#strawberryclan

Waterpelt noticed their attitude. “Hey, I don’t make the rules.” He told them. “You guys are the only two warriors in the clan right now so you have to do your jobs.” Waterpelt turned to lead them out of camp and Rainlilac scoffed. “Well that really wasn’t necessary.” He muttered to Fallowspirit. Fallowspirit nodded. 

Waterpelt raised his tail for the patrol to stop after walking through the territory, searching for prey, for a while. “Fallowspirit, go over there incase the mouse tries to run that way.” Waterpelt whispered and pointed to his left. Fallowspirit nodded and spotted the mouse in the long grass. 

“Rainlilac,” Waterpelt turned to him. Rainlilac snapped his attention to the patrol after gazing around, not listening to Waterpelt. “Rainlilac, you are a warrior, not a six-moon-old apprentice. With such a small clan we need your attention to help.” Waterpelt sighed.

Rainlilac didn’t respond and rolled his eyes when Waterpelt looked away. 

“I need you to go straight ahead and wait there. When I give the command we jump out and attack the mouse, depending on which way the mouse runs will be who attacks. But let me catch it if the mouse stays where it is.” Waterpelt eyed Rainlilac. Rainlilac slumped away, rounding around the mouse. Fallowspirit could see him mocking Waterpelt under his breath as Waterpelt turned his attention to the mouse. 

Fallowspirit crept to the spot Waterpelt told him to go, the cats now lined up to make a triangle. He saw Waterpelt’s tail flick above the grass and leapt out of his hiding spot with the others. The mouse shrieked at the sight of the cats and ran towards Rainlilac before quickly turning and running into the bushes where there were no cats. Rainlilac watched coldly as the mouse ran away. Fallowspirit heard Waterpelt sigh. 

“Rainlilac.” Waterpelt started to say. “Why didn’t you catch the mouse?” 

Rainlilac shrugged. “You said you were gonna catch it.” He said dismissively. 

“Yeah, if it was near me.” Waterpelt gritted his teeth, trying to hide his anger. 

Rainlilac sat down. “Well, you looked at me like you were telling me to not catch the mouse and let you do it.” Waterpelt closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his expression trying to hide his anger. Waterpelt walked over and whispered to Fallowspirit “Could you talk some sense into him?” 

“I could try.” Fallowspirit giggled. He saw that the deputy didn’t find it funny and snapped to a serious face as he walked over to Rainlilac. He pointed his head to a small clearing. “Come on, let's go practice and give Waterpelt some air.”

“Fine.” Rainlilac groaned. 

They got to the clearing and sat in silence. Fallowspirit had never conducted a training session, what was he meant to do and say? “How about you start by showing me your hunting crouch?” He suggested, nervously. Rainlilac giggled and got into his hunting crouch position. Fallowspirit padded around him, carefully inspecting his crouch for any weak spots. “Why do you not like Waterpelt?” Fallowspirit asked as he adjusted Rainlilac’s foot placement. 

“It’s not that I don’t like him.” Rainlilac retorted. “It’s just funny to annoy him. I mean, did you see the look on his face?” Rainlilac laughed. Fallowspirit couldn’t help but laugh too. “I guess it was pretty funny.” Fallowspirit padded to Rainlilac’s other side. “Remember to keep your tail down but not dragging on the ground.” He told Rainlilac, gently pushing his tail down a little. 

Rainlilac nodded to Fallowspirit. “Waterpelt’s pretty charming. I see why Strawberrystar chose him to be deputy, he’s got a strong head.” 

“Yeah?” Fallowspirit looked up at Rainlilac swiftly before going back to his inspection. 

“Yeah.” Rainlilac agreed. “Though it is annoying that he thinks he’s privileged just for being the deputy.” Fallowspirit nodded. Fallowspirit stood and commanded for Rainlilac to do the same with a gesture of his tail. “I don’t think he appreciates the teasing though,” Fallowspirit told Rainlilac. Rainlilac smiled to himself. “I know.”

