Month 16 - Greenleaf
Fogpaw was in trouble and she didn’t like it.
Her spell to help Mystique hadn’t been as successful as she had hoped. Mystique seemed to be a little less miserable, or at least, she had started grooming herself again, but that wasn’t enough for Fogpaw. She wanted to see Mystique smile again so she decided that she needed to give the spell a power boost.
And that was how she got caught trying to take catmint from the herb stores.
Sagetooth had thwapped her hard on the head and chewed her out for ages despite her efforts to explain why she needed it. After that, she had been put on dawn patrols for a week and now, three days in, she was already exhausted.
“This sucks!” she had groaned as she trudged back into camp, tired and cranky. “Why do I have to do the early morning patrols all the time? It’s not fair!”
“Nope,” said Scorchplume, seeming amused. “Life isn’t fair.”
“But I was just trying to help!” Fogpaw protested as she flopped down in the shade.
“You took something that wasn’t yours and you got caught,” said Scorchplume. “This is what happens when you get caught.”
“It’s not like I was gonna use it for myself,” she said, neglecting to mention how tempting it had been once she was nose deep in the catmint smell, “I needed it for a spell! How am I supposed to help if I can’t get the stuff I need?!”
“You’ll just have to be smarter about getting it, won’t you?” purred Scorch softly. Now that was an interesting concept. Fogpaw sat up a little, ears forward.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“If you really want something, there are smarter ways to get ahold of it,” said Scorchplume. “But you didn’t hear it from me.” She swiped her tongue over her whiskers secretively.
“But I did,” she said and Scorchplume sighed a little.
“It’s a euphemism,” explained her mentor and when Fogpaw frowned in confusion, she added, “a saying with hidden meaning. It means that you can’t tell anyone that I told you, it’s a secret.”
“Oh!” Fogpaw brightened. “Like a code! That’s so cool.”
Scorchplume chuckled, brows lifting, and said, “If you say so. Just think about what I said. You’re excused for the afternoon, I’ll grab you for a hunt after the sun reaches the mountains.”
“Okay,” Fogpaw smiled and flopped back down into the grass. She let herself enjoy the cool shade for a moment but, soon enough, her mind started to turn over Scorchplume’s newest advice. You’ll just have to be smarter about getting it, won’t you? What did that mean? Okay, maybe there was a better way to get some catmint than just walking in and taking some. Maybe she could wait for Sagetooth to leave and then go in?
“Hey!” Lakekit purred, flopping down beside Fogpaw, “Whatcha doin?”
“Trying to be smarter,” Fogpaw said.
“Ooh,” Lakekit nodded. “That’s hard. Can I help?”
“Maybe?” Fogpaw said, unsure. “I need to get some catmint to make Mystique feel better but Sagetooth won’t let me have any. I gotta figure out how to get some.”
“Hmm,” frowned Lakekit, pressing a paw against her puckered lips. “Maybe we could make a distraction.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Fogpaw nodded.
“Gee, thanks,” Lakekit blushed proudly. “Back in the city, my mother and I used to do distractions all the time. I’d go sit all cute and call to the Folk and then she would sneak around the back and grab the food out of their carriers!” The kit giggled to herself at the memory. “Then we’d run away! It was lots of fun. I wonder if we could distract Sagetooth the same way.”
“Hm,” Fogpaw chewed her lip. “She’d be pretty mad if she found out. Maybe we should try not to run away at the end.”
“Okay!” chirped Lakekit brightly. “Whatever you say, Fogpaw!”
Fogpaw laughed and sprang at Lakekit with her front paws wide, overcome with the urge to wrestle. Lakekit shrieked in delight and reared up on her hind paws. They tussled for a few seconds before they flopped back down into the grass, laughing.
“Okay, okay,” Fogpaw said, trying to focus again. “What would Sagetooth get distracted by…?”
“What if there was a fire?” asked Lakekit. “Or a big bird?”
