The soft crying was coming from a thorn bush that had a red liquid all around it.
Stripetail had his eyes closed, keeping his mind focused on the sound, not the sight. Once his paws hit the liquid, he froze and slowly opened his eyes. He gasped at the sight of it all. He stepped back, leaving red paw prints.
Shimmereyes looked at the liquid and sniffed it, her eyes getting big.
Sniffing his paw, Stripetail licked the red liquid. He made a face. "What is this?"
A scream of shock came from Shimmereyes. "No! It is blood and death berries! Don't eat it!" She cried, already running back from the red liquid.
His eyes got big and Stripetail started to spit, but it was too late. His eyes got big and he fell to the side, shaking. He could barely breathe now and started to shake, trying to get air into his close to empty lungs.
Running to his side, Shimmereyes looked around. She sniffed the air then darted off; coming back a heart beat later with yarrow in a leaf which was dangling from her mouth. She darted back to his side in a flash and forced his mouth open with her paw and put the yarrow in his mouth then closed it. "Swallow…" She said, praying that he would.
Stripetail started shaking harder, his mouth open so he could breathe, but that made the yarrow fall out.
With a hiss of frustration, Shimmereyes put it back in his mouth, closed it with her paw, and held it closed while she covered his nose. She held it there, scared that what her mother had taught her would not work. She held her own breath, praying to Starclan itself for it to work.
Stripetail swallowed, and as soon as he did, Shimmereyes moved both her paws, and Stripetail gasped for breath, and then passed out, just after throwing up the life taking death berries.
With a soft nod of thankfulness that Stripetail was alive, she slowly walked to the bush where the crying was coming from. As she got closer, she saw the small, ruby red death berries. She slowly nosed her way threw, keeping her mouth closed tight and breathing softly threw her nose.
The soft crying was from the center of the bush, and the source of the crying was from a small little cat, which was covered in red liquid, but Shimmereyes was too far away to be able to tell if it was death berries or blood.
Seeing the small creature, Shimmereyes let out a sigh of relief. "Frostpaw?" She whispered, knowing that the apprentice was small for her age, and that some kits were even bigger than her, so she did not think it was a kit, unlike most cats.
The small, red covered figure lifted its head with difficulty. As its eyes locked with Shimmereyes, it let out a soft moan, to say yes.
Shimmereyes smiled softly, and took a step forward; her mouth open to pick up the poor creature, then stopped inches from her scruff. She sniffed, and sure enough, she was covered in blood, but also death berries. She sadly took a step back. "Can you walk?" She whispered. Since she was in the bush, she did not know if a fox was lingering out side of the bush itself, which also made her want to hurry since Stripetail was outside of the bush, just coming back from a near death experience, and passed out.
The figure, which was Frostpaw, closed her eyes and let out a cry of pure agony as she tried to move. That was enough to show that she could not move, not at all.
Shimmereyes sighed and picked a big leaf from the bush, making sure it was not near any death berries, and folded it using her mouth and her tongue. She then placed the still folded leaf on Frostpaw's scruff and tried to pick her up. Thankfully, it worked, and Shimmereyes lifted the small, hurt apprentice up.
Frostpaw let out another cry of pain at this, for even the slightest movement hurt her.
Shimmereyes hushed her quietly, and then walked out of the bush. As she finally got out of the death berry thorn bush, she saw that Stripetail was up, wobbly, but up. She looked down at the apprentice, making her go cross eyed, and then to Stripetail.
At that small movement of Shimmereyes eyes, Stripetail knew that his daughter was alive, even though her eyes were closed, due to the massive amount of pain. He slowly limped after them.
Walking carefully but fast, Shimmereyes went to the camp. As the camps entrance got into sight, she started to taste a sweet liquid in her mouth, but she did not think anything of it, but she kept on going so that Frostpaw would be ok.
As soon as Shimmereyes got to her den, she walked past Lillypool, but as she got to the nest she was putting Frostpaw it, she tasted fur. She did not think of anything, until she remembered that she was using a leaf to keep from getting the death berries in her mouth. She quickly put down Frostpaw and then the sweet taste in her mouth turned to bitter. She dropped the leaf and saw her four sharpest teeth cut small holes in it. This let the death berries juice get in, and she fell to the floor, shaking hard, and gasping for breath.