the smell of weasel that clung to his pelt, and could smell the heavy scent of rabbits around him. "Although, I think we should probably grab some prey for the rest of us."
Shadowpaw nodded, twitching her tail to a slight dip in the landscape. Sunpaw raised himself up to his full height and peered over the grass. A rabbit sat grazing in the twilight air. It was fairly thin, but big enough to feed at least two cats. He slipped into an easy, relaxed crouch. It gave him better control of his long limbs than the others' stiff crouches. He slipped through the long grass towards his quarry. Briefly, he wondered if the rabbit would smell the scent of weasel on his fur. But the rabbit, it seemed, was too hungry to care about oncoming predators. Sunpaw swallowed a purr. This would be easy! He stalked his prey carefully, staying far downwind.
Suddenly, an unearthly shriek rent the air. Sunpaw jerked his head up. Owl! The brown-barred raptor swooped down and snagged the rabbit in its talons. Sunpaw howled in outrage and flung himself at the bird of prey. The owl, caught off-guard by this sudden attack, loosed the rabbit's body and swiped at Sunpaw. The lean tomcat reached up and swatted at its face with outstretched claws. The owl squalled again and Sunpaw returned the yowl. He was not in the mood to be toyed with.
"Sunpaw! Get down!"
Sunpaw looked down in shock. The owl had caught an updraft—like hawks often did back in MeadowClan territory—and was shooting upwards at a rapid speed. The ginger apprentice gave a startled cry and released the owl. "Look out, Shadowpaw!" he screeched as he fell.
Luckily, a pile of upturned dirt was there to cushion his fall. Sunpaw sat up, shaking his head dizzily. Shadowpaw thrust her face into his. "What were you thinking, you stupid furball?" she spat. "You could have been killed! Killed!"
"Sorry, Shadowpaw. It's just...the owl..."
"The owl can keep the rabbit. There's plenty more here." Shadowpaw sighed. "Stop taking stupid risks, Sunpaw. I don't want to lose you."
Sunpaw buried his muzzle in her fur. "You won't. I've seen warriors take on hawks before. I thought an owl wouldn't be so different."
"Well..." Sunpaw was relieved to hear a faint purr in her voice. "...if you'd held on for a little longer, we'd probably be eating richly tonight."
Sunpaw swiped earth over the mice and rabbit. "Let's see what else we can find before we head back to the barn for the night." As he and Shadowpaw were walking away from the pile of dirt, Sunpaw realized something. "Wait a minute! We were just up all day long, and now we're going to sleep at night!"
"Crazy things happen when you're in love," Shadowpaw murmured. And Sunpaw didn't have the heart to tell her that was completely unrelated.