Fallowspirit then perked his ears and sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?" He asked Rainlilac. Rainlilac sniffed the air. "Smells like a rogue!" Rainlilac said with excitement.

"You stay here and make sure we don't lose them and I'll grab Waterpelt." Fallowspirit quickly turned away before seeing if Rainlilac acknowledged his orders.

He left his den into the quiet of the camp. All the cats were in their dens for the night. Fallowspirit was guarding the camp entrance as he left. “Safe travels, Flightsky.” Fallowspirit called after him. Flightsky nodded his head and continued for the grassfields. He dreaded the long walk ahead of him to the Moontree. He had only been the clan's medicine cat for eight days but he was already tired. 

He walked through the forest, past the double tree, across the thunderpath, crossing the river on the twoleg bridge, and lastly climbing down the rocks into the grassfields. He saw Droughtwatcher, Blinkpaw, and Scorchsplash already waiting there. He inspected Droughtwatcher. The Lemonclan medicine cat was already 180 moons old. I wonder how long he has left. He then looked at Blinkpaw. She was already 8 moons old but looked so young next to Droughtwatcher. Good thing Droughtwatcher already has an apprentice. He then remembered his own age. He was getting old and should try to find an apprentice soon. It’d be the safe thing to do. 

The medicine cats exchanged greetings with each other as they waited for Doveshine. She climbed down the hill from the Blueberryclan side of the border a few minutes later. 

“I hope you didn’t have to wait too long.” She nervously giggled.

“Not long at all.” Droughtwatcher responded. 

The medicine cats started their trek along the river to the Moontree. After they crossed the thunderpath Flightsky said “I need to tell you guys something.”

All the medicine cats turned their heads to listen. “I had a dream from Starclan a few nights ago.” He told them. “I was gathering herbs along the river by the Lemonclan border and there were three lemons and then rotted after a minute. The sky then split half and half with day and night and the lemons changed back to normal and not rotten.” He was talking so fast and forgot to breathe, the image still clear in his mind. 

Blinkpaw looked scared. “What does that mean for Lemonclan?” She asked in a quivering voice. 

“Well, clearly something bad is going to happen to Lemonclan that makes the clan rotten.” Scorchsplash said in a matter-of-fact voice. 

“So does something with the day and night have anything to do with saving Lemonclan?” Doveshine chimed in. 

The medicine cats nodded their heads. “I think it’s too soon to tell what the omen means.” Droughtwatcher told them. “If Flightsky only had the dream a few days ago it means it’s something that will happen in the future, but not yet. So keep it on your minds but don’t worry yet.” 

He caught up to Cobrakit. “Tag!” He said, trying to sound happy for her sake. 

“Nooo!” Cobrakit screamed, playfully. “Okay, it’s your turn to hide!”

Flightsky sighed. Greenpaw, who was staring off into space, was sitting near them. Behind her he could see Waterpelt and Strawberrystar talking. He listened in on their conversation. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Waterpelt asked. “No clan has ever done it before.” 

“That’s why I want to try it.” Strawberrystar insisted. “If we don’t try we’ll never know if it works.” 

“Got you!” Flightsky turned and Cobrakit leaped on top of him. “Why didn’t you hide?” She asked him. Greenpaw walked over from where she was sitting. 

“How ‘bout you leave Flightsky alone, I’ll play with you instead.” She told Cobrakit. Flightsky got up and smiled at her gratefully. He shook out his pelt and walked over to Waterpelt and Strawberrystar to join their conversation. 

Strawberrystar saw him coming and raised his tail in greeting. “Hey, Flightsky.” He said. 

Flightsky sat down and asked “What are you guys talking about?” 

“My idea about marriage.” Strawberrystar responded. “Waterpelt doesn’t seem to think it’s a good idea.” 

“I’m just saying there are many flaws in it.” Waterpelt growled. “It just complicates things.” 

