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Appletail sat outside the medince den, his fur was slick from his swim and his paw throbbed painfully.
‘Appletail…’ came the reply of the medince cat, mooneye ‘what in StarClans name are you here for?’ she asked with a slight hitch in her mew
‘Paw, swim, rock’ he supplied with a grin.
The feline cuffed him around his ear ‘get in here you silly thing’ she said as she walked back into her den, her plumed tail flicking back and forward as she went to her cove. ‘I'll give you some poppy – it looks quite painful, and maybe a yarrow poultice with some chervil, the water is pretty murky today, I'm worried there is too much mud and silt in it, bad for cuts’
he'd listen to her ramble ‘Mooneye-‘ he said in a exasperated tone
‘what?’ she'd turn her skull, / as if she didn’t know what he was about to say /
‘I’m fine, mothers death was a horrid and unfortunate accident, I thought you had got over it’ he said in a gentler tone, his yellows eyes wide with concern for his sister.
Their mother had passed into the bountiful lands of StarClan a season ago, an infection from the river claiming her life. All of her kits, and her clan, had been rocked by the
‘ I know,’ she mewed with a deep sigh ‘I know’
They sat in silence, not the awkward kind but not easy silence either. ‘Mooneye –‘ the beige tom began only to be cut of by his sister
‘ I know what you’re going to say Appletail, I don’t want to hear it, I don’t need sympathy I just need time and to keep busy healing my clan mates!’
Her distressed tone worried Appletail ‘Of course Mooneye,’ she quickly patched up his paw and he stood up, ‘Bye’ where his only parting words before he left the seemingly cramped medicine den. He made a bee line to the warrior den, sticking his head through the branches, as his green optics adjusted to the dim light he scanned the empty nests, one, however, wasn’t so void of life. ‘Silverfeather?’ he asked in a quite tone, just as he was about to walk back out a cat lifted its head
’Appletail?’ came the sleepy reply as the cat rubbed its sleep ridden eyes,
‘Silverfeather, we need to talk’
‘hold up’ the rest of the sentence was broken of as a yawn bubbled on Silverfeather lips, she stretched deeply, her belly touching the soft moss lining of her nest. A quiver went through her body from her head to the tip of her skinny tail ‘coming’ she mewed as she nosed her way out into the light, Appletail had to step back to let his other sister through, she might be skinny but she always seemed to take up so much space!
‘had a few to many fish, sis?’ he teased
‘fur ball’ she muttered ‘what did you drag me outta my nest for?’
‘come on, not here’ he cast a fugitive glance around camp ‘lets go for a swim’ Appletail proposed
‘a SWIM!?’ came Silverfeathers reply only to be silenced by Appletail with a glare
‘yes a swim’ he mewed
‘Ohhh a swim’ came her reply,
‘lets go then’ they trotted out of camp at a brisk pace and once they were far enough away from camp Appletail sat down heavily wrapping his tail over his cold paws, casting a quick glance about to really make sure they were alone. With a satisfised nod he'd turn to the silver she beside him. ‘the ground won’t bite, promise’
She rolled her eyes and settled down much the same way Appletail had only her tail flicked back and forward restlessly, not laying on her paws like her brother
‘spit it out then’ she told him - he sighed
‘its mooneye-’ he quickly stopped, a branch cracked in the silence ‘who is that!?’ The tom scrambled to his paws with clumsy haste, and with a quick glance Silverfeather did as well
‘mooneye? Is that you?’ the pale grey tabby medicine feline nosed her way out of the branches
‘don’t talk about me behind my back’ she growled
‘how do you know we where talking about you?’ replied Silverfeather, moving forward once she understood danger wasn't tailing them. Silver was one of the only cats brave enough to speak up to Mooneye when she was in a - mood
‘I heard you say my name-’ silverfeather cut her off
‘sis I know this is a hard concept to grasp but not everything is about you’ Silverfeather said this in a harsh tone but her eyes where kind. They all knew she never meant in a harsh way
‘come on, lets go for a walk shall we?’ Silverfeather would reason. Mooneye looked at Appletail
‘I have to get herbs’ she began in a hesitant tone ‘mooneye, I'm worried about you’ Appletail blurted it out ‘like really worried’
‘im fine!’ she snapped and walked away ‘quit your worry club Appletail, your not mother’ The hurt tom looked at Silverfeather
‘I don’t think I need to say more’ she nodded
‘but what spurred this?’ appletail told her of how he had gone into mooneyes den for healing and came out with a larger cut then he could ever think of.
‘let all cats that can swim gather to hear my words!’ came the ancient meeting words. Appletail and silverfeather pushed out of the den
‘this is early’ she mewed silverfeather never was an early riser unlike appletail and mooneye. When they where kits appletail and mooneye would get up early and sneak into the warriors den, they where probably braver then then now, they would find their father bluewater. They would scrambled atop him and beg him to take them out, maybe to go for a swim or even just watch the sun rise, he would eventually get up after a lot of begging and pleading from the kits whilst silverfeather, silverkit back then, still lay in the nursey curled up. Snapping back to the present appletail walked along with silverfeather at his side, they settled down close to the elders, pricking his ears appletail could hear them grumbling about the early rise, he turned to silverfeather and was about to show her when he stopped. Silverfeather looked like she had be dragged through the rapids backward and her head hung down eyes flickering open and closed, he decided to leave her.
