Mosskit watched as her parents, Echokit, and Shadowkit left the medicine den. She sat there, exhausted, and looked at Icekit. Was this what it was like to be a medicine cat? Doing all you can, and still having to watch cats die? No, she thought. Icekit would not die! She couldn't! Mosskit looked down at her sister, covered in blood and dirt. She was in StarClan's hands now, Ashpelt had said.
Oh, please! Don't take my sister from me! she thought.
"Mosskit, you need to sleep. It's been a long day, and there's nothing more that we can do." Dewcloud's gentle voice came from behind her.
"Alright, but can I stay here? By Icekit?" she asked.
"Sure, just get to sleep quickly, and if anything happens during the night, wake us both. Good night." Dewcloud went to her nest, which was behind a crook in the stone wall.
Mosskit curled up closer to Icekit and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she was surrounded by Silverpelt. She glanced around, and saw that there was only a dark grey land going on as far as she could see. The night sky was clear, and each star stood out against the pure black sky. She thought that she could also hear the peaceful lapping of waves along a shore somewhere, and it relaxed her. This place could not be bad. She turned around, and to her surprise saw Icekit laying on the ground. She stood out easily, and Mosskit wondered if she had been there the whole time.
Suddenly, to her amazement, Icekit blinked. Mosskit saw her sister look around, and then sit up. Icekit looked up at Silverpelt and let out a soft "Wow". Mosskit sat there still, urging Icekit on. She wanted to see what would happen.
But, before her sister got up, the stars of Silverpelt came closer, until they made a smooth slant. A black tom padded slowly down the slope, until he met Icekit at the bottom of it.
"Come, it is your time." he mewed.
"Wha... What do you mean? Am I dead?" Icekit asked, still in a daze.
"Not quite, but you shall be once you enter StarClan with me." the tom replied.
"But I want to see my littermates again! And my mother, and father! I'm not even an apprentice yet! Please don't make me go! Please, please!" Icekit yelled.
"I know. But it's not always that easy. In StarClan, your legs will be healed, along with your cuts and pains." the black tom explained gently.
Mosskit could see that her sister was starting to give in.
"Come, you will be safe with us." the black tom urged. He wrapped his tail around Icekit's shoulders and started to lead her up the star slope. Mosskit knew this was it. Now or never. If she didn't do something now, her sister would be gone.
"Icekit! Wait!" she bursted toward the stars. Her sister whipped her head around with surprise.
"Mosskit! But... How did you... here! You're not dead too, are you?"
"Icekit, please! You're not dead yet! You can still come back with me! Don't leave me, Icekit! Please, don't leave me!" Mosskit begged.
"But it's supposed to be great! All the prey ever, and no battles!" Icekit mewed.
"You haven't even started training to be an apprentice yet!" Mosskit mewed desperately. When Icekit didn't reply, Mosskit turned to the black tom. "Please don't take her! Let her stay!"
"It is not my choice now that you have come. It is her own." he said.
"Icekit, please! Think of me going through life without you! You'll miss out on so much! You'll never find out who you're mentor would be! You'll break our parents hearts!" Finally Icekit snapped out of her daze.
Icekit turned to the tom beside her. "I'm sorry, but I want to go back to my Clan. They need me." she said before racing back down the slope. Together, Mosskit and Icekit ran, until a blinding white light swallowed them.
a a a
"Mosskit! Wake up!" Mosskit awoke to hear Dewcloud's voice in her ear. She sat up, and recalled the dream that she had just had. It had seemed so real. She looked over at Dewcloud and Ashpelt, who was there too.
"She's going to live!" Ashpelt said happily. Suddenly Mosskit knew that it was no dream that she had had.
"That's great!" she purred.
"She's conscience now. I don't know when she'll wake up, but she won't die." Dewcloud informed her. When Dewcloud looked at Mosskit in a funny way, Mosskit knew she had shown some sign of the dream on her face. "Is there something you would like to tell us?" she asked.
