To say Spidernose was afraid was perhaps a bit of an understatement, in truth she was more like terrified. Stormheart’s caution hadn’t gone unnoticed, and it gave his fellow hunter the bit of courage she needed to not chicken out and turn back then and there. She may be frightened, yes, but she was also determined, as a warrior of WillowClan she had to do everything in her power to ensure that she both fought and hunted to keep her Clanmates fed. Even if that meant going along with mouse-brained, dangerous plans like this. The brown-and-cream she-cat’s tail bushed out as she did her best to scrabble up the length of the tree trunk, and remained stood on end, although tucked against her body so as to not alert the potential prey in the nests, as she finally reached the branch Sunfur had indicated.

She didn’t dare look down.

StarClan knew how high it was, but Spidernose was certain if she was to glance towards the ground, that the only reason she would see it at all was because it was leafbare and the trees lacked their own foliage. She doubted it would be visible in greenleaf. Oh, StarClan please, please don’t let me fall… she prayed, hoping their ancestors would hear and take pity on her. Her eyes wide, she gripped tightly onto the branch beneath her with her claws to give herself a more secure footing, and squinted downwards to wait for some sort of signal from Sunfur that it was time to scare the birds.



Frogkit’s cheeks puffed out grumpily as the medicine cat continued to scold her, and the kit let out a very overdramatic huff through her mouth, rolling her eyes up towards the sky before they met the black tom’s again and she muttered sulkily. “Well maybe if you told me which ones that was meant to be, I wouldn’t touch ‘em then. Cause I’d know not to!” StarClan above, save the entirety of WillowClan from this kit’s curiosity. Some part of Frogkit knew deep down, however, that messing around in Blackpelt’s herb store while he was out of camp was bad. But how else was she supposed to see what it was like? He never let any other cat go in there, if she tried asking him before he simply shoo’ed her away like she was some sort of annoyance.

She only wanted to learn! Her tail had continued to lash, as the medicine cat’s tone did not seem to be helping calm her down in any way, but thankfully when Duskwing spoke, her ears did prick up and she quickly turned away from Blackpelt to face the warrior instead. The angry glint in her kit-blue eyes seemed to die down, then, and she looked down at the ground, suddenly more apologetic as Frogkit mumbled a soft: “Oh. I just wanted to see ‘em, honest, I didn’t mean to mess ‘em up.”

Frogkit shuffled her paws to and fro for a few moments, and then finally looked back to the medicine cat, and though her apology was hesitant, it was no less genuine-sounding. “Sorry, Blackpelt...I won’t do it again.”

The cream-and-brown she-cat watched and waited as Sunfur then ordered Stormheart to circle back a little and see what else he could try and catch, leaving the remaining two members of the hunting party to focus all of their energy on the birds. Spidernose felt a vaguely uneasy shiver creep its way down the fur on her spine, prickling like ant bites, as she remembered the incident with the snake (even though the bite had turned out to be pretty harmless in the end) the last time she and the ginger tom opposite her had hunted together.
She really hoped this time they would have much more success.

She’d been watching the birds as they preened, her muscles poised to spring the moment the other warrior gave her the signal. Blue eyes shifted from the prey across to Sunfur as he crept up to join her and she spotted his tail signal, raising hers to give it a quick flick towards the tom as if to reassure him that she understood the order. Here we go.
The she-cat flexed her claws to make sure none of them had gotten caught in the hard, frost-laden bark of the tree, and when she was sure that she could make the jump, gave a few wiggles of her hindquarters and then launched herself across the gap between the two branches to land beside the nest, hissing loudly and swiping at the birds to scare them towards Sunfur.

Spidernose hoped they would go the right way, and that Sunfur could grab at least one. Maybe if she was lucky, her balance would hold out and she could snag the second one and pull it back down to pin it to the branch before it could fly away out of their reach...

The birds startled just as Sunfur had said they would, and in a flurry of wingbeats and shrieking they erupted off the branch they’d been perched on and fluttered away. As they whipped past her, the she-cat tried to lunge out with a paw and snag at the feathers of the second bird, but she wasn’t quite quick enough and her claws passed through empty air as it got away. Spidernose spat a curse softly, but clung to her perch tightly with her other three paws, she didn’t dare risk trying to rear up onto her hindlegs on such a narrow branch and at such a height, if she fell it could spell disaster. Yes, the Clan was hungry, but one tiny bird wasn’t worth her life.
So, she just hunkered down for now and prayed Sunfur would manage to grab the other one, at least.

