Chapter 4(:
Stormpaw watched with veiled jealousy as Foxpaw trotted after Dustpelt through the gorse tunnel; off on what Foxpaw told him was to be his first hunting trip.
"Morning, Stormpaw," Sootpaw yawned, stumbling out of the apprentice den. "What are you going to be doing today? Has Whitestorm told you?" The gray-black tom sat down next to Stormpaw, grooming himself quickly.
The younger apprentice sighed. "Gathering moss for the elders' nests." Sootpaw's whiskers twitched.
"I'm sorry. If it helps any, I spent the first three days of my apprenticeship searching them for ticks and cleaning their den for making an 'unnecessary' comment."
"Really?" Stormpaw pricked his ears, feeling his tail curl in amusement.
Sootpaw nodded. "Longtail scolded me good." The darker apprentice remembered fondly. "I meant it as a joke, but it's best to just never disrespect the elders—even if you don't really mean it."
"Well of course it is, mouse-brain." Tawnypaw strolled out of the apprentice den, her pelt already groomed and glossy. "And Brackenfur told me that every apprentice should learn how to care for the elders first. It's only natural."
"But Foxpaw is already going hunting," Stormpaw pointed out, flicking his tail towards the camp entrance.
Sootpaw purred sympathetically. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's next. The elders don't need that many paws looking after them at one time, even if they do eat up the attention!" With one last friendly flick of his tail, Sootpaw stood up and joined Longtail by the fresh-kill pile, where he called to Swiftstep and the trio left the camp.
"Good luck with the elders." Tawnypaw teased, leaving to go to her own mentor. Stormpaw took a deep breath. Soon I'll be learning to hunt, too. He reminded himself, standing up and padding over to where Whitestorm sat beside Fireheart near the center of the camp.
"Good morning, young Stormpaw." The large white tom rumbled, dipping his head in greeting.
"Morning, Whitestorm." He sat in front of his mentor, waiting patiently for his orders. Fireheart paused what he had been saying, looking at Stormpaw expectantly. "You told me yesterday that I would be gathering moss for the elders' nests today, can I go ahead and get started?"
Much to his surprise, he saw a gleam of approval in both his deputy's and his mentor's eyes. Whitestorm nodded. "We'll go now." He meowed, standing. "We only have until sunhigh, though—Fireheart wants us on a border patrol."
Stormpaw lit up instantly. "A border patrol?" Whitestorm nodded again, before padding towards the gorse tunnel.
"We'll have to hurry to make it back in time." He called over his shoulder, stirring Stormpaw to jump to his paws and rush after him.
The dark gray apprentice caught up to his mentor at the top of the snowy ravine, where the white warrior stopped to wait for him. "What can you smell?" He prompted, gazing down at the half-clan apprentice.
Stormpaw inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and focusing. "The camp, behind us, obviously." HE flicked his tail towards the camp.
"And why is that scent so strong?" Whitestorm seemed to be listening carefully, and Stormpaw blinked up at his mentor, surprised by the question.
"Because we're downwind—the wind is blowing towards us from camp. If we were sneaking up on the camp, or prey that was in that direction, they would have no idea."
"Exactly." Whitestorm rumbled, approval shining in his eyes. "That well answered, young Stormpaw. With that thinking, you'll be hunting in no time."
The young apprentice felt a thrill of pride at Whitestorm's approving words. He felt warm despite the snow, and more ready than ever to get to work. "Right now we're gathering moss though, right?"
With an amused flick of his ears, Whitestorm nodded. "That we are. Come, I'll show you the best place to collect it in winter—in my days as an apprentice it was my secret to getting the elders to like me more."
Stormpaw's tail curled in amusement as he padded alongside his mentor. "Really?"
Whitestorm nodded, then sighed. "Now I've shared the secret with one or two apprentices, and almost every cat knows."
Stormpaw purred in amusement. "I would say that I wouldn't tell a soul, but I guess it's already been done."
"That it has." Whitestorm agreed with another sigh. "Ah, here we are."
At the base a great tree and decorated with what appeared to be millions of sharp, winter-worn branches. Hardly any leaves remained, and those that did were frail and withered.
"This is the Sky Oak." The large tom meowed. "When you've done a little bit more training you'll be taught to climb here."
Stormpaw turned wide amber eyes towards the top of the tree—which seemed to pierce the snow-heavy clouds above. "All the way to the top?"
Whitestorm shook his head. "It's far too tall to do so safely. For now, check under the roots."
Doing as he was told, the dark gray apprentice crouched down, peeking under the large roots before him. Beneath, there were layers of moss, hardly touched by the snow and just waiting to be collected.
"Now, be careful as you pull is out, gentle with your claws, but still forceful enough to cut and catch it."
