Froststar's Destiny

Chapter Seventeen

Hickorypaw shot off to the entrance before hurrying to a puddle to wash her paws. Frostwind watched her curiously, hiding her amusement. She'd forgotten how silly young cats were. But Hickorypaw definitely topped the silly bar. This wasn't going to do her any good, but it did make her a laughingstock. Frostwind could hardly contain her giggles as Hickorypaw ran back and forth around camp, doing this and that, before going into the medicine cat's den and coming out with Honeyleaf. At this Frostwind froze, edging away. She hadn't had a single conversation with the elderly medicine cat ever since she'd quit a few days ago. In fact, they hadn't even exchanged a single word like hello. She wasn't exactly keen on seeing and talking to her again. She moved to the entrance, still silently counting.

"One hundred and twenty! Hickorypaw, your two minutes are up, you're not here so we're not going out."

"What? No!" Hickorypaw hurried to Frostwind. "It's not that, please! Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please"

"Do you have an explanation for your tardiness?" Frostwind asked her coldly. Her unwavering gaze met Hickorypaw's, and Frostwind saw fear in those deep green depths.

"I had to call Honeyleaf," Hickorypaw meowed breathlessly. "She thinks Twilightmoon has greencough!"

"Winter just ended a few days ago," Frostwind said.

"But there still isn't much prey to go round. It's still cold in the air. And she has kits to care for! I had to call the medicine cat!" Hickorypaw meowed desperately. "Can we please still go out?"

"I warned you," Frostwind meowed and turned away. "Go do the elders' ticks."

Hickorypaw's face fell. "Please! Please, Frostwind, don't make me do that, it's so awful, my brother said Windecho made him do it just now and his paws were reeking, I don't want that to happen to my paws, too!"

"It would happen one way or another. Go do it."

Frostwind watched with satisfaction as her disgusted apprentice ran to the medicine den, coming back with a leaf filled with mouse bile. Her nose was wrinkling as she took it to the elders' den. Typical apprentices, all hating mouse bile and doing the elders' ticks. Not like Frostwind was an exception! She purred in amusement before noticing a familiar white pelt passing by and stopping. She looked up, her eyes meeting Skyfeather's for the first time in days, a questioning look in her deep violet depths.

Skyfeather looked extremely nervous and not very sure of himself. He kept hopping from one paw to another, like he didn't know what to say. Nevertheless, Frostwind waited patiently. He hadn't even spoken to her in a few days, not even just as Clanmates, and she felt he was trying to rectify his mistake. She should at least give him that chance, shouldn't she? She knew the feelings remained, for both of them, not just herself. It was just an extremely awkward situation. She'd led him to feel he was not good enough, made him sad, and then swapped right back to being a warrior. He hadn't understood her choices, but he'd gone along with them, but this time, he felt like she'd deliberately tried to hurt him, which was not true, obviously. It was Honeyleaf's fault for yammering away about stupid destiny.

"I... I'm sorry about the way I treated you," Skyfeather meowed quietly. "I should have supported you in whatever decision you made, not ignored you because you made me feel sad." His eyes peeled away from her and dropped to the ground. "What I did was wrong, and I'm sure you felt mad at me."

Frostwind used her tail to gently lift up his head, staring at him warmly. "It's fine, Skyfeather."

Somehow, those simple words changed something. His eyes lit up excitedly before he cleared his throat and meowed shyly, "Well, um, do you want to go hunting?"