"Hold Still!" Sweettooth yowled at the gray patient he held under his body. "We can't treat you when you're wriggling so much!"
"Let me see my kits!" The blue-eyed patient screeched. "I need to tell them I love them before I die."
"But you've only got a dislocated shoulder—" Sweettooth objected, trying to calm the tom down.
"The infection would soon set in and then I would get Greencough!"
"How is that even possible?"
"I don't know! I'm not a medicine cat and neither are you two."
"I've been a medicine cat when your mother was still in the nursery." Mothwing huffed, clearly offended by her patient's. "Now hold still or I will feed you Deathberries."
"Fine." The patient grunted after his long struggle.
"Now, Sweettooth," The elder medicine cat meowed. "My bones aren't strong enough for this so you'd have to do it alone. Put one of your fore-paws and one of your hind-paws on Jayclaw's back."
Sweettooth proceeded to do as Mothwing ordered but he already knew what to do. "It's fine Mothwing, I know what to do. Just warn me if you notice anything wrong."
Standing over Jayclaw, laid on his flank, Sweettooth put his free fore-paw on top of the gray warrior's dislocated shoulder. With only one paw on steady ground, Sweettooth put as much weight as he could on Jayclaw's shoulder, which jolted it right into place with a loud snap.
Jayclaw screeched for a few heartbeats but calmed down as he began to move his leg freely, seeming amazed that it healed. "Thanks, Sweettooth." Jayclaw meowed with his voice betraying both gratitude and surprise.
Scrambling to his feet no more than a heartbeat later, Jayclaw shot out of the den without letting out another sound.
"I always thought Brackenpelt was the most annoying cat from their litter." Mothwing meowed from behind Sweettooth, not continuing any later after the mention of his mother.
After looking at the deep sleeping Willowshine for a few moments, Mothwing resumed her meowing. "I mentioned Petalfur earlier. It reminded me of delivering her and her littermates, when Willowshine was still a paw. Poor Icewing and Mintfur had to see all of their first litter die before them, Pricklekit didn't even reach six moons old. They might have had Nightsky and Breezeheart afterwards, but Icewing cares for Petalfur's kits, and their kits as much as her own, remember that Sweettooth."
Sweettooth was still thinking about Pricklekit, never experiencing being an apprentice or warrior.
Looking at Willowshine's small form and the calm rise and fall of her flanks, Sweettooth still couldn't understand how she could have mentioned Mintkit's fate as a possibility for his future litter.
"Mothwing," Sweettooth began asking the old she-cat. "Willowshine told me once that she hopes none of my kits suffer Mintkit's fate. While I also hope for that, she had an ominous way of saying it. Do you know what she meant?"
"Willowshine told me about it." Mothwing answered Sweettooth sounding thoughtful. "She regretted it later, it was done out of anger, you must forgive her."
"I already have, but what did she mean by it? Is the fact my littermate died at kitting able to impact my own kits?"
"It doesn't. I think Willowshine referred to the destinies of cats who were like you. Many cats who were born the sole survivors of the litter walked a troubled path. Tigerstar, my father, was one of them. So was Leopardstar. But there is another case, related to Leopardstar's. Mudfur was a warrior in RiverClan before I was born. He had a mate and she kitted four kits. Soon after, Mudfur's mate and three of his kits died, leaving only Leopardkit as a survivor. Mudfur later understood he was destined to become a medicine cat and he was my mentor. Willowshine only feared that you are also destined to be a medicine cat, like Mudfur."
"I see, thank you Mothwing." Sweettooth meowed, unsure if he wanted to hear what he did. After taking a few moments to let the story set in, Sweettooth began meowing again. "Should we wake Willowshine and give her more alder and watermint?"
"No, let her rest." The old medicine cat answered. "Do fetch burnet though, we're running low on it. Willowshine kept telling me how small the regular patch is, so plant a few in other sunny places, hopefully we'll have new growth by Green-Leaf."
"Okay." Sweettooth obliged, still a bit distraught, and exited the den, leaving Willowshine and her former mentor by themselves.
As he was about to cross the stream in the direction of ShadowClan territory, Sweettooth heard the thrumming of paw-steps behind him.
"Sweettooth!" Sweettooth turned around to see a gray-and-pale brown tom running towards him. "Wait for me. Where are you going?"
"I need to gather burnet and plant some more." Sweettooth answered his clanmate's question cheerly. "Would you like to come with?"
"Sure," The gray footed warrior answered. "Lead the way. My name is Grayfoot in case you forgot."
Sweettooth crossed the river with Grayfoot right behind him and began walking towards the burnet patch he knew.
"I heard Mistfeather and Shelldawn are getting along well in the nursery." Grayfoot meowed in a friendly manner. "Do you think Reedstar would let us mentor Oakkit and Stormkit?"
"I won't mentor them," Sweettooth's meow caused a surprised reaction to appear on Grayfoot's face. "I would be in the nursery when it's their time to be apprenticed."
"Oh," Grayfoot meowed in understanding. "You're going to be a great father Sweettooth, but don't stay there too long, we've been missing you in the warriors' den already, how is it in the medicine den?"
"The medicine is fine, but some of our clanmates are really a thorn in the paw to deal with. Willowshine is usually sleeping but when she's not she complains like an elder."
"Willowshine is nice, she's probably just not used to being sick and taken care of."
