Warrior Cats SERIES 1: North and South (Book 1)

Chapter 3

Northpaw glared deeply into Crownedpaw's amber eyes. His lips opened up to reveal his sharp fangs, the beginning of a snarl. The hostile shecat narrowed her eyes and hissed before he could.
          "What are you doing in the apprentice den?" She lashed her tail. Northpaw flicked his left ear, his hackles up. He felt a pelt brush along his side, a comforting whisper in his ear. He turned around to see only an outline of a cat he'd never seen before. The mysterious cat faded and realised he was staring at Cottonpaw.
          "Calm down. She'll have to learn to deal with it." His best friend was mewing. Northpaw gave a subtle nod and walked past Crownedpaw, hopping up out of the bramble thicket opening. He heard the golden shecat arguing with Runningpaw, who had revealed her troubles with Crownedpaw. "I'll see you later, Northpaw. Brokenbranch is over there." Her long, light grey tail pointed over to the large, black tomcat sitting in the corner, who was busy washing his pelt. Northpaw nodded.
          "I'll be in the medicine den. I need to talk to Meltedfur." He replied, flicking his tail and padding away from his best friend. His green eyes flitted over to the medicine den, which was a dip in the ground that extended to the stream surrounding camp, covered with bracken fern, the walls thorn bushes. Overhanging the entrance was a bit of honeysuckle vine, shielding the den from most of the rain. Northpaw quickly slipped through to the den, hoping to see Meltedfur. Instead, he saw Splashingbreeze, along with Dustkit.
          "Northpaw, how lovely to see you." Splashingbreeze coughed. Northpaw frowned.
          "Northpaw, out." Meltedfur hissed after him. "It is dangerous being in here - Splashingbreeze and Dustkit must not be disturbed. Not to mention Rushingstar is trying to sleep." Her ears gestured to the old, black tomcat laying in a moss bed on the far side of the den. His eyes looked at her in confusion. He knew what was wrong with Rushingstar, but what about Splashingbreeze and Dustkit? They looked very ill.
          "What is wrong with them?" He meowed quietly. His mentor only gave him a disapproving look.
          "I'll get to you in a minute. Let me sort out these herbs." Meltedfur dismissed him quickly and turned back to her shelf. Northpaw backed out of the den. Dustkit was sleeping and was sweating all over. Even though Splashingbreeze was awake, the elder was coughing and looked extremely tired.

***

         Northpaw was sat outside the medicine den, watching camp. He noticed Coralclaw sitting down beside Verastep and Sharpenedclaw. Northpaw twisted his head and spotted Brokenbranch and Cottonpaw, alongside Starlingwing, who was Runningpaw's mentor. Cottonpaw looked very blissful indeed, and every so often seemed to glance at Northpaw. Self-consciously, he turned his head away, only to see Crownedpaw by herself. His ears tinged with embarrassment as her amber eyes stared back at him.
          "Hey Northpaw." He jumped as he heard a voice behind him. Northpaw spun around only to face Runningpaw. She was looking at him, deep into his green eyes as if she were reading his mind. "What are you doing here alone?"
          "Just waiting for Meltedfur. I'm not allowed in the medicine den at the moment. Splashingbreeze, Dustkit and Rushingstar are ill. She said it was dangerous." He shrugged. "She promised me she'd see me after she's done fixing the herbs."
          "Oh, nobody's told you yet, have they?" Runningpaw spoke sadly. What had happened? She seemed to see his confusion because she continued on. "Rushingstar isn't going to be Rushingstar anymore..."
          "What? What do you mean?" Northpaw frowned. Surely Rushingstar is still. Well... Rushingstar? "What's happening?"
          "It's hard to explain. He'll tell you in the next meeting. Or, well... Coralclaw or Meltedfur might. He's still sick, after all. Hopefully he'll tell us himself - it'll be more traditional." Runningpaw sighed.
          "Okay. I suppose I-"
          "Northpaw!" He got cut off by a light grey shecat bounding toward him. Cottonpaw. He swished his tail and watched her as she spoke in an excited tone. "Brokenbranch said yes! We'll be training together. Isn't that fun?"
