Vol. 1/6 ✅️
"Your future - it is a path entwined with thorns. They try to grab you, to pull you into the deepest thicket - and they will succeed. You don't have the power to change your destiny completely, Larkpaw. The only thing you can do is not t...
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Larkpaw had had a restless night. She had tossed and turned from one position to the other many times. The moss and feathers that served as a nest cushion were suddenly uncomfortably scratchy and even the smallest noise prevented her from falling asleep.
Now that the sun was falling through the ferns, Larkpaw felt incredibly exhausted. She didn't even know if she had slept for a moment.
"You were quite noisy last night," Lakepaw greeted her.
"But really!" Birchpaw agreed, who was just giving his brown and white fur a morning wash. "You were meowing all the time. That was pretty scary sometimes."
Larkpaw froze in shame and didn't know what to say to that at first. She hadn't even realised that she had been meowing. Apparently last night had been worse than she remembered.
"That's no wonder," Reedpaw said, who was already standing at the exit. "After all, Fernpool was mysteriously attacked yesterday. Who wouldn't keep the whole den, if not the whole camp, awake with their meowing?" With a dismissive flick of her tail, she stalked out of the den.
For a heartbeat, silence reigned between the stunned cats. "Was there a thorn in her nest or what?" Elderpaw murmured with a purring undertone.
"She was so strange yesterday," Lakepaw agreed thoughtfully.
Larkpaw dug her claws into the edge of her nest when she heard that. You must not know your own littermate!
As the young she-cat stepped out into the faint warmth of the rising Greenleaf sun, all the memories of yesterday slowly came flooding back. She was supposed to undergo her first rating, which didn't happen in the end. Her hunting partner Reedpaw had said some nasty words about Fernpool and pulled her claws over Larkpaw's muzzle in her anger. Only a little later, Sunbrook had sent her back to camp, and he, Larkpaw and some other Clanmates set off in search of Fernpool.
Involuntarily, the image of her injured mentor reappeared in Larkpaw's mind, and she looked anxiously towards the medicine cat's den. When she had gone to her nest the previous evening, Fernpool had still been breathing, but she had neither spoken nor reacted to being touched.
Just then, Aster slipped out of the medicine cat's den. She opened her mouth into a yawn and arched her back. Her gaze swept across the clearing and lingered on Larkpaw. She lumbered towards her, but kept her distance.
Aster's and Fennel's injuries hadn't been as serious as Flutter's, but they still had to spend the last few nights in the medicine cat's den because some cats objected to them sleeping in the warrior den. Larkpaw wondered if this mistrust wasn't a little too far-fetched. Letting them stay in the medicine cat's den is even riskier! I doubt that Fruittail learnt any battle skills as a medicine cat and Fernpool is obviously not able to fight at the moment.
But none of the rogues seemed to have had bad intentions, as it seemed.
"Good morning." Aster's voice was formal. "How did you sleep?"
