Tiny droplets of dew still clung to the leaves on the cluster of poplar saplings that had sprouted up at the edge of the RiverClan camp, and the air carried the scent of rain left over from the previous night. Waterpaw observed the dewdrops with a faint smile as one rolled down the soft green leaf it rested on and landed in a puddle, causing a tiny splash.
Patchfur must have seen her smile. "What are you so happy about?" the black-and-white tom mewed, leaning over to give Waterpaw a playful headbutt.
"Nothing," she mumbled, gazing down at her paws. One of her claws had gotten torn a couple days ago by a very angry fish, and it was taking its time to heal. When she flexed her claws, it still hurt a bit. She just hoped she wouldn't have to get into any battles until her claw was healed.
It had been several moons since Waterpaw's unpleasant encounter with Grasspaw at the lake, and now greenleaf was in full swing. Waterpaw had been born in early leaf-fall, so she had never seen the Clan territories at their most beautiful. It was just a shame that she couldn't fully appreciate it after all that had happened in the four moons since Lakesplash had kitted.
Everything had been fine at first. Foxfang had warmed up a lot to Waterpaw in the first few days after his kits were born, and she'd loved the extra positive attention. But then Lakesplash's health had started to deteriorate. She wasn't making enough milk to feed all her kits, which had led to one of them dying. Lakesplash herself had died a few weeks later, and all the warmth that had emerged in Foxfang had vanished. Now he barked orders at Waterpaw, often going so far as to take a swipe at her when she did something wrong. She understood the ginger warrior's turmoil, but she wished he'd keep his claws sheathed. It was hard to explain to Minnowleap why she came home with scratches on her face sometimes, and she feared her mother would be angry with her mentor if she found out.
Luckily for Lakesplash's remaining two kits, Storkflight had had her kits shortly before Lakesplash had died, and had happily adopted them into her own litter. That was fine and all, but it didn't do much good for Waterpaw. She'd offered to look after the kits a few times, but Foxfang wouldn't let her. "You're too important for menial tasks like that," he'd say, but Waterpaw thought maybe it was really because he didn't trust her. She was sure her suspicions were unfounded, but she couldn't help but wonder sometimes…
Patchfur gave Waterpaw a gentle nudge, jolting her out of her depressing thoughts. "So, what do you think?" he asked.
Waterpaw blinked, heat creeping up her cheeks as she realized that her friend had been talking the whole time. She hadn't heard a word he'd said, but she hoped he wouldn't figure that out if she gave a generic enough response.
"Um… I think it could be a good thing," she muttered vaguely, not looking Patchfur in the eye. "We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."
Patchfur's whiskers twitched in amusement. "You haven't heard a single thing I've been saying, have you?" he purred. Waterpaw squirmed, but she couldn't deny it. "That's all right," Patchfur meowed. "I'll repeat it. Well, some of it. I'm not going to say every single word all over again."
"Just get on with it," Waterpaw mewed impatiently. She didn't mean to be rude, but she didn't have time for beating around the bush.
"Okay. Well. Remember that ShadowClan cat I've been telling you about? They're a warrior now- Birchstripe! Cool, huh?" Patchfur's eyes glowed as he spoke, and Waterpaw could tell with one glance that he was still just as in love with that cat as he had been over a season ago.
She had to admit that she was more than a little surprised by this; in the past, Patchfur's crushes from other Clans had been just that-crushes. His interest in them had been short-lived, and he'd moved on before things could get serious- which had been a good thing. But if things between him and Birchstripe had lasted this long, Waterpaw feared that the blotchy-furred tom might just have a problem on his paws.
"Tell me more about Birchstripe," Waterpaw mewed cautiously. She hoped she wouldn't come off as too intrusive, but she needed more information to know whether or not she should tell Miststar about this. "What are they like?"
"Oh, they're so… beautiful! And handsome! And cute! All at the same time!" Patchfur sighed, a dreamy look in his bright green eyes. "They like to play cute little games like hide-and-seek, and they're really buff! They can even give me a badger ride! A flippin' badger ride! Can you believe that?!"
"Wow," Waterpaw muttered as dread knotted up in her belly. "That's amazing."
Patchfur grinned, and Waterpaw noticed that he had scraps of fish stuck between his fangs. She suppressed a mrrow of amusement. "You bet it's amazing," he cried, his voice getting dangerously loud. Waterpaw clamped her tail over his mouth; even though they were out hunting by themselves, the border patrol she knew Miststar must have sent out a while ago couldn't have been too far away. "Sorry," Patchfur muttered sheepishly once she lowered her tail. "It's hard not to get excited thinking about the cat you love, you know?"
The cat you love. It was such a simple phrase, but it made a world of difference. Patchfur had never been in love before. He'd only ever been infatuated. Waterpaw tried to swallow down the lump that had risen in her throat, but her throat was too dry for her to swallow.