          "That's good." Runningpaw purred, sounding as if she knew something he didn't. Northpaw nodded, agreeing with the shecat beside him.
          "Yes, I agree." Northpaw meowed.
          "That's good. I'll see you tomorrow then, Northpaw!" Cottonpaw shook her pelt and padded away. He turned back to Runningpaw before he had realised she was gone, too. His eyes drew to movement at the honeysuckle vines that covered the entrance of the medicine den.
          "Hello, Northpaw." Meltedfur mewed. "I'm sorry for being so hostile earlier. It's just that Splashingbreeze and Dustkit have greencough..." She whispered. "I don't want anyone else to know, but now that we have an opportunity, I'd like you to come inside. I'll teach you a little about this illness and the symptoms." She turned tail and disappeared in the den covered with bracken fern.
          Northpaw cautiously stepped into the medicine den. Meltedfur was glaring at him when he looked up and sat down, grooming her paws whilst she waited.
          "C'mon, you're as slow and careful as a shrew." She meowed impatiently through a mouthful of fur. Northpaw felt his paws prickle with a new feeling.
          "So, what am I going to learn about greencough?" He spoke in a surpisingly enthusiastic tone. Splashingbreeze and Dustkit were asleep, so Meltedfur probably felt she could teach him a few things without offending them.
          "First thing you must know. Greencough is contagious." His mentor meowed. "It comes in three stages: whitecough, greencough and sometimes even blackcough. Though blackcough is rare, it's the most extreme condition. Usually fatal..." She seemed upset. What was she thinking about?
          "I've heard that blackcough can start before greencough or whitecough. Is that true?" Northpaw questioned. Surely there was no harm in asking questions. Even though he felt a little awkward, the eagerness inside him overthrew it.
          "Yes. That is the more common way," Meltedfur purred with glee, maybe happy that she had a competent apprentice. "Still very rare, however. Not much is known about blackcough and sometimes the blood coughed up is black, hence the name." She paused before continuing. "I invited you in here to learn about greencough, though I don't see why you can't learn a little about whitecough and blackcough as well. Feel free to ask questions, but don't bombard me with them." She hissed the last part.
          "Okay." Northpaw nodded, understanding.
          "Greencough is a chest infection, I was taught. It makes cats cough, wheeze and sometimes throw up." His mentor spoke, her voice fluent and smooth. It was clear she had no regrets about taking on an apprentice. "You will need to know the symptoms, before anything else. What's the point in knowing a solution when you don't know if the solution is actually needed, Northpaw?" She fell quiet. Northpaw's eyes flashed with embarrassment as he realised he was supposed to answer, that it wasn't a rhetorical question.
          "Um... Nothing, really. If I know the symptoms, I could come and warn you, as you know the solution. It would save you an extra job." He replied simply. Meltedfur nodded, her chin high with pride of her apprentice.
          "Exactly." She mewed. The dark grey shecat stepped over to Splashingbreeze. "Make sure not to touch her, and try not to breathe in her breath. But have a good smell - what does she smell like?"
          Northpaw quietly walked over to the sick shecat, imitating Meltedfur. He dipped his head low enough to breathe in Splashingbreeze's scent on her hip fur, careful not to touch her whatsoever. A disgusting smell alerted him that something was most certainly wrong. Yuck! He shook his head and looked toward Meltedfur, meowing.
          "She smells like vomit. Like death, almost... It's hard to explain."
          "Well done, I suppose." She flicked her ear in response. "Now watch carefully." Meltedfur beckoned him over to Dustkit, who was sleeping peacefully in her den. "She hasn't yet had her second dose of catmint. I usually give a cat with greencough two doses of catmint if it doesn't go away within five days."
          Dustkit shivered in her moss bed even though she was sweating, and her nose seemed to run, with crust around the outside where it had dried. Northpaw felt sorry for the small kit - hopefully she'd make it through this leaf-fall coming up.
          Meltedfur turned around to face her shelf and sniffed around, eventually taking a herb and walking back to Dustkit and Northpaw. She placed down the periwinkle herb. A minty smell came off of it and he sniffed at it more, drawn toward it until a paw batted him away.
