Burst of Fire

Chapter 10

Fire nearly jumped out of his skin as a pitch-black shape burst out of the trees in front of him. The cat's sleek fur was puffed up proudly, and he was carrying a thrush in his jaw.

"Fire!" He squealed joyfully, "How did I do on my hunting test? How did I do?"

"Oh, Oak! You did quite well! Did you catch anything else?" Fire felt pride ripple through his pelt as his young-one nodded eagerly, beckoning with his tail towards a grove of short trees a few bush-lengths back. Underneath one of the sturdy pine trees was a freshly upturned mound of dirt and fresh leaves. When Oak uncovered it shyly with his forepaw, Fire couldn't believe what he saw. Laid delicately in the hole were three pale, plump mice, two black tree squirrels, two pigeons, and an extremely fatty water vole.

"Oak!" Fire called with pride to his young-one, "This is more than my hunting group caught before the attack on the field dogs! We'll have to make more than one trip!"

"Or he could help." Oak suggested, beckoning towards a golden furball leaping towards them. Fire couldn't stifle a meow of laughter, watching his son hop around like a rabbit.

"Had your fur not been golden, I might've mistaken you for prey!" Fire called out to him with amusement.

"Oh, do shut up!" Sun called back, clearly annoyed. He has a way of saying it that makes it sound more like- If you don't shut up this instant, I will bite your face off and feed you to a badger!- Fire paused for a moment, then found himself laughing. Just like his mother.

"I need to be away from the tribe clearing for a while!" Sun huffed when he reached Fire's side. "Wow, that's alot of prey! Should I help carry it?" When Fire nodded, Sun picked up the tree squirrels in his jaw.

"I was thinking..." Oak approached Fire with concern, "How can the prey be so fat during the winter? It even started to snow at dawn today."

"I don't know." Fire replied, worries beginning to form in his mind. "It's like the calm before the storm. However, this might not be a storm that we can wait out. Something bad is going to happen." Fire and Oak both shuddered, but not from the cold. Together the trio made their way back to the clearing, prey in their jaws.

When they reached the clearing, Oak dragged all of the prey over to the prey-pile. Once he had gone, Sun turned to his father with sorrow in his midnight blue eyes.

"Hey, Fire?" He asked softly, "Can we talk?" Fire nodded, and Sun led him to the shadowy corner of the main clearing, directly behind the shelter of the hollow big-rock.

"What is it?" Fire asked his son.

"Cloud is being such a badger-butt recently." Sun spat.

"Hey!" Fire scolded, "We mustn't be using such foul language towards our successors!"

"But it's true!" Sun protested, "I tried to talk to him about Rose's pain, and he didn't even care. He doesn't care about what happened to Dove, because he's in love again. This time, with Stone! He doesn't even seem to know that what he's doing is wrong! He's such a badger-butt, a fox-face, a dog-heart, a-"

"That's enough." Fire told him firmly. More softly, he repeated, "-That's enough." Sun wailed softly and thrust his face into Fire's fur, trembling. He began to mutter- just loud enough for Fire to hear,

"Fire! I- I'm sorry... I just- it's seeing Rose in pain. It hurts... It hurts so much..." Sun trailed off, still sobbing. All of a sudden, Sun collapsed on the ground.

"Sun?!" Fire exclaimed, "Sun!"

Fire crouched beside his kitten, checking for what could have caused the sudden drop. Leaning closer to his chest, Fire found that Sun's heartbeat was erratic, getting faster and faster. After a few seconds, it stopped abruptly.

"Wind!" Fire screeched with horror, "Wind! Please, come quickly! Wind!"

In a few moments, Wind and Crystal appeared at Fire's side, concern and fear in their eyes. "What happened?" Wind asked with worry.

"We were talking..." Fire began, breathless. "And all of a sudden, he just collapsed! His heartbeat became faster and faster until-" Fire was cut off with a fit of coughing, and he dropped to the ground in pain. His vision became blurred, and Fire could feel his own heart rate quickening.

"Fire, what's happening?!" Wind exclaimed, "Fire! Stay with me! Fire!"

Just before Fire blacked out, he saw a cat's shape hovering in the shadows, and it's claws were drenched with the poisonous juice of yew berries. That was when Fire noticed the pain of a poisoned cut in the small of his back. No... Fire thought, That's... impossible... And then everything went dark.

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Cloud was standing at the mouth of the big-rock, enjoying the sun-high warmth, when he heard Fire screech in terror. After a minute or two, Wind and Crystal were running past, paying Cloud no attention whatsoever. After a while, Cloud could make out Wind crying out Fire's name.

Cloud turned the corner and saw Crystal and Wind frantically pressing Fire and Sun's chests. At first, Cloud couldn't understand what was wrong; they looked unhurt. Then he realized the problem. The cats' bodies were completely lifeless.

"What's going on here?!" Cloud exclaimed, glancing quizzically at Wind. "Why are they unconscious?"

"They were poisoned!" Crystal spat in fury. "Come here, look at this!"

Cloud obeyed and padded towards Crystal, who was trying to revive Sun. When he reached her, Crystal rolled Sun onto his stomach to expose a glistening, scarlet scratch. However, the scarlet substance wasn't blood...

"It's yew berry juice!" Cloud exclaimed, horrified. "Who would do a thing like this?" Crystal shook her head, a deep degree of sorrow cursing through her amber eyes.

"I don't know." Crystal sighed, "I just don't know."

"We need to get them to the healer-cat cave, where our herbs are." Wind interrupted, desperation in his voice. "Get Petal and Oak over her to help me carry them." Cloud nodded, then yowled as loudly as possible,

"Petal! Oak! We need you over here! Hurry!" In a few minutes, Petal and Oak appeared by the poisoned cat's sides.

"Oh, great forest!" Oak muttered with fright. Petal stared at her mate and her kitten in shock.

"Do you have anything for the poison?" Oak asked, pure grief flooding his voice. Wind hung his head in sorrow, then responded at last,

"I'm not sure." At this, Petal raised her head, desperation in her fiery, yellow eyes.

"Humans." She said, her voice strong for the situation. "Humans have medicine for poison. I've seen them work on other humans and cure poisons. I know a human that can help, because Fire and I's human was a healer human." Cloud gazed at the blue furred she-cat with wonder, but he was feeling more hopeful now.

"Go then," He told her. "Bring your mate and your kitten to the healer." Petal gazed at Cloud, hope and joy in her yellow eyes. She buried her face in her fallen mate's flame-colored fur, then mumbled softly to Cloud,

"Thank you. Thank you so much!"