Redpaw's New Name

"Willowbranch!" Redpaw gasped. She quickly rushed to her mentor's side, her yellow eyes widening with alarm. "Are you okay?" she anxiously asked as she knelt down beside her. The gray tabby lay motionless, her face covered in blood, but she could still see her pelt rise and fall with every breath. With a glimmer of hope, she frantically licked her shoulder, trying to wake her up while urgently calling her name.

As Redpaw continued her frantic licking, Willowbranch slowly opened her good eye. The sound of her apprentice's voice grew louder and clearer in her mind, guiding her back to consciousness. When she had fully opened her eyes and met her gaze, Redpaw breathed a sigh of relief. "You're alive!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

Willowbranch winced in pain as she lifted her head from the dirt floor. "I'm... I'm fine," she mewed, her voice strained.

"You're still bleeding, I'll get some wet moss and cobwebs," Redpaw said, as she turned to face the herb storage. She began to rummage in the pile, laying herbs at her feet.

Willowbranch felt a rush of pride as she recognized how much her apprentice had grown. Could she really handle the clan's injuries all by herself? 

"What happened to the battle?" she asked, as she heaved herself off her side and onto her stomach. She sniffed the air, realizing the den was empty except for Redpaw's warm scent. 

Redpaw's ears flicked as Willowbranch's voice rose from behind her. "We won, but barely." she mewed, her voice heavy with exhaustion. She returned with some wet moss and set it down, then ran a raspy tongue over her wound, which had developed into an angled scar over her left eye.

"I think your eye will be fine." She mewed decidedly. Carefully, she applied the wet moss to the scar, delicately cleaning away the lingering traces of blood. As she did so, she also began to chew up a goldenrod poultice.

Willowbranch gazed at Redpaw with weary eyes, looking at her but also seeing through her at the same time. Her once vibrant green eyes had lost their spark, and the distance between them felt so strained that it felt like she was peering through a pool of water. "I trust you, Redmoon," she whispered. 

"What was that?" Redpaw asked, her ears perking up at the mention of the name "Redmoon." Did she say her name wrong by accident?

Willowbranch simply looked away. "Can you go to the herb storage and pull out some red berries from the back?" she asked, as she folded her paws underneath her chest.

Redpaw spat out the poultice. "Should I chew them up too?"

"No, the berries will help with the pain," Willowbranch replied, laying her head back down. "They're all the way in the back."

"Of course, I'll fetch them right away." she mewed.

She swiftly made her way to the herb storage, dipping her paw into the stone crack and feeling around for them, pulling out herb after herb. Eventually, her claw snagged on a dark leafy branch, and she pulled it out. Four bright red berries were attached to the stem. "Are these holly berries?" she asked, after placing them on the ground in front of her. She remembered how similar they looked to the ones that were used in the prophecy. A prophecy from so long ago she had nearly forgotten about it—from when StarClan had shaped them to look like a kit.

"No," Willowbranch mewed softly. Using her claws, she carefully plucked one of the berries off the branch and brought it to her jaws. A moment later, she winced as her teeth broke into the seed with a sickening crack.

Redpaw lowered her head to resume working on the poultice, when suddenly her ears flicked, startled by the sound of coughing. She looked up to see the berry flesh sliding out of her mouth.

"Willowbranch?" Redpaw swiftly rose to her paws. Concern flashed across her eyes as she witnessed her mentor's struggle to breathe. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice filled with worry.

"I'm sorry..." Willowbranch mewed, her voice coming out in strained gasps. "I had...no other choice."

"What do you mean?" she asked, furrowing her brows as she became even more confused. "I don't understand-" her words were suddenly cut off as Willowbranch placed a trembling paw on her shoulder. "You did your best," She mewed weakly. "I only wish I could've taught you more." 

An uneasy shiver ran down Redpaw's spine as she noticed that Willowbranch's paw felt unusually hot to the touch. The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning—her mentor was burning up with a high fever, and that, accompanied with her labored breathing, meant that she had been poisoned. "What... what did you eat?" she asked, her eyes widening in panic. She started shaking, so horrified by what she had just done that the only thoughts running through her head at that moment were the herbs she would need to save her. "I-I need yarrow...." Redpaw took a step back so that her paw slid off her shoulder.

