AshClan's Future {COMPLETE}

Chapter 12

Snow fell steadily from the pale, clouded sky. Moonpaw walked swiftly through the snow, a bundle of herbs secured in her jaws. She was nearing AshClan camp and was eager to get out of the bitter cold. They were a almost a moon into leaf-bare and it had left the forest in a thick layer of snow. Moonpaw quickly realized how much she hated snow, and she had a bad feeling leaf-bare was only going to get worse.

The first moments of leaf-bare had been rather kind to AshClan, but Eagleclaw had told her to never let her guard down during this season as the deadly sickness greencough could set in at any moment. Moonpaw feared the worst when it came to greencough, they had a small supply of catmint, it would be enough to treat some Clan mates, but if the sickness spread too fast, they wouldn't be able to control it.

Eagleclaw had ordered her to gather as much tansy and chickweed as she could carry. Her jaws were currently full of both herbs. Both were used to treat greencough, and would hopefully keep the sickness as bay in order to prevent them from using all their catmint.

Moonpaw finally reached the AshClan camp where she encountered Echopaw. Her sister looked at her curiously. "You look you're about to break your jaw, want some help?" Moonpaw nodded awkwardly and gently set down some of the herbs which her sister took from her. Together, Moonpaw and Echopaw padded across their snowy camp towards the medicine cat den.

Once inside the medicine cat den, Moonpaw set down the herbs alongside her sister. "Thank you." Moonpaw bowed her head once she could speak. "I gathered a little more than I can handle."

"What are they?" Echopaw questioned, giving the herbs a sniff. Moonpaw began putting the herbs in their store, making sure they were nice and neat.

"The yellow flower is tansy and the other one is chickweed. Both help treat greencough." Moonpaw explained.

"Do we not have any catmint?" Echopaw asked, her eyes filling with concern.

"We do," Moonpaw assured her. "Just not a lot. Eagleclaw wants to save it for a dire situation. Which hopefully with the help of these two herbs won't happen." Before Echopaw could respond, Moonpaw the heavy pawsteps of Eagleclaw. He rested his eyes curiously on Echopaw. "She helped me carry the herbs back." Moonpaw explained.

"How many did you get?" Eagelclaw questioned, walking past Echopaw and sticking his muzzle in the herb store.

"Quite a bit, there's even a small amount left. Only a small amount of the tansy had been killed by the frost." Moonpaw explained.

"That's good." Eagleclaw turned around looking at Echopaw. "You can leave now." His voice was almost a growl, Echopaw flattened her ears.

"Don't mind him." Moonpaw assured her sister. "But we do have a lot of work to do, I'll talk to you later Echopaw." She touched her muzzle to Echopaw's cheek.

"Alright, good luck." Echopaw bowed her head and turned out of the medicine cat.

"What else do we have to do?" Moonpaw questioned.

"We need to move our nests." Eagleclaw said, eyeing their nests. "Yours will be closer to mine just so we have plenty of room to have nests at a distance in case we get a lot of sick cats."

"Is greencough really as bad as you're making it out to be?" Moonpaw asked, starting to gather moss to move her nest.

"It can be." Eagleclaw replied stoically. "My very first leaf-bare was horrifying. I was three moons old, still in the nursery. It started with Doefern, she was Duskwhisker's sister. She got sick, but didn't feel like she was ill enough to tell anyone. Then she started expecting kits and moved into the nursery.

"She got her mate, Waspflame sick. Then she got every resident in the nursery sick, including me, my brother and my parents. We were lucky, others were not. There was a queen named Mossystream who had three kits. She and all three of her kits died. Then Doefern died, followed by Waspflame and their two kits. The only kits who survived were me and Sharptongue. Our mother, Roseclaw almost died. It took her moons to recover, even now she struggles to breathe at times."

Moonpaw stared at her mentor in horror. "I can't believe that happened. That's so horrible."

Eagleclaw nodded. "That was Featherstorm's greatest regret as a medicine cat. She wished she would've noticed Doefern's sickness sooner, maybe she could've saved more. She told me it was the hardest days of her life. She watched kits die around her, and she thought me and my brother would join them but she managed to save us. That's the reason why I wanted to become a medicine cat. She stopped eating, stopped sleeping and I wanted to help her. She taught me to always take greencough seriously and not let any sickness slip by."

Moonpaw understood Eagleclaw's fears a whole lot more now, she couldn't imagine that kind of suffering. Featherstorm must have hurt so much. "Thank you for telling me that, even if it was such a dark story."

Eagleclaw gave a small nod. "It's an important story, it shows how important it is to take this season seriously."

"Excuse me?" A timid voice spoke up from outside the medicine cat den. Moonpaw turned around and saw Cloverstrike standing in the snow.

"Is something wrong, Cloverstrike?" Moonpaw questioned.

"Yeah," Cloverstrike cleared her throat. "My mother has been coughing all day. She claims its just the weather, but I just want to be sure."

Moonpaw tensed up, and she noticed her mentor doing the same. "Please tell Tawnyfrost to come to us, but please keep your distance."

"Okay," Cloverstrike bowed her head. "What if she doesn't want to come."

"Make her." Eagleclaw growled. Cloverstrike quickly bounded away from the medicine cat. "When Tawnyfrost gets here we need to treat her cough, even if its not greencough we can't risk anything."

"I understand." Moonpaw nodded. A few moments later, Tawnyfrost appeared at the front of the medicine cat den, looking rather annoyed.

"I told Cloverstrike I was fine, but does she listen?" Moonpaw could hear how dry the queen's voice was.

"Come in, Tawnyfrost." Eagleclaw lashed his tail. Tawnyfrost reluctantly listened to the medicine cat and sat down in front him. Eagleclaw began circling around Tawnyfrost, sniffing her pelt and resting his ear against his chest. "Take a deep breath." She took a deep breath and Eagleclaw motioned for Moonpaw to come over. Moonpaw padded over to her. "Do what i just did, and Tawnyfrost take another deep breath."

Moonpaw placed her ear against Tawnyfrost's chest and she took another deep breath. Her breath sounded rough, rattling in her chest. Moonpaw lifted her head and looked at Eagleclaw. "That sounds really bad."

"Because it is." Eagleclaw looked sternly at Tawnyfrost. "You're sick, Tawnyfrost."

"It's just a cough." Tawnyfrost argued.

"Maybe it is," Eagleclaw moved to the herb store. "But it could easily become something more. I know you remember Doefern."

Tawnyfrost flattened her ears. "Of course I do, that whole situation almost killed my father. I was just an apprentice."

"We don't want that happening again." Eagleclaw explained. "All I ask of you is for you to take some chickweed and stay in here for a few nights so we can get rid of the sickness without it spreading."

Tawnyfrost sighed. "Alright, Eagleclaw. I'll take the herbs."

"Thank you." Eagleclaw dipped his head and retrieved the chickweed. As Tawnyfrost ate the herb, Moonpaw heard coughing from outside the camp. "Go see who that was." Eagleclaw instructed.

Moonpaw poked her head outside to see one of the newest warriors, Spiderheart, coughing. Moonpaw flattened her ears. "It's Spiderheart." She reported. Spiderheart and his siblings, now named Hollytail and Mousetail, had been made warriors at the end of the last moon.

Eagleclaw sighed. "Get ready, Moonpaw, we have a long leaf-bare ahead of us."