Clearlight's POV:
Shadedmoon rushed into camp and Clearlight approached her, "What's wrong?" He asked as he studied her frightened expression.
"I need to tell Silverstar something!" Shadedmoon gasped as she tried to catch her breath. She dropped her rabbit on the ground and Clearlight leaned down to pick it up.
"Silverstar is out." Clearlight mumbled between the rabbit. "And Stormflame is sick. So you either have to wait or you can tell me?"
Shadedmoon shook her head, "No.. I'll wait for Silverstar." Then she pricked her ears, "Oh I know! I'll go to Nutwhisker!"
"Nutwhisker is out too." Clearlight meowed as he dropped her catch on the fresh kill pile. "Nice catch by the way." He praised.
Shadedmoon ignored his praise and meowed, "Then I'll go find them!" She raced out of camp before Clearlight could answer her.
Clearlight sighed. He decided to follow Shadedmoon to make sure she didn't get hurt. Actually, that's what he kept telling himself he was doing but the truth was he was just going to find her to eavesdrop on her urgent conversation with Silverstar. He was a senior warrior, and temporary deputy. He had a right to know.
"Is that rabbit yours Clearlight?" A voice asked from behind him and Clearlight spun around to face Blazemoon. The flame coloured she cat blinked her blazing yellow eyes questioningly.
"Uh.. No it's Shadedmoon's." Clearlight meowed softly. "Don't eat it all for yourself, share it among the other warriors." He ordered with a small smile.
"Of course, I was just wondering how a cat could find something as big as a rabbit right now. It seems the entire forest is empty!" Blazemoon shook her head stiffly before picking up the rabbit and carried it into the warriors den.
Clearlight turned away and lowered his nose to the ground. He sniffed deeply and began following Shadedmoon's scent trail into the forest.
It wasn't long before he heard their voices. What was weird that coughing was coming from one of them. Clearlight prayed to Starclan it wasn't Shadedmoon because he touched the rabbit she had carried.
As he hid behind the bushes and peered through to get a closer look, he suddenly had an idea. He used his powers to change forms into a mouse. It was odd being a mouse, but he found it a lot easier to blend into the bush and get closer without being noticed.
Clearlight stared up at Shadedmoon and Silverstar to see it was Silverstar who was coughing. She was crouched on the ground, her body trembling as coughs shook her. Shadedmoon meowed soothing words to her leader but didn't touch her. It was obvious Silverstar had come down with Whitecough.
When Silverstar stopped coughing, Shadedmoon began talking. "Starclan came to me in a dream. They said my former clan is in trouble and I need to leave immediately. I must save Frostclan. Please let me go to them."
Silverstar's green eyes blinked a few times before she gave a slight nod. "Very well, Shadedmoon. You may return to your clan. Would you like me to announce this to the clan?"
"No, I need to go now." Shadedmoon meowed guiltily.
"That's perfectly fine, I understand how important it is to save your own clan." Silverstar dipped her head respectfully to Shadedmoon, "Lightclan thanks you, Shadedmoon, for all of your help and loyalty these past few moons and I wish you save travels."
"If I return to my clan I will probably become leader again." Shadedmoon smiled softly at Silverstar. "I will use what you have taught me these past moons to make myself a better leader to my clan."
As Shadedmoon began trotting away towards the border, Silverstar called, "May Starclan light your path, Shadedstar!"
Shadedmoon- or Shadedstar now- waved her tail in good bye and disappeared into the undergrowth.
Clearlight was about to leave when Silverstar murmured, "I know you're there Clearlight. Come out here and stop being a fox-hearted coward."
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Nutwhisker's POV:
The forest was silent. It was calming but also a bad sign, it meant there weren't any signs of prey around.
As Nutwhisker crossed over the border and into twolegplace, he kept his ears pricked. There could be dogs or rogues anywhere and twolegplace wasn't made of territories. There were no rules. Just kill or be killed. It made Nutwhisker's fur spike up alone his tail.
The medicine cat approached the small thunderpath he had to cross to get to the twoleg dens. He checked both ways before taking off at a swift sprint across the hot, sticky and black surface.
Once Nutwhisker was safely on the other side, he let out a short sigh of relief and smoothed his bristling fur with a few quick licks. He padded along a grassy patch in between the hard grey pathways for twolegs until he came along the twoleg den he was after and leapt up onto the fence.
Nutwhisker was about to jump down into the twoleg garden but he was stopped when a cat meowed, "Hey! What're you doin'?"
With a nervous twitch of his tail, Nutwhisker turned to face the cat on the fence beside his fence. The cat was huge! He had golden fur with black markings down it. His legs were weirdly long but sturdy. Upon closer look, however, the huge tom seemed to be a kittypet. He wore a bright blue collar around his kneck. "H-Hello.." Nutwhisker meowed, his ears flattened against his head.
