Faster! Slowly.
Cinderpaw was the fastest apprentice in ThunderClan. "Faster!" she shouted, racing her mentor Fireheart through the ferns.
She was first over the log and first up the hill. "Faster!" she called to the wind. Fireheart could only just keep up.
One morning she raced down a steep bank, too fast. Her paws slipped on the wet leaves. She tumbled, and her back leg twisted under her.
Fireheart carried her to the medicine cat, Yellowfang. Yellowfang wrapped the leg in cobwebs and soft leaves. "Rest," she said. "No running."
The days went by. Her leg got better, but it stayed stiff. It would never run fast again. Cinderpaw lay in the nest and watched the others race past outside.
Yellowfang dropped a heap of leaves in front of her. "If you're going to lie there," she grumbled, "sort these. I want them done by sunhigh."
Cinderpaw sniffed each leaf. She learned them all: tansy, marigold, borage. When Mousefur came in coughing, Cinderpaw found the tansy before Yellowfang even asked.
Picking herbs was not a race. You had to go slowly, so you did not crush the leaves. "Slowly," Cinderpaw told herself, and her paws were steady.
Fireheart came to see her. "Do you want to try running again?" he asked. Cinderpaw shook her head. "I'm going to be a medicine cat," she said.
At sunset they walked home side by side, slowly. Cinderpaw carried the herbs, and Fireheart carried nothing at all. "Slowly," she said. It was the best speed there was.
