Icy: Happy Black Friday everybody! Or, as I like to call it, happy Friday after Thanksgiving!

Wingpaw: Really...?

Icy: Well, it is the Friday after Thanksgiving...

Flarepaw: I'm surprised you haven't put up your Christmas tree yet.

Icy: Me too...

Mistypaw: So, what's taking you so long to update?

Icy: I got a Wii U on Sunday! It has taken up pretty much all of my free time. It's so much fun!

Stonepaw: That's nice...

Icy: Hey, don't complain. I'm updating now.

Mosspaw: You haven't updated in a week...

Icy: Don't worry, I'm not waiting 2 years to update... Again... I'm sorry, okay? But the Wii U is so much fun!

Mistypaw: Stop apologizing to us and start the chapter already!

Icy: Okay, okay... Here it is already... Sheesh...

Chapter Eighteen

Harsh Repercussions

Mistypaw jerked up from her nest as an ice-cold wind ruffled her fur. She immediately fell back down. She closed her eyes to force the dizziness away. She waited a few moments for it to pass. Once it was gone, she opened her eyes much more slowly and recognized the gray pelt of her brother, who lay sleeping next to her. She blinked her eyes a few more times as they adjusted to the darkness. Then she recognized the sandy-gray pelt of her father a few footsteps away. Her father was wide awake. He was watching her through his pale green sorrowful gaze.

He's my father... Or so I thought for a long time... Just when I started to doubt it, he and Bluefur proved me wrong, just for a stranger from RiverClan to prove me right... I... I can't let this stand...

"Thrush..." Mistypaw started to meow his name but she burst into a coughing fit in the middle of it. Stonepaw jumped up from his nest.

"Mistypaw!" he exclaimed.

"S—s—sorry," Mistypaw stammered when her coughing fit was finally over. "I didn't mean to wake you up," she rasped.

"It's fine," Stonepaw replied. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Mistypaw replied. She tried to sit up, but everything got dizzy again. She fell back over into her nest and lay there.

"I'll go get Featherwhisker!" Stonepaw exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it," Mistypaw meowed. "I'm fine. Really. You don't need to go get Featherwhisker..."

"Yes I do," Stonepaw meowed. "He wanted me to go get him when you woke up."

"Oh," Mistypaw meowed. "Well then. I guess you're going to go get him, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Stonepaw replied. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Mistypaw replied. "Don't worry about it. Go ahead. Just make sure you come back soon," she meowed.

"Don't worry," Stonepaw meowed. "I will," he promised. He gave Thrushpelt a quick nod before running out of the medicine cat den.

Mistypaw tried to sit up again. This time she successfully sat upright. She closed her eyes for a couple of moments to let the dizziness settle away before opening them. Yes! It worked!

"How are you feeling?" Thrushpelt asked.

"What are you doing in here?" Mistypaw asked coldly, completely ignoring his question.

"What do you mean?" Thrushpelt asked. "I was just watching over you and Stonepaw while you both slept..."

Mistypaw stayed quiet. She wanted desperately to attack her so-called father, but she forced herself to stay still. Considering her weak condition, she thought it best to sit still right now.

"Mistypaw, listen to me carefully. You have greencough," Thrushpelt meowed.

"Well isn't that just great..." Mistypaw muttered.

"Mistypaw, I was really worried," Thrushpelt meowed. "I waited for you and you didn't show up, so I'd assumed you'd already gone back to camp. I got back and you weren't there. Mistypaw, how did you fall into the river? What were you doing at the river, anyway?"

"You lied to me!" Mistypaw spat. "It wasn't a game!"

"What are you talking about?" Thrushpelt asked. "Are you going mad?"

"Am I going mad?" Mistypaw exclaimed. "What do you think?"

"Well, Featherwhisker said that you might go mad..." Thrushpelt muttered. "The small injury on your paw is infected... What happened to it?"

Mistypaw looked at her paw. She realized there was a small scrape on it.

"Featherwhisker said you might have gotten bit by a small fish..." Thrushpelt meowed.

"No. It got scratched when I fell off the rock," Mistypaw explained.

"You fell off a rock?" Thrushpelt asked disbelievingly. "When?"

"On my way back from RiverClan," Mistypaw replied.

"What?" Thrushpelt exclaimed. "You went to RiverClan?"

"You think I'm going mad? I think you're going mad! You lied to me!" Mistypaw spat.

"About what?" Thrushpelt exclaimed.

"It wasn't a game!" Mistypaw hissed.

"What wasn't a game?" Thrushpelt asked.

