hi guys! realised that weekly updates were too much for me, especially with my waxing and waning interest in warrior cats, so expect less frequent updates from now on. in exchange, chapters may be longer or more polished. this is the last chapter i had finished before posting the original work, so there might not be a new chapter for a while!
believe me though, i REALLY want this work finished, i have a story to tell and i wanna get it out there! hope you guys enjoy the fic!
As Minnow stepped through the entrance to camp, there were many more cats than before bustling around. Several were lined up outside the medicine den with scrapes of their own. A tiny blue shape she recognized as Rapidpaw bustled around a larger blue tom, asking him all sorts of questions that Minnow couldn't hear.
Minnow had thought it would be best to return to camp, where she could receive medical care, than stay stranded in the middle of the woods. Even though she was glad she was surrounded by thick walls of bracken that she found strangely comforting, the walk back took a while, and her wound was stinging badly. From what she could see across the camp, though, it was clear she wouldn't be receiving medical attention any time soon. Not that she was upset - it only made sense to her for these cats to care for their own before they looked after an outsider.
As the patrol returned, Minnow didn't seem to turn too many heads, but when Blazefoot came limping into the clearing, leaning on Icesnap, the whole Clan seemed to gasp as one.
A ginger snout poked out of the medicine den, and then Foxpaw came barrelling out, tripping over his own paws. He came to an abrupt stop in front of him and began frantically pressing his nose to his father's wounds. "Dad, are you okay? What happened?!"
Dovestar's white figure swept across camp, coming to his deputy's side. He first addressed Foxpaw; "back to your den, please. You need to help our other warriors" then waited for the apprentice to rush back to work before speaking to Blazefoot. "What happened?"
"Addertooth happened," he rasped. Giving no further explanation, he changed the subject. "I see the patrol is back."
Seemed Addertooth was some MoonClan-exclusive gossip, because Dovestar simply nodded without further question. "Yes. The dogs are gone, chased across the border. They're SunClan's problem now." He dismissed his deputy by pointing to the medicine den with his tail, and watched as limped across the clearing and out of Minnow's sight, the other cats waiting near the den letting him skip the queue. As he passed by, some of them gave him sympathetic licks to his pelt, others dipping their heads to him.
Dovestar turned around, something old and tired in his eyes. "Why aren't you back at Twolegplace, kit?"
"I sure would like to be!" Minnow yowled, ears pinned back. "But that crazy lady attacked us! I jumped in front of her claws and got sliced!" She moved her hind leg to show him and winced as her wound festered with pain. "It really hurts."
Hazelbranch spoke up, her young voice soft and unconfident. "Blazefoot also said, sir, that she has something important to say."
"I think medical attention is more important right now, Hazelbranch. Please bring her to Kestrelwing and Foxpaw for the time being. Amberclaw is also helping out where he can, so it shouldn't be too long before she'll be tended to." Solemnly, he sighed, and added on quietly "if only Brindlefur were still here…"
Minnow had a thousand questions to ask, but was pushed along reluctantly by Hazelbranch to the line of cats awaiting medical attention. Tired, she slumped down next to an unknown black warrior, who shuffled away from her and kept licking at a bite wound on his flank.
Through holes in the thicket, Minnow could see ginger fur of four different shades - three of which she could place as Blazefoot, Kestrelwing, and Foxpaw - moving around in the cramped den. When she swivelled her ears to pay attention, several voices muttered amongst each other.
"Foxpaw, fetch me some marigold," Kestrelwing ordered, her voice curt and serious.
"But we're almost out!" Foxpaw squeaked in reply.
The older medicine cat continued to boss everyone around, speaking quicker and quicker. "Just do it, we'll get more later! Amberclaw, chew the herbs more, I can still see chunks in it. A good poultice is smoother than that. No, Foxpaw, there's coltsfoot in this bunch. Give it here, I'll sort it out. Father, apply that poultice to Blazefoot's wounds."
"Sorry, sorry!" The apprentice's voice was high-pitched, cracking in stress.
Minnow turned her ears away from the den, a chill running through her. Seems things were serious. Her ears swivelled to pick up a pair of heavy footsteps that she judged to be Rapidpaw's. She lifted her head, and to her surprise, her guess was correct.
