Rising from the Ashes

Chapter 15

Swanflight and Brightwhisker were taking care of the elders that day. Stonesplash was helping Honeypool entertain Birchleg. It had been a quarter moon since Birchleg's attack. The young tom was impatiently waiting for his body to heal but until then, he was driving everyone with the misfortune of being stuck in camp with him crazy. Since Bramblestripe hadn't been assigned to any patrols that day, this included him.

The dark brown tabby tom was not used to being idle. Back in OakClan, downtime was rare. Every cat either went out on patrol or if they stayed in camp, had to be doing something. GrassClan was much smaller and didn't have enough cats to have multiple patrols like that. So, some cats stayed in camp. If they weren't assigned to caring for the elders that day, then what they did was up to them.

Working as hard as they did, it was great to be able to catch up on sleep or spend time with their still new Clanmates, getting to know each other better. They didn't have to worry about some cat hovering over their shoulder (as long as Thistletail wasn't in camp) or being called lazy for simply wanting to rest. Of course, there was only so much rest a cat needed. It was why young, active Birchleg was having so much trouble. Being stuck in camp was hard.

Thankfully, Bramblestripe was still able to leave, if he wanted. Stonesplash had his paws full but was managing Birchleg just fine. It was the height of greenleaf. It would be a shame to waste such a nice day staying in camp. Bramblestripe slipped out of camp and into the meadow, eager to get hunting.

The main hunting patrol was somewhere in the meadow and since it included Thistletail, Bramblestripe wasn't keen on meeting up with them. He wasn't a fisher like Birchleg nor was he keen on setting paw in the woodland, even if he did have a chance of catching prey there. So, that meant heading towards the ravine. It wasn't as prey-rich as the heart of the meadow but that didn't matter. The Clan would be thankful for any extra prey he could find.

The tabby tom was able to catch some mice right away. He was going to keep moving when he caught scent of someone else: Shadowheart. The black she-cat had been a part of the dawn patrol so it wasn't surprising that her scent would be present here. The problem was that her scent was fresher than that of the others in her patrol. It would appear that she had come back after the rest of her patrol had moved on.

Of all his new Clanmates, Shadowheart was still very much a mystery. Other than Duskflower, she made no move to get to know the rest of the Clan, keeping aloof from them whenever she could help it. That didn't mean she hated being in the Clan. She may just be struggling to let go of her old life in order to embrace her new one. Bramblestripe could relate to that and he wondered if he could help the black she-cat settle into their new Clan.

It wouldn't hurt to try.

Bramblestripe focused his senses on tracking down his new quarry. Despite how much prey was in the meadow, Shadowheart appeared to have passed by it all. So, she wasn't hunting but her path was too direct for her to just be taking a walk. She couldn't be on some assignment for Hawkstar or Thistletail as there was nothing that would take just one warrior to accomplish. So what was Shadowheart up to?

He had just reached the meadow's edge before it opened up onto the top of the ravine when he saw Shadowheart perched at the top as if ready to slip over the edge.

"Shadowheart!" Bramblestripe called.

The black she-cat twitched her ears and turned to look at him.

"What are you doing out here all alone?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"I wasn't assigned to any patrols today so I decided to get a little hunting in."

"Good for you." Shadowheart looked as unimpressed as she sounded. She was as secretive as her name suggested.

"You were, though. What about the rest of the patrol?"

Shadowheart's gaze hardened. "You're not my leader. I don't have to answer to you!"

Bramblestripe winced, realizing he had definitely started off on the wrong paw. This was not the way one went about making new friends. "Of course not," Bramblestripe meowed with a shake of his head. "I was just-" being nosy.

Shadowheart snorted and slipped past him, making her way back into the meadow.

"Were you, were you going back to PineClan?" Bramblestripe ventured, bracing himself for Shadowheart's reaction.

Shadowheart turned to look at him with an expression that showed she thought he was a total mouse-brain. "Are you seriously asking me that? Are you planning on going back to OakClan?"

"Never!" Bramblestripe declared.

"Then why are you even asking me that?"

"I, it's just, you were on the edge of the ravine and it looked like you were headed down the slope. Why go into the ravine if you weren't going back?"

"I was chasing a rabbit and it headed into the ravine before I could catch it. They aren't exactly easy to catch like mice," Shadowheart explained. "Mouse-brain," she muttered.

Bramblestripe definitely deserved that.

Though Shadowheart had been so defensive that it still felt like she wasn't telling him the truth. Was he right to be suspicious? Or was he just struggling to trust her because she was PineClan? Then he snorted to himself. He trusted Duskflower and Brightwhisker and Bumbleflight just fine and they had been PineClan too.

No, he didn't trust Shadowheart because she continued to remain elusive and she didn't trust him because of course she could sense it. He shook his head, frustrated at how this was turning out. He knew it wouldn't be easy getting to know Shadowheart but it was turning out to be even more complicated than that.

"You're right, I was jumping to conclusions. How about I make it up to you and help catch another rabbit?" Bramblestripe offered.

Shadowheart narrowed her eyes at Bramblestripe and stared at him for a long moment. He was sure she was going to refuse but then-

"You're too big to be very fast but it's better than nothing," Shadowheart meowed.

Relieved and a littleshocked that Shadowheart had actually taken him up on his offer, he followedher back into the meadow and the two of them hunted together. They didn't endup catching a rabbit after all but they did catch a few birds to add to themice he'd caught earlier. Shadowheart didn't say much but Bramblestripe wouldtake what he could get. It was enough that she had agreed to hunt with him without being ordered to by theirleader. As they finally headed back to camp, Bramblestripe was hopeful thatperhaps...someday, the two of them could be friends.