Warriors: Fair Skies

Chapter 5

Hailkit slowly opened her bleary eyes and looked around. The sharp tang of herbs greeted her as she came to her senses. She could see the early evening light filtering into Sedgepelt's shady stone den, gently illuminating the dusty floor in a brilliant shade of orange. Hailkit could tell it must be very close to sundown. Scrambling to sit up in her nest, she turned to look at the back corner of the den and saw Sedgepelt's white shape hunched over a large pile of dry herbs, sorting them into two separate piles. The rustling of the dried grass in Hailkit's nest drew his attention away from his work, and he looked over his shoulder to make eye contact with the kit.

"How are you feeling?" the old tom asked immediately.

"Uh, fine, I think? Hungry, if anything."

A rusty purr came from Sedgepelt as he slowly got to his paws and padded over to where Hailkit sat. "Well, that's good then," he started. "A hungry kit is a healthy kit."

"Then why am I here?" Hailkit asked as the tom ignored her and began to sniff around her fur, prodding with his nose. His breath billowed over her as Sedgepelt leaned close to examine her eyes, and Hailkit had to fight not to pull away rudely from the smell. Great StarClan, what does this cat eat!

Eventually, the skinny tom sat back on his haunches and stared straight at Hailkit. "You really don't remember what just happened? It was only around sunhigh."

As if his words conjured the memory, Hailkit remembered her terrifying ordeal out in the middle of the clearing. "I had just finished talking to Stormstar," she began slowly. Her words seemed stuck in her throat as she recalled the tone of her father's voice reprimanding her for asking to leave camp. "After that, I got into an argument with Scarletkit, and I was talking to Moonfeather. Then..." Hailkit trailed off as memories of suffocating on air came back. She shook her head to clear it away before it threatened to overwhelm her again.

"I know, Moonfeather told me everything." Sedgepelt filled in. "Any cat would have thought the sky was falling down by the way she was yowling around."

"But what was it? I couldn't breathe and it felt like my heart was going to fall out!" Hailkit pressed.

Sedgepelt answered with another question. "Have you ever felt like this before?"

"Maybe a few times, but never as bad as this. Moonfeather told me that it happens only when I worry too much," the kit confided, looking down at her paws.

"I think she's right."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I think she's half-right, at least," Sedgepelt corrected.

Hailkit couldn't completely understand. Confusion and indignation swelled inside her. "But I definitely felt something! I promise I wasn't making it up!"

The tom stood back up stiffly and flicked Hailkit's small fluffy ear affectionately with his tail. "Take it easy, little kit. I never said you were," he assured. Turning towards the herb pile still left on the opposite side of the den, Sedgepelt began to paw out a single sprig with small, deep green leaves. Hailkit observed curiously as the medicine cat carefully picked up the sprig in his teeth and carried it back to where she waited.

Sedgepelt dropped the strong-smelling herbs at Hailkit's paws. "I've seen something similar to what you and Moonfeather described to me back when I was an apprentice," the old tom started. "There was a warrior in the Clan who would have the same symptoms as you. The difficulty breathing, the burning-pelt feeling, all of it. But it would only really happen when he got trapped in his thoughts. He would think he was sick even if he wasn't, and he would believe it so much that it would actually make him ill."