Signs Of The Moon Book 1: Moon Rise

Chapter 29

A quarter moon passed, with much happening within that short amount of time. There'd been another border attack. A bad one. Chicorynose had come back from the battle with a badly wounded hind leg. Ladybugbite had her ear ripped in two places. Ambereye has a few scratches along her flanks. And many more cats from the patrol had returned covered in injuries, mostly located on their backs, shoulders, and faces. Swiftcloud was no different. Her shoulder had been cut into again, and her flanks stung from scratches delt by a large Treeclan Fighter. She felt lucky that she wasn't more worse off. She was able to be treated quickly not long after returning to camp. Sadly she could not say the same about her partner. Shadowfang had faced the brunt of the attack brought on the pair. He had been knocked over numerous times, pummeled by two warriors twice his size. Try as she might to get to the tom, Swiftcloud was kept away from assisting. A third cat had fought to keep her back, and by the time she'd managed to defeat them and reach Shadowfang, Chicorynose was calling a retreat. It seemed to Swiftcloud that an above ground ambush wasn't the only strategy Treeclan had come up with. It seemed cats were deliberately driving Grassclan warriors away from their partners. They must have known separating cats would leave them more vulnerable. Foxhearts.
Swiftcloud let out a snort, shaking out her pelt to rid herself from the memories of the fight. It was over. Now was a time to think about recovery. Speaking of recovery, Swiftcloud was eager to see how Shadowfang was doing. As she turned to visit the medicine den, the clan's newest apprentices were just coming through the bramble tunnel. Pansypaw and Thistlepaw jumped over each other, batting one another's ears playfully while their respective mentors, Frostfeather and Quailbelly, watched on. Seedpaw was the more calm of the three, jaws shut around a mole he had no doubt caught on his own at last. Bumblethroat followed the little tom through, meowing some encouraging words Swiftcloud didn't bother to listen to. Wherever the six of them had been, it was clear none knew about the battle that had just been waged.

"Hey, Swiftcloud!" Called Frostfeather, prancing over to the nubby tailed warrior. As she approached, a visible wince left Swiftcloud boggled. Frostfeather took one look at her, then moved her gaze past Swiftcloud to examine today's damage. Her ears lowered, teeth clenching as she let out a sympathetic hiss.
"Sheesh, what happened? Everyone looks beat."

"Treeclan." Swiftcloud sighed. "There was another battle. We lost."

"Oh Starclan," Frostfeather griped, licking her chest fur. "Is any cat badly injured?"

"Well, I'm not too beaten up, thankfully. But Chicorynose has got something going on with her leg. And Shadowfang got his tail handed to him. Cloverpetal, Beetlepatch, and I had to help him walk. I was just about to visit him, do you want to come?"

Frostfeather nodded. "Yeah, sure! Oh, but hang on a heartbeat." She turned around for a moment to address the apprentices who were playfighting behind her.
"Hey you three, why don't you take some fresh-kill to the elders? Afterwards grab a bite to eat for yourselves as a reward, you all did awesome today." With that said, Frostfeather turned around, tail kinked over her back. "Ok, lets go."

"Wow, Frostfeather, you're really taking your mentorship seriously," Swiftcloud sounded surprised.

"Of course! Mentoring is the most amazing thing I've ever been assigned to do, if I'll be honest."

"Honestly, I think a lot of cats were surprised when Whitestar picked you to have an apprentice."

Frostfeather agreed, giving a shrug. "I know. That's why I'm going to put my best into doing this right. I want to show the clan that choosing me to mentor was the right choice. And Pansypaw's a good cat, she deserves someone who can teach her properly. She's already so smart."
A sparkle shone in Frostfeather's pale green eyes as they shifted from Swiftcloud onto Pansypaw. Pansypaw was taking a fat young hare towards the elders den on a large oak leaf, pulling it by the stem for easier transport. Swiftcloud had never seen a cat transfer prey that way. How clever of an idea that was.