Sagewhisker's Revenge/Chapter One

## Chapter One

Sagepaw stirred in his bedding, the light of dawn peering through the holes of the medicine cat's den. It was the day before the half-moon when Sagepaw would travel to the moonstone with his mentor Frogbelly, for his proper medicine cat ceremony where he would stand before his warrior ancestors and be accepted as a medicine cat and earn his full name. Sagepaw never wanted to be a medicine cat, but Frogbelly was getting on older and had been sent an omen from Starclan showing that he had been chosen to succeed him. Either way, Sagepaw was determined to serve his Clan to the best of his ability. Who knows, maybe once he had been the full-time medicine cat for a while, he would get an apprentice of his own and would be able to retire early on so he could start his own family.

He stretched, flexing his claws so they dug into the damp forest floor before padding over to his mentor's bedding and nudging him awake.

“Come on Frogbelly, wake up. It’s past dawn already and you said we would go out to restock herbs today.” Sagepaw nudged his mentor again before hearing him groan and drift back off to sleep.

“Great Starclan, never mind,” Sagepaw muttered before pushing his way through the hanging reeds and over to his younger sister, Fawnkit, who was sitting with another much younger kit.

“Hi, brother! Meet Mousekit, he just turned 2 moons old!” Fawnkit smiled wide before twitching her tail towards the small golden-brown tom-kit sitting next to her. Mousekit looked at Sagepaw and scuffled his paws on the ground shyly as if he was unable to speak yet. Sagepaw dipped his head in greeting his sister's new friend before turning back to her and grinning.

“What? Is my fur not groomed good enough? Lilacpool said I did a good job!” Fawnkit whined before re-grooming herself lightly before noticing the glint of amusement in Sagepaws eyes. “It's not my fur... Is it?” She mewed, sitting up straight again.

“Oh it's nothing, I just happened to hear Reedstar talking about apprenticing 2 lucky kits yesterday is all.” He said with a flick of his tail. Fawnkit’s eyes shone with excitement as she jumped to her paws, slightly startling Mousekit.

“I’m going to be an apprentice!” She exclaimed. “Hear that Mousekit? I’m on my way to becoming one of the greatest warriors the forest has ever seen! Finally!” Fawnkit was yowling out her heart when Frogbelly padded out of the medicine den with a yawn. Sagepaw turned to his mentor and then looked back to Fawnkit, touching his nose with hers and padding off, flicking his tail in farewell.

“Well, look at that! The lazy furball decided to wake up finally. How do you sleep for so long? It’s almost sunhigh and I want to be back in time for Fawnkit’s apprentice ceremony. And have you eaten anything in the past moon? You look like a walking skeleton!” Sagepaw mewed, looking his mentor up and down. Frogbelly curled his lip back in a snarl and headed towards the fresh-kill pile without a single word. Sagepaw padded after him and picked out a squirrel from the pile, along with 2 mice, and padded back over to Mousekit and Fawnkit.

“Change of plans. We aren’t leaving right yet.” Sagepaw sighed. “At least the old bee-brain is eating something for once. He looks like a walking corpse! No wonder the other Clans think we are always short of prey.” Sagepaw pushed the mice over the kits and Mousekit dragged himself forward slightly, revealing his scarred, useless hindquarters. Sagepaw felt a pang of sadness at this small kit's injury. Mousekit had been a victim of a savage fox attack. The fox ended up being chased off but killed his littermates and nearly him before anyone could do anything. Sagepaw wondered how Mousekit could ever serve his Clan without being able to walk at all.

He took one bite out of his squirrel when he heard Reedstar say the familiar words declaring a Clan meeting was starting. He sighed and wiped his tongue around his mouth before getting up and nudging Mousekit back to the nursery with his father, who sat in his bedding, still grieving the loss of his mate and kits. Sagepaw licked Mousekits ear and said his farewells before dashing off to the front of the gathered cats and looking at his sister, pride welling up inside of him. Beside Fawnkit sat Barkkit, a nursery kit who was a few days younger than Fawnkit.

Sagepaw sat and listened through Barkkits ceremony and once Fawnkit’s started he looked around for any warriors trying to move forward, but no one had moved a mouse-length one. Once he looked back up, Fawnkit had already been re-named as Fawnpaw. He sighed, and then he heard it.

“Fawnpaw, your mentor will be Breezewillow,” Reedstar stated louder than the rest of the ceremony words. Breezewillow was partially deaf, which explained why. She looked up at her leader and padded over to touch noses with Fawnpaw. After the remainder of the ceremony, the clan was chanting the new apprentices’ names loudly and Sagepaw burst through the crowd and barrelled into his sister.

“I knew you could do it Fawnpaw!” He said cheerfully as she pinned him down, his belly up. Breezewillow padded up to the two cheerfully, along with Frogbelly and Adderstrike, Sagepaws and Fawnpaws father.

