viperpaw

~~~

VIPERPAW'S JAWS FELT TIRED as he carried yet another bundle of water to a patient. "Here you go, Brooklight."

Brooklight gave the gray tom a weak smile. "Thanks, Viperpaw."

And in those two words, Viperpaw suddenly felt himself beaming. He'd never received a lot of attention from Clearfrost, and praise from any other cats were limited. But in this... Brooklight's words had made him feel wanted and appreciated.

"You're welcome," he chirped back.

Clearfrost padded over to check Brooklight's wounds. "Move," she meowed briskly to Viperpaw, shouldering him over. "Mintpaw, can you bring over the marigold?"

And just like that, Viperpaw's beam fell. 

His sister trotted forward, still looking uneasy after hours of returning to camp. Viperpaw frowned. He'd have to talk to her when she was done with all this.

Clearfrost stepped back, and crashed into Viperpaw. Her eyes flared with annoyance as she glanced over her shoulder, snapping coldly, "Get out."

The gray tom winced, quickly turning around and ducking out of the medicine den. He supposed he was dismissed.

Everyone in the camp seemed gloomy and quiet. Warriors stood at the entrance, guarding the camp, while the others were curled up inside their dens, trying to catch up on the sleep they'd missed last night.

Viperpaw learned that last night's battle ended with ShadowClan and ThunderClan successfully chasing RiverClan away, plus many cats believed there was now an alliance between RiverClan and WindClan.

Snakepaw had disappeared off to who knows where, leaving the medicine den about an hour before Viperpaw had. Ivorystar had disappeared into her den after her argument with Clearfrost, and no cat had seen her since.

Even the sky seemed dreary, now a depressing shade of gray as small drizzles of rain began to fall.

Viperpaw shivered, about to head to the apprentices den to take a nap, when he was intercepted by a small, white kit.

"Frozenkit!" Viperpaw meowed, feeling a spark of joy at the sight of his friend. "Are you alright?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" Frozenkit answered. "I've been sitting in the nursery all night, but I heard you and Snakepaw snuck out."

Viperpaw shrugged sheepishly, remembering the loud roars and adrenaline of battle. "I think I'd prefer to just sit in the nursery too. I can't really fight if I don't know how."

Frozenkit's whiskers twitched with amusement. "Did you guys get into a lot of trouble?"

Rain was beginning to fall harder now, so Viperpaw ushered her under the ledge of the Clanrock near the medicine den, in the patch of fern, the closest place of shelter. "I guess so, but Sandstrike's been too busy to deal with me. Hopefully he forgets about it."

"I don't think he's going to forget that his apprentice snuck into a battle," Frozenkit pointed out wittily. 

Viperpaw shrugged with a grin. "Probably."

Just then, he saw something flash from the corner of his eye. Ivorystar was now climbing out of her den, and trotted to the medicine den. She passed by Viperpaw and Frozenkit without noticing them since they were crouched inside the ferns.

"Clearfrost," Ivorystar called, "come here. We have an unfinished conversation."

"I'm busy."

"I order you."

A long sigh came from inside the medicine den, and the ragdoll appeared. She and Ivorystar sat right outside the den, away from any patient's ears, but right in the vicinity of Viperpaw and Frozenkit.

Neither cat moved as they watched their leader and medicine cat, not quite sure if they should announce their presence or not.

"What is it?" Clearfrost meowed icily. "I have much to attend to, if you hadn't noticed."

Ivorystar ignored her. "Have you done what I asked?"

"Hmm?"

The ShadowClan leader's eyes flashed with annoyance. "Did you ask Berryfern about the prophecy?"

Viperpaw's ears twitched as his heart beat harder in his chest. He had no idea who Berryfern was, or what prophecy they were talking about, but he was intrigued. 

"Oh. I forgot."

"Forgot?" He could hear the absolute fury in Ivorystar's voice. "How could you have forgotten something as important as this?!"

"Because it's really not as important as you make it to be," Clearfrost answered coolly. "We need to tell-"

"We'll tell nobody," Ivorystar snapped. "Knowledge is power, and it will only make everything worse."

