The Apprentice's Quest by Erin Hunter Page A

it’s already starting to work,” Cherryfall mewed after a moment. “Thanks, Alderpaw. I’m so glad to be rid of the pain.”
    â€œIt’s nothing,” Alderpaw mumbled, embarrassed.
    Cherryfall got up, keeping her injured paw off the ground, and touched her nose to Alderpaw’s ear. “I’m so pleased you’ve found your place as a medicine cat,” she told him. “Jayfeather and Leafpool will be very proud of you.”
    Alderpaw watched Cherryfall as she left the den, feeling his pelt tingle with pride at her words. I’ve treated my first injury all on my own!
    Voices sounded from outside the den, and Alderpaw realized that Jayfeather had returned. He couldn’t hear what heand Cherryfall were saying, but he could guess.
    Cherryfall must be telling Jayfeather what a great job I’m doing!
    But when Jayfeather entered the den with a bundle of yarrow in his jaws, his neck fur was bristling and his tail-tip was twitching to and fro. “Is it true what Cherryfall just told me?” he demanded, dropping the herbs. “Did you give out a remedy without asking?”
    Alderpaw felt his heart plummeting and his whole pelt burning with shame as he realized he had managed to do the wrong thing again. “Well . . . y-yes,” he stammered. “But Cherryfall said her wound hurt, and I remembered you said a poultice of comfrey root would help. I chewed it up really well, just like you taught me.” When Jayfeather made no comment, he added more desperately, “I wouldn’t have given her anything if I wasn’t very, very sure I knew what it would do. But I was certain that’s what comfrey root is for . And it helped! She felt much better!”
    Jayfeather let out a long growl deep in his throat. “Yes, it will help with the pain. But sometimes pain is a warning sign, telling a cat that something is wrong. What if Cherryfall had an infection and you dulled the pain? Then her infection would have gotten worse, without any cat knowing. Infections can be very dangerous.”
    â€œBut . . . but . . .” Alderpaw tried to protest, but he felt so guilty it was hard to get the words out. “I checked for infection, and Cherryfall showed no signs of it.”
    I was only trying to help, he thought. I didn’t realize I could have made things worse.
    â€œI’m so sorry,” he mewed miserably. “I never should have done it. I won’t ever do it again!”
    Jayfeather relaxed slightly, angling his ears toward the sleeping Briarlight, and Alderpaw realized that his voice had risen on the last few words.
    â€œYou were right,” Jayfeather conceded. “I checked Cherryfall myself, and she didn’t have an infection. But sometimes the signs can be hard to spot, especially if a medicine cat is still learning . . . which you will be for quite some time. Until you’ve had more training, you should stick to doing only whatever Leafpool and I tell you.”
    Alderpaw bowed his head. “Okay, Jayfeather.”
    â€œSo for now,” Jayfeather went on more briskly, “you can get some mouse bile and go do the elders’ ticks.”
    Alderpaw stifled a sigh. “Yes, Jayfeather.”
    When Alderpaw reached the elders’ den under the hazel bushes, carrying a twig with a ball of bile-soaked moss dangling from the tip, only Sandstorm was there.
    â€œHi,” she meowed, a friendly look in her green eyes. “I’m glad to see you. Graystripe and Millie have gone for a walk, and Purdy is sunning himself somewhere. I’ve got a huge tick on my shoulder, just where I can’t get at it.”
    Alderpaw parted Sandstorm’s fur to find the tick, thendabbed mouse bile on it. This time he couldn’t suppress a sigh, to think that he was back on tick duty just as if he had never become a medicine-cat apprentice.
    Sandstorm wriggled her shoulders gratefully as the tick fell off. “That’s much