"Midnightsky!"
Midnightsky was woken up by Ashheart's screech.
It had been three moons since she and Wavepelt had gone out in the forest. There was still no news about the rogues.
That's a good thing, I suppose. She stood up and walked out of the den. "What's going on?"
"Emberpaw needs your help!" Ashheart gasped. "She got her paw stuck in a Twoleg fox trap and it's bleeding badly!"
"I'm coming." Midnightsky raced inside the medicine den to grab her needed herbs, then went back out. "Show me where she is."
Ashheart nodded and dashed off, Midnightsky quickly following. Their paws chewed up the red and yellow leaves of leaf-fall as they went.
"Have they gotten her paw out of the trap?" Midnightsky asked.
"They're trying," Ashheart replied.
Then they reached the group of cats. Emberpaw was wincing, a metal hoop clamped around her right forepaw, which was puffy and bleeding.
"Get this StarClan-cursed thing off of me!" she kept yelling.
Patchfire and Rayfrost were frantically trying to do just that.
Midnightsky noticed a wooden stake planted in the ground near the trap.
"Is that stake doing anything?" she asked.
Patchfire glanced at the stake and her eyes widened. "Of course! We need to dig that up!" She ran over and started to dig furiously. Rayfrost joined her and soon the stake was pulled out of the ground.
The loop slackened and Emberpaw muttered a couple of things before hobbling out.
"I need to treat that," Midnightsky told her.
"I guess you do." Emberpaw slowly limped to her and Midnightsky examined the paw. It had swelled a lot when it had been in the fox trap and it was bleeding heavily.
"Get me as many cobwebs as you can find!" she exclaimed.
Multiple cats dashed off as Midnightsky chewed some goldenrod and horsetail into a poultice. She then spread it all around where the bleeding was.
"I found some cobwebs." Patchfire arrived with a pawful.
"Thank you." Midnightsky took them and wrapped them all around the wound, completely covering Emberpaw's forepaw.
"I wouldn't walk on that," she told the ginger apprentice. "It's still pretty tender so you'll need to go back to camp on three paws."
Emberpaw sighed. "Why did that mouse-brained trap have to be there in the first place?"
"Be glad it wasn't your head that got in there." Ashheart sounded worried. "You would be dead otherwise." Her eyes were wide.
Emberpaw didn't say anything, just started to hobble away on three paws.
"Will she be okay, though?" Ashheart asked Midnightsky.
"All her paw needs to do is heal, and it'll be perfectly fine," Midnightsky confirmed.
Ashheart let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"All I'm doing is my job." Midnightsky shrugged and began to follow Emberpaw. The apprentice was mumbling something Midnightsky couldn't hear very well but the medicine cat could guess that it was about Riverpaw.
If she stays in her nest and doesn't go out of camp her paw will heal perfectly, she thought. But something tells me that won't happen...
***
"Hi, Midnightsky!"
Later that day, Midnightsky was clearing out the medicine den when Leafdawn came in.
"Hi!" She paused to look at her friend. "How's training Wolfpaw going?"
"Great!" Leafdawn grinned. "He's a great apprentice— eager to learn. He's energetic but he also can be quite shy sometimes. I'm helping him with that. He's also an excellent hunter." Her good eye shone with pride for her apprentice.
"So it seems like it's going well," Midnightsky purred. "What did you come here for?"
"Well..." Leafdawn's smile vanished and her gaze dropped to the floor. "I had a dream."
"About what?"
"Bloodclaw. And Blackpaw." Leafdawn looked up, her gaze pained. "I don't know what they were doing but it didn't look good. It looked like they were planning something... But then Bloodclaw rushed out at me... and my dream ended..."
"It probably means something," Midnightsky mused.
"I think it's a sign," Leafdawn mewed. "I think that the rogues are going to attack ThunderClan soon, and we can't stop them."
"If we can't stop them, we have to be prepared," Midnightsky decided. "I'm fully stocked on pretty much every herb we have except for catmint which isn't really a problem right now. And we have many warriors. They'll probably try to take us by surprise."
