A New Horizon Book 3: A Frozen Heart {COMPLETED}

Chapter 11

"Let's get going." Shadowstar spoke up once the elders had returned from burying Shorttail and Timberpaw. There was a heavy cloud of pain and sorrow that shadowed the four Clans, there were three cats on this journey who had died and cats were still sick. Honeypaw had stayed with the sick cats all night and a lot of them were already getting worse. Rainypelt was one of the worst, she was old and about as bad as Shorttail had been.

Now Timberpaw's sister, Rabbitpaw was sick and she was already coming down with greencough. Waking up to find both Timberpaw and Shorttail dead had been incredibly painful for all medicine cats involved. Honeypaw prayed that this twolegplace would have catmint and they could find shelter to let the sick cats recover. If we continue without letting them heal I fear that we'll lose all of them.

Honeypaw looked at her own sick Clanmates, Snakewhisker and Squirreltail. Larkpaw was still torn apart over the death of both Pikepaw and Sorrelpaw, Honeypaw couldn't imagine what would happen if she lost her mother as well. I have to keep Squirreltail alive, I can't watch Larkpaw be in pain any longer. Honeypaw watched Snakewhisker limp alongside Pebblestep, luckily he didn't seem to be as sick as the others. Sagekit also wasn't as sick as the others which Honeypaw was grateful for. Last thing we need is a dead kit, they give us hope.

Honeypaw was also thankful that Sagekit had been the only sick kit, all the others including the newly born ones had remained healthy. Thank StarClan for that. Timberpaw however had been quite young, younger than even Larkpaw.

Honeypaw joined up with Pebblestep and the other medicine cats, she tried to meet Blackpaw's gaze but he was staring at his paws. I know what it's like to lose a cat. Honeypaw thought back to Bramblepelt, not wanting to sleep due to his condition and waking up to find him dead. Blackpaw had wanted to stay up but the others, including Honeypaw had convinced him to sleep. I know what he's feeling, but I also know he wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway.

Letting Blackpaw be, Honeypaw walked beside Pebblestep as the Clans gathered to leave. The sick cats stayed near the medicine cats so they could keep an eye on any cat in case they look to be in any worse condition. Once every cat was accounted for, the Clans left their cave towards the twolegplace, Rainears and the rest of last night's patrol assured them that it wasn't far.

They hadn't been travelling for very long when Honeypaw sat the twolegplace through the trees. It wasn't very big, probably one of the smallest ones they had seen yet. Honeypaw hoped that they would be able to find shelter and catmint. The Clans were eager to reach the twolegplace, but the leader's had decided that they wouldn't go to deep into the twolegplace and only patrols would go deeper inside of them.

The Clans neared the edge of the twolegplace and Honeypaw instantly caught the scent of cats, and it was strong. "There's a lot of cats around here." Dawnstar spoke up. "Be on the lookout, hopefully they're just harmless kittypets but we could run into some aggressive rouges if we're not careful."

Nearly every cat was on alert, sniffing around them. They approached the twolegplace, Honeypaw could see a fence rising up close to them and the smell of cat grew stronger. There was a shuffling in the trees around them and suddenly every cat was on alert. "We can hear you." Riverstar called into the trees, her fur bristling. "Show yourself!"

Two cats stepped out of the trees, a red brown she-cat with green eyes and a gray tabby tom with icy blue eyes. "Sorry, we didn't mean to sneak up on you." The she-cat apologized, casting a glance at the tom next to her. "I've just never seen this many cats in one group before, we weren't sure if you were hostile or not."

"We're not hostile," Dawnstar stepped forward. "We're actually looking for help."

"We can try and help." The tom replied. "My name is Night and this is my friend Juniper." Honeypaw looked closer at the two cats, they both had colorful tendrils around their necks, she was pretty sure Seedclaw had called them collars. These two were both kittypets.