The next morning, Vixensong slept late. Everything was finally peaceful in the Clan. There seemed to be no urgent need for her to get up.
"Vixensong? Are you here?" Bramblenose called into the Den.
Still half asleep, Vixensong got up, poking her head out of the alcove to see the Queen stood there. For a she cat who was usually very sweet, she looked stern.
"Ah. You are. I need to speak to you." She mewed.
The Medicine Cat nodded, leading her into the alcove.
"So, your first night alone in here." Bramblenose started, seeing Swallowfang's old nest undisturbed in the alcove. Her tone made the Medicine Cat uncomfortable.
Vixensong glanced at the nest, knowing she would have to take it out eventually as much as she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"I fear i soon may be as lonely as you."
Vixensong recoiled, staring at the she cat in horror. But the Queen just looked to the ground.
"Forgive me. I didn't mean to upset you. I understand that you and Swallowfang grew very close." She awkwardly mumbled, putting Vixensong even more on edge. "You see, i think Stagstar is sick."
The calico saw the worry in her eyes, touching her nose to the brown tabby cat's shoulder.
"Thank you. Stagstar seems to always be out of breath, but it's suddenly got much worse." She explained. "I'm afraid he'll die the same way as Watersplash's mentor."
Ryeflower?
"Please, come see him." Bramblenose pleaded.
Vixensong didn't need telling twice, following her to her mate's Den. The dark tabby was laid in his nest, resting in the peace. Bramblenose was right, even as he was resting his breathing was heavy, like he had just sprinted across the moors and back. Returning with some juniper berries, she gave them to the Leader, who gave her a breathless word of thanks before he went back to sleep.
As the two she cats left, Vixensong nodded towards Silverbreeze, getting the Queen to talk to her as she went to clear up her Den, gathering a few wilted herbs with the moss and taking it out.
The Gathering came and went, as reluctant as she was to go, Woollyfur convinced her to go, telling her that he would take care of Stagstar. She didn't feel that it was worth it. None of the other Leaders or Silverbreeze had any news to share, other than new Apprentices and Warriors. She worried about Stagstar the entire way through.
The Medicine Cat found herself giving him juniper berries every day at least, but his condition seemed to be getting worse.
Only through convincing by Woollyfur again did she go to Moonpool at the half moon. The other cats knew she was concerned about something, but she couldn't tell them what. All they could do was try to comfort her. But the fear was set in her mind.
She woke up in StarClan's grounds, but her mind was elsewhere. She didn't even notice a StarClan cat come until they spoke to her.
"You are worried about Stagstar, yes?"
Vixensong looked up, relieved to see Ryeflower there. She nodded and Ryeflower sighed.
"I am afraid there is nothing that can be done to cure him." She stated.
Vixensong's jaw hung open in shock.
I'm a Medicine Cat! I'm supposed to be able to cure him!
"We cannot cure everything, Vixensong." Ryeflower mewed as if she had read the calico's mind. "I would have cured myself if i could, then perhaps Watersplash would have been different."
Vixensong blinked, looking at the StarClan cat, wondering what she had meant, but the tan and brown cat was already gone. She had some time to think about her words before the dream ended.
However, when she returned to camp, she didn't expect Silverbreeze to be waiting for her.
"Did StarClan speak to you about Stagstar?" She asked once they were sat inside Vixensong's Den.
Vixensong just nodded. She didn't particularly like Silverbreeze, the tabby had always treated her weirdly, but Medicine Cats stood apart from the Clans.
"Will he recover?"
The Medicine Cat shrugged awkwardly at the question, letting the Deputy go silent.
"W-What should we do?" She shakily asked.
Again, all she could do was shrug. She didn't know what they could do.
Silverbreeze eventually left, leaving Vixensong to sleep as much as she could. She wanted to save Stagstar. She needed to.
"ThunderClan attack on the border!"
Vixensong woke up with a jolt as Silverbreeze raced into the Camp, yowling at the top of her lungs, gathering all the Warriors she could reasonably take and leaving again.
Tripping over her own paws, Vixensong wrapped her tail up in all the cobwebs she had, filling her jaws as full of goldenrod and raspberry leaves as she could before heading after the patrol.
"Dewpaw, help Vixensong with her herbs." Rosenose told her Apprentice, who thankfully immediately took some of the herbs from her without any protest. Vixensong knew that the other Apprentices would have.
However, they had barely made it half way there when Nighttail raced up, his yellow eyes wide in panic and fear despite the cut along his hip, although it had somewhat been covered in cobwebs.
"Vixensong! Please, help Goldenfur!" He mewed emotionally, odd for her calmest littermate.
Vixensong nodded, her heart pounding rapidly at his terrified tone, increasing her pace beyond what she was thought was possible to the border, where the reason for Nighttail's terror became apparent.
Just on the WindClan side of the river, the patrol that had been attacked were being helped by the cats that Silverbreeze had brought with her. Most of them, like Nighttail, had sustained only minor cuts that would heal and possibly scar over, but the golden she cat was laid on the ground, more wound than cat. It took a moment for Vixensong to realise that the she cat was still alive, her body barely moving.
