MoonClan's ambitious story/(1): The First Four Leaders/3/38

### Chapter 38: Icemoon & Flameeye

Whitestripe and Birchcreek were at the prey pile while Swanpaw was sleeping in their den, which had pretty much become their new den by now since they were there for three quarter-moons now. Lilypool and Rainpaw had told Whitestripe and Swanpaw that they needed to make sure not to stay stagnant even if their hips were damaged, just like they had advised Birchcreek previously, as it could cause certain infections and muscle degeneration to occur.

Whitestripe was glad he could still move around to not be too stagnant, but he still couldn't walk that well, unlike his mother's apprentice, who even though was limping could still move to other places by himself, having been past most of it. Whitestripe, however, needed the assistance of the two medicine cats themselves to get to the prey pile. He remembered Birchcreek had done his warrior ceremony without them being able to see, and they were the last ones to realize he had been a warrior for a half-moon. *I mean, I suppose it's fine if he accepted because he deserved it, but what was the point?* he silently wondered. Looking at his paternal cousin, Whitestripe could obviously see he still couldn't do any warrior duties. Birchcreek was so close to fourteen moons old already that he supposed Snowstar and Peonyclaw could have just waited for him to heal and still skipped his exams for his truly heroic deed, which he truly appreciated.

Birchcreek was hoping that Whitestripe and Swanpaw had passed *their* halfway point to recovering by now, as he felt they couldn't afford staying any more time. *Not only is it pretty boring, I am also starting to feel useless again...* he thought despondently. Telling stories to the kits and assisting the apprentices wasn't something he had ever thought would be the only useful things he could do after becoming a warrior, as usually only queens did that. He thought the hardest part would have been them dying, which would definitely have been terrible. But he was starting to rethink it when he had to sit here for quite a while. *I don't want to disvalue my friends or myself, but still...*

"So, Birchcreek, what are you thinking of doing right now?" Whitestripe asked, looking around the camp. "I suppose Lilackit is doing pretty well with her physical attributes. She will be a great apprentice for sure."

Birchcreek broke free from his stare at the prey pile as he usually did before, obviously surprised at his question. Whitestripe silently hoped with worry that his cousin wouldn't be returning back to his state of hopelessness again.

"It also seems like Icemoon is hanging out with Robinpaw and Soarpaw right now, who are also with Mountainpaw, Berrypaw and Thymepaw, apparently," Whitestripe decided to continue when he didn't respond.

Birchcreek nodded, probably at the mention of his best friend, Mountainpaw, and cousin's son, Thymepaw. "Did they become friends with each other?"

"Probably, it seems like Icemoon is hanging out with them more often, now. Which is good for *me,"* Whitestripe said with a smirk, trying to poke some fun at it.

Birchcreek smiled. He knew that Icemoon and Mountainpaw were already friends ever since that Clan game in kithood, perhaps even at the level of best friends as well, so he didn't find it a surprise that Icemoon was hanging out with Mountainpaw's friends, too. Robinpaw and Soarpaw had also befriended Icemoon and Mountainpaw, and of course, Thymepaw was ever talkative to every cat in the Clan. But he *was* confused at Berrypaw being there, since she most likely wouldn't have said much, simply listened.

"I guess you're trying to bask in your solitude, then?" Birchcreek replied, trying to reciprocate the humor.

Whitestripe flicked his tail. "Definitely, because I've had enough of their teasing!"

"I thought you might have shown a little interest in her from our chats, though?" Birchcreek said genuinely.

"Come on, Birchcreek, you usually don't tease me!"

"I was *obviously* joking, Whitestripe. But I *am* still curious to know."

Whitestripe just smiled wryly. "Well, even in jokes, you usually don't do it! And where did your curiousity come from?"

Birchcreek looked down at the prey pile again. "Sitting in one location like the prey pile or medicine cats' den for what seems like days on end," he sighed.

Whitestripe frowned at that. Of course, they weren't medicine cats or kits to normally do that, so he agreed with his situation. Even medicine cats usually went outside of camp to gather herbs, or in other medicine cats like Rainpaw's case, she still walked around camp to meet other cats, just like kits always usually did. "Well, we *do* have your littermate in here, right?"

Birchcreek shrugged. "That's probably the best thing that is making it better, other than you and Swanpaw being there to talk to. Lilypool is also fine, but you know how I wasn't really fond of elders or much older cats like Moonstar even in kithood, right?"

"Lilypool's not *that* old to be an elder, though. But I suppose she *is* pretty old, being born just a year and one moon after the foundation of the Mountain Clans."

Birchcreek shrugged again. "Well, I wouldn't say she isn't funny and nice, but of course, I didn't play with her in kithood, so we don't have those shared memories."

"Neither did we, even though we were around the same age, but we still built them together in my apprenticehood, you know," Whitestripe replied thoughtfully. "We managed to make more than enough to cherish our friendship."

Birchcreek nodded. "That's true. I didn't think you would become more wise after our fall."

"When bad times be*fall* us," Whitestripe started humorously, "it makes sense to gain wisdom from it, so we can learn from it."

Birchcreek smiled at that. Remembering that Whitestripe had to go through a big family loss with his only surviving littermate, he knew that he would definitely rethink his own behavior towards other Clanmates after that fateful night, and the fight the morning afterwards. And therefore, Whitestripe become nicer and more friendly in general, now that he didn't have Stonetooth's influence on him or dependency on her anymore. Birchcreek also remembered Whitestripe was pretty annoyed at Sandleap becoming a queen, and also indirectly at Nightnose for mating with her, three moons before his ceremony, but he forgave them pretty quickly after his warrior ceremony, especially since Birdkit was there now.

Flameeye saw the two injured cousins speaking to each other, one of which was *his* cousin, too. He was just about to talk to his former mentor, Snowstar, to go on patrol, probably by himself but perhaps with another Clanmate.

He was glad that his former mentor’s son and nephew’s mentor’s brother were doing much better now, and as well as Swanpaw. But he was worried that Swanpaw’s assessment would be delayed and hoped that it wouldn’t be for be for more than a moon, since of course, she was a great Clanmate.

Flameeye then noticed his father’s former apprentice, Icemoon, hanging out with several apprentices, including his nephew, Thymepaw, and his sister’s apprentice, Soarpaw, which he was happy about. But of course, they needed to go on patrol, so they all said farewell to each other and went with their mentors, leaving Icemoon by herself, being the only warrior in the group, of course.

Then Icemoon walked over to Flameeye, and he guessed that she wanted to go on patrol with him, which was fine with him. He was thinking about going with his apprentice, Spottedpaw, too, but he wasn’t sure if she would come back from another patrol with Forestcreek, Orchidmoon, Rosepetal and Heronwing soon.

**This is a chapter subpage of MoonClan's ambitious story (1): The First Four Leaders.**

*← Previous Chapter: Chapter 37: Thymepaw & BirdkitNext Chapter: Chapter 39: Swift Recovery →*

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