Chapter 4
"Mistpaw!" Mistpaw woke to an annoyed Aspentail hovering over her. "It's nearly sunhigh!"
Mistpaw groaned.
"You have to change the bedding and sort those herbs. Come on, up up up!" Aspentail barked out orders.
"All right..." Mistpaw mewed grumpily, and slid out of her nest. Change the bedding first. Humph.
She called over to Aspentail, who had walked halfway across the den. "Do I need to gather moss or do we already have some for me to change out?"
"Go gather moss." Aspentail flicked his tail in a "go away" sort of motion.
Mistpaw sighed with relief. Finally! It's about time I got out of this stuffy camp. She padded out of camp and walked until she got to the edge of territory. She breathed in the air, smug. That's the scent of my Clan. ShadowClan. It had been three moons since she had been apprenticed, and one of the first things Aspentail had taught her was never to cross the border.
"Even though you're a medicine cat," he had meowed, "the other Clans will not take a trespasser lightly. Especially a ShadowClan trespasser. Even if you're a medicine cat apprentice and you don't know any better."
Mistpaw had bristled at the "don't know any better" part, and he had laid his tail on her shoulder. "That's what they're going to think. Even though you would CERTAINLY have a VERY GOOD EXPLANATION, they're not going to believe it. ThunderClan and ShadowClan have been at each others' throats for a very long time, believe me, and if you wander onto ThunderClan territory - ThunderClan is very fair, they love the warrior code, and if you went to their territory now, at worst you'd be let off with a warning. But in a couple of moons, when you're full grown(By the way, fun fact about cats - they stop growing when they're 8 to 12 moons old. They'll keep their kitten fluff a little while longer than that, though), when they can clearly see you know better, at best you'll be let off with a scar to remember them by. And most likely no one's going to be there to save you."
Now, three moons later, she was full grown(Nine moons old) and she stood at the edge of ShadowClan territory. She wasn't in it, though; she made sure of it. But she stood right on the edge of the scent markers, taunting them.
After a minute Mistpaw went to find a tree with good enough moss on it. She wandered around for a bit until she found a good tree. It was really close to the border, though. Oh well, they'll have to deal with me being so close to the border. At least this tree's not in ThunderClan territory.
Mistpaw spent a couple moments stripping the tree of its moss. She was almost done when she heard a voice screech, "Hey!"
She turned to see a heavily scarred white tom with golden eyes bounding toward her. He reeked of ThunderClan, and as she watched, three other cats emerged from the surrounding oaks.
Mistpaw took a step back. "Why did you do that? I'm not doing anything wrong…"
He glared at her. "Why are you so close to the border?"
Mistpaw stiffened. "I'm allowed to be in my own territory, you know. I'm allowed to be gathering moss, and right now, I'm not particularly close to the border." She had backed up several steps when she saw them.
"Coldpelt, calm down. She's just an apprentice. I'm sure she means no harm." A light brown she-cat spoke up.
The white tom, Coldpelt, rounded on her. "She was a fox-length away from the border! She's in ShadowClan, also. She can't be trusted!"
Mistpaw growled softly. "I'm right here, you know. And you can shut up; why can't you see past your own nose and notice that I'm gathering MOSS? No, you have to assume that I'm spying on you or something." She sniffed. "ThunderClan are so stupid."
In an instant, he was right up near the border. "ThunderClan are NOT stupid! It's ShadowClan that are stupid, you mange-pelt! I bet your fur is infested with fleas right now."
Mistpaw laughed. "Running out of insults. Weak. And look who's near the border now. Why are you so close to the border? Spying on us?"
Coldpelt looked like he was restraining himself, then mewed calmly, "Are you trying to pick a fight?"
Mistpaw blinked. "How am I supposed to answer that? If I say no, you'll see me as cowardly, whereas if I say yes, you'll beat me in a heartbeat. Plus, I'm a medicine cat. So I guess the answer is no."
"You're… you're a medicine cat?" Coldpelt looked at her in surprise.
"Well, not technically a medicine cat, just a medicine cat apprentice. I better get going." Mistpaw turned, picked up her moss, and walked away. As she left, she heard the light brown she-cat mutter, "Weird. They just get stranger."
Mistpaw bit back an insult at the end, picked her moss up again, and stalked away.
She remembered Aspentail's instructions: If you ever meet a ThunderClan cat outside of Gatherings, it'll probably be because they thought you crossed the border. ThunderClan are so paranoid. Just be honest. They, unfortunately, are mostly good at detecting liars, and I'm SURE you'll never go across the border. So you won't need to lie. In the instance that you do meet a ThunderClan cat, be passive-aggressively polite, and report whatever you find. Try to find out their names, too.
Mistpaw had done all of that. Well, mostly. She had been a little more than passive-aggressive, and she certainly wasn't polite, but too bad. How are you expected to be polite to a rival Clan? She had even gotten one of their names - Coldpelt, the white tom with the weird yellow eyes.
When she got back to camp, she went straight to Aspentail and relayed what had happened.
"You handled that perfectly," he praised her when she was done. "They were probably scared out of their skins at a little apprentice insulting them."
"Oh, shut up!" Mistpaw mewed in amusement. "They were probably even more intimidated by the fact that I'm a medicine cat apprentice and know zero fighting moves. I'm not sure I'd want to fight, if it came to it. I'm much happier healing."
"Oh! That reminds me," Aspentail meowed. "I've been wanting to teach you some moves. Even though you're a medicine cat, rival Clans might forget that, or you might get attacked by a fox or something like that."
Mistpaw sighed. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to. Learning how to fight is better than being killed by a fox because you don't know how to land a blow."
"Fine…"
They spent the rest of the day training. When they got back, Aspentail told her she could have first pick of the fresh-kill pile. "You've done so well today," he complimented her.
"Thank you!" Mistpaw said excitedly. After she was done, she went straight to sleep. It was only barely sundown when she fell asleep.
She woke up at moonhigh to hear pawsteps pattering out of camp, it sounded like. Sure enough, when she got up to investigate, she could see a tail disappearing out of sight in the camp entrance. It was too dark to see anything, though, so she decided to follow them.
Every hair on her body prickled with unease as she stepped quietly out of camp. She had never been good at stealth, but this time fear was lending her silent pawsteps. Who was it?
YASSS IT ONLY TOOK ME SIX DAYS TO PUT THIS OUT THERE YAY FOR ME ^-^ I'm so proud of myself :3 This was basically just a filler, and I hate writing fillers SO SO SO MUCH so I tend to knock them out quickly. Fillers are necessary even though I hate them. I mean, she can't have an action-filled life down to the last second, can she?