Mist in the Ripples *Rewritten*

Chapter 6 - To Feed the Elders

Very belated chapter! Anyway, the photo next to the song are the feilds the cats are hunting in, taken in the summer when this chapter takes place!

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"Elders, queens, and kits must be fed before apprentices and warriors. Unless they have permission, apprentices may not eat until they have hunted to feed the elders. If any warrior or apprentice is sick or injured, they may eat while the elders, queens, and kits are eating."

Ripplestar had only just materialized into her most recent training session with Silverstream, and was surprised to hear that the starry warrior had already recited another piece of the warrior code. It took the young tuxedo a moment to let her surprise ebb away and for her brain to let the rule sink in, so for a while, she just stood dumbfounded.

Upon Ripplestar's return to consciousness, she noticed that Silversteam had briskly leapt away into the undergrowth. Some bushes and ferns swallowed the blue-eyed feline, leaving only a lingering trace of her scent. The leader-in-training scanned the surroundings, finding that her mentor had chosen an odd setting for a dream, since normally, the Riverclan warrior preferred meadows, ponds, and lakes. Around her, it was more of an enclosed forest.

"Silverstream! Wait!" Ripplestar decided to follow her mentor, leaping after her.

Her only means of following the silvery she-cat was the scent trail she left. From what Silverstream had told her, Ripplestar knew that the scent trail was created, not made from scent glands, by her mentor.

Silverstream was deliberately making Ripplestar chase her through the woods.

Luckily, after only a little while of climbing through all the low-growing plants, Ripplestar found herself emerging into a clearing with rocks all around. If it were sunnier out as opposed to having clouds obscure the sky, the stones would probably have been really good spots for cats to bask in the sun.

Just ahead, Silverstream stared down into a coursing river. Ripplestar cautiously crept up, hoping her mentor wouldn't jump away from her yet again without explaining what was going on. Perhaps, if she did, there would be time to bowl her over and stop the "mysterious" antics.

"Ripplestar."

The blue-eyed leader-in-training stopped.

"You're in the main clans' territories."

Ripplestar was skeptical, looking around, unsure. What purpose would it serve to bring her to the main territories? She padded up to Silverstream and sat next to her on the banks of the coursing river.

"Why am I here, Silverstream?" Ripplestar asked.

"You're standing on the site of countless battles. Battles between Riverclan and Thunderclan," Silverstream ignored her, and kept talking.

"Silverstream, don't ignore me! Why do I need to know this?"

"Because this is where my clan," she took a deep breath, "fought my mate's clan."

***

The summer night was calm and quiet, perfect for the first patrol that Dreampaw would be on. Ears and nose up, she listened to and smelled her surroundings. They were behind the bridge, on the other side of the camp hill, and in this place, she had no idea what would await her in the sparse and grassy landscape. Already, the patrol had fluffy green grasses obscuring their vision, though with their paws' weight, most stalks were flattened quickly to allow for everyone to look, especially the apprentices, who walked behind the warriors ploughing through.