"You're not my father!" Mistypaw growled.

Thrushpelt lowered his head. The shock and worry in his eyes were replaced by mere sadness.

"You're right," Thrushpelt meowed. "I'm not your father."

"You told me that before. Then you told me it was just a game. Why? You slipped, didn't you? You didn't mean to tell me, did you?" Mistypaw was not kind with her questions. Thrushpelt didn't deserve her kindness.

"Of course not," Thrushpelt replied. "I meant for you to know, but then Bluefur appeared and made sure you didn't know... I'm so sorry, Mistypaw..."

"Don't apologize to me," Mistypaw spat. "I don't want to hear any apologies from you."

"But..."

"You want to know what happened when I went to RiverClan?" Mistypaw asked.

"I'd rather know why you went than what happened when you went, but sure..." Thrushpelt muttered.

"One of their warriors found me at the border. He called himself Oakheart," Mistypaw replied, ignoring her mentor's comment. "He told me that he was my father."

"Really?" Thrushpelt asked.

"Well? Was he right? Is it true?" Mistypaw asked. "Am I Half-Clan?"

"I wish I knew," Thrushpelt replied. "It's just possible, but I honestly have no idea. I knew that Bluefur and Oakheart were friends at Gatherings, but... I don't know. I really don't know."

"Then I'll ask her," Mistypaw replied. She started to get up out of her nest, but she was given a quick reminder of how sick she was by the dizziness that hit her. She fell back into her nest and lay on her side for what felt like the fiftieth time since she had woken up.

"Mistypaw, are you okay?" Thrushpelt asked.

"Just dizzy..." Mistypaw muttered in reply.

"Then rest," Thrushpelt ordered her. "Whether I'm your father or not, I'm still your mentor, so you still have to listen to me. You need to rest right now. Whether Oakheart is your father or not doesn't matter. Getting well is what matters, so rest and get better."

"Am I going to get better?" Mistypaw asked. She slowly opened her eyes. "Be honest, Thrushpelt. Am I going to get better?"

"I don't know," Thrushpelt confessed. "I hope so, but you've got greencough, and you're still so young... Plus you've got that injury on your paw... Featherwhisker said the slightest injury would make it harder for your body to fight against greencough because it's focusing on fighting the infection in your paw. He said that it might cause you to go mad..."

"Don't worry, Thrushpelt," Mistypaw meowed. "I'm not going mad. I'm going to get better."

Thrushpelt didn't say anything. His head remained lowered. Mistypaw felt a flicker of worry.

"I'm going to get better," she repeated. "Aren't I...?"

"Are you hungry? I'm going to get a shrew. Do you want anything?" Thrushpelt asked, obviously trying to change the subject.

"No thanks," Mistypaw replied. "I'm not hungry."

"Alright then," Thrushpelt meowed. He turned and padded out of the medicine cat den before Mistypaw had a chance to ask her question again.

Mistypaw lay in her nest looking out of the den. She couldn't see anything past the den entrance. She was beginning to worry. Thrushpelt hadn't directly told her that she would get better. He had changed the subject and left the den as quickly as he could.

He doesn't think I'll get better, she realized. She remembered how quickly Stonepaw had left the den. He had paused to make sure she was okay, but left pretty quickly after doing so. He doesn't think I'll get better, either. Mistypaw wondered how many cats had been in to see her. Probably not many, if any at all.

Mistypaw couldn't help but notice that neither Goosefeather nor Featherwhisker were in the medicine cat den.

If I'm so sick, then why are neither of the medicine cats in here? Mistypaw wondered. Even Spottedkit, who seems to be obsessed with this den lately, isn't here... Then it hit her.

No one thinks I'll get better.

Mistypaw desperately wanted to prove them wrong. I want to get better! But how do I...?

Mistypaw closed her eyes.

For now I'll do what I can, which is rest. StarClan, please let them be wrong! Please save me! Please let me live!

Icy: Alright, that's a wrap!

Stonepaw: Icy!

Mosspaw: Icy, no! You can't do this to us!

Mistypaw: Icy, I want to live! Please!

Icy: Now, now, what is this chapter titled? Harsh repercussions? This is a lesson learned the hard way, my dear...

Wingpaw: Hang on, are you seriously going to kill off one of the main characters?

Icy: I never said that...

Flarepaw: So there's still hope for all of us to cling on to, right?

Icy: I never said that, either...

Mistypaw: Icy! I want to live!

Icy: Alright, enough of this. See you next time!

~Icy and the crew