Chapter 15

Owlpaw and Grayfeather stared expectantly at Amberpaw. "What?" Grayfeather asked.

Amberpaw took a deep breath. "Well," he said hesitantly, "I could be wrong, but maybe, possibly, perhaps-"

"Just spit it out!" snapped Owlpaw.

Amberpaw glared at him. "Let me finish, okay? Now, as I was saying, the thing is, all the sick cats drank water from the lake."

All three of them were silent for a moment. Owlpaw remembered when he had fallen in the lake and gotten water in his mouth, and how Sorrelstorm had probably accidentally drunken the water too when she was saving him. The kits had been given water from the lake when Brackenclaw had given them wet moss. And Hawkpaw had fallen in the lake too...

"I think you're right," said Owlpaw. Grayfeather nodded. Amberpaw beamed. "Awesome! But what do we do to cure them?"

Grayfeather looked at her pile of herbs thoughtfully for a moment. "If they got the disease from the water, then it's probably a poison." She turned to her apprentice. "Amberpaw, what herbs do we give poisoned cats?"

Amberpaw looked at the piles of herbs. "Uh...yarrow?"

"Correct."

Jealousy burned through Owlpaw. It was either that, or the splitting headache he had.

Amberpaw grabbed pawfuls of what Owlpaw recognized as yarrow. The pale ginger apprentice padded over to Owlpaw and shoved mouthfuls of the leaves into his mouth. Owlpaw gagged on the bitter taste.

"Amberpaw!" Grayfeather managed to grab a dock leaf and placed it in front of Owlpaw just as his body started getting rid of the toxins from the lake. Grayfeather glared at Amberpaw. "I don't want this den to be a mess!"

Amberpaw shrugged. ""We're not sleeping right here," he pointed out.

Grayfeather pretended not to hear him. "Give the kits some yarrow," she said. Amberpaw sighed and grabbed the nearest kit, Stormkit.

Stormkit wrinkled her nose at the scent of yarrow. "Yuck!" Amberpaw ignored her and shoved the yarrow in her mouth. Then he grabbed Fernkit and gave her some yarrow too. He was about to give some to Berrykit, but when he poked her and told her to open her mouth, she didn't respond.

Owlpaw froze as he watched Amberpaw poke, shake, and even tickle the tiny gray kit. Berrykit didn't respond. "Grayfeather!" Amberpaw gasped. Grayfeather rushed over to Berrykit.

"I think she's dead!"

Grayfeather and Owlpaw gasped. "B-b-but she's only j-just caught the sickness today!" protested Owlpaw. Grayfeather bowed her head.

"Well, at least we have more herbs and less patients, right?" mumbled Amberpaw. Grayfeather sighed. "Give the herbs to Sorrelstorm and Hawkpaw."

Owlpaw lowered his head onto his gray paws. "Goodbye, Berrykit," he murmured.

Hello! HalfSun here! So, I just want to say, sorry I haven't updated in a while. Anyways, I don't want to spoil too much, but next chapter Amberpaw's getting his medicine cat name for finding the cause of the sickness. The problem is, I don't really have a medicine cat name for him! Can you help?

-HalfSun