The Apprentice's Quest

Terror tore through Alderpaw like a massive claw. Remembering what had happened when he treated Cherryfall, he wondered whether he should get the other medicine cats.

No—it’s my sister! I have to help her now !

“Show me where,” he mewed to Cherryfall.

Racing out of the den, he followed the ginger she-cat toward the ShadowClan border.

They pelted through the forest, dodging around bramble thickets and leaping over fallen branches. As they drew closer, Alderpaw could hear his sister’s agonized yowling. The sound grew louder as they barreled through a clump of ferns and emerged near the greenleaf

Twolegplace.

Sparkpaw was lying in a heap at the foot of a tree. Hollytuft was crouched beside her, gently stroking her shoulder, while Ivypool was encouraging her to lap from a bunch of soaked moss. Both warriors stood up and took a pace back as Alderpaw bounded up to his littermate.

“What happened?” he panted.

“She was climbing on a thin branch, trying to catch a bird,” Cherryfall explained. “She fell right out of the tree, and now her foreleg…”

She winced, her voice dying away.

“Oowwww!” Sparkpaw mewled; her whole body was twisted with agony.

Alderpaw started to shake at the sight of his sister—bright, capable Sparkpaw—in such pain and distress. I’ve never seen her like this!

She’s always so confident and in control. Now that he was close enough, he could see her foreleg was pointing at an awkward angle, not natural at all.

His heart pounded as he remembered Purdy telling him a story about Cinderheart: how she had fallen from a tree and broken her leg, and how she had had to spend moons in the medicine cats’ den before she could use it again.

Please, StarClan, don’t let that happen to Sparkpaw.

Steadying himself, Alderpaw crouched down beside his sister. “I have to examine your leg,” he meowed. “It might hurt.”

Sparkpaw nodded. “Just do it,” she mewed through clenched teeth.

Alderpaw ran his paws over Sparkpaw’s leg and shoulder. At once relief washed over him like a warm tide. It’s not broken—only dislocated. And I know how to fix that!

Leafpool had taught him what to do, telling him of when the same thing had happened to Berrynose when he was out hunting and had fallen over the edge of a rocky bank. Suddenly Alderpaw felt much more confident.

“Don’t worry,” he reassured Sparkpaw. He tried to sound sure of himself, even though his paws were shaking. “You’re going to feel much better very quickly.”

As he spoke, he saw Ivypool lean closer to Hollytuft, and heard her whispering, “Does he really know what he’s doing?”

Hollytuft just shook her head uncertainly.

Alderpaw hesitated for a moment. Do I know?

Then Sparkpaw let out another yowl of pain, and he gave himself a mental shake.

“Cherryfall,” he directed, “put your paw on her other shoulder, just there. Ivypool and Hollytuft, keep her hind legs still. Don’t worry, Sparkpaw,” he added. “It’ll all be over in the time it takes you to catch a mouse.”

Bending over Sparkpaw, Alderpaw took hold of her injured leg with one paw and her shoulder with the other. You can’t overthink it, he remembered Leafpool saying. Just do it quickly, with a forceful push.

Just as his mentor had told him, Alderpaw forced his sister’s leg back into its socket with a quick, sure motion. Sparkpaw convulsed under his paws and let out a shriek. But beneath her cry, Alderpaw heard the pop as her leg slipped back into position.

Did that do the trick? he wondered. He had heard gasps of horror from Ivypool and Hollytuft, as if they thought he had made things worse.

“You can let her go now,” he told the warriors. “Sparkpaw, try standing up.”

Sparkpaw blinked at him, then slowly staggered to her paws and began to pad back and forth. Alderpaw watched her, hardly daring to breathe. She still looked shaky, and she was limping a little, but she could put weight on the leg.

“That’s amazing!” Sparkpaw exclaimed, turning toward her brother. “It feels so much better. Thanks so much, Alderpaw. You’re turning out to be a great medicine cat.”

“You sure are,” Cherryfall agreed.

Hollytuft and Ivypool were looking impressed, too. Alderpaw licked his chest fur in embarrassment as they congratulated him, though he reveled in their looks of approval.

“I’d better get back to my herbs,” he mewed shyly. “Sparkpaw, you need to have Leafpool or Jayfeather check you out when you get back to camp.”

Alderpaw felt like his paws were hardly touching the ground as he padded back through the forest. I treated Sparkpaw’s injury! And she’s okay!