Here comes the fourth chapter! This one is a little different from the others, let me know what you think.
When he was younger, Heatherrump thought that his convictions would never waver. Being a medicine cat wasn't like being a warrior. It was a true calling. You could resign to being a warrior, you couldn't just settle on being a medicine cat. The training was longer, because the apprentice had to learn everything, and a lot of the role relied on abiding faith. And since then, he had believed. Oh, how he had believed.
There was only so much suffering and loss one could see – and endure – before foolish and innocent dreams crumbled. What was left when everything you had trusted in proved to be wrong?
Not much, he had realised ruefully, not much at all. StarClan hadn't lost his loyalty, of course, but Heatherrump now second-guessed so many of their decisions. He also understood that they were often as mislaid and powerless as the living. Had the situation been better, it would have been somehow comforting to know that they weren't so different. Now though, it was only worrisome.
His tolerance had broken down around three moons after Blossompelt – no, Blossomstar – had announced her decision to leave, with StarClan's support. Pricklesong had left with her, and he understood. So far, he felt needed in the Clan, but still, it was reassuring to know that the little group had a medicine cat with them. Heartherrump had resented the choice of their leader to chase them from the territory, but there wasn't much he could have done; no one of importance would listen to him. He had been resigned to his place in the hierarchy.
And then, Mudholly had come to him.
She knew that Pricklesong had left him directions, if he changed his mind – his former apprentice was far-sighted like that. Alderwhisper had been her best friend and she had almost joined the group at first. Her mate had held her back: love and tries to have kits had convinced her to stay. Mudholly was due soon when she visited him, yet she wanted to know where to go. She planned on leaving two moons after kitting, with or without the father, and she was so determined that he couldn't deny her. Heatherrump had told her everything and had made her promise to come before her departure so that he could give her herbs. They had prepared everything carefully.
But barely half a moon after the birth, she'd come back, completely panicked. Reedstalk – her mate – was sick after eating a rat. She hadn't eaten any, but he wasn't the only one and Heartherrump remembered that another medicine cat had also tried to heal a rat bite with some burdock root. He told her to be careful, that they could only wait. They weren't even sure that her mate wanted to leave with her.
The disease spread and became an epidemic.
Heatherrump wasn't even surprised. Too much proximity, too many cats, not enough burdock root. At some point, they even ran out of yarrow to help the ones who had eaten rats throw it up. In the end that was what made him give up, the lack of regard for his warnings, the near constant neglect of important duties. At this point, no one could do anything for this Clan.
Mudholly and him left together with the twin she-cats she had birthed. Reedstalk refused to come even though he was completely healed, having been among the first patients. Something about staying loyal to his friends. Heatherrump didn't say it, but he doubted that loyalty was going to protect the young warrior from the next disease. As for the queen, even if it broke her heart, she deemed the environment to unsafe for her daughters and had turned down every single plea to change her mind.
They took off in the night – if Reedstalk had any loyalty towards his mate, he would play his part and they wouldn't have to worry about a search party for hours. It wasn't a sure success, but it was better than nothing. They still had to stop often to check that the kits were alright and to feed them.
And then, two sunrises into the travel, Mudholly began vomiting.
She quickly exhibited tell-tale signs of the rat-borne illness. Heatherrump had had no other choice than to start introducing the twins to solid food much earlier than recommended; their mother's milk could be contaminated and they wouldn't survive if they fell ill too.
Soon, the brown she-cat was too weak to carry one of the kits all the time and they had to slow down even more. His own powerlessness – he had no time to look for the proper plants in this unknown place – made him rage, yet he wouldn't give up on hope. They would reach Blossomstar and her MistClan, and there, they would find burdock-root, yarrow, anything.
But things could only go from bad to worse and, as he was carefully tracking a mouse, he caught the faraway scent of what he'd been dreading. The search party.
