Mapleshade's Wrath

Chapter 2

A violent, coughing fit broke out of Mapleshade throat again. She bushed out her fur, sobbing for breath, retching the moment she swallowed hard enough. Shaking her head vigorously, her chest ached almost as fiercely as it did from the river she swallowed, which also swallowed the kits' lives. Mapleshade growled under her breath. She could never be what she once was. The pain in the back of her neck was gone, but she couldn't feel it at all. Ever since she had almost died and was brought back, it became extremely numb. How could some stupid RiverClan apprentice be so strong?

"Mapleshade?," Cloudberry meowed, "How are you feeling?" Mapleshade could barely speak, and her vision continued blurring. 

"I...," a weak rasp just managed to escape. 

Cloudberry laid her paw on Mapleshade's heavily scarred face. "Oh no, your fever is really high." The tortoiseshell could smell fear in the flat-muzzled medicine cat. "You stay here." 

Mapleshade felt even more weak as she watched Cloudberry quickly pad over to the other side of the den. She just barely managed to catch a clear glimpse of her sniffing the tiny cracks in the rock. She reached her paw into one of the cracks, pulling out a small bundle of borage leaves and clamping them in her jaws. Cloudberry approached Mapleshade again, gently laying the leaves next to her nest.

"Eat these. They'll help bring your fever down," Cloudberry told her in a worried tone. 

Mapleshade felt desperate enough to only move her head over to the strong-smelling leaves, clamp them in her jaws, and slowly chew and eat them up. She buried her face in her tail again, slowly closing her eyes. She suddenly remembered how she had felt like this even the day before she was exiled. 

Mapleshade weakly lifted her muzzle over to Cloudberry. "I....I've felt like this since before I was thrown out. Only now did it get this bad, though." Mapleshade closed her rheumy eyes halfway.

"Oh no! You had been exiled the day before the half-moon! The next Gathering is only a sunrise away from us," Cloudberry shrieked in horror. Mapleshade was on the verge of collapsing from weakness. Cloudberry sniffed Mapleshade's face, flattening her ears. 

With a twitch of her whiskers, she dipped her had, lamenting: "I'm so sorry, Mapleshade. You have greencough." 

The battered she-cat couldn't respond. She would probably die soon, which she was completely fine with. She had refused to tell Ravenwing about the coughing fits she had broken into time and time again the day before her kits died, wanting to be there for them. She felt that they needed her more than she needed her own health. She had then refused on the tragic day as well, when she thought she was okay. Cloudberry swept her tail over Mapleshade's wounded neck, still covered with the poultice and cobwebs.

"How's Mapleshade?," a rasp sounded as Flowertail quickly burst into the medicine den. 

Mapleshade tried taking notice of her sister's amber eyes which seemed to glow. Flowertail was now the only thing that Mapleshade found any more comfort in. Not even the rest of her kin, even Whistledawn, because they couldn't defend her. 

Cloudberry lifted her head, refusing to prick up her ears. "She has greencough, and she's weak enough it could very easily kill her. I need you out of here. I don't want it spreading to you," she mewed, eyes misting. 

Flowertail quickly bounded over to Mapleshade, rubbing her blunt muzzle against Mapleshade's cheek. "Can I please spend some time with her? She needs me. You go collect catmint and speak with Oakstar. He needs to know about this."

Cloudberry raised her ears only a tiny bit. "That's true. He must know. And we need more catmint before leaf-bare; it's very close," she mewed, slowly padding out of the den. Mapleshade attempted opening her eyes a bit more.