Эрин Хантер - The Apprentice's Quest

Alderpaw’s paw steps dragged as he headed across the stone hollow to the medicine cats’ den. By the time he reached it, Leafpool had returned and was bending over the sleeping Briarlight.

“I… uh… I need to talk to you about something important,” he began.

Jayfeather twitched his whiskers. “What now?”

Leafpool flicked his ear with her tail. “Of course you can talk to us, Alderpaw, but let’s go outside. Briarlight just woke up and ate something, but she’s sleeping again now, and I don’t want her disturbed.”

“Make it quick,” Jayfeather meowed.

Outside the den, Alderpaw spoke in a low voice as he told his mentors about his vision at the Moonpool. “Sandstorm said she recognized those cats,” he finished.

To his amazement, Leafpool was gazing at him with glowing amber eyes, while Jayfeather clawed at the ground in his excitement. They’re both really pleased, Alderpaw thought, not just Leafpool.

“Do you think this might be my first vision?” he asked.

“No,” Jayfeather responded, “this wasn’t your first vision. Remember when the medicine cats were given the prophecy from StarClan?

Didn’t I see you there?”

Alderpaw gazed at him in wonder. Maybe he really had seen Firestar before! “That was a vision ?”

Jayfeather rolled his eyes. “StarClan give me strength!”

“Yes, it was a vision,” Leafpool replied.

“And that’s why it was clear to us that you should become a medicine-cat apprentice.

Alderpaw, StarClan obviously has big plans for you!”

Alderpaw found that hard to take in. He felt so excited that he was tingling from nose to tail-tip, and his claws flexed in and out. I wasn’t chosen to be a medicine cat just because I was a terrible hunter—I was chosen because I have these special powers!

“We’ll have to go and discuss this with Bramblestar,” Leafpool announced.

“Good,” Alderpaw meowed, turning toward his leader’s den. I can’t wait to hear what Bramblestar thinks about this!

Leafpool shook her head, while Jayfeather raised a paw to halt Alderpaw. “No, we’re going alone,” he rasped. “You may have had the vision, but you’re too inexperienced to discuss what it means. We’ll tell you what happens.”

Alderpaw’s sensation of being special faded. “Oh,” he muttered, feeling young and silly again. He stayed outside the den, watching Leafpool and Jayfeather as they headed toward the tumbled rocks that led up to the Highledge.

I guess whatever my vision was trying to tell me, the older cats will take care of it .

Left alone in the den, Alderpaw went back to the tasks of sorting dried herbs and putting away the fresh ones Leafpool and Jayfeather had brought back. Once his excitement had died down, he felt as if his pelt didn’t quite fit him anymore. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to be a cat who had important visions, and he wished he knew how Bramblestar would react to what Alderpaw’s mentors were telling him.

He had almost finished the task when he heard limping paw steps approaching the den.

Oh no—that must be Cherryfall!

Alderpaw had no idea what he would say to her. He didn’t know whether to apologize about treating her without asking advice, or to ask how she was doing, or just ignore the whole thing.

But when Cherryfall poked her head around the bramble screen, he had no chance to say anything. “Alderpaw!” she blurted out. “You have to come quickly—Sparkpaw’s hurt!”

Terror tore through Alderpaw like a massive claw. Remembering what had happened when he treated Cherryfall, he wondered whether he should get the other medicine cats.

No—it’s my sister! I have to help her now !

“Show me where,” he mewed to Cherryfall.

Racing out of the den, he followed the ginger she-cat toward the ShadowClan border.

They pelted through the forest, dodging around bramble thickets and leaping over fallen branches. As they drew closer, Alderpaw could hear his sister’s agonized yowling. The sound grew louder as they barreled through a clump of ferns and emerged near the greenleaf

Twolegplace.

Sparkpaw was lying in a heap at the foot of a tree. Hollytuft was crouched beside her, gently stroking her shoulder, while Ivypool was encouraging her to lap from a bunch of soaked moss. Both warriors stood up and took a pace back as Alderpaw bounded up to his littermate.

“What happened?” he panted.

“She was climbing on a thin branch, trying to catch a bird,” Cherryfall explained. “She fell right out of the tree, and now her foreleg…”

She winced, her voice dying away.

“Oowwww!” Sparkpaw mewled; her whole body was twisted with agony.

Alderpaw started to shake at the sight of his sister—bright, capable Sparkpaw—in such pain and distress. I’ve never seen her like this!

She’s always so confident and in control. Now that he was close enough, he could see her foreleg was pointing at an awkward angle, not natural at all.

His heart pounded as he remembered Purdy telling him a story about Cinderheart: how she had fallen from a tree and broken her leg, and how she had had to spend moons in the medicine cats’ den before she could use it again.

Please, StarClan, don’t let that happen to Sparkpaw.

Steadying himself, Alderpaw crouched down beside his sister. “I have to examine your leg,” he meowed. “It might hurt.”

Sparkpaw nodded. “Just do it,” she mewed through clenched teeth.

Alderpaw ran his paws over Sparkpaw’s leg and shoulder. At once relief washed over him like a warm tide. It’s not broken—only dislocated. And I know how to fix that!

Leafpool had taught him what to do, telling him of when the same thing had happened to Berrynose when he was out hunting and had fallen over the edge of a rocky bank. Suddenly Alderpaw felt much more confident.

“Don’t worry,” he reassured Sparkpaw. He tried to sound sure of himself, even though his paws were shaking. “You’re going to feel much better very quickly.”

As he spoke, he saw Ivypool lean closer to Hollytuft, and heard her whispering, “Does he really know what he’s doing?”

Hollytuft just shook her head uncertainly.

Alderpaw hesitated for a moment. Do I know?

Then Sparkpaw let out another yowl of pain, and he gave himself a mental shake.

“Cherryfall,” he directed, “put your paw on her other shoulder, just there. Ivypool and Hollytuft, keep her hind legs still. Don’t worry, Sparkpaw,” he added. “It’ll all be over in the time it takes you to catch a mouse.”

Bending over Sparkpaw, Alderpaw took hold of her injured leg with one paw and her shoulder with the other. You can’t overthink it, he remembered Leafpool saying. Just do it quickly, with a forceful push.

Just as his mentor had told him, Alderpaw forced his sister’s leg back into its socket with a quick, sure motion. Sparkpaw convulsed under his paws and let out a shriek. But beneath her cry, Alderpaw heard the pop as her leg slipped back into position.

Did that do the trick? he wondered. He had heard gasps of horror from Ivypool and Hollytuft, as if they thought he had made things worse.

“You can let her go now,” he told the warriors. “Sparkpaw, try standing up.”

Sparkpaw blinked at him, then slowly staggered to her paws and began to pad back and forth. Alderpaw watched her, hardly daring to breathe. She still looked shaky, and she was limping a little, but she could put weight on the leg.