Sparks of a Fire

Chapter 21

Polarpaw stretched and yawned. It was still early and her mentor, Yarrowleaf, was still sleeping quietly in her nest. She sighed, and got out of her bracken-and-fern nest, arching her back and yawning. She padded out of the medicine den and shivered.

She was used to the cold, as all IceClan cats were, but it was always a shock to go from a warm cozy nest heated by herself and her denmates cozy fur, to cold wind and snow outside.

"Polarpaw! Hey!" yowled Snowshine, a pretty white she-cat who'd just become a warrior, from beside the warriors den. Polarpaw lifted her tail in greeting and dashed over to her.

"Good morning, Snowshine, um do you know where Sealpaw, Ripplepaw, and the other apprentices went off to?" Polarpaw meowed, a twinge of worry in her voice. Snowshine purred.

"Well, let's see. I think they went with their mentors to do some hunting, you could join there patrol. Why don't you collect some herbs as well, I'm sure Yarrowleaf wouldn't mind." Snowshine mewed, a warm smile on her face and a curious glint in her eyes.

Polarpaw sighed and shook out her white pelt. "Thank you, Snowshine!" she meowed over her shoulder as she dashed out of camp.

•••

"Oh, hello Polarpaw! What are you doing here?" Cinderblossom asked, a bit puzzled. Polarpaw lifted her chin.

"Well, Yarrowleaf is still sleeping and I didn't want to wake her. Snowshine told me where you guys were, so I decided to join your patrol until she wakes." Polarpaw meowed in response. Cinderblossom purred in amusement and motioned for Polarpaw to join them with her tail, though Polarpaw heard Stonetooth mutter something about young cats minding their own business.

"Quiet, Stonetooth, it's quite alright if Polarpaw wants to join us," Swiftbreeze, a black-and-white she-cat meowed, giving Stonetooth a friendly shove.

Kestrelsong spoke up next, "But wouldn't Yarrowleaf be worried if you're not in your nest when she wakes?" the orange-and-white she-cat meowed, tilting her head to the side. Polarpaw shrugged and flicked her tail back-and-forth.

"Why don't you go and collect some herbs while we're hunting?" Nettlesting, Sealpaw's mentor, meowed, with a warm smile on his face and an amused twitch of his whiskers. Polarpaw nodded and raced ahead to look for herbs in the freshly fallen snow.

"You can find herbs in the snow?" Orcapaw mewed, smiling warmly at Polarpaw as she patted over to the medicine cat apprentice.

"Yeah, Yarrowleaf taught me that some of the herbs, like juniper berries, for example, can sometimes be found buried under snow." The white apprentice meowed as she scanned the clearing for herbs.

"Is it hard to remember all of the herbs and what they're used for?" Minkpaw mewed, blinking and staring at Polarpaw with wide dark blue eyes.

"Yeah, it can be," she meowed, frowning and gently prodding at a small snow pile with her paw.

"What are you doing, Polarpaw?" Stonetooth asked, puzzled at what the young apprentice was doing. Polarpaw didn't answer, too focused on her task.

"Ah-ha!" the young she-cat cried, bending down and grabbing a mouthful of berries from the small hollow in the snow. "I found some juniper berries," she meowed proudly. The others just stared at her with wide-eyed gazes.

"What?" she asked, tilting her fluffy white head to the side in confusion. "Why are you all looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?" Cinderblossom was the first to recover from the shock and she smiled warmly at Polarpaw before she meowed to the others to get moving.

A fat char broke the surface, Swiftbreeze dove for it. A few moments passed, then Swiftbreeze splashed onto shore with the silver char in her mouth. She dropped it on the rock and finished it off with a clean bite to the neck.

Polarpaw tilted her head to one side. The char looked almost beautiful in the new morning light, it's silver scales rainbow and shimmering. But Polarpaw thoughts were broken off by Cinderblossom meowing to Swiftbreeze.

"Nice catch!" The two she-cats purred and started chatting, while Stonetooth turned his pale green gaze on Polarpaw and Polarpaw.

"Why doesn't Polarpaw and Ripplepaw catch something for us," she asked, giving the two apprentices a look. Cinderblossom turned her attention to her and smiled.

"But I don't know how to hunt," Polarpaw meowed, giving Cinderblossom a worried look.

"Don't you worry about it, Polarpaw." Ripplepaw mewed in a friendly tone. "I can teach you," Polarpaw nodded her head in thanks and the two apprentices patted off into the pines to hunt for pray.

All right, she thought. This will be easy. I just have to pounce and swipe. It's not hard. Polarpaw hesitated only a moment before making the jump.

The white-furred apprentice leapt forward, sailing through the thick Greenleaf air for mere moments before reaching the shrew. She lashed out with unsheathed claws, causing the animal to let out a cry of pain and Polarpaw quickly and swiftly bit down on its neck. The the shrew fell limp, its pained cries silenced as the life was taken away from the poor creature.

"Nice catch, Polarpaw." Ripplepaw meowed happily from beside her. Polarpaw could feel her ears start to grow hot and she lowered her head and stared down at her paws. "Thanks, Rip," she meowed, smiling shyly and flicking her tail from side-to-side.

Deciding that there was no time to waste, she shook the leaves from her fur and stood up, turning around to find a new scent. "Hay, Rip, this is kinda fun!" Polarpaw mewed excitedly, her beautiful green eyes glittering.

Ripplepaw nodded and smiled brightly at her friend's excitement. It was so exciting seeing her friend trying something new that she'd never tried before.

After a few more minutes of chafing and hunting for pray, Ripplepaw decided to call it good and the apprentice's picked up their pray and patted back to join the others at Beluga Rock before heading back to camp.