This is a super short sort of in-between-chapters chapter. I was weirdly inspired to write it after watching an intense episode of Heroes (good show, btw).
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The air was stale. Not one breath of wind stirred the clearing, to cleanse away the taste of death. No sounds pierced the heavy silence; not even the mournful queries of an owl. It was as if the entire forest had ground to a halt, shocked and disturbed by the events of the evening.
It had been so sudden. First nothing, and then everything came crashing down, the tranquil shroud torn away in a swift malicious rage, revealing the true horrors. No one had really been paying attention until it happened. Blindness finally stripped away in a sudden flash of light.
Icefang watched, her face a blank slate. Tails, dragging in the dust, left twin jagged trails.
Quietly, her eyes downcast, the white she-cat turned away. Her ears flickered back and forth, but there was nothing to hear. Of course not. What would anyone say? What was there to say? Only to complain, to ask the regular questions: why, how, what have we done. It was getting old – when no answers came, eventually, little by little, the questions stopped.
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I shall explain. It has been two days since the last chapter. Basically, it's officially leaf-bare. They couldn't find any more catmint, and have exhausted all stores. Here's the major events. I will talk about these in the next chapter, but it might be easier just to tell them now anyway.
Cinderstar lost a life to whitecough, leaving him with only two left.
Palenose died, very suddenly, within the course of two days because there was no catmint.
AND, Leafspots dies, also of whitecough, extremely suddenly, in the span of one day. What happened was, she slipped into the brook on sunrise patrol, and when she got back to camp she had already contracted the cough, and was dead by that night. That's what the part about "It had been so sudden" is referring to.
So very, very sad, but the story really needs to get moving here.