          "Don't sniff it that much. You must be careful not to give in to its smell." His mentor warned swiftly. "This is catmint, also known as catnip to kittypets. We use this to cure whitecough and greencough. It is used well against blackcough, though there are good remedies for that as well. Coltsfoot is effective against carrioncough, but catmint works decent too." She purred. Northpaw jerked his head up. He'd never heard of carrioncough.
          "What's carrioncough?" He queried. "I've never heard of it before."
          "It's not officially called that, but I like to." She smiled then her face turned serious yet again. "It's a very bad cough. Almost as bad as blackcough, and spreads very quickly." Meltedfur answered her apprentice. "Cinderpaw, who became Cinderpelt, helped two ShadowClan cats with it: Littlecloud and Whitethroat. It is said they got the illness from the Carrionplace back in the forest, where our ancestors used to live. After that, Littlecloud officially became ShadowClan's medicine cat." Northpaw listened carefully. He'd heard stories about Cinderpelt, a former medicine cat in ThunderClan. Even though she was from a different clan, all medicine cats appreciate her story, because medicine cats do not exist within clan rivalry. Northpaw liked that. He didn't want to be restricted because it was a different clan.
          "You mean Cinderpelt, who was in ThunderClan?" Northpaw meowed, with a small gasp. Meltedfur nodded.
          "Indeed. It was Cinderpelt from ThunderClan. She was a medicine cat born back in the forest, beyond the mountains. She had a terrible accident, according to legend, and her back leg was crippled by a monster. So she had-"
          "You mean those monsters that rush past on the Small Thunderpath in ShadowClan territory?" Northpaw interrupted, too interested to care. His mentor gave him a sour glare before replying.
          "Yes." She paused before blurting. "How do you know about that Thunderpath? You've never been out of camp, as far as I'm aware." Her voice was stern.
          "My mother told me." He shrugged.
          "You mean Eagle-eye?" Meltedfur prompted. Northpaw nodded, well aware that Eagle-eye was his mother. Although the queen had been forced to return to her warrior duties before he became an apprentice, he still remembered her. When she left the nursery, Yolktail had taken care of him and Cottonpaw. Cottonpaw's mother had died early of unknown causes, though her symptoms were close to redcough or blackcough, Meltedfur had told them. She had never got to know her mother, nor had Northpaw and no cat was willing to tell them. However, Northpaw knew that Cottonpaw's father was Waterwave, the white tomcat with grey flecks and green eyes. His best friend took more of her father's genes, except her eye colour. She had beautiful, light blue eyes that always seemed to impress. Northpaw's grass green eyes were contrasting compared to her's.
          "Um, yes. I mean Eagle-eye." He had forgot that when talking to cats after being apprenticed, he must call his parents by their warrior name instead of 'mother' and 'father'.
          "Okay." His mentor frowned. She seemed to remember her surroundings because she flicked her tail and padded toward him. Northpaw thought for a second she'd walk through him as if he were a StarClan cat, but she simply halted in front of him, her nose touching his before pulling away. "There. You are now, sort of, officially, my apprentice. Do not think I didn't realise Coralclaw had interrupted our ceremony."
          Northpaw trembled with joy for a brief moment before Meltedfur spoke again.
          "Remember: tomorrow we travel to the Moonpool with the other medicine cats. Rushingstar apprenticed you and the others conveniently before the medicine cat meeting and Gathering so that everything was written out for you." She curled up on an empty moss bed, murmuring. "Everything is in your paws now, Northpaw. You are the chosen one..." And she drifted off to sleep.
          Northpaw sat still for another moment. The chosen one? His stomach twisted with worry - if he was the chosen one then the future would be horrific. Stress plummeted like a dog on to his shoulders and he practically flinched from the metaphorical impact. He released the breath he didn't know he'd been holding and gathered his weight to his paws. Sluggishly with sleep, Northpaw stumbled onto a moss bed beside Meltedfur, laying down and curling up, his fur thick on his skin.
          Rain fell outside and became white noise as it continued, allowing Northpaw to calm down before sleep whisked him away like a storm.