Chapter 5: Blood for Moss Rocks
Stoneclaw thudded past Stormpaw and Willowpaw. "Stick together! Stay close to a warrior if you can," he hissed as he raced toward a large russet tom. Stormpaw searched the oncoming Marshclan warriors for an apprentice to fight.
"Over there," Stormpaw nodded at a thin brown tom with thin black stripes. She threw herself at him and he staggered back, surprised at Stormpaw's sudden attack. Willowpaw darted in, running her claws down the tom's flank. He howled, throwing Stormpaw off as doing so. Stormpaw landed heavily but scrambled to her paws, ready to join the fight again.
"What's Dawnclan doing, letting kits fight," he sneered. Stormpaw bristled, wanting to slash his face.
"Like you?" she retorted, ready to spring at him again.
Wait, a voice in her head whispered. Stormpaw realized she had forgotten all her training and had been fighting like a rogue. This time when Stormpaw rushed back in, she thought about her moves. Willowpaw barely acknowledged her as Stormpaw stepped beside her. Stormpaw ducked as the tom she and her sister were fighting swiped at her head. Both Stormpaw and Willowpaw dived towards his exposed belly. Stormpaw twisted, taking his hind paw in her jaws, biting down hard and pulling while Willowpaw ripped his underfur to shreds. The brown tom clawed at her back and jolts of pain shot through her, but Stormpaw only bit harder. The Marshclan apprentice was squirming more than a fish would, and Stormpaw realized he wasn't trying to fight, he was scrambling away.
"Moss Rocks is ours mouseheart!" Stormpaw snarled. Willowpaw pulled back her lips and showed her teeth. The brown tom scurried off with resentment in his eyes.
A yowl reached their ears. "Rainsong," Willowpaw breathed. Stormpaw searched the battling cats for the silver she-cat. She was being pinned down by a black and white tom. The littermates raced to Rainsong's aid. Together they slammed into the tom, digging sharp claws into his back. He reared and Willowpaw fell off but Stormpaw managed to hold on. At the last moment, Stormpaw realized he was falling backwards, which would squash her. She unhooked her claws from the Marshclan warrior's back and leapt off. Fortunately he kept falling backward. Rainsong, having recovered, lept on him, battering his gray, black and white fur with unsheathed claws. Stormpaw rushed to help. A flailing paw caught her shoulder and tore into her skin, and Stormpaw gritted her teeth in pain.
Finally, the tom had enough. He ran off in the same direction as the brown apprentice Stormpaw and Willowpaw fought earlier. "And don't come back!" Rainsong called after him. She turned to them, "Thanks, that tom would have ripped me to shreds if you two hadn't come in." Stormpaw's hackles rose when she saw a cat coming up behind Rainsong. She relaxed though when she saw it was Owltalon. The brown and white tom looked anxious.
"You better get those wounds looked over by Sunfall, they might get infected," he looked over Rainsong. She waved his concerns away.
"I'll be fine, how's the battle going?" she asked.
"They're running away," he purred.
"Good, let's make them go faster," Rainsong's eyes gleamed with excitement as she helped Sparrowpaw drive off another Marshclan warrior, a cream she-cat.
"Marshclan, retreat!" Emberflight's meow carried through the air. Stormpaw watched in satisfaction at the retreating backs.
"You're bleeding!" Willowpaw's exclamation made her look down. Stormpaw's fur lay bloody and clumped, and now the battle was over, they began hurting in earnest, especially the shoulder one. Stormpaw carefully tested that leg, gently putting weight on it. It buckled and red-hot pain shot up her leg. Stormpaw must have given out a gasp though because Willowpaw was at her side in an instant. She had several long gashes along her side and back. Blood stained her pale tabby fur.
"You don't look too good yourself," Stormpaw meowed as she hobbled forward on three paws to join Pinestar and the other cats.
"Is any cat hurt so badly they can't walk?" Pinestar's clear voice rang out in the clearing. Murmurs of no rippled throughout the group. "Okay, let's get back to camp so Sunfall can treat your wounds."
Stormpaw limped at the back, wincing occasionally. To her relief, the hollow wasn't far ahead. After what felt like moons, she sank against Willowpaw, who also collapsed with exhaustion.
"Stormpaw! Willowpaw! Are you alright?" Silvermist's cry made them look up.
