Chapter 5

The first cat Mintpaw saw when she woke up was Fernflick, the Lightclan medicine cat.

"Thank goodness your awake!" He meowed with glee.

"Why am I at the Lightclan camp?" Mintpaw asked drowsily.

"Well, after the whole attack on the Duskclan camp thing, you fainted. After that, Duskclan moved into Lightclan to recover." He responded.

Mintpaw flicked her ears. A new questions arose in her head. "How long have I been sleeping?" Fernflick paused.

"Two moons…"

Mintpaw froze. She had been asleep for two whole moons?! She opened her mouth to say something, but Fernflick continued talking.

"Lightclan had to abandon our camp as well, otherwise we all would have died from the attack."

Mintpaw stopped. More cats had died? Mintpaw turned around in her nest to sleep…

After a whole moon awake in the Lightclan camp, Mintpaw wasn't faring much better than right after the attack on Duskclan. She hardly ate, never talked, never moved from her nest, and the only cats to approach her are Fernflick, Sugarcoat, and Skyflower.

Before she completely stopped responding, Mintpaw learned that Leafpaw got his warrior name. He's now called Leafscar, in honor of his brother.

Sunclaw died of old age, and three cats had died from the attack on Lightclan. Swiftleaf, Frondripple, and Waterdapple.

Sugarcoat and Skyflower would usually take a patrol to go to twolegplace to see if any of the cats there knew of a cure for Mintpaw's mental illness.

It was sunhigh when Sugarcoat and Skyflower returned from twolegplace. Gemflower and Cinnamontwist were with them, but three unknown cats followed them in.

"Yellowstar? Flamestar? We have news!" Skyflower yowled, bringing the attention of everyone in the camp to them. Yellowstar and Flamestar camp out of their now shared den to talk with the patrol.

"We would like to introduce three cats from twolegplace, who have offered to help us with patrolling and hunting." Sugarcoat turned to each of the three cats. "This is Kalie," pointing her tail at a brown she-cat with green eyes and a green collar, "this is Summer," now flicking her tail towards an orange she-cat with blue eyes and a blue collar, "and this is Zaria." Sugarcoat's tail motioning towards a blue-gray she-cat with green eyes and a gray collar.

"Kittypets?!" Crownfeather yowled. "Why should we allow kittypets to help us?"

Zaria stepped forward. "I will have you know that before I was a kittypet, I was a loner. The only reason I live with twolegs is that I was badly hurt and Summer and Kalie helped me."

"Then why do you have a collar?" Crownfeather asked.

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER! I DON'T CARE ABOUT A STUPID COLLAR!" Zaria yowled with fury. Crownfeather shrank back.

Yellowstar cleared her throat. "We welcome you to Lightclan and Duskclan." Zaria, Kalie, and Summer dipped their heads. "The meeting is now over!"

Zaria spotted a light green she-cat lying in their nest. It didn't seem like she had moved in a long time. Zaria padded over.

"Excuse me, are you feeling alright?" Zaria asked. She waited a couple of moments, but got no response.

"Zaria, was it?" Zaria turned around to see Skyflower and Sugarcoat, along with a yellow tom she had never seen before, approach her. Zaria nodded.

"You'll have to forgive her. It's been a whole moon since she last left her nest. Attacks from rouges has left her… how do I say this… mentally ill." The tom said, glancing over at the she-cat. "The death of her friend and father has left her spirit broken."

Zaria looked at the she-cat and prodded her with her nose. "Wake up so I can talk to you."

A laugh made her turn back to the medicine cats. "She doesn't respond to anyone now though." Sugarcoat said.

Zaria frowned. "I can still try, can't I?"

After a moon of trying to get the she-cat responding, Zaria noticed the she-cat's ears flicking in annoyance.

"Can you hear me?" Zaria asked again.

The she-cat decided to respond that time and glare at Zaria like she was going to kill her. Zaria saw the almost white eyes and stifled a gasp. She's… blind?

"I can see what your thinking, and no, I'm not blind." The she-cat whispered. Zaria tilted her head. She doesn't speak louder than a whisper?

"What's your name? I'm Zaria!" The she-cat looked away for a split second then drew her attention back to Zaria.

"Its… Mintpaw…" The she-cat whispered quietly.

"Mintpaw? That's a nice name!" Zaria meowed

"Thanks, I guess." Mintpaw responded.

"Why didn't you respond to me at all the past moon?" Zaria inquired.

Mintpaw looked down at her paws sadly. "The death of my closest friend, Scarpaw, and the death of my father, Bluefern."

Zaria shook her head. "I'm sorry for asking that."

Mintpaw looked at Zaria hopefully. "Shouldn't you tell Fernflick that I'm responding?" Zaria tilted her head.

"Who is Fernflick?"

Mintpaw hung her head. "He's the yellow tom with green eyes, and Lightclan's medicine cat!" Mintpaw meowed.

"Oh! Right, I should probably do that, shouldn't I?" Zaria mumbled, half to herself.

"Yes you should." Mintpaw glared at her.

"Okay okay! I'm going, I'm going!" Zaria sprinted off to the medicine den. Mintpaw sighed to herself. There was a lot she was going to have to be caught up on.

I'M SORRY FOR KILLING OFF WATERDAPPLE! SHE'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS!

I might post the "prequel" to this book, but it's not exactly a prequel, just takes place in the same clans and a bit before all this.

Anyways! Like I said in the last Author's Note, Mintpaw's warrior name will be Mintfrost! Thank you RavenblazeOC for the great name!

I am going to try to post one chapter of some book, whether its this one or the "prequel" so you can look forward to that!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

snowyfrostwolf out!

-Silverlily