Willowbranch's weakened body trembled as she struggled to stand up. She tried to reach out to Redpaw, desperate to say something, but the poison coursing through her veins rendered every muscle numb and unresponsive and she struggled to get the words out. "Stay aw-" she began to say but stopped abruptly as she coughed, spraying fresh blood onto Redpaw's pelt. As blood and foam gathered at the corners of her mouth, her eyes burned with a wild, frenzied glare. Her face becoming so contorted that she looked like a ferocious dog that was about to rip her apart. With a heavy thud, she collapsed back onto the ground, utterly helpless.

"Willowbranch!" Redpaw yowled. She flung herself to her mentor's side, trying to steady her shaking body with her paws. "Please don't die! I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything! I promise I'll be a good apprentice this time!"

"It's...okay," Willowbranch coughed, spitting out a mouthful of pink foam. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke, "I was a fool...for thinking you could ever become my apprentice." At that moment, Willowbranch's eyes rolled to the back of her head, and her entire body began to convulse violently.

Redpaw lifted her gaze, her yellow eyes falling on her struggling body, gasping for air, and desperately trying to breathe. With her fur bristling, Redpaw dragged her claws through the dirt floor, the sudden shock of what had just occurred turning into rage.

Did Willowbranch really think she didn't have what it takes to be a medicine cat? She had already spent an entire moon treating sick and injured cats, spent countless sunrises searching for herbs in the snow, and even asked for special lessons to prepare for Goldenear's kits. She had done all of this, without a single complaint.

"If you didn't believe in me, then why would you leave me here to take care of the rest of the clan? Alone?" She hissed, fury burning through her ginger pelt. "Why would you trick me? I never wanted you to die!" Redpaw felt the warm heat of tears soak her fur. "I still need you!"

Gradually, Willowbranch's breathing grew shallower, her flank barely moving. Then, as Redpaw watched, it stopped completely and never rose again. The silence that filled the medicine cat den was so still, she could hear the wind whistling outside, taking with it her last dying breath.

"Please StarClan!" Redpaw cried out. "Please grant me a miracle!" she wailed, burying her face into Willowbranch's fur. "You can bring leaders back from the dead with their nine lives, so why can't you do the same for medicine cats?" she asked, looking up towards the branches that towered over them. "Please!" she screamed. Hot tears burned her pelt. "I need her! I still need her!"

"Redpaw!" Flamestar appeared at the entrance of the den, brushing in between the ferns. He wrinkled his nose as the metallic scent of blood grew stronger and paused as he spotted the apprentice burrowed into Willowbranch's body.

"What happened!?" he asked in shock, his fur bristling.

Redpaw took a deep breath and rose to her paws. Shaking the tears from her eyes, a sudden, cool calmness washed over her. For the first time in her life, she understood. She had to become a medicine cat for the sake of her clan, her ancestors, and herself. She wasn't Redpaw anymore, but Redmoon, ThunderClan's one and only medicine cat.

Suddenly, she realized that tears were streaming out of her eyes. What was this feeling? Is it...happiness? Why? Why was she so happy?

Flamestar slowly approached her, his eyes still wide with shock. "Redpaw?"

She spun around, her yellow gaze fixed on his. "It looks like I'm not an apprentice anymore," she mewed as she held up a paw. The red blood that soaked into her fur was the same shade as her own. "And I was so sure my name was going to be Redfoot." 

Tears wracked her pelt, as she mourned the loss of her former name. "Willowbranch decided to give me the name Redmoon." She continued, "After the moonstone. But it's such a sacred place... isn't that wrong?"

The fur on the back of Flamestar's pelt relaxed. "It doesn't matter." He mewed calmly, "I'm sure StarClan wouldn't mind." He swept his tail around her shoulders, trying to comfort her, "You know what you have to do now?"

"I do." Redmoon mewed.