"What happened out there?!" Rapidpaw yelped, eyes wide. From a distance, a young brown tom - about the same age as Minnow - watched her wearily. "You and Blazefoot go back to Twolegplace and then you both come home hurt! Did you lead him into a trap, you Sun-"
Minnow let out a choked yell of frustration that seemed to shut the blue tom up. "I'm not a fucking spy! We got attacked by this crazy lady and she- hurt us! I saw her in my dream last night, I'm scared, I don't know what's going on."
He backed up from her, ears flat, and turned to the other tom, who matched his shocked expression. "You… saw a she-cat in your dream, who attacked you in real life afterwards? Are you sure that you've never seen her before in your life?"
Minnow shook her head. "Never. I'd probably remember a scent that foul."
A look of understanding passed over Rapidpaw and he swallowed, brows furrowing. "You should tell Dovestar once you get healed up- Kestrelwing too. They should know about that."
"Why?"
"Because you might have had a prophecy," Rapidpaw meowed.
An incredulous feeling swelled up from within Minnow, stress bursting at the seams. Frustrated, she laughed out "of all the stupid, delusional things you have ever said to me! That has got to be the worst of them all. Are you braindead? Are you insane?!"
The blue apprentice reeled back, hurt. His lavender eyes fell to the floor, avoiding the kittypet. Sour regret twisted in Minnow's stomach, her expression falling. She opened her mouth to say something, to apologise for her outburst, but he cut her off, voice tight with emotion. "I can see you're hurt right now. So I'm going to leave you be. I've been told I'm a bit too much sometimes. Sorry."
He and the unknown brown tom stalked off together, the other's yellow eyes glancing back at Minnow, the two whispering among themselves.
Great, now they were talking about her - not that she cared much anyway, she planned to get as far away from these dangerous weirdos as possible. Even so, Minnow felt wrong going on with cats gossiping about her and tarnishing her reputation. She decided she would apologise before she left.
She was left alone for the most part after that, watching warriors enter the den, have their wounds dressed, and leave to lounge about the camp. Through the trees that circled the clearing, Minnow could see the sun overhead, right above her. The warm sun on her pelt warmed her still-aching muscles and stinging wound. The blood had stopped running long ago, but she worried that one wrong move would tear it open. Blazefoot still hadn't emerged, probably having his wounds attended to on-and-off between the small patrol of warriors that had chased the dogs off.
As the line of warriors decreased, Minnow moved closer and closer to the entrance of the den that she had become so familiar with. Now, she could peer inside and see an old ginger tom working alongside Kestrelwing and Foxpaw - Amberclaw, if her memory was correct. He was mostly gathering cobwebs and pressing them onto wounds whilst Kestrelwing continued to bark commands.
The black tom beside her finally entered the den, and was only in for a few short moments before he briskly padded across the camp to meet with Dovestar. The two toms slipped through thick swathes of ivy that dangled from a branch, into a small den, and that was the last Minnow saw of them before she was called in next.
The silver she-cat rose to her paws, her joints stiff as she padded into the den slowly. The MoonClan medicine den was cramped, with five cats bustling and squirming past each other to attend to different matters. Minnow's blood ran cold when she caught a glimpse of Blazefoot laying on his side, with poultices of foul-smelling herbs treating his more serious wounds whilst Kestrelwing and Amberclaw worked on him. Her anxiety eased, though, when she noticed his side rising and falling with soft, relaxed breathing. Foxpaw looked exhausted, and dipped his head in greeting as the she-cat crouched down next to him for treatment.
"Okay, you can do this, it's just a cut. It's not that hard…" Foxpaw muttered to himself, leaning down to take in the scent of the wound and check it over. "It isn't bleeding anymore, but it can be reopened if you move too suddenly, so I'll put some cobwebs on it for you, and that should be it."
Kestrelwing muttered "dock leaves," to Foxpaw, and he withered like a dying flower under her correction.
In the side of the medicine den, there was a wall of solid dirt where a steep hill began. Dug into the side of this wall, held in place with rocks of different shapes and sizes, were long strips of old bark that the medicine cats used as shelves. Herbs of all shapes and sizes were organised neatly, the scents freshening the den. Foxpaw retrieved some broad leaves from the bark shelves and began to chew them up as Kestrelwing spoke again. "Her wound should be treated with dock leaves to...?"
