Froststar's Destiny

Chapter Ten

"I was considering some things, all that time you thought I was moping!" Stonestar fired back. "It was too disturbing even to go to the gathering. You heard Mousestar, you were hiding there! StarClan wants us to unite. But that will mean we have to give up our leadership and pass it to somebody. Mousestar wants to lead it, and he's going to kill all the leaders so he can unite and lead the great SeasonClan once more."

"No cat will submit to him! And look! We killed almost all their warriors!" Frostheart complained.

"These are their warriors, yes. But I had a vision of rogues coming in, joining his forces. Rogue numbers always seem unlimited, don't they? Imagine if that all was on his side. Now that all his warriors are pretty much dead, he will turn to them, they will assist him, and we will all fall." Stonestar breathed in a sharp breath. He looked haggard, yet he held himself with much pride. This was the leader Sunstar had seen, the leader who had failed to show his true colors. 

"We will not fall!" Frostheart insisted. Why would they fall?!

"Help rebuild camp, Frostheart. You and I may well be the only cats strong enough to do so," Stonestar meowed gravely.

Frostheart first went to check on the cats in the  medicine den. There were so many of them, the less serious had been moved out to the clearing. Frostheart saw the injured and expecting Shimmerpelt in the 'not so serious' clearing, and stared. Didn't they need to care for her and be mindful of what this might have done to her kits? The medicine cats were always thorough, so if even after this, they still thought she wasn't serious... then who was serious? She didn't spot Skyfeather among the cats in the clearing, and her heart gave a jolt.

Frostheart entered the medicine den nervously. She knew they weren't allowing visitors at that point, so she asked, "I was wondering, may I be of help? I know you two are working your paws off."

Honeyleaf and Hawkfeather looked up from where they were either mixing poultices, throwing bandages to each other, passing marigold and horsetail back and forth, or doing so many other things. Sure enough, they looked very fatigued.

"Do you even know herbs?" Honeyleaf snapped.

"Um... I've seen some stuff. Cobwebs for bleeding, marigold for infection, horsetail for infection, poppy seeds for pain... those are the basics, right?" Frostheart asked.

Honeyleaf looked mildly impressed. "Most don't pick up that much. But I can't trust your hands, however we are running out of cobwebs and marigold, could you take a... never mind, could you go get some?"

Frostheart almost caught Honeyleaf asking her to take another warrior with her, but there was no other warrior, and she dipped her head in response, glancing around the den to find Skyfeather before she left.

"You're looking for somebody, are you?" Honeyleaf asked. "Well, it's undoubtedly not Windpaw and Cloudpaw. Who is it, Skyfeather?"

Frostheart gave a shy nod. Did every cat know? They weren't exactly obvious. But she did worry for him. And he obviously cared for her. Maybe it was Skyfeather being obvious! Frostheart shook her head wryly.

"You're right, it's Skyfeather. Is he okay? Did he make it? I left him to help Duskcloud and Shimmerpelt," Frostheart explained the reason for her worry. "Plus he was losing a lot of blood," she added as an afterthought.

"Yes, he's fine. Pale, weak from blood loss, but overall, he's fine. But I do need cobwebs! Could you hurry up and go do that? Marigold too, remember?" Honeyleaf asked impatiently.

Typical Honeyleaf, no patience! Frostheart purred in amusement and hurried out into the forest. She passed Stonestar on the way out and conveniently ignored him. She was supposed to be repairing camp with him right now, but that should be the least of his worries! Cats were dying! Luckily, and strangely, no SummerClan cat had died from that assault by AutumnClan. SummerClan was really very lucky, because AutumnClan had lost most of their warriors.