Soon Ironstar had began to talk ‘today we have a very special deed to be done, four of our kits will becoming apprentices. A very important time in a young cats life,’ Ironstar’s eyes faded into a memory but soon snapped back ‘im sure we all remember our apprentice days so lets not keep these cats waiting. Waterkit!’ the small dark blue tabby bounded up, she sat down under the high rock, her head craned back to watch Ironstar ‘twigkit’ waterkits sister came up a lot more hesitant than waterkit ‘and lastly stonekit’ the sisters brother came up his broad shoulders already apperantint in the way he walked ‘Fishtail’ Ironstar called to the deputy, fishtail became more alert and his eyes soon found waterkit, he smiled at the young she-cat and he dipped his head low to touch noses as Ironstar talked of his bravery and selflessness and how he hoped fishtail would pass these qualities onto waterkit next came twigkit she was apprenticed to mooneye and then lastly stonekit, he was apprenticed to stormwhisker. Appletail cheered extra loud for twigkit and mooneye, for the first time in a long time mooneye seemed elated and excited then she had in moons, with silverfeather truding across the clearing to see fishtail and see what patrol she would be put on appletail approached mooneye and little twigpaw, twigpaw was a lithe and small she-cat and looked like one wave would carry her away. It was probably best the she was interested in herbs and healing, he could see her mother and father, willowbranch and nighttooth watching their daughter with pride in their eyes.
‘mooneye, twigpaw’ he dipped his head ‘how’s it going sis?’ mooneye watched appletail with caution in her round white eyes but she couldn’t keep the happniess out of her voice
‘appletail’ she greeted him the same way ‘quiet well thank you meet twigpaw my new appertince, twigpaw say hi’
‘hi!’ came the little squeak
‘hello’ appletail replied with a smile ‘well I had best get out on patrols unless I want fishtail on my tail’ he mewed ‘bye mooneye, twigpaw’
‘bye appletail’ came the quite reply of his sister, twigpaw had busied herself with a herb leaf that seemed to have flowen outside the den, he could still feel his sisters eyes on his back when he padded out of camp at the head of a patrol along with silverfeather, waterpaw and fishtail.
‘lets stop here, shall we? what do you smell, waterpaw?’ fishtail asked the eager app appletail nodded and lead silverfeather to a glade
‘come on, I want to try catch a bird’ silverfeather grumbled a response a small brown body caught his eye, snapping his head up and spotting his quarry appletail whispered
‘wait here’ and dropped into a hunters crouch and opened his mouth, rows of glittering white teeth lining his jaws. Flicking his tail to the left guiding silverfeather to track that way whilst he covered the right appletail advanced on the thrush, the small bird was oblivious to the cats progress, when silverfeather was behind the bird, hanches waggling, appletail sprung up sacring the prey right into his sisters open claws with a quick snap of the neck and a mumbled prayer to starclan for the prey silverfeather picked up the limp body and padded back to appletail
‘nice one’ she mewed around her mouthful of feathers. They walked back to the spot they had last seen waterpaw and fishtail, the 2 cats where sitting on a log, waterpaw had her head high and her eyes gleamed with pride. Next to her sat a large pike, its scales glittering in the sun ‘look what I caught!’ she bounded up to silverfeather and appletail and mentioned behind at her catch
‘all by myself!’ she purred with joy
‘come on waterpaw, lets get this catch back to camp, well you seem to have had good luck as well’ the deputy told appletail and silverfeather
‘well done,’ though they where older warriors and there appereintec days where long behind them praise from the deputy was nothing to be sniffed at, silverfeather seemed to hold her head a little bit higher as if she was an apprentice again, gaining praise from her mentor, it wore off on appletail and he had a slight bigger spark in his step on the way back to camp.
When they got back to camp it was already past sunhigh, the clous scuttling across the sky as if in a race to see which one would cover the suns mighty glory first. Silverfeather went ahead and dropped her catch on the over flowing prey pile, when fishtail saw this he told waterpaw to gather up her sister and brother and share her catch with them, the blue tabby app padded off, her tail high in the air
‘twigpaw! Stonepaw!’ she yelled ‘I have to show you something!’ Stonepaw scampred out from the elders den and twigpaw padded sleeply along to where waterpaw stood, her pike gleaming in her open jaws ‘I caught this and fishtail said we could share!’ soon willowbranch and nighttooth saw this and came over to share there daughers catch, they licked the small cats ears and parsied them on their first day of appertinceship soon ‘it was great!’
‘I learned so mcuh’
‘mooneye is the best mentor!’
could be heard floating from the happy family, the little snipptes of their conversation warmed appletails heart. Appletail flicked his plumed tail
‘silverfeather, grab a fish of the prey pile will you?’ he asked, she nodded and set off, nosing his way throught the med den appletail called
‘mooneye?’
‘appletail?’ came his sisters muffled response
‘whats up?’
‘come share some prey with me and silverfeather’ appletail mewed, he really hoped his sister would say yes
‘give me a few ticks?’ she asked it as a question and he nodded,
‘well be waiting!’ he mewed as parting words stepping back out of the den. He soon found silverfeather sitting beheant the shade of the willow tree that stretched through camp.
‘she should be coming soon’ silverfeather looked around appletail,
‘don’t speak to soon’ she mewed whipping his head around appletail sreached for mooneye a giggle soon arsoe from silverfeather, whipping back around he glared at silverfeather but soon caught on to her laugh, it seemed like a disease when ever silverfeather laughed, you couldn’t help catching on. Whilst they where laughing and giggling mooneye had crept up
‘whats so funny?’ she asked, that seemed to break the spell as silverfeather and appletail quietened down after a few last giggles and settled down beside the carp
‘oh nothing, just silverfeather being a fur ball’ appletail supplied with a mouth full of fist silverfeather retroed
‘speak for yourself!’ little bits of fish flew out of her mouth and mooneye burst into laughter behind appletail ‘silverfeather!’ she gasped between laughes
‘you look so funny like that!’ silverfeather started to laugh to, causing more fish to fall out and soon all 3 of them where cackling to high starclan.