Hello there! This is my third challenge for the Warriors Challenge Forum (WOOp i'm a warrior now) and my longest one shot ever! For this challenge, Misgiving gave me a random sickness, and i had to write this. I hope you enjoy this story!
~If we burn, you burn with us, ~The Mockingjay
It was a beautiful day in the ShadowClan forest. The sun was shining; the birds were singing their songs high in the pine trees, and mice, squirrels and various other rodents scampered about. In the midst of this wonder and beauty, two tiny cats padded forth into the forest.
"Owlkit," the smaller kit mewed uneasily, "I don't think this a good idea! We're going to get in big trouble!" The larger one, a dark ginger she-cat with ice blue eyes snorted, and playfully head-butted the smaller one, another dark ginger she-cat, only this one had green eyes.
"Hush, Maplekit," Owlkit mewed. "And we're only gonna get in trouble if we're caught! We'll be back in camp before Petaltail realizes we're gone."
"Alright," Maplekit admitted. They continued to pad on, silenced by their awe of the great piney woods. They paused every so often, to take in new and unfamiliar scents, or to check if any cat was following. Suddenly Maplekit's fur bristled, and she stopped abruptly. Her sister stopped beside her.
"What is it?" Owlkit asked, looking around.
"I smell a nasty smell," she mewed, curling her upper lip up in disgust. Owlkit opened her jaws to take in scents, but quickly snapped them shut, recoiling as a pungent odor hit the roof of her mouth.
"I smell it too," the blue-eyed kit mewed.
"What do you think it is?" Maplekit asked, her green eyes wide. Owlkit flicked her tail on her sister's nose.
"Let's follow it and find out, fur ball!" she growled playfully. Maplekit nodded, and began to dash in the direction of the scent. Owlkit hastily followed. They followed it until they came to a clearing with a decent-sized pool of shiny, black liquid in the middle. Maplekit and Owlkit scampered up to it, their tails straight up in the air with curiosity.
"This is it," Maplekit announced excitedly. Owlkit nodded, as equally excitedly as her smaller sister.
"What do you think it is?" Owlkit asked.
"Twoleg stuff," her sister responded.
"I dare you to drink some," Owlkit dared Maplekit.
"Excuse me?" Maplekit recoiled. "It looks and smells vile! I'm sure it'll make me sick!" Owlkit turned around, her nose in the air.
"Are you a scaredy-mouse?" she cooed. Maplekit narrowed her emerald green eyes.
"Fine! I'll drink some!" she mewed indigiantly. "I'm not a scaredy-mouse." She leaned forward, and lapped up a mouthful, and slowly swallowed the substance. "Ew!"she gagged before Owlkit shoved her. She lost her balance and toppled head first into the sticky Two-leg stuff. Maplekit hissed furiously at her sister, her once sleek and clean fur now wet, sticky and covered with the gooey substance. It plastered her fur, and Owlkit guffawed in laughter. She was abruptly stopped when Maplekit pulled her left front paw from underneath her and she fell in too. When she got to her paws, she shook out her sticky fur and gagged.
"It's so…gross!" she paused, looking for the right word. She quickly climbed out. "I can't believe you just did that!" Maplekit opened her mouth to reply when a deep, baritone voice came out from behind a bramble bush.
"I can't believe you defied your father and leader and snuck out of camp!" The two kits froze and turned around to see a huge ginger tom standing in front of the bramble bush, his amber eyes blazing with anger.
"Blazestar!" Maplekit mewed quietly. Owlkit whimpered quietly and tried to make herself disappear.
"As your father, I am very disappointed in you," the tom growled. "You made Petaltail worried sick! She destroyed the camp looking for you two! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" Maplekit quivered slightly.
"I'm sorry, Blazestar!" she mewed. Owlkit quickly nodded, but Blazestar continued his rant.
"And worst of all, you get yourself covered in that disgusting Two-leg stuff!" He wrinkled his pink nose in disgust. "It's going to take days to get all of that off of you!"
