Five Creatures - Chapter Six
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Moosepaw sat inside the medicine den, blood still dripping from his shoulder. Goldenfeather limped over to meet him, one paw coated in cobwebs, “Hold still,” she meowed, her voice gentle.
Moosepaw sucked in a breath as she placed the cobwebs over his wound, “Did a grown warrior really fight with you?” She asked.
Moosepaw shook his head, “No. It was Wolf,” He gritted his teeth, trying to control his anger. “What makes you think it was a fully trained warrior?”
“This wound is deep, really deep. You’ll live of course but I’m surprised that an apprentice could inflict such damage,” the medicine cat admitted.
Moosepaw looked her over, his eyes scanning her sleek sandy pelt. Her golden eyes locked with his and she smiled, “You’re going to be alright Moosepaw.”
The apprentice nodded and limped out of the den, his tail dragging in the dirt. Smoketail, his mentor, ran over to meet him, “Are you alright?”
“Goldenfeather says I’ll be fine,” he grunted, sitting down outside of the apprentices’ den.
“ThunderClan cats have always been sneaky and arrogant, but I never thought that they would attack us over a simple smell,” Smoketail sat down next to him, wrapping his tail around his paws.
“Were you on their territory? Did they really scent you?” Moosepaw asked, looking over at his mentor, his eyes filled with pain and anger.
“It was a hunting accident. I chased a rabbit into their territory and didn’t notice,” the gray warrior admitted, looking down at the sandy floor.
“We got into a fight with them over a hunting accident!” Moosepaw spat, unsheathing his claws.
Smoketail flinched in surprise, standing and backing away a few pawsteps from his apprentice. Moosepaw’s eyes were pitch black, no sign of his normal green gaze anywhere. “Calm down Moosepaw, I’m sure that Crowstar won’t let ThunderClan get away with this.”
Moosepaw huffed and stalked his way into his den. He laid down in his nest, scraping at clumps of bracken with his claws and waiting for his anger to settle. Wolf thinks he beat me. I’ll show him! I’ll show him that WindClan should’ve taken care of ThunderClan long ago!
Moosepaw woke up several hours later, having not even realized that he had fallen asleep. He saw that outside the den was dark and stood up, slowly creeping over Applepaw and Birdpaw. The clearing was clear, not even a guard was posted at the entrance. Moosepaw quickly snuck outside and ran. He ran as fast as he could, not going in any particular direction.
He stopped once his shoulder wound could take it no more and his lungs burned for air. He looked, recognizing the twolegplace from his tour nearly half a moon back. Moosepaw had never been inside the twolegplace and he couldn’t help his curiosity as he crept forward.
“Where are you off to so late?”
Moosepaw leaped into the air, spinning around and landing face-to-face with his adversary. “Oh..Crowstar,” Moosepaw folded his ears back in embarrassment, “Just feeling pent up.”
“Not very wise to go running around on that shoulder wound,” Crowstar looked over the apprentice. “But I can understand wanting to get out under the night sky. Mind if I join you?”
What an honor! Moosepaw nodded, unable to speak as Crowstar came up beside him and smiled. “Can we go inside?” Moosepaw asked, his voice shaking.
“If you want to,” Crowstar shrugged and flicked his tail to let Moosepaw know to take the lead. The brown apprentice snuck under the fence and paused to sniff around. Nothing unusual stuck out to him so he made his way forward, absorbing all of the new sights and smells.
Crowstar walked behind him, his pace slower than the apprentice. “I used to come here when I needed to think,” Crowstar said, trying his best to get the former loner to open up. “Think about what?” Moosepaw asked, looking over his shoulder at his leader.
“Back when I was a warrior I had a thing for an old medicine cat of ThunderClan’s,” Crowstar began. Moosepaw gasped in surprise, “I know that breaks multiple rules of the Warrior Code, but I couldn’t help myself. Her name was Leafpool, she was Firestar’s daughter. She and I had a very brief...thing and it resulted in her having kits.”
