A sharp yowl split through the early pre-dawn air, making every cat jolt up out of their nests, fur standing on end and eyes darting frantically from side to side.
"Someone! Help!"
Snowfrost's eyes snapped open. She recognized that voice. It was Polarpaw. The Clan was already gathered around Polarpaw.
"What's happening?" Minkfin's voice called.
Polarpaw's voice was trembling. "There's something wrong with Yarrowleaf!" she yowled. "I've tried everything - every herb that I know of but s-she's not moving!" the apprentice choked out, her green eyes brimming with tears.
The Clan was dead silent.
Snowfrost stepped forward and bent down to be eye-level with the medicine cat apprentice.
"May I take a look at her?" she mewed in a soft tone, her plumy white tail flicking from left to right.
Polarpaw blinked her green eyes at her.
"B-but Snowfrost, you're not a medicine cat - do you even know anything about medicine and how to heal?" she meowed, her voice sounding hollow as she spoke.
It was then that Blizzardsky entered the conversation.
"Oh, believe me, my sister is basically a medicine cat doing warrior duties. She knows the names of plants I've never even heard of."
Snowfrost blushed and stared down at her paws, not sure how to react to what her littermate had just told the Clan.
The Clan fell silent yet again at Blizzardsky's words.
All eyes then turned to look at Snowfrost.
Snowfrost ducked her head, not expecting the eyes of her fellow clanmates to go from staring at Polarpaw, to her sister, and then to her.
"She's not lying!" mewed Ripplepaw, one of Polarpaw's best friends. "I've seen Snowfrost gathering herbs for Yarrowleaf while out training with Cinderblossom."
Many other cats gave varying nods or mutters of agreement at what Ripplepaw had just said.
Dovestar blinked and tilted her head curiously at Snowfrost.
"Wait a minute," she cleared her throat and shook out her pelt. "So you didn't want to be a warrior?" the leader asked, blinking at Snowfrost, who shifted her paws nervously in the snow.
Whalestripe blinked and turned to face her former apprentice.
"If you didn't want to be a warrior, why didn't you say anything sooner?" the black-and-white she-cat mewed curiously, her eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Because Yarrowleaf already had an apprentice," Snowfrost meowed, rolling her eyes and turning to face her former mentor.
Dovestar sighed heavily.
"Well, we need to fetch Yarrowleaf's body, and Polarpaw needs to be named as the new medicine cat."
Polarpaw's eyes went wide with disbelief.
"B-but Yarrowleaf's not hear to give me my name!" she protested weekly.
Dovestar looked into the apprentice's eyes. "Then I'll do it," she mewed simply. "Snowfrost, you will accompany me and Polarpaw to the Moontree. Hailclaw, you're in charge until we return."
Hailclaw looked taken aback but nodded his head, not wanting to question his leader's actions.
"We will hold a vigil for Yarrowleaf when I return," the dark gray she-cat meowed before turning and exiting the camp with Polarpaw and Snowfrost at her heels.
•••
The trip to the Moontree was silent. No cat spoke, not knowing what to say to break the tension in the air.
Eventually, however, the three IceClan cats reached the base of the Moontree and each one of them touched their noses to the bark of the tree.
When Snowfrost opened her eyes, she noticed that she was in StarClan's hunting grounds.
After a moment of glancing around the misty forested landscape ahead of her, Snowfrost turned to face both Dovestar and Polarpaw.
Dovestar cleared her throat, then began to speak.
"I, Dovestar, leader of IceClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of a medicine cat, and with your careful guidance, she has completed her training. Polarpaw is now ready to receive her true name as a medicine cat." She paused for a moment and turned to face Polarpaw. "Polarpaw, do you promise to uphold the ways of a medicine cat, to stand apart from rivalry between Clan and Clan and to protect all cats equally, even at the cost of your life?"
Polarpaw nodded, her green eyes gleaming. "Yes, I promise." She mewed proudly.
"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your true medicine cat name. Polarpaw, from this moment on, you shall be known as Polarwish. StarClan honors your gentle spirit and compassion, and we welcome you as a true medicine cat of IceClan."
"Polarwish! Polarwish! Polarwish!"
Polarwish smiled brightly and bowed her head, excepting her new name and hearing the cheering from the StarClan warriors around her.
After the cheering had died down a bit, Dovestar turned toward Snowfrost.
"Snowfrost, is it your wish to give up the name of a warrior and follow the path of StarClan as a medicine cat?"
Snowfrost nodded her head, her blue eyes gleaming like sapphires in the light.
