At last Leafpool understood. Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost were kin; blood had indeed spilled blood. Brambleclaw had killed his half brother to save Firestar. She had been right about Hawkfrost—he was too ambitious, too much like his father, Tigerstar—but she had never imagined that Brambleclaw would be the cat to stop him.
The prophecy that had haunted her paw steps for so long was finally fulfilled. Now the Clans could look forward to the peace that it had promised. And now that Hawkfrost was dead, Mothwing would be free of his attempts to control her. The secret of the moth's wing sign would be safe forever.
Leafpool turned away from Hawkfrost's body and went to join her father and Squirrelflight. Leaning on Squirrelflight's shoulder, Firestar had managed to sit up. Brambleclaw stood in silence beside them, still apparently stunned with shock, not even trying to clean Hawkfrost's blood from his paws.
"It's over," Leafpool told them quietly. She squared her shoulders and turned her face to the rising sun. "It's over, and peace has come." ~Sunset
"Try to stir Brambleclaw," she instructed her sister, "I'm going to find cobwebs for Firestar."
Leafpool could scent the tang of horsetail the moment she stepped away from the blood-soaked ground. She followed it up the lakeshore, where a patch grew all but in the water. Nipping off several stems, she turned to the large oak growing near the lakeshore, hoping for cobwebs in the branches. A thick, clean spiral of silk coated the first branch up which was half-broken. She had found more than cobwebs here, for at the base of the oak, was the largest patch of thyme she had ever seen on ThunderClan territory.
By the time she returned, Brambleclaw was trying to clean his paws as Squirrelflight cleaned Firestar's wounds. Leafpool dropped the tansy beside the dark tabby, "Eat this."
She then chewed the horsetail into a poultice which she then secured against Firestar's wounds with the cobwebs she had collected. Her father's wound was deep, but not deadly. Her eyes wandered to the slowly-ebbing blood from Hawkfrost's wounds, aware that is could easily have been Firestar in the RiverClan warrior's place.
"Over here!"
The sight of Ashfur and Brackenfur through the long grass brought new purpose to Leafpool. The patrol burst upon the scene with raised hackles and unsheathed claws. The time it would take her to explain the problem to the patrol was time that could be spent getting her father back to camp.
"Brackenfur, Spiderleg, help Firestar back to camp. I need marigold and I won't find any here. Whitepaw, run back to camp and find Sandstorm or Dustpelt, tell them Hawkfrost is dead and we need to inform Leopardstar. Ashfur, stay here with his body, and Ferncloud, can you help Squirrelflight with Brambleclaw?"
As his apprentice vanished into the grass, Brackenfur paused beside Leafpool, so close their whiskers brushed, "Ashfur told us that Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost tried to kill Firestar."
"Brambleclaw saved Firestar by killing Hawkfrost. We won't know anything more until I get Firestar back to camp and examine his neck closer." Brackenfur moved to the ginger tom's side to help as Leafpool ducked into the reeds toward camp.
Halfway to camp, Crowfeather, Sandstorm, and Goldenflower appeared, all three wide-eyed and tinted with fear scent.
"Is Fire-"
"Where is Brambleclaw? Where is my son?" Goldenflower was rarely out of camp these days. Her paws were weak and she was very thin, but right now she was wild-eyed and looked the warrior she had once been.
"He's in shock, but he's going to be all right," Leafpool assured her. "Firestar will recover as well, thanks to Brambleclaw. Hawkfrost tried to kill him."
Goldenflower shoved past her, following the she-cat's scent trail back to where Squirrelflight gently urged Brambleclaw down the path Leafpool had forged through the undergrowth. Sandstorm followed, intent on finding her mate. Crowfeather pressed into Leafpool's fur.
"We have to tell RiverClan," he meowed softly. "Leopardstar will not like her warrior dead on our territory," Leafpool forced her fur to settle along her shoulders, With their leader badly injured and deputy unlikely to be making any important decision in the near future, ThunderClan could not afford a battle.
"Go back to camp, have Brightheart collect a patrol and follow Thornclaw to the RiverClan border. Make sure they don't see you," she instructed softly. "If it comes to a battle, send a runner back to camp for me."
The lithe black warrior turned and hurtled up the slope, his tail tip vanishing before Leafpool collected herself enough to take a pawstep. Behind her, Sandstorm had bullied her way into Spiderleg's place beside Firestar. The brown warrior moved early enough, then darted up the trail after Crowfeather, clearly intent on the possible battle.
~ooOoo~
"Blackclaw, Mothwing, Reedwhisker, Voletooth," Leopardstar gathered her warriors with a flick of her tail, catching sight of the apprentices slipping from their place in the shadow of the cool rocks beside the river to stand beside their mentors. "Beechpaw and Ripplepaw, stay here."