Hearing her Clanmate call for her, Spidernose’s ears pricked and she slid carefully back down the tree trunk to join Sunfur on solid ground once more, much to her own relief. The she-cat shook her fur out, her tail curling upwards at the praise. It worked? it must have or Sunfur wouldn’t be so happy, surely. So, this time she mewed out loud, glad that their hunting party had finally managed to catch something for the fresh-kill pile, however small. “It worked! Nice job, Sunfur! We should try and grab a few more prey pieces if we can though...maybe Stormheart’s managed to find some mice, or voles?”

Spidernose nodded her head in agreement, keeping low to the ground so if there was any nearby prey it would be less likely to spot the hunting warriors, she padded along beside the tom, whispering back. "Yeah. We can't really afford to turn our noses up at any prey, no matter how small, with leafbare setting in and all. We need all the fresh-kill we can get."
The she-cat kept pace with her Clanmate, slowly and carefully lifting her head to open her jaws and taste the air every few pawsteps. She was disappointed, however, to find that all she could smell was faint traces of bird. They were more likely than not all spooked up into the branches from her and Sunfur's earlier stunt and Spidernose didn't much feel confident enough to pull it off successfully again.

The brown and cream she-cat let out another sigh as Sunfur pushed through the brambles to head further in, and once the other warrior's ginger tail tip had disappeared into the brush, she ducked inside after him, her ears pressed back as she began to worry that all they'd have to show for their efforts was one tiny bird for the entire Clan. That just wouldn't do, and she hoped Stormheart had had a bit more luck. When the scent of mouse filled her jaws the next time she took a pause to taste the air, Spidernose froze beside Sunfur.

Blue eyes met blue as she, too, noticed Stormheart and her whiskers trembled slightly in confusion at the grey tom. What was Stormheart doing? Why hadn't he caught the mouse yet? Glancing across at Sunfur, she noticed the other warrior twitching his whiskers and appearing just as confused. Spidernose's brow furrowed as she tried to think about what might have given their Clanmate pause. The she-cat tasted the air again and realised that the smell of mouse was quite strong. That made sense of course, the prey was right in front of them, but what if…

She turned to Sunfur and mouthed "What if there's more than one??", subtly flicking one ear in the direction of Stormheart and the visible mouse and hoping that the senior warrior would understand what she was hinting at.

Blackpelt frowns, and quietly pads his way over to the newcomers. "No one touches my herbs except me. If you want your wounds treated, I'll help you. If not, stay out of my den. Eat the wrong herb, and it may very well kill you. Understand?" His eyes seem to bore into Felix and Otis, but he doesn't include Heather. Supposedly. He seems wary of them, untrusting. "Where were these racoons? I may need to treat some of your wounds if one of them was infected with anything." His eyes are half slitted, and he seems to be sizing them up, despite his small size. Something's off here. They don't smell like racoons. Why would they want to come into our camp otherwise though? We have them far outnumbered.

Although they were too far away to communicate aloud, especially if they didn't want to startle their prey. Stormheart did seem to realise that his fellow hunters needed a bit more direction, and the she-cat's whiskers twitched as she spotted her Clanmate's tail flick. Her blue eyes squinted and she tried to make out what he was gesturing at, but the underbrush was far too thick and she couldn't make out even a silhouette from this distance. Spidernose waited another tail shake, just enough to figure out which one Stormheart would be aiming for.

The grey tom turned towards the thicket, and she exhaled in relief - it'd be much easier for them to catch this one than to leap blind into a bush. They couldn't afford to wait any longer. As Stormheart pounced on his prey, his paws and tail stirred up leaves and caused the other mouse to sit upright, dropping the shrivelled berry it had been eating. Spidernose hissed, wiggling her hindquarters and launching herself at it without hesitation. 

The mouse was going to run and she had to act first, think later, and pray to StarClan that she could hit the right mark and wouldn't lose it - or if she did, that Sunfur would cover her. She landed full-force on the frozen ground, her jaws flooding with the scent of mouse as the claws of one paw managed to snag the tiny rodent's tail and pin it to the frozen floor. YES! Got it!  With one final movement, Spidernose too delivered a killing bite to the mouse's spine, straightening up to look back at Sunfur over her shoulder. The mouse dangled from her jaws, and Spidernose's tail stuck straight up, the she-cat letting out a triumphant purr.  