"Yes, we're fine," Stormpaw tried to mumble. Silvermist ignored her and started running her tongue over Stormpaw's shoulder.
"Mother, I'm fine. That hurts!" Stormpaw complained. Silvermist turned to Willowpaw and began cleaning her up too.
"What was Pinestar thinking? Sending you two out there-you've only been apprentices for half a moon!" Silvermist meowed, sounding worried and irritated. "Where's Sunfall? She should give you two some herbs," Silvermist sat up.
"Mother! We'll wait like any other cat!" Willowpaw exclaimed. Stormpaw looked at her sister in surprise. Willowpaw was usually softspoken and didn't yell like that. Silvermist also looked startled.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, wrapping her tail around them. "But I worry about you."
Stormpaw searched for the medicine cat. Sunfall was binding Birchtail's leg, which was bleeding heavily. She winced as her shoulder gave another throb. Sunfall looked up and saw her limping over.
"If you need any poppy seeds, ask Lichenkit," Sunfall nodded to the left. Lichenkit was carrying a leaf filled with little black seeds and had a stack of different, darker leaves on a couple claws. Birchtail shook his head and hobbled into the warriors den. "Stormpaw, Willowpaw, come here," Sunfall waved her tail to a spot next to her.
"Lichenkit! Bring me some more cobwebs and marigold leaves," Sunfall meowed to the tortoiseshell kit. Lichenkit nodded, set her herbs down, and trotted into the medicine cat den. She came out with a paw wrapped in cobwebs and a mouthful of marigold. "Thank you, now go get some rest, you helped enough," Sunfall meowed gently.
"I can keep helping," Lichenkit insisted.
"Are you sure?" Sunfall asked, taking the cobwebs from Lichenkit's white paw. When Lichenkit nodded, she went on, "take some horsetail and goldenrod and chew it up, like this, and spread it on the wound. Ask Silvermist to help with the binding, she knows what to do." Lichenkit nodded and scampered over to Silvermist.
"You won't be able to do any battle training for a while, not until this heals," Sunfall informed Stormpaw. Stormpaw groaned.
"What about hunting?" she nearly pleaded.
"Rest for a day or two, then you can, provide you do it carefully," Sunfall spat the poultice in her shoulder. Stormpaw flinched.
"It stings!" she exclaimed.
Sunfall shrugged, "Sorry, but it's to prevent infection. Believe me, it'll hurt a lot more if it gets infected." She worked for a couple more heartbeats before she stepped back. "Here's a couple goldenrod leaves for the rest of your wounds. Just chew them up and lick them on your wounds. I need to see to other cats," she handed a pawfull of goldenrod to Stormpaw and hurried over to where Lichenkit was tending to Foxpaw.
Padding over to the apprentice den, paws scuffing the dirt, Stormpaw collapsed with exhaustion in her nest. She remembered her leaves and began chewing and applying them as Sunfall said.
"I brought you a mouse," Stormpaw raised her head. It was Willowpaw. In her jaws hung a mouse and a vole.
"Thanks," Stormpaw meowed, taking the mouse from her sister. Together they ate in silence. It was Stormpaw who broke it with, "here's some goldenrod for the scratches Sunfall didn't treat." She pushed the couple remaining leaves toward the silver tabby.
"It was Lichenkit who treated me actually," Willowpaw started licking the chewed up goldenrod leaves.
"I guess Sunfall found herself an apprentice," Stormpaw wiped the remains of mouse from her whiskers. Willowpaw nodded.
"About time. Sparrowpaw told me Sunfall had been a medicine cat since Pinestar was born," Willowpaw meowed. "I think she's Larkwing's younger sister.
"Good thing Lichenkit is fit to be a medicine cat then," Stormpaw yawned. Her wounds hurt and her muscles ached. She wondered whether she could get a poppy seed from Sunfall.
Stormpaw listened to the sound of her clanmates meowing and conversing slowly fade away, only to be replaced with a deep silence. The other apprentices had come in by then and she alone remained awake. The silence that blanketed the hollow was thick but relaxed and Stormpaw could hear the slightest sounds: Mossheart hissing for Firelight to get off her tail; her denmates' steady breathing accompanied with the occasional rustle of a shifting cat.
It was, in one word, peaceful. Stormpaw loved these moments. She enjoyed hunting, battle training, wrestling with Willowpaw, but there were so few moments like this that Stormpaw, although young, had learned to treasure them.