Jaypaw felt a flood of sympathy for the young kit. “You were scared and hurt.”

“I’m fine now, thanks to you.” Toadkit began to head toward the entrance.

“Aren’t you going to wait for Daisy to fetch you?” Jaypaw called.

Toadkit paused. “I think I can find my way back to the nursery.”

Cheeky furball! Jaypaw felt a flicker of pride. Toadkit had been hard work, but Jaypaw had managed to earn his respect.

As the brambles swished shut behind the young kit, Jaypaw began clearing up the unused pulp. “I’ll take the poppy seed over to the nursery before bedtime,” he promised Leafpool before she could remind him.

But Leafpool seemed busy with her own thoughts. Jaypaw paused from his clearing up. She’s worried. Her mind, though closed to him, seemed to prickle with uneasy energy, like lightning on the horizon. As she padded to where Jaypaw had left the half-wrapped packet of honey, her steps were heavy, as though weariness weighted her paws. She must’ve worked twice as hard while I was away. He quickly scraped up the last of the pulp and, flicking it into the corner of the den, hurried to help his mentor.

“Sorry I didn’t have time to finish this.” He pressed his paws down on the honey parcel, now well bundled in rhubarb leaf, and held it fast while Leafpool wrapped the bark strips around it.

She tucked the last one in place. “You had to look after Toadkit.” Even her mew sounded tired. Why hadn’t he noticed before?

“I’ll check the stores,” he meowed, licking the last of the dock juice from his paws. “You were saying that we need to find out what we’ve got before leaf-fall arrives, in case we need to stock up.” He padded to the rock cleft and squeezed inside before Leafpool could offer to help.

They had only recently discovered this useful gap in the rock wall of the medicine cave. Leafpool had been clearing away the ivy that had gradually been creeping along the cave wall, threatening to dip its greedy roots into the precious supply of rainwater that pooled at the side of the den. The crack was narrow, wide enough for only a small cat to squeeze through, but inside it opened into a space large enough for a nest. Inside it now, Jaypaw had enough room to turn around, and he began sniffing the different piles of herbs, berries, and roots stacked along the wall.

“Pass them out,” Leafpool called. “We can see what we’ve got.”

One pile at a time, Jaypaw pushed them through the cleft. By the time he emerged, Leafpool had them ordered into neat rows. His sensitive nose placed each scent until he had built a picture in his mind of one small heap piled beside the next: comfrey, mallow, thyme, catmint, poppy seeds gathered in an expertly folded bark shell, and countless more.