"I... I had a dream last night. At least, I think it was a dream." Mosskit said carefully.
"And..." Ashpelt encouraged her to continue.
"Well, I woke up to find myself in the middle of dark grey land, with Silverpelt shining intensly above me..." Mosskit told the two medicine cats how the stars had come down, and how the black tom had told Icekit to go with him to StarClan. "And then I woke up here." she finished. She saw Ashpelt and Dewcloud glance at each other knowingly.
"What?" she asked curiously.
"Well..." Ashpelt started.
"It seems that you have a very special connection with our warrior ancestors." Dewcloud said.
"Veryspecial." Ashpelt mewed. Mosskit glanced from one medicine cat to the other. What were they heading toward?
"And as you know, I'll be retiring soon..." Dewcloud continued.
"And I'll be needing an apprentice of my own, and, well..." Ashpelt said.
"We think that you'd make a great medicine cat. If you like." Dewcloud said slowly.
Mosskit was caught off her guard.
"You don't have to decide now. You can wait until you're ready to become an apprentice, if you prefer that." Ashpelt said.
"Alright. I'll think about it." Mosskit mewed.
"Great, but now I think that you should get some fresh kill. You must be hungry." Dewcloud meowed softly. Mosskit realized how hungry she was. She told them that she'd tell her mother about Icekit, and then stepped out of the den and into the cool morning air.
She padded over to the fresh kill pile, which she saw had recently been added to, and chose a plump vole. Then she went over to Nightrock and jumped nimbly up on to it. As she ate, she thought about what had just happened. Ashpelt wanted heras his apprentice, and Dewcloud approved! She had never really thought that she'd be offered the opportunity. Now she thought about what it would be like. Sure, she'd be doing what she loved and did well, but she would get to see her littermates train and go on patrols without her, if Icekit ever healed. That was another thing. How was she supposed to heal every cat? There were so many things that could happen! Battles, sicknesses, foxes, badgers, thorns... and so much more. How could she be able to know how to take care of each different injury? What if she did something wrong, and a Clanmate suffered because of her mistake?
But she loved it so much... the smell of the herbs, organizing them neatly in the back of the den, how every cat could count on a medicine cat. Her dream was so close, yet so far away!
She decided to wait a while before making her final decision, so she went to tell her mother about Icekit.
a a a
Mosskit raced to the entrance of the camp when she saw the dawn patrol break through the barrier, with Duskmoon at the lead. Mosskit sat and watched them come through, patiently waiting for the one cat that she really wanted to talk to. She saw Jaybreeze come through, followed by Icefire, Sparkpaw, Sagepaw, and, finally, Wolfheart. Mosskit jumped up and went over to deliver the news.
"Yes, Mosskit?" he said as she approached him.
"Dewcloud just declared that Icekit should be able to become an apprentice!" she mewed excitedly. "She just has to wait until she's fully healed." Icekit had been in the nursery for near a moon now, and the other kits were now allowed to become apprentices. Icekit was beginning to heal, and her back leg had mended up completely.
"That's great news! Does she know yet?" Wolfheart asked.
"Ummm... no, not quite yet. Ashpelt told me to wait to tell her until they said I could." Mosskit answered uncertainly.
"Hmm..." her father licked her and then padded over to the fresh kill pile.
Mosskit went back to the medicine den.
"Hi..." came a feeble welcome from a still white pile in a nest of moss.
"Hello, Mosskit." Dewcloud came out from her part of the den. "Okay, Icekit. I think that you should try to sit up now."
"Now?" Icekit squeaked.
"Yes, now."
Mosskit saw her sister flinch as she slowly and cautiously raised herself into a sitting position.
"Yay!" Mosskit said while Dewcloud looked at Icekit with happiness.
"Mosskit, would you like to tell your sister what I already told you?" Dewcloud asked.
"What? Ohhh. Yes!" Mosskit mewed before turning to Icekit, who looked at her questioningly. "You're going to be able to become an apprentice!"
