Skykit woke up as the sun was just rising over the horizon. She let out a drowsy yawn before turning around to look to see where her family was. Cloudkit and Greenkit were pressed against her and beside them was their mother.
Still tired, Skykit stood up so she could get closer to her mother, but before she could get close enough she began to cough. At first she thought it would stop after a few seconds, but it didn't, it kept going getting worse. Soon she believed she would hack up a lung.
By the time her coughs stopped her throat felt raw and weak and she could barely let out more than a whisper. Her small body tired out, she fell unconscious, the last thing she saw was her mother waking up looking alarmed, "Sky-" she was out before she could hear the rest.
When she woke up again, Skykit found herself in a completely new environment. Instead of the horizon of green moss in the nursery with the comforting smell of her mother and milk, now she found her only surroundings to be grey and hard, her nose stung with the confusing smells around her.
The next thing she processed was her breathing, it was raw and so was her throat. It was like she tried to swallow a whole pile of claws! She decided to try and shift her focus on something else.
She picked her tiredness and went from there, like how she'd rother not she stand up right now, but instead to listen. Warrior mentors always told their apprentices to listen before anything else. After her first time out of the nursery she had met many more cats in the clan including a few apprentices with their own mentors.
She and her siblings grown a little and become more active as a whole. More often then not it resulted in a firm scolding and then a 'take your games outside kits!' from their mother, or a tired Rosefur, the other queen in the nursery.
This had allowed her to meet more cats including Firepaw, am excited she cat, Stonepaw, a grey tom, and Spottedpaw, who had a strange brown dot on her nose. The apprentices had turned out to be pretty cool and while they hadn't had time to train them, they had given them a few lessons.
Skykit started to have a hard time breathing, she tried to mew out to someone, to anyone, but her throat pained her before she could try. She felt herself being sent back into the darkness but she didn't want to go! She wanted to stay here, in the light, "Help m- ack!" Her last desperate plea was cut short by her insistent hacking lungs, and then the darkness returned to claim her.
The next time she saw the light of day again she was determined to stay awake, or really, just not fall asleep. To be frank, it was getting annoying to keep passing out before she could really understand what was going on.
Thankfully, it seemed like she'd get her way this time, when she opened her eyes in front her was a she cat who looked almost ancient, the she cat appeared to have a gunger pelt, but with so much grey patches on her pelt, Skykit couldn't be sure.
But she couldn't pay attention to the she cat very much a horrible headache was inside her skull. It was a like a beat that cloudkit would often tap in the nursery except seemed to rock her head with each throb.
Apparently, the elder didn't seem to be letting her old age get to her senses, amost as Skykit woke up, the she cat noticed. "Hello, Skykit, I'm Smallfoot," she introduced, "Do you feel any better?"
It took Skykit a few seconds to assess herself for anything else other than the migrane, it was so loud and overwhelming that she could barely sense anything else. "Headache, and my throat is r -ack! -Ack!"
Instantly the medicine cat shushed her, "Your coughing is worse than I expected, " she said, but then began muttering to herself , "I was only able to get a description of the coughing from Snowfeather... But she only heard a little before the kit passed out...
Maybe a Coltsfoot or Juniper Berries for her breath? Or borage leaves to bring down fever? Definitely Tansy..." She felt Skykits ears and forehead before continuing on with her muttering, "Hmm..."
Usually, Snowkit would've responded whether or whether not she was really being spoken to, since her first day out of the nursery she had started speaking more also. But this time, she kept her muzzle shut, she did not need the coughing this time- thank you.
Finally, Smallfoot, who by now Skykit had realized was quite weird, turned her attention back to Skykit, "I'll be back with something for you to eat," then added, "If you can, try and rest, but whatever you do don't move or try and stand."
She turned and walked out of the room leaving Skykit to her thoughts and the hard walls, she was a little upset about how she wasn't allowed to move but decided to listen she didn't want to be like this longer than she had to.
She turned her head, but was careful not to turn to fast least she begin coughing again, trying to better look around. Last time she had only manged to get a glimpse of two of the walls before she fell asleep. She didn't far before she realized just how many cats were there. At least 5 cats were sleeping, each in their own nests. In fact, Skykit was surprised so many cats were able to fit anyway.
Skykit had known that cats were sick, even after Stirmstreak had mentioned the fact that seven cats were sick the first time she was in camp, it almost didn't feel like this many. Not to mention, she had remembered that one of the cats had gotten better. Blazingstar had even made a public announcement about it after Mousetail had gotten better.
While this led everyone had been happy about the fact he had gotten better, their was the underlying frustration in the fact 5 cats who could've been hunting for the clan, or helping out in general, were too sick to hunt. Skykit thought she understood, but she still liked Mousetail, he told all the best stories ever! Even better than her mother had, and that was saying something.
Skykit didn't know what to do to quel the fear that suddenly began to plague her stomach and the knots that were tightly tied into her stomache. It was the type to inspire a bloodcurdling scream, but one to make one stop in their tacks, frozen to ground with nothing to do but watch.
Skykit decided she didn't like it.
As if on que Smallfoot walked back into the den, a fresh mouse hanging from her mouth. She walked up to Skykit and dropped it by her Before nudging it forward with her foot, "Eat this please, you'll need your strength. Skykit really didn't want to open her mouth and eat the mouse, whenever she opened her mouth she coughed and she really didn't want to cough.
To put it simply, a mouse had never looked so unappetizing.
Skykit couldn't do much except stare at the mouse for a few seconds, disgusted with the idea of eating it.
Suddenly she realized the old medicine cat was still staring at her waiting for her to eat. Still the thought plagued her: I don't wanna! The thought flew around and around her head like a fly with crow-food.
Finally, Snowfeather sighed impatiently, "Please?"
Slowly, she shook her head.
"Ugh, this is why I hate kits!" Smallfoof said, "Just eat the mouse."
Immediately, Skykit bristled angrily. Her thoughts turned a shade of red as well: What's wrong with kits?!
Smallfoot shook her ancient head, "You need to eat, maybs you feel horrible now, but if you don't eat you'll only get sicker from here. So save yourself the trouble, eat the mouse!"
Maybe that would've convinced her earlier, but Skykit was angry now. She was tired, her throat hurt, and she didn't want to eat the mouse! She shook her head angrily.
Smallfoot narrowed her eyes, "Eat the mouse, kit, or their'll be trouble."
Once again, the medicine cat was met with a shake of a head. "This is going to be a long day."