"So anyways, what I was asking was whether or not I should ask them to be my mate," Patchfur finished, ducking his head down to give himself a couple of embarrassed chest licks.
Waterpaw didn't respond. She couldn't respond. All she could do was give her friend a halfhearted shrug and a very forced hopeful smile.
As if knowing that Patchfur was really and truly in love with this cat wasn't bad enough, he was actually thinking about being their mate?! That settles it, Waterpaw thought bleakly. It pained her to do so, but one thing was clear: Miststar had to be told.
You did what you had to do.
Even an entire season after the fact, it was still hard for Grasspaw to believe the words he kept repeating to himself. He'd ended his friendship with Waterpaw not because he'd wanted to, but because he'd had to. If he hadn't, they'd have just kept on going in the direction he knew they'd been going in since they first met.
But it wasn't even the fact that he'd had to be so horrible to Waterpaw, a cat he really liked even now, or even the fact that she definitely hated him now that really bothered him. It was her claim that she'd only ever wanted to be friends. Maybe it was selfish of Grasspaw to assume so, but however much he'd denied it to Applepaw whenever she'd bring it up, he'd been positive that Waterpaw had been in love with him. And he didn't know much yet about love or any of that weird stuff, but he'd been pretty sure he'd loved her too.
None of that mattered now, though. All that mattered was doing the best that he possibly could in his warrior training- especially today. Because today was Grasspaw and his littermates' final assessment.
"Can you believe this?" Applepaw had shrieked as the three apprentices had their breakfast and got ready to head out. "They're finally going to make us into warriors! It's amazing!"
"Don't get your hopes up," Grasspaw had reminded her. "There's no guarantee we'll even pass our assessments."
Berrypaw had looked up at him with wide eyes. "Are we gonna stay 'paws if we don't pass?"
"Probably," Grasspaw had muttered, immediately followed by Applepaw cuffing him over the ears and giving him a stern look.
"Don't talk like that," she'd spat, crouching in front of her sister defensively. Berrypaw had shrunken back, her ears pressed against her head. "We're totally going to pass, you stupid furball!"
Now, as Grasspaw crouched alone in the tall grass, he reflected on his harshness. It hadn't been the first time that Applepaw had accused him of being mean to Berrypaw, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. But it wasn't his fault! He never meant to offend Berrypaw; she was just too fragile. The concept that she could very soon be becoming a warrior made Grasspaw's stomach turn. She wasn't ready for that yet! Heck, Applepaw was barely ready, that rabbit-brain! As mean-spirited as it may have been, Grasspaw almost wished that his littermates would fail their assessments and be held back from being warriors until they stopped having bees in their brains. Then again, he reflected with a sigh, that day would probably never come.
A rustling in the grass alerted Grasspaw to the presence of prey. He dropped into the hunter's crouch, creeping forward and opening his jaws to taste the air. He detected the scent of vole, and a few seconds later heard its little feet scampering around. It pushed the grass aside where it ran, so Grasspaw used that to pinpoint its location and waited for it to get closer.
Just as he was about to pounce, the wind shifted, blowing Grasspaw's scent toward his prey. The vole let out a fearful squeak and turned to run away. Letting out a frustrated growl, Grasspaw ran after the vole, chasing it down quickly and pouncing on it. He scraped some earth over his kill and searched for more prey.
Grasspaw went on to catch another vole, two mice, and a shrew- nothing even remotely impressive. He wished he could catch something cool, like a grouse or an adder, or even a rabbit, but he knew he'd have no such luck. He was just not good enough at hunting, so why should he even try pursuing prey he could never catch on his own?
But he also knew that Spikeear was somewhere watching him, and he had been given the instruction "catch as much prey as possible", so maybe it would impress his mentor if he made an attempt to catch something cooler. He remembered the location of a rabbit warren that he'd hunted at with his littermates and their mentors before and headed in its direction, stopping every so often to check that he was going the right way. Soon enough, he came across fresh rabbit tracks in the damp grass. They led him to a hole in the side of a hill. Grasspaw snuck up next to the opening and held his breath, listening for the scuffle of feet in the dirt that would give away the presence of rabbits. Sure enough, he heard one hopping toward the entrance. He backed away and waited for it to emerge before jumping in front of the hole, blocking it off.
The rabbit started to run; Grasspaw followed after it, moving his legs as fast as he could. The rabbit took a sharp turn to the right and Grasspaw screeched to a halt, continuing to pursue the rabbit, but it had gained on him. He lost sight of the creature as it ran down a steep slope, no doubt disappearing into another burrow.
Grasspaw stopped to catch his breath. Stupid rabbits, he thought. If Spikeear really is watching me, he probably thinks I'm doing awful. Grumbling, Grasspaw padded back over to where he'd buried his other prey. At least he'd caught something, even if it wasn't much.
