WITHERING HERBS || A Warriors Fanfiction

|| chapter twenty five

"It's not your fault, Owlpaw..." Sedgestorm instantly replied, emotions still clearly glittering in his gaze, "It's Hazelberry's."

The she-cat broke in, clearly angry, "Excuse me? Who insisted they keep working?"

"Excuse me," Owlpaw interrupted, "But I very distinctly recall you saying that we were not to stop until we were finished with our work. You would be wrong and it would be most definitely your fault that I passed out."

Hazelberry narrowed her eyes, "Oh really? Do you have proof?"

The apprentice gave her a harsh glare, "Uh, no, what do you think, I ask StarClan to record everything that happens?" The she-cat winced.

"Then it didn't happen," she meowed, flicking her tail, "Anyways... we have a lot to fill you in on."

"And I'm explaining it," interjected Flintpath, glancing at Sedgestorm, who added;

"Me too."

"If you insist," the medicine cat scoffed.

Flintpath lifted his head, "After Sedgestorm found you, he called me over... and..." the warrior stopped, looking away. He took a deep breath, and continued, "We carried you over to Hazelberry's den, where she snapped-"

"I did not!" the tortoiseshell hissed, stomping her paw furiously.

"-at us and took you to her den," resumed Flintpath, ignoring the she-cat, "Pretty much, after that, we all fell asleep wherever and we woke up the next day. Right away, I went hunting and sort of rebuilt the dens. Hazelberry asked us how we were feeling since she did test more herbs on us, and we deduced that the herbs she tested this time were not the cure, either."

Sedgestorm had glanced at Flintpath as if asking if he could continue. The warrior nodded.

"After that, we visited you and... and... stayed with you for a bit," Owlpaw's mentor murmured, "I decided to go and see if the snow had melted and it had, though not a lot. I did find a plump rabbit though, which was nice, and I marked some borders as well. The Clans' borders were not marked recently, besides ours, of course. I reported this to Stonestar and we fear something has happened to them..." the warrior trailed off.

Flintpath picked up where he had stopped, "I wanted to go and see if the Clans were okay, but Hazelberry did not, and she convinced Stonestar soon after it was not a good idea."

"Stonestar agreed with me! I did not need to convince him," chimed the medicine cat sharply, to which the leader visibly grew more uncomfortable, "Isn't that right, Stonestar?"

The leader looked away, ears flattening and gaze darkening, "Y-yes, Hazelberry."

Hazelberry pricked her ear, humming, "Oh, what did you say-?"

"So we didn't leave," snapped Flintpath, his neck fur rising, "And we actually had that entire conversation in the medicine cat's den, with you..." Flintpath's voice had quieted.

"That's basically it," growled Hazelberry before the warrior could continue, "Now tell us what you saw, Owlpaw."

As the spotlight switched onto the apprentice, Owlpaw felt all pairs of eyes bore into his dark brown pelt. He curled his tail over his white paws.

"Okay, so..."

The apprentice began to explain everything he'd been able to see - rather, not see - and how he'd heard the four voices. Instantly, Hazelberry had assumed that the voices were each of the cats. Owlpaw had just shrugged it off and explained the rest, how he was unable to see or do anything, how he tried to escape, and about the many noises, sounds, feelings, and nudges from when he had questioned if it was made up.

"Well, I guess that herb didn't work," muttered Hazelberry.

Outrage surged inside Owlpaw as he snarled furiously, "What? You tested an herb on me and that's what it did?!"

Sedgestorm and Flintpath looked just as enraged.

The medicine cat purred, "Oh, no, well... Yes, I tested an herb on you earlier. You said in the morning it made you energetic, but I suppose it had some rather... deadly after-effects. But it's fine now since you're okay," she meowed, her gaze bright. She laid her tail on Owlpaw's shoulders and he flinched. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.

"Glad you all agree," she continued, "Now, we need to test more herbs, and we only have a few more left. There's four, in fact, so we could easily test the remainder. Though, I'm sure three of them won't do anything. Rosemary, lavender, and mint all just hide the scent of death. They each have some healing qualities but they're useless anyway. The last one would be... uh... burnet, yes, burnet."

Hazelberry excused herself and disappeared into the medicine cat's den and Owlpaw could hear shuffling of paws and reorganization of herbs. She returned with a pawful of each herb, their scents overwhelming.

"So, who wants each herb?" Hazelberry laid each herb bundle on the ground and after nobody spoke, she nudged the burnet bundle to Stonestar, the mint bundle to Owlpaw, the lavender bundle to Sedgestorm, and the rosemary bundle to Flintpath.

"Tell me if you start to feel a bit strange, or you feel as if breathing is easier," she meowed, adding, "And make sure to actually eat the herbs. If you don't... You're dooming us all."

Owlpaw looked down at the bundle with a disgusted look in his eyes. Despite not wanting to, he lapped up the mint, the sharp, distinct flavor instantly spreading over his tongue. Shivering, he snapped his jaws as he breathed in sharply. Glancing at the other cats, he spotted Sedgestorm having a similar issue with his lavender bundle. 

Flintpath and Stonestar seemed fine. The warrior licked his jaws after he had eaten his bundle, and trudged back to the warriors' den, which was built completely.

In a moment, he realized the camp was reconstructed.

Hunger gnawing at his belly, he padded slowly to the apprentice's den. It was no longer a little structure of branches and grasses; now, it was a pre-made bush. A lot of branches, brush, and grass was woven together to make up the small den. Right in the middle of the den was a little circle of moss and grass. The den was now sized appropriately, for only one or two cats.

Owlpaw smiled slightly at the sight of the den and the tom crawled in, ducking under as he carefully squeezed through. The branches scraped his dark brown pelt as he passed by. The entrance was not big. It was sized nicely for an apprentice. He laid down in the nest and shifted around a bit, finding the walls closed in so much a bit strange, compared to the big den. 

Regardless, he fell asleep.