"Breathe deeply for me, okay?" Owlbreeze instructed Sparrowpaw. The apprentice did as he was told and the breathing that followed was ragged and rough, worse than the day before. Owlbreeze sighed stepped back after pressing her ear to his chest. "Your breathing is getting worse." She explained.
She could see how tired Sparrowpaw looked, he had been kept away all night from coughing. Owlbreeze also hadn't done much sleeping herself. "Lay down." She told Sparrowpaw. "I'm going to give you a little bit of catmint and tansy, as well as some poppy seeds to help you sleep."
"Okay..." Sparrowpaw's voice was raw from his coughing, but he curled up in his nest as Owlbreeze prepared the herbs for him. She set them in front of his nest and he took the herbs without complaint. With him treated, Owlbreeze moved on to Troutstream. The brown Tom was sleeping, but she could still look him over.
She leaned close, listening carefully to his breathing which seemed to be improving. She breathed a small sigh of relief, glad that at least one cat was improving. It still bothered her that Sparrowpaw was getting worse, but at least Hazelspring and Poppysong weren't getting any worse.
She wished she could give the updates to Mountainstar, but it was now the second day of the blizzard and Owlbreeze was all but trapped in her den. She hated being so separated from her Clan, not knowing if they were doing okay. She wondered how Riverstep's kits were doing, she knew they were protected and being kept warm by the rest of MountainClan, but it still scared her that she couldn't check on Riverstep or her kits.
Owlbreeze took a deep breath and walked to her own nest which was slightly separated from the other cats. She felt her own breathing sting a little and let out a small cough. She took some tansy for herself and laid down to rest. Since she was trapped in her den her days were essentially the same. Checking on the sick cats constantly before returning to her own den.
It made the days feel incredibly long and slow, anytime she peeked out of her den all she saw was the blinding white snow. She could see it falling in strong flurries from the clouds above, as well as the howling wind outside. It hadn't gotten as bad as the first night, where Owlbreeze had to stay close to her patients to keep warm even inside of her own den, but the snow was relentless.
Owlbreeze had plenty of herbs, but catmint was limited. She was only giving it to Troutstream and now Sparrowpaw in order stop them from getting any worse. Sparrowpaw definitely had greencough now along with Troutstream, but Hazelspring and Poppysong were still infected with whitecough. They had more energy than the other two and would talk to each other, keeping Owlbreeze at least slightly entertained.
They were talking quietly among themselves now, coughing every so often. Owlbreeze rested her chin on her paws, willing time to past faster so this terrible storm could stop and the snow could start to melt. She missed her Clanmates, she was worried about them.
She was also worried about her old Clanmates back in SunClan. She wondered how they were handling the storm, and how many sick cats they had. She hadn't really gotten to talk to Honeyfrost and Pebblestep as much as she wanted to due to the omen of the storm, but she knew that SunClan was in good paws. She passed the time by thinking of her siblings, she was so excited to learn their warrior names at the next gathering and to congratulate all three of them.
She managed to pass a bit of time before she heard Poppysong's voice. "How's it looking outside?" She questioned Owlbreeze.
"Still snowing." Owlbreeze replied. "Pretty sure the snow would completely cover my legs at this point." She looked at the two sick she-cats. "I wish I could go check on the others."
"I'm sure they're fine." Hazelspring assured her. "You taught Mountainstar herb knowledge right? She should be able to handle it."
"I know." Owlbreeze nodded slowly. "I just feel restless, time is going by so slowly. I feel like I'm going to go crazy cooped up in my den. I love being around you all, I just like keeping my paws busy."
"I understand that." Hazelspring mewed with sympathy in her voice. "Wanna hear a story about when me and my sisters were younger?"
Owlbreeze perked up her ears, she thought a story would definitely keep her mind occupied and Poppysong looked interested as well. "Sure, it could help pass the time."
"We were only about ten moons old at this point." Hazelspring began. "Our father was a kittypet who didn't really want to raise kits, so our mother raised us all on her own, but she had passed three moons earlier. I was the oldest, so I kept us all together. We ended up in some twolegplace trying to find food. When you live as a loner with low access to food, sometimes you have to make due with what scraps you can find.
