Fireclan Staff Meeting

[Skyflight]

Her voice came in raspy breathes. Each of the lead cats in Fireclan surrounded her. Eyes watery she tried to focus to the den entrance yet a thin sheet of snow covered everything outside. Sickness clouded her voice. With every breath came a sting of pain her in lungs. Coughing loudly in response, just leaving her throat aching even more. Herbs were running low. No cat was leading Fireclan. Warriors ran crazily in and out of the Medicine Den rushing to get unknown herbs for the cats. Each time she opened her mouth to speak a terrible cough erupted her throat. They all had whitecough. Each one of them.

"Heatherpelt!" Skyflight said breathlessly, waking up from her dream, "We must see Darkstar quickly."

Cloaked within the darkness Skyflight rushed herself to the leader's den in the dead of night. The half moon hung like a ghost in the air. Tinting everything in a eerie layer of mist. The winter air stung her throat, plants all around were quickly changing into there fall faces. Tonight it was a particularly cool night. The dream she had though had deeply scared her.

"Darkstar! Darkstar! We must hold a meeting! A announcement, anything!"

[Darkstar]

The leader sat, huddled in her den. The stifling breeze of leaffall was overcoming FireClan rapidly.

Her medicine cat came bursting in her den. Darkstar was about to make a comment on the other medicine cat who followed behind her, but she bit her tongue. It was clear to her that the main reason Skyflight was interrupting her serenity was not to announce that the co-medicine cat was back.

Darkstar trudged out of her dark corner to a more prominent place in her den, one where she could sit and everyone could see her, as she could them. “What is the bother, Skyflight?”

[Heatherpelt]

Heatherpelt had been unable to sleep, she was worried, the whitecough within the camp was worrying her, it was coming early, when she went to check up on the nurser3y she had been hopping to find only light coughs at the worst, and to put a stop to them before they could develop into something worse. The golden she-cat had frequently risen to go check up on her patients, the cat watching them as they slept, occasionally checking their temperatures.

The noise of a cat suddenly waking caught Heatherpelt's attention and her green gaze turned not to face one of the sick, but Skyflight, the birman's blue eyes appeared wild and Heatherpelt felt a shiver go down her spine. Her mentor must have seen something of the future. Nodding at Skyflight's words, Heatherpelt took off after the other cat, her golden fur not melting in as much with the darkness, but it was still light, her winter coat not fully grown and she shivered, frost was forming on the ground and it pricked at her paws like pine needles. As they got into the leader's den, the shook her paws briefly, which usually made them feel better.

As Skyflight appeared in a panic, Heatherpelt moved forward and lightly placed her tail on the other cat's shoulder, hoping to calm her friend down. "Is it to do with the white cough that's started?" She asked her softly. The younger medicine cat knew that Skyflight had been planning on talking to the leader and deputy about it, but the panic was not something Heatherpelt had been expecting, unless it had gotten worse in the other cat's vision. Looking over at Darkstar, Heatherpelt dipped her head to the leader in respect, before turning her green gaze back to Skyflight, wondering if the medicine cat was ready to say what ahd disturbed her sleep.

[Skyflight]

She nodded quickly, catching her breath. Skyflight's heart has never beat so fast. For a moment she thought it was going to jump out of her chest. But alas it settled down enough for her to get a few sentances out.

"I-I had a vision," she started, still shaken up, "We all got whitecough. The clan was on a huge rampage."

Shaking her head she looked down. Mind still horrified from the dream she shook herself. The light touch of Heatherpelt's tail on her shoulder calmed her ever so slightly.

"Darkstar we need to keep an eye out for whitecough. It. . . it was horrific. . ."

[Darkstar]

Anger and agitation flicked Darkstar’s tail back and forth. “We must always look for illnesses, Skyflight. We both know how devastating they can be.”

At least Darkstar did. When the black feline had been promoted to Leader, the whole clan was basically wiped out. Only a few cats had been left for Darkstar to lead. The only reason they had survived was because her predecessor had told her to take a few healthy cats and live out in the prairie for six moons. When they came back, everyone had died, the virus gone. They buried the cats, and then started over. A nice, clean start for FireClan.

Darkstar still had all of her lives yet, so she this illness would not come under the same circumstances they had the time before. She would most likely live through it, even if it did cost her one life. She still would have eight more to lose. She would not mourn in a few of the idiot warriors died as well. Maybe that would teach their lazy butts a lesson or two. Or maybe, that would finally give them all something to whine about.

Darkstar’s icy blue eyes evolved into some odd form of joy.

[Heatherpelt]

Hearing Skyflight's words, Heatherpelt gave a shiver, from what she heard, Skyflight was meaning that even the medicine cats became sick. This was definitely not a good idea. Moving closer to her mentor she stood so close that their fur was touching and purred softly. Seeing the anger on Darkstar's face, Heatherpelt's tail twitched nervously. Yes, they all knew that the coughs were dangerous, but it wasn't often that a medicine cat had a dream fortelling a bad case. "We've already got two cats who have come down with whitecough. We are doing our best to get them back on their feet as soon as possible." Heatherpelt said softly, knowing that Skyflight had said earlier that they should tell Darkstar and Squirrelpelt about the two sick cats, although Heatherpelt felt sure that they would return to health soon. Hopefully none of the warriors were coming down with whitecough. They were the least likely to have a check up or come tot he den for a light cough or sneeze.

[Skyflight]

Skyflight was absolutly disgusted at the way Darkstar had reacted.

"This is not a petty thing Darkstar! This is extremely seriously!" she snapped, her own blue eyes burning into the leader, "You don't think we always look out for illness? This is a Cloudclan vision, not a kit's nightmare!"