They stared.
Dappled Pelt’s gaze shot toward Willow Tail. Pebble Heart hurried over to Wind Runner. He sniffed her pelt, peering at the gash in her neck before running a paw along her flank.
“Her leg is broken,” Moth Flight told him anxiously. She looked toward Cloud Spots and Dappled Pelt. “We have to help the injured.” She blinked at Acorn Fur. “I’m going to need herbs from your herb store.”
“Let’s go.” Dappled Pelt was already climbing the steep bank.
Acorn Fur ran after her.
Cloud Spots whisked his tail. “I’ll gather fresh dock and marigold.” He ducked out of camp.
Gorse Fur hurried across the clearing, his anxious gaze fixed on Wind Runner. “Is she okay?”
“She’s broken her leg,” Moth Flight told him.
“Broken it?” Gorse Fur’s gaze darkened. “Will it heal?”
Pebble Heart answered for her. “Yes. If we wrap it with comfrey.” He leaped over Wind Runner and began tugging tough shoots that spouted from the base of the oak. “But first we need to make a support for it.”
Gorse Fur hurried to help.
“The bone’s twisted out of line.” Moth Flight felt sick as she remembered the jagged shape beneath her mother’s flesh.
“We can straighten it.” Pebble Heart snapped a stiff shoot from the trunk. He showed it to Gorse Fur. “We need more like these,” he ordered.
Gorse Fur nodded and hopped over the roots, his eyes scanning the bark.
Moth Flight glanced at Willow Tail. “What can we do to help her?” she mewed desperately.
Pebble Heart’s gaze darkened as he saw the she-cat. She looked like fresh prey, crumpled on the ground, blood soaking into the earth around her. “I think it’s too late,” he whispered.
Red Claw dropped beside Willow Tail, his eyes wide with horror.
Pebble Heart padded to the tabby’s side. He pressed his ear to her flank. Lifting his head slowly, he shook it, his gaze grim.
“She’s dead.”
Swift Minnow limped closer, her eyes glistening with grief.
Jagged Peak glared at Clear Sky.
Wind Runner caught the lame tom’s eye. “What’s done is done,” she croaked. “All we can do now is bury her.”
Dappled Pelt appeared at the top of the slope, a wad of leaves in her jaws. Acorn Fur leaped past her, carrying cobwebs.
The brambles rattled as Cloud Spots returned with marigold, dock, and thyme. The ThunderClan medicine cat glanced quickly around the hollow. As he narrowed his eyes, Moth
Flight realized he was assessing the injuries.
“Fern Leaf’s got a nasty gash in her flank,” she told him.
Cloud Spots headed toward the black she-cat. Acorn Fur weaved between Blossom and Swift Minnow, checking for wounds. Dappled Pelt padded to where Nettle swayed beside the birch tree. Within moments, the three medicine cats were treating the injured—crouching to chew poultices, wrapping bloody paws in cobweb, lapping sap into scratches.
Fur brushed Moth Flight’s flank. Gorse Fur was standing beside her, a bundle of oak shoots between his jaws. He dropped them and crouched beside Wind Runner. “Moth Flight will have you well in no time,” he promised softly.
Pebble Heart jumped down the slope and laid a wad of lush leaves at Moth Flight’s paws. “I found comfrey.” He glanced at Wind Runner. “You’re going to need something to bite on.” He picked the thickest shoot from the pile Gorse Fur had dropped and slid it between her jaws.
Unable to speak, she blinked at him questioningly.
“We have to straighten the bone before we can wrap it.” He reached toward a clump of straggly grass and tugged out a few tough strands, then he nodded to Moth Flight. “Put your paws at the top of her leg and, when I give the signal, press down.”
Moth Flight obeyed, resting her pads on Wind Runner’s fur.
Heat pulsed from her injured leg.
Pebble Heart gripped Wind Runner’s hind paw between his jaws. Flicking his gaze toward Moth Flight, he gave a tiny nod.
Then he tugged.
As Moth Flight pressed down, she felt the bone move and heard the stick crunch between her mother’s jaws. An agonized groan sounded deep in Wind Runner’s throat.
Stiffening, Moth Flight jerked around and lapped her mother’s cheek fiercely. “It’s over now,” she soothed, suddenly feeling more like a mother than a kit.
Gorse Fur was staring at her, his eyes round with horror.
“You hurt her!”
“We had to.” Pebble Heart let go of Wind Runner’s leg and ran his paw over the break. He blinked at Moth Flight. “What do you think?”
Moth Flight was trembling. She reached out a paw and ran it nervously over her mother’s fur. The jagged lump had gone.
“You’ve straightened it!” Relief rushed over her. She purred at Gorse Fur. “Hopefully, it can mend properly now.”
“We have to wrap it so it can heal.” Pebble Flight hooked up two of the shoots and laid them either side of Wind Runner’s leg. He laid several more above and below. Then he wrapped comfrey thickly around them. Moth Flight realized what he was doing and grabbed one of the tough stems of grass. Threading it under her mother’s leg, she wound it around the comfrey and the shoots, like bundling soaked nettles. Before long, Wind Runner’s leg was tightly encased in comfrey, held straight by the shoots.
Moth Flight blinked at Wind Runner. “How does it feel?”
Wind Runner stared back at her, pain showing in her eyes.
“Not bad,” she lied.
“I’ve got poppy seeds in my den,” Moth Flight told her.
“They’ll help with the pain.” She suddenly remembered her kits.
Who was looking after them? Were they okay? They’d be frightened—wondering where she was. Her heart lurched. She’d been so caught up with the battle and the wounded, she hadn’t even thought about them.
Guilt washed over her.
“Moth Flight?” Pebble Heart was staring at her, frowning.
Had he seen her gaze darken? “What’s the matter?”
“My kits!” she whispered urgently. “I don’t know who’s looking after them.”
Pebble Heart blinked sympathetically. “We can manage here.” He nodded toward Dappled Pelt, Cloud Spots, and Acorn
Fur, who were still tending to injured cats. “Go home to your kits. I won’t leave Wind Runner’s side until she’s safely back in camp.”
Moth Flight stared at him, her emotions whirling. Could she really abandon her mother and her Clanmates?
“Go!” Pebble Heart urged. “While your thoughts are with your kits, you’ll be of little use here.”
She backed away, a chill sweeping her. Was that true?
She shook out her fur. Who cares? Right now, Honey Pelt, Spider Paw, Bubbling Stream, and Blue Whisker might be wailing for her.
Turning away, she hared out of the SkyClan camp and headed for the moor.
Chapter 32
Moth Flight stirred in her sleep, dreaming. She blinked open her eyes into a vision of the moorside. A flame-pelted tom stood below a starless sky. Moth Flight recognized him at once. She’d dreamed of his meeting with StarClan while she’d been with ShadowClan. A brown-and-white tabby she-cat lay on the wind-rippled grass beside him, so still that Moth Flight wondered if she was dead. A third cat twitched her ears, scanning the mists that swirled around them.
Moth Flight padded closer. She knew that the other cats could not see or hear her. I am here to watch. The brown-and-white tabby sneezed suddenly and scrabbled to her paws. She glanced at the flame-pelted tom, as though looking for reassurance. He rested his tail-tip on her shoulder and, as he did so, a gray-and-white tom padded from the mist. Droplets sparkled on his pelt like stars. Is this a spirit-cat?