The Apprentice's Quest

Jayfeather relaxed slightly, angling his ears toward the sleeping Briarlight, and Alderpaw realized that his voice had risen on the last few words.

“You were right,” Jayfeather conceded. “I checked Cherryfall myself, and she didn’t have an infection. But sometimes the signs can be hard to spot, especially if a medicine cat is still learning… which you will be for quite some time. Until you’ve had more training, you should stick to doing only whatever Leafpool and I tell you.”

Alderpaw bowed his head.

“Okay, Jayfeather.”

“So for now,” Jayfeather went on more briskly, “you can get some mouse bile and go do the elders’ ticks.”

Alderpaw stifled a sigh. “Yes, Jayfeather.”

When Alderpaw reached the elders’ den under the hazel bushes, carrying a twig with a ball of bile-soaked moss dangling from the tip, only Sandstorm was there.

“Hi,” she meowed, a friendly look in her green eyes. “I’m glad to see you. Graystripe and Millie have gone for a walk, and Purdy is sunning himself somewhere. I’ve got a huge tick on my shoulder, just where I can’t get at it.”

Alderpaw parted Sandstorm’s fur to find the tick, then dabbed mouse bile on it. This time he couldn’t suppress a sigh, to think that he was back on tick duty just as if he had never become a medicine-cat apprentice.

Sandstorm wriggled her shoulders gratefully as the tick fell off. “That’s much better, Alderpaw. But there’s something wrong, isn’t there? Would it help to tell me about it?”

Alderpaw shook his head, embarrassed that he hadn’t hidden his feelings.

Sandstorm brushed her tail along his side.

“There’s no shame in being sad sometimes,” she mewed. “No reason not to show it. And besides,” she added with a faint mrrow of amusement, “you’re not very good at hiding it!”

Her joke made Alderpaw feel a little better.

He kept searching her fur for more ticks as Sandstorm went on talking to him in a gentle voice.

“You’re my kin, and you should feel comfortable telling me things. Maybe I can help. And as the others aren’t here just now, it can stay just between us.”

Alderpaw relaxed. He dabbed mouse bile on the tick he had just found, then set the twig down. “I gave Cherryfall a poultice of comfrey root when Leafpool and Jayfeather were out,” he confessed. “Jayfeather was furious.”

“Wow!” Sandstorm exclaimed. “What a dreadful thing to do! Bramblestar will certainly throw you out of the Clan.”

For one horrible moment Alderpaw thought she meant it. Then he realized that she was joking.

“You shouldn’t feel bad,” the old she-cat went on more seriously. “You were trying to do your best, and you deserve praise for that. Now you’ll know better for next time. Being an apprentice is all about learning and growing, and aren’t you lucky to have the opportunity?

And to have Leafpool and Jayfeather, such wise cats, to guide you?”

“I… I don’t want to disappoint them,” Alderpaw stammered.

“Did Jayfeather seem upset?” Sandstorm asked him. “I don’t mean cranky—Jayfeather is always cranky—but upset?”

Alderpaw thought about that for a moment.

“No,” he meowed at last. “He didn’t.”

“Because he just wants you to learn,” the ginger she-cat went on. “And you’re doing that.

You shouldn’t expect to understand everything right away. You’re thoughtful and cautious, and that will serve you well as a medicine cat.”

She really knows me well! Alderpaw thought, beginning to feel a bit better. It’s so good to have older, wiser cats to give me advice.

“Is anything else bothering you?”

Sandstorm asked after a moment.

Alderpaw’s mind flashed back to the strange vision at the Moonpool. I’m almost sure it was just a dream… but what if it was more?

Sandstorm’s guidance had inspired him, and the encouraging look in her eyes made him want to confide in her. “Something happened last night at the Moonpool,” he began, and went on to tell her about his meeting with Firestar and how he had watched the unfamiliar Clan in the water of the pool.

“It was so strange… ,” he told Sandstorm.

“These other cats seem to live in a rocky gorge with a river running through it. And it looked like their leader was making a new warrior.”

Sandstorm narrowed her eyes, her green gaze suddenly intense. “Describe these cats to me,” she meowed. “Tell me as much as you can remember.”

“Well,” Alderpaw began. “The cat I thought was the leader was a cream-and-pale brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes. And there was a big powerful ginger tom, and a small silver-gray tabby she-cat with dark gray paws and deep green eyes.” He shivered. “She looked up at me; it was like she knew I was there.”

Sandstorm jumped to her paws, her pelt bristling with excitement. “I know those cats!

They sound like Leafstar and her deputy, Sharpclaw—and the small silver tabby is Echosong, their medicine cat.”

“That’s really weird,” Alderpaw murmured.

“Why would I dream about real cats I’ve never met—never even heard of?”