“Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your true name as a medicine cat. Runningpaw, from this moment you will be known as Runningnose. Your name will be a reminder that medicine cats cannot cure everything—but we always need to have faith enough to try. StarClan honors your intelligence and your dedication. Now come, touch your muzzle to the Moonstone, and may all your dreams be good ones.”
Runningnose crept forward and rested his nose against the shining surface. Yellowfang crouched down beside him and the rest of the medicine cats took their places.
When Yellowfang closed her eyes she was immediately swept out into a place of darkness and cold. She could feel her paws standing on rock, but she couldn’t see anything. Then jagged flashes of scarlet broke up the darkness, and high-pitched shrieking battered at her ears. The shapes of kits appeared before Yellowfang’s eyes, but these were not the warm, furry bundles of her Clan’s nursery. Instead, their tiny bodies were ripped from their mothers’ bellies in fountains of blood, while the mother cats clutched at them helplessly.
Yellowfang rushed to and fro trying to save the kits from the unseen claws that were tearing them away. But her pads slipped on the blood, the stench of it filling her nose and throat. However hard she struggled, the dying kits were always just out of reach of her stretching paws.
“No! No!” she yowled.
Something hard pressed into her side. Yellowfang opened her eyes to see Runningnose poking her with one paw. His eyes were wide and scared.
“I—I’m sorry,” he stammered. “But you were crying out. I hope I didn’t do the wrong thing by waking you?”
“No… no, I’m fine,” Yellowfang rasped, tottering to her paws. The light from the moon had gone, and the cave was illuminated by the faint sheen of stars. In the faint glimmer she could see the other medicine cats watching her anxiously. “I’m fine,” she repeated. “It was just a bad dream.”
“It was more than that,” Runningnose insisted. “Yellowfang—”
“Enough!” Yellowfang snapped. “We only share our dreams with our leader. They are not for idle gossip!”
Whirling around, she stomped up the passage ahead of the others.
She was on her way to check on Featherstorm’s new litter, Molekit, Dawnkit, and Volekit. They had been born two sunrises before, so they hadn’t yet opened their eyes. As she entered the nursery she gazed with satisfaction at the three little wriggling bodies snuggling up to their mother’s belly.
Featherstorm raised her head to greet Yellowfang. “I’m glad you’ve come,” she meowed, looking proudly down at her kits. “I want you to listen to their chests and check their ears for mites.”
“Of course.”
Yellowfang was pretty sure that there was nothing to worry about, but she knew that an older queen like Featherstorm was bound to be concerned. Besides, she enjoyed spending time with the little squirming creatures, who approached her boldly and sniffed with eager curiosity at her, even though they couldn’t see.
While she was examining the kits, their father, Blizzardwing, popped his head through the entrance. “Everything okay?” he called. “Can I do anything?”
“We’re all fine,” Featherstorm responded with a flick of her tail. “You can fetch me a piece of fresh-kill—something nice and tasty, please. Toms!” she added to Yellowfang when Blizzardwing had disappeared. “I’ve never found them to be much use around kits.”
She was heading back across the clearing when the sound of crashing branches broke out in the entrance tunnel. Yellowfang spun around to see Brokentail rushing in with half a rabbit in his jaws.
“Raggedstar! Raggedstar!” he yowled, dropping the rabbit in the middle of the clearing.
The Clan leader appeared from his den, while several other cats rushed up and gathered around Brokentail and the fresh-kill. The elders peered out of their den, and Runningnose came bounding out of the medicine cats’ den to join Yellowfang.
“What’s going on?” he panted.
“I don’t know,” Yellowfang replied, padding closer with Runningnose at her side. “Brokentail just came back with that fresh-kill.”
