sundrop sighed and put down the squirrel furzetuft gave her.
once they were far away enough from furzetuft, she sighed, “that molly was kinda weird.
well, at least she gave us this squirrel.
which reminds me…I’m feeling quite hungry. i could really do with some noodles right now.
and mustard.”
“noodles? what’re those? and what’s mustard too?”
“oh, it’s just a kind of twoleg food. mustard is a thing called a sauce.”
sundrop replied.
she remembered these things from her life as a loner.
glowpaw hesitated and asked, “are we supposed to take it back to camp?”
sundrop shrugged and meowed, “it was a gift for us, wasn’t it? i don’t think gifted prey
counts. i could be wrong. but it’s the warrior code, not the medicine cat code.”
glowpaw was about to argue, but he heard his belly rumble and he gave in.
the duo found a place near the river and sat down, munching down on
the juicy squirrel.
“sundrop. sundrop?” glowpaw whispered.
“what.” the calico hissed through her teeth, biting into another large chunk
of squirrel.
“are you alright? you seem so grumpy and upset today. has anything or any-cat hurt
you? is that why?” glowpaw gently asked, prodding his mentor’s side with his tail.
“it’s nothing. i might’ve just woke up on the wrong side of the nest today.” sundrop
numbly mewed, hoping that she was lying well enough. it seemed to have worked, since
glowpaw just mrrowed in amusement. “oh, alright. it can be like that sometimes.”
sundrop left the squirrel bones on the riverbank and picked up the chamomile.
“glowpaw, can you help me get the borage leaves?”
her apprentice leapt up and carried the borage in his mouth.
“ish tat all were gafering tofay?” he asked, his voice muffled by the borage.
sundrop nodded and gestured with her tail for glowpaw to follow her back to camp.
rustle, rustle.
not again! sundrop thought angrily, whisking around and coming face to face with …
another cat. it wasn’t furzetuft again this time, but a ginger mackerel tabby with…rather
odd coloured eyes. one green and one purple iris stared back into sundrop’s own green eyes.
“who are you? are you one of furzetuft’s friends or something?!”
sundrop narrowed her eyes.
the tabby snapped out of their trance, blinking rapidly. “furzetuft? never heard of
her. wait, are you talking about that tortie who passed by me earlier?”
glowpaw nodded and mewed, “are you injured? or do you need help? or do you
have something else to offer like furzetuft?”
they simply purred, “oh, no, no, no. I’m just here to collect some herbs.
they’re for…something. got any borage to spare? hehe..”
sundrop dropped her stalks of chamomile and snarled, “are you
from another clan, here to steal our herbs?! i knew suspicious mollies
couldn’t be trusted!”
“clan? what’s a…clan? and hey, hey, no need to get so hostile here.
I’m just a mere travelling healer and explorer. maybe don’t need to
hiss at a cat who just escaped after being lost in a canyon and is rather
tired now? i got no beef with you, or not that I know of.”
blaze joked. it seems like they knew how to counter hostility.
“wait. DID YOU JUST CALL ME A MOLLY?! YOU— ahem, excuse me, but I’m not
a she-cat. i go by they/them. oh, and I’m blaze.”
“oh, whoopsies, my bad.” sundrop stepped backward, still eyeing the tabby suspiciously.
“no worries. well, this is rather bumfuzzling.” mewed blaze,
putting out a paw for sundrop to shake.
glowpaw, who had been standing there the whole time, now noticed
the eye bags underneath blaze’s eyes. it seemed that they were more tired
than they wanted glowpaw and sundrop to think they were.
“hey, urm, blaze, was it?”
glowpaw asked, catching the ginger tabby’s gaze.
“do you want to come with us back to camp and rest there? you know, you might
like it there, I’m sure violetstar would be happy to let you stay and help heal.”
blaze looked rather startled that this young tom could already tell they were
very tired. they wanted to protest, but they knew it too; they were too tired to
continue walking. they couldn’t wander any more.
of course, blaze knew the tom didn’t know that either, but
better go to some weird “clan” camp than try to sleep alone in the forest.
the last time she slept was probably after watching the sunrise in
the canyon.
“hmm..alright. I’m not sure I’ll stay forever, but I’ll certainly come with you
and sleep there for at least a night or two.”
glowpaw smiled warmly and mewed, “alright! then, come, follow us!”
he flicked his tail towards sundrop friendlily.
sundrop, on the other hand, was not very pleased with this development.
not like she could do anything about it now, though.
she squinted at blaze for a moment, than picked up the scattered chamomile
and walked briskly back to camp, with the other two healers (or one healer,
and one strange loner). bloop.
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[ #839 words ]
[ #7 codewords used; noodles, mustard, munching, beef,
bumfuzzling, wander, bloop ]
