Redpaw's Moonstone Journey

Honeypaw whimpered nervously as she carefully rolled up a mixture of daisy, chamomile, sorrel, and burnet into a beech leaf. She softly hissed a curse to herself when her paw slipped due to her massive tremoring, pressing down harder against the herbs than she had meant to. She felt she had every reason to be nervous, though. Sagelight still hadn't recovered from his sudden illness, and there was an apprentice who was due for his trip to the Moonstone. She had desperately hoped that Sagelight would have at least recovered enough to make the journey for her, but it didn't seem like he was. She had wanted to ask Mossbloom, ThunderClan's medicine cat, but then she had decided not to, not sure if ThunderClan's leader would want to spare their medicine cat for a task she herself could do herself.

But could she really do this? She had only ever traveled to the Moonstone twice in her life. Would she really be able to remember which way to go? And besides that, StarClan was still angry at the Clans. Would they really be willing to speak to an apprentice if they didn't even want to speak to the medicine cats? Wouldn't their journey be for naught if that were the case? Great StarClan above, please help her....

The medicine cat apprentice had finished rolling both bundles of traveling herbs, and by this point she was absolutely quaking. She didn't want to go! She was too scared! She was going to get herself and the apprentice lost, or she would do something wrong that would make him or StarClan angry. What if StarClan decided to take their anger out on her and tell her she couldn't be a medicine cat anymore? She couldn't become a warrior, she just couldn't! She wouldn't be able to handle the stress! Silverpelt above, she could hardly handle the stress right now! What was she going to do?

Struggling to blink away fearful tears that were threatening to break free -- she couldn't cry now, she knew that if she started, it would take forever to calm herself back down -- Honeypaw bent down and grasped the herb bundles gently in her mouth, slowly padding out of the medicine den and towards the entrance where she saw the apprentice she was supposed to take with her, the apprentice who would be putting his faith in her paws, the apprentice whose very life and future as a warrior of SkyClan was depending on how she performed as a medicine cat this day, stood waiting for her. The tears of dread returned quicker than she could dispel them. She was going to cry for sure....

Redpaw wasn't sure how this was supposed to go. He stood in the apprentice's den, waiting for- well, he wasn't even sure yet. He gave a small sigh of relief as Sagelight appeared in the- no, that wasn't Sagelight. That was... Honeypaw? Had Sagelight still not recovered from that sudden sickness? Redpaw shrugged to himself. He didn't care. If Spottedstar trusted Honeypaw to do this, so would he.

Redpaw murmured a soft greeting to Honeypaw and stepped out of the den. She seemed nervous, to say the least. And probably for good reason. What if she doesn't do this right? No, the medicine cats really just travel with you and give you the herbs, they don't do anything that big, right? He pushed the thoughts aside and asked, "Do you have my herbs?"

Honeypaw gulped involuntarily, nearly choking herself when her saliva always went down the wrong way. She nodded stiffly and deposited one of the herb bundles in front of Redpaw's paws. "Th-These will k-keep your strength up, a-and they'll, um, keep your stomach full, too." Hoping to spare herself a few extra seconds of conversation, she began scarfing down her own herbs, not even grimacing at the horrid taste, as it had disappeared in record time when she quickly swallowed and began lapping her tongue repeatedly over her lips.

Redpaw didn't care for small talk, so he quickly lapped up the herbs. He winced at the taste, but he knew they'd be worth it. The sooner this gets over with, the sooner I become a warrior. He shifted slightly, licking the bitter taste of the herbs off of his mouth. Honeypaw seemed to nervous to talk, which was fine by him.

Honeypaw shuffled her paws nervously. The two of them had finished eating, but neither of them began to talk. Redpaw was just staring at her expectantly. Was she supposed to say something? ...No, wait, they were supposed to go now, weren't they? She inwardly cursed herself, pelt growing hot with embarrassment, realizing she had just spent a few moments staring at him for nothing. "U-Um.... I-I guess if you're ready, then, w-we can get going."