"We're almost warriors," Beechpaw protested sharply, meeting Leopardstar's eyes. The fur along the young tom's spine was raised, his eyes wide, and claws trembling against the ground.
"We do not need to go to war with ThunderClan before determining what happened. Stay here. In camp," ears flicking, she turned back to Thornclaw. "Take me to my warrior."
Leopardstar had long since lost any true affection for warriors of another Clan, but as she followed the golden tabby through the river and against the lakeshore, she could not deny that Thornclaw was a brave warrior. Although he flicked water off his paws distastefully after crossing the river, he did not hesitate to swim or splash through the shallows. Leopardstar scented blood long before they reached a small clearing among high reeds and tall grass.
The thin wire of a fox trap was covered in blood, a thin silver tendril stretching toward the lake, alongside bloody pawprints, but Mothwing didn't seem to notice. She stumbled over the wire, half-leaping awkwardly, eyes fixed on the dark shape beside the lake shore. She forced herself past her Clanmates, shoving herself between a gray ThunderClan warrior and her brother's body, and lowered her muzzle to his tabby fur. Then she wailed, collapsing in the water which splashed against the shore from her weight, nearly reaching her muzzle, and throwing her head back to shriek her sorrow to the darkening sky.
Blackclaw slipped forward, stepping over his former apprentice and lowering his muzzle to Hawkfrost's blood-matted fur. After a moment, he stepped backward with a jerk that caused Hawkfrost's body to shudder. As he turned, he spat out a bloody stick, catching it with one paw before it could roll back toward the lake.
The stick from the fox trap. Leopardstar eyed it, the thin wire chewed but still wrapped tightly around it, the claw-marks on the wood, and the subtle scent of ThunderClan blood underneath the RiverClan blood coating it. She felt the weight of her warriors' gaze, aware that Ashfur's pelt was prickling nervously as he sidestepped Blackclaw to stand beside Thornclaw. The elder warrior watched her as well, eyes cautious but unafraid.
Hawkfrost had been a loyal and skilled warrior. Leopardstar had trained him herself, seeing another cat in his broad tabby shoulders long before they left the forest. He was brave in battle, bold in defeat, and kind to his Clanmates. She had not expected him to die like this, in an attempt to murder the leader of another Clan on a territory not his own for reasons which Leopardstar would not pretend to understand. He was a traitor to the warrior code and to RiverClan, but allowing ThunderClan to kill her warrior would suggest she was weak. She forced her paws to remain still, and kept her claws carefully sheathed as she turned to Thornclaw.
"Is Firestar alive?"
"Yes, but badly injured. Leafpool says he will not be able to speak until the wound from the fox trap heals."
"When he can speak, have him send for me. I would hear how Hawkfrost died from a cat who was there. Blackclaw, Voletooth, carry Hawkfrost. Reedwhisker, see if you can get Mothwing back to camp," Leopardstar turned, intent on returning to her own territory with her warriors.
Thornclaw said nothing, only waited with his tail wrapped around his paws as Leopardstar gathered her patrol. Reedwhisker managed to heave Mothwing to her paws, letting her rest heavily against him as she followed Blackclaw and Voletooth with sightless despair. When Leopardstar looked back through the reeds, she found the ThunderClan cats had vanished back into their own territory.
~ooOoo~
"Leafpool? Thornclaw and Ashfur have returned to camp."
"Should I tell Brambleclaw?"
"Is Brambleclaw capable of handling this?" Sandstorm's eyes were gentle, but Leafpool's ears flickered in embarrassment. Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were curled up together in the medicine den with a watchful Goldenflower. He was asleep courtesy of poppy seeds and dock rubbed into his pads. The tom had been asleep before Leafpool pulled the last splinter from his paws.
"No. Firestar isn't either, though. I need to give him juniper berries and poppy seeds, but he can't swallow and I don't have any heather nectar. Sweet-sedge would help, but I don't have any and I don't want to spend too long by the RiverClan border after Hawkfrost died there. It isn't wise to give RiverClan another reason to consider us an enemy."
"When the leader and deputy of a Clan are incapable of leading, that duty falls to the medicine cat," Sandstorm brushed her muzzle against Leafpool's ears. "I know you'll do the right thing. I'm going to sit with Firestar."
I know how to heal my Clanmates, not lead them. Leafpool dearly wished she could fetch Dustpelt from the shade under the camp wall or Brackenfur from the nursery and demand they deal with Thornclaw's report. The warrior made straight for her, Ashfur breaking away and padding over to where Ferncloud lay.
"Leopardstar wishes to speak to Firestar when he has recovered. She will take no action until she has heard from him the actions of her warrior," Thornclaw told her, sitting to glance into the medicine den. Leafpool's tail tapped a rhythm on the ground involuntarily. If Cinderpelt were here, she would know what to do.
