Birdpaw's Moonstone Journey

Beechface strode silently across camp, ducking into the apprentice den with care not to disturb anyone who didn't need disturbing. It was early, the camp still dark as dawn slowly started to break over the forest. After a season of Asylum preventing them from straying from their own territory, Beechface found that she'd almost forgotten what the bitter travelling hers tasted like. She'd be taking Birdpaw to the moonstone today, and it felt strange to know that this would be the apprentice's first time setting paw outside Skyclan's borders, her first time seeing bits of the other clan territories.

"Up with you, there's a long day of walking ahead of us." Beechface lightly nudged the sleeping Birdpaw before retreating from the den, leaving the bleary-eyed apprentice to follow her.

"Eat these and let's get moving. I know they're bitter, even adding honey to them won't help it." The apprentice had obediently lapped of the herbs with a look of disgust, and Beechface's whiskers twitched in wry amusement.

"Bitter might be an understatement. What are they for, exactly? Why are we leaving so early?" Birdpaw asked, following the medicine cat towards the camp entrance. Beechface seemed as impatient as ever, and while Birdpaw would have enjoyed a moment to get over the oh-so-foul taste in her mouth, the way the medicine cat had turned away made it clear she meant business. Birdpaw wasn't suicidal enough to dare complain.

"They're to give you strength and keep you from getting hungry. The moonstone is about a day's trip from here, so we won't make it there until nightfall. You can drink from the creek on the way, it'll help get the taste out of your mouth." There was a strange note of... something... in the medicine cat's voice. Gentleness? It wasn't something Birdpaw had ever heard from the older tabby. The thought was quickly forgotten, however.

---

As Beechface had said, they didn't reach the entrance of mothermouth until the sun was set for the night. The medicine cat had kept a brisk pace and hadn't been particularly talkative once they were outside of Skyclan territory, seeming tense and prickly the farther they got from home. Before that, she'd asked a few brief questions about how Birdpaw's training had gone, but otherwise the trek was quiet. The medicine cat had seemed lost in her own thoughts, and Birdpaw was too hesitant to break the silence.

The travelling herbs had kept her going, she realized. Once she'd washed out the bitter taste from her mouth, Birdpaw had been almost grateful for them. As they made the last scramble up to the cave entrance, she didn't even feel tired, though they had been walking all day.

"Alright, stick close to me when we enter the tunnel. Some spots are very narrow, and you won't be able to see much. Use your whiskers if you have to. When we reach the chamber with the moonstone, press your nose to it and lay down. Starclan will come to you." Birdpaw gave her a nod, and the medicine cat led her into the tunnel. Birdpaw did her best to stick close to Beechface, feeling uncomfortable at not being able to rely on her sight to find her way through. By the time a faint blue-ish light was visible around Beechface's form in front of her, Birdpaw was beginning to wonder how much longer the tunnels would go on for. It felt like they'd been walking for a while, and most of that had been in darkness, leaving her unable to make heads or tails of distance or time.

Then the moonstone was before her, and Birdpaw blinked up at the rock in awe. There was a hole near the roof of the cave, and the moon shone through.

Her awe was all-too-quickly broken by the impatient medicine cat motioning her forward, though Birdpaw ruefully thought she could have stood there for a while and just stared at the moonstone. The medicine cat had said they were on a time limit during their trek here earlier, and with a quiet sigh the apprentice gingerly touched her nose to the moonstone, settling down beside it.

Reedfang laid on top of some smooth stones when the apprentice had appeared to him. The brown and white tabby tom pushed himself up from his relaxed position into something more appropriate for talking with Birdpaw. It had been a whole since he had talked with any of the living cats, but he understood why he was selected for such a task such as this one. "Greetings, Birdpaw." He started, offering a kind smile to the apprentice.

"I'm Reedfang, a former Riverclan warrior. We have a lot in common even if we are from two separate clans." There was a hidden truth that she needed to know, but it wasn't his job to reveal the truth in full. He just needed to get it started. It was up to her to figure it out from his words. He just hoped he had the strength to do it because he knew it would change her forever once she learned.

Birdpaw blinked open her eyes, and took in her surroundings. She was no longer in the cave with the moonstone, and her new surroundings seemed far too vivid for an ordinary dream. The slender tabby took in the smooth stones under her feet before her eyes finally settled on a starry tabby and white pelt in front of her.

