Mountainstar slowly rose from her nest, stretching out her limbs and letting out a yawn. Her body shivered as the air felt incredibly cold. My den is too cold for my liking. She thought, flicking her tail. She considered getting more moss to line her nest, she woke up every day feeling half-frozen. She washed her pelt to warm herself up a bit before stepping out into the camp.

It was early morning in the forest and casting her eyes upwards towards the sky revealed heavy white clouds covered the entire pale sky. Those are snow clouds. It feels like leaf-bare already but this will be our first snow. Mountainstar noted. She then carefully hopped down from her den and looked around her camp. Hazelspring was sitting with her two sisters, Riverstep and Briarfall as they shared a hare, huddled close together to keep warm.

She also noticed Gingersky, Antwhisker, Yewtail and Flintfoot all sitting together as well, they were sitting around two piece of prey and talking closely amongst each other. Flintfloot briefly glanced up and gave Mountainstar a weird look, she wasn't sure what the reasoning was behind it. She just have him a respectful nod and turned away, heading towards the medicine cat den.

She was suddenly wondering if there was something out of place on her, she couldn't think of another reason as to why Flintfoot would be looking at her in such a weird manner. She quickly made sure all bits of her fur was smoothed down before she stepped into the medicine cat den. She instantly noticed a slight foul scent in the air, her eyes went to their recently injured warrior, Sorrelfern. The tortoiseshell she-cat was curled up in her nest with her foreleg jutting out. It was wrapped in a thick layer of cobwebs.

Mountainstar looked to Mothflower who had a sense of fear and panic permanently burned into her eyes. Feeling concerned for her medicine cat, Mountainstar approached her. "How is she doing?"

"The wound is infected." Mothflower replied, her voice dry and shaking. "I can't get it to go away, I don't know what I'm doing." She whimpered. "Maybe this was all a big mistake."

Mountainstar shook her head, stepping forward and resting her tail on Mothflower's shoulders. "I'm sure that all the other medicine cats have struggled with this before." Mothflower just ducked her head, Mountainstar's words clearly weren't helping. "We could always go to MoonClan camp and ask Oneflight for help, or Roseheart in LichenClan."

"I can't leave her." Mothflower shook her head slowly. "I need to make sure nothing gets worse."

"Then I can go." Mountainstar replied. "I'll go to MoonClan camp and see if Oneflight can give some advice and help us out."

"I would appreciate that." Mothflower replied, taking a deep breath and padding over to Sorrelfern to give her wound another look.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Mountainstar dipped her head then rose to her paws. She stepped out of the den and looked around. She didn't want to go alone, she just had to figure out who she wanted to bring with her. As she scanned her available Clanmates her eyes rested on Flintfoot. Maybe we've been too restrictive on him and he noticed. They had been keeping him away from borders, but she should really cut him some slack. "Excuse me, Flintfoot." Mountainstar padded up to the skinny tom.

"What can I do for you?" His voice was flat.

"Sorrelfern's wound is infected and I was going to ask MoonClan's medicine cat for help and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me."

Flintfoot seemed caught off guard, he looked to Antwhisker for a moment before turning back to her. "Sure." He rose to his paws. "Are we going all the way to their camp?"

"Maybe." Mountainstar replied. "If we are, prepared to get your paws wet. MoonClan cats like to swim."

Flintfoot gave her a quizzical look. "Why in the world would they swim? Especially in this weather."

Mountainstar shrugged. "I have no idea. Hopefully they have ways to cross." She mewed. "I think we should be okay with just the two of us, I don't want this to seem like a threatening patrol."

"Okay." Flintfoot didn't seem to excited, but he also seemed to be suppressing his emotions. Mountainstar wish she knew what was going on inside of his head, but she also didn't want to pressure him to talk.

"Where are you two going?" Mountainstar heard the voice of Nettleheart who seemed to be returning from a patrol.

"Mothflower needs some help with Sorrelfern's infection. Flintfoot and I are going to MoonClan to see if we can get some help from Oneflight."

Nettleheart gave Mountainstar a slightly questioning look, her eyes shifting to Flintfoot for a just a moment as if to say Him? Really? Mountainstar just gave her an assuring nod. "Alright, well be safe and stay warm." Nettleheart mewed.

"We will." Mountainstar promised and she led Flintfoot into the forest. They walked side by side for a long while in complete silence which made Mountainstar feel slightly uncomfortable.

They were nearing the river when Flintfoot finally spoke. "So why did you pick me?" He asked, his gaze focused straight ahead of him. "Don't think I haven't noticed you and Nettleheart keeping me away from the borders."

Mountainstar let out a quiet sigh. "I know and I'm sorry, Flintfoot. In my defense you have been frequently crossing them."

"I'm not used to living with borders." Flintfoot replied. "It feels...trapping. I'm not used to hunting in a confined area. When I was a rouge I had the entire world to hunt it with no cats stopping me."

"It's been difficult for all of us." Mountainstar replied. "We all had endless hunting fields and now we don't. I know it can be frustrating but you're not the only one who has had to sacrifice something. We've all had to. We all agreed to become warriors and we need to work together to work with them properly."

Flintfoot sighed. "I know and I've been trying. I still don't know all the smells other than that MoonClan smells like fish."

"You'll get there." Mountainstar mewed. "And I suppose I haven't been helping by keeping you away from the borders, so I will tell Nettleheart to allow you to go to them again. I just ask that you put the effort in to learn the smells and borders."