"I caught the scent of something good coming from one of the twoleg nests so I went to go check it out. I told Briarfall and Riverstep to stay behind and keep an eye out. I snuck into the back garden of the twoleg nest and found a bunch of them standing around this weird object, they had their weird food on top of it and it was sitting on top of fire!"
Owlbreeze eyes widened slightly. "Twolegs are so weird..."
"They are, but it smelled really good and we were hungry so I waited. I watched them for a while, being loud and obnoxious and they had a dog with them. I've been around dogs a lot, so I wasn't too scared. I just waited until they turned their back. When they finally did I went after the food. I jumped up onto the weird platform they had and saw the fire. There was a plate of the weird smelling food, but it still looked good. It looked they burned it with the fire, but I grabbed one of the pieces.
"It was weird, similar to prey but no fur, no bones and it was long like a stick. " Owlbreeze tried her best to picture such a strange thing, but found herself struggling, she stayed silent and let Hazelspring continued. "I brought it back to Riverstep and Briarfall and we ate it. It tasted unlike any prey I had ever had before, and it tasted like smoke but it wasn't terrible? But I never did steal food from twolegs."
"That sound so bizarre." Poppysong replied, twitching her tail. "I've seen twolegs using fire on their prey before, I never understood why they would mess with something so dangerous."
"Maybe we could ask one of the former kittypets." Owlbreeze suggested. "Maybe they would know why twolegs do such weird things."
"I've talked to Sorrelfern a few times about her life is a kittypet and she told me all kinds of weird things that they do! She said they bathe themselves by standing under rain that can they can turn off an on!"
Owlbreeze tilted her head. "That sounds impossible, how can they do that..?"
"No idea." Poppysong shook her head. "Like I said, twolegs are crazy and do crazy things." She thought for a moment. "Reminds me of a time when I almost got caught by the twolegs! I wandered into one of their gardens cause they had catmint, I didn't know what it was at the time I just liked the smell and three twoleg kits surrounded me, they were pulling on my tail and my paws. I didn't want to hurt them cause they were just kits but I clawed one of them good on their faces. This let me run away but they were furious and so were their parents."
"Twoleg kits are the worst." Hazelspring replied with a twitch of her tail. "I've seen two week old kits more well behaved than them! They tried to grab Riverstep once and me and Briarfall had to send it running."
"I haven't really dealt with many twolegs." Owlbreeze replied. "We don't get a lot of them around here as I'm sure you've noticed."
"Yeah but you have plenty of Clan stories." Hazelspring noted.
"Most of them happened before I was born." Owlbreeze laughed quietly. "But I used to listen to elder stories all the time, I could tell you one." Hazelspring and Poppysong both nodded eagerly. "I know you learned about Thornstar, but did you ever hear about Echoheart?"
"I've heard her name." Poppysong replied. "I think Earthpelt briefly mentioned her once."
"She used to be an AshClan warrior. Before Thornstar was leader, AshClan was led by Lionstar and his deputy was Echoheart. She was Riverstar's sister, and she was a violent she-cat. She led attacks on SunClan without Lionstar's permission and she got demoted with Riverstar taking her place. It was later revealed that she was working directly with Thornstar to kill the cats he told her too, and when he took over AshClan she was made deputy instead of Riverstar.
"After Dawnstar killed Thornstar, Echoheart ran off. She was gone for a while, but reappeared and attacked SunClan camp. After the Clans left the old territories, they thought she was gone for good but she followed the Clans to the mountains. She stole prey from both AshClan and SunClan and incited a battle between them, which caused the AshClan deputy, Ashblaze, to die.
"Echoheart made her final appearance when she kidnapped Honeyfrost and Nightheart, wanting to punish Dawnstar for taking Thornstar away from her. She killed Applespots, a SunClan queen, and she tried killing Honeyfrost, but Honeyfrost managed to throw her into the river where she drowned."