Although the conversation seemed to have moved on, Frogkit didn't want to go back to the nursery yet, not when everybody was out here and there were so many interesting things happening! A little unsteady on her small legs, she skittered after the medicine cat as he crossed to talk to the rogues. Though Frogkit thankfully seemed to have enough sense to stay behind Blackpelt, which would hopefully prevent her from getting hurt.

She looked up at the bigger tom, her ears and her tail shooting upwards as she chirped eagerly. "I could help, Blackpelt! Honest!" she insisted, her eyes shining. "Pleeeeaaaseeeee, just tell me what herbs I need to get and I'll bring them, I won't touch anything else!" Frogkit promised, bouncing on the spot as she waited for an answer.

He sighs, and glances at her. "Humm....." He thinks about it for a moment. "Fine, come with me. I'll show you which ones I'll need. But don't touch anything, ok? Most of my herbs need to be freshly applied, so I can't let them get crushed yet." He flicks his tail, gesturing for her to follow. He quietly pads along, keeping himself between Frogkit and the three strangers. "Frogkit, make sure you keep the other kits and apprentices stay away from those three, ok? They're up to something." He leads her into his den, and carefully sorts out some herbs. "Ok, we need this, which is marigold, and one poppy seed each. Got it?"

As the older tom turns to look over her again, Frogkit’s eyes seemed to get even bigger, her ears lowering as she tried to look as adorable as possible in the hopes of getting Blackpelt to agree. “Pleeeeaaasseee Blackpelt? I’ll be a great helper, honest!” the tiny kit purred, and as the tom did agree her tail shot straight up in a mixture of surprise and delight. “Oh! Oh! I won’t, I promise! Only what you show me, and…and I’ll do exactly as you say!” if Frogkit notices the older cats being distrusting of strangers, and the way the medicine cat is shielding her from their view, she doesn’t mention it.

There’s a bounce in the kit’s step as she skittered after Blackpelt, blinking curiously at his whispered words, she whispered back: “But…howcome? They don’t look dangerous or nothin’. Just hurt?”
Any discussion of the rogue’s motives was probably best kept for the other Clan members, Frogkit was inquisitive and willing to learn, but she was also still just a kit and likely didn’t even understand the concept that strangers might be here to hurt her Clanmates instead of to ask for help like they’d said. It hadn’t occurred to her at all that the rogues might be lying about why they were in WillowClan’s camp.

Thankfully, she was easily distracted by being in Blackpelt’s den again and she watched attentively as he pointed out the herbs they would need, nodding along to confirm she had understood the instructions. “Marigold, the…the yellow flower one yeah! And one poppy seed each. Just one!” she chirped back proudly, her tiny paws reaching out to gather each portion of the herbs into a little bundle for one cat, following the medicine cat’s examples. And she was…surprisingly good at it. Huh. She really was interested in helping him and wasn’t just trying to be annoying and get under the tom’s paws.

Once they had the herbs prepared, Frogkit carefully picked up one of the bundles (she wasn’t big enough to carry more than one, yet.) and trotted out of Blackpelt’s den and back towards the nursery to give the medicine to the rogues there. She set the bundle down in front of them, puffed out her chest and purred proudly. “Here ya go!”

The she-cat ducked her head a little at the older warrior’s praise, but despite her mild embarrassment she couldn’t quite stifle an excited giggle of her own. At least they would return to camp successful, and no-one’s bellies would have to be empty tonight thanks to their efforts. That’s what made living in a Clan so wonderful. As Sunfur gestured for them to start making their way back, Spidernose set the mouse down between her paws once more, so she could adjust her grip and carry it by its tail instead, that way she wouldn’t have to deal with her own stomach rumbling quite so violently if the scent of the prey was a little bit further from her nostrils while they walked back.

She nodded in agreement, knowing that they shouldn’t be trying to stay out in the cold too long and should probably get back to their warm nests, once they’d deposited the fresh-kill on the pile, that is. She fell into step with Stormheart, just behind Sunfur, and looked up again as the ginger tom told them to head back to camp. She mewed around the mouse tail clenched between her teeth, her words slightly muffled, but still legible. “Alright, Sunfur. Take care though, don’t stay out too long, you’ll catch cold.” before she nodded to Stormheart, and took off at a brisk trot until they arrived back at camp. She thought she spotted Frogkit’s hindquarters slipping back into the nursery and with a sigh made a mental note to check her little sister wasn’t causing trouble later.

For now, however, she padded to the fresh-kill pile to set down the mouse she had caught, and looked around for Stonefall, wondering a little if he might like to eat with her, if he wasn’t busy.