azalea

~~~

AS IF ON THEIR OWN RECORD, Bellona's nose wrinkled in disgust. The scent of thick cats was so heavily layered in the den that she didn't think she'd be able to smell anything but the illness's acid scent again. She forced herself to stand her ground and place a soaked ball of moss next to a quivering Ajax, who let out a hacking cough.

Bellona's muscles twitched as her paws tingled for her to leave, but her self control won over. However, when Ajax choked up some blood with his next cough, the white she-cat couldn't stand it anymore. She bolted out of the den and heaved, desperately trying to refill her lungs with fresh air.

"Spirits, that's vile," she spat at the ground, unable to repress the shudder that crawled up her spine.

"Someone not following orders," a sing-song voice mewed.

Bellona glanced over her shoulder to spot the lieutenant, Deimos, and she bared his teeth at him in pure annoyance. "Go away."

"Aeolus told you to help Coronis with the sick," Deimos meowed matter-of-factly. "He's quite mad at you, you know. If you hadn't let Caelus jump on him-"

"Then he would've been able to complete the prophecy. Yes, he's told me himself several times," Bellona muttered as she rolled her eyes. She clawed the ground in anger. "For Caelus's sake, I hope we never cross paths, or at the very least, that he's a fast runner. I've got hundreds of slow, painful ways to kill him, and I can't wait to try them out."

It hadn't been a good moon for the rogues. Victory had been so close, then snatched from their paws as in a blink of an eye. And though leafbare was coming to a close, the weather still proved to be brittle and freezing, and in the past few days, several cats had fallen ill with a disease nobody had seen before.

It was awful, and the healer, Coronis, knew no cure. It was spreading through the rogues like wildfire, and Bellona swore that even Coronis was coughing up some blood today. Aeolus had wanted to hold off any attacks until everyone was healthy again, but the white she-cat wasn't sure how long that'd take, especially since one of his combatants, Nyx, had died from this disease only yesterday.

Deimos ruffled his fur. "I hear he's staying with ShadowClan. We'll find him sooner or later."

Bellona slid out her claws and dug them into the ground, pretending the earth was Caelus's pelt. "That little traitor."

Just then, Coronis's head poked out from the healers' den. She looked awful, her face heavy with pressure and lack of sleep. Bellona shivered when she saw green phlegm leaking from her nose, a sign of this awful disease.

"Tell Aeolus-" The healer coughed, bringing up blood. "Tell Aeolus we've to abandon this camp. Everyone will fall sick eventually if we stay here, we can't-" She broke off again as she stumbled backwards, as though some odd fever had overtaken her and she couldn't focus.

"Alright." Bellona leapt to her feet, eager to get away from the sick den, half because she was afraid she'd catch the disease and half afraid the illness was already working its way through her system. "I'll go."

"I'm coming with," Deimos meowed instantly, his voice an unusually high pitch.

For such bloodthirsty, fierce combatants, it was almost odd how quickly they jumped in fright at the disease.

Wasting no more time, Bellona crossed the camp to the leaders den, where Aeolus had been cooped up in for the past few days, wanting to steer clear of the plague and upset over the prophecy. 

Bellona stopped short of his den, a little afraid to enter. He was already furious over Nyx's death; telling him they had to abandon camp would lose him many skilled combatants. 

"Go on," Deimos mewed, watching her unmoving stance. "Don't be scared."

"I'm not!" Bellona protested. "I just- I just thought it'd be better for his lieutenant to tell him about this. After all, that is a lieutenant's job. You go."

The ginger-and-white tom rolled his eyes again. "Wussy," he muttered, but ducked into the den all the same. 

As he disappeared inside, Bellona felt a ripple of cold crawl up her pelt, followed by a sudden sneeze. She took a step back, praying to any spirits who were listening that she hadn't caught the disease, though a gut feeling told her different. 

She had expected Deimos to take long in delivering the news - a roar of anger from Aeolus, perhaps - but the lieutenant reappeared in mere seconds, his green eyes dark. "He's gone."

Bellona frowned, fluffing her pelt. "Who is?"

"Aeolus. He's gone."

Bellona blinked. She couldn't believe it. Their fearless leader, who'd dragged them for moons from their old home to the Clans' territory in promise of power, was gone? "What? You're kidding." She shook her head in disbelief. "Why?"

"Don't be an idiot, Bellona," Deimos growled, though his anger was clearly directed at Aeolus rather than the white she-cat. "It's obvious, isn't it? The disease was getting out of control, so our brilliant leader left us. Snuck out in the middle of the night like one of those pathetic Clan cats."

Bellona blinked, her breath shallowing. A feeling of panic overtook her, and the fear that they would all eventually succumb to the disease made her veins run cold. "I-"

"He did," Deimos interrupted fiercely. He seemed to be having the opposite reaction as Bellona, with angry glittering eyes. "He's gone, and he left us here to die."

~~~

SWIFTSTAR WAS OLD. If you asked any cat to describe WindClan's leader, their answer would feature his high age. He'd been alive when SkyClan was driven mercilessly from the Clans' territory by Twolegs - the only trouble he'd hoped he'd see in his leadership - but now, he was living out the rest of his life in a Twoleg farm, his Clan pushed from their land.

"Here, Swiftstar." This was his deputy Cherrylight as she dropped a mouse at his paws. At least the farm was full of food, though it'd taken his cats quite a while to learn how to stalk prey. "You should eat."

Swiftstar shook his head. "Give it to someone else."

"Swiftstar-"

"No," the old tom meowed firmly, "I don't deserve it. I'm the cat that lost WindClan our land. I'm the reason we have to live here now."

"It's not your fault," Cherrylight replied gently. "It's Snakestar's. He's young and ignorant and completely irresponsible. We'll get our land back, I know it."

The dark gray-black tom sighed miserably. "This must be how Cloudstar felt when he had to lead SkyClan away." He looked down at his paws. "Maybe this is simply karma."

"Swiftstar, stop it." His deputy touched her tail-tip lightly to his shoulder. "We just need to get back onto our paws, that's all. Rest here for a bit, fuel up. We'll get back in contact with RiverClan and figure everything out. WindClan won't fall this easily."

At her words, Swiftstar finally looked up, a feeling of motivation sparking within him that he hadn't felt since their territory loss. Cherrylight would make a fine leader someday. 

"WindClan," he repeated, his voice getting stronger and firmer with each word he spoke, "won't fall this easily."

~~~

and that's primrose!! it's been a rough ride, so thank you to everyone who stuck around! some of the chapters in here are definitely not my best work. this chapter, for example, took me months to write - i kept writing a little bit then leaving. i even finished the prologue and about three chapters of anemone before finally completing the epilogue!

thank you again so so so much to everyone who read this book. it means the absolute world to me, and i can't stress enough that without all your votes and kind comments, there's absolutely no way i would be writing this note right now. i 100% would've given up halfway through, so thank you!

with all that said, the 3rd and final book of eternal, anemone, is out now!

have a great day, and make sure to drink water! <3

~ lily