"Oh wow." Hazelspring said, her eyes wide with interest. "I didn't know so many dangerous cats existed. Echoheart sounds just as bad as Thornstar."
"She was." Owlbreeze nodded. "One of the worst in recent history for sure, I'm fairly certain she's in the Dark Forest now."
"What's the Dark Forest..?" Hazelspring tilted her head.
"Oh," Owlbreeze realized that none of them had been taught about the shadowy forest. "When certain cats, like Thornstar and Echoheart, do terrible and evil things, they are not welcomed into the ranks of StarClan. Instead they go to the Dark Forest, its also called The Place of No Stars. It's the opposite of StarClan. The stars and moon are forever hidden and while they can scent prey, they can never catch it."
"That sounds awful." Poppysong shuddered. "How bad does a cat have to be to get in there?"
"I'm not sure." Owlbreeze replied honestly. "I've never known a cat that has been evil enough to get sent to the Dark Forest and I hope I never do."
"Do you think Riverstar will go there?" Poppysong questioned, her voice lowering. "She sounds like she's done a lot of terrible things..."
Owlbreeze shakes her head. "I don't think so...Riverstar has made mistakes as leader but she also fought against Thornstar as well as Echoheart. War and death is unfortunately...part of Clan life. Cats don't get sent to the Dark Forest just for killing another cat unless it was in cold blood."
Poppysong and Hazelspring shared a look and the three she-cats continued sharing stories. Poppysong shared a story of a rowdy rogue she met and fought with while Hazelspring told the story of when Briarfall fell into a patch of brambles and Owlbreeze shared the story of her and Slateheart running from the dog while traveling.
The stories certainly helped pass the time and Owlbreeze enjoyed getting closer with her Clanmates. She enjoyed the company of both she-cats, and was grateful for them for keeping her company and her mind distracted. After a while, the sun was finally starting to set and the storm was picking up again. It was time to give all of her patients another round of herbs, including Hazelspring and Poppysong. Everyone was doing fine, they rested well and no one seemed to be getting any worse.
She allowed Hazelspring and Poppysong to rest, relaxing in her own next. She could hear the wind howling outside, she thought about her Clanmates, hoping they were all doing okay. Considering no one had come to get her, she had to assume that everything was alright with all of them. Eventually, Owlbreeze's body relaxed and allowed her to fall into sleep, but it was far from peaceful.
She heard the cries of war, but Owlbreeze was trapped in darkness. She couldn't see the fighting cats, but she heard their furious caterwauls and the sharp scent of blood filled the air. "Help!" She cried out, but no one responded. She could hear claws ripping through fur, and the agonizing sound of warriors in pain. "Please! Mosscloud!" She called for her guide, but still got no responds.
She tried to move, but she couldn't feel her body. She didn't feel real, she felt as if she was just floating in a pool of darkness in the middle of an endless battle. "When blood covers the moon, peace will drown in the ashes of war." The same prophecy echoed in her ears.
"The blood moon already happened!" Owlbreeze wailed. "I can't stop it! I can't control two Clans I don't know what you want from me!" She cried like a desperate, terrified kit. "This isn't fair! It's not my responsibility to stop this war! What do you want me to do! I'm just one cat!" He wails were cut off as she jolted away in her nest, her heart pounding and her body feeling like it was on fire despite the blizzard outside.
Her breathing was heavy and she panted, her lungs aching as she desperately tried to get control over her body again. Fear still crippled her body and she felt herself trembling. It was just a dream. Owlbreeze told herself over and over. It was just a dream! She scolded herself and shook her head, her claws ripping at the moss and bracken of her nest.
It took a while, but Owlbreeze finally managed to pull herself out of her panic attack, but she felt like she had just run across the forest. Her breathing was still rough and her body felt weak. She let out a sigh, glad that none of her patients were awake to see her in such a state. She stood up and sat slightly closer to the entrance of her den, allowing the cold air outside to cool her burning pelt.
She felt increasingly more frustrated. Mosscloud told me not to worry about the war because of the storm...and yet here I am. Was that just a nightmare? Or was it another reminder from StarClan?