Leafpool was a medicine cat. She knew the best places to gather herbs, how many she could take without killing the plant and when the sickness was bad enough that she should take the herbs back to camp and find a new source later. She knew what herbs could heal broken bones, sooth sore hearts, and ease the suffering of a dying cat. She did not know how to command a Clan.
The scent of a ThunderClan cat touched by stars wreathed around her, and the soft meow of a warrior long since dead touched her ears. You are a medicine cat, Leafpool. Use your skills.
"Thank you, Thornclaw," understanding his dismissal, the warrior ducked into the medicine den. "Brightheart?" The she-cat lifted her head from the fresh-kill pile and padded over, Cloudtail leaving Brackenfur to follow in her pawsteps. "Can you go to the WindClan border and see if any heather nectar can be found on our side of the border?"
"For Firestar?"
"He can't swallow juniper or poppy, and he needs both," Leafpool explained, quietly enough so only the cats near her could hear.
"We'll bring some back," Brightheart promised, stretching to touch her nose to Leafpool before turning and darting out of the camp with Cloudtail. Crowfeather and Whitepaw took their Clanmate's exit as their cue to approach Leafpool.
"I know what sweet-sedge is, WindClan uses it for the worst of infections. Barkface found a patch between boulders on the moor shortly after we arrived. If Firestar needs it, I can get some," Leafpool blinked at her mate. Crowfeather's pelt was fluffed and his ears tilted back, but his eyes were hard.
"No, I can use horsetail and marigold. If you can find any dry oak leaves that haven't fallen off their trees yet, I can use those." Crowfeather's tail kinked in annoyance, but he dipped his head softly at her before turning away, heading to where Ferncloud and Dustpelt shared tongues with Ashfur.
"I'm sorry to bother you, Leafpool, but I haven't seen Birchpaw since dawn. He went off with Ashfur and he isn't back yet."
"Have you asked Ashfur if he's seen him?"
"No, I didn't want to upset him after what happened to Firestar. Birchpaw might just be hunting alone."
"Go ask him. If Birchpaw isn't back soon we'll send a patrol out to find him."
~ooOoo~
"Littlecloud!" Applepaw dove through the thorn entrance, nearly running into Blackstar. Diving around him, she found Littlecloud poking his head out of his den.
"Shadepaw was hunting near the Twoleg Nest and was bitten by a rat! I-" Blackstar shoved between them, lowering his head to the apprentice.
"Take us to him. Littlecloud?" The medicine cat appeared a moment later, carrying an ivy leaf filled with herbs. Applepaw led them to a group of small pines on the far side of the Twoleg Nest. As they came closer, Blackstar could smell the distinctive scent of blood.
On a bed of pine needles, Shadepaw bled out underneath the overhang of a large fern. Littlecloud shoved Rowanclaw away from apprentice and looked into Tawnypelt's terrified eyes. "I can't make the bleeding stop!"
Littlecloud pressed unchewed marigold leaves onto the slash across his back, ordering without looking up, "Blackstar, chew up as much marigold as you can over the wound, then give me the poultice. Tawnypelt, find cobwebs, as many as you can, and press them over the wound. Rowanclaw, see if you can find foxglove. It has downward leaning paw-shaped leaves. Don't bite it, just bring it to me. Carefully."
Blackstar had learned a long time since to listen his medicine cat in times of crisis. Trying to control his panting, he chewed the bitter leaves over the deep gash in the kit's back. Then he spat the pulp onto his paw and offered it to Littlecloud, who smeared it over the wound. The yellow was almost instantly coated in crimson blood. Tawnypelt bounded through the ferns a moment later, cobwebs clutched in her teeth.
Littlecloud draped them over the wound, then pressed them down. Blood seeped through them as well, and even when Littlecloud layered horsetail sap and more cobwebs, the bleeding didn't stop. Littlecloud's paws were soaked, and Tawnypelt vanished back into the brush after a moment.
Blackstar didn't look up when Rowanclaw stepped through the brush, head tilted to prevent the long plant clutched in his teeth from dragging. Leaving Blackstar to hold the cobwebs down, Littlecloud snatched the foxglove and plucked the petals away with his claws. He crushed the petals into a pulp with his paws, tore the cobwebs from the wound, and dabbed the pulp along the wound.
Several heartbeats later, the tide of blood began to stem. Littlecloud tore a leaf from the fern and swept it across the wound. Then he chewed what remained of the horsetail over fresh cobwebs, which dampened with blood, but did not soak. Littlecloud took a pawstep back, looking down the cat at his paws.
"Carry him back to camp and make him comfortable in the medicine den," Littlecloud instructed, "I'll meet you there." Blackstar didn't bother to watch him vanish into the ferns.