Chapter 25

"Splashpaw, from now on you will be known as Splashspots. StarClan honors your strength and determination, and we wish you many moons of life."

The cats cheered Splashspot's name, and a smile lit his face. He had been smiling a lot lately, and everyone knew why. And just as the smile faded, the source of it hopped right over and licked him on the cheek. Amberbreeze and Splashspots were obviously crushing on eachother, and now that Splashspots was a warrior, they could be mates.

But Sparkstar wasn't done yet. "Splashspot's sister, Sweetpaw, would have been made a warrior today also, but her health isn't well enough to leave the medicine cat's den. Her whitecough has progressed into greencough. Our medicine cats are working hard to cure her, and hopefully she will have her warrior name soon."

Sparkstar leaped down from the frozen mound of rocks and mud, and the normal sounds of life in the camp resumed.

I frowned, knowing how stressed Coalpaw was when Sweetpaw only had whitecough. He had been barely eating for the past few days, no matter how many times I brought him prey. Maybe if I brought him his favorite prey he would eat more.

I glanced at the fresh kill pile, but not a single water vole was on the small pile of prey. Looks like I'd have to go catch one myself.

I crossed using the stepping stones, knowing that the river wasn't very frozen after testing it with a paw. I hadn't been out of camp very often lately, only for patrols or occasionally to hunt on my own. The rest of the time I had been helping around camp, weaving reeds into the dens or looking for feathers to line nests.

The landscape had changed since the last time I went out on patrol. The ground had been springy and only lightly dusted with snow before, but now a good amount of white covered the ground and every tree and bush, and the ground was hard with ice and frost. I surveyed the land, seeing where the voles would be. In their dens, obviously. Probably somewhere by a tree or along the riverbank. I decided to start somewhere there were both of those things.

I walked along the riverbank for a while until I came across a thick rooted tree. Snow lay between the roots, covering any sign of a hole. So I'd have to dig, and be careful to not wake any sleeping voles.

I dug my front toes into the powdery fluff and started to dig, creating another small pile beside me. The earth below was revealed, and I sniffed and felt around the area, but there was no hole. I moved over to the next one and started again; putting the dug up snow in the spot I had previously shoveled snow from. I shivered, my toes and face growing cold from the wind and snow. I fluffed up my pelt against the frigid winds as I dug, trying to dull the cold a bit.

Luckily, a little hole lay beneath the last pile of snow. I sniffed it a bit to make sure the hole wasn't empty, and sure enough found the scent of water vole. It was asleep, so I needed to be stealthy. I hooked a paw into the hole and swiped the dazed vole onto the snow. It looked around dazedly a few times before I nipped its neck, killing it. I smiled at my work and started back to camp, the limp body swinging in my mouth.

I went straight to the medicine cat's den when I returned to camp, not wanting to get the prey cold. Coalpaw was in the herb store mixing a bundle of herbs, and Sweetpaw was lying in one of the nests, asleep. But another body was beside her, the body of Shimmertail.

I dropped the prey at my paws. "Shimmertail's caught it too?"

Coalpaw nodded. "She caught it last night, went right into greencough. Looks like my fear's coming true. Now go, I don't want you getting it."

"I brought you prey."

"I'm not hungry."

"It's water vole."

"I don't care."

I stomped up to him, putting the prey in front of him. "Coalpaw, you need to eat! I didn't go out in the snow, freezing my paws off to get you your favorite prey, just to have you turn it down. It won't hurt Sweetpaw and Shimmertail if you stop for a moment to eat. Now go on, I'm not leaving until it's all gone."

Coalpaw grumbled something, but eventually ate the vole. He started off nibbling, but eventually his hunger took over and he wolfed down every scrap of meat and buried the bones. I could tell he felt much better after, though all he did was mutter, "Thank you."

I smiled and purred a goodbye, leaving the den.

"Out of the way, Frostleaf," Mudstripe meowed, ushering Earthstone into the den.

"No, not another!"

"It's a bad case of whitecough right now, so there's still a chance we can get rid of it quickly," the medicine cat meowed after settling Earthstone into one of the nests.

"Mudstripe, come quickly. Sweetpaw's gotten worse."

"How could she possibly get worse? Death?" Mudstripe muttered before going inside the den to help.

I frowned, walking inside of the warriors' den and settling into my nest. Would RiverClan be destroyed from within before ShadowClan had a chance to do it?

A/N: RiverClan is in deep trouble this leafbare! Will they survive, or be wiped out by sickness and ShadowClan? You'll have to read to find out! Thanks for reading, and thanks for getting me to 56 reviews!