Warriors: The Prophecy of Fire

Chapter Fifteen

"Hawthornepaw, get up!" a voice mewed urgently, a paw shaking her shoulder. She yawned and sat up, seeing a familiar black tom standing over her, his amber eyes hazed with worry.

"Mosstail! What's wrong?"

"It's turned into greencough, the cats are getting worse, I don't know if they'll pull through. Dawnstar isn't letting me ask for help and we're running out of catmint. A few have fevers so I've given them some borage, I've given the ones still with just whitecough some tansy, but before we know it the entire Clan is going to be sick. I've had some tansy, I'll give some to the healthy cats in the morning, and here's some for you," he mews, pushing some towards her, which she quickly eats. "We need help, can you try talking to Dawnstar? Maybe she'd listen to a young cat or something, I don't know, we just need help."

"Of course," she mews, making her way out of the apprentice den and over to the sick cats, seeing Dawnstar sitting up weakly, grooming her fur. "Hey, Dawnstar," Hawthornepaw says gently, dipping her head to the golden she-cat. "Can we go to the other medicine cats and ask for help? We have kits and elders who are sick, young warriors and parents, please let us get some help."

Dawnstar sighs, "No, RiverClan is strong. I don't want to lose anyone, and I understand the risks, but we will not ask for help." Hawthornepaw sighs and nods, before walking out of the den. She pads back to Mosstail, who's sitting his nest.

"She still said no, I'm sorry." He just shakes his head and curls up in his nest, quickly falling asleep. Hawthornepaw follows suit, making sure she's comfortable before closing her eyes, feeling the warmth of sleep crash over her, from the tips of her ears to the bottom of her toes.

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She woke to a cold breeze ruffling her fur, chilling her to the bone. Fluffing out her fur she stood up and walked out of the den, heading over to the medicine cat den and the stocks, grabbing some tansy and walking over to the sleeping warriors, gently telling them to wake up. They stretch out, arching their backs, but Hawthornepaw's eyes fall on one young warrior in particular, his black and white pelt ruffled from sleep, his blue eyes still dazed from sleep. She shakes out her fur before pushing the yellow flowers to the middle of the den. 

"Eat it, it'll help you not get sick," they gobble up the flowers and swallow quickly. 

"We should still do patrols, those who want to patrol stand by me, those who want to hunt on the other side." Reedheart joins her mate along with Doveleaf, and Nightsky, Brushbranch, and Willowwing go to the other side and they trot out of camp and into the woods outside the camp. Hawthornepaw takes the extra tansy and gives it to Lakeclaw, Oakkit, and Fernfoot before heading back to the medicine cat den to help Mosstail.

"How's it going?"

"Not good, Skykit and Ravenwing are doing especially bad since they're so weak, and we're all out of catmint."

"What about chickweed?"

"None of that, either."

"When's the next half moon?"

"Not for another quarter moon, we can't wait that long."

"I'll go ask for help then."

"You can't though, you must do what Dawnsky says, she is your leader after all."

Hawthornepaw sighs, "Fine," she walks away, her head hung low, defeated. She heads back to her nest and sits there, thinking for a little while until it comes to her. Sure, she's not supposed to get help, but they really need catmint and if they don't get it cats will die. 

I'm gonna go ask for help she says to herself, before standing up and glancing around to make sure nobody sees her, and slinks out of camp, belly brushing the ground as she crept out of camp and to the border. When she reached the WindClan border, she stood up and walked into their territory, heading to their camp. They saw her and two of the warriors, a large black tom with amber eyes and a golden brown she-cat with amber eyes, walk up to her, fur bristling.

"What are you doing in our camp fish-breath," the she-cat hisses at her, before a large, dark grey cat with knowing blue eyes stepped in front of them, hissing at them before turning around.

"Talonclaw, control your old apprentice, you trained her and I hoped it would better than this. Blossomstorm, this is a medicine cat apprentice, she is no harm," he said, turning to Hawthornepaw who dipped her head in respect to Stormstar. "Hawthornepaw, I'm guessing you're here for medicine cat business, right? Go see Fawnwhisker, she's in the den on the right," he said, angling his ears at a den covered in snow. Hawthornepaw thanked him and headed to the den, seeing the light brown she-cat sorting the herbs. She turned around in surprise seeing the tortoiseshell she-cat, her amber eyes wide.

"Hawthornepaw! What are you doing here? Where's Mosstail?"

"He sent me, he had to take care of the Clan," she lied. "The thing is, our Clan has an outbreak of white and greencough and we're out of catmint. We don't want it getting out there and having Clans attack us, you know?"

Fawnwhisker nods, "Yeah that makes sense, I would love to give you some catmint, but we have barely any and we would like to keep some for our Clan just to be safe. Check with ThunderClan, Thorntail always has extras. Good luck, I hope your Clan gets better." Hawthornepaw dips her head and walks out of camp over to ThunderClan territory where she instantly sees the familiar light grey she-cat.

"Hawthornepaw, what are you doing here?" 

"Can we talk somewhere more private?" Hawthornepaw asked, her mew urgent. Thorntail looks at her, her sharp green eyes questioning, but beckons the apprentice with her tail to the medicine cat den. When they are inside the den, she continues, "Our Clan has an outbreak of both white and greencough and we're out of catmint. I asked WindClan but they don't have enough, please tell me you have some extra."

"Thankfully, we do," the grey she-cat said, her green eyes sparkling as she walked over to the stocks and grabbed a few mouthfuls of the yellow flower, putting them in a beech leaf and giving them to Hawthornepaw who thanks her and leaves, heading out of ThunderClan, through WindClan, and finally back to the RiverClan border. She steps inside and walks into camp, carrying the flowers, until she sees a black tom standing there, looking at her sternly.

"Where have you been?" he asks, then he wrinkles his nose, "And why do you smell like WindClan and ThunderClan?"