Characters:
Littleflame- light brown tabby she-cat with glowing golden eyes and a white chest paws; medicine cat
Fearstrike- dark brown tabby tom with ice blue eyes and a white chest paws and muzzle
Gorsestar- tawny tabby tom with green eyes
Cedarclaw- grey, flecked with brown, tom with dark amber eyes, and one white paw
Lilyfang- cream colored she-cat with blue eyes and orange tabby stripes
Heat
It had been an extremely hot greenleaf. The water drying up in all the creeks, and the river lowering severely. All the clans were suffering, WindClan the most. Their territory didn't hold much water anyway due to the flat terrain and its openness. But we were all having a terrible time. It hadn't rained in two moons, and with the consistently rising temperature, we could all tell it was going to be a hard green-leaf. Then it began. A deadly sickness was sweeping through the clan and there was nothing that I could do to stop it.
Have you ever tried to help someone yet found that you physically couldn't. You had to watch them suffer before your very eyes, and couldn't ease their pain or comfort them in any way. It was killing me I was a medicine cat for StarClan sake, and I couldn't help them. This sickness was taking out cat after cat, and there was nothing left to do. I had to watch my own brother, Fearstrike, our deputy, die before my eyes. He wanted me to end it, to kill him using deathberries. He didn't want to suffer anymore. He didn't want to wither away like a leaf in winter. I could not deny him this request, so I gave him the berries, and right before he died, he told me that he was sorry for everything. I still remember like it was yesterday.
"Littleflame, I'm scared; I don't want to die! I want to live, and be loved by my future mate and watch my kits play fight and practice battle moves. I want to see the excitement in their eyes when they become apprentices and the pride in their eyes when they become warriors. I don't want to be alone!", Fearstrike wailed, he was looking at me with terror in his eyes, as tears streamed down his face.
"You will never be alone Fearstrike. I will always be your sister and our warrior ancestors are watching over us," I told him, holding my own tears back.
"What does it feel like to die? Is it like they say? That it's quicker than falling asleep? I want to know!" he shouted.
"I don't know Fearstrike. I really don't know," I replied, my eyes getting mistier by the second. His breathing was becoming more and more labored. His eyes rose to meet mine and in a whisper he said, "I love you, Littleflame."
He gave me a loving look and his eyes fluttered shut. His chest rose and fell one last time, he shuddered and then was still.
I sat by his body until all the warmth left is body and the elders came and took his body into the clearing for mourning. I think that's how the illness spread through the clan, but who knows? I think it might be my fault, I was the one who didn't cleanse his body with the right herbs. I guess that's how it spread at first. Now it just travels from cat to cat, through the air. We haven't gone to the last two gatherings. The first gathering in greenleaf has been the only one we have gone to, but it ended in disaster.
"Reedstar, please! We beg you to give us the herbs! Please?!", Gorsestar pleaded with the RiverClan leader.
"I am sorry, Gorsestar, but you are on your own," Reedstar replied haughtily. He had always been a stuck up, mouse-brain. He believed that everything revolved around him. I'm not saying that I dislike RiverClan or anything, but they sure had one annoying leader.
"But Reedstar if we don't get those herbs we will perish!" Gorsestar yowled at the red tom.
"ThunderClan is on its own in this time of trouble. The drought has brought with it pain and suffering and RiverClan is low on herbs as it is," He replied looking at Gorsestar, "RiverClan cannot help you."
"Nightstar, Faststar, please I beg of you! We have already lost two of our kits! I implore you to please consider!", Gorsestar was practically groveling to the other leaders now, but they all shook their heads.
"Each clan is on its own for now. This gathering is adjourned! May StarClan light your path!", Nightstar, the ShadowClan leader, yowled as she jumped off of Great Rock and led her cats out of the clearing.
It has been a hard two moons. First, two kits die, then my brother, one of the apprentices, three of the elders, and Gorsestar was on his last life, and is too sick to appoint a new deputy. I have been doing all I can. I have tried every herb possible and none have worked. Catmint and borage had slowed it down, but had not healed them. Lilyfang, one of the warriors, came down with this sickness last night. We have started calling it, Yellow Cough, due to the yellow substance that cats cough up.
"Littleflame! It's Gorsestar!", Cedarclaw, one of the senior warriors, called into my den.
"I'll be there in a moment!", I called, grabbing the right herbs and then running out of my den and into his den under highrock, "Gorsestar?"
"Littleflame, they are coming for me. Hold on old friends," Gorsestar meowed weakly looking up.
"But Gorsestar you haven't appointed a deputy! Who is going to lead the clan after you?!", I anxiously asked the old leader.
"You know who I was going to pick. I told you after your brother died."
"But sir, I can't perform the ceremony! I'm just a medicine cat!", I replied to the tawny colored tom.
"You must Littleflame. You must!", He rasped before having a coughing fit, "Goodbye Littleflame."
He shuddered once, his eyes falling shut, and his breathing stopped. Our leader was dead. I stumbled out of his den, and wearily fell down in front of mine. Cedarclaw walked over to where I was, and stood in front of me.
"How is he?", he asked frantically. He was one of our most senior warriors second only to Wolffang.
"He's dead, Cedarclaw!", I mewed to the gray warrior, as I slumped down into the dirt.
"What?! Who's going to be leader, we have no deputy!", He yowled, pacing back and forth.
"I have to perform the ceremony," I told him getting up and walking over to highrock.
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, join here beneath the highrock for a clan meeting!", I yowled, with all my might. I was catching the sickness and I knew it. I had been coughing up yellow stuff for a half moon now, and it was taking a toll on me. I had told my apprentice, Quickpaw, to stay away from me and that I would mess with the sick cats, while he works with the semi-healthy ones. The cats started meandering out of their dens, and came to sit at the bottom of the highrock. "Cats of ThunderClan! I hate to inform that Gorsestar is dead!"
This last sentence got them all panicked.
"What are we supposed to do? We have no deputy!", Lilyfang yowled, in a frantic voice.
All of their yowling was getting too loud for me to hear my own thoughts.
"Silence!", I roared, "I understand that you are all scared by the thought of this, but if you will just pay attention, I am going to appoint the new leader, and he will appoint the new deputy."
"But how do you know who to pick?", Featherpelt asked, looking up at me with huge eyes.
"Gorsestar told me before he died who he wanted to be appointed leader after him. Cedarclaw step forward," I meowed at the grey tom. He looked confident and proud as he walked forward, but his eyes betrayed him. They were full of shock with a hint of a scared look in them, but he accepted it anyways.
"Gorsestar picked you to be appointed deputy, after he died. Do you accept this? Do you promise to protect and defend this clan with the rest of your nine lives and uphold the warrior code until death?", I asked the newly appointed leader.
"I do!", he answered with confidence. His eyes shining bright with pride and happiness, shock and frightful look in his eyes were gone.
"Quickpaw will accompany you to the moonstone, since I am ill. Congratulations Cedarstar!", I yowled, as I jumped off of highrock, more like fell off highrock, and stumbled into my den. I coughed up more yellow stuff the smell of sickness floating around in the den, until it swallowed up all of the clean air. The den was suffocating, and smelled horrid. I collapsed in my nest. I felt the lingering touch of death, and closed my eyes.
I opened up my eyes, and I was standing in the middle of a grassy field. I looked around and met two icy blue eyes.
"Welcome, Littleflame, welcome home."