"We're sorry," Owlkit repeated meekly. Blazestar narrowed his gold-orange eyes.
"I had expected better of you," he meowed sternly. His daughters nodded. "Now let's get back to camp. Every cat in ShadowClan has been tearing up the land from here to the mountains trying to find you." Without seeing if his daughters were following, he turned tail and began to head back to camp. Obediently, Owlkit and Maplekit followed, their heads and tails drooping.
When they got back to camp, Blazestar and his daughters were immediately greeted by a white she-cat, her amber eyes frantic with worry.
"What happened?" she asked when she saw the two kits covered with the sticky Two-leg stuff. She rushed forward and began showering them in loving licks. Owlkit and Maplekit didn't object, because they wanted the substance off o f them.
"They had a little adventure involving Two-leg stuff, Petaltail," Blazestar meowed.
"Promise me you'll never leave camp again until you have mentors," Petaltail mewed, looking her two kits in the eyes.
"We promise," they meowed in unison.
"Good," she mewed, licking their heads each in turn. "Now go to the nursery, and I'll get that vile stuff off." The two kits nodded and began to pad away to the nursery. Their mother followed them as Blazestar watched them watch away.
~…~…~…~A few days later~….~….~…~
Owlkit was dreaming. She was stalking a mouse in the ShadowClan forest. Slowly…very slowly…she crept toward it. She was about to pounce when…a high-pitched scream-like noise scared the mouse away and a large, unknown force knocked her off her paws. She immediately woke up, searching for the source of the sound. She turned around to look at Maplekit, and there she was the answer.
Her sister was lying on her back and her legs were flailing wildly. A high pitched wail of pain emitted from her jaws, which were ringed with a fine layer of foam.
"Owlkit!" a voice meowed, making the kit jump. "What's that noise?" Owlkit felt her mother sit up beside her.
"Petaltail! It's Maplekit!" she wailed. Petaltail quickly turned around to face her.
"What's wrong?" she asked, worry tingeing her voice.
"Take a look for yourself," Owlkit whispered. Petaltail looked at her daughter and gasped in horror. But now, the smaller dark ginger kit was moaning in pain.
"Oh…" Maplekit whimpered. "It burns like fire! Somebody, make it stop!" Her voice rose to a desperate cry, and hot tears ran down her face.
"Owlkit," Petaltail whispered to Owlkit, her voice deadly quiet, "go get Leafwind." The kit nodded and scampered off out of the nursery. Meanwhile, Petaltail cradled her daughter in her body. The tiny kit still flailed wildly, and her green eyes were glazed with unbearable pain. "It's okay," she murmured to her kit. Just then, Owlkit burst into the nursery, followed by Blazestar and a pale brown she-cat with unusual dark blue eyes. Blazestar hurried over to his mate and crouched beside her. The brown she-cat padded up to the flailing kit and inspected her.
"Leafwind," Blazestar asked desperately, "What's wrong with my daughter?"
"It's Fire Tremble," the medicine cat mewed quietly. The ShadowClan leader opened his jaws to reply when Maplekit made a horrible retching sound and spat out a clump of foul, vile stuff onto the moss.
"What's Fire Tremble?" Petaltail meowed, her soft voice tinged with desperation.
"This disease," Leafwind began, "makes the cat flail in random intervals, uncontrollably, their limbs burning with fire." Petaltail's small amber eyes stretched wider than normal. "It eventually drives the cat to the point of insanity, where usually they are found a moon later after before insane with a cut throat, their own blood on their paws."
"Is there a cure?" Blazestar asked nervously. Owlkit cried out in horror as Leafwind sadly nodded. Petaltail protectively licked Maplekit's head, which was burning with fever.
"My poor kit," the white she-cat mewed. "Do you know what causes it?"
"No," the pale brown she-cat replied, shaking her head.
"Is there anything we can do for her?" Blazestar asked. Leafwind shrugged.
"Just make her happy," she replied.
"Can she be made an apprentice?"" Owlkit asked quietly. "We promised each other that we would stick together forever."
