Warriors #4: Darkness Awakens

Chapter 29

Goldenshine's POV

I struggled to catch my breath as I watched Spiderleg and Birchfall drag Firestar's limp body away from Russetfur's corpse, which was beginning to be picked up by Blackstar's warriors to be taken back to their camp. Jayfeather, with Leafpool to assist, were tending to as many cats as they could.

Luckily, I only had minor injuries, and if any medicine cat attempted to care for me, I had already planned on sending them to somebody else.

I almost felt guilty that I wasn't badly hurt. The battle, unfortunately, had been an incredibly one with lots of bloodshed, and there weren't many cats that only had minor injuries.

Realizing this, I thought that maybe I should help out the medicine cats where I could. Jayfeather was just a few tail lengths from me, so I started traveling to him as soon as he caught my sight.

It's not likely he'll give me any direction, though, but I might as well try.

He was tending to Brackenfur when I arrived to his spot. "Hey, Jayfeather. Is there anything at all I can help with?"

Jayfeather, as I expected, didn't look up from his work. But to my surprise, he muttered, "Sure. Leafpool and I have got the cats with major injuries, but if there's any cat walking around with open wounds or gashes, you can dab some cobwebs on them. I'll deal with them further once we're back at camp."

"No problem!" I mewed to the medicine cat. "I'm on it."

Jayfeather lightly flicked his ears, I think as a gesture of gratitude, and then I turned away to start looking for cobwebs I could gather. I trotted over to a bramble bush with an ample amount on it, wove it together, and padded into the crowd of injured cats.

The first cat that caught my eye was Swiftpaw, who was licking at a small gash he had on one of his front legs. He had a couple of scratches on his flank, but they didn't worry me at all, and I knew they wouldn't worry Jayfeather either.

I was overwhelmed with relief. My son made it through his first battle almost completely clean of injuries! I thought happily. That's all a mother of an apprentice can really ask for.

Swiftpaw lashed his tail when he saw me approaching him. His eyes widened as they fell on an injury on my flank. "You're hurt!" He exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes and snorted. "It's just one little scratch," I reassured my son. "And hey," I meowed, starting to dab my wad of cobweb on Swiftpaw's leg, "I'm the mother here. Let me worry about you!"

Swiftpaw let out a long sigh, almost as if to try and release his pain, as I tried to stop his bleeding. "I can't believe I just fought in my first battle," he breathed. "I've dreamed about fighting in a battle, well... since I had the ability to dream!"

I'm so proud of him, and he's only in his first quarter moon of his apprenticeship. I also was incredibly happy that he had seemed to have gotten past the weird patch of time where he constantly seemed so irritable and sleep-deprived. I was hoping one of those spells would never happen again. Now, he was as chipper as any other new apprentice I had seen.

I had been purring as Swiftpaw was speaking. "And you fought incredibly well," I commented. "Your mentor will be so proud of you."

Swiftpaw lifted his head in pride. "I'd like to think I've given him a reason to!"

"Oh, hush!" I meowed, laughter in my voice. "So, is Foxleap just that great of a mentor, or is someone else secretly teaching you all of your battle moves?" I asked, teasingly.

The teasing didn't seem to hit the right nerve with Swiftpaw though, or something went wrong, as I felt my son suddenly tense up. I looked up from my cobwebs to see Swiftpaw staring straight ahead, his gray-black eyes wide.