Honeyfrost sniffed through her herbs looking specifically for certain herbs. She grabbed some feverfew, fennel, chamomile and sorrel. She grabbed the bundle of herbs gently in her teeth and left the medicine cat den and padded across the stone hollow to the medicine cat den. She carefully crossed the mass of wrestling kits and focused on Heatherflight.

The Queen was in the back of the den, looking exhausted. Her belly was swollen with her future kits, but the pregnancy had been incredibly hard on her. After about a moon of expecting Heatherflight was complaining about constant pain and nausea. She could barely handle her prey so she had been relying mostly on herbs to keep up her strength.

"Here you go Heatherflight." Honeyfrost mewed, setting the herbs down in front of her nest. Heatherflight lifted her head.

"What do we have today?"

"Feverfew and fennel as usual for the pain, and sorrel to help with your hunger but I decided to give you some chamomile as well. It builds strength and helps relax the heart and mind." Heatherflight had been incredibly worried about the state of her kits, so Honeyfrost hoped that the chamomile would help her.

"Thank you for all you do for me, Honeyfrost." Heatherflight purred. "I just want these little kits to be born already." She sighed happily and closed her eyes. Honeyfrost turned away with fear digging into her belly. She could do nothing but pray that Heatherflight's kits would be born happy and healthy, but she hadn't seen a pregnancy like this before. Both Cherryleaf and Fawnheart had easy pregnancies with the exception of some hip pain on Fawnheart's side.

I just have to keep up hope. Honeyfrost told herself. I'm her medicine cat, it's my duty to make sure that her kits enter this world safely. Honeyfrost stepped back into the medicine cat den, Pebblestep was out gathering herbs so it was just her for the time being. Inside the den was dim, as Honeyfrost stepped inside something caught her eyes.

Lurking in the back of the medicine cat den was a shadowed figure with dark, unmistakable murky green eyes filled with hatred. Honeyfrost let out a sharp gasp and jumped backwards, her heart falling to her paws. The eyes were gone and Honeyfrost remained alone in the medicine cat den. It was nothing. Honeyfrost told herself and gingerly stepped farther into the medicine cat den.

Even though the threat of Echoheart had been washed away in the river as her body was dragged through the rushing water, the image of her face still haunted Honeyfrost. The guilt of taking another cats life clawed at her with each passing moment, she played it off like she was okay, like nothing was bothering her, but her dreams raged with the storm of guilt and fear.

Echoheart's body had been found farther down the river by a LichenClan patrol, she had been buried in the unclaimed territory by Riverstar. Even though she was gone, Honeyfrost couldn't get her out of her head. It will pass. Honeyfrost told herself. She didn't reach out to her friends or family, she didn't want them to know how much she was struggling over something so stupid. They've all had to take lives and they went on just fine. I'll get over this, I know I will.

Honeyfrost heard panicked mews from outside her den, she quickly rushed out of her den with her fur standing on end to see what was going on. Mudfall was leaning against Brackenpelt, blood was pouring from a wound on his paw. Honeyfrost ran to her Clanmates. "What happened?"

"We were hunting on the stones between the rivers," Brackenpelt explained. "Mudfall climbed on the stones and tripped, he cut his paw really bad."

"Take him to the medicine cat den so I can take a look." Honeyfrost beat them back to her den and quickly began gathering the herbs for treating Mudfall's wound. Brackenpelt and Mudfall arrived and Mudfall sat down, lifting his paw with a wince. Honeyfrost looked over his paw, there was a very deep cut in his paw pad that was pouring blood.

"Hold your paw there." Honeyfrost instructed and picked up a damp ball of moss to clean up some of the blood around the wound. She then quickly chewed together some marigold and rubbed it on the wound, the proceeded to wrap the wound with several layers of cobweb. "That should hold for now, I want you to stay here at least for tonight so I can keep changing the dressing."

"How long will it take to heal?" Mudfall questioned looking painfully at his wrapped paw.

"Only time will tell. It will heal faster if you rest, I'll give you some poppy seeds for the pain." Honeyfrost nudged four poppy seeds towards Mudfall who lapped them up. He curled up in a nest and closed his eyes to sleep through the pain. It was a simple injury, but if not taken care of it could get infected.

Honeyfrost stepped out of the den to give Mudfall some peace and quiet and was shocked to find herself nose to nose with Dovepool. "Is he okay?" She sounded really panicked. Am I missing something?

"He's fine, Dovepool." Honeyfrost stepped back from her. "The wound is pretty deep, but with time and rest he'll be able to get back on his paws. He just needs rest."

Dovepool sighed with relief. "Glad to hear it." She purred. "Thank you, Honeyfrost." Dovepool turned away, leaving Honeyfrost confused. Are those two...a thing? She questioned, she guessed she really didn't pay too much attention to which cats were becoming mates.

"How's my brother doing?" Earthpelt questioned, approaching from the warriors den. Even Dovepool seemed more concerned than Earthpelt.

"It's a deep wound, but he'll recover from it."

"Good." Earthpelt purred. "It might do him some good to be confined to a nest for a while." She purred playfully and walked away eventually. Honeyfrost's stomach growled, she had been so preoccupied with other things she hadn't had a chance to eat today. She padded up to the fresh-kill pile and picked up a mouse.

She quickly ate and as she finished, Pebblestep entered camp with a jawful of herbs. Honeyfrost stood up and approached her mentor. "Mudfall fell while hunting on the stones, he's resting in our den."

"How bad is the wound?" Pebblestep questioned, setting down her bundle of herbs.

"Pretty deep, we'll just have to keep an eye on it to prevent infection. He'll probably be off duties for a moon at the most."

"I'll take a look at it when he wakes up, for now I want to put these herbs away." Honeyfrost followed her mentor, taking some of the herbs from her to help out. Together, the two medicine cats quietly sorted their herbs.

"Have you given Heatherflight any herbs today?"

Honeyfrost nodded. "I decided to give her some chamomile as well, I'm hoping it will help her."

"That was a good call." Pebblestep purred. "I didn't even think of that." Honeyfrost felt warmed by her mentor's praise, she just hoped that the chamomile would help.

"I'll visit with her tomorrow to see if it helped. I just want these kits to come so she will be able to recover." Honeyfrost mewed. "I know she wants them here."

"Yeah," Honeyfrost could hear uncertainty in Pebblestep's mew. "Me too." She sounds so worried. Honeyfrost suddenly recalled the death of Pebblestep's mother, Dovetail. She died giving birth and lost many kits. She's worried Heatherflight will suffer the same fate.

Honeyfrost rested her tail on Pebblestep's shoulders. "Don't worry about her, she's in the paws of great medicine cats. She knows that we'll do everything we can for her, no matter how hard her kitting will be." Pebblestep looked at Honeyfrost with compassion in her eyes.

"Thank you, Honeyfrost." She sighed sadly. "I just worry, I don't want anything to happen to Heatherflight or her kits."

"We'll take care of them." Honeyfrost touched her muzzle to Pebblestep's shoulder. They have to be okay. New kits would bring so much hope for SunClan. We won't let anything happen to you Heatherflight, I promise.