$/Paws\$ (A Team Crafted and Warriors Crossover)

Chapter 8: Bad Starts with the Medicine Cat...

Quick moments turned into seconds, seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, so forth and so on. At least, that's what it felt like for the small group of seven, waiting to see what was to be done with them as cats spoke around them. Finally, the cats they'd been waiting for walked out of the rock, and into the open, regaining the attention of the previously gathered clan. After they all dispersed, Bramblestar went back up on top of the rock cleft, and, once he reached the top, motioned for Adam to do the same.

"After a quick discussion, I've decided to let these cats stay with us for now," Bramblestar explained to his cats, his amber eyes flitting from cat to cat as he spoke. "I expect the most from my clan, and I hope you all set a good example for Thunderclan while they stay."

Some cats attempted to keep their opinions, asking their leader short questions such as 'Why?', or longer ones like 'How are you so sure we can trust them?'. With a swift flick of his tail, his clan was once again silenced, and left Bramblestar with a face of slight annoyance.

"The reasoning behind this is between myself and the cats in our chat. For now, you must treat these cats as if they're your clan mates, which, for some time, they are. Clan dismissed!" With that Bramblestar leap down from the rock, walked over to a few cats, and started having a conversation with them. Adam, at first, was reluctant to leave, but, when all he was met with were stares, he quickly retreated to the ground, rejoining his friends once again.

"Well, I guess we can cross that off our list!" Jerome cheered.

"Yeah, sure, but that's just one of many things we have to fix," Ty scoffed.

"Aw, c'mon, Ty, don't be like that! At least try to think of the positives," Adam pleaded with the snow colored cat, but was quickly met with an angry grunt.

"Whatever, I'm going to go see where we're supposed to sleep." With that, Ty left the group to do as he said.  He'd left his friends in a bit of shock and surprise, both to the way he was handling the situation.

"Alright, that's a matter to be dealt with later," Mitch noted, turning to look in the direction of Ty. "I guess we should all split up for now, and see what kind of things they do here?" A quick round of nods went around the six, and with that they all headed into their own directions, looking for something to accomplish.

Quentin slowly made his way to one of the dens, unknowingly walking towards the medicine den. As he made his way towards the den, he noticed cats still whispering around him and giving him stares here and there, which, as a result, made him keep his head down.

When Quentin  reached the den, his jaw opened in a slight awe, him not expecting to see this much organization from a group of cats living in the forest. He saw rows of plants he couldn't name, three mossy beds, a small little puddle of fresh water, and a corner of cobwebs. As Quentin walked in he immediately walked to the pool of water, since walking around all day, and getting sent to this world, had taken a toll on him, much like it had the others.

As he took a drink, he could lightly here footsteps come up behind him, and he took in a sharp breath as he felt the hot breath of another cat play lightly in his fur. Quickly, he looked up from the puddle, and turned around, only to come face to face with his dark gray comrade, Ian. Quentin let out a small sigh of relief, glad it was only his friend, not another angry cat.

"What are you doing here, Ian? I thought we said we'd split up," Quentin asked his friend, and he watched as, he too, took a drink from the puddle.

"Well," Ian started when he'd finished drinking his fill," I started to go somewhere, but then I started chasing this pretty butterfly, and now I'm here!" Quentin lightly swatted the darker colored cat, annoyed by his story.

"You can't just follow butterflies; if you do that who knows what'll happen! For all we know we could find you dead next to that old shack!" Quentin lectured his friend, shaming him as a parent would to a child. Ian happily nodded, and looked towards the shelves of mysterious herbs and berries. At first, he only sniffed them as he walked near the stock, but then he was about to eat a mysterious looking berry before he was stopped by another cat.

"Stop, don't eat that!" the cat cried out, racing to get in between the berry and the dark gray stranger. Just in time, the cat squeezed between the two, and Ian felt his muzzle touch a soft bit of fur instead of the rounded edge of the berry. "I can't have you eating my stocks of herbs now, can I?" the light brown tabby asked. Ian and Quentin quickly exchanged glances, and then turned their attention back to the new cat.

"Well, I apologize for my friend almost eating your... berries," Quentin apologized to the she-cat, and gave a small nudge to his friend, indicating it was his turn.

"Uh, right, sorry for almost eating your berry...?" Ian trailed off, not finishing due to the lack of a name.

"Oh, my name's Leafpool! I'm one of the medicine cats in Thunderclan, along with Jayfeather," Leafpool explained quickly, smiling towards the new cats.

"I'm Quentin, this is Ian," Quinten replied nodding. At the mention of their names, Leafpool's face seemed to perk up.

"You're from that new group of cats, aren't you?" The amber eyed she-cat questioned, her face showing a small mix of wonder and curiosity. The two nodded, and looked at anything but the she-cat, embarrassed to be called out in their strange group. "Ah, I should've known, given the fact that I haven't seen you here before, but also that no cat is mouse-brained enough to eat random herbs!" Leafpool lightly purred to herself, until she realized what she said, and saw the hurt look in the shorter haired, dark gray tom. "Oh, uh, my mistake, anyone could've done that!" The light brown tabby quickly attempted to recover, and was returned by a weak smile from the tom.

"Well, we better go, we need to see what the others are up to," Quentin tried to use the made up excuse, gently pushing Ian out the entrance.

"Right, I'll see you around!" Leafpool called out when the two toms had left, and with a flick of the blue one's tail she realized they'd heard. When Quentin and Ian were out of earshot of the medicine den, they stopped walking , and sat down.

"Sorry, for leaving that place so fast, I felt it wasn't best for us to stay any longer," the blue tom apologized to his friend, looking back at the medicine den once more.

"It's... It's fine, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to eat that though," Ian sighed, and turned his head to face away from the other tom.

"Exactly! Meaning they were the ones at fault for not telling us about that medicine den!" Quentin pointed out towards his brown eyed comrade, looking at him sympathetically. The other tom gave a smile, one Quentin could tell was fake, and sighed like his friend.

"Yeah, thanks, I guess. I'm going to go see where everyone else went." With that, Quentin watched as Ian walked in the direction of another group of cats, and sadly watched as he plastered on yet another fake smile. The only thing the blue tom could hope for was that his friends wouldn't get hurt, like Ian had by that amber eyed medicine cat.

----*w*----

Welp, first chapter written in third person! Yay! I think it turned out OK, but I guess that's going to be determined by you, the reader(s).

Now, (if the picture showed up) this is Mitch, or BajanCanadian! Hopefully your slowly starting to get an idea of what these characters look like.... not sure though...

Anywho, that's all for now!

^Keld^