"I don't know," Leafwind replied honestly. "She can probably train, but she won't be able to go into battle. If one of her seizures start up during a battle, the results could be deadly. She can't leave the camp, for if she has a seizure, she'll need a medicine cat." Blazestar nodded.
"I'll do what's best for my daughter, always," he meowed.
"Now all of you," Leafwind meowed, "get some sleep. Maplekit is sleeping now." All four cats turned and saw the kit sleeping peacefully, snoring gently. Petaltail nodded, and laid her head on her paws. "Come get me if she has another one," the medicine cat advised. The white she-cat sleepily nodded, yawning slightly, Blazestar curled around Owlkit, who was stricken with shock at her sister's diagnosis. Leafwind smiled sadly at the broken family before padding out.
~The next day~
"All cats old enough to catch their own prey join beneath the Announcement branch for a Clan meeting!" Blazestar's voice rang loud and clear over his Clan. Slowly the cats padded out of their dens. When all the cats were there, Blazestar began speaking again.
"My daughters, Owlkit and Maplekit, have reached the age of six moons!" He announced. "They are ready to be apprenticed. Owlkit, Maplekit, come forward." The two kits eagerly padded forward, thought the dull gleam in their eyes betrayed the night they had had. "Owlkit, until you earn your warrior name, you shall be known as Owlpaw. Maplekit, until you earn your warrior name, you shall be known as Maplepaw!" The cats cheered the new apprentices' names, Petaltail the loudest. They beamed proudly.
"Owlpaw! Maplepaw! Owlpaw! Maplepaw!" They chanted. Blazestar waited for his Clan's cheering to die down before he started speaking again.
"Liontail," Blazestar meowed turning to the golden she-cat, "you were Thistlewind's mentor, and he is an asset to the Clan. I trust you to do the same with Owlpaw." The golden she-cat looked pleased as she touched noses with the eager apprentice. "And Maplepaw, you're mentor shall be me." Maplepaw gasped, but looked happy as she touched noses with her father. She smiled, thinking the day was perfect, until there was a loud screech from the crowd of cats. Blazestar and his daughters whipped around to see the other ShadowClan cats standing around a flailing cat. Blazestar's breath was caught in his throat as he realized it was Petaltail!
The once-beautiful she-cat was flailing, not unlike Maplepaw a few nights ago. Froth ringed her jaws, and her eyes were wide with pain. Her kits raced over to her.
"Petaltail has Fire Tremble!" Owlpaw mewed to Maplepaw.
"Is this what I looked like?" her sister asked. She nodded. Just then, Leafwind hurried over, her eyes wide with panic.
"Another one?" she asked breathlessly. "But how? Usually Fire Tremble only affects one cat at a time!"
"Leafwind," Blazestar meowed solemnly, "I think I know what caused it." Leafwind looked up, astonishment lighting her blue gaze.
"Really?" she asked quietly. The noble leader nodded.
"The Two Leg stuff that Maplepaw and Owlpaw found," the ginger tom meowed. "I mean, it makes sense! I heard Maplepaw swallowed some, and Petaltail licked all of it off them." Leafwind gasped.
"You're right!" she exclaimed. "We need to put a barrier around this so no other cat gets ill."
"You're right," Blazestar meowed, "I will send out a patrol, but only after I see that Petaltail is alright." His amber eyes were filled with concern for his mate. Leafwind looked down, to see that Petaltail was in fact still, but gasped in horror when she saw that the white queen was moving at all. Blazestar saw this two, and began nudging the she-cat. The cats around gasped in shock.
"Wake up!" He yowled desperately to the still queen. Maplepaw and Owlpaw fiercely licked her.
"Petaltail!" they mewed. Blazestar looked into his mate's still open eyes, and saw they were blank and clouded with death. Blood trickled out of her mouth, and her head was bent at an awkward angle.
"Leafwind!" Blazestar snarled to the shocked medicine cat. "I thought you said that Fire Tremble doesn't kill the cats directly!"
