Warriors: Frecklesky's Heart

[ 23 ]

The sky was dark, starless, and consuming Frecklesky's vision. Her heart thundered in her chest. Why was she on ThunderClan territory? Where was Rachel? Her heart lanced achingly, her eyes darting around with her ears pinned flat to her skull against the rattling of a violent gale through the canopy.

"Frecklesky! Come here!" Rachel's familiar soft voice shouted from everywhere, twinged with fear.

Frecklesky jerked her head around, but she couldn't quite place the origin of the kittypet's cries. "Rachel, I'm here! Where are you?" She took off in one direction, her paws thudding painfully against the earth as desperately she pushed through brambles and bracken, her fur catching viciously on thorns.

"I'm scared, Frecklesky! Come back!"

Frecklesky whirled back around. Where was her voice coming from? It felt as though a badger were mercilessly clawing at her pelt as she fought to pinpoint the direction of Rachel's voice, but no sense of coordination would greet her. Blindly, she stumbled through the damp, dark forest, her chest throbbing worse and worse as Rachel's cries grew ever more desperate.

"I promise, I'm coming!" She sobbed, agony tearing her to shreds.

The dark forest slowly opened up, leaving a yawning stretch of black before her. The thunderpath. ShadowClan territory would be on the other side, wouldn't it? Perhaps Rachel was waiting for her there.

With a surge of desperation, Frecklesky leaped onto the asphalt. It dug fiercely into her paws as if millions of needles were sinking into her flesh, and she groaned in agony as she pushed across. Glaring yellow eyes thundered in from the horizon, the monster parting it's long, jagged metal teeth as it bore down on her. Frecklesky froze, staring into its horrifying face.

Was this the end?

Frecklesky screeched, tucking her paws over her head as it swallowed her, its putrid breath choking her lungs in an odor that only monsters could produce. She woke up writhing in her soft, thistledown-lined nest. She glanced frantically around to see a few weary eyes turned in her direction, and she shot a hot scowl in return, giving her pelt a quick few licks to calm herself.

It was only a nightmare. Rachel is okay. I'm okay, Frecklesky reassured herself.

She buried her muzzle back in her nest, but sleep escaped her grasp. Instead, her shivering was met by blistering warmth, sinking deep into her fur and making her feel sticky with a combination of freezing cold and sweltering heat. She groaned, rubbing her eyes with her paws before reluctantly standing and stumbling out into the clearing.

A fresh frosting of snow decorated the ground, and more snowflakes delicately fluttered from the sky as she padded towards the camp entrance. The snow was cool comforting under her sweltering paws, but Frecklesky's head continued to pound as she slipped through the icy terrain, her teeth clenched tight as she shivered even through the extreme heat her body produced.

Her thoughts whirled blindly as her thick tortoiseshell fur was enveloped in a layer of white, and eventually, she found that her paws had guided her to the thunderpath. She clenched her teeth as she stared across, the hurt Rachel had left making itself pronounced.

How could Rachel have done this to her? Did she find wicked pleasure in destroying a warrior so? Frecklesky had never seen the beautiful dark she-cat to be of such a nature—but perhaps she'd been misguided. Was this the hurt Fallowstep had spoken of when she warned Frecklesky to stop her nightly visits?

She shook out her pelt with a deep, rattly sigh. She had done her best to keep Rachel out of her heart and mind, yet thoughts of her always came crawling back when she was at her worst, especially when she was alone with her thoughts. And especially in her dreams.

It didn't help that Frecklesky couldn't refrain from visiting the border, clinging to the faintest of hopes that maybe, just maybe, Rachel would come back. Yet with every passing day, the hope dwindled further into the crevices of her mind.

She took a ragged breath as suddenly, her paws began to sweat and her last meal surged up through her throat. She ducked swiftly under a bush where her sickness remained pronounced.

Shaking out her pelt, she decided to head back to camp, her paws stumbling as she swiftly made her way home. She found herself at the stump that made up the medicine den, pushing aside the screen of lichen as she slipped inside.

Carefully, she crept across the den and prodded Fallowstep in the side. It took some time until at last her sister blinked awake, eyes furrowed with confusion.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, slowly stretching to her paws.

"I'm... not feeling too well," Frecklesky mumbled, sitting down as her sister began to inspect her. "I feel hot and cold at the same time, I threw up, and I don't know what to do." She sleepily rubbed a paw over her muzzle for emphasis as Fallowstep came back around.

Fallowstep thoughtfully leaned forward and touched her nose to Frecklesky's. Frecklesky flinched at the coldness of her sister's damp nose.

"It seems like you have a fever," Fallowstep mewed softly. "Come, wait in one of the patient nests over here."

Frecklesky followed her sister to a small corner of the den where the ground dipped lower into a small corridor with three nests. She slipped into one of them, placing her head on the edge. The moss was old and dry, having not been replaced for many moons.

Fallowstep returned with a small, dried herb between her teeth. "Eat this," she instructed, dropping the little white flower by Frecklesky's mouth.

Frecklesky's muzzle twisted even before she lapped it up, and her face wrinkled even further as she chewed and swallowed the bitter item. After a few moments, she washed it down by ravenously lapping at a small bundle of water-soaked moss her sister had brought her.

"I'll be back in a few minutes to see if your fever has died down at all. Did you do anything today that may have led to this?"

Frecklesky shook her head. "No, only a nightmare."

Fallowstep tutted in response, and without another word, she trotted briskly away.

It felt like moons had past as Frecklesky uncomfortably shifted around in the nest, sweltering heat gnawing beneath her skin. When Fallowstep finally returned, she had another bundle of moss that Frecklesky eagerly drank up.

"You'll be staying here tonight so I can watch over you, okay?" Fallowstep mewed gently.

Frecklesky nodded numbly, dizziness overwhelming her. "Yeah... that sounds great," she muttered, "thank you."

Fallowstep hummed her acknowledgement. Frecklesky rested her head on the edge of her nest as her sister gently lapped the fur between her ears, bracing herself for the long night ahead.