Mapleleaf's Love - Book 1

The Quicksand Cats #3

(MAPLELEAF'S POV)

I looked at Dewpool, my mentor, as he organised the berries, poppy seeds, and herbs into precise order. My amber eyes gazed at Dewpool's shinning coat wishing I had a perfect coat like his. His eyes were dazzling with passion and his face was soft with affection. I looked dreamily at his amazing features. The loud apprentices outside the medicine den awoke me from my day dreaming. The other apprentices, like my sister Rosepaw who was jumping and playing with the other apprentices, were having fun outside playing fight games and arguing about who would be the best warrior, or better, the leader. That made me wonder if I had made the right choice to be a medicine cat.

But Dewpool said he trusted me, and I believe him so he must be right! I thought, so my destiny must be worth it.
"Hey Maplepaw, could you go clean out the elders for me and then could you go get me some healing herbs, Mousekit hurt her leg while playing with Rosepaw and Patchpaw" Dewpool meowed gently.
"Sure Dewpool!" I mewed, relieved to finally be getting out of the den and doing something useful.

Rosepaw would always get herself into trouble anyway and she would probably get told of by my mother Fernfeather or my father Ashtail. I pounced out of the den, that was made out of a hollow log, and took in the view of my clan... Desertclan.

There was Whitesand and Rosepaw sharing a rabbit, and Sweetrose and Lionlake were sitting with Patchpaw grooming him. I then padded through some ferns and into the elders den. I saw Tigerforest an old grey tom with dull blue eyes, Rabbitwhisker a pretty dappled she-cat who was blind and had yellow eyes, and Winterfur a white tom with green eyes.
"Good morning Maplepaw!" Rabbitwhisker rasped.
"Morning Rabbitwhisker!" I replied politely, "I guess I couldn't sneak up on you today. You already scented me!"
"Of course! I may have barely any eye sight, but I sure do have a killer scenes of smell!" She purred.
"Good morning darling Maplepaw" Winterfur, the oldest cat in the clan, meowed.
"Morning Winterfur" I purred, nuzzling the old tom, he was like kin to me.
"I'm going to be cleaning out your old moss!" I said, with a hint of determination, even if it wasn't the best job.
"Finally... this moss is all wet and lumpy..." Tigerforest complained.
"I will fix that!" I meowed, running outside to grab a pile of clean moss that was already gathered by Blueripple and then brought it back inside to fix up their old nests.

I quickly sorted the old nests out and put new moss in, then I left camp. I ran through the flaxes using my scent to try to find the healing herbs.

I soon smelt a scent that shouldn't be there. A scent of cat, it smelt of cold and wind... and a touch of snow.
"H-Hello?" I meowed nervously, watching birds send off alarm calls and stream into the sky.
No reply came.
It's probably nothing I thought to myself.
I kept looking around for the healing herbs, but that strange scent was still there. I lifted my head up and opened my mouth slightly drinking in the strange scent.
"I-Iceclan!" I meowed anxiously.
Iceclan was the opposite clan of us, Desertclan. They had rocky landscape and a huge mountain. But for us, we had long sandy stretches with bushes and trees.

I stalked closer hoping to find the weird scent of Iceclan. I suddenly heard a frightened yowl and ran towards it. My paws quickly skidded across the hot sand and finally I found two cats struggling in quicksand. I could easily see by there fluffy pelts that they were from Iceclan. I raced forward to the cats that looked about my age.
"Help us!" A young brown cat with purple eyes screeched.
The other cat suddenly sank under, a look of exhaustion and desperation on her face... I was too late.