But just as he was about to give up on catching anything else, a pecking noise caught his attention. He looked behind him and saw a large grouse pecking at some seeds that must have blown over from the trees in ThunderClan territory.
Grasspaw began to slink toward the grouse, hoping it wouldn't look up and notice him. Once he was close enough, he coiled his muscles and pounced, feeling a burst of satisfaction as he landed on the grouse. But the bird was too large to be taken down immediately. It began rapidly flapping its wings in panic, creating a series of loud thuds that would no doubt scare off any other prey in the area. Grasspaw swore under his breath as he tried to hold on to the bulky bird, pressing down on its back to prevent it from flying away. He knew that grouse weren't very good at flying, but even a few seconds in the air could make the difference between catching it or not.
Hoping to make the kill quickly to get things over with, Grasspaw wrapped his front legs around to the front of the grouse's neck to rip its throat open. It was a bit of a gory method, but he felt that the bird was too big for standard hunting techniques. But the grouse bit down on his leg, sending pain shooting up through Grasspaw and causing him to lose his grip for a second. In that time, the grouse threw him off with a powerful beat of its wings. Grasspaw was left winded on the ground for a moment, but he scrambled to his paws and ran after the grouse before it could take off.
Things went a lot better the second time around, as they usually did. This time Grasspaw decided not to be so fancy and instead chomped down on the grouse's spine as hard as he could. It went limp, but not before kicking up at Grasspaw and giving him a good cut across his flank, close to his stomach. For a moment Grasspaw froze, his mind flashing back to his battle with the owl. He remembered being carried away, and the horrible sensation of having its talon poking inside his stomach. The memories were enough to make bile rise up in Grasspaw's throat, and he turned away from the freshly-killed grouse to retch.
As Grasspaw wiped bile from his muzzle, he reflected that his mentor had probably been watching that from somewhere. He hoped Spikeear wouldn't think it was too weird. No doubt he wouldn't draw the connection between the grouse and the owl; in fact, almost no cat had brought the whole affair up since his safe return more than four moons ago now. And maybe it was for the best that they hadn't; the topic would only remind him of Waterpaw, and Grasspaw had been doing his very best to wipe all traces of her from his mind.
Waterpaw had intended to tell Miststar about Patchfur as soon as they got back to the camp. She really had! But she'd just felt so guilty about it that she'd decided to wait. She would tell him later that day, she told herself. But she never did. Shellpaw came up to her around sunhigh and asked her to go for a walk by the lake, and Waterpaw thought about telling her about Patchfur and then asking her to tell Miststar. But Shellpaw didn't need to know about that. So the secret stayed hidden.
Finally, late at night while Waterpaw was trying to get to sleep, Patchfur barged into the apprentices' den and pulled her outside. Shellpaw and Oakpaw luckily weren't woken up, but Mallowpaw raised her head sleepily and blinked at Patchfur in confusion. "What's going on?" she murmured.
"It's nothing," Waterpaw assured her in a whisper, hoping it was true but somehow knowing it wasn't. "Just go back to sleep."
Mallowpaw looked suspicious, but she was clearly very sleepy. She lowered her head back down and was snoring again in a matter of seconds. Waterpaw gave a short sigh of relief before turning to look at Patchfur again. "So, what gives?" she mewed.
Patchfur glanced around warily. "Let's talk about this someplace more secluded," he whispered. "I don't want any cat to know."
That's the opposite of what I want, Waterpaw thought guiltily. Needless to say, she didn't dare tell her friend that she intended to tell the leader about his relationship with Birchstripe. Besides, she hadn't been able to work up the urge to tell Miststar the situation that day, so it might not even matter in the long run.
The two cats crept out of camp; Patchfur guided Waterpaw over to the creek where they'd been hunting earlier in the day, when he'd told her what he was planning on doing. "It feels appropriate to tell you here," he explained, his voice rising into a high squeal. "Great StarClan, Waterpaw, you won't believe this!"
"Won't believe what?" Waterpaw asked, although she felt she already knew.
"I asked Birchstripe to be my mate, and they said yes!" Patchfur's eyes shone so brightly that if they'd been silver rather than green, they could have belonged in Silverpelt.
But just because his eyes shone as brightly as stars, that didn't mean the stars were on his side. There was no way StarClan wanted this to happen, so Waterpaw had to put a stop to it.
"I must be the luckiest cat alive," he continued, a purr rumbling in his throat. "When I asked them, they didn't even hesitate before saying yes! We didn't know exactly how things are going to work out," he added, dropping his voice to a whisper- a wise choice, Waterpaw reflected. "But we're certain things will turn out okay. At least for now, we'll just have to be mates in secret."
"G-good for you…"
"Oh, yeah, it's totally great!" Patchfur purred. Waterpaw was pretty sure he continued talking after that- no doubt rambling on even more about how amazing Birchstripe was- but she didn't hear a single word he said.
How much further would things go before her fish-brained friend came to his senses?!