Stormtail's Secret

Chapter 9

"Mistyfur has kitted!" I woke to this yowl. I stood up and slowly padded over to the entrance to the medicine cat den a stretched my aching muscles. After that, I decided to welcome the new kits to ThunderClan, so I bounded over to the nursery. "Hello Mistyfur, how are your kits?" I ask the dark gray she-cat.

Whitewhisker answers, "They are as fine as they could be."

"Have you named them?" There are two kits. One a dark brown tabby tom, that looks just like Tabbyfoot, who I am guessing is the father. The other one is a pure white she-cat with one green and one orange eye.

"I think this one shall be named Darkkit," she says pointing to the tabby tom. "And this one should be named Icekit," she mews lifting her tail to point to the little white cat.

"I like those names. Bye now kits!" I head out of the den, remembering I probably have hunting patrols and border patrols to organize.

"Stormtail, I need you to organize a hunting patrol for this morning and a border patrol for this afternoon." A meow sounded behind me and I turned to see s snowy white cat.

"Snowstar! Ok I'll do that," I say. "Dustfur, you can lead the sunhigh border patrol and you can take three others and your apprentice. I'll lead the hunting patrol with Redheart, Waterwhisker, and Finchpaw." The three cats in my patrol pad out. "We are leaving now," I say. "Let's go." I am impatient to get moving and stretch my legs.

"Where shall we hunt?" Says Redheart.

I think this through a bit and meow, "The Sky Oak. There should be plenty of prey there." I set off towards the direction of the lake, and get to the Sky Oak with the others following behind me. I prick my ears, searching for prey and pick up a call of a chaffinch. I stalk towards the sound, careful not to rustle any leaves or snap any twigs.

Suddenly, there is a shrill screech and the chaffinch lets out an alarm call and flutters up. "Fox dung! I barely had it!" The screech sounds again. I realize that it is a cat in trouble. I race towards the sound and pick up,the same scent that was on Hollypool. Only that it was on a different cat. Redheart. No, no, no! I thought. Not again!

A few fox lengths into the bushes from the Sky Oak, I see an orange-red pelt. I race over to Redhearts side. "Redheart, Redheart say something! The only thing I get is a sickening moan that turns into a yowl that turns into a screech. Blood is seeping out of his mouth slowly, I know that is a very bad sign.

"Finchpaw!" I yowl "Finchpaw, come quick, hurry!" A few heartbeats later, the sandy colored cat arrives. "Fetch Whitewhisker, tell him it's extremely urgent," I say as Finchpaw's eyes grow large at the sight of Redheart. "Go now!" I yell. Finally, he speeds off in the direction of camp.

"It's okay, Redheart, Whitewhisker is coming, he'll fix you up," I murmur into the red cat's ear. Redheart groans again. It feels like seasons go by before Whitewhisker comes. The black and white cat has a few green leaves in his mouth and puts them down onto the ground beside Redheart. Whitewhisker tries to feed him an herb, but it looks as if he is to weak to swallow.

"Redheart is in the paws of StarClan now," the medicine cat says after awhile. We wait for a long time, as Redheart's moans get weaker and weaker until finally they stop. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest remains, until that too stops.

I push my muzzle into Redheart's cooling flank as Finchpaw asks, "Is he dead?" Whitewhisker nods to Finchpaw. Goodbye, Redheart, I think.

The sickness has claimed its second victim. Who will be next?