Chapter Twelve

Ivypool's P.O.V.:

Murmurs of relief were being spread among camp as the cats finally went to their dens. All anyone could talk about the catmint. Jayfeather had gotten the catmint! The Clan's anxiety was finally ebbed enough for sleep.

Since dusk, when Dovewing had begun her kitting, the Clan had been strung in such tight suspense, that even the tiniest rustle of leaves made a cat jump. Green cough was deadly. Kitting was dangerous. Catmint was a necessity that we were lacking. The combination of it all was overwhelming. The part that had scared me the most was the silence. Didn't cats screech in pain while giving birth? Didn't they moan and scream? Dovewing didn't. She had yowled out once at the beginning, but after that, an eerie silence had fallen. Did she really have no strength to yowl? She had been kitting, for StarClan's sake! Yes, she had been kitting… She had been kitting with green cough.

Finally, though, we were able to lay our paws on the one known cure for green cough: catmint. Every cat in ThunderClan was over-come with joy at the sight of it. They believed it would save Dovewing, that she was now safely out of harm's way. I lashed my tail. Didn't they see? Catmint could cure green cough. It couldn't give my sister back the strength she had lost while kitting. And if she wasn't strong enough, no amount of catmint would save her.

I stalked over to the medicine cat den, knowing that what I felt was not truly anger; it was fear. I thrust my head in the den and looked down at my sister. Her breathing was irregular and so soft you could scarcely hear it. Her eyes were closed, and she was clearly unconscious. Her kits were nuzzled up against her stomach. One was a dark tabby tom, one a gray striped she-kit, and the last was a grayish brown tom. They, too, appeared to be sleeping.

"Leave, Ivypool," meowed Jayfeather, noticing my presence. "I don't have enough catmint to save you if you get sick as well." He turned his blind eyes away from me and towards my sister and the kits.

"No," I growled defiantly. "I am here to see Dovewing, and I am not leaving until I do so."

"You see her," he retorted. "Now leave."

"No!" I hissed. "I have the right to see her! I am her sister! And if…if she leaves tonight, I don't want to know she went without me telling her goodbye." Jayfeather hesitated.

"Fine," he sighed after a moment. "But you're not staying here all night. I made Leafpool and Brightheart leave, too," he meowed firmly.

"Fine," I replied, settling next to my sister. I gazed down at the kits. "How beautiful," I murmured. I nudged one with my nose and it flopped over. It didn't even resist. Oh, no! This isn't happening… I nudged the other kits softly as well. The responses of each were identical. I stared down at the three unmoving bundles, my heart seeming to have frozen to my rib cage.

"Jayfeather," I whispered numbly. "Why are they so cold?"