---

It had taken nearly all day for the two apprentices to finally reach Highstones. The journey had been a long one indeed, and a very terrifying one at that; she didn't recall passing the giant Thunderpath to be as terrifying as it had. No, it had been even more terrifying, especially since she had been the one leading the way. Thankfully, neither of them got hit by any monsters, so the rest of their journey was tiring, yet uneventful.

Once the two cats approached Mothermouth, Honeypaw flopped over on her side with a squeaky huff. She hadn't yet built up the endurance of walking so far, and the combination of the duration of the journey and her little heart constantly pounding in fear seemed to have made the traveling herbs wear off sooner than expected. Instantly, she realized who she was collapsed in front of, and she quickly scrambled back up to her paws, her ears twitching shamefully. "U-Um, s-sorry.... B-But, uh, it's a-almost time to go in. O-Once the sun sets, we'll go in, a-and we should be in time for the M-Moonstone to welcome you."

Redpaw grinned a bit. "No need to get up. I'm tired, too." He flopped on the ground, just as Honeypaw had, and started licking his paw pads. He yawned and stared at the gaping mouth of the cave, waiting for the sun to set.

Honeypaw breathed a soft exhale of relief and settled back down in a lounging position, beginning to groom her sore paws as well. She only stopped once she noticed how difficult it was becoming to make out the fine details of her pad, and she looked up to see the moon beginning to rise into the sky. She climbed up back on her paws and meowed, "Um, the Moonstone will be awake soon. Let's go." Facing the dark abyss that was Mothermouth, she gulped nervously. This would be the first time she would lead a cat into the dark cave instead of following someone. She had made sure to pay attention to where Sagelight would have led her, and she hoped that it would have been enough to jog her memory of the route. "St-Stay close to me," she mewed shakily, trying to quell her fright; she didn't want to chase Redpaw off by the stench of her fear.

Taking in a deep breath, she began padding into the darkness, holding her tail straight out behind her so Redpaw would constantly feel her tail-tip against his nose. She slowly walked on and on, brushing her whiskers against the cave walls to make sure she didn't get lost herself. Thankfully, just shy of entering the cavern where the Moonstone stood, the moon rising above the hole in the ceiling caused the mystical rock to explode in a radiant, blinding light. She had done it! She had successfully led her first SkyClan apprentice to the Moonstone! Not only that, but it looked like their warrior ancestors were still willing to speak with apprentices. They hadn't completely abandoned them! She couldn't wait to tell Sagelight about it when she got back home.

Turning to the young tom behind her, his ginger coat now a brilliant golden color, Honeypaw meowed with a surer smile than she had worn that day, "Th-The Moonstone is awake. StarClan is w-waiting for you. Touch your nose to the stone, a-and you will begin to dream with them."

Redpaw nodded. He followed Honeypaw in a bit nervously, but exhaled with a small sigh of relief as she successfully brought him to the moonstone. He gave her a small nod and relaxed onto the cold floor, tapping his nose against the bright stone.

When he awoke, he was in a starlit grassy field. He glanced around curiously, wondering what was supposed to happen.

ooc; sorry for small post; mobile

((Aaaa I’m sorry this is so late :0)

Eaglepaw padded up to the younger tom, a grin on his face. Well, perhaps he wasn’t technically younger, though he had resided here before Redpaw was born. “Greetings, Redpaw. I’m Eaglepaw of SkyClan. I died, long before you were born, defending my friends from a sick fox. What is it you wanted to talk about? It’s always something.”

Redpaw tipped his head at the small cat that came up to him. "Well, I'm sure you know what's going on in our lives right now. That's all anyone can think about. Will... will it end soon?" He hoped Eaglepaw knew the answer. He realized he hadn't said his name, and wondered how Eaglepaw knew it.Probably a StarClan thing.