“You had kits with a ThunderClan medicine cat?” Moosepaw asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I didn’t know they were my kits until they were already adults. Two of them are still alive. Lionblaze was one of the bravest cats in all the clans and Jayfeather was the medicine cat after Leafpool. Hollyleaf, our daughter, unfortunately, passed during a battle,” Crowstar continued, ignoring Moosepaw’s reactions.
“When I found out I even had kits, I spent so much time here, just watching the stars and the moon and wondering what life would be like if Leafpool and I really had run away to be together,” Crowstar finished, looking up at the stars that he had spent so many hours counting.
“My friends and I used to chase the moon,” Moosepaw meowed softly, sitting down and gazing upwards. Crowstar turned his attention towards him. “We found each other when we were so young. Maybe a moon old or so, barely able to do anything. Our parents had all abandoned us, it was just random chance that we had found each other.”
“How did you survive? A moon old is the age at which most are weaned off of their mother’s milk.”
“A loner found us. Her name was Luna. She hunted for us and kept us safe for another moon or so. Then she disappeared. I still don’t know what happened to her. Wolf then sort of...lead us in a strange way. He told us that we should go somewhere else. Somewhere far from where we had been hurt by so many,”
“Phoenix suggested that we ‘chase the moon’. So we did. We followed the moon, traveling only by night and eventually we found ourselves here,” Moosepaw sighed, his mind nothing more than a river of memories.
“You must’ve had to grow up fast, being out there all on your own,” Crowstar prompted gently.
Moosepaw nodded, his long fur moving with a sudden cool breeze, “We met many cats along the way and the nice ones would show us things about survival. We knew basic hunting from Luna, but it was Snake and Dodger and Hutch and Leon that taught us how to fight,” Moosepaw paused between each name, remembering them fondly.
“Crocodile was the only one who wanted to get his fur wet. He loved the water. He was always swimming whenever he could,” Moosepaw chuckled softly, “The rest of us know how to swim, but that doesn’t mean we enjoy it. Or at least, I didn’t. I have too much fur for that.”
“Your names...” Crowfeather began, hesitating, “I’ve been meaning to ask. They’re so strange. I don’t think I could even tell you what a ‘crocodile’ is.”
“Those we met along the way gave us our names, mainly meant as nicknames, but they stuck. A crocodile is like a lizard but way larger. They probably weigh the same as some of the monsters that twolegs are in. And they live in the water, sneaking up on prey and dragging it into their territory to down them. Leon says that his former twolegs used to own a small one.” Moosepaw explained.
“And your name? What does it come from?”
“I’ve always been the biggest out of us five. I was the tallest, weighed the most, and that made me the strongest. When we met Hutch, he told us to avoid a thick patch of woods that resided near a thunderpath,” Moosepaw looked over at his leader, his eyes wet, “We, of course, went, like the mousebrained fools we were, and well...We almost died. There was this thing there, taller than a horse with giant horns that stuck out like tree branches from its head. Hutch saved us. He told us to head for the trees so we wouldn’t get trampled. Hutch explained then that those creatures were called Moose and their horns, he called them ‘antlers’ could kill a cat with one swipe.”
“You’re the strongest of the five?” Crowstar tilted his head. Maybe he was the lucky leader.
“By terms of sheer strength, yes. But I can’t swim as well as Crocodile, or leap from tree to tree as flawlessly as Phoenix. I certainly can’t stalk-like the shadows like Panther can, I weigh too much for that. And Wolf, well Wolf always had this ‘leader’ thing going for him. I could never be a leader,” Moosepaw sighed, his eyes flickering over to his shoulder wound, “But Wolf just commands so well and he’s...fearless. Like truly fearless.”
“Any of those things can be taught Moosepaw. You have loyalty, you’ve proven yourself to be a valuable addition to WindClan. I’m glad that we brought you in. Once you’re fully trained, no one will want to mess with you or your clan,” Crowstar comforted the apprentice, sitting down closer to him so their pelts could rub up against one another.
Moosepaw nodded, shaking his head to clear his mind and looked over at his leader, “You’re right. None of the others will ever think of hurting my clan. And Wolf will understand that he cannot beat me.”