Luckily, the wind blew in the right direction and they probably hadn't been able to detect him yet, so he ran back, urging the she-cats to get going, prey completely forgotten. Heatherrump had never been an excellent fighter, but he was decent and he didn't have much to lose. If it came to it, hopefully, it would be enough.
At the very second Mudholly looked at him, with the saddest face he had ever seen, he felt his heart stop and plummet in his chest.
"Go," she whispered. "Take my daughters and go."
"Come on, don't give up now. We can still do it." And no words had ever felt so much like lies as he said them.
"I've always admired your faith, you know." Stars, even her laugh sounded sad. "Baykit, Springkit, come here and let your mother look at you for a second. Heatherrump is going to take you on an adventure and we won't see each other again before we're all grown up. Be good, alright?"
Seeing how well-prepared her speech was, Heatherrump knew that she had probably made her choice when she had begun feeling sick, but it didn't make it easier to accept. He rubbed his cheek against hers, despairing that he didn't have the time to groom her.
"I smell like death already," she suddenly breathed in his ear. "It'll cover your traces. If they find me alive, I'll tell them you're all dead. You'll have time… I'm glad you came with us. I know it was only for a few sunrises, but I'm proud that you're our family."
He had always just been a medicine cat; as if that choice had cut all his other ties, but that king of brotherly role he had taken on to help Mudholly, he could never regret it. He would even rank it above StarClan. Heatherrump hadn't lost his faith. He had just decided to live in the present, with the living, instead of running away to find comfort in dreams of the dead.
"We'll reach MistClan. I'll protect them," he vowed. "Rest assured. As long as I live, and even after, we'll all be family."
Leaving was easier than it should have been, considering the situation. Neither kit fussed, probably excited by this new game, and he couldn't afford to lose more time than he already had, so he didn't look back.
He tried to switch which kit he was holding by the scruff of her neck at regular intervals. Baykit, Springkit, Baykit again… They began crying at moonrise, when he had to leave them hidden in a bush to hunt. He came back with a small vole, afraid that something would get to them if he stayed away for too long. They had progressed faster than with the sick Mudholly, but kits this age had short legs and got tired easily. There was still the possibility that the search party hadn't given up, and the three of them were so slow that they couldn't hope to distance several adult cats on the long run – no matter the health of said cats. Still, it was going forward or giving up, and he had promised their mother, so sunrise after sunrise, Heatherrump pushed the small she-cats to move. He sometimes made them walk past sundown to gain as much ground as possible.
It took four more sunrises for them to reach a marking that seemed both familiar and foreign to his nose. He crossed what could only be MistClan's border without hesitating, settling on the other side with the kits. They had been to exhausted to cry for a while now, and it didn't take long for them to fall asleep. Heatherrump let them burrow against his white fur, trying to look calm. Only his brown ear twitched wildly as he stayed vigilant to avoid being surprised by the next patrol that would come their way.
Snaildapple was the one who found them. It was strange to be surrounded by so many distantly amicable faces, even more when they reached the camp and he saw a kit fleeing what he supposed to be the nursery.
"Honeykit, come back here!" Alderwhisper called him back, but her eyes met Heatherrump's and he couldn't bear it, quickly turning away.
She didn't have the time to approach him before the deputy led him and the kits to the medicine cat den. Pricklesong examined them all and, after finding them in good health in good health, sent the she-cats to the nursery while she ushered him to a nest, next to a sleeping Hootkit, no, Hootpaw, whose neck was covered in cobwebs, and that the commotion hadn't woken up.
"Rest," sternly mewed the she-cat. "You'll see Blossomstar later and you'll tell her everything. For now, just forget about it and sleep."
It sounded like a great idea, Heatherrump thought as he drifted off. Baykit, Springkit and himself were safe, there was no better time for a quick nap. Slipping in a dreamless sleep, he was certain that he heard Mudholly laugh.
This chapter also had an unofficial title and it was "oh no, mum is dead". I'm horrible like that.