Warrior Cats: Icetail's Enemy (COMPLETED ✔️)

Chapter Eight

Edited ✔️

Wow . . . Super long chapter! Thanks for the reads I have been getting so far :) This book is getting better and better, don't you think? Please comment, rate, vote, share, or any type of support :D Also, I do not own Warriors—obviously this is a fanfic ^.^

It's been half a moon since the kits were born. Icepaw crouched over his prey and ate slowly. He could hear Ripplefur coughing in the nursery den miserably along with her other kit, Spottedkit. They have been coughing for a few days now, and the only times Silverkit and Squirrelkit were aloud in the nursery den was when they needed their mother's milk.

The two kits rested peacefully in the elder's den right now. The black bird Dewpaw caught felt cold as he chewed it, and his heart swelled for the sick queen and kit.

Finally, he gulped down his last piece. Dewpaw padded up from behind Icepaw and sat in front of him. He sighed. "I feel bad for Skypelt," murmured the white tom-cat.

"Me too," admitted Icepaw. "Ripplefur and Spottedkit were doing perfectly fine just a few days ago. I don't know what happened."

"It's the weather, that's all," growled Vinetail. "Cats get sick easily in leaf-bare if they don't properly care for themselves."

Fireshade sighed and sat down right by his mate, Nightrose. "We can't control whether nor if we get sick," he objected.

"Yeah," agreed Nightrose. "It just comes. I mean, I would hate to be sick, of course. And I don't like it when my Clanmates are sick, either."

"It's a big weakness," added Fireshade with a small growl.

Dewpaw nodded. "I've heard that when or if the other Clans find out we have sick cats, they will attack. So, the fact is suppose to be a secret?" He quickly turned to the sick queen and kit and turned back to Fireshade and Nightrose.

"It's a secret, yes," said Vinetail. "But if the result is death—"

"Ripplefur won't die!" exclaimed Icepaw. "She can't die! She has kits to take care of." The thought of Ripplefur dying made him sick to the stomach. And how will her kits, her mate, and every other cat cope?

Vinetail sighed. "Hopefully you are right. But when it results in death from a much worse sickness than Ripplefur and Spottedkit has, then the other Clans must know. But Clan leaders have to be very careful when they tell a Gathering that a Clan member died. If they knew it was a sickness that killed them, then the enemy would know we are weak."

"We aren't weak, it is just a cough," said Nightrose. "Maybe it'll pass on."

Vinetail sighed and nodded, beginning to pad away to his den. Sweetpaw emerged right from the medicine den at the same moment. She walked right towards Icepaw. "I have to speak to you," she whispered.

Icepaw looked at Dewpaw, who was talking to Nightrose and Fireshade. He turned back to the medicine cat apprentice. "Okay, sure."

Sweetpaw nodded and began to lead him away from all the other cats in the clearing. A cold breeze blew, and the red and orange leaves on the leaf fall forest floor crunched beneath their paws.

Sweetpaw lead Icepaw right outside the camp entrance. Her eyes looked sad. Icepaw could also see from the corner of his eye that Brightstar was watching the two apprentices with a watchful gaze. He ignored it and turned to Sweetpaw.

"So what is it you need to talk about?" he asked, confused. Normally all Sweetpaw would talk about was new herbs she learned or new battle moves to defend herself. She couldn't possibly take him to somewhere private to discuss the same things over again.