Chapter 19: Can I help you?

I woke up, I was shivering. Even though I could feel the warmth of the sun as it rose down on the horizon. I still felt a weird sense of chill coursing through my body. I stretched myself off of the ground and then began licking my fur to clean it off from how much we had been doing the last few moons.

It had been a while, it was starting to add up on me at this point. Mint would always wash down my fur every morning, but now she wasn't with us and my fur was sticking out like a loose porcupine. I didn't want Oister to wake up and see me like this.

As I finished cleaning off my fur, I walked over to wake up Oister. I could tell that she had a rough night of sleep, she had to he exhausted. I could hear it in her breathing, and I kind of felt bad for waking her up, maybe I should let her sleep a little bit longer.

I shook my head to try and clear those thoughts from out of my head. I had to go and find those cats today, if I did not then it would be too late... I would have failed starclan... I would have failed Squirrelflight, this was just as much her destiny as it was mine.

Jayfeather told me if I found them, then that is when the help would come. If I did not find them today, even if Oister needed to sleep, it might be the end for her as well. I shivered once again, although I was not really all that cold this time.

I thought of what it could potentially be that they had. It could not be a normal cough, the kit had died last night, if I didn't hurry it would be too late for another one. This time I did not know if Jayfeather could save it.

I looked at the ground sadly, I had to hurry, every single moment that I did not get there, would be a waste of time not just for the kits, but for Oister as well. I had this bad feeling that one of the cats was going to die no matter what, I know it sounded a bit bad, but I just had to pray to starclan that it was not Oister.

Kettle would never be able to forgive me for it, he would leave us. I knew for sure that he was a part of my destiny, it would all fall apart if I lost him and Oister. I shook my head though, trying to drown out all of those negative thoughts that were drowning deep into my mind.

I walked closer to Oister now, I nudged up against her to wake her up. After a few moments she finally managed to get up and begin stretching. I hated to say it, but I could tell that she was very weak. She did not have much time left herself, I felt afraid to even be pushing her today, but I had no other choice.

I couldn't just leave her here, I did not know how far away the cats were to their kits. It could be a long ways away, and I might not be able to find my way back on time. I had to make a hard choice, I shivered once again thinking about it.

Oister after cleaning herself up looked at me a bit confused. It was almost as if she was reading my thoughts, everything that was going on in my head right now. She then nodded to me, I lowered my head to the ground a bit sadly.

"I don't have much longer in me Moon, I can feel it in my body. It is now or never, did you speak to Starclan?" She asked me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I nodded to her. Trying my best to keep my head lifted up at the same time.

She looked at me for a few moments, she could see the look on my face, and I was afraid. I did not know what to do, and it did not seem like Starclan wanted to help me this time. It was exactly like they had told me, it was my turn to make the decisions, they couldn't save me forever.

"Yes... They talked to me, we don't have much time, we have to find them tonight, or it is too late. We might have come all this way for nothing..." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, she nodded to me, but I could tell that she had something else on her mind right now.

She saw that I was looking at her and noticing what it was, and she turned away from me to try and hide it. I did not blame her, she always prided herself in being the strong one in our group, and right now, it did not look like she was being too strong.

"I'm scared Moon... There is a part of me that wants to die, I want to go see my kits again. At the same time though, I know that Kettle needs me, and I need him too." She said to me. I looked at her a bit surprised, I had never expected her to open up to me like this.

I looked at her, and then I nodded to her, letting her know that I was listening to her. I just did not know exactly what to say, I had not expected her to say anything like this at all, so I did not have anything planned out to say to her. I would just have to go off of my natural instinct, and my gut.

"Don't be, don't fear death... I do not think that is your time yet, I will do my best to save you. There has to be something, we must find some way to save you." I said to her. She looked at me, she nodded to me. I could see the fear in her face, I could hear it in her voice.

She looked down at the ground once again, trying to hide it from me, as per usual. For a few moments, I thought about just letting her be. But I knew that in this moment, she needed something, someone... To keep her faith held high, I could tell that it was on the low right now.

I went up to her, and I pushed myself against her. Warming her up, I wanted to let her know that she was not alone in this, I could feel her pain, and I could sense it coursing through her body at the exact same time. We just sat there for a few moments, neither of us said a single word to each other.

But I could tell that she had needed it, it was warming her up just ever so slightly, it managed to lift up her spirits, and I was happy for her. She turned back over to me and she managed to finally smile at me for the first time this morning. It made me feel just a little bit better, she was not the only one that needed hope, that needed faith right now.

"Let's go hunting, I'm hungry. Although, I fear that I might not be much of a help to you. I feel very weak, and very slow right now." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I nodded. I could tell that she was not lying, anr I believed it either way, she never had lied to me before.

She was always one to open up to us, and she wanted us to do the same to her, it always made me feel a lot better. Just to talk to her, maybe she did not have much to respond with, but it made me feel a lot better just showing my emotions to her.

"Alright, how about you stay here. The fence is a bit of a high jump, it will be a lot easier on the front side to hop over." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, she did not look all that sure, but eventually she nodded to me, I knew that she trusted me, I wouldn't just leave her.

I looked at her and then nodded back, I wanted her to know, that I would find something, somewhere to save her. It was not her day to die. It was not the day for any of us to die, I had to keep fatih up, to have hope that this would not be the end for any cat.

"Thank you Moon, stay safe out there, I will be waiting here, I promise that I will not go anywhere." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then smiled at her. I managed to get a little smile back out of her. Then I turned around and nodded to myself.

