WINTERGAZE'S LIFE

Chapter 13

A bird called as Winterpaw exited, the bush leaves rustled the leaves as she stalked out. The sun beams shone onto her face. She blinked. It was hot today.

All cats sprawled out in the clearing in the welcoming sun. They were all embracing the sun rays, though one cat sat out of the beams: Tempestcrow. Tempestcrow sat in the shadow, her huge paws tucker under her mane. Her eyes were narrowed as she looked narrowly eyed at Owlfeather, her claws twitched across the stone.

Winterpaw's ears flicked down. Whatever Tempestcrow's intentions were they didn't seem good. Winterpaw stared at Owlfeather now as he called for patrols.

As warriors approached, along with Tempestcrow, Winterpaw sat down and started cleaning her after-sleep fur. Narrowing her eyes and listening in as Owlfeather spoke.

Owlfeather raised his voice so all warriors at the back could hear. "Now, Tempestcrow has reported to me about rouges along the border."

Winterpaw became aware of her heart beat as she looked up. That must've been what Tempestcrow was so worried about.

Owlfeather continued, "I need a ton of warriors, Tempestcrow said there was a lot of them. I will be taking her, Dahliaheart, Hallowedwisp, Mudsight and Plumflower. Remaining warriors will stay and protect the camp in case rogues invade the camp." He meowed, tail twitching.

It seemed clouds have covered the once welcoming sun. Winterpaw stood up and prepared to tell Smokeleaf about this. She hoped Dahliaheart would be okay, her belly was looking rather plump and Smokeleaf had mentioned that last sunrise Dahliaheart had announced her pregnancy to Smokeleaf and that she wanted to tell Reaperstorm later because she didn't know how he'd react, begging Smokeleaf to not say anything.

Dahliaheart quickly strode over to Reaperstorm, nuzzled him, and ran back to the patrol.

With a nod of Owlfeather's head, they all set out. One by one they followed the deputy's pure-white tail.

Winterpaw now sat in the medicine den, she was throwing out dead leaves with Smokeleaf, opening her muzzle in announcement. "Owlfeather said that Tempestcrow spotted rogues around Carrionplace, I think we should prepare poultices for battle wounds. He brought five warriors and himself to go chase them out. They may be a lot but I still think we should make sure."

Smokeleaf nodded. "Okay. Good idea, Winterpaw." She smiled, a purr erupting from her throat.

Coalpaw emerged from a part of the den, her after-sleep fur still there. Her fur smoothed as she cleaned it. Smoothing her tongue over her paws.

Winterpaw unloaded the last dry herb, picking up what she could in her mouth.

Smokeleaf bent her neck beside her and collected the rest, folding the dead leaves gently into her maw. She carried it and swished Winterpaw forward.

Winterpaw trotted on forward, following her lead to go discard the herbs.

Winterpaw had came back worried after had hearing yowls from the warriors at Carrionplace.

Smokeleaf's tail twitched. "We should make poultices now and go over to Carrionplace as soon as possible." She mewed, gaze darting from Winterpaw to Coalpaw as the two of them trotted over to the herb shelf. "This is a test of both of yours knowledge, I hope of the right outcome."

Winterpaw focused. She held a leaf out on her paw as she collected the needed herbs. Moss, horsetail, goldenrod and marigold. She chewed the gathered herbs apart from the moss. The moss is for protecting the wound from dirt and debris. She revised.

Coalpaw had done the exact same as Winterpaw, putting one of the leaves to the side and getting started on her second poultice. Winterpaw began to do the same.