“What do you find to be flaws?” Flightsky asked in a calm voice. 

“Well, to start.” Waterpelt thought for a minute. “What if the cats break up? What do they do then?” 

“They can get divorced.” Strawberrystar responded. 

“And how would that work?” Waterpelt asks. Strawberrystar thought. “They would tell the leader they want to be divorced and then silently spread the news around the clan. And that’s that.”

“How do they get married?” Waterpelt asked next. This time Strawberrystar was quick to respond. “Well, first, one cat proposes to the other. If the other cat says yes then they tell their leader and the ceremony will be scheduled for sometime the next moon. At the gathering they can invite the other clans to come too. The leader will officiate the wedding and they get married. They can also choose to take one of the others' name.”

“How does changing a name work?” Waterpelt asked, confused. 

“So, say you have two cats named, um,” Strawberrystar thought for a minute. “Frostwhisker and Leafpelt. When they get married they can choose to keep their names the same or change them. When they change their names their prefix stays the same, but Frostwhisker can change to Frostpelt or Leafpelt can change to Leafwhisker. If the two have kits they can also choose to have their kits take the name too.” 

“And how does the kit taking the name work? What if they have five kits? Do all of them take their name?” Waterpelt asked. 

Strawberrystar was ready to respond, expecting that Waterpelt would ask that. “I imagine that before their warrior ceremony the family talks and the kits can decide if they want to take a name. If their parents didn’t take each other's names then nobody would take another name.”

“What if the kits don’t have married parents?” Waterpelt asked next. 

“Then they don’t take a name either.” Strawberrystar answered. 

“What about leaders?” Waterpelt continued. “Their names have to end in 'star, so would their mate take ‘star as a name?”

“That’s the only exception. When the leader gets married both cats keep their name.” 

“What if there’s another cat in the clan with the same suffix, do you just change their name too?” Waterpelt asked with a smug expression on his face, hoping to catch Strawberrystar this time. 

“No, they get to keep their name. It doesn’t really matter if another unrelated cat has the same name. It’s basically just a gesture to show how devoted they are to each other or if they want a legacy name, you know?” Strawberrystar told him. 

There was a pause for a heartbeat until Strawberrystar asked, “Anything else?” 

“What are we doing today?” She asked. 

“Flightsky told me he needs some watermint, so we’re going to search the riverbed for some.” He flicked his tail, signaling for her to follow him and they exit the camp. 

“How are you liking the clan so far?” Strawberrystar asked her, making small talk. He hoped he set a good impression as leader in the first five days of the clan. 

“It’s fun here.” She responded. “Mostly everyone here is nice.” 

Good. “If anyone’s ever bothering you you can always tell me and I’ll deal with them.” He told her. Greenpaw smiled at Strawberrystar. 

“Why did you choose Waterpelt to be your deputy?” She asked Strawberrystar. 

Strawberrystar was taken aback by the question. Why did I choose Waterpelt to be deputy? “I, um.” He started to say. “He seemed like he’d be a strong head for the clan, especially since I’m way too young to be leader. I respect his judgment, you know?” Greenpaw nodded understandingly. 

They walked in silence for a heartbeat. “I bet I can beat you to the river.” Strawberrystar teased Greenpaw. Greenpaw pretended to be offended, over exaggerating. “I bet not!” She exclaimed. Greenpaw bolted away, getting a head start with Strawberrystar quickly running behind her. 

Greenpaw skidded to a halt in front of the river. Strawberrystar stopping a heartbeat after her. “Told you.” Greenpaw said, puffing her chest with pride. 

“That wasn’t fair.” Strawberrystar said, panting. “You got a head start.” 

“I still got here first.” Greenpaw turned away. Strawberrystar laughed. He trotted to catch up with her. They walked along the riverbed searching for the green, leafy herb. 