“Hmm, I don’t think we could fake those,” Fogpaw said, “and she’d get suspicious when she didn’t see them.”
“Oh, true,” nodded Lakekit.
“What if you pretended to be sick?” Fogpaw asked. “That could work!”
“Good idea!” purred Lakekit. “What kind of sick should I be?”
Fogpaw thought for a good moment, tail tip twitching, before declaring, “Probably a stomach ache. People get stomach aches from bad food sometimes.”
“Okay,” nodded Lakekit. “Should I go be sick now?”
“Um, wait a little,” said Fogpaw. “We’ll rest first.”
“Okay,” purred Lakekit, nuzzling closer to her. Fogpaw sighed contentedly and curled her head around behind Lakekit’s shoulders to rest it on her side. She could take a little nap before her special mission, right?
The nap went longer than she’d expected and by the time Fogpaw woke up it was almost time for her to go hunting with Scorchplume. She snapped up, suddenly alert, and looked around.
“Huh?” Lakekit sat up blearily, “Whassat?”
On the other side of camp, there was a bit of commotion which Fogpaw realized had woken her. Russetfrond was sitting near the elders’ den where Oddstripe was coaxing a wobbly Bluekit and Yellowkit out into the grass. The two little kits stumbled and bobbed with every step, mewling pathetically as they explored. Russetfrond was smiling, which Fogpaw thought was weird for him, and trying to get the kits attention so they would crawl over to him.
“Hey, there,” he said in a soft little baby voice. “Over here. Yeah, that’s it!”
“You’re doing such a good job,” Oddstripe told the kittens, then adjusted Yellowkit’s course with a gentle paw.
“Awww!” said Lakekit. “Look at the babies!”
Fogpaw gasped quietly. “Now! We have to do the distraction now!”
“Really?” Lakekit frowned a little.
“Yeah, ‘cause Oddstripe’s already busy!” Fogpaw jumped to her feet. “You stay here, I’ll go tell Sagetooth you’re sick!”
“Oh, okay,” Lakekit said, shuffling her paws. Fogpaw sprinted off to the healers’ den and poked her head inside. Sagetooth was lying in her nest breathing deliberately slow and even. As Fogpaw skidded in, she opened one eye and scowled darkly.
“You’d better not be here to try and steal from me again,” she growled.
“Uh, no, I’m not,” Fogpaw said, suddenly feeling queasy with nerves. “It’s- uh, it’s Lakekit. She’s feeling sick.”
“Mm. Go ask Oddstripe.”
“He’s helping with the little babies right now,” she said. Please, please, please, she thought, please go check on Lakekit! There was a long pause where Sagetooth glared at her with a twitching tail. Then, the old healer sighed and heaved herself to her feet.
“Alright, where is she?” asked Sagetooth.
“In the shade over there,” said Fogpaw, moving to the edge of the den to point with her muzzle. Sagetooth padded up beside her, sighed, and then headed over to where Lakekit was lying curled up in a ball. Fogpaw stood and watched for a moment before she crept backwards into the healers’ den and scurried to the herb stores in the back. She let her nose guide her to the heady smell of catmint and reared up on her hind legs to take some of the dried leaves in her jaws.
Heart soaring in victory, she slank back to the edge of the den and peered out across the clearing. Sagetooth was hunched over Lakekit still, grumbling to her while Lakekit groaned softly. Fogpaw grinned, proud of her amazing accomplice. She darted out of the den and up the hill into the tall grass where she was hidden. Dropping into a careful crouch, she crept softly around the top of the ridge until she was standing on top of the elders’ den where she had buried the fish bones in a large circle.
She reluctantly set down the sprig of catmint and began to crush it in her paws until it was nothing but a crumbly pile of aromatic dust. She let out a small, unintentional purr at the smell of it and nearly dropped down to roll around in the pile but she managed to resist the temptation. She was doing this for Mystique! It would all be for nothing if she failed to actually cast the spell.
