Waging War Book 4: Empty Peace {COMPLETE}

Chapter 2

Blossompaw trudged through the snow, her entire body gripped by the cold, bitter air of the earning leaf-bare morning. Her nose and ear tips were burning and she wished to be back in the apprentice den, curled up and warm with her siblings. She followed behind Rushpaw and Oakpaw along with all three of their mentors, Mudfall, Burnclaw and Hollystorm as they headed to the training area.

She longed for leaf-bare to be over, but the warm weather of newleaf and greenleaf seemed so far off, leaf-bare felt like it would never end. The long, harsh, cold nights and freezing mornings. Prey had slowed down and SunClan struggled to keep the bellies of the massive Clan full while some SunClan cats were confined to the medicine cat den with whitecough.

Cherryleaf, Snowfeather and Adderstrike were all being cared for by Honeyfrost and Pebblestep in the medicine cat den. No cat had developed greencough yet, but Blossompaw feared it wouldn't be far off. She felt a slight ache in her heart as she thought about another medicine cat that should be in the medicine cat den caring for SunClan warriors.

The reality of Owlbreeze leaving SunClan to join MountainClan still festered like a fresh wound on Blossompaw's heart. She missed her sister so much, she had never felt more alone in her life since the day that Owlbreeze stepped over the SunClan border to live an entirely new life without her.

In the last moments before Owlbreeze left, Blossompaw knew she couldn't let her leave without saying goodbye, she didn't want their to be any bitterness or pain between the two of them but pain was all Blossompaw felt. She wanted to be supportive of her sister, just as she always had been, just as Owlbreeze had always been for her.

Deep down Blossompaw was happy for Owlbreeze, she had seen her sister at one gathering since she left and saw how happy and fulfilled she looked being MountainClan's medicine cat and she was happy for her, she was so glad that Owlbreeze was doing well in her new Clan but that didn't mean that Blossompaw wasn't still hurting. She felt guilty for feeling so much pain about her sister leaving, she felt selfish for wanting Owlbreeze to come back and hoped everyday that she would but she also knew that it would never happen.

Blossompaw suddenly hit a solid, soft object and realized she had bumped into Rushpaw who had stopped walking along with the rest of the group. "Sorry." She said, her voice hushed as she felt her pelt burn.

"No worries." Rushpaw gave her his usual encouraging and gentle gaze. "Are you alright? You seem a bit distracted."

"I'm fine." Blossompaw replied hastily, twitching her tail a bit. She wasn't annoyed with Rushpaw, mostly herself. "Just a bit tired."

She could tell from the hesitation and doubt in Rushpaw's green eyes but thankfully he didn't say anything else, just touched his tail to Blossompaw's shoulder before they both directed their attention to their mentors. Blossompaw briefly met the gaze of Mudfall who had noticed the interaction. Her pain of missing Owlbreeze had impacted her training and she felt every day like she was slipping further and further behind her siblings, and Mudfall noticed it too. She just hoped that he wouldn't say anything about it, she didn't want to think about her failures as an apprentice in the moment and she hoped training would distract her.

"Let's not waste any time," Hollystorm spoke up. "It's freezing out here, but hopefully training will get blood flowing and we can warm up. We'll be doing some more advanced battle moves today. You three are nearing the end of your apprenticeships and with tensions on the rise with our neighboring Clans, it's time to start being prepared and honing in on your battle techniques."

Blossompaw hadn't given much thought to the fight going on between MoonClan and AshClan since Shadowstar died, Dawnstar had chosen to stay out of it and as long as neither of the Clans dragged SunClan into it, Blossompaw didn't see much of an issue. In her personal opinion she believed that the cause of the conflict was Riverstar. Riverstar led the attack on MoonClan which resulted in the death of Shadowstar, Violetstar had every single right to be mad and most of SunClan seemed to share Blossompaw's opinion. Though Dawnstar had expressed to keep gossip about the AshClan and MoonClan conflict to a minimum, SunClan warriors would continue to gossip in the shadows.