Maplepaw's Redemption

CHAPTER 4

"Maple. Maple. Wake up, you big red badger."

Maplepaw blinked sleepily. "Bloompaw? Is it sunrise already?"

"No, silly. Come in the hollow so I can tell you all about the Gathering."

Oh, right. She'd meant to stay up all night until her sister returned so she could hear all the gossip, but Maplepaw had been so tired from another day stuck in camp tending to the elders that she'd crawled into her nest long before moonhigh.

Bloompaw wasn't the only one up. Yellowstar and Paletuft were laying under Highledge, sharing tongues, while Jaggedclaw, Birchnose, Goosefur, and Rabbitleap gossiped by the camp entrance. The full moon washed the camp in its white glow, turning the FireClan cats pelts silver.

"Well?"

"It was amazing. There were so many cats, I didn't even know that many cats existed, and did you know CrookedClan smells like fish?" Bloompaw's tail brushed out excitedly. "Weaselstar was terrifying. She's small, but her fur is so dark red, it looks like blood. And Swiftstar! She's ancient. Just... so old. Her muzzle is all gray. Rabbitleap was telling me she was old even when she was a kit. Oh and something weird was going on with Sunsplash. He kept glaring at Weaselstar like she'd fed him crowfood. Isn't that weird?"

Maplepaw stifled a yawn. "Weird," she said.

"Oh, and a cat called Dustapple asked about you. Did you meet him when you spied on their territory?" Bloompaw tilted her head innocently.

"I was not spying. I was out for a walk and I got lost." Maplepaw flicked her ear crossly.

"Okay." Bloompaw shrugged. "I still don't get how you ended up all the way over there. Were you running from something?"

Just spooky voices coming from the shadows. "No," she lied.

"You can talk to me, you know. If something's bothering you." Bloompaw rested her tail on Maplepaw's back. "I know we're not kits anymore, but we're still best friends."

"It's nothing." Maplepaw sighed. How could she tell her sister what was going on? She'd think Maplepaw had lost her mind. And maybe I have. It's not like StarClan was talking to her. They only talked to leaders, and Maplespaw was barely an apprentice. Her sister was eyeing her suspiciously. "Okay, okay, it's... Frecklepaw." At least that was partly true. "Thrushflight told me this story... When we were just kits, she almost killed me. And then when we were training the other day, she attacked me--with her teeth--after Yellowstar had ordered her to stop." She sighed again. "I just don't understand why she hates me so much. I've never done anything to her."

Bloompaw pressed her nose into the fur along Maplepaw's cheek. "Maybe we could talk to Wrenpaw about it," she suggested.

"Maybe. Not tonight." Maplepaw stretched until her tailtip quivered. "Let's just sleep. Luckily I'm allowed out of camp tomorrow, so hopefully we can hunt together."

"I bet I catch more than you."

"Yeah, right."

***

"Nice crouch, but lift your tail just a bit higher off the ground. Don't forget to step lightly. With those white patches, you'll have to be extra sneaky about catching prey."

It was three days since the Gathering. Maplepaw and Wrenpaw were practicing their hunting crouches with their mentors, Dapplecreek and Thrushflight, outside the old twoleg den where the medicine cat tended herbs. Maplepaw had to admit, Wrenpaw was a natural. Then again, he had been apprenticed first. She purred warmly as the pale ginger tom stared seriously at the leaf he was supposed to sneak up on.