"It doesn't!" she replied, her voice equally harsh and filled with grief, as Petaltail was her litter mate. "She broke her neck while thrashing about!" Blazestar recoiled.
"I'm sorry, Leafwind," he murmured, his mood suddenly changing. "It's not your fault." Leafwind whimpered, and bowed her head while the kits mewled in sadness and the Clan mourned alongside them, for Petaltail was a noble warrior and a loving, gentle queen.
~Page break~
The stars glimmered above Blazestar as he crouched in the clearing, waiting for his mate's vigil to begin. He looked up at the sky. Are you there tonight, my love? His kits snuggled in his paws, their soft fur ruffled by a light breeze.
"Blazestar," Owlpaw mewed. "This is my entire fault. I was the one who suggested to leave camp." The ShadowClan leader looked sadly upon his kit, who reminded him so of his dead mate.
"It's not, Owlpaw," he mewed gently. "This was the will of StarClan all along." Owlpaw was about to speak when a shuffling, dragging noise interrupted her. The trio turned and saw Leafwind and Icefrost, Petaltail's other sister, carrying the queen's body into the clearing for the vigil. Blazestar choked back a sob when he saw how beautiful his mate looked, even in death. Her fur was groomed sleek, and her tail lay out neatly behind her. Her paws and body were positioned in a way that looked like she was sleeping, and her eyes were closed to add to the affect. Sweet smelling herbs to hide the stench of death were rubbed all over her white fur. Blazestar and the kits pressed their bodies into the she-cats stone cold flank, as the Clan mourned silently around them.
Blazestar awoke, his body stiff from crouching all night. He had only dozed off in the wee hours of morning, when Leafwind and a couple of elders took Petaltail's body away to be buried. He was now lying in his den, listening to the sounds of the camp. Mewing, wails of sorrow…wait….wails of sorrow? That couldn't be right. Petaltail's death was a day ago, though the Clan wouldn't still be this distraught. Blazestar sprung to his paws and raced out of his den. A terrible sight met his amber eyes. In the clearing, two bodies were laid and cats wailed and yowled in sorrow to the sun. Blazestar ran closer to the bodies, and realized they were Honeyfrost, a beautiful young warrior, whom Blazestar was fond to, after Petaltail, and Liontail, Owlpaw's mentor, were lying limp. The scent of death clung in the air.
"What happened?" Blazestar asked Leafwind. She was staring at her paws, her shoulders heavy with defeat.
"They were out hunting, and ate a tainted squirrel, as Sandytail told me, for she ate it too, but didn't fall in break her neck in the hollow." Blazestar was filled with shock.
"Two more deaths…" he breathed. Leafwind shook her head.
"I don't know why StarClan is punishing us," she mewed. Maplepaw and Owlpaw looked over, their shoulders drooped.
"I just hope this sickness spares some innocents," Blazestar mewed quietly.
Epilogue
Over the next few days, three more cats, by the names of Juniperclaw, Waterspot and Reedsun, caught Fire Tremble, though luckily none died. But soon after, Maplepaw was found dead in her nest, a cut throat. Owlpaw couldn't be found. When Blazestar finally found her, she was quivering in shock and saying that "StarClan would never forgive" her. Blazestar realized Owlpaw had murdered her sister. He asked her why, and she said, "She begged and begged, that the pain was killing her, wanting it to end. So I did. To help her. She's happy with Petaltail now, isn't she?" Blazestar had just smiled sadly down on his remaining daughter. One day we will be too, he had thought. But finally, as Blazestar had promised Leafwind, he put a barrier around the Two Leg Stuff and no other cat got Fire Tremble after that. Blazestar made Owlpaw a warrior a few moons later, her name being Owlpetal, in memory of Petaltail. Moons later, Leopardclaw, the deputy, died, and Blazestar confidently appointed Owlpetal in place. But then tradgey struck. The two were out on patrol when they were struck down by a pack of dogs, their bodies badly mutilated before ShadowClan could recover the bodies. The strongest warrior was appointed leader, and ShadowClan thrived.