Clearfrost eyed the ShadowClan leader with a sharpened blue gaze. "So in other words, you just want to keep the power to yourself."

"No!" Ivorystar all but growled. "That's not what I'm trying to do! Can't you see, Clearfrost? I'm trying to keep everyone safe!"

"Keep everyone safe my tail," Clearfrost answered, her ears twitching with agitation. "So many cats have already died! If you try to keep them any safer, we'll all end up as ghosts!" 

"Watch your tone," Ivorystar snarled. "Don't try and act as if you're all high and mighty. You've made bad choices, too. Don't you remember our oath?"

Clearfrost froze. That was the first time Viperpaw had ever seen her so vulnerable. "That was when we were kits," she meowed steadily at last. "We didn't know what we were talking about then."

"Yet we still somehow fulfilled it, didn't we?" Ivorystar pressed. "We're doing fine, living by the oath. I'm just trying to keep it going."

"You're power corrupted!" Clearfrost snapped. 

"Be careful about what you're saying," Ivorystar hissed.

Clearfrost lashed her tail. "Is that a threat?"

"Maybe it is," the ShadowClan leader answered, her voice deadly. "I'll do anything it takes to keep this a secret."

Clearfrost stared at her coldly. "I won't tell anyone. I don't care about this as much as you do, or as much as you think I do. But if this is the stance you're going to take, then let's stop wasting our breath." She swept her tail and turned around, disappearing into the medicine den as Ivorystar stalked away.

Viperpaw and Frozenkit both exhaled shakily, not quite sure what they'd overheard.

"Let's just forget it," Frozenkit whispered. "Pretend we never heard it. It must be some important leader-medicine cat thing that we don't understand."

"Right," Viperpaw answered, but try as he might, he couldn't shake the conversation from his mind. With what happened at the battle last night plus this... they must be connected, somehow.

The rain stopped, and Snakepaw emerged from the apprentices den, his eyes lighting up at the sight of Frozenkit. "Hey," he greeted, padding over to the two. "Want to grab some prey?"

"I don't know if we're allowed," Viperpaw pointed out, "our mentors haven't given us permission."

Snakepaw twitched his ears. "It's fine, today's an abnormal day. We don't need to follow the normal rules."

Viperpaw frowned. "I'm pretty sure we-"

But Snakepaw cut him off with a wave of his tail, dragging the two over to the prey pile and grabbing a rabbit for the three to share. "Want to hear the story of how I totally defeated a RiverClan apprentice?"

"Sure," Frozenkit answered with a shrug.

But before Snakepaw could begin his "epic" story, Viperpaw spotted Mintpaw leaving the medicine den, assumingly dismissed to rest.

"Hey, Mintpaw!" Viperpaw called, waving his sister over.

"What are you doing?" Snakepaw hissed. 

"Inviting her to eat with us," Viperpaw replied simply. He wanted to figure out what was happening with the gray tabby she-cat.

Mintpaw approached them wearily, eyeing the three, "Hi."

"Sit, sit," Viperpaw meowed, ushering his sister down. "You must be hungry. Here." As he nudged the rabbit closer to Mintpaw, he didn't miss Snakepaw's glare.

"So, as I was saying," Snakepaw cleared his throat, "I was minding my own business, when this RiverClan apprentice named Dapplepaw suddenly jumped on me! But even though she had several moons of training ahead of me, I easily kicked her off and defeated her, and she ran away with her tail between her legs!"

Viperpaw's whiskers twitched with amusement. That was very much not what happened.

Just then, he heard Foxstorm's voice ring across the clearing. "Snakepaw! Viperpaw!"

When the two toms twisted around, they spotted their mentors standing next to each other. Viperpaw's stomach dropped.

"I don't think they forgot," Frozenkit teased lightly.

"Yeah, yeah," Viperpaw mumbled back, pushing himself to his paws as him and his brother padded over to their mentors. As they approached, Foxstorm and Sandstrike stepped away from each other, beckoning their apprentice over.

"Good luck," Snakepaw whispered. Even his pride knew he was in trouble this time.

"You, too," Viperpaw answered, gulping as he trotted over to Sandstrike.