"Don't be intimidated by my size." The tom meowed, as if he had read Nutwhisker's thoughts. He guessed the massive kittypet often scared other cats by his size. "I'm Cheetah. I am a Savannah Cat." He smiled proudly.
Nutwhisker had no idea what a 'Savannah Cat' was but he shrugged the thought off and meowed, "Nice to meet you Cheetah... Uh, you don't mind if I collect some herbs from this garden do you?"
"Of course not, go ahead!" Cheetah smiled. "It's not even mine. Many cats come 'round here to get the plants that grow in that garden. They say that the herbs there are valuable for medicine. I think it's odd, my housefolk keep me nice and healthy so I don't need that kind o' medicine.. But what do I know?"
Nutwhisker felt his confidence return as he meowed, "I come from one of the clans. Out in the forest, we don't have housefolk. So we have Medicine Cats, like me. We medicine cats collect herbs and plants to help heal our clan mates when they are sick or injured."
A small kit climbed up behind Cheetah, "Golly! That sounds awesome! Can I see your clan?"
"Sorry, kit, but I can't bring kittypets inside our borders. Silverstar would slice my ears off!" Nutwhisker intended for what he said to be a joke but by the horrified look on the dark furred kit it was obvious he had taken it literally.
Nutwhisker tried to make the kit happy again, "Uh.. I didn't mean that literally... It's just.." he trailed off and glanced up at Cheetah for help.
An amused purr rumbled loudly from the larger tom and he meowed to the kit, "Calm down, young Shadow. The wild cat was only joking."
"My name is Nutwhisker." He mumbled under his breath.
"Nut.. whisker..? You don't have nuts on your whiskers! Your name is fake!" The kit, Shadow, squeaked. His eyes were shining joyfully again and Nutwhisker felt a wave of relief.
Cheetah swept his long tail around Shadow and meowed, "Come on, it's food time! it's Fish Friday!"
"Yay! Fish! I love when they feed us fish!" Shadow bounced with joy and tumbled down the fence. Cheetah caught the little kit and waved his tail in good bye to Nutwhisker.
"Good luck on those herbs!" Cheetah called as the two ducked into a flap that led into the twoleg den.
"Fish?" Nutwhisker whispered. "I didn't know kittypets eat real fish.. I thought they ate those rabbit droppings." The light brown tom jumped off the fence and trotted through the thick bushes and plants.
"There's a lot you don't know about kittypets." Meowed a rough voice from above Nutwhisker. He looked up to see a scrawny she cat staring down at him. She was obviously a rogue.
Nutwhisker avoided direct eye contact and continued to sniff around for the herbs he needed.
"Watermint... Coltsfoot... Catmint..Where are they?" He wondered aloud.
"Don't ignore me." The she cat growled and dropped to the ground beside Nutwhisker. He tensed and lashed his tail slightly.
"S-Sorry.. I just need to collect my herbs and be on my way." Nutwhisker tried to move away but, with surprising speed, ths she cat moved in front of him and bared her yellow teeth. Her breath fanned his face and Nutwhisker forced himself not to gag.
Her thinning fur bristled and she fixed her blazing grey eyes on Nutwhisker's green ones. "This here is my collection of herbs. No touching."
"But I need to get just a few herbs. I used to come here all the time before and you were never here." Nutwhisker protested and darted his gaze from the ground to the sky to the bushes around him or even behind him. He looked anywhere but at the she cat.
She growled angrily, "I was always lurking in the shadows if you ever paid enough attention." Her ears flattened, "I always hid, thinking you were a tough clan cat. But now I know you're just a soft medicine cat! No muscle under that fat, eh? No training?"
"I am far from fat and I do know how to fight!" Nutwhisker growled and took a step back. His claws unsheathed and dug into the soft soil beneath his paws.
"Oh yeah? Prove it!" She grinned and in a second, she struck Nutwhisker on his side with sheathed paws. Nutwhisker staggered and backed away further.
The she cat followed him, a wide grin playing on her lips. "Come on medicine cat. Fight me." She landed another blow on Nutwhisker's head and he winced even though she didn't even unsheath her claws.
Nutwhisker didn't want to fight. He couldn't fight! He spun around and pushed off with jis hind legs. He scrambled wildly onto the fence and leapt off, barely judging where he was landing.
The she cat yowled, "Come back here weakling!"
He would have to collect herbs another day.
Nutwhisker kept running until he had crossed safely back into Lightclan territory. Only then did he let out a heavy sigh of relief and flop onto the ground to catch his breath.
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