Squeals of joy followed what Mosskit said. "Is it true? Is it true? Can I really still train?!" Icekit mewed to Dewcloud.
"Yes, as long as you heal properly. That's means stop bouncing around!" Dewcloud cuffed Icekit on the ear playfully and purred. Icekit laid down again, trying to conceal her excitement.
"Now Mosskit, come and help me with her poultice. Ashpelt's out collecting herbs at the moment, so you will have to help me." Dewcloud told Mosskit.
Mosskit went over to where Dewcloud had started chewing up goldenrod. She bent down and picked a leaf of it up in her mouth. As she bit into it, the delicious yet terribly bitter juices seeped out into her mouth.
When they finished, they went over to Icekit, who had fallen asleep, and rubbed it on her wounds. She flinched, but did not awaken. Mosskit saw Dewcloud motion with her tail to follow her. Mosskit let her lead her out into the open clearing where cats were sharing tounges quietly. Dewcloud then turned to her.
"As you know, I'm not exactly a young cat anymore." Dewcloud said, and Mosskit looked at the medicine cat. She still looked young and beautiful to her, but she knew that Dewcloud was still one of the oldest cats in ThunderClan. Dewcloud continued. "Ashpelt finished his training long ago, and he deserves a chance as the real medicine cat. I've decided to retire, so he gets that chance. My old bones ache after those journeys to the lake to look for supplies, and soon I won't be able to go at all." Mosskit looked at the medicine cat in amazement, but she did not stop there. "You are the only cat that knows, apart from Ashpelt and Lightningstar. I think that you should know before the others. And you are also ready to become an apprentice soon. Our offer still stands, but follow your own heart."
With that Dewcloud got up and went back into the medicince den.
So she's retiring? Mosskit thought.
She knew that she really wanted to be a medicine cat, and she had spent the last moon helping out there.
"Did Dewcloud tell you, then?" Ashpelt's voice came from behind, and she nodded. "Alright. Here, could you help me get all these dried oak leaves into the den?"
Mosskit turned around and picked up part of the pile that was in front of him. The smell soaked into her scent glands, and she let the smell of them overtake her. She breathed in deeply, then laid them down inside the den neatly by the other herbs.
"Dewcloud? Ashpelt? Ouch." A voice came from the entrance to the den. Mosskit turned to see Shadowbreeze limping toward her.
"What is it?" came Dewcloud's voice.
"Thorn." he winced.
"Alright, we'll get it out. Mosskit, take the thorn out off his paw while I chew up some of this marigold." Dewcloud instructed.
Mosskit approached the warrior. "Let me see the thorn." Shadowbreeze held out his front paw, and Mosskit saw a large thorn embedded in his pad.
"Alright. Hold still." she closed her teeth gently around the thorn and then yanked it out. Shadowbreeze flinched and Mosskit could tell that he was trying to hold back a yelp of pain.
Dewcloud joined them and told Mosskit to rub the poultice onto the wound to stop infection. When Mosskit put the remedy on his paw she saw him relax and breath deeply with content.
"Alright, your good to go." Dewcloud said before the warrior ducked out of the den.
Mosskit waved her tail good bye to Dewcloud and padded out of the den too. She looked up and closed her eyes, breathing in the crisp leaf-fall air. There were few leaves left on the trees, and the nights had grown cold.
Mosskit went over to the fresh kill pile and selected a vole. It wasn't to plump, but it wasn't too skinny either. Mosskit dragged it over to Nightrock and lept up on to it before devouring the piece of prey quickly.
After cleaning her face, she laid down and thought about the day. She realized that while helping Shadowbreeze, she was able to relax and stop worrying about anything that was going wrong. She had felt important, and useful. She knew now what Dewcloud had meant by follow your heart. Her heart was with chervil, with juniper, with Horsetail, and with the art of healing, as was her true talent. She knew now what to do with her life.
She would become a great medicine cat.
