The Shadow Glare

Chapter 18

The yowling of cats outside scared Riverpaw. She had no battle training at all, and she had no clue what she would do if a cat attacked her.
Surely they wouldn't attack a Medicine Cat? Riverpaw wondered. They wouldn't . . . But then again, one of them did murder my mother, which just shows they would hurt me . . .

Blackwave seemed to read her mind, because suddenly, Riverpaw felt a comforting tail-tip on her shoulder.
"I know your worried," Blackwave spoke. "but if those cats have any heart in them, they won't hurt a Medicine Cat."

Riverpaw looked at the Medicine Cat gratefully. Riverpaw padded over to the entrance of the den. Loud caterwauling was heard outside as cats fought. Riverpaw glanced around looking for her sister and friends. Soon she spotted the black and light-grey pelts of Shadowpaw and Ashpaw. She looked to the nursery, where Chickfluff was viciously guarding her kits against a small tortoiseshell cat.
But where's Emberpaw?

As she searched harder for the dark-grey she-cat, she had no luck. But she could see Emberpaw's mother; Wildflame. The orange she-cat was swiping at a large white tom's face. He yowled as she clawed his ear and quickly fled.

Riverpaw started to panic as she couldn't see Emberpaw anywhere. Where could she be?
Then, Blackwave called out. "Come quick, Pebblestar's hurt!"
Immediately forgetting her panicked attempts of finding Emberpaw, Riverpaw ran to her mentor and panted. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Blackwave mewed frantically. "She was fighting Hawkclaw!"
Suddenly, a brown tabby pushed its way into the den and sneered. "Hawkclaw? Take a moment and think, will you? Have you seen Pondstar here today? No, because she isn't our leader anymore. Hawkstar is."

Riverpaw was surprised that an enemy warrior had pushed its way into the medicine den, and even more so that Pondstar was dead.
"How did she die?" Riverpaw asked.
Beside her, Blackwave was digging violently into the ground, as if she wanted to attack the brown tabby.
As soon as she asked, the tabby became defensive. "None of your business!" He spat, as he stalked out of the den to join the fighting once more.
Riverpaw rushed to Pebblestar, who was lying on her side in the clearing. She coughed, evil blood spitting out of her mouth.

Hawkstar jumped onto the High Peak and began to speak, all the cats stopped fighting to listen to him. "This is only the beginning of my reign. Be prepared to fight for your lives." The massive brown tom spat with pure hate. Cats glanced around in terror, including some of the ShadeClan cats. Good. At least not all of them agree with his bloodthirsty power. Pebblestar writhed on the ground and opened her jaws feebly, seemingly like she was trying to speak.
Then Hawkstar leaped off of the High Peak and made his way to the camp entrance. He signalled for his cats to follow, and then stalked out of the entrance.
Pebblestar started to cough violently. As blood flooded out of her mouth, Riverpaw frantically called for Blackwave. "Blackwave, hurry! She's bleeding!"

But before her mentor arrived, Pebblestar started to twitch and then lie still. Blackwave was soon there, touching Pebblestar's body.
"Is she dead?" Riverpaw asked nervously.

"She still had three lives left," Blackwave reassured Riverpaw. "It will be a few moments before she wakes. Right now, we need to treat the others."
Riverpaw followed her mentor back to the medicine den where cats had begun to line up.

"Who has the worst injuries?" Blackwave called into the crowd. She seemed completely confident in herself. Well of course, she's done this before, after all.

"Stormpelt tore a few claws," Yellowear nudged his brother.

"And Brightpelt has a belly wound," Weaselgrowl added. "Not too bad, but bad enough."

"Nothing worse?" Blackwave asked.

"I don't think," Redfoot replied.
As the two cats that were the worst injured came forward, Blackwave growled. "It's lucky there was nothing worse."

While Blackwave tended to Brightpelt's injury, Riverpaw tended to Stormpelt's. The grey warrior limped over, one of his front paws stained with blood.
"I'm guessing you haven't cleaned it yet?" Riverpaw mewed.

Stormpelt nodded. "There hasn't been any time."
Riverpaw nudged him. "Well, you can do it now. I can't help you when there's all that blood in the way!"
As the grey warrior washed his bloody paw, Riverpaw glanced around at the other warriors. Ashpaw had a torn ear and Shadowpaw had scratches all along her side.
But where's Emberpaw?

Soon Stormpelt's grunted. "I'm done."
Riverpaw turned back to him and sniffed the wound. It smelled like crow-food.

"You have an infection," She announced. "You'll need some oak leaf for that." 
She padded away to the herb store and quickly grabbed some of the large leaf. She also pawed out a few scraps of comfrey to soothe the pain.
When she arrived back to the grey tom, she began to explain what she was about to do.
"I need to chew these up and mix it to make a poultice. Then I'll put it on your paw. It should stop the infection and soothe the pain."

Stormpelt nodded. "Thanks, Riverpaw."

Riverpaw couldn't suppress a purr. "I'm your Medicine Cat: I'm here to help!"

"And I'm glad you are! You'll be a great Medicine Cat."
As Stormpelt left, Ashpaw came forward, Windstorm, Shadowpaw and Cloudswirl trailing after him.

"Hi." Riverpaw blinked. She had just realised how many cats she had to treat.
"Hi." Shadowpaw mimicked playfully.
Riverpaw flicked her tail over her sisters head.
"I have some scratches." Shadowpaw explained.

Riverpaw sighed. "Ok, I'll be right back with some dock."