Warriors: Shadows in the Light - Veiled Stars

Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

ROSEPAW | WINDCLAN CAMP

Rosepaw dragged her paws out of her warm nest, knowing she would regret this decision. In the blink of an eye, Rowanmask was facing her, scowling.

"It's nearly sunhigh, Rosepaw, sunhigh!" Rowanmask hissed, immensely upset.

Rosepaw opened her mouth, about to tell him to chill out, then clamped her jaws shut. That'd just set another fuse off. Instead, she shuffled her paws, trying to look apologetic. "Sorry..."

"'Sorry' doesn't collect honey. Go get honey. Darkblossom has been complaining about a sore throat lately." Rowanmask sounded like he was battling his rage as he meowed sharply to her. "Bring a warrior in case any cat decides to murder you." He sounded like he'd want that to happen. Rosepaw couldn't blame him. She was a pain in the tail.

"Right..." the dark ginger she-cat stumbled out of the den. Honey? How, in the name of StarClan, was she supposed to collect honey? Rowanmask only taught her what herbs did and never taught her how to collect them. Multiple times, Rosepaw would return with flowerheads only and be yelled at for not digging out the entire thing. How was she supposed to know?

Thanks, good-for-nothing mentor. Rosepaw thought sourly. Her paws ended up taking her to Duskface, surprising her and the tom.

"Oh, hi." Rosepaw looked up, grinning.

"Hey," the gold tabby meowed warmly, "need something?"

"No." Rosepaw murmured without thinking. "I-I mean, yes. Can you accompany me?"

"Where are we going?" Duskface rose to his paws.

"By ThunderClan territory. I need to get honey." Rosepaw informed him, turning around.

Duskface nodded and followed after the medicine cat apprentice. Rosepaw frowned when they left camp; why was she leading?

"You can lead..." she mumbled, not looking over her shoulder.

Duskface snorted. "I don't know where to go exactly. Besides, I'm not much older than you."

Rosepaw smiled in spite of herself. "Okay!"

The two cats had a long, playful talk all the way to ThunderClan's border, where trees were sparsely scattered on WindClan's side.

"Do you know how to gather honey?" Rosepaw turned to Duskface, knowing the answer.

"I'm not a medicine cat. I haven't the slightest clue," he replied honestly.

Look for a hive. Rosepaw told herself. Bees collect honey. Perhaps honey drips out?

Pleased with her idea, she scanned the trees and strained her ears to hear bees buzzing. Silence.

"What are you doing?" Duskface whispered.

Rosepaw didn't look at him. "Trying to look for a beehive."

Duskface frowned, not following along with her train of thought, but fell silent, letting the apprentice do her thing.

Rosepaw stalked forward, eyes scanning the trees. Finally, she saw one.

"So... what are you going to do with that hive?" Duskface had spotted it too, gazing at it doubtfully.

"Climb up to it-"

"Don't. Bees will sting you if you climb that tree."

"Sting?" Rosepaw furrowed her brows, faintly remembering Darkblossom speaking of a bee sting she earned once after stepping on a bee. Or had it been a wasp?

"Oh, look there." Duskface trotted to the base of the tree. "There's some honey on the bark."

Rosepaw was about to correct him and say it was probably sap, but who was she kidding? Duskface (hopefully) knew the difference between sap and honey. When she walked up to his shoulder, sure enough, there were dribbles of honey slowly oozing down.

"Here, I'll go get a branch or leaf so we can gather it-" Rosepaw was about to race off when Duskface interrupted her.

"Is it a good thing if it's all dirty? It has dirt, grass, bark - everything in it."

"We can pick it out." Rosepaw inspected it, doubting the words she just told Duskface. Darkblossom would not feel better after a mouthful of this.

"Well, let's go." Duskface started to walk away.

Rosepaw was unable to tear her gaze away from the honey. Rowanmask was going to be mad. No - not mad. Something ten times worse.

"Please, StarClan, let me trip and die in a rabbit hole," she muttered under her breath, closing her eyes. Opening them, she turned and raced after Duskface.

"We can look somewhere else." Duskface promised after shooting a glance at her.

Rosepaw shrugged. "Whatever. I didn't want to do this anyway." She mumbled, looking at the grass by her paws.

Duskface bit his lip, knowing the she-cat was in a mood.

A sudden idea popped into her head. "Can I practice hunting?"

"Won't Rowanmask get suspicious if you're gone for too long?" Duskface asked worriedly.

"No. Actually, I think he's celebrating every moment I'm not in his den. So am I," she added the last sentence proudly. "That's exactly why I want to hunt. I don't want to see him yet."

Duskface frowned, tail flicking uncertainly. "Is Rowanmask a bad mentor?" He asked warily.

Rosepaw gritted her teeth. "If you mean when he teaches me about herbs, no, he's okay. But he doesn't care for my safety. He only makes sure I go with a warrior." Rosepaw paused. She had never told anyone her troubles with Rowanmask. Here she was, pouring it out on Duskface.

"I'm sorry," was all Duskface meowed.

"I don't need pity." Rosepaw snorted, faintly amused. "I don't care about my relationship with my mentor. He'll die one day and I won't have to feel silently judged every day. I'll be the merriest medicine cat you ever met when that day comes."

Duskface made an odd sound, something between a laugh and a cough.

"Anyway, I want to hunt." Rosepaw meowed. "Do you scent anything?"

"What do you scent? If you want to hunt, you have to be able to track your own prey." Duskface meowed, his tone lighter than before. He sat down. "Think about rabbits you've eaten. What do they smell like?"

Rosepaw closed her eyes, trying to envision herself with a rabbit at her paws. A good scent always wafted up to her nose and an even better taste melted on her tongue.

The same scent tickled her nose. Rosepaw blinked her eyes open, sliding into a crouch.

"Tail hovering." Duskface corrected. Rosepaw picked her tail up so it hovered above the ground. "Face lower."

Until dusk, the two practiced hunting and stalking skills. Rosepaw, by the end of it, enjoyed it, silently regretting the decision to not become a warrior.

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-artemis