"Do they know where our camp is?" Leafdawn asked.
"Berrytail does." Midnightsky remembered Frostclaw's mate. "And Frostclaw."
"Of course," Leafdawn muttered. "They'll most likely attack the camp and try to wipe us out."
"But they won't do that," Midnightsky replied, "because we'll be ready."
Leafdawn nodded. "We'll be ready."
***
The following morning Heatherstalk came into the camp.
"Heatherstalk?" Midnightsky was surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Can we talk in the medicine den?" Heatherstalk whispered.
Midnightsky nodded and they both entered the den.
"Are you okay?" Midnightsky asked. "Last Gathering Rabbitstar made it clear that you were fine."
"Our camp is rebuilt." Heatherstalk sighed. "But during the fire, a lot of herbs were burned and all of the storages were destroyed— even though it's been a few moons after the fire I haven't been able to find any herbs. And a few warriors were attacked by a fox yesterday... I can't treat them!" Her eyes were wide with panic.
"I have herbs!" Midnightsky took some goldenrod, horsetail, poppy seeds, and tansy and pushed them over to Heatherstalk. "Take them. Don't worry about us. It's you you should worry about."
"I..." Heatherstalk looked like she was going to refuse but then she stopped herself. "Thank you. I swear you've done too much for us, Midnightsky."
"I'm happy to help others in need," Midnightsky purred.
Heatherstalk just smiled a little and trotted out of the camp. MIdnightsky was back in the clearing.
"What was that all about?" Silkfrost asked.
"Nothing much." Midnightsky shrugged. "Medicine cat stuff."
"Okay, then." Silkfrost sounded skeptical but she shrugged as well. "If you say so."
"Ow!" Emberpaw exclaimed.
Midnightsky turned and saw the injured apprentice attempting to get a piece of prey from the fresh-kill pile.
"A different apprentice can get that for you, you know," she reminded Emberpaw.
Emberpaw let out a harrumph. "I don't want some inexperienced apprentice getting me prey."
"Hey!" Spikepaw exclaimed. "We're only a moon younger than you and we're just as experienced as you are."
Blizzardpaw, beside him, nodded in agreement.
Emberpaw said nothing else, just took moues from the pile and hobbled back to the medicine den.
"She needs to stay in her nest." Midnightsky shook her head. "I'll need to watch her."
Silkfrost's eyes flitted to the gorse tunnel and her eyes widened. "I just realized. I went hunting this morning and forgot one of my pieces of prey. I need to go back!"
"Someone needs to come with you— I can if you like," Midnightsky suggested.
"Okay." A glimmer of something shone in Silkfrost's gaze. Midnightsky had no idea what it was.
"I'll just tell Wavepelt what we're doing." Silkfrost ran to the deputy and in a few heartbeats later she was back.
"Let's go," she said excitedly.
The two of them left the camp.
"Where did you go hunting?" Midnightsky asked.
"Near Fourtrees," Silkfrost replied. "I'll probably hunt some more while we're there just for good measure."
"I know there are some herbs nearby, I can gather those while you're doing that," Midnightsky mewed.
"Great!" Silkfrost exclaimed.
When they got to Fourtrees Silkfrost shot off. Midnightsky felt a prickle of worry.
We're near the WindClan border— which means rogues, she thought uneasily. I hope nothing happens...
Still a little worried, she scouted out for the herbs she knew grew over at Fourtrees— comfrey and feverfew.
Jackpot! There was a huge patch of feverfew nearby. Excited, Midnightsky ran over to pick some of it up. Soon her jaws were so full she couldn't carry any more.
Now where's Silkfrost? Surely her sister had found her prey by now.
Midnightsky started walking in the direction the tabby had taken off in.
"Silkfrost?" she called in a muffled voice.
In a few heartbeats she saw Silkfrost running toward her, two mice dangling from her jaws.
"Let's go back to camp," she declared.
As they padded back to camp Midnightsky could feel something radiating off of Silkfrost so powerful she couldn't block it out. And as hard as she tried, she couldn't identify it.
Silkfrost, what have you gotten into this time?