[ti]Private[/ti]A Mysterious Sickness is Spreading, Mothstar.

[GnawingOnIce]

"Mothstar?"
The medicine cat peeked into the leader's den, worry clouding her eyes.
"May I speak with you? It's important."
The Mothclan leader towered over the small medicine cat, but if he wouldn't listen Cedarleap wouldn't hesitate to snap at him.
This sickness, redcough, is rapidly spreading, to what Cedarleap knows.
She doesn't know if cats aren't telling her they're sick, but she knew they'd come to her eventually or she'd spot them coughing.
Her tail-tip twitched back and forth anxiously.
She desperately hoped this sickness wouldn't kill anyone, but there hasn't been a cure found for it yet, so some cats may be bound to die.
She hoped Mothstar wasn't one of them.

( TAGS: KingHarry )

[KingHarry]

Recently, Mothstar had been feeling very tired. He just put it down to the time of year, though. Leaf-bare meant less food and darker days - it only made sense for a warrior to be more easily exhausted. And the sneezing? Well, that was probably nothing to worry about. Warriors often got a runny nose and began sneezing during this time of year, right?

"What is it, Cedarleap?" The leader grumped. His medicine cat looked nervous. Oh dear. This wasn't too bad news, Mothstar hoped. With MothClan still being reasonably new, he could do without having to deal with some kind of crisis on top of everything else.

Mothstar coughed once, then sneezed, before finally speaking again. "Nobody is hurt, I hope?"

[GnawingOnIce]

"No, no one's hurt, uhm, well.. there's a sickness spreading very quickly."
She didn't exactly know how to start telling her leader about Redcough.
"It's called Redcough. It happens when a cat coughs up blood."
"There isn't an exact cure for it yet, so knowing that it's spreading quickly is alarming. It can be fatal sometimes, if not fatal, then it permanently damages the cat in some way."
She flicked her ears before continuing.
"The other night when I went to the moonstone, a Starclan cat warned me that 'Cats tread on unfamiliar grounds, and they will end up no better than they.'"
"I'm not sure if this omen relates to the illness or not, but it's possible."
She sighed inwardly before looking up at Mothstar for a response.
"I suggest that you tell everyone about this sickness, considering it's deadly. Everyone should be aware and not just shrug it off as a cold if they start coughing."

[KingHarry]

Oh StarClan... Really? There was a sickness? That was just what MothClan needed, wasn't it?

"Do you know what StarClan's warning meant?" The leader asked. He could think of multiple interpretations already. It could be about MothClan attempting to take territory, or sending warriors out to the local twoleg town. It could also be able the three clans as a whole - after all, they were all treading on unfamiliar ground with these new territories, weren't they? Or maybe it was about something one of the other clans were doing. Mothstar just didn't know.

"And how contagious is it? If it's unlikely that most cats will get it, perhaps it is not wise to tell the entire clan? After all, we don't want to panic them, do we? I think we definitely don't want to tell the other clans either. I don't care if it spreads - I don't want them using this moment of weakness to take something from us."

The issue was, a lot of cats were coughing. Even he was coughing himself! If there was a chance that it was nothing, Mothstar didn't want to be sending cats to Cedarleap and overwhelming her without need.

[GnawingOnIce]

"Do you know what StarClan's warning meant?"
At this question, Cedarleap perked her ears up.
"Yes, I have somewhat an idea. Since there's no found cure for redcough, I think that's what the 'Cats tread on unfamiliar grounds' part meant. As for 'and they will end up no better than they', I have no ideas."
"There were also skulls of dead prey pictured in the omen. I have a vague idea of what that could mean. It most likely has something to do with redcough."
"And how contagious is it? If it's unlikely that most cats will get it, perhaps it is not wise to tell the entire clan? After all, we don't want to panic them, do we? I think we definitely don't want to tell the other clans either. I don't care if it spreads - I don't want them using this moment of weakness to take something from us."
"You're right to not want the Clan to panic, but there's a line between panicking and being cautious and wary. As far as I know, with the amount of coughing cats I've seen so far, redcough may be contagious, so I'd like to tell the whole Clan. We definitely can't show weakness during this time, the entire Clan could be wiped out! We must be very careful during this situation."
Cedarleap spoke wisely, carefully piecing her words together. She clearly meant business here, she did not want any cat to die just because they were too stubborn to ask Cedarleap for a quick checkup.