Silverstar's POV:

Silverstar was awoken by Stormflame kicking her in his sleep. She let out a growl before she heard a frightened whimper come from her mate. She lifted her head to see Stormflame writhing and kicking his legs as if he were trying to run away from something. Is he having a bad dream?

The early morning light streamed into the den to reveal Stormflame was... crying?! Tears slipped from his closed eyes as he writhed in his nest. Silverstar nudged him gently to try and wake the black tom but he didn't seem to react to her touch. He was too deep in the nightmare.

Suddenly, Stormflame jolted out of his nest and fell on the ground a tail length away. His hind legs splayed out behind him and he scrambled to his paws, panicked.

"Stormflame calm down!" Silverstar ordered softly and stepped out of her nest and approached the scared tom.

Stormflame stared up at Silverstar and let out a gasp of shock. "B-b-but you w-were d-dea-d.." he whimpered, his tail waving behind him.

"Stormflame it was just a nightmare. I'm safe and okay and so are you." Silverstar meowed and went to lick Stormflame's cheek reassuringly but he reeled backwards and avoided Silverstar's touch. She tried again but got the same response from him so she dipped her head sadly and moved away from Stormflame and back to her nest. She curled her tail around her paws and watched at Stormflame eyed her carefully as if she were an enemy warrior.

Then Silverstar heard Watersplash shift in her nest and Stormflame's gaze snapped to the former Magiclan medicine cat. His gaze scanned her and Silverstar watched the tom's tail as it twitched nervously. He seemed so spooked. Silverstar just wanted to make him feel better but he wouldn't let her get close to him.

As Watersplash let out a soft, peaceful sigh in her sleep Stormflame averted his gaze from her and stared at Silverstar again. This time his gaze was deprived of all emotion. He just stared at her blankly. Then he blinked his ice blue eyes and realisation seemed to dawn on him and he lowered his head slightly. "Silverstar." His voice came out as barely a whisper and he looked back up at Silverstar with a small, hopeful smile.

"Stormflame. What's wrong?" Silverstar stayed in her nest, unsure if Stormflame was in the mood for her at that moment.

"I-I had a nightmare..." The black tom mumbled and lowered his head before trudging back to his nest. He settled down beside Silverstar and she felt his cold nose press against her side. A small cough came from Stormflame as he lay with his nose pressed against Silverstar. His eyes were still open, he didn't seem to want to sleep.

Silverstar lay down and touched her nose to Stormflame's. "It's alright, I'm here for you."

"Not for long." Stormflame whispered.

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Clearlight's POV:

Clearlight spun around and gasped when he saw what must be the lynx. It was definitely big, as Silverstar had said. He felt his fur bristle as the lynx eyed the patrol, sizing them up. Demonpelt hissed and spat at the lynx as she drew closer to it. Whitetail followed Demonpelt's lead and let out a growl of his own. Sunpatch stated silent from behind Rosepaw and Goldpaw. The patrol slowly clustered together, making sure their movements were non-threatening.

Then, without any warning, the lynx burst forwards. Clearlight sprung out of the way and twisted around to see the lynx grab a hold of Whitetail. Clearlight gasped and lunged for the lynx. He scored his claws down the lynx's side and the big cat dropped Whitetail. The white tom scooted away, bleeding heavily from a wound on his back from where the lynx had biten him.

Clearlight quickly backed away from the lynx just as Demonpelt leapt on the lynx's back. As the dark furred warrior distracted the lynx, Clearlight quickly changed his form to a lynx as well. He was now an equal opponent to the lynx.

Clearlight yowled loudly and lunged for the lynx. He clawed at the lynx with his new, longer claws and sank his teeth into its back. The lynx seemed frozen in confusion from being attacked by a fellow lynx but quickly regained its attack posture and lunged underneath Clearlight. Its claws pierced his belly and he leapt away as blood dripped from his new stomach wound.

Clearlight circled the lynx and tried to communicate with it, "Why are you here?" He hissed, using his lynx tongue so that hopefully the lynx understood him.

Luckily, it did and it snarled, "My owner brought me here! How did you turn from a cat into a lynx?" The lynx sounded like a male so Clearlight settled on that.

"That's classified." Clearlight growled as he continued to circle the lynx. "Now, who or what is your owner?"

"My owner is an Upwalker." The lynx growled and lashed out at Clearlight with a lightning quick paw. Clearlight reflected the blow by making a rock rise up in front of him briefly.

"Upwalker?" Clearlight wondered and stared at the lynx. "Oh! You mean Twoleg?"

"Twoleg? I guess." The lynx narrowed its eyes at something behind Clearlight and he cast a glance behind his shoulder to see Demonpelt stalking up to attack the lynx. Clearlight shook his head sharply and Demonpelt nodded before backing away with a frown on her face. Sunpatch sat next to Whitetail, tending to the white tom's wound on his back. Whitetail was motionless on the ground. Rosepaw and Goldpaw cowered behind some bushes a few fox lengths away.

Clearlight swung his head back to the lynx, his thick fur around his jawline swayed and he felt the tufts of fur on his ears tips ruffle in a breeze that had started in the forest. Thunder rumbled overhead and Clearlight let out a soft growl. It couldn't rain yet. Not while a battle was going on.

"What is your name?" He asked the lynx carefully. Clearlight kept his gaze low so that he didn't look threatening.

"My owner calls me Fluffy but I prefer my birth name, Growl." He meowed and blinked his eyes at Clearlight.

"Okay, Growl. Can you please leave our territory? We can't have someone as-" he looked for the words to try and make Growl feel better about the matter, "-as big and strong like you here. You already made our leader lose a life, and you will probably kill more of our warriors."

