With an irritated twitch of her whiskers, Sparkpelt obeyed. Her belly heaved, but to Twigpaw’s relief the healing herbs stayed down.

“I’m really sorry,” Twigpaw mewed. “I’ll come and see you later.”

“Thanks,” Sparkpelt growled. Her eyes were glazed and she looked exhausted; she seemed a different cat from the energetic Sparkpelt Twigpaw knew. “Twigpaw,” she added as Twigpaw turned to go, “I’ll give you some more challenging tasks when I recover. But for now, you’ll have to learn what you can with Larksong and Finpaw.”

“I’ll do my best,” Twigpaw promised.

She retreated from the den, dashed across the camp, and joined Larksong and Finpaw, who were waiting beside the entrance to the thorn tunnel.

When she gave them the news, Larksong glanced wistfully at the medicine cats’ den, as if he wanted to see Sparkpelt himself. Then he gave his pelt a shake. “Come on,” he meowed. “Hunting practice this morning.”

Twigpaw prepared to be bored as she followed Larksong and Finpaw into the forest. She tried hard to be patient while Larksong got Finpaw to practice the hunter’s crouch, even though she could see that Finpaw had forgotten all about what he should do with his tail.

Finally she had to speak. “Finpaw, if you keep letting your tail bob up and down, you’ll alert any prey you’re trying to stalk.”

“Oops. Okay, thanks, Twigpaw.” Finpaw tucked his tail in.

“Yes, thank you so much.” Larksong’s voice was heavily sarcastic. “I’m sure I’d never have noticed his tail. I couldn’t possibly have been waiting until I was sure he’d gotten his paws in the right position.” Then he relaxed a little and gave Twigpaw a friendly shove. “Come over here a moment.” Glancing over his shoulder, he added, “Finpaw, practice by yourself for a bit. Pretend that dead leaf over there is a mouse.”

“What do you want?” Twigpaw asked, as she and Larksong withdrew a few tail-lengths from where Finpaw was busy creeping up on the leaf.

“It’s not helping Finpaw to train with you,” Larksong told her. “You’re much more advanced, and it’s not fair to him. He’s so enthusiastic, and he’ll try to do the things you can do. If he fails, he might get despondent, and that will affect his confidence.”

Do you even know your apprentice? Twigpaw thought. That cat has enough confidence to fill up the stone hollow, and then some!

“I get that,” she meowed to Larksong. “So what do you want me to do?”

“You might as well go back to camp for now,” Larksong decided. “See if the elders need anything, or if you can help the medicine cats.”

Twigpaw dipped her head. “Okay.” As she padded off toward the camp, she heard Finpaw’s voice behind her, raised in a triumphant yowl. “Hey, Larksong, I killed the leaf!”