A New Horizon Book 4: A Fallen Star {COMPLETE}

Chapter 18

The medicine cat had become incredibly crowded with injured cats from the battle. Blackstorm was upset about the whole battle for many reasons, and he knew that Skyfeather was as well. Blackstorm sat up in his nest and looked at the messy den, herb scraps were scattered about and there was specks of dried blood on the floor of the den.

Blackstorm had to take a moment to step outside to get away from the scent of wounds and dried blood. It was just past dawn and Blackstorm had barely slept. He and Skyfeather had been up nearly all night treating wounds. The worst wounds were Lilyclaw, Ravensong, Petalshine with a sprained paw and a nasty leg wound and Primroseheart with a bad bite on her neck, but it wasn't close to being fatal. Riverstar also had a deep wound on her shoulder, but she had insisted on sleeping in her own den.

However, the pain in AshClan didn't end with wounds. The Clan had held vigil for Ashblaze the night before, but Blackstorm had been too exhausted to attend. Blackstorm knew that deep down, the deputy never liked him. Ashblaze had never let go of the fact that he was Echoheart's son. Despite all this, Ashblaze and Blackstorm felt somewhat of a mutual respect for eachother. Blackstorm knew that Ashblaze had been a loyal and dedicated deputy, and Ashblaze knew that Blackstorm was a dedicated medicine cat.

The loss of Ashblaze would be felt by all of AshClan for a very long time, especially by Silvermoon. As he thought of the queen, Blackstorm figured he would poke his head into the nursery and see if she was doing alright. He approached the nursery and saw that Silvermoon was awake, the silver tabby she-cat was just staring at her kits. Silvermoon's blue eyes were dull and her pelt ungroomed, an uneaten mouse lay at the base of her nest.

"Have you slept?" Blackstorm questioned, making Silvermoon look up from her kits. "Or eaten?"

Silvermoon shook her head. "No." Her voice was hoarse, she turned her attention back to her kits. "How can I?" She wrapped her tail around Slatekit who snored peacefully. "Knowing that I'll never wake up to see Ashblaze again." Her voice trembled and she buried her nose in the pile of kits.

"I'm so sorry about Ashblaze, Silvermoon." Blackstorm dipped his head, he could feel the sadness pulsing from the queen. "But you can't neglect your needs. Your kits still need you to be healthy."

Silvermoon didn't respond, she just closed her eyes and nuzzled her kits. Blackstorm withheld a sigh. "I'm going to bring you some herbs, please take them." Blackstorm left the nursery and returned to the medicine cat den.

"What are you doing?" Skyfeather questioned, clearly just waking up as he let out a large yawn.

"Silvermoon won't eat or sleep, I'm going to bring her some herbs to help." Blackstorm explained.

"And if she doesn't eat those?" Skyfeather answered.

"I can't force her to," Blackstorm mewed as she gathered the herbs." I just have to hope that she will." Blackstorm wrapped the bundle of herbs and brought them to the nursery. "I brought you some poppy seeds to help you sleep, some daisy to help with your appetite and some chamomile to make you feel better. It makes the heart stronger."

Silvermoon looked at the herbs with glazed over eyes, but she didn't move. "I'll try to take them." She mewed quietly.

"Thank you." That was all Blackstorm could ask for, honestly. He left the nursery one last time, making a note to return later to check if she actually took the herbs. He went back inside where he began to treat the injured cats as they started to wake up.

It was well past dawn now and all the injured cats had been treated and were now resting. Blackstorm wanted to see to the rest of the less serious wounds such as Nightheart's and Riverstar's, but we was interrupted by the leader's call.