I wondered why she had to add in that last part, maybe it was because she thought that I might be thinking about the day the Mint had gone off on her own, and she had been nearly killed by the badger. I shook my head, I did not want to think back on those times, I was just happy that Mint was safe now.

I then moved back a little bit from the fence, we had been staying a little bit too close to it last night. I feared the thought of a coyote coming over and jumping over the fence. I knew that coyotes could jump fairly high, at least that is what Tristan had told me.

But at the same time though, coyotes were afraid of the twolegs. There is no way that they would have gone into a twoleg place in the middle of the night. They were afraid of the light, the main reason why they did not go outside in the day time I suppose.

As I moved back, I saw that Oister was watching me. I nodded to her, letting her know one last time that she would be safe. I would find a way out of this, this was not the end for her. I knew it, starclan would not let that happen to her.

Once I knew that she knew that she was going to be okay, I then began sprinting towards the side of the fence that we had hopped over just last night. When I was close enough I hopped as high as I could, much higher than I had ever jumped before.

I jumped so high I went over the fence, and I regained my balance just in time, to make sure that I did not suffer any sort of severe damage. I moved around real quick, it had been a fairly soft landing to me, to my surprise, but you never know how long it could take for the pain the set in.

Luckily I did not feel anything wrong with my body right now. I managed to smile at myself as I began walking away from the twolegs place. I knew that the animals did not like to be anywhere near where I was at right now. The had a lot of fear for twolegs, except, maybe besides squirrels.

I turned around quickly to make sure that I knew where exactly I was at, on the way back. It was too hard to track my own scent, and I could barely smell the scent of Oister from last night. I nodded once I knew the exact area I was to be at, and then I kept on going.

Once I was far enough away, I then began to scent the air to try and catch a few sniffs of some prey. I found no such luck, there was nothing nearby. I did not understand how, it was not even near the cold season yet. I thought about heading back, we needed to hurry and find those cats.

But I knew that Oister could not bare it much longer as well, she needed the food, and I was quite hungry myself, maybe 2 voles would be enough, voles were fairly easy to find in Shadowclan territory, and I could bring both of them back at the same time.

Now that I had gone a little bit further this time, away from the twoleg place, I sniffed again. Once again, I cursed myself, there was nothing nearby, but however, this time I did manage to catch a glimpse of a familiar scent, I opened my eyes to smell where it had come from.

I then realized what it was, it was the exact same thing that I had used to help Oister earlier, just the other day... Tansy, I looked up at the sky, and I began to thank starclan, this was not going to save her, but it would at least dull down the pain for a short amount of time.

I quickly began getting as many scoops as I possibily could, I never know how many cats my need that the help them. It might not just be Oister and the kits, I knew the disease came around this time of the year, I might be able so save a cat and convince them to join the clans.

I realized that I had to make a hard decision, it was either bring that back with me, to help Oister and the kits with sickness, or it was to leave it and get food for us to eat and keep going. It was a hard decision, but I knew that I could not be greedy, I knew the right decision I needed to make.

I picked up the tansy I had left on the ground and I began heading back. The worst thing we could do, was to eat twoleg food, if we could not find something to eat along the way. I knew that there were kittypets that used to come to my old place when they needed food.

Surely we weren't the only cats that were at least somewhat friendly to others. I nodded and then began heading back to the small little area that we had stayed at last night, thankfully I could see the exact area that I had done my best to keep in my thoughts.

I began going a little bit faster, realizing that I was going slow. We did not have all day to find the kits, in fact, this was the last day that I could find the kits, otherwise they would give them away to the twolegs, just like the she cat had been planning on doing this whole time.

Once I was close enough, I hopped on top of the fence, barely making it this time since I had the tansy in my hand as I jumped up. I thankfully nodded, trying to regain my balance and then I looked at the yard that we were in last night.

But this time, Oister was nowhere to be seen. I was in the correct yard right? This did not make sense, everything looked exactly the same as it did earlier.  My mind began falling into some very deep and dark thoughts, thinking about where Oister could possibly be.

We had been taken in by the rogues before, a long time ago. Was there another group of rogues that had stolen Oister at this twoleg place? Maybe it was a friendly group that might save her at the same time. But those thoughts in my mind were slim to none in my head.

I thought that all rogues were kind of evil, so far, they had not left the best impression on me. I looked around for a few more moments, then I stepped down into the yard, she wasn't hiding somewhere right? We did not have time to be playing these sort of games if so.

I shivered for a few moments, I couldn't go back to Kettle and tell him that I had lost his mate. He would never forgive me for it if so. I looked around the whole yard, but still I did not have any luck with finding her anywhere near me. I thought of any idea that I could find her possible, and then I nodded to myself.

"Oister! Where are you? Please tell me that you aren't hiding!" I yelled to the top of my lungs. I then kept on walking around the yard, yelling in all directions, hoping to the best of my ability that I had not lost her. She said she would stay here... It did not make much sense.

I then heard scratching and then a cat coughed right near me, I turned around and looked at who it might be. The cough sounded like it might be Oister... Why had she gone out somewhere else? But as I turned around I noticed it was not Oister in fact at all.

I noticed it was another she cat, she did not look harmful luckily, but I can never count out my first impressions. It was a nearly completely, white furred, young she cat, not much older than Mint. She had a bit of an orange look on her fur at the same time, she looked at me and then nodded, then she began talking.

"Hi! I'm summer! I heard you yell my friends name! Can I help you?"