Jaggedstar's Choice {COMPLETE}

Chapter 34

Coughing woke Jaggedtail from his deep sleep. He lifted his head and looked around to see where the coughing was coming from. It was near the back of the den, and he spotted Flamewhisker sitting up and coughing loudly. "Are you alright?" Foxwhisker spoke, he had been woken up as well and his eyes showed concern for his sister.

"Yeah I'm--" Her words were cut off by another violent bout of coughing.

"No, you're not." Foxwhisker stood up. "Let's go see Sagefeather." As Flamewhisker stepped into the moonlight Jaggedtail could see that her eyes and nose were streaming. Another one is sick. Jaggedtail thought bitterly. This made Flamewhisker the third cat in the Clan to be sick, the others being Badgerstrike who couldn't shake his cough earlier and Vinetail who had been diagnosed with greencough just a few days before.

It was nearly as bad as the last season, as they were already a moon into leaf-bare and only three cats were sick but that didn't mean it was over or that no other cats would get sick. Jaggedtail attempted to go back to sleep, but he couldn't. He laid in his nest, listening to the breathing and gentle snoring of his Clanmates.

Luckily, sickness had stayed away from the nursery and elder's den. Jaggedtail feared every single day that one of his kits would get sick, he didn't know if he would be able to handle losing one of them, even the thought made him sick to his stomach. Or even losing Elmheart, Maplepool, Cherrypool or anyone else in his family. I hate this heartless season. I wish it would just be over.

Jaggedtail rested in his nest until the sun rays of dawn began to peek through the entrance of the warriors den. He then decided to get up and start his dawn, perhaps he would be able to get onto the dawn patrol. He spotted Daisyfern already up and active, ready to assign the day's patrols.

Jaggedtail crossed the snowy camp to reach the deputy. "Good morning, Daisyfern." Jaggedtail dipped his head.

"Good morning, Jaggedtail." Daisyfern waved her tail. 'Looking to get onto the dawn patrol?" She questioned.

"Sure, I'm up might as well make myself useful." Jaggedtail shrugged.

"Sounds good to me, I'll go gather the other warriors I've chosen." Daisyfern returned the warriors den and came back with Amberflame, Rabbitwing, Willowstrike and Shorttail. Daisyfern led the way out of the camp and they set out towards the MoonClan border.

Cloudstar had kept to her word and everything had been normal around the border, no stray scents and their border wasn't extra strong like it had been before. Jaggedtail was convinced that things really had gone back to normal between the two Clans. He hoped that they had, he didn't want to raise his sons into a war, he would rather raise them to live a peaceful life.

The patrol walked along the river bank which was flowing slowly in the gentle weather. It was brisk outside, but it wasn't snowing or windy. The sun was shining overhead, reflecting off the surface of the snow and nearly blinding Jaggedtail but he pushed through it. The patrol reached the MoonClan border and Daisyfern gave it a sniff. "Nothing out of the ordinary." She reported. "As usual, hopefully it stays this way."

Daisyfern commanded Shorttail to go mark the border and they began heading back towards camp. It had been an easy patrol, but a good way for Jaggedtail to wake up. On the way back, Jaggedtail managed to catch a squirrel and decided to bring it to Cherrypool and the kits if they were awake.

They reached camp as the sun started to rise and LichenClan was starting to become a lot more active. The patrol broke up and Jaggedtail started on his way to the nursery. He was halfway across camp when he noticed Sunstorm padding towards him. Jaggedtail set his squirrel down and faced his father, he couldn't help but notice the troubled expression on his face.