“We have all decided that we could join each other tomorrow for training since we are all touring the territory and Frogbelly is short of some herbs.” Adderstrike meowed. “Until then, you three should eat some fresh-kill and call it a day. Alright?”

Fawnpaw groaned. “Daddd. I’m not a kit anymore! Didn’t you just sit through my whole apprentice ceremony? You don’t have to tell me when to go to sleep. Neither does Lilacpool.” She looked to the ground sourly. Adderstrike glared at her sternly.

“That’s an order. I’m still a warrior, older than you. It doesn’t matter if we are your parents, you are to do as you're told, or it will be taught very soon. Got it? I don’t want to hear you speak to another warrior in that manner again, or it’ll be elder duty for you.” Adderstike said harshly before padding away.

“You won’t get elder duty, you’ve got a point Fawnpaw,” Breezewillow said with a reassuring lick. “I think he has forgotten which apprentice is his.” She said bitterly. “The only cats who can give you elder duty are me, Frogbelly, Reedstar, and Russetdawn. Next time Adderstrike says something like that to you, tell me ok?” She smiled and padded to the nursery to visit Dovespirit. The two had gotten close over the past moon and it was becoming more and more clear by the day.

Barkpaw looked at Sagepaw with a puzzled expression.

“Don’t you and Frogbelly have to leave at sunrise to visit the moonstone? How can you do training with me and Fawnpaw if you are at Highstones all day?” She mewed, not breaking eye contact with the much bigger medicine cat apprentice.

“We don’t leave until around sunhigh,” He said calmly, looking at Barkpaw. “We will probably leave directly after the patrol, in the meantime why don’t you and Fawnpaw run along and go get some rest in your new den? I bet it's much roomier without all the scampering kits and laying queens in there. If you need me, I’ll be in the medicine den with Frogbelly.” And at that instant, Snakepaw came padding toward them and dragged both Barkpaw and Fawnpaw with her, and away again to the apprentices' den. Snakepaw was Mousekits’ older sister, his father and mother’s first kit.

Sagepaw padded back into the medicine den to find Frogbelly sorting through herbs. He paused and looked at his apprentice, then beckoned him over with his tail. Accordingly, Sagepaw padded over and sat in front of his mentor, curling his fluffy tail around his paws.

“I suppose since I promised you training yesterday, we could get along with it..” Frogbelly muttered

“But aren’t we going out tomorrow on patrol with Adderstrike, Breezewillow, Fawnpaw, and Barkpaw?” Sagepaw asked, tilting his head to one side.

“Would you shut your trap and pay attention for once?” Frogbelly scolded, his ears flat against his head. Sagepaw flinched at tom's harsh words and lowered his head a bit, feeling ashamed for having questioned his mentor's authority in the first place. Frogbelly sighed and shoved some herbs towards Sagepaw and sorted them out for him. First, he moved his paw over a pile of tall, bristly-stemmed ferns.

“These are called Horsetails. It’s chewed into a poultice and applied to infections. It makes a good substitute for cobweb if it doesn’t happen to be around.” Frogbelly moved his paw to another pile of little black seeds. Sagepaw brightened and pointed to them with his tail.

“These are poppy seeds!” He said proudly. Frogbelly smiled very lightly, pleased by his apprentice's recognition of the little round seeds.

“Indeed, and what are they used for?” He challenged.

“Poppy seeds are used to ease pain, and to soothe shocked cats, but usually you would use Thyme for shock... Right?” Sagepaw meowed, slightly nervously.

“We can use both, if we can find any Thyme at all without having to cross Clan borders, we save it and use the poppy seeds,” Frogbelly explained. “Poppy seeds can also be used for sleeplessness. But please be mindful that it's safer to only use a single poppy seed per dosage, and don’t give it to nursing queens unless it’s necessary. Got it?” Sagepaw nodded his head and looked back down towards the other pile of branches with very small, spiny, green seeds.

“And these are stinging nettles,” Frogbelly said with a yawn, the sun was dipping down below the horizon now, and most of the Clan cats were heading back to their dens. “The stems and leaves are used to be chewed to a poultice to heal wounds and infections, if you mix it with comfrey it can be used to help heal broken bones. The seeds are only used to induce vomiting when a cat is mouse-brained enough to eat poison. And it brings down internal swelling.” Once Frogbelly finished he stood up and stretched. “Put the herbs where they go and you may call it a night, we will be leaving to make up the dawn patrol. Adderstrike will be waking us.” He said, disappearing into the medicine cat's sleeping den. Sagepaw did as he was told, reciting what Frogbelly had told him before, memorizing it slowly and once he laid down in his moss bedding, he drifted off to sleep.

## Characters

### Major Characters

* Sagepaw
* Fawnpaw

### Minor Characters

* Frogbelly
* Reedstar
* Mousekit
* Breezewillow
* Adderstrike
* Barkpaw
* Snakepaw