"Yeah," Sweettooth meowed, ready to switch subjects. "I've noticed you and Mudstripe spend a lot of time together. Will she be in the nursery with me?"
"Oh no, it's not like that. Mudstripe and I are just friends."
Sweettooth was about to ask more when a dank smell fell on his nose. "I've never scented this smell." Sweettooth meowed to his friend, pausing to breath in more of the rank scent.
"Neither have I." Grayfoot replied after sniffing the air. "What do you think it is?"
"Badgers," Sweettooth answered deeply. "Shelldawn reported scenting some right here, let's continue carefully."
Sweettooth and Grayfoot kept padding together in the same direction watching for signs of badger.
When the pair finally reached the last trees that hid the sunny clearing where burnet flowered, the scent of badger grew stronger.
Sweettooth poked his head through the leaves to see two badgers, carefully picking burnet flowers as he would have done.
"What in the name of StarClan?" Sweettooth breathed with amazement at the badgers' cat-like behavior.
Hearing Sweettooth's exclamation, the striped beasts were quickly startled. The badgers grabbed as many burnet flowers as they could in a heartbeat and began running away.
"Let's chase them!" Grayfoot yowled and began giving chase.
"Wait!" Sweettooth hoped to stop his clanmate. "It might be a trap! Let's plant some flowers elsewhere and follow their trail later."
"Okay Sweettooth," The gray warrior halted and turned to agree. "You might be right. How do you want me to take these flowers?"
"Take the flowers the badgers already picked." Sweettooth commanded. "I'll uproot some flowers to plant more patches."
Sweettooth watched Grayfoot bundle the picked flowers and began digging up the ground near other strong looking flowers. Picking them up by the root, Sweettooth gathered a good pile and picked them up carefully.
"I know a sunny clearing not far from here." Sweettooth meowed through a mouthful of flowers. "Bury the flowers near the roots of a tree and we'll meet back over here."
"You actually saw two badgers?" Icewing questioned Sweettooth and Grayfoot. "Do you even know what they look like?"
"They were big and black and had a long white stripe running down their spine." Sweettooth reassured the clan deputy. "They looked exactly like in the elders' tales."
"We'll tell ShadowClan about them." Reedstar announced decisively, and explained as if he were a mentor. "The badgers might not have gone into ShadowClan territory, but they are close by and might lurk there too. Though the herb stealing you've mentioned is very peculiar. I remember Stormfur telling us about the badger Midnight, but she was alone as far as I know, and not traveling with other badgers. Sweettooth, Make sure to ask the other medicine cats if they know about anything of the sort. Icewing, lead a patrol the next day to alert ShadowClan and destroy any badger sets they find." The elderly leader finished with a respectful nod and entered his den.
"Shelldawn has been feeling strange," Icewing caught Sweettooth's attention with the mention of his mate. "But don't be worried, Mothwing checked on her. These feelings are regular for a queen."
Sweettooth was too worried to let out a meow. Instead, Sweettooth simply nodded and trotted towards the nursery with Grayfoot at his tail. Reaching the nursery, Sweettooth saw Mistfeather telling her kits a story about LeopardClan near the nursery entrance.
"And then the clans agreed to let LeopardClan rule the river permanently." Mistfeather finished her story. "Now go to the nest, you need a lot of rest to become big strong warriors."
"I'm going to be the biggest warrior!" Stormkit exclaimed and puffed out his chest.
"Not if I'll be bigger!" Oakkit challenged his littermate as both stepped quietly inside the nursery.
"Hi Grayfoot, Hi Sweettooth," The nursing queen greeted. "I heard you went gathering herbs, how did it go?"
"We saw badgers." Grayfoot meowed, trying to sound unimpressed.
"Well don't let the kits hear it." Mistfeather requested. "They won't sleep for a moon if they do."
"How is Shelldawn?" Sweettooth asked worriedly. "Is she sleeping now?"
"She is," Mistfeather answered. "You can come in if you want, just be quiet and don't wake her."
"Of course." Sweettooth meowed before entering the den quietly. Sweettooth saw Shelldawn's sleeping body, her swollen belly filling the entire nest. Sweettooth sat down beside her and began to gently lap her fur, careful not to wake her up.
After a few moments of shared time with his sleeping mate, Sweettooth padded out of the nursery. The sun was still in the sky but was going down quickly now. Sweettooth headed for the fresh-kill pile where he saw Mothwing beckoning him with her tail.
"Come share this carp with me Sweettooth," The elder meowed to Sweettooth. "I've got a story to tell you."
Sweettooth went over to the golden tabby, sat next to her, and began eating from the chub lain at her feet.
"It's a story my mother told me." Mothwing began. "Before my mother kitted me and my littermates, she met a few rogues in the old forest. One day she walked in the forest and saw one of them fighting a hungry fox. She didn't want to risk her kits' life so she didn't join the fight. Eventually the fox won and ate the cat. My mother happened to stumble upon the same fox later that day, when she did, she saw the fox writhing in pain. She watched as eventually the fox's belly tore open and the fox was dead. Did you understand the moral of the story Sweettooth?"
"No." Sweettooth answered, too busy thinking about how the carp's scales are strong enough to deflect tooth and claw, but now becoming intrigued as Mothwing was about to tell him the moral of the story.
"Don't eat cats Sweettooth." Mothwing scolded with an irritated, knowing tone. "You're a good cat, don't throw it away." Mothwing got up and left towards the medicine den.