Warriors: The Power of One: Chapter Ten
"The Healer's Resolve"
Black and white fur flashed before Nightpaw everywhere she looked. Mean eyes and sharp claws slashed through the air as ear-splitting roars and shrieks erupted around her. Terrified out of her fur, Nightpaw tried to run away. Each direction she turned, Nightpaw saw badgers ripping cat fur and spilling blood. A large badger with a scar across one eye met Nightpaw's eyes, and began advancing menacingly toward her. Panicking, Nightpaw felt a scream rising in her throat. The badger continued to come at her, and as he raised his paw to slash at Nightpaw, Nightpaw released her scream.
"Nightpaw! Nightpaw!" Molepaw was standing over her, looking concerned, "Are you alright?"
Cutting her scream short, Nightpaw shook herself and looked around as if to prove to herself that she had been dreaming. "I'm alright," she promised, "You really shouldn't be standing, you know."
Molepaw scowled, "I'm not a total waste of fur," he protested, "I can check on my friends when they're having a nightmare." Molepaw turned and walked away angrily.
Nightpaw felt bad, though she was thankful for the ending of her awful dream, she worried that Molepaw had been exerting himself too much lately. Brightheart had already left for the day, as it was almost dawn, and Nightpaw knew Molepaw tried to get away with more when she was gone. She would have to watch him carefully. If he did too much, Molepaw could get sick and never get better. He hadn't even recovered from greencough completely yet! He would just have to learn how to conserve his energy better.
As Nightpaw went through her daily chores and duties, her mind kept returning to her dream. Perhaps she was worried about the journey she was taking with her siblings and the WindClan apprentices tonight. That had to be it. Nightpaw tried to take deep breaths and clear her mind as she checked the herb stores, but somehow that badger with a scarred eye kept coming back to her mind. She shuddered and ran out of the store cave and out of the medicine den altogether, "Molepaw, I'm going out to look for tansy," she said on her way out. Before he could reply she was out of ThunderClan camp.
As she walked toward the nearest tansy she knew of, a spot down by the lake, she heard Brightheart's voice calling her.
"Nightpaw, hold on!" Brightheart mewed.
Nightpaw turned to her side to see Brightheart, Birchfall, and Whitewing returning from a walk. Brightheart had been explaining to Whitewing what Birchfall should and should not be doing to best heal his leg. Brightheart said something to the other two cats, and they continued walking back to camp as Brightheart met Nightpaw where she was standing.
"Where are you going?" Brightheart asked her.
Nightpaw explained what she was doing, and Brightheart offered to join her. The two cats talked as they trod down toward the lake. Then they split up, Nightpaw looking for tansy, and Brightheart for cobwebs.
As Nightpaw spotted the tansy she had been looking for, she went down by the lake shore to pick it. As she bent down something moving in the water caught her eye. Not sure what to expect, Nightpaw focused on the movement. As it came closer, Nightpaw recognized the figure as a cat. Bizarrely, the cat was deep into the water and growing closer by the second. Nightpaw's fear quickly turned to puzzlement as she recognized the cat. It was Spottedleaf. Nightpaw watched Spottedleaf reach the surface of the water, and she backed up as the tortoiseshell StarClan cat looked up at her.
"Nightpaw," Spottedleaf meowed, "You must not go."
"Go where?" Nightpaw asked, "To the badgers?"
Spottedleaf gave her no answer to her question. Probably she couldn't. "You and your siblings will make many choices in your paths, and this is one of the most crucial. If you go, lives will be lost. Many in ThunderClan will perish because of it."
"I won't," Nightpaw promised, "but how do I convince my siblings?"
"I cannot give you instructions today, dear one, only warnings," Spottedleaf said, "But you will find a way." With that Spottedleaf faded into the ripples.
Nightpaw sighed. Why do I always have to be the killjoy out of all of us?
"Nightpaw?" Brightheart called, "Have you found the tansy?" Nightpaw's mentor appeared, covered in cobwebs. Nightpaw had to purr despite her situation at the sight of Brightheart.
"Yes, Brightheart," she answered, "Would you mind if I had the afternoon to think?"
Her mentor looked surprised at Nightpaw's question. "Sure, Nightpaw. Is everything alright?"
Nightpaw tried to reassure her, "Yes, I just wanted some time off to think, that's all."
Brightheart seemed to understand, though how, Nightpaw wasn't sure. "I know how you feel," she said, "Take as much time as you need, but if you're not back by nightfall I'll worry. And believe me, I'll send a patrol to find you!"
Nightpaw purred and thanked Brightheart. The two cats parted ways, and Nightpaw walked along the shore of the lake. She pondered how she would convince her brothers and sister not to go with the WindClan apprentices. If she came out and said that StarClan had visited her to tell her specifically not to go there was no reason her siblings should believe her. They would probably think she was afraid to go. And she had been afraid to go, truthfully.
She took a deep breath, taking in all the scents from the lake. She mostly smelled WindClan, as she was near the border to their clan. Then she remembered that Spottedleaf had said no one should go. Surely that included Sunpaw and Heatherpaw. Suddenly, she had an idea. Nightpaw was thankful she was a medicine cat!