Growl flicked his ears and shrugged, "My owner sent me here, so I must stay until he picks me up."

Clearlight let out a small growl of frustration which earned a fierce hiss from Growl. Clearlight quickly stopped growling and said, "Well, can you please not attack our warriors?"

"Perhaps..." Growl meowed. "But only if you allow me to hunt here."

"Fine." Clearlight stopped himself from hissing and stepped away from Growl. "But if you break the deal, I will kill you without hesitation."

"The same goes for you." Growl grinned, "Those kits over there look pretty tasty..." he pointed a paw at Rosepaw and Goldpaw.

Clearlight growled, "Do not touch our cats!"

"Very well. Don't get your fur in a twist." Growl stood up straighter and then nodded, "See ya later." He grinned then spun around and pelted away, deeper into the forest.

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Nutwhisker's POV:

It was coming up to sunhigh as Nutwhisker returned to camp with Shinepaw. His apprentice was starting to complain about her injured paw and she limped into the medicine den meowing, "Which herb treats wounds again?"

"Marigold." Nutwhisker meowed and padded to his herb store with Shinepaw. He passed Stormflame and Silverstar to see them pressed together in their nests, sleeping. Every now and then, one of them would cough. Nutwhisker looked at Wildkit to see the young kit was completely silent.

Nutwhisker pointed to the marigold and meowed, "Chew it into a pulp and apply it to your wound. Then wrap it in cobwebs. Rest your paw for a couple days until the wound is completely healed, I don't want it to become infected."

"Okay." Shinepaw nodded and picked up the marigold in her teeth and padded to her nest. Then she set to work in treating her wounded paw.

Nutwhisker heard mews coming from outside the den and he trotted outside to see Clearlight's patrol arriving back at camp. Sunpatch was dragging Whitetail in. The white tom had a deep wound on his back and he barely kept his balance as Sunpatch helped him towards Nutwhisker.

"Is Whitetail the only one wounded?" Nutwhisker meowed as he darted to Whitetail's side and examined his wound closely. The bone was visible and blood pumped heavily from the puncture wound.

"Demonpelt has a claw scratch on her shoulder and head but it isn't deep. I have a claw wound on my stomach." Clearlight reported.

Nutwhisker eyed Sunpatch and the two apprentices to see they didn't have any wounds and nodded. "You three see if there is anything on the fresh kill pile to eat. Clearlight and Demonpelt, you help bring Whitetail to the nursery where he can be treated." After a confused look from Clearlight, he explained. "I don't want you catching whitecough and the nursery is a spacious place to keep injured warriors."

Clearlight nodded and started leading Whitetail at a painfully slow pace to the nursery with Demonpelt. Nutwhisker, meanwhile, trotted into the medicine den and retrieved some cobwebs, marigold and poppy seeds. Then he padded back out just in time to see Whitetail's tail disappear into the nursery.

Nutwhisker squeezed through the entrance to the nursery and padded to Whitetail. The white tom was laying on his side, blood soaked the moss beneath him within seconds. Nutwhisker felt a frown form on his lips as he settled behind Whitetail and began working on his wound. He tried putting some cobwebs on before applying the marigold but blood leaked through almost immediately. Nutwhisker shook his head and his frown deepened. "Does anyone here know what goosegrass and goldenrod are?" He asked without turning to look at Clearlight and Demonpelt.

"No." Both Clearlight and Demonpelt meowed in unison.

"Okay, I didn't expect you to anyway. I need to get some more herbs from my den, you two watch Whitetail. If he goes into shock, come to me immediately." Nutwhisker ordered and rose to his paws, quickly racing out of the nursery and into the medicine den. He tripped over Shinepaw's tail in his haste and face-planted on the ground.

Shinepaw sprang to her paws, "What's wrong?!" She meowed, fur bristling as she helped Nutwhisker to his paws.

"Whitetail's wound won't stop bleeding. He might die of blood loss soon if we don't stop the bleeding!" Nutwhisker meowed as he hastily rummaged through the piles of herbs, looking for the ones he needed. He finally found the goosegrass and goldenrod; luckily there were lots of those herbs. But there was only a limited amount of thyme left. He grabbed what was left and turned to see Shinepaw exiting the den.

Nutwhisker trotted after Shinepaw into the nursery and ran back to Whitetail. His breathing was labored and came out in short gasps. "Shinepaw! Feed him the thyme!" He tossed his apprentice the thyme and she quickly nudged it towards Whitetail, coaxing him to eat the herb. Whitetail leaned in to eat the thyme and licked it up with a wince.

Soon Whitetail's breathing slowed and deepened and Nutwhisker pawed one poppy seed to Shinepaw, "Feed him this too, it should ease the pain."

Shinepaw nodded and gave the poppy seeds to Whitetail. This time the injured tom ate the herbs quicker and lay his head back with a small sigh. "Starclan save me." He whispered as he closed his eyes.

Shinepaw let out a gasp, "Is he dying?!"

Nutwhisker was about to apply the goosegrass but froze when he heard Shinepaw. He leaned closer to Whitetail's face and saw he was breathing. "No he is sleeping." He meowed, relieved.

"Oh good." Shinepaw nodded and sat back to watch Nutwhisker as he applied the goosegrass to Whitetail's bleeding wound. The goosegrass should stop the bleeding. It only took a few moments for the goosegrass to work and the bleeding quickly stopped. Nutwhisker sighed in relief and started to calm down slightly. More slower this time, Nutwhisker applied the goldenrod to treat the severe wound and then wrapped it tightly with cobwebs.

Nutwhisker sat back as his racing heart slowed down slightly. "That was a scare.." he mumbled and picked up the remaining herbs in his jaws. He carried them to Clearlight and Demonpelt and started treating their wounds.

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