Cinderpaw yawned and stretched as she loped out of the apprentice den. It had been a quarter-moon since the incident and nothing major had happened. She went on patrols, hunted, did battle training, and talked to Jaypaw. No one seemed to care that they were such good friends, at least, no one said anything outright. The situation had been explained to the Clan as a whole and everyone seemed to agree that they were fine with it. Hawkfrost finally let up on the issue. In fact, her Dark Forest companion had been strangely silent, taking more and more time for himself. It felt weird, separating from him when they'd spent so much time together during her kithood.
"Cinderpaw? Oh, good. I was hoping you were here. C'mon. We're checking the WindClan border with Firestar, Leafpool and Jaypaw." Brightheart informed her.
That didn't sound like such a good idea, to her. Not with what she knew of Leafpool's rocky relationship with one of WindClan's warriors and the birth that resulted from it. She wouldn't give Jaypaw up for StarClan themselves, but it seemed strange to make Leafpool and Jaypaw patrol the WindClan border. Perhaps there were herbs needed that grew nearby, and hopefully they wouldn't run into any trouble.
It turned out that there were indeed precious herbs Leafpool needed that grew near the border, and that this was an escort, not a patrol. Firestar had indeed recognized the strange relations between WindClan and his daughter, and decided that three cats would be more than enough to cover her and Jaypaw should the need arise. No matter what it was, Cinderpaw was just glad to be out of camp.
Ever since the Clan found out about her connection to both StarClan (being Cinderpelt) and the Dark Forest (seeing Hawkfrost) there had been mixed reactions leaning mostly toward negative. Her sisters were rightfully concerned, bordering on overprotective right alongside her parents. Hollypaw was still her friend, but Lionpaw avoided her and Jaypaw completely, any trace of brotherly affection or friendship was now gone. Jaypaw was always around, but his medicine cat duties made him busy and more distant than ever. She didn't mind, of course, because being a medicine cat was extremely important to him, but she was starting to see why the leaders added that rule to the Warrior Code. No distractions on the part of the medicine cat, no heartbreak on the part of whoever they decided to mate with. She wasn't about to complain, though. Jaypaw was her best friend and that was that. They would take the feelings as they came.
She was distracted from her thoughts when the fresh scent of WindClan hit her nose. She pounced and killed the rabbit she'd been stalking, lucky to have gotten it before it ran away. She raced to the border without a second thought to find Jaypaw soaking wet in the river that provided the border, herbs on ThunderClan land. Leafpool yowled in shock and raced over to aid her flailing son. One of the WindClan cats, a black tom with blue eyes, whispered urgently to Jaypaw, whose flailing eventually stopped. From there, the two black WindClan cats were able to fish a violently coughing Jaypaw out of the river and set him down on ThunderClan territory. Firestar dipped his head as Leafpool raced off to find the herbs she needed.
"Thank you, Crowfeather."
So this was Jaypaw's father?
"And you as well..."
"Breezepaw." The black apprentice meowed.
"You were very brave today, Breezepaw. Thank you for rescuing our medicine cat."
"Squirrelflight said the same thing when I asked her what she was doing, when the she-cats had to talk to Barkface. Is she okay?"
"Yes, my daughter is fine. Thank you."
"Will he be okay?"
"He should be fine." Leafpool answered, mouth full of thyme. Cinderpaw had taken to fluffing his fur so the water drained and he could shake out the rest. The brown tabby nodded her approval and set the herbs she had before Jaypaw.
"Thyme," She recognized.
"Yes, for shock, to help get his body back to normal."
"Why not poppy seeds?"
"Thyme is more for physical shock, where poppy seeds calm you down and help you sleep. I'm glad you asked." Leafpool offered.
She couldn't tell if Leafpool was so nice because Cinderpelt was her mentor or because she genuinely liked Cinderpaw. It made her uneasy, but the medicine cat wasn't going to hurt her. She could at least count on that.
"Good luck with your apprentices." A dark grey she-cat meowed. Cinderpaw instantly recognized her as Ashfoot, the WindClan deputy.
"And you with yours." Firestar dipped his head and the patrol left. Brightheart, Cinderpaw and Firestar began to gather the herbs scattered by Leafpool in her harried state, and luckily, none was damaged.
"Can he walk?" Firestar mumbled through the plants in his mouth.
"It's better if he doesn't." Leafpool insisted.
"I can carry him back." Brightheart volunteered.
"Thanks for getting the herbs." Poor Leafpool sounded so embarrased!
"It's fine. You had every right to be scared." Firestar murmured. They got back to camp without further incident.
Hawkfrost didn't like being in the Dark Forest. No cat did. There was hardly any prey, and the fog was so thick that he might as well be blind for all he couldn't see his paws right in front of him. But right now, he had a different reason to despise the Dark Forest. Right now, his father wanted answers, wanted an update on how corrupting Cnderpaw was going, and he had absolutely nothing to say. He knew he had to say something, but he didn't know what. He couldn't betray Cinderpaw and he had to keep up the front of being a good little Dark Forest warrior for as long as possible, unless he wanted Mothwing or worse, Cinderpaw, to die. And he wanted neither. A sharp pain jolted him from his thoughts.
"Did you hear me?!" Tigerstar roared.
"Yes, Father. You asked for an update on Cinderpaw. It's slow-going, but I've managed to convince her that I'm a StarClan cat. We can expect her for training any moon now, but I have to break her faith first."
"Do it, then, and hurry it up! The sooner we can get to that little brat, the sooner we can use her to take over the forest!"
Why oh why had he trusted his father?! At least Mothwing was safe. No Clan cat would dare attack a medicine cat, and StarClan had sworn to watch over her in thanks to his spying. He decided that would see her when Cinderpaw slept. His sister always knew how to cheer him up.
