Warriors: A Dawn Rising

Chapter Thirteen

             Dawnflight padded back with Jaypaw, Thrushpaw, and Doefrost. Her paws ached with the need to relax for once and the soreness got worse once they started leaping down the tumble of stones. "Oh, Dawnflight! I've been looking for you." Amber suddenly rushed up to the she-cat, worry pricking in her gaze as her tail twitched anxiously.

             "Go on and get some fresh-kill, Jaypaw." Dawnflight nodded to her apprentice as he ran off, she looked at Amber. "Is something wrong? Have one of the kits gone missing?"

             "It's worse! I think Flamekit is sick." Amber meowed in alarm, Dawnflight headed towards the nursery. She pushed through the bramble screen to see Flamekit curled up in a ball on the nest, coughing and wheezing. "He won't cool down, he refuses to eat, and he's been coughing all day." Amber explained, the ginger kit looked so helpless curled up like that.

           "I'll bring him to Leafshine." She meowed, picking him up by the scruff and carrying him across camp. She set him down once safe inside Leafshine's den. "There's something wrong with Flamekit."

            "Let me check." She meowed, running over and listening to the kit cough. "Coughing, hot body temperature. Has he eaten anything?"

            "Amber said he wouldn't eat. What's wrong with him?" Dawnflight asked worriedly, Leafshine shook her head, staring down at Flamekit.

           "There's only one thing I can think of that corresponds with these symptoms, blackcough." Leafshine sighed, curling her tail around Flamekit. "It's not contagious, but highly deadly, and there's no cure for it. We don't even know how cats get it. Flamekit... is... he's a lost cause." She murmured sadly, Dawnflight curled her tail into Leafshine's.

           "We might as well save him from all the suffering." Dawnflight meowed, Leafshine padded away to fetch some deadly nightshade, then came back and woke up Flamekit. "Listen, I love you a lot Flamekit, I want you to know that. Do you trust me?" She asked.

           "Of course I do." Flamekit rasped.

           "I want you to eat that pile of leaves and berries." She instructed, flicking her tail at the poisonous herbs. Flamekit lapped them up, and suddenly flopped onto the ground. Leafshine turned away, head low and unable to watch her kit's life get taken away. Flamekit was convulsing, his eyes wide with terror before his body fell still. "I know how hard that was for you, but Flamekit will be better off in StarClan."

            "I need to check the rest of the kits and make sure they haven't caught it too." Leafshine meowed suddenly and pushed past Dawnflight.

           The golden-brown warrior padded through the thorn barrier, padding over to Cedarheart who was talking with Bluewhisker. "Flamekit.. he's dead.." She meowed quietly, Cedarheart immediately stood up and touched his nose to her cheek. "But he's in a better place now."

           "How do we explain this to the other kits?" Cedarheart asked, pain flashing in his eyes.

          "They're old enough to understand death." She murmured quietly, sighing as Leafshine hurried from the nursery. Dawnflight padded away from Cedarheart reluctantly to go tell Robinstar the news. She ducked her head in between the roots of the willow tree. "Flamekit died of blackcough."

          "Blackcough? Did any other cat get infected?" Heavyclaw asked, Dawnflight shook her head. "I'm sorry, I know how much your kits mean to you." The black tom murmured as he brushed past her and out of the den.

           "Why-why did you give me Jaypaw as an apprentice? I'm barely a warrior." Dawnflight questioned, tail flicking. "I'm still young."

            "I think one day you'll realize that it's not always about who's older or who's better, it's about which cats will work well with one another and which cats will do what they think is best for the Clan." He explained, Dawnflight sighed, she felt her paws dragging heavily at her. "Do you want me to give Jaypaw to someone else?"