The Rogue Traitor #1 - Beginning of the Curse

Chapter Twenty Two

The one word Maplestar sent chills through Birdpaw, all the things he ever did to her rushing back in an instant. Was the battle she had seen in her vision? Flowerstem had clearly been thinking the same thing and jumped into action.

"Show us where you last saw them," said the medicine cat and Honeypaw ran to the camp entrance, with Flowerstem and Birdpaw close behind. Three warriors, Stormwind, Stripecloud and Shadeleaf, had seen Honeypaw rush into camp, and now seeing her run back out with the medicine cat clued them in that something was wrong. They ran up to the camp barrier, along with Dewpaw who had seen his sister and the seven cats rushed out of the camp and into the forest, their paws thumping on the ground. Honeypaw veered off to the left and skidded to a halt beyond a clump of bushes. There, laying in torn grass, was Petalsplash, Vineleaf and Whiskerstar, their blood staining the ground. Honeypaw cried out in alarm and Dewpaw rushed forward to her, letting his sister lean on his shoulder before she fell over.

"I shouldn't have left them," she cried, "Petalsplash told me to go get help but they needed me here more. Now they are all dead because of me."

"Nonsense," replied Dewpaw, his voice soft, "they are not dead, right Flowerstem. Flowerstem?" The brown and white she-cat was standing rooted to the ground looking down at her mate, who had a large gash in his side, and it was freely bleeding. The cream apprentice's words jerked her out of whatever thoughts she was having, and she rushed to each warrior, feeling for their pulse. Vineleaf had a torn ear and clumps of fur missing while Petalsplash had a long scratch down her back leg which was also bleeding freely.

"No," replied Flowerstem in a quiet voice, "none of them are dead, just unconscious. But we need to get them back to camp." In a slightly stronger voice, she turned to face Stormwind, Stripecloud and Shadeleaf. "Can you three carry them on your backs?" The three littermates nodded and slowly began to load the unconscious cats onto their backs.

The trip back to camp was much slower, obviously because of the extra, injured cats, and when they reached camp, the whole Clan was gathered in the clearing. When they saw the injured cats on Stormwind, Stripecloud and Shadeleaf's backs, they broke out into a buzz of conversation. Birdpaw could barely hear any of them, her mind was too foucused on the fact that Maplestar was so close to them. Flowerstem managed to create a pathway through the crowd for Stormwind, Stripecloud and Shadeleaf, so that they could get the injured warriors into the medicine cat den. Luckily, there were already nests set up and the littermates carefully slipped the injured cats onto the moss.

Flowerstem began to flit around the den, giving Honeypaw dandelion leaves for her shock, getting out herbs from the shelves and beginning to patch up the injured cats. Every now and then, she would ask Birdpaw to fetch herbs from the shelves, using her as help since Chiveleaf was not back from gathering herbs. Birdpaw was putting marigold on Vineleaf's ear when she heard a cat stirring and looking over her shoulder to see it was Whiskerstar. Abandoning Vineleaf's ear, he padded over to Whiskerstar, joined by Flowerstem. The grey tabby tom slowly opened his eyes and drew in a wheezy breath, blinking a couple of times.

"Flowerstem?" he wheezed, looking up at the medicine cat with cloudy blue eyes.

"I am here Whiskerstar," she soothed, nudging her mate. The leader coughed weakly, and the apprentice found herself wondering how hard Maplestar must have fought to reduce their once-strong leader to this state.

"He is coming," said the tom, blinking once more before falling unconscious. Birdpaw could feel the fear radiating off the Flowerstem's pelt as the medicine cat bent down to her mate, gently nudging him on the shoulder.

"Who's coming Whiskerstar?" she asked, urgency in her voice but she couldn't wake the tom up again. The medicine cat sat on her haunches and sighed, looking down at her paws. Birdpaw sympathized for the other she-cat and put a tail on her shoulder, both of them looking down at the unconscious leader. Something inside the apprentice made her realize that this was not the battle she had seen in her visions. The two she-cats were so lost in their thoughts that they didn't even hear Chiveleaf thundering back into camp, herbs in her mouth. Birdpaw looked up when the older medicine cat burst into the den.

"What in the name of StarClan happened here?" hissed Chiveleaf, dropping her herbs on the ground. Flowerstem looked up but Birdpaw was the one who explained at the cream medicine cat flitted around the den.

"It was Maplestar," said the apprentice, somehow managing to say his name without a shiver, "he attacked Whiskerstar's patrol. Honeypaw raced back to camp but we were not able to get there in time and found Vineleap, Petalsplash and Whiskerstar all unconscious." Chiveleaf made no sign that she had even listened or heard the apprentice, she just continued to race around the den, grabbing herbs and berries from the store and putting them next to the injured cats. Birdpaw stood in the middle of the medicine cat den, not sure if she was still needed.

"Shoo," said Chiveleaf, when she bumped into Birdpaw for about the fifth time, "you are just being a nuisance." The apprentice rolled her eyes but walked out of the den, looking over her shoulder once more at Whiskerstar before walking into the clearing, going straight to the prey pile and grabbing pigeon off the top, settling down in a shady area of camp and talking a bite.