The Fourth Apprentice

Jayfeather’s paws tingled. Poppyfrost had set her paws on a path that was walked only by medicine cats. “You should come back to the hollow,” he told her. He remembered how he had saved her life a long time ago, by guiding her back from StarClan when she was a tiny kit with greencough. She had come willingly enough then, not ready to leave behind the Clanmates she had only just begun to know. “This place isn’t for you.”

“No, I must go on!” Poppyfrost spun around and ran up the narrow track, faster and faster until she vanished into a swirl of mist. Her voice drifted faintly back to him. “I have to see Honeyfern!”

Jayfeather woke with a jolt, his paws scrabbling among churned-up moss. Warm air stirred against his face, telling him that the sun was already up. His pads ached as though he had really spent the night trekking into the mountains. Yawning, he dragged himself out of his nest and padded into the clearing. Sunrays were spilling through the trees above the camp, scorching the bare ground. Jayfeather tried to picture the hollow as it had been, green and cool, knowing that everything now would be parched to a brittle brown.

A worm of worry was gnawing at his belly. Trying to ignore it, he padded across to the nursery and stuck his head inside the entrance. He could hear the soft breathing of sleeping cats, and he scented Ferncloud, Daisy, and Poppyfrost huddled together in a mound of fur. Slightly reassured, he crept away without disturbing them.

But I’ll keep an eye on Poppyfrost, he decided.

“This is a dock leaf,” Jayfeather announced, snagging it in his claws and holding it up so that all the apprentices could see it.

“Like we don’t know,” Ivypaw muttered.

Jayfeather bit back a stinging rebuke. He knew that the young apprentice was still grumpy because Dovepaw had gone on the mission without her, and he couldn’t entirely blame her. But Firestar had asked him to give all the apprentices some basic training in the use of herbs, and Ivypaw had to learn the same things as the others, whether she liked it or not.

“Dock leaves are good for rubbing on sore pads,” he went on, ignoring the young cat’s bad temper for now. “And you can find them pretty well anywhere, so they’re one of the most useful herbs.”

“So, like, if we went on a long journey, we should look out for dock?” Bumblepaw asked.

Oops, you shouldn’t have said that, Jayfeather thought, as Ivypaw let out an angry hiss at her denmate.

“That’s right,” he replied. “Or if you step on a sharp stone,” he added, trying to take the focus off traveling.

“Wouldn’t we need cobweb for that?” Briarpaw mewed.

“Only if the skin has broken,” Jayfeather told her. “And that’s true of all wounds, of course, especially serious ones where the cat is losing a lot of blood. For smaller scratches and scrapes, we use marigold or horsetail to stop the bleeding. These are leaves of marigold,” he went on, holding one up. “I don’t have any horsetail right now; you should ask your mentors to look for it when you go out for training, and it would be great if you could bring some back.”

“And what if some cat eats bad food, or some nasty Twoleg stuff like our mother told us RiverClan cats did once?” Blossompaw chirped. “What do you give them then?”

“That’s a bit complicated for now,” Jayfeather mewed. “Today we’re learning about soreness and minor wounds. You’ll meet those almost every day, whereas cats are only poisoned once a season, if that.”

“But we should know what to do, right?” Bumblepaw argued.

“You’re not going to be medicine cats,” Jayfeather began. “More serious illnesses—”

To his relief he heard paw steps approaching and picked up Thornclaw’s scent as the tabby warrior poked his head around the bramble screen.

“Are you done?” he meowed. “The other mentors and I want to go out for some hunting practice.”

“Yes! Hunting!” Blossompaw sprang to her paws. “I’ll catch the biggest rabbit in the forest!”

“Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep,” Thornclaw mewed drily. “Can I take them, Jayfeather?”

“You’re welcome to,” Jayfeather replied with feeling. “Remember that horsetail!” he called after the apprentices as they bundled out of the den and dashed off across the clearing.

Once they had gone, Jayfeather padded out and headed for the elders’ den. When he pushed his way under the hazel boughs, he found Mousefur and Purdy still sleeping, curled up companionably near the trunk of the bush. Longtail was awake, and he stretched as Jayfeather entered.

“Hi,” he meowed. “I was hoping you’d stop by.”

Anxiety pricked Jayfeather like a nettle when he heard how frail the elder sounded. He had always thought of Longtail as a young cat, living in the elders’ den only because of his blindness, but now he realized that he was growing old as well.

“What can I do for you?” he asked Longtail.

“I wondered if there’s any news about the cats who went upstream,” the blind warrior replied. “Has any cat discovered what is stopping the water?”