Taking a deep, slow breath, she closed her eyes and focused her intention. She felt the darkness of her closed eyes ripple and deepen, like a wave of darker blackness falling over her face. She focused on her breathing and the sounds around her until she felt like she was one with the swaying grass and the warm, packed, earth beneath her paws. Then, she pictured her desire; Mystique, smiling and happy. She imagined physical burdens on Mystique’s back, then imagined them being lifted by a set of large, starry jaws. Make things easier for her, she asked, opening her heart completely to the magic.
Once she had sat with that thought for a few seconds, she opened her eyes and used her paws to start spreading the catmint throughout the circle of fishbones. She tried to spread it evenly in sufficiently magical patterns. When she couldn’t see the crumbles in the dirt anymore, she nodded to herself, satisfied with her work. Then, she crept back around through the grass to find a less suspicious spot to enter camp. She paused at the edge to try and make herself look normal, whatever expression would say ‘I didn’t just steal your catmint’, when suddenly a cat chattered softly beside her.
She jumped, barely restraining herself from screaming in surprise. Scorchplume was crouched right behind her, eyes glittering with interest.
“Are you going back out there?” asked her mentor.
“Uh, y-yeah,” said Fogpaw, unsure what was about to happen.
“With the smell of catmint all over your paws?”
“Oh, foxdung,” Fogpaw cussed and quickly started licking at her paws to get the smell off. Scorchplume laughed.
“It’s not gonna come off just like that,” she said. “Let’s go hunting early and wash them in the river, hm?”
“That’s so smart,” Fogpaw beamed in admiration. Her mentor really was the best, most smartest cat that had ever lived. Scorch turned with a beckoning jerk of her head and led her off into the grass towards the river. Fogpaw bounced after her, purring to herself.
“How did you know what I was doing?” she asked after a while.
“I started watching you the second you went to fetch Sagetooth,” said Scorchplume with a casually satisfied tone.
“Really? Why?” asked Fogpaw. She hadn’t even realized.
“I wanted to see what you really wanted the catmint for.”
“I told you I wanted to use it for a spell,” said Fogpaw.
“I know,” said Scorchplume, “but cats don’t always do what they say they will.” She cast a narrow eyed glance back at Fogpaw and Fogpaw couldn’t help but feel like there was a meaning in the expression that she couldn’t understand.
“But I’m not gonna lie to you,” she said with a puzzled frown.
“Why not?” asked Scorchplume. “I could get you in trouble.”
“But you’re not going to,” said Fogpaw.
Scorch tilted her head up to look down on Fogpaw mysteriously. “How do you know that for sure? I could change my mind. I could decide to hurt you.” Fogpaw frowned. Why would Scorchplume say that? It made her throat feel tight and too tense to swallow easily. She pursed her lips and straightened her posture instead of shrinking into her shoulders.
“But you wouldn’t,” she said.
“You don’t know that,” said Scorchplume.
Fogpaw frowned, starting to get irritated. “Yes I do. You’ve only ever been nice to me.”
“I could just be trying to get close to you,” Scorch shrugged. “Setting up an advantage.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Fogpaw growled. “You wouldn’t get anything from me, I’m just an apprentice. Stop being stupid.” Scorchplume faltered, shock shattering her mysterious expression, and Fogpaw suddenly realized that maybe she had gone too far.
Then Scorchplume laughed, a bright and ungraceful laugh that wasn’t at all like her usual chuckle.
“Right,” she said, “My bad.” She smiled and continued easily through the grass. Fogpaw let out a sigh of relief and bounded a few steps to keep up with her mentor, leaning in to bump her head against Scorchplume’s side fondly.
“I would never decide to hurt you either, by the way,” she said.
Scorchplume glanced down at her and murmured, “I know.” She flicked her tail over Fogpaw’s face to tickle her nose and Fogpaw sneezed and then giggled. A warmth spread through her like a stone in the sun. Scorch was the best mentor she could ask for and that was proof that her spells worked. Mystique was going to be okay. Everything was going to be alright.
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