Bramblestar’s Storm

Cloudtail grunted, and began to eat in small, fastidious bites.

Bramblestar noticed that Minty had emerged from the tunnel with Millie and the younger apprentices. She was staring in dismay at the sparrow Amberpaw put in front of her.

“I’m so hungry!” she moaned. “But eating that… it’s yucky!”

Amberpaw rolled her eyes.

“Just try it,” Millie coaxed the kittypet, her tone sympathetic. “You might find you like it.” As Minty gave her a disbelieving glance, she continued, “I remember the first time I ate wild prey. It was a bit of a shock, after Twoleg food! But I wouldn’t want to go back to eating that dry stuff now.”

Minty gave the sparrow a wary sniff. “It’s covered in feathers. I can’t eat those.”

“Bite down hard, like this.” Amberpaw demonstrated with her own blackbird. “You can spit the feathers out after.”

Minty shuddered, but sank her teeth into the sparrow as Amberpaw had demonstrated. Bramblestar saw her gulp down the mouthful with a stunned expression and a feather stuck to her nose.

At least she’s eating, he thought.

“The hunting was poor today,” he commented to Squirrelflight, who was sharing a vole with him. “Seedpaw suggested sending a patrol outside the territory.”

Squirrelflight blinked in surprise, then nodded. “It might be worth a try.”

“I’ll go,” Thornclaw meowed instantly, looking up from the scrawny rabbit he was sharing with Brackenfur, Cherryfall, and Blossomfall. “Anything to stop my belly rumbling.”

“Count me in too,” Brackenfur added.

“And me,” Blossomfall mewed. “It sounds like a great idea.”

“Thanks.” Bramblestar felt proud of his Clanmates for volunteering so quickly to go into unknown and possibly dangerous territory. “I’ll come with you.”

“Bramblestar…” Squirrelflight gave him a nudge, and motioned with her ears for him to move out of earshot of the others. “You need to rest,” she went on when she was sure that they couldn’t be overheard. “You can’t do every patrol. I’ll go instead.”

“But you’ve already hunted today,” Bramblestar objected.

“And you did the ShadowClan border patrol.” Squirrelflight’s tail-tip was twitching, though she kept her voice low. “And yesterday you trekked all the way over to RiverClan and risked your life rescuing that kittypet.”

“So?” Bramblestar began to feel frustrated. “I’m fine. It’s not a problem.”

“It’ll be a problem for the rest of us if our Clan leader collapses from exhaustion.”

Bramblestar heaved a long sigh. “Remind me why I chose you to be my deputy,” he muttered through his teeth.

“Because I won’t let you boss me around,” Squirrelflight retorted, her green eyes flashing.

True, Bramblestar thought ruefully. “Okay,” he mewed, giving in. “I’ll just go as far as the border and make sure that things seem okay over there. Then I’ll come back.”

Squirrelflight didn’t look satisfied, but she muttered something under her breath and didn’t argue any more.

When Bramblestar had finished his share of the vole, and was waiting for the rest of his patrol to finish scraping the last shreds of flesh off the rabbit, Jayfeather came up from where he had been eating with Dustpelt and Leafpool. Bramblestar’s paws tingled when he saw the troubled expression on the face of his medicine cat.

“Is Briarlight’s whitecough worse?” he asked anxiously.

“No, thank StarClan,” Jayfeather replied. “Though it’s worrying me that Amberpaw and Sandstorm have both started coughing. But that’s not the real problem,” he went on rapidly. “Look at this.” He held up a forepaw and Bramblestar saw that blood was trickling from one of his pads.

“I’ll get Leafpool,” Bramblestar mewed immediately.

“No, it’s nothing. Only a scratch.” Jayfeather swiped his tongue over the injured pad. “The point is, I trod on a branch that hadn’t been there a moment before.”

“Is that so unusual?” Bramblestar asked.

“You know me.” Jayfeather twitched his tail. “I don’t trip over things just because I can’t see them. When did I last hurt myself?”

Bramblestar couldn’t remember. Jayfeather never needed his own healing herbs, unlike the other cats, who were always getting thorns in their paws or scratching themselves on bramble tendrils. An unpleasant suspicion occurred to Bramblestar, making the prey he had just eaten feel like a rock in his belly.

“Do you think this is a sign from StarClan?” he asked. “Some other danger we have to face?”

“I’m not sure,” Jayfeather admitted, ruffling up his pelt. “The storm has changed everything in the forest. Maybe I just made a mistake.”

Bramblestar’s ears flicked up in surprise. When does Jayfeather ever admit to being mistaken?

“In any case,” the medicine cat went on, “I think we should take careful note of everything. Tell the patrol to be extra cautious beyond the territory. They won’t know where they’re putting their paws, and this could be a warning of injury.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t hunt over there after all,” Bramblestar mused.