Sunrise

He couldn’t pick up his mentor’s scent when he brushed past the bramble screen into the den, but another cat was there, irritation coming off him in waves.

Mouse dung! Jayfeather thought. Now I’ll have to deal with him.

“Berrynose,” he mewed. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s my tail,” the young warrior told him. “It hurts. And it smells funny.”

Jayfeather sniffed at the stump of Berrynose’s tail, and almost recoiled at the rotting scent. “You’ve got an infection,” he reported.

“How?” Berrynose sounded indignant. “Leafpool said that it healed after I caught it in the fox trap.”

“It did,” Jayfeather agreed. “You must have opened up the wound again. Can you remember catching it on anything lately?”

Berrynose hesitated. “I got stuck in some brambles when I was chasing a rabbit,” he admitted at last.

“That could do it,” Jayfeather mewed. “But there’s nothing to worry about. You need a poultice of marigold, that’s all. Wait there a moment.” He padded into the cave where the herbs were stored, and located the marigold. Chewing up the leaves, he returned to Berrynose. “Keep still while I plaster this on,” he mumbled around the mouthful.

“Can I be excused from duties?” the cream-colored warrior asked hopefully.

Jayfeather was unsympathetic. “No. You don’t patrol or catch prey with your tail. But come back here tomorrow and I’ll put a fresh poultice on.”

“Okay,” Berrynose mewed. “Thanks, Jayfeather. It does feel better.”

Right, Jayfeather thought when he had gone. Now for my plan…He went back into the cave and collected a few leaves of chervil, dandelion, and borage. Bounding across to the elders’ den, he set the leaves down in front of Mousefur.

“Are any of these the herb?” he demanded.

Mousefur let out an annoyed hiss. “What herb?”

Without the bunch of leaves in his mouth, Jayfeather could smell fresh-kill, and he guessed he had interrupted the elders’ meal. “The herb you told me about, the one Leafpool mixed with your tansy.”

“Oh, that.” The skinny elder still sounded grumpy. “What do you want to know for?”

“Just curious.” Jayfeather realized he had sounded too urgent. He didn’t want Mousefur to tell Leafpool what he was doing. “You never know, it might be useful.”

Mousefur let out a grunt and gave the herbs a suspicious sniff.

“Let me try, too,” Longtail offered. “I didn’t taste the stuff, but I might remember the scent.”

“Well?” Jayfeather asked, when both elders had given the herbs a good sniff.

“No, it wasn’t any of those,” Mousefur meowed. “I know these herbs. Leafpool uses them all the time for fever and infected wounds.”

“That’s right,” Longtail added. “Sorry.”

Jayfeather suppressed a frustrated sigh. “Not even this one?” he asked, pushing forward the chervil.

“What part of ‘no’ didn’t you understand?” Mousefur growled, giving his ear a stinging flick with her tail.

“Okay.” Jayfeather gathered up the herbs again. “Thanks. I’ll bring some more later.”

“Give us the chance to finish this rabbit first!” Mousefur called after him as he left the den.

Jayfeather returned to his own den, intent on finding more herbs for Mousefur and Longtail to try. But he had just replaced the chervil, dandelion, and borage in their proper places when he heard Leafpool enter the den behind him. A strong scent of yarrow came with her.

“Jayfeather, what are you doing?” she asked sharply. “Why do you smell as if you’ve been sleeping in our supplies?”

“Uh…I fell over in the store,” Jayfeather stammered. “I got herb dust on my pelt.”

Leafpool let out a long sigh. “Really, Jayfeather, it’s like having a kit in here! And why were you poking around in the store anyway?”

Jayfeather felt his pelt rising at the anxiety and fear that was flooding from his mentor. Why doesn’t she want me looking in the store? he wondered. I’ve as much right to be in there as she has! What is she hiding now?

“I wasn’t poking around,” he retorted. “And I cleaned the stuff up.”

Leafpool sniffed. “Put this yarrow away, then,” she ordered. “I want to go check on Millie’s breathing. She’s out there romping around with her kits, and it might be too much for her.”

Once Leafpool had gone, Jayfeather tidied away the yarrow and slipped out a daisy leaf and a sliver of burdock root. If it’s either of these, I’m a mouse! Making sure that Leafpool was over by the nursery with Millie, he hurried back to the elders’ den.

“You again!” Mousefur muttered. “What is it this time?”

She sniffed briefly at each of the herbs Jayfeather put in front of her, and tasted the daisy leaf. “No,” she mewed. “It wasn’t them.”

Longtail came over for a sniff, but he didn’t recognize the herbs either.

Jayfeather sighed. “Okay, we’ll keep trying.”

“I think you’ve got bees in your brain,” Mousefur meowed as she settled down for a nap.