“Hey, isn’t that watermint?” She asked Strawberrystar, pointing to a plant poking out of the mud. Strawberrystar padded over to inspect the plant. “Yeah, I think so.” He said. They worked together to pluck some leaves from the plant. They picked up the leaves and walked back to camp. 

They entered camp and Waterpelt was walking out of camp with his patrol. He raised his tail in greeting when he saw them. Strawberrystar returned the greeting, also raising his tail. They entered camp and saw Cobrakit playing with a leaf. She looked up and her eyes grew big when she saw them. 

They walked over to the medicine den. When they entered the den Strawberrystar dropped the herbs. “Flightsky?” He called. The black and white medicine popped his head out of a crevice in the rock where he had his herbs stored.

“Thank you.” He quickly padded over and picked up the leaves to put in his herb stores. He walked back out and asked them in a hushed whisper, “Did you see anything weird? Perhaps, three lemons across the river?” 

Strawberrystar shook his head. “No, why do you ask?” 

Flightsky shrugged. “No reason.” 

They exited the den. Three lemons across the river, that’s oddly specific. He then remembered Flightsky had mentioned he had a dream earlier that day. I wonder if it has anything to do with the dream he had.  

Cobrakit ran over to Greenpaw and Strawberrystar. “Can Greenpaw play?” She asked hopefully. Greenpaw looked expectantly at Strawberrystar. He chuckled. “Sure thing. We’ll train some more later, okay?” 

“Okay! Thank you!” Greenpaw chased Cobrakit around camp, their laughs filling the air. 

“I had a dream!” He exclaimed, his pelt prickling with excitement. 

“Really?” Flightsky said. I wonder if he had the same dream. “So did I.”

“Okay, I’ll say mine first.” Strawberrystar told him. “I dreamed of the idea of marriage.” His eyes sparkled with excitement. 

“Yeah…?” Flightsky said, trying to sound happy. “And what’s that?” He asked. So it was not the same dream. 

Strawberrystar took a big breath. “So, basically, after two cats have been mates for a while one can propose to the other and they get married. Basically just to show that they’re serious about each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together. A cat could also say no to the proposal if they’re not ready. And if the tragedy of two married cats breaking up happens they can get divorced. A cat could also take the last name of the other, an exception being made for leaders since their names have to end with ‘star.” Strawberrystar looked expectantly at Flightsky. 

“Seems like you put a lot of thought into that.” Flightsky commented. 

“Oh yes!” Strawberrystar bounced. “It’ll be an idea that lasts for centuries!” 

Flightsky nodded his head and there was an awkward silence. “So, what was your dream?” Strawberrystar asked, breaking the silence. 

“Oh, it was nothing important.” Flightsky responded. He’s too young to know what it means. 

“Oh, okay!” Strawberrystar stood up. “See you around!” Strawberrystar turned to the den entrance. 

“Strawberrystar, wait.” Flightsky stood up too. 

“Yes, Flightsky?”

“Can you go get me some watermint?” He asked.

He saw some watermint poking out of the mud and ran over to it. The watermint was growing right next to the Lemonclan border. I hope they don’t mind me being this close. He plucked the leaves from the plant and placed them next to him on the dry land. 

He picked up his haul of herbs and turned to leave. He glanced one more time at the lemons. The yellow fruit was shriveled and rotten. That’s strange. He glanced over at the Lemonclan border. I wonder if it’s an omen about Lemonclan. 

He turned away and kept walking back to camp. As he walked he noticed the sky getting dark. He looked up expecting to see the day turn into night but to his surprise the sky was split half-and-half. The left half of the sky was dark with night and the moon glowing and the right side of the sky was still day with the sun high in the sky. He turned to look back at the lemons. The lemons were slowly becoming fresh again, the rotten and shriveled skin changing back to smooth yellow skin. 

His jaw dropped, the watermint leaves falling out of his mouth. He ran forward and stepped in the water. He tried to swim across to get a closer look at the lemons. He struggled to swim against the current. He turned his head to see a giant wave over him.