Gray Skies - Book One

Chapter Fiveteen

Vineloop and Nightpaw hurried along, crossing the ThunderClan border with WindClan, which was another stream, in one leap. They broke into a run as they emerged into the open moorland. Nightpaw felt vulnerable without the cover of pine trees to shelter her overhead. They quickly neared the WindClan camp which was a shallow scoop in the ground of the moor with gorse bushes outlining the camp that the WindClan cats slept under. The clearing had a sandy ground like in the nursery in ShadowClan.

Nightpaw followed Vineloop into the WindClan camp. There were several boulders nearby, Nightpaw knew from stories that the highest was called the Tallrock. It was used by the leader to call meetings like the Pinebranch. She also heard of WindClan cats often lounging or eating on the other boulders. Nightpaw stopped at Vineloop's side as a red-brown tabby she-cat approached them.

"Vinepaw, what brings you here?" Nightpaw knew this was Lichenstar, the leader of WindClan, from Crouchbeam and the elder's stories. Lichenstar looked to be the age of a senior warrior, not too young or too old.

"It's actually Vineloop, now," Vineloop dipped her head to Lichenstar. "And I've come here to ask Cloudyeye to do a favor for me."

"How do we know they haven't come to take our herbs?" a dark gray tom with distrustful yellow eyes and a stump for a tail came to Lichenstar's side. "You can never trust ShadowClan."

Nightpaw's fur bristled, but quickly smoothed it when Vineloop shot her a warning look.

"Calm down, Ebonystream," Lichenstar mewed calmly, turning from the tom to Vineloop. "Cloudyeye is in his den."

"Thank you, Lichenstar," Vineloop mewed with a nod of her head as she ran to the medicine den. Nightpaw followed as they approached a crevice in a rock which was the WindClan medicine den. Vineloop and Nightpaw slipped into the den, walking in to see a thick-furred white tom in his nest as a gray-and-white tom sorted leaves and petals. 

"Cloudyeye," Vineloop greeted with a friendly purr. The fluffy white tom looked up and over at Vineloop. Nightpaw saw that one of his blue eyes was clouded and seemed to stare off into the distance. Now she saw the reason behind his name.

"Vinepaw," Cloudyeye greeted. "What have you come here for?"

"I need goldenrod for one of my Clanmates, and I was hoping you could spare some." Vineloop mewed. "It's also Vineloop now."

"Well, congratulations Vineloop." Cloudyeye stumbled to his paws and padded toward the herb store at the back of the den. "I should have some goldenrod here."

Vineloop began to follow Cloudyeye, but stopped to touch her tail tip to Nightpaw's shoulder. "Nightpaw, this is Cloudyeye's apprentice, Snailpaw. Why don't you get to know him?" She padded after the WindClan tom.

Nightpaw looked over at Snailpaw. The gray-and-white tom looked shy and cautious as he looked at Nightpaw. The brown-and-black she-cat sighed. She'd have to get used to these distrustful looks. "I'm Nightpaw, and I won't claw your ears off."

Snailpaw narrowed his eyes. "I'm Snailpaw."

"I know," Nightpaw mewed. "Vineloop just told me. So, you're a medicine cat apprentice?"

"Nope, I'm the leader of WindClan." Snailpaw hissed with a roll of his eyes. "What did you think?"

Nightpaw thought ShadowClan cats could be sarcastic. "Feisty," she commented.

Snailpaw dragged a claw along the floor of the den. "I wanted to be a warrior apprentice. Now I'm stuck here, learning how to chew, while Beetlepaw and Squirrelpaw are fighting in battles."

Nightpaw felt a pang of guilt for the medicine cat trainee. "How old are you?"

"Eleven moons old." 

"Are Beetlepaw and Squirrelpaw your littermares?"

"Yep."

"Maybe they could teach you a couple defensive moves in their freetime," Nightpaw suggested. "I'm only six moons old, but I haven't even made my first catch yet." Creekfeather hadn't gotten to it yet, surprisingly. 

"Really?" Snailpaw's eyes widened. "Beetlepaw caught a field mouse the day we got our apprentice names."

Nightpaw sighed. She'd been an apprentice for a couple of days now, and she hadn't even got to learning battle techniques. "Creekfeather has only reviewed hunting techniques with me."

Snailpaw let out a mrrow of amusement. "Looks like I'm safe today."

"Don't be so sure of that," Nightpaw purred, playfully raising a paw. She knew it was against the warrior code to make a friend from another Clan, but Snailpaw lived across the lake! She preferred to keep her fur dry and not swim across the lake every day to speak with Snailpaw. 

"Why are you even here? You're a warrior apprentice." Snailpaw nodded toward where Cloudyeye was wrapping a couple of tall goldrenrod plants with bright, yellow flowers in a leaf. "Vineloop is a warrior."

"It was a punishment," Nightpaw muttered in embarrassment.

"What kind of punishment is this?" Snailpaw purred. "That doesn't seem like any punishment I've heard of. Why not just clean out the elder's den? Puddlepaw and Dovepaw have to clean Duskstorm and Whitelight's nests almost every day."

"Because I offered to come with Vineloop." Nightpaw decided not to explain why. Snailpaw didn't need to know that she was helping to collect herbs for her leader that was in risk of losing his eighth life. 

"Better than cleaning dens," Snailpaw decided. 

"Alright Nightpaw, let's go." Vineloop meowed around her mouthful of leaf and goldenrod. "Cloudeye, Snailpaw." She flicked her tail in good-bye.

Nightpaw dipped her head to Snailpaw. "Good-bye, Snailpaw."

"Will you be going to the next Gathering?" Snailpaw asked.

"Hopefully."

"Nightpaw!" Vineloop hissed impatiently. Nightpaw nodded a good-bye to the medicine cat trainee before following her medicine cat out into the open WindClan camp. Lichenstar was waiting for them at the entrance of the den. 

"Seedthicket and Perchnut will escort you to the ThunderClan border," the leader mewed calmly as a gray-and-yellow she-cat with white ears, a white chest, and two white paws came forward with a blue-gray-and-white she-cat at her heels. Nightpaw guessed that these were Seedthicket and Perchnut.

Vineloop and Nightpaw followed them out of the camp and across the moor toward ThunderClan land. Vineloop turned to look at Nightpaw and spoke with her voice at a whisper. "We have the goldenrod, now we just need horsetail. I told Talonswipe to watch over Spiderstar while we were gone."

Nightpaw nodded as they approached the border and leapt across. Now they just needed to get back to ShadowClan to retrieve the horsetail and treat Spiderstar.