WITHERING HERBS || A Warriors Fanfiction

|| chapter four

Owlpaw padded out of the apprentice's den, tail flicking absently behind him.

Swiftly observing the camp, he noticed that hardly anyone was awake yet. He instinctively looked up at the sky to see it turning dawn. Pink and orange smeared across the dark blue sky, which was slowly changing. The moon gradually lowered into the sky. The rose-peach color decided it was done with patiently waiting. It passionately smashed its way to the darker sky, and eventually above his head lay a soft blue blanket.

The gray tom everyone knew as Stonestar exited his den, his ear flicking as he spotted the brown apprentice already awake. The apprentice looked up and he inclined his head.

"Why are you up so early?" queried Stonestar, leaping on top of the highrock.

The brown-furred apprentice scuffed his paw against the ground. "I dreamed and wasn't able to go back asleep." He meowed, voice slurred briefly and wording of the sentence off.

"Dreamed...?" Stonestar jumped promptly off the highrock and stood in front of Owlpaw, his gaze seeming to peer into the apprentice's soul. "About what? Did StarClan send you a sign?"

This is what I was afraid of.

He answered, "I... It wasn't from StarClan."

"Are you sure?" The leader looked unsure of the apprentice's response.

"It was not from StarClan," repeated the apprentice more firmly, to which the gray tom turned around with a swish of his fluffy gray tail.

Stonestar meowed, "If you wish, you may go hunting now, Owlpaw." The leader launched himself back onto the highrock. He seemed tired and irritated, and he went back into his den. 

Owlpaw turned around, his tail swishing. He headed to the camp entrance, glancing over his shoulder, almost hoping that some cat would be awake. Nothing even moved. Perhaps he could find some prey for the Clan and come back when everyone was waking.

The apprentice exited the camp, whiskers twitching. He scented the faint scent of hare, and perking his ears, he followed the smell. He crouched against the ground, following the smell closely. Curving around a tall, pointy rock, he thought he spotted the light brown creature scuffling around near another rock. Golden gaze darting around, he recognized the border of SquirrelClan and flicked his tail. He hadn't realized he had come so far to even reach over here.

He thought he spotted someone across the border and felt curiosity leap up inside of him. Who could possibly be out this early, unless the journey to this border just felt strangely short? First, he reasoned, that he could at least catch this hare.

With a flattening of his ears, he narrowed his golden eyes, studying the rabbit. He noticed it seemed preoccupied with something at the base of the rock, and he crept forwards, his belly a mouse tail from the ground. 

The MudClan apprentice approached the hare carefully, his paws light on the ground. Then, he launched himself at the rabbit. He missed, and his golden eyes widened as he tumbled straight into the rock. 

The pointy rock stabbed him on the paw, and he screeched in agony. Then, he watched helplessly as the hare darted off - straight towards the figure past the SquirrelClan border. 

The SquirrelClan cat seemed to be aware of what was going on, and they simply slammed their paw down on the hare as it ran straight into their paws after it had fled from Owlpaw. 

Owlpaw staggered up, limping over to the cat. The SquirrelClan cat was one he recognized immediately; Whitepaw, a classical calico she-cat. She is lean but strong, he knew, so he knew not to pick a fight with her. He wondered when she would be receiving her warrior name, for he thought that it would be soon. The two had met briefly at Gatherings, for ever since PetalClan's last apprentice had died, the two apprentices had been close.

"Hello," he inclined his head briefly. 

Whitepaw looked at him curiously with a green gaze, "Why so close to the border, Owlpaw? And so alone, at a time so early?"

"Stonestar sent me out," he answered, as she coughed. He stumbled backwards as she seemed to be overtaken by a coughing spell for a moment. He looked at the rabbit, and returned his golden gaze to her.

"Excuse me," she rasped, shaking her head, "I.. I..."

Sympathetically, he flicked an ear at the calico apprentice. "It's okay, Whitepaw."

She coughed a little bit and she shook her head again. "Well, I'll -" she paused to cough again, "Goodbye," she ended the conversation swiftly and she lurched away with difficulty. He heard voices after she disappeared, and he recognized one of the warrior's voices. That didn't matter to him, though. A thought pricked at him. 

Whitepaw was ill?

The calico apprentice had always been careful of her Clan's illness, and he was pretty sure that SquirrelClan had almost eliminated the worst of the sickness from their Clan. He scented the air for prey, and caught the scent of another hare, or he thought so, and he began to head over unsteadily to where it was, his paw throbbing. But the thought that he had seen Whitepaw nearly choking on her cough was horrific. The only other apprentice in the other Clans was terribly sick and he could do nothing about it.

He spotted the rabbit around where he had smashed his paw against the rock, and he flexed it instinctively. Shaking his head to try and clear the thoughts of the sick apprentice, he crept to the hare, ears flattening. He leaped for it, claws unsheathed, and one claw snagged the rabbit. 

The hare let out a shrill yelp. He clamped his jaws over it and ended it swiftly, and warm, sticky blood rushed into his mouth. A shudder traveling down his spine, he picked it up in his mouth, which was stained with crimson blood. 

A messy kill, he thought to himself.

Owlpaw started to head back to camp, and the thoughts from earlier swarmed his mind again.

If Whitepaw was ill, and she... was gone, then he would be the only apprentice in the entirety of the Clans. The thought made him horrified, as he was quite good friends with her. The she-cats calico pelt was always clean and shiny, her eyes bright and excited... He quickly brushed it off and wondered how SquirrelClan would cope, losing their last apprentice.

This escalated into how his Clan would cope losing him. If they turned against StarClan because of it, which he prayed would not happen, he could not bear it. If he was taken for reasons only his ancestors knew, maybe then he would be content, finally speaking to his siblings. His paw throbbed, but he could barely even feel it, his mind swirling with thoughts. 

He entered with a swish of his tail, concealing his feelings as he dropped the messily killed hare in the prey pile. He spotted Stonestar laying on top of the highrock. The gray tom called down;

"Nice catch!" 

He wondered how to reply to that. Clearly Stonestar was only complimenting him because the apprentice had got up so early and had actually found something, because it was not a cleanly made kill. With a swish of his tail, he knew he had to respond soon, for he did not want to be considered as ignoring a friendly remark, especially from the leader.

Owlpaw answered, "Thanks," but said nothing more as he curled at the edge of his den. He curled his tail over his white paws, and he closed his golden eyes. He laid his head on his paws, his ears flattening against the wind that waltzed through the camp. All of earlier's events seemed to slip away as the darkness blanket fell upon him.