Wishing Star ~ Chapter 5

Instructions

Squirrelpaw sniffed the herb in front of her. "That's definitely catmint." Poolfoot nodded happily. "Correct! Nice job, the scent of rosemary didn't throw you off. Now, how do we use catmint?" Squirrelpaw sighed. In the moon since she'd become an apprentice, she'd only managed to memorize marigold. "Umm... helping queens produce milk?" Poolfoot shook her head. "Nah, that's borage. Catmint is for coughs and sicknesses- whitecough, greencough, the like." A high voice from behind her mewed sarcastically, "Great job, sis. Med cat of the century, you'll be." Shiningpaw's sleek brown fur blended in with the trees, but her blue eye stood out clear as day- so when Squirrelpaw whipped around, she could find her sister easily. "Hey, you couldn't find catmint if your life depended on it. Shut your mouth." It was true- Shiningpaw's nose was atrocious. It was a good thing she'd never be a warrior, she could hardly even smell. The only herb she'd found was tansy, because she could see it. If it wasn't for her StarClan connection and terrible people skills, she'd probably have ended up Clan mediator. WindClan hadn't had one since... well. Shiningpaw's StarClan connection qualified her to be a medicine cat apprentice, and that was that. This thought seemed to occur to Shiningpaw, too, who bit back: "Hey, which one of us got the prophecy? Me. Which one of us knew the way to the Moonpool? Right. Me. Who did StarClan have a conversation with? Me. I got to talk to Mistystar. THE Mistystar. So ha." Squirrelpaw couldn't help feeling wounded. Shiningpaw had hit a nerve- it did seem as though StarClan favored her sister. When Squirrelpaw had gone to the Moonpool and dipped her nose in the water, she just saw back to WindClan. Everyone else was asleep- she saw Sorrelpaw and Sparrowpaw curled up for warmth, Specklepaw rolling over as he struggled to fall asleep. She saw Juniperstar and Dewfang, watched Dewfang as he quietly awoke and stood guard outside her den. Squirrelpaw remembered that Juniperstar was getting older- her kits were young warriors, but Dewfang was himself quite a few moons younger than Juniperstar, and she had only three lives left. Fawnfur had told her that Juniperstar was an older apprentice when she was just a kit- though Fawnfur's oldest kits were older than Juniperstar's kits, Littlefur, Quietnose, and Bounceheart. She figured Dewfang was ensuring that nobody dared attack his mate in her sleep. And a cat the same age as Dewfang was making her uneasy- the deputy Heathertwist, peering out of the warriors' den towards where Dewfang stood. She locked eyes with Dewfang, then stretched and turned back into the den. Dewnose looked mildly shaken- but that was understandable. Heathertwist's yellow eyes would freak anybody out. If Squirrelpaw remembered correctly, she was only deputy because she was the only option when Juniperstar became leader- most were too young, Fawnfur was a queen, and Oaktail hadn't had an apprentice. Heathertwist was a bit weird, but that was probably because her mate died shortly before she learned she was expecting kits- or rather a single kit, Ruepaw. That would mess anybody up. But what was that stupid vision of camp in comparison to prophecies and conversations with the legends of the past? Squirrelpaw sputtered, distracted. "I bet a day-old kit could smell better than you!" Shiningpaw licked her paw sassily. "I bet a day-old kit could remember the uses for catmint better than you." Poolfoot sighed. "Guys, shush. You'd be amazing medicine cats if you'd work together." Shiningpaw batted a leaf towards Squirrelpaw's head. Squirrelpaw hissed and batted it away. Poolfoot's tail twitched in annoyance. "When will you learn..."