WINTERGAZE'S LIFE

Chapter 8

It had been two moons since the death of Rippleleap. She was eight moons now and she still wondered if Sandleap hurt Autumnpaw, she could still hear his screams of help, his wails and cries. She shifted her paws amongst the nest and stood up. Smokeleaf stood beside the medicine shelf, it was Dawn and Owlfeather was just sorting out the Dawn patrol. Winterpaw stretched, turning her gaze to Smokeleaf. "Winterpaw, could you sort out the worn out herbs from the fresh herbs? We'll get some fresh-kill after the Dawn patrol gets back." Winterpaw nodded and trotted over to the medicine shelf. Smokeleaf nodded. "I'm going to check on the kits and elders and see how they're doing for this Leaf-Fall." Winterpaw was shifting through the herbs for awhile and Smokeleaf reappeared, she looked calm and that reassured her the kits and elders were okay. The time must've flew over her head as she heard chatter, the Dawn patrol was back and they sounded concerned and on-edge. One of the patrol members called. "Smokeleaf!" Smokeleaf turned her head and raced out of the den. Winterpaw's ears flicked back and she got herbs ready for whatever happened because if they need Smokeleaf's attention it'd matter. Smokeleaf came back with a few warriors carrying a black and white tom, he looked young, but his ear was clawed and whatever attacked him went from his ear down to his eye. The two warriors laid the tom down on the nest. Smokeleaf directed the warriors to leave. The two left with a dip of their head. "Winterpaw, could you collect some cobweb please? Make sure to also chew up some celandine into a poultice." Winterpaw nodded, she grabbed a stick that was covered in the webs and she turned, laying it out delicately on the ground, she grabbed celandine and started chewing it up, grabbing a leaf and she spat into the leaf. The celandine pulp laid out on the leaf. She turned and placed the celandine over the tom's eye, he was unconscious but she could see the rise and fall of her chest. Smokeleaf was creating a poultice of dock leaf, chewing it up into the leaf. While Winterpaw was laying out the cobweb over the black and white tom's Smokeleaf was rubbing the herb across his wounded ear. Winterpaw stepped back and started to clean her paws. She turned and looked at the black and white tom with a curious gaze, her ice blue and pinkish-red eyes staring into his pelt. "I wonder what happened for those scars to appear." Smokeleaf replied, "well, there's no reason to pry into his life, I'm sure the poor thing is startled enough." She flicked her tail and took a breath, Winterpaw stared at the den wall, thinking, her thoughts were cut off as Smokeleaf spoke. "He is awake." Winterpaw heard the young tom give a surprised breath. She turned her head and stared at him with curiosity, her eyes examining the now awoken tom. The strange rogue was staring at Smokeleaf, his fur ruffled and his eye wide. Winterpaw watched the tom closely and took a step back in surprise as he started clawing through the webbed leaf bundle, a growl erupting from the tom's vocals. Winterpaw stood up in fear, her fur fluffed all around her body as her back raised, eyes wide. Smokeleaf looked at the two cat's in amusement, Winterpaw watched her lower the tom's paws to the mossy nest. "You need to heal before that can come off," she rumbled a purr, smiling at the young tom, "then if you'd like, you can decide if you'd like to become a warrior for our great Shadowclan." Winterpaw's fur smoothed and she sat back down, staring at the tom as he looked at her mentor in confusion. Giving a soft purr of amusement. From the corner of her eye she saw that the Sunup patrol were dropping prey on the fresh-kill pile. Winterpaw looked at Smokeleaf, Smokeleaf gave her a nod and she darted off to get prey for the three cats.

A few sunrises had passed, the tom was figuring out the surroundings of the medicine den quite well, sometimes Winterpaw would fetch prey for him but that was pretty much it, Smokeleaf did most of the bonding. Soulstar had came in and Winterpaw heard the information that the tom went by the name 'Reaper' she didn't understand what that meant, it wasn't quite a clan cat name. Winterpaw looked at Smokeleaf who turned to her. "Could you check on the elders and kits please? We're only one moon away from leaf-bare and I want to make sure the kits and elders are handling it okay. Winterpaw nodded. There was a new kit, Pumpkinkit, his mother died after giving birth to him, his siblings didn't make it either. He was about three moons now, Winterpaw made sure to check up on the kit every three sunrises. Foxfire was taking care of the kit along with Crimsonkit and Spikekit, Glazesight had left the Nursery to warrior duties ever since Swiftkit had became 5 moons. Crimsonkit, Spikekit and Swiftkit would be out of the nursery in one moon, Winterpaw gave a sigh of relief, it'd clear up the Nursery more and it'd just be Foxfire and Pumpkinkit left in there. Winterpaw prayed to Starclan that he would survive the leaf-bare, she reached the nursery with fresh moss in her maw to change the nests. It was just Foxfire and Pumpkinkit in the nursery, Winterpaw assumed the other kits went to practice hunting and stalking skills. Foxfire nodded and picked up the kit in her jaw, getting out of her nest. Pumpkinkit woke up with a blink of his eyes. "What's happening? Hello Winterpaw!" Foxfire mewed, "we're getting our nests refreshed. Sounds pretty nice huh?" Pumpkinkit nodded awkwardly in the she-cat's mouth. Throughout the conversation, Winterpaw had already rolled up the old moss and replaced new bedding. Placing leaves, feathers and bracken into the nest softly. She placed the old moss in a pile and went on with the other nests.

It had almost been half a moon, Reaper's eye scar had healed enough for the celandine and cobweb bandaging to be took off, the tom seemed upset on the scar on his face, Smokeleaf had shown a deep sympathy for him the whole way through. The mysterious tom had a blue eye after the scar across his eye appeared, his other eye was an orange. Winterpaw found the tom grumpy and not one to talk, she never bothered to make conversation. He got along with Smokeleaf just fine. Winterpaw stretched. Resting her tail over her nose, tomorrow was half-moon, the medicine cat meeting, along with Reaper's apprentice ceremony at Sunup.