The apprentice blinked, pulling herself into a sitting position as the strange tom spoke.

"So this is Starclan?" She tipped her head curiously eyeing the stranger. Reedfang, he'd said, and he was... Riverclan?

"You're a Riverclanner?" Birdpaw found she was curious. Outside of Asylum, she'd never so much as seen a cat from another clan, let alone interacted with one.

Reedfang nodded in response to the apprentice's question. "Yes, I am a Riverclanner, born and raised. By blood? Not so much. I'm actually half Thunderclan." The tom chuckled.

"It turned out that my father was the Thunderclan deputy at the time." The tom chuckled. "It was very surprising to learn, also surprising how something so big can be hidden so easily." The tom let out a small sigh as he thought back onto everything. "It's strange.. How a truth can be hidden from us just a tree away. So close but seemingly so far." He hoped that would be enough. It had to be. He didn't really know what else to say on the matter without giving it away entirely. "Wouldn't you agree, Birdpaw?" Hopefully she remembered what he said to her at the start.

"But I thought the code forbids relationships with those outside your own clan?" Birdpaw tipped her head, curiosity shining in her green eyes. She'd not so much as seen or interacted with another clan cat that wasn't Skyclan before. Asylum had kept her sheltered, perhaps, but it was all she'd known until very recently. She couldn't imagine being able to spend enough time around one of them to have any sort of relationship with them, let alone getting close enough to someone to have kits.

The tom spoke about how it was hidden easily, and Birdpaw thought over what he was saying. "By hiding it they hoped to avoid punishment? I don't see how hiding that you had kits could be done so easily, though/"

Reedfang nodded in response to her question. "The code does not allow cross clan relationships or relations with a medicine cat. But sometimes it seems that some are just drawn to one another too much to listen to the code." The brown tabby explained. The tom shifted in his spot to get comfortable once again before he continued speaking.

"Of course they are going to do what they can to hide it. They don't want anyone to know, but there will always be ways to find out, regardless of how well they can hide the fact they had kits. There will always be similarities in appearance, loving looks or actions to kits they can't claim, or in my case siblings who hold the answer for you." Reedfang said. He didn't quite get how they had ways to hide it but that probably had to do with the fact that he was a tom, more than anything. "I don't quite get how they hide having kits, but it has been done before. I'm sure your medicine cat could tell you, they have herbs to help with that sort of thing. I know that."

"I'm glad I'm not a medicine cat, even the travelling herbs were bad enough. I would hate to have to take herbs to hide something like that, it just seems like even more of a punishment." Birdpaw shrugged. "And besides, Beechface is intimidating." She was only half joking at the idea that she ask the medicine cat about it. Beechface was certainly protective of her clanmates, and especially her family. Still, Birdpaw thought her aunt would have very little patience for a random question like that, especially when she always seemed so busy.

Reedfang let out a small sigh. "I understand where you are coming from. But think on it okay? Think on everything I have told you." The tom said before standing up and approaching the young cat. "It's time for me to send you back to the waking world Birdpaw. I just need you to remember, that you and I aren't so different." The brown tabby had a smile on his face as he sent the she-cat back to the moon stone but there was a small hint of sadness on his maw.

Birdpaw nodded at the Starclanner, though she wasn't quite sure what to make of what he'd said. Perhaps it was a simple warning to not break the code herself, but... There was something else, wasn't there? Birdpaw couldn't fathom what, however. He'd said they were similar, he was a Riverclanner of mixed blood. As far as she knew, she was pure Skyclan, and her mother (indeed, most of that side of the family) was fairly nationalistic. Was it possible that she was of mixed blood? Maybe, but if it was, Birdpaw didn't think it could've been from her mother. It's not like Ravenclaw could have met many clan cats with the asylum preventing them from moving about freely, either.

Something nagged at her as she awoke at the moonstone. Reedfang had said to ask the prickly medicine cat about how queens could hide a pregnancy, but she didn't have the nerve to do so. Beechface was prickly and intimidating, but she was family and seemed to mean well at least, even if she did like to launch into lectures. Still, she didn't have the nerve to ask the medicine cat something that seemed like it was a waste of time. Not yet, anyways. Maybe later, when Beechface looked a bit less grumpy.