"Yes it is, Dovestar," the white-furred she-cat meowed proudly.
The IceClan leader sighed deeply, pausing for a moment before she continued speaking.
"Then by the powers of StarClan, I name you, Snowfrost, a medicine cat apprentice. May you learn the ways of a medicine cat and walk with StarClan in your dreams."
Once Dovestar was finished speaking, Polarwish walked up and touched noses with her new warrior-turned medicine cat apprentice.
"I promise to teach you the best that I can," Polarwish meowed into Snowfrost's ear. "And I know that your doing this because it's what your heart wants."
Snowfrost purred and touched her nose to her new mentor's forehead. "I promise to be the best medicine cat apprentice that I can be."
•••
Upon returning to camp, Hailclaw called everyone together upon seeing the three cats emerge from the gorse tunnel that lead into camp.
Dovestar leaped up on top of the Highrock and yowled for everyone's attention.
"Cats of IceClan, we have a new medicine cat." Dovestar motioned with her tail for Polarwish and Snowfrost to step forward.
"Polarpaw has returned with her new name. She is now called Polarwish, and Snowfrost is her apprentice." The gray-furred leader mewed proudly.
"Polarwish! Snowfrost! Polarwish! Snowfrost! Polarwish! Snowfrost!" the Clan cheered louder than Snowfrost had ever heard them cheer before.
Once the cheering had stopped and the Clan was dispersing into groups, Blizzardsky raced over to her littermate and Polarwish.
"Congratulations, Snowfrost. I'm so proud of you!" her sister purred, nuzzling her sister's cheek. "I'm really gonna miss hunting with you - but I know that you'll make a fantastic medicine cat."
Snowfrost flicked her tail and nudged her sister's side with her head. "I'm still in the same Clan as you, sis." She purred back, twitching her whiskers in amusement.
Blizzardsky chuckled and had just opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by two cats racing at top-speed toward them.
"Hey! Polarwish! Snowfrost! Blizzardsky!"
It was Ripplepaw and Sealpaw.
Polarwish smiled and touched noses with her sister. "Hey you two pipsqueaks!" she meowed in a joking tone.
Both apprentice's pouted and shot her annoyed glares.
"Hey! Not cool, Polar!" Sealpaw mewed with an annoyed huff. "We're all the same age, you know, sis."
Snowfrost purred in amusement at the display.
"Well, you three are technically older than me and Blizzardsky." She remarked with a small laugh.
Ripplepaw flicked an ear in Snowfrost's direction. "Oh yeah, I always forget that you two are younger than us." She added shortly afterwards with a sheepish expression forming on her face.
After a moment of silence, Polarwish cleared her throat and turned toward her apprentice.
"We should check the herb storage and gather any herbs that we're low on." She mewed, flicking her tail in the direction of the medicine cat's den.
Snowfrost nodded and started to pad toward the medicine cat's den. She paused just before entering to look back at her new mentor.
"But what about Yarrowleaf's vigil?" she mewed in a low tone.
As if reading the medicine cat apprentice's thoughts, Dovestar's yowl rang through the entire camp.
"Let all cats old enough to swim join beneath the Highrock for an IceClan meeting!"
Snowfrost and Polarwish nodded to each other and patted over to join the warriors and apprentices at the base of the Highrock.
At the IceClan leader's summoning meow, cats began emerging from their dens and trotted over to sit at the base of the Highrock to see what was happening.
"Attention, noble cats of IceClan!" Dovestar began, "as you may already know, earlier today, our medicine cat, Yarrowleaf, was found near the back of the medicine cat's den by Polerwish." She paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "We'll morn her death and hold a vigil for her tonight." Dovestar finished with a somber expression clouding her face.
"Clan meeting dismissed," Dovestar meowed, leaping off the Highrock and patted over to talk to Hailclaw.
Snowfrost hung back near the entrance of her and Polarwish's den and watched with sad eyes as her mentor, along with Whitewing, Yarrowleaf's littermate, and Sunflower, their mother, all sat in a circle around the motionless form of the Clan's eldest medicine cat.
The white-furred she-cat sighed sadly and bowed her head, tears falling from her eyes. The grief washed over Snowfrost like an angry wave, drowning out everything else.
It had finally sunk-in that Yarrowleaf was gone - and so Polarwish had taken her place as the new medicine cat. But as she watched Polarwish bury her muzzle into her dead mentor's fur, it was pretty clear to Snowfrost that the black-and-white striped tabby she-cat wasn't prepared to take her mentor's place as the new IceClan medicine cat.