The apprentice spat the poultice out and tiredly mewed "soothe her wound, since we don't have any more poppy seeds and it's the best we've got. Should I mix in some oak leaves? They're not the best thing to use to stop infection, but we used the last of our marigold on dad's wounds."
"Do you think it would be necessary?" she answered, pausing her current chore of tending to Blazefoot's smaller wounds to face her apprentice fully.
He searched her expression for an answer, ears pulled back anxiously, but she remained steady, not giving him any expression to pull an answer from. Instead, his eyes flicked to Blazefoot resting peacefully, his eyes closed but expression expectant. Foxpaw steeled and meowed "yes, I think so. Addertooth's claws might have been dirty. We tried to prevent infection on dad's wounds, it makes sense to do it to Minnow's wounds too."
Kestrelwing turned around without another word, letting Foxpaw make the decision on his own, not giving him the security of a yes or no answer. Hesitantly, he chewed some oak leaves too, thickening the poultice. Minnow watched as he mixed the herbs and then yelped as he applied the slimy, sharp-smelling concoction to her scratch. He whispered a hushed set of apologies, and then applied some dock leaves and cobwebs to her wounds to keep the poultice on with shaking paws.
"Doesn't look like there's anyone outside," Amberclaw muttered tiredly. "I'll make my way back to the other elders, if that's alright with you."
Kestrelwing nodded, a smile on her face. "Thank you for offering your help, Amberclaw."
The old tom grinned and licked his daughter's forehead, a purr rumbling in his chest. "Of course, I'm so proud of my daughter! You and Hopefall are both formidable. I can tell you'll both go far, especially with how little time you had to train as a medicine cat."
She purred a laugh and nodded. "Brindlefur was a great mentor to me. You should thank her." At the mention of that name, the den fell into grim silence, one that Minnow didn't dare break, even though dozens of questions were on the tip of her tongue.
Blazefoot raised his head and sharply meowed "reminiscing won't catch prey or gather herbs. We have a lot to do. Are the kittypet and I free to go?"
Kestrelwing opened her mouth, but Foxpaw chimed in and mewed "I don't think you should move til your poultices dry a little bit. It might undo all the work we just did."
"Foxpaw is right," the she-cat meowed, causing her apprentice to beam with pride. "I can bring you Dovestar if you'd like, I know you have something to tell him."
"Less I do, and more the kittypet does," Blazefoot corrected, glancing over to Minnow with an unreadable emotion in his eyes.
Amberclaw dipped his head and said "I'll go get him for you, then. I'll be in the elder's den after that, if you need me." Then, the old cat padded out of the den, clearly in no rush.
"Thank you, Amberclaw," he called after him, before turning to his medicine cat. "Kestrelwing, did you have any signs from StarClan recently?"
Kestrelwing shook her head, puzzled. "No. Foxpaw, did you?"
"Um…" The ginger tom took a moment to think. "I did have a weird dream last night, but I'm not sure if it was a sign or a prophecy."
"Wait, wait, prophecy?" Minnow cut in, blue eyes wide. "You mean to tell me you- you actually believe in prophecies from the great beyond? Rapidpaw had said something about that earlier, but I thought he was joking!"
"We don't just believe in them, she-kit," the older medicine cat meowed, a playful smile on her face. "We receive them. Signs in our dreams from our warrior ancestors, who read the stars to tell the future. They cannot communicate to us with words, so they send us dreams. Only leaders can speak to StarClan with words, and only when they go to the holy ground closest to our warrior ancestors - Mothermouth."
Minnow was incredulous, jaw dropped. "I don't believe it. That can't be real, right? You can tell the future from your dreams?"
The deputy gave a knowing look to Minnow, and then cut in "that is besides the point. Foxpaw, what was your dream like?"
Even under such little pressure, it took a moment for Foxpaw to squeak out "well, I'm still new to being a medicine cat, so I'm not entirely sure that this dream was from StarClan in the first place- but, it felt different from other dreams I've had before." His father gave him a stern look, as if to hurry him along, and he quickly spat out "but I had a dream about a fish. It was alone, in a river that showed all of Silverpelt and a full moon in it's waters."
