Эрин Хантер - The Apprentice's Quest

“That feels so much better,” she murmured.

“Now the rest of you,” Alderpaw meowed.

“We’re fine, honestly,” Sparkpaw protested.

“You’re fine when I say you are,” Alderpaw retorted, remembering what Jayfeather liked to say to cats who didn’t want to be fussed over.

Sparkpaw twitched her whiskers but stood still while Alderpaw examined her. In the clear light of morning he spotted a scratch on her foreleg that he had missed the night before, and he patted some of the comfrey poultice onto it.

“Thanks, that’s great,” Sparkpaw mewed.

“Hey, do you know your ear’s been bleeding?”

Alderpaw hadn’t realized his ear was stinging, distracted first by the stress of the fight and then by the discussion about Needlepaw and the need to treat his Clanmates.

“Daft furball!” Sparkpaw gave him a nudge.

“Hold still, and I’ll give it a lick.” Her tongue rasped swiftly over his ear. “Now I’ll dab a bit of that root on it,” she continued. “There! All done. Do you think I’d make a good medicine cat?”

“No way!” Alderpaw gave a purr of amusement. “But you’re going to be a sensational warrior!”

When he checked his other Clanmates, Alderpaw was pleased to find that although the fox had clawed out some of Cherryfall’s fur, she wasn’t actually injured.

“My shoulder still aches a

bit,” Molewhisker told him, “but it’s not so bad. I think it’ll be fine once we get moving.”

“I can see a scratch on your back,” Alderpaw meowed, turning to Needlepaw. He felt slightly shy at offering help to a cat from another Clan. “Do you want me to look at it?”

“Please,” Needlepaw replied with an uncomfortable wriggle. “That mange-pelted fox threw me into a gorse bush, and it hurts .”

Examining her more closely, Alderpaw saw that a couple of thorns were sticking into

Needlepaw’s back, and she had a nasty scrape clotted with dried blood.

“You’ve picked up some thorns,” Alderpaw mewed. “Crouch down and I’ll get them out.”

Needlepaw flattened herself, and Alderpaw managed to get his teeth into the shanks of the thorns and yank them out, then spit them onto the ground. A trace of blood welled up where they had been.

“Now comfrey root,” Alderpaw continued.

“This will take the pain away.”

She stretched and relaxed as the comfrey juices soaked into her back. “Thanks, Alderpaw.

You must be a really good medicine cat, because I feel better already. And hungry !”

Alderpaw’s pelt grew hot with embarrassment at Needlepaw’s praise, and he was glad to step back as Cherryfall organized a hunting patrol. She and Molewhisker, Sparkpaw, and Needlepaw headed off into the trees, while

Alderpaw stayed with Sandstorm.

“You’re doing a good job, Alderpaw,” Sandstorm murmured when the others had gone.

Alderpaw ducked his head. “Thanks, Sandstorm.” He wasn’t sure he deserved the compliment, but he felt himself filling up with happiness like a hollow filling up with rain.

Sunhigh was still some way off when the hunting patrol returned. Molewhisker and Sparkpaw were each carrying mice, while

Cherryfall had a vole. Alderpaw’s eyes stretched wide with amazement when he spotted Needlepaw with her prey. She was dragging along a pigeon and a squirrel, both of them so big that she could hardly manage them.

She picked up her pace to stride ahead to the bottom of the hollow, where Alderpaw and Sandstorm were sunning themselves beside the pool, and dropped her catch at their paws.

Alderpaw tried hard to hide how impressed he was, but he was sure that Needlepaw could tell.

“Not bad, huh?” she meowed. “You don’t regret having me around now, do you? And I got even more than that!”

Sparkpaw and the others caught up and put down their own prey. Alderpaw could see that his sister looked a bit annoyed to be outdone by Needlepaw, and kept casting sidelong glances at her.

“It’s true,” she meowed to Sandstorm.

“Needlepaw did catch more than the squirrel and the pigeon. She caught a big, fat rat.”

“So where is it?” Sandstorm asked.

“Needlepaw already ate it!” Sparkpaw sounded outraged. “She ate it herself! That’s against the warrior code.”

Alderpaw would never have said so out loud, but he felt that it wasn’t their place to teach Needlepaw about the warrior code. She’s not part of our Clan, and even if she did eat the rat, she still brought back more prey than the other three put together!

“Let’s all just eat and relax a bit,” Sandstorm responded to Sparkpaw; her voice sounded weary. “We’ve had an exhausting time, and we could all do with a good meal and some rest.”

Sparkpaw said no more, though she ruffled up her fur indignantly and glared at Needlepaw, who seemed quite untroubled by her complaints.

“Let’s eat,” Needlepaw mewed. “Come on, Alderpaw, you can share my squirrel.”

Sharp pangs of hunger were clawing through Alderpaw’s belly, and every mouthful of the squirrel seemed like the best prey he had ever tasted. But as he sat up again and used one paw to clean his whiskers, he noticed that his sister had disappeared.

“Where’s Sparkpaw?” he asked, an uneasy feeling prickling his pads. Suppose those foxes came back… but then there would have been a fight. She wouldn’t just vanish!

The ThunderClan cats scattered around the hollow, looking for Sparkpaw, crying out her name. There was no response, but then Sandstorm called to them from the bush where she and Alderpaw had made the nest the night before.

“She’s here!”

Alderpaw bounded up to see his sister cozily curled up among the ferns, her tail wrapped over her nose. She was snoring softly.

“Should we wake her up?” Cherryfall asked, as his Clanmates clustered around.

“I think she’s got the right idea,” Molewhisker commented, stretching his jaws into an enormous yawn.

“Yes, let’s let her sleep,” Sandstorm agreed.

“In fact, I think we should all sleep for a while.”

Alderpaw thought that Sandstorm looked particularly exhausted. Though he said nothing, he was beginning to realize that this journey, especially with her injury, was taking more out of her than she was willing to admit.

“Who will keep watch?” he asked as the others were settling down in the nest. “We know there are foxes around.”

I should volunteer, he thought, trying to ignore the weariness weighing down his limbs.

This is my quest, after all. We wouldn’t be on this trip if it weren’t for my vision, and even though I didn’t ask for it, I’m responsible for them all.

“I’ll do it.” Needlepaw, who had taken no part in the search, strolled up from the pool, flicking drops of water off her whiskers. “I don’t need much sleep anyway, and now that my belly’s full, I could go on for days.”

Thanking Needlepaw, Alderpaw curled up in the nest and closed his eyes with a sigh of relief.

But instead of sinking into a refreshing sleep, he found himself standing on a bleak moorland hillside with tendrils of white mist wreathing around him. The sky glittered with stars, and somewhere in the distance shrieks of distress split the silence of the night.

His pelt tingling with fear, Alderpaw padded in the direction of the cries. Dark shapes began to appear through the mist, and as he drew closer, he realized that they were cats, standing in a circle and crying out their anguish to the stars.

“Help us! Oh, help us!”

Alderpaw’s chest heaved and his breath came faster; he felt the cats’ suffering as if it were his own. I know these cats! He recognized Leafstar, the SkyClan leader from his previous vision, and the big ginger tom, her deputy, Sharpclaw. Farther around the circle was the small silver tabby Echosong, the Clan medicine cat, and beside her was the young black-and-white cat he had seen made into a warrior. And there were many, many more, all raising their voices in fear and pain.