One moon passed, and soon newleaf was beginning to make its mark on the forest. The snow had melted, leaving the trees as green and vibrant as ever. Prey was beginning to return, and the fresh-kill pile was full for the first time in almost half a moon. Tiny buds began to sprout. Fireheart's kits, Briarkit and Scorchkit, were only three moons shy of being ready for their apprentice ceremonies now, something that neither kit would let her forget.

"Fireheart, guess what? Scorchkit and I are going to be apprentices soon!" Briarkit meowed excitedly.

"Yes, I know. I'm sure you two will be wonderful warriors," Fireheart purred, touching her nose to her daughter's ear.

"Who do you think our mentors will be?" Scorchkit asked.

"I'm not sure. That will be up to Sunstar," she told him. Or Bluefur, perhaps, if she becomes our leader before my kits are apprenticed.

"I want Stormflare to be my mentor," Briarkit announced.

"She would make a good mentor," Fireheart murmured in agreement.

"I want Mistyfoot," Scorchkit offered quietly. "She's so cool. Do you think Sunstar would let her mentor me?"

"That's up to him," she purred, chuckling. "But I'm sure I could get a word in if you'd like."

As her two kits continued to talk eagerly about which cats they would receive as their mentors, Fireheart stretched her paws out in front of her and let out a yawn. Even though it was barely sunhigh, she was already feeling worn out. She let out a silent sigh of frustration; it seemed that no matter what she did, she was always tired these days. It wasn't for lack of sleep, either. Fireheart had fallen asleep well before moonhigh the previous night, yet for some reason, she still felt incredibly weak.

What's going on with me?

Fireheart wasn't stupid; she knew that something wasn't right with her. The problem was, neither she nor anyone else could figure out what it was since her only symptoms thus far was an unusual level of exhaustion. Not even Featherwhisker or Spottedleaf seemed to have any idea what was wrong. She hadn't even passed out again, so she was more or less confident that she could write that off as a one-time incident. But with no other health concerns, Fireheart had no choice but to hope that her lingering weakness would subside in time as well.

Perhaps a bit of fresh air is all I need, Fireheart thought. She knew that Bluefur had forbidden her from leaving the camp, but the blue-gray queen was out on patrol at the moment. Besides, she wasn't planning on going far. What Bluefur didn't know wouldn't hurt her. All she needed now was a way to keep her kits distracted.

"Briarkit, Scorchkit, why don't you two take a piece of prey to the elders?" she suggested. "If you do that, they might be able to tell you a few stories."

Briarkit's eyes lit up. "Great idea!" she yowled, turning around and sprinting out of the nursery with her brother following close behind.

As soon as her kits had disappeared, Fireheart pushed herself to her paws. She nearly stumbled as she did so, but she tried to brush it off, deciding that it had only happened due to spending so much time lying down. Shaking herself off, the flame-colored queen pushed her way out of the nursery and into the camp. Fireheart paused for a few heartbeats to sniff at the air as Tigerclaw padded up to her, a squirrel in his jaws.

"Good morning," he purred, dropping the squirrel at her paws and giving her forehead an affectionate lick. "How are you feeling today?"

It was a casual inquiry, but the concern in her mate's eyes was clear. Out of everyone in the Clan, Tigerclaw alone knew how much her condition had worsened over the past moon. For the most part, she was able to hide it from their friends and family, but he had always been able to see right through her. More than once, he had insisted that she visit Featherwhisker for herbs, but she declined every single time.

"I'm fine," Fireheart meowed, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. "Just a bit tired, that's all."

"Are you sure? I can get Featherwhisker if you want," Tigerclaw offered worriedly.

"No, it's alright," she answered, shaking her head. "I don't think I need any herbs. Just a bit of fresh air would be great, though."

Tigerclaw shook his head immediately. "Fireheart, you know what Bluefur said. No going out until your strength is back to normal," he meowed.

"Ah, whatever," Fireheart replied cheerfully, waving him off. "What she doesn't know can't hurt her, right? Besides, we won't go far. Just a few heartbeats and I'll come back inside."

"Well..." Fireheart could see Tigerclaw struggling between his respect for Bluefur and his desire to make her happy. "Okay, then. But just for a little bit."

"Great!" she purred, pressing her nose to her mate's cheek. "Let's go, then."

Unfortunately, it appeared that StarClan had other plans in mind, or perhaps they simply enjoyed tormenting her. Not even two heartbeats after Fireheart started walking towards the gorse tunnel, a wave of blackness washed over her and she passed out.


When Fireheart came around again, she was less than pleased to realize that she was back in the medicine den. That was the last place she had been hoping to get stuck in. To make matters worse, her head was throbbing painfully, which she guessed was a result of hitting her head when she had fallen over. As her vision slowly came into focus, she was able to make out the worried faces of Tigerclaw and Featherwhisker watching over her.

"Ugh...that hurt," Fireheart groaned, struggling to sit up.

Tigerclaw pressed his nose against her cheek. "Lie still," he murmured gently. "You need to rest. You've just woken up from fainting."

"Yeah, I figured as much," the flame-colored warrior answered, settling back down in her nest all the same.

"You hit your head pretty hard there, Fireheart," Featherwhisker remarked, and Fireheart finally noticed the cobwebs bandaged around her head. "How do you feel? Any soreness or nausea?"

"A little sore, but other than that I feel alright. Not too much worse than before at least," she replied.

It was partially true–aside from a splitting headache, she still felt the same as she had earlier that day. Yet despite her physical health being more or less normal, as Fireheart turned to stare at the den wall, she couldn't suppress a twinge of doubt in the back of her mind.

So, I passed out again...

No matter what, she couldn't seem to rationalize her collapsing yet again. When it had happened the first time, she had been able to brush it off as nothing more than overexertion. This time, however, there could be no such excuse. She had barely taken two steps outside of the nursery; there was no reason for her to pass out so easily. Then, of course, there was the fact that her strength had been diminishing steadily over the past moon. That was another issue entirely, and one that Fireheart wasn't any closer to figuring out the answers to.

"Fireheart?" With a start, she realized that Featherwhisker was looking at her as though waiting for her to speak.

"Er–sorry, what did you say?" she asked sheepishly. The silver-gray medicine cat shook his head.

"I was asking if you were alright. That's the second time in a moon that you've passed out," he repeated, looking at her in concern. "Are you sure that there isn't something else going on with you? Something that I should be looking into?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Fireheart replied automatically. "It was probably just–"

"Don't," Tigerclaw interrupted, his tail lashing.

Fireheart blinked, turning to look at her mate. "What are you talking–?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! Stop saying that everything's fine and dandy when we can all see that it's not," Tigerclaw snapped. Fireheart watched as the dark tabby began pacing back and forth.

"Tigerclaw, I know you're worried about me, but there's really no need to–"

"No need to what? No need to get worked up about it?" He shook his head. "Pardon me, Fireheart, but I just saw you collapse out of nowhere. I was skeptical when you said you passed out due to working yourself too hard the first time, but it sounded fairly reasonable so I let it slide. But now? No. You shouldn't be so out of shape that taking two steps out of the nursery is too much work for you, especially considering that you have to keep up with Briarkit. I know that something isn't right, Fireheart, and sooner or later, so will everyone else. So please, just tell us the truth–what is going on?"

Fireheart stared at Tigerclaw for a few heartbeats, then shook her head slowly and turned to gaze at the wall again.

"I don't know," she whispered.