Kestrelwing seemed interested, and urged him on. "With normal dreams you usually forget everything after you wake up, but with prophecies, those details stick around a lot longer, like full memories."
"I don't know what fish it was, but it had a green and black speckled back. It was very little. And, uh… it swam around in the reflection of the full moon, in a circle."
The she-cat chimed in "I can ask Otterspots about it, she's the best fisher in the Clan."
"No need. I think I know exactly what fish it was." Blazefoot replied, casting a knowing glance over to the silver kittypet curled up in her nest. "It was a minnow."
The Clan cats held their breaths. The silence in the den was palpable, with tension thick enough to slice with a claw.
"What?" Minnow gasped out. "What does that mean for me?"
Blazefoot grunted as he shifted to sit up properly, rolling onto his belly. "Nothing, by itself. But you had a dream about Addertooth attacking us before it happened."
Once again, the den was silent. Foxpaw gave Minnow a silent apologetic look, shrinking down behind Kestrelwing.
It was the deputy who finally broke the silence. "I believe you may be involved in some kind of prophecy. I wouldn't have picked you myself - but it seems our ancestors have. You may need to stay here for longer than I thought."
"But- but you said I could go home! I need to go home, I can't spend the rest of my life out here in the woods!" Minnow cried hysterically. "I have Twolegs and friends back home who'll miss me!"
"I understand your concerns, Minnow," the tom said icily, "but you've been chosen. You have a destiny to fulfil in this Clan, so you must stay here until it is fulfilled."
"I'm only little, what kind of destiny could I possibly have? You guys must be really pathetic if you have to rely on a little kit to save you!"
"What's going on here?" Dovestar meowed, ducking into the den. The medicine cats shuffled back to let him have more room. "Blazefoot, you said the kittypet had something to tell me?"
"Blazefoot is trying to kidnap me!" Minnow yowled.
"I am not," he hissed steadily, before glancing over to his leader. "Dovestar, StarClan has spoken with my son. Tell him, Foxpaw."
Dovestar's expression was perplexed as the apprentice recalled his dream, then turned to one of surprise as Blazefoot relayed Minnow's dream to him. "Is this true, kittypet?"
"I had a dream about her, she looked like she was gonna attack me, and then I woke up. Blazefoot says that means that I have to stay here. I don't want to stay here, I need to go home!" she wailed. Dovestar had been the only cat so far who didn't push her around, who tried to work with her. Surely, she thought, he would show her some mercy?
"I'm afraid if StarClan has spoken," he said, already crushing any sense of admiration Minnow had for him, "then you must do whatever it takes to ensure we figure out this prophecy and fulfil it if need be."
"Please, don't make me stay away from home," she rose to her paws, tail tucked between her legs, "I don't even believe in your weird prophecies!"
Dovestar flicked his ear indignantly, but said nothing more than "I wouldn't have wished for you to stay away from home any longer than you have already. If you wish, I can take you to Mothermouth myself to confirm it. If you are not the prophecy cat, then you can go home. If you are, then you must stay with us until your job is done. Does that sound fair?"
"Even if I am the prophecy cat, I don't want to stay in the woods. I have a home, and friends who miss me. Blazefoot, you went on and on about family whilst taking me home, surely you understand?"
The deputy didn't respond, instead closing his eyes and turning away as though observing some kind of unfortunate tragedy. Minnow scoffed and glared at him, almost at her breaking point. The only thing that quelled her from taking a swipe at the deputy was Dovestar's gentle lick on her forehead. For a moment, she felt safe, like a kitten in it's mother's nest.
"I will take you to Mothermouth and speak with StarClan. I'll do so on the first night of the full moon - that will be in three days. You must stay here in the meantime, where we can keep an eye on you. We will keep you busy with chores, but you will not be put in any danger with training. If you are found to not be involved in this 'fish in the river' prophecy, then you will finally be allowed to return to Twolegplace. Is that quite all right?"
Minnow swallowed the lump in her throat, lowering her head to her nest in defeat. "Yes, that will be okay."
He nodded formally and turned to Blazefoot. "Is there anything else?"
The deputy pondered for a moment, pausing from smoothing down his fur. "One more thing - I need you to send Otterspots on a special hunting mission, near the river bed to the west. Tell her to bring my son a minnow."