Chapter Two, Deadeye's pov

"C'mon. You just have to be a little quicker on your paws," I say to Sheeppaw as she lands where I had been moments ago, flicking my tail lightly. "Don't hesitate too long. Whoever you're fighting will have time to prepare for what you're going to do if you hesitate."

Sheeppaw spins and pounces toward me once I say that, and as I jump away she bats my tail. "Almost got him, Sheeppaw," Ravenstorm says from the side of the training area, watching her apprentice and I as we train.

Sheeppaw huffs, shaking her fur out. "I don't see why I can't be practicing my hunting with Flashpaw and Tigerpaw. Especially since there's so much more prey right now."

"More fresh-kill may be important," I start. "But if the other clans might not have the same luck we do with prey, and might come into our territory. We need to be prepared for that scenario. And your littermates will be doing this same thing on different days while you hunt with the one not doing this. You're going in turns. Nobody's left out."

"I know. I know," she says, looking down and sitting with a thump. "Battling just isn't what I'm good at."

"There's nothing wrong with that," I say. "Everyone is great at some things and not as good in another. I still can't swim, and I came from Riverclan."

"Most cats can't swim," she then says.

"You know," Ravenstorm starts, padding toward us. "Pufftail isn't the best at battling either."

Sheeppaw looks up at her in shock. "Really?"

Ravenstorm nods. "Yeah. But she is really smart, so she helps with the strategy of battles."

"Did she come up with the leaf fling?," Sheeppaw asks, and when Ravenstorm nods she jumps up excitedly. "That's my favorite move! I love how you don't need to seriously hurt who you're fighting to disorient them."

"Do you want to practice that one a bit? Maybe it'll lift your spirits and you'll do a bit better with the pounce attack," I say, and she nods, so I climb up the tree and claw some to the ground while Ravenstorm begins to explain.

"Okay. So remember that you need to kick them up higher because you're smaller..."

"She's a lot like Pufftail," Ravenstorm comments to me as we start heading back to camp, Sheeppaw jumping along ahead. "Like I said earlier, neither of them are into battling all that much, they love to hunt, and just something about their personalities are really similar."

I just tilt my head, looking forward at the apprentice. "Hmm... I don't see it."

"Well that's because you and Pufftail are mates. You don't see Pufftail the same as the rest of us."

I look at her. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing bad," Ravenstorm says. "I just mean that when you love someone, you think about what they do a bit differently. Like... Okay. I'm gonna be honest here. Nobody is a huge fan about how you just run off when you're stressed."

I flick my tail. "Understandable."

"I was talking to Pufftail, though, and she said that she understood how that's how you calm down. You need that bit of time to yourself to relax. Other clans may see it as you running away or being scared but... Pufftail made all of us realize that it's not like that at all. That's you going to think about how to fix whatever's going on, and then you come back and help."

"I... I guess I get what you mean," I say.

Suddenly my paw lodges on something and I trip, falling headfirst into a bunch of mud. I hear Ravenstorm gasp before she goes quiet and starts laughing, and get up again, shaking my head a bit.

"You are covered in mud! That was hilarious!," she laughs.

"Yeah yeah," I say, a bit of mud flying off when I twitch my ear. "What even made me- oh."

"What?," she asks, and turn to see what I was looking at.

There was a dead rabbit, but there was no evidence of injury that could have killed it. It was in a strange position, almost like it fell over abruptly and died before it could get up again. It just looked, and smelled, like a regular rabbit.

"Well... that wasn't there before," I comment, looking at it a bit closer.

"How did it even die?," Ravenstorm says, padding a bit closer. "I don't see any blood and it doesn't look like it broke a bone or anything."

"Maybe it was sick. That is weird during late newleaf though. And it doesn't smell off," I say, then look at her. "You go back to camp with Sheeppaw. I'm going to go get this mud off of me. Could you tell Skystar I'll be back soon and that I want to talk to him, Moongaze, and Birdwhisper?"

"Yeah. Sure. Have fun!," she says, then runs off.

I find my eyes drifting back over to the dead rabbit, and just as I'm about to pad away I hear Dovewing in my ear, just as she had been the past few days.

"The sickness will destroy all."

"Woah," Birdwhisper says as I pad into Skystar's den later, mud washed off but leaving me covered in water. "What did you do? Fall in the lake?"

"No," I say. "I tripped over a dead rabbit on the way back from training Sheeppaw and fell in a mud puddle. I went to the lake to wash off."

"A dead rabbit?," Skystar asks curiously, him and Moongaze also there. "Was it hurt? How did it die?"

I shrug. "No clue. There were no signs of blood or broken bones. And it wouldn't have been sick in late newleaf."

"Could it have starved?," Birdwhisper asks.

"I thought that too but it was really fat. If I knew what had happened to it and it was safe to eat I would've brought it back."

"Why do I feel like this meeting is more than to talk about a dead rabbit?," Moongaze then asks, head tilted sideways and slightly downward.

"It is," I say. "Dovewing has been speaking to me. Warning me. Have you guys gotten any prophecies?"

"No. None," Moongaze tells me.

"What has she been telling you?," Skystar asks.

"Every time it has been something about a sickness. 'Beware the sickness', 'prepare for the sickness', and then today..."

After a moment Moongaze speaks up. "What did she say today?"

I take a deep breath. "She said 'the sickness will destroy all'. I haven't been able to tell them to you guys since we've all been busy, but the one today made my skin crawl and I had to make sure you knew it as soon as possible."

"So, there's something about a sickness?," Moongaze asks. "It hasn't been told to any of us in a prophecy, no evidence of it has been shown until now, and it has only been told to you?"

"You believe me, right?," I ask, and he nods.

"Yeah. I was just making sure that I got it clear."

"So... what should we do about this?," Birdwhisper asks. "We don't know anything about the sickness, there's no prophecy for it..."

"The best thing right now is to just think more about it as we go on with our day," Skystar says, standing. "It's no use wasting time together when there are other things to be done. I'm going hunting with Badgerstripe. We should be around the sparse forest."

"Okay. Remember to be back for Smokekit's welcome," I remind him, remembering the ceremony we do for new kits in the clan. It had been done for all of our kits when the clan first formed and those born after, grateful for the new life making up for the few lost on the night Lightclan formed.

"I will," he says, and pads out of the den.

"I need to go gather some herbs," Birdwhisper sighs, standing. "I'll be by the marshy shore of the lake, then probably in the area closer to Riverclan territory."

"And I need to check on Flowerheart. I never got the chance to yesterday," Moongaze says.

We all pad out of the den, and while Moongaze and Birdwhisper continue padding away to do what they needed to do, I look around and spot Pufftail eating a sunhigh meal. She sees me too, and waves me over with her tail. I purr before going to join her.

Mysterious sickness begins.

What do you guys think the warning from Dovewing mean? Does it have to do with just one clan? What is the sickness? Let me know what you think!

There has always been something I've wanted to mention for this, but I always forget before I can write it down...

Bye!

Ttyl

-TheRealDigiGal