Acornkit backed away from his father’s body, nervously flattening his ears.
No cat had noticed what he noticed yet. All attention was fixed on the newly-named Pebblefur and his sister Cherrypaw, who was just about to receive her warrior name.
“Cherryfeather! Cherryfeather, Cherryfeather!” revealed the she-cat’s new name.
“Pebblefur, Cherryfeather, whatever,” Acornkit muttered, by now trembling. Moorfur was suffering!
Dovecry bent down to lick her son’s head, but when she only lapped at dust, she flinched and spat it out; then she turned back to see Acornkit.
“What are you doing? Come here!” his mother mouthed to him, flicking her tail to his previous spot.
Acornkit shakily shook his head then nodded over to Moorfur’s crumpled body.
The gray-and-white queen gazed over and her eyes widened when she saw her mate’s condition. Acornkit watched as Dovecry’s pink nose paled. “Moorfur!” she yowled, and instantly the Clan spun around to see.
Weedstep and Oakleaf gasped, then quickly swept their tails over their kits’ eyes.
Thornpad frowned and pretended to bite at a tick on his leg.
Hazelstar stopped talking then lashed his tail to indicate the end of the meeting. Then he bounded down from the Tallrock and sprinted over to his warrior’s crippled form.
Feathertickle, Pebblefur, Cherryfeather, and Sheeptail crowded closely behind him.
Dovecry was already wailing. “There’s no heartbeat!” she sputtered as Twigfall padded up with herbs packed in his jaws. “No heartbeat!”
Twigfall shoved the all the cats gathered except Hazelstar and Dovecry away.
The tabby medicine cat then delicately sniffed the tom’s flank. He whispered something in Moorfur’s ear. When he got no response, Twigfall’s lips twisted into a curled-tail-shape.
Twigfall pressed his ear on Moorfur’s chest.
Acornkit shrunk back, afraid to look. He was afraid of the head-shaking from the medicine cat that confirmed that Moorfur was... dead.
“How did he die?” Acornkit heard his mother ask.
Twigfall replied, “I’ll have to investigate. In all of my seasons, I’ve never seen a cat just drop dead like this. I may need to examine the body a bit first before burial.”
Dovecry shook her head. “We may have had a second litter,” she whimpered while her son looked back. “and grown old together.”
Quailflight, Pebblefur and Cherryfeather’s mother, was sprinting around camp, encouraging cats to call the names of the new warriors. This distracted everyone else as Dovecry, Hazelstar, and Twigfall gently pushed Moorfur’s body to the medicine den.
The sour stench of death hung in the air around his father. Acornkit ducked his head and, tail dragging on the ground, hurried himself to the nursery.
No comments:
Post a Comment