"Some Apprentice just kept shredding and shredding and shredding." Nighttail explained as Vixensong pressed cobwebs on her wounds, occasionally stopping to treat another wound on a different Warrior.
"Will she survive?" Nighttail asked fawning over the golden she cat and bugging Vixensong at every moment she had, which quickly got on the calico's nerves, soon sending him away to find some more cobwebs just to get him out her fur. Most of the cats had gone back to camp when he returned, his paw lost in the mass of cobwebs he had found. Waspflight too had stayed, watching on in concern for his littermate instead and letting the Medicine Cat do her work.
Her ears pricked when she heard cats approaching on the other side of the river, a ThunderClan patrol that largely ignored them, but it made Vixensong realise just how long they had been out there.
"Should we take her back to camp?" The yellow tabby asked, his eyes set on her as she finally backed away.
Vixensong nodded her agreement, watching the two toms shoulder Goldenfur up and manage to carry her back to camp, gently setting her down in the Medicine Cat's Den, leaving Vixensong in peace to continue treating the Warrior, though Nighttail didn't stay away long.
"Can i ask you something, Vixensong?" He awkwardly mewed from where he was sat on the other side of Goldenfur.
Vixensong nodded, fighting back annoyance but not looking at him.
"Will she still be able to have kits?"
The question took the Medicine Cat off guard, looking at him with wide eyes.
"She's always wanted kits." Nighttail quickly explained. "We both have. We'd be devastated if she couldn't have any now."
Vixensong couldn't tell him that Goldenfur could probably hear what he was saying, but she nodded slowly, making her uncertainty clear to him. The cuts on her undersides didn't seem as bad as she first suspected, though she thought that Goldenfur would need to retire.
"Thank you, Vixensong. Please, save her."
With that, Nighttail finally left the Den properly, being assigned to a hunting patrol with Silverbreeze. However, they hung around, seemingly waiting. Vixensong watched from the entrance to her Den.
"Where is Foxstrike?" Silverbreeze began asking the cats around camp, padding around every Den to try and find the red she cat. In the end, she joined the patrol herself.
This wasn't the first time the she cat had gone missing recently. Vixensong's mind traced back to the conversation they had when she was an Apprentice. She hoped her gut instinct was wrong.
A few days later, Vixensong was sat in Stagstar's Den, checking up on the old tom, his breathing was rapid and shallow and his legs were swelling, but it wasn't responding to her herbs and it was exhausting the calico.
Bramblenose was in there with her, licking her mate's chest to try and keep his blood flowing, like a kit with a chill. The Medicine Cat was running out of ideas, and the Elder was more aware of this than she knew.
Frustrated at another failure and barely able to stay awake, Vixensong went to her Den, gathering up some juniper berries and small black seeds to give to the Leader, like she had done so many times recently, leaving some for Bramblenose to give him in case he woke up again, even though she could tell that the Elder was taking some herself.
After the Leader had taken them, the two she cats left him to sleep.
"Do you think he should retire?" Bramblenose gently asked Vixensong, who nodded back to her.
"How is he?" Silverbreeze asked suddenly, barging in on the conversation.
"Not well." Bramblenose mewed. "I think StarClan is calling him."
Both the Deputy and the Medicine Cat looked at her in shock and she gave an uneasy smile back.
"He knows it too." She quietly added, touching her nose to the silver tabby's head. "I think you should be prepared."
The Deputy only nodded, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to form words before she turned, padding out of camp. Vixensong presumed she was going to where Owlfeather was buried. The two remaining she cats sat together in the silent camp in a somewhat companionable silence of worry. Ryeflower's words rung in Vixensong's ears.
"We cannot cure everything, Vixensong."
The Medicine Cat wordlessly padded back to her Den, stopping momentarily to check on Goldenfur who had eaten the herbs that Vixensong had left her and was now asleep again. For once, Nighttail wasn't there, fretting and hounding the Medicine Cat. She laid in her own nest, telling herself she was just going to rest for a moment before going to treat Frostwing's pawpad, but she couldn't settle. Her fur prickled and just wouldn't lay flat.
Giving up, she got up, heading towards the herb store. However, her eyes fell on her pile of poppy seeds.
Maybe I don't need to find more yet.
Just as she bent down to pick up the coltsfoot, she noticed that her pile of foxglove seeds seemed smaller than before. It took a few moments for the realisation to sink into her sleep deprived mind.
Oh StarClan, no!
Nearly knocking over the returning Deputy, Vixensong ran to the Leader's Den, her paws barely touching the ground as she entered.
But it was already too late.
Stagstar was lifeless in his nest, peaceful and calm. A small black seed that he hadn't eaten was by his front paws, which Vixensong rolled over to her. It was a foxglove seed.
"Vixensong? Why were you in such a ru- oh." Silverbreeze entered the Den behind the Medicine Cat, who quickly hid the seed under her paw as she moved aside.
"Is he...?" The silver tabby's strange green eyes widened as she saw the tom laid there. "T-Those weren't poppy seeds, were they?"
Vixensong didn't give her an answer, guilt overwhelming her, letting the Deputy take him out into camp as patrols returned, cries of despair and shock rising up like leaves in a breeze.
Vixensong watched it all from the Leader's Den. She had murdered a cat.