Nightpaw quickly picked some more tansy, and began to head toward the WindClan border. As she crossed it, she quickly picked up the scent of a patrol headed toward her. Luckily it was led by Whitetail, a cat Nightpaw had observed at Gatherings to be a kind and loyal warrior.
"Whitetail," Nightpaw said quickly, "I wish to meet with Barkface and Kestrelpaw for medicine cat business."
None of the cats in the WindClan patrol protested or even looked at her suspiciously. As she was led back to their camp, Nightpaw couldn't believe how incredibly easy her plan was working.
When they reached the WindClan camp, Nightpaw was led to the medicine cat area. It was near the center of camp, hidden under some rocks and bushes. Inside, Kestrelpaw was sleeping.
"Kestrelpaw," Whitetail called, waking the small brown tom, "I'll leave you two in peace," Whitetail said, dismissing herself.
Kestrelpaw stretched and smiled at Nightpaw, "What a nice visit," he said, "Barkface is away on his duties, so I hope you didn't need him specifically."
Nightpaw smiled back, keenly aware of how time was quickly slipping by. "No not at all, I just wanted to give you this tansy." She laid it on the floor of the space.
Kestrelpaw looked a little puzzled, but murmured his thanks. "So what can I do for you?"
Nightpaw took a deep breath. "Kestrelpaw, I realize that we've never talked much. But I'm going to tell you a couple things that I need you to take as a medicine cat from another medicine cat."
Kestrelpaw began to look a little concerned. "Go on."
"To start," Nightpaw began, "I know that some of the apprentices in my clan are planning on meeting Heatherpaw and Sunpaw from your clan to sneak out and attack a badger they have located outside your territory." She broke off to try and sense how he was reacting, but except for a raised eye, he remained relatively expressionless. "I need you to understand how important it is that they not go. StarClan asked me to see to it that they don't follow through with their plan."
Kestrelpaw nodded, understanding. "Nightpaw, you have my word that they will not go tonight, or any other night if I have any control over it. If it is StarClan's will then I will do my best to thwart my sister's plan."
Nightpaw sighed, and then did a double-take, "Did you say your sister's?"
Kestrelpaw purred, "Yes, Sunspot is my sister. You know her as Sunpaw, but she received her warrior name just last night."
Surprised, Nightpaw began to say something just as Sunspot herself entered the medicine cat den.
"Kestrelpaw," Sunspot began, "You need to—what is she doing here?"
"Hello, Sunspot," Kestrelpaw meowed, "Nightpaw just came to visit and give me this tansy, but she's returning back to ThunderClan now. Thank you for coming, Nightpaw."
Nightpaw, thankful for an excuse to leave, nodded in respect to Kestrelpaw, and then turned to exit the den, aware of Sunspot's suspicious glare all the way out. None of the WindClan warriors she saw on her way out hardly gave her a second glance. Before she knew it, she was entering the ThunderClan camp.
Feeling emboldened, Nightpaw marched straight over to where all three of her siblings were finishing a mouse together. "I need to speak with the three of you now."
Runningpaw, Sunpaw, and Toadpaw seemed surprised, but followed her outside of camp nonetheless. When Nightpaw could see that they were alone, she explained what she had just done.
"Neither of those two are going to meet you anywhere tonight, and you have no clue where they've been tracking the badger. There's no way you're going to go without them, and there's no way they're going with you. I suggest you forget about it, if you respect StarClan and their wishes," Nightpaw finished.
Her siblings showed various degrees of anger and frustration. Toadpaw was livid. Sunpaw seemed frustrated more than upset. Much to Nightpaw's enjoyment, Runningpaw actually seemed impressed with his sister's work.
"You could have just told us that StarClan didn't want us to go," Sunpaw said.
"You three wouldn't have believed me, and you would've gone anyway," Nightpaw explained.
"Who says we believe you now?" Toadpaw fumed, "I think you're just trying to get us not to go because you think it's a bad idea. StarClan has bigger things to worry about than some apprentices tracking a badger."
"Well you can disagree all you want, but I promise I told the truth," Nightpaw said.
"For what it's worth, I believe you," Runningpaw spoke up.
Toadpaw groaned in disgust, and started walking back to camp.
"If you try to leave I will tell Firestar what you're up to and you'll be in serious trouble," Nightpaw promised.
Nightpaw couldn't help but be pleased with herself after the day's work. Still, she felt somehow manipulative and deceiving. If she couldn't control that side of herself, she realized that her power might get the best of her. Nightpaw knew that she would have to always obey StarClan and not abuse her power by using it for her own good.
When she walked into the medicine den, it was clear that Molepaw had been trying to exercise. He quickly lay down and pretended to be asleep.
"I know you're not asleep, Molepaw," she said.
Molepaw looked up, sheepishly, "I'm sorry. I just want to be better. I want to be normal…like you."
Nightpaw met his gaze with sympathy. "Believe me, it's harder than it seems. Everyone has struggles. Yours are just easy for everyone to see." She walked over to him and began to rub against his side. "You'll get better," she mewed, "And someday soon when Brightheart is a warrior again we'll be healing the clan side by side. I promise."
Molepaw smiled, and seemed to renew his determination.
"Now, I'm going to go get something to eat," Nightpaw said, starting for the fresh-kill pile, "Oh, and Molepaw—Normal is overrated."
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