Focusing hard, Stormpaw slipped his paw in, unsheathing his claws and swiping delicately at the moss. Too delicately, as the soft bedding only tangled around his paw. "Mouse-dung…" He breathed quietly, shaking the clingy strands from his paw and trying again. It took a few tries, but eventually, Stormpaw managed to slice a decent amount of moss out of the hollow formed by the roots, basking in his mentor's approving nod as if Bluestar had invited him to the Gathering.
After carrying all of the moss back to camp and delivering it to the elders—who surprised Stormpaw with warm thank-yous that made the apprentice feel even better about his morning's work. As he left the elders den, he nearly ran right into Foxpaw as the ginger tom pushed his way in, carrying two mice and a squirrel.
"Did you catch all of that?" Stormpaw asked, his eyes growing wide.
Foxpaw dropped his burden, shuffling his feet. "Just the squirrel," he admitted sheepishly. "I totally failed when I tried to catch a blackbird, and accidently scared away a rabbit Dustpelt was stalking."
Stormpaw flinched giving his den-mate a sympathetic flick of his ears. "I can't imagine how cross Dustpelt must have been!"
Foxpaw sighed. "He was angry at first, but he finally just said that it was just because it was my first day, and I would get better over time." He trailed off, before brightening up again. "He did compliment me for chasing down this squirrel."
"That's good." Stormpaw purred. He heard an impatient growl of Foxpaw's name, and the ginger tom rolled his eyes.
"There's Dustpelt now. I'd better hurry." He moved to pick up the prey again, before he turned back to Stormpaw, his blue eyes bright. "You should hurry, too—Hailpaw and Yellowfang are leaving to go to Mothermouth soon. I wanted to wish him luck, I thought you might, too."
The dark gray apprentice nodded, "Good idea. I'll go do that now before Whitestorm calls me for the patrol."
Foxpaw nodded. "See ya."
They went their separate ways, and as Stormpaw made it back to the clearing he noticed Yellowfang and Hailpaw sitting outside the medicine den, talking quietly. Featherpaw bounded across the clearing from where she sat by the tree stump to speak with them, and Stormpaw hurried after her from the elder's den. When he got there, Featherpaw was giving the pale silver tabby a reassuring nudge.
"Hey, Hailpaw." Stormpaw called as he got close enough, padding forward and giving the medicine cat apprentice a gentle head-butt. "Are you excited?"
"More than I've been my entire life." Hailpaw purred, his ice blue eyes gleaming.
"Are you done chatting?" Yellowfang rasped dryly. Hailpaw flicked his ears.
"Sorry, Yellowfang." He turned back to Stormpaw and Featherpaw, about to say speak again until a dark red blue barreled into him. Stormpaw purred in amusement as Foxpaw wrestled his brother to the ground. They were close, he realized, watching as Foxpaw leaned closer a murmured a small word of encouragement before cuffing his brother playfully over the ear. Closer maybe than even he and Featherpaw. Stormpaw couldn't imagine life if he had almost lost his soft-spoken sister, and he knew that incident only strengthened their bond.
Yellowfang allowed them to talk for a moment, before she shoved Foxpaw off of her apprentice, gruffly meowing that they needed to get moving.
"Bye, Hailpaw!" Featherpaw called.
"Good luck," Stormpaw offered. "You'll do great."
Hailpaw waved his tail in response, calling a swift good-bye over his shoulder as he bounded to the gorse tunnel after his mentor. He glance back over his shoulder, locking eyes with Featherpaw, Stormpaw, and Foxpaw in turn.
"See ya tomorrow." Foxpaw mewed softly—so softly Stormpaw nearly doubted that Hailpaw heard, until the pale tabby called back with a nod, "Tomorrow." With that, he turned and disappeared into the forest, leaving his den-mates where they stood. Deep down, Stormpaw was happy for his friend, but he could feel the same uncertainty as Foxpaw as he realized that Hailpaw had truly chosen an entirely different path from them. A path veiled in mystery and things that Stormpaw and Foxpaw and Featherpaw would never be able to know or even begin to understand.
Good luck, Stormpaw repeated again in his head, padding slowly to meet with Whitestorm and Runningwind for the sunhigh patrol. We'll always be here for you, warrior or medicine cat or elder. We'll always stick together, the four of us. Glancing back over his shoulder at Foxpaw and Featherpaw as they returned to their duties, Stormpaw nodded, solidifying the statement in his mind. Always.
Hey! Thanks so much for reading, I know this update came a little later than the last few, but it's better than my updates have been in the past:D So… What do you guys think? I know it's moving a little slow right now, but it will pick up soon, I promise. Again, your opportunity to suggest names for Hailpaw and Foxpaw is growing slim, so if you have suggestions, send them my way because I could really use a tie-breaker—some of these suggestions are just too hard to choose from, they're all good^^ Thanks to Snowleaf54 and Frostflower223 for reviewing my last chapter, I really appreciate the feedback! Lots of love~