Flowerstar's Judgement {COMPLETE}

Chapter 28

Flowerpelt still couldn't look at the river in the same way. Everytime she did she saw Feathernose and the apprentices drowning. She hated it, she couldn't understand how MoonClan cats willingly swam in it when it claimed the life of three cats. It had been a moon since that happened and SunClan was struggling to adjust. Windpaw had been incredibly distraught over the death of her sister, but her parents supported her. Honeywing was also struggling as SunClan's only medicine cat, but just as she had said when Feathernose died, she was doing her best to be the best medicine cat she could be and all of SunClan were proud of her.

Flowerpelt hadn't seen Riverstorm since the accident happened, not even at the gathering a few days ago when the deaths of Batpaw, Berrypaw and Feathernose were announced. She really hoped that Riverstorm didn't completely blame herself for the death of the three cats, none of SunClan blamed her.

Tallfern had moved to elder's den like she said she would after Berrypaw became a warrior, since Berrypaw died she decided to move in sooner. She claimed that she really didn't feel like being a warrior anymore. The whole situation seemed to have aged Tallfern a whole ten moons, Flowerpelt didn't blame her.

Flowerpelt found herself having nightmares about the water, drowning or watching the ones she loved drown. She had seen so much death lately and she hated it. Cats shouldn't be dying, especially apprentices. She was on patrol with Thornpelt, Mallownose, Brightclaw and Poppypaw. They walked along the river and Flowerpelt made sure she was a good distance away from it.

It was calm today. Why couldn't it have been like that when it killed three cats? Flowerpelt lashed her tail and focused on the forest ahead of her. She did notice however, that Poppypaw seemed to be focused on something else entirely. Her green eyes were staring into the forest, she really didn't seem to care about the patrol.

Flowerpelt had overheard Brightclaw talking with Moonfur and Owlfoot about Poppypaw, how she wasn't trying very hard in training and was behind all the other apprentices in her duties. What's going on with you, Poppypaw? Flowerpelt wondered if she could talk to her, maybe the death of Berrypaw had shaken her up.

The patrol came to an end and Brightclaw sent Poppypaw to go take Tallfern some prey. As Poppyfur grabbed a squirrel for Tallfern, Flowerpelt fell in beside her. "Mind if I join you?"

Poppypaw gave her a questioning look. "Why?" She questioned, with a slight edge to her voice. "You're a warrior, don't you have better things to do than go to the elder's den?"

Ill-tempered she-cat. Flowerpelt thought with a flick of her ears. "Well, I want to check on Tallfern, to make sure she's alright."

"Okay." Poppypaw shrugged and picked up her squirrel. Flowerpelt walked beside Poppypaw to the elder's den. Even in camp she had the same distant and apathetic look in her eyes.

They dropped the squirrel off with Tallfern and Flowerpelt checked in on her real quick, Flintstripe was there keeping her company. He planned on retiring as well when Lakepaw became a warrior, he spent most of his nights in there already.

As they walked away from the den, Flowerpelt finally got the courage to speak to Poppypaw. "So," She said. "I heard you haven't been trying to hard in your apprentices duties." Poppypaw stopped and looked up at Flowerpelt, annoyance deep in her green eyes.

"What do you care?" Her voice was as sharp as her claws, Flowerpelt twitched her tail. "You're not one of my parents or even my mentor so why should you care?"

Flowerpelt felt a touch of sympathy for the young cat. This was something that had clearly been pressed on her many times before. "Maybe that's the reason you should tell me. I'm not your parents or your mentor, I'm just another warrior who wants to help one of her Clanmates. I won't pressure you to make any choices, I just want to know."