Moosestar's Story

Chapter Eighteen

Moosepelt remembers every event from yesterday and she cherished all of it. She crawled out of the den and stretched. The camp was busy but she looked up at the sky and realised she didn't sleep very late. She spotted Midnightstorm setting patrols and she wanted to be on one of the hunting patrols but she wasn't paying attention and ran into Ravenheart. "Sorry, Moosepelt!" He called, shaking his fur and looking at her with apologetic eyes. "It's okay," Moosepelt laughed. "Mistakes happen. Are you on a hunting patrol by any chance?" She asked him. Ravenheart nodded. "Yeah, Feathertail is leading it. You want to come?" "Yeah, I do. Is that okay?" Moosepelt asked shyly. "Of course! I'll tell Feathertail and Midnightstorm," he offered. "Thanks," she answered and watched as he padded away to find Feathertail. Moosepelt figured Ravenheart would come and get her when it was time for the patrol to leave so she found a sunny spot near the warriors den and laid down on her side. 

Moosepelt heard pawsteps as another cat ran towards her, but she didn't lift her head. Ravenheart prodded her shoulder gently. "Moosepelt, time to go," he said and backed up so she could get up. She lifted her head after he had backed away. "I'm coming." She slowly got to her paws and stretched once again. Ravenheart flicked his tail and they both ran off to where the rest of their patrol was waiting. They all left the camp and went to a small grassy clearing in the sun near the Training Hollow. All the cats were paired up and sent to different hunting spots throughout the territory. Moosepelt was paired with Ravenheart and they were told to hunt by the river. Moosepelt was totally on board with it, but she didn't want to be seen by the kit she rescued in fear that a conversation might come up and Ravenheart might say something to Midnightstorm or Silverstar about what happened. 

While both Warriors made the short trek to the river, Moosepelt noticed that Ravenheart seemed to be walking rather close to her than most cats. She didn't mention it, seeing as she didn't really mind it. "What's your favourite place in our territory?" Ravenheart asked out of nowhere, and Moosepelt assumed he was trying to fill the silence. She looked up at him and tilted her head before looking away again. "Hm... I don't know. Probably the river, where we're headed." She shrugged. "The water is really calming to me I guess." She didn't meet his gaze. "Really?" Raveheart answered. There was a bit of silence before the tomcat spoke again. "I agree, actually." He looked in the direction of the river and bounded over to it. He lowered his head and drank a little. Moosepelt had went the opposite direction, searching for prey. Ravenheart lifted his head from the water and in the process, a fish had hit him in the face. He was stunned, but his reflexes kicked in and he bit the fish and killed it. He threw it down into the dirt next to him and looked at it, narrowing his eyes. Moosepelt came over, a water vole in her jaws. She saw the fish and set her vole down. "We don't eat fish..." she told him, confused. "I know. It hit me in the face and the first thing I thought was to bite it," Ravenheart confessed. He licked his lips. "Doesn't taste too bad," he admitted. Moosepelt picked up her prey and hid it by a rock and buried it a little to disguise its scent. She went over to Ravenheart. "Leave it for StoneClan or something else. We can't take it back to camp, Silverstar will think we're stealing prey and so will StoneClan if a patrol finds us with it." Moosepelt's voice was serious and hinted worry. Ravenheart nodded. He picked it up and got ready to throw it over the river, hoping it would land on the opposite side for StoneClan just as a patrol came through the reeds. 

"Stealing prey?" One of the cats snickered and stopped at the edge of the river. Moosepelt looked through the group. 'Thank StarClan Fallenpaw isn't here!' she thought to herself with a sigh of relief. 

"No, we aren't stealing," Ravenheart explained, if these cats wanted to listen. "I was fixing to throw it over the border..." 

The StoneClan cat looked confused. "Looks like you're stealing it to me." He tilted his head. Ravenheart threw it to the StoneClan cat without another word. 

"See?" Ravenheart said, turning to Moosepelt. "Come on, Moosepelt." He and Moosepelt ran around the rocks and continued their hunt. Ravenheart and Moosepelt worked together to catch a squirrel that was actually pretty smart. They caught it in the end and lucky for them, it was pretty big. They silently thanked StarClan for it and buried it and moved on. Moosepelt climbed into one of the trees, looking for a bird's nest. To her luck, she found one. The bird in it was sleeping so Moosepelt had to be extra quiet. She bit its neck and brought it to the ground. "Nice catch," Ravenheart commented. "Thanks, although it wasn't a challenge. It was sleeping," Moosepelt responded with a laugh. Moosepelt buried it and then both cats spotted a bird and squirrel near each other. They worked out a plan to catch both and that's exactly what they did. They went back and collected all their prey. All the other cats were waiting and they got a few complaints for taking too long but they got more prey than the other warriors so the complaints didn't last long. They went back to camp and set their prey in the pile. Another hunting patrol had just left and Moosepelt didn't want to wait for another one. "I'm going to go back out and hunt some more." Moosepelt turned to him. "You're welcome to join me." She turned around and then trotted to the entrance and broke into a slow gallop. Ravenheart smiled and followed after her quickly. He caught up to her side and said, "Of course I'll join you. No one wants to hunt alone." Moosepelt acknowledged his words and lowered into the crouch. Ravenheart didn't see the prey she had spotted, but once she caught the small rabbit, he did. "Nice!" He praised her. "I would've scared it off," he laughed. Moosepelt buried it and left it to be collected on the way back.

~

Back in camp, Ravenheart and Moosepelt had nothing to do unless some other cat needed them but for now they had free time. They shared the squirrel they had caught in the sunny area Moosepelt was laying in earlier, since it was quiet. After they ate, they continued a strong conversation. 

Ravenheart was called later for the sunset patrol and was kind of disappointed about it but he didn't show it or say it. Moosepelt nodded understandingly and then went to her den since she obviously wasn't needed, or so she thought. Midnightstorm came over and told her that she would be on the dawn patrol. Moosepelt said okay and then continued walking to the den and to her nest. Stormfeather stopped her this time. He asked her about the dreams from StarClan and if she had any lately. She said that she hasn't but Stormfeather didn't want to trust that what she said was true. He played it off like he didn't have any doubts and then left her to rest. Moosepelt was the first in the den, which wasn't surprising since the border patrol was still out and some were out hunting or sharing tongues. Moosepelt thought about Ravenheart as she fell asleep.