Dustpaw had just finished his poultice, when his mentor appeared at the entrance to the den, her mouth full of borage and chervil. She slipped inside the den, deposited her supplies in a corner then turned her blue gaze towards her apprentice.
“I forgot the first part of your training,” she declared

“Well, well,” thought Dustpaw, waiting for her eldest to continue. “You are a mentor, and you don’t even know how to train an apprentice properly”

“Normally when a kit becomes an apprentice, it is the duty of the mentor to show them the territories, well that is the best known of course”

Dustpaw's eyes suddenly began to shine with hope
“Like for example, showing the apprentices the best grounds for hunting?” he wanted to know

“For example,” affirmed his mentor. “Except that I’m not taking you hunting, I actually wanted to show you the areas where the remedies grow, show you where to find comfrey, oak leaves, parsley... ”

The hope that Dustpaw had in him dissipated when Brambleleaf finished her sentence. Noticing her apprentice's disappointment, she added

“You're going to need it for later, you know I couldn't heal the Clan forever”

“And that’s supposed to comfort me?”

“When are we leaving?” The brown  apprentice asked her, trying to hide his desire to jump down her throat.

“Soon,” she replied, turning away to start putting away her harvest. “You can go eat a little before, if you want.”

“Alright” He walked away, and once outside, the first thing he saw was two apprentices, not far from the nursery, their fur bristling, ready to fight, all claws out.

Butterflypaw and Mousepaw of course! These two were never going to get along

What's going on? Asked the apprentice healer as he joined them

“Nothing!” Butterflypaw retorted dryly, without taking her eyes off Mousepaw. “It's just that mange-pelt trying to make me believe that the rabbit I caught, is poisoned!”

“I'm telling the truth!”Mousepaw defended himself. “What will happen to the clan if the warriors fall ill? Do you want to kill them or something?”

“Of course not!”

As they continued to argue, Dustpaw turned her attention to the rabbit in her sister's paws. With the tip of his claw, he slid it towards him, and sniffed it. The smell of the prey was abnormal, so Mousepaw was right

"It is indeed poisoned"
"And bam, in your whiskers!" Said Mousepaw to Butterflypaw, with a triumphant expression

“That being said, I don't know how or why you didn't sense it before catching it or bringing it here,” continued Dustpaw, who had not taken his eyes off the little inert body.

“In case you forgot, it was raining this morning,” his sister reminded him. “And the rain erases the smells, just like it erases our footprints in the snow, or in the grounds”

“Unless you're just stupid, that would be a better reason for it,” added Mousepaw, before taking a long step away.

Butterflypaw watched him go with a murderous look.
«In addition to being a nuisance, he is very talkative and too pretentious.» She sighed as she began to bury the sick prey

«Still, he saved the life of the clan by trying to warn you»

«You decide to defend him, and not your sister?» she said indignantly. «I... I'm sorry», she added, calming down. «It's just that I can't take it anymore»

Then without letting Dustpaw say a word, she turned away.

꧁༺ _________________________ ༻꧂

“I think that should be enough for now,” Brambleleaf meowed, taking the packet of marigold leaves.

“Do you want one of us to take you back to camp?” Windpetal suggested to her

The medicine cat shook her head
«It'll be fine, don't worry, come on» Dustpaw

The green-eyed apprentice then followed his mentor in the opposite direction. As she had promised, they had joined Windpetal's patrol, but while they were marking their territories, Brambleleaf had obviously been content to show him where most of the herbs grew.
This has been a terrible boredom to Dustpaw.

Back at camp, in the medecine cats' den, Brambleleaf spoke to her apprentice
“We are Medecine cats, but nothing prevents us from knowing how to defend ourselves, wait for me there”

Finally something interesting! Rejoiced Dustpaw, who was more than eager to finally learn the basics of warriors.

As Brambleleaf emerged from the den, a horde of footsteps scampered through the tunnel of roses, so much so that the stones shook. Dustpaw raised his head, he immediately recognized the white feline that came out, its shoulder was all stained with blood.
Brightlight was first to react

"Hurricanefur!" she screamed as she rushed towards her companion, followed by Stormpaw and Whirlpaw who had received their apprentice names two days before

"What happened?" Agilestar meowed as she joined them, and where is Mousepaw?

Hurricanefur was so out of breath that he couldn't even articulate, Brambleleaf approached him, and sniffed his wound.
— He got attacked by a badger

— There... there... there... are... all a... a... horde... said the wounded cat, Azurheart, Redarrow and Mouse are fighting them ..but I don't think they'll have a match against them."

" We have to break them down one by one!"Leafpelt hissed

" If one of these badgers dares to approach the camp, I'll eat them!" Added Broomflower

Agilestar intimated the silence with a flick of his tail.

" We must therefore send reinforcement patrols, I will take care of finding Windpetal's, and Flameshine will take care of sending another one," he then took the bramble tunnel, then disappeared there

"Alright" meowed Flameshine suddenly, who then turned her attention to Leafpelt and Broomflower, "since you seem determined to me, I would like you to lead the patrol, you can take whoever you want"

"I want to go!"

Dustpaw turned sharply towards the source of the voice.
"Butterflypaw, are you crazy or something?"

"And what's about it? The pale red-headed apprentice replied, I want to fight!

"You might get hurt!" Reedleaf  alarmed and stood next to her daughter.

" I'll be fine, it's just a few badgers of nothing at all"

Reedleaf didn't seem convinced, even Dustpaw knew this battle would be dangerous, and maybe even bloody.

“Butterflypaw,”Flameshine meowed, in hesitant voice. "It's very courageous of you to offer this, but... Are you really sure? It could cost you your life and you haven't yet mastered any fighting techniques."

"I still want to go" insisted Butterflypaw. Please Flameshine!

"Okay then," sighed deputy. "But stay close to the others"

Dustpaw noticed that his mother was trembling, and he knew why, she was afraid for Butterflypaw, just like the medecine apprentice.

“Oh Butterflypaw, why did you have to volunteer?”

Let me know if there's any mistakes-