Flintfoot hesitated for a moment. "I'll try my best." Mountainstar let out a small breath of a relief. I was so focused on following the warrior code and appealing to the other leaders that I ignored the needs of my warriors. Mountainstar silently scolded herself. I can't let that happen. I need to find the balance.

The rest of the walk to the river border went on in silence, they eventually reached the slow flowing river and Mountainstar down. "I would avoid crossing if we don't have to." She noted to Flintfoot. "Their sunhigh patrol should be arriving soon though." Flintfoot didn't say anything,

After a short wait, Mountainstar caught the sound of voices and soon a MoonClan patrol showed up. She was still struggling with learning names but she knew at the front of the patrol was the warrior Daisyheart. "Hello, Mountainstar." Daisyheart mewed upon seeing the two of them. "And...?"
"This is my warrior Flintfoot." Mountainstar introduced. Good to know I'm not the only one struggling with names!

Daisyheart nodded. "Did you need our help with something?"

"Yes, actually." Mountainstar replied. "One of our warriors was injured a few days ago and she has a pretty nasty infection that Mothflower is struggling to get rid of. We were wondering if Oneflight would be able to give some advice."

Daisyheart looked to her Clanmates, a white she-cat. "What do you think, Icepool?"

Icepool looked at the two MountainClan cats then back to Daisyheart. "I don't see why not. Oneflight already offered his help." Her blue gaze drifted back to Mountainstar and Flintfoot. "Wait here, we'll go get Oneflight. I don't want you crossing the river if you don't have to, it's too cold."

"Thank you very much." Mountainstar dipped her head gratefully.

"Of course." Icepool waved her tail. "We'll be right back." The patrol quickly marked the border then vanished into the trees.

"Hopefully they don't take too long." Flintfoot replied, giving his paws a lick. "I feel like my paws are going to freeze to the ground."

"MoonClan cats are quick remember?" Mountainstar reminded him. "They're usually the fastest in the forest."

Flintfoot shrugged. "All the other Clans are the same to me." Mountainstar held her tongue, she couldn't expect him to know as much about the other Clans as she did. She had listened to Owlpaw's explanations over and over so she would be able to respect the other Clans.

Sure enough not long after, Oneflight came sprinting through the trees. He had clearly been running the entire time but he didn't look out of breath at all. Impressive. Mountainstar thought silently. "Hello, Mountainstar." He dipped his head to both of them. "Daisyheart told me you have a warrior with an infected wound?"

"Yes." Mountainstar nodded. "Our warrior Sorrelfern was injured by some kind of twoleg object that had found its way in the riverbed. Mothflower is struggling with getting her infection to go away."

"I'd be happy to help." Oneflight dipped his head. The silver tabby backed up a bit and got a running start. At the edge of the river he leapt across the water and landed gracefully on the other side. "Lead the way." Mountainstar looked at the medicine cat with awe, even Flintfoot seemed impressed. She didn't spend too much time on the feat and with Flintfoot and Oneflight behind her, Mountainstar led the way back to MountainClan camp.

"Are you okay climbing steep inclines?" Mountainstar questioned, remembering the entrance to MountainClan camp wasn't desirable to most cats.

"I can sure try." Oneflight mewed.

"It's not that bad." Flintfoot replied. When they reached the entrance Flintfoot climbed the incline with ease and into the main camp.

"I'll be behind you." Mountainstar told the medicine cat. Oneflight looked at the stone path carefully for a few moments before beginning the climb up the path. He took his time and seemed to be struggling just a bit, but managed to make it to top without slipping.

At the top, Oneflight looked at his paws which seemed to be a bit scraped up. "Sorry about that." Mountainstar mewed, nodding to his paws.

"It's alright." Oneflight gave them a quick lick. "I'll treat them when I get home." Oneflight explained. "Could you lead me to your medicine cat den?"

"Of course." Mountainstar walked across camp, getting a few curious looks from her Clanmates before they reached the opening Mothflower's den. They stepped inside and Oneflight's eyes instantly went to Sorrelfern.

"Oh, you're back." Mothflower's sheepish voice spoke from the shadows of the den and she stepped in. "Hello, Oneflight. Thank you for coming."

"Of course, Mothflower." Oneflight mewed. "I told you I'd always be here to help." He padded over to Sorrelfern who seemed to be in pain. "Come here so I can show you how to fix this."

"Okay." Mothflower's voice was still filled with doubt.

"I'll give you two some space." Mountainstar replied and turned away, leaving the medicine cat den. She let out a sigh once outside, noticing her breath clouding in front of her muzzle.

"Look!" She heard the distant voice of Mossypaw. Mountainstar lifted her head and realized that small flakes were slowly falling from the sky. The first snow of leaf-bare. Mountainstar thought, the sight was beautiful but behind filled Mountainstar with concern. Snow means sickness. She glanced over her shoulder at the medicine cat den, she heard the stories of how scary greencough could be during leafbare. She felt instant guilt as she doubted Mothflower abilities. I know she has the skill, but she needs to believe in herself. If she gets so overwhelmed by one injury, what will happen when we have multiple sick cats?

She let out a low sigh and stared as the slow falling snow. No matter what happens, I know we'll be okay. I have to believe that. Her mother's face flashed in her mind. I have to have faith.