Howling[SOLO]

Dennis coughed for not the first time that night, throat raw from a sleepless night of coughing. He half-walked, half-crawled over to the herb pile, astonishingly empty given that he'd just gathered herbs with Cloverpaw less than a moon ago. Though whitecough had been tormenting him for almost as long, and it was mostly the feverfew and tansy that was missing, so this was definitely his own doing. He sighed deeply, a raspy sound that made him cringe. A year ago he would've been fine within two days. Now it took all of his energy and time just to keep it from developing into greencough, let alone get rid of the stars-forsaken illness. He heaved himself fully to his feet. His head spun but he ignored it, stepping outside as the nausea subsided and his vision cleared. The sky was clear and the moon bright. If there was ever a good night to be herb-hunting, which Dennis would argue there was not, this was it. coughing all the way, he carefully began making his way past camp and into the forest.

Silence filled his mind to overflowing as he walked. He hated that. He hated a lot of things as of late. It was difficult to enjoy things when everything was against him, from his own body to his family. Not that he blamed them. His mothers were being as patient with him as they could be, and though it stung when Ivystar called him 'Spiderquill' and acted as if he were simply a medicine cat rather than her own son Dennis knew it was for the best. She had to be strong for the Clan and it would look bad if she humoured him. He understood, really. Neither the bitter frown on his face nor the fact that he was leaving camp at this hour meant anything. He was fine. Another loud cough mercifully stirred him from his thoughts. He looked around, suddenly realising that he had been walking on autopilot for quite a while. The scenery was different in the dark, but the moonlit clearing he'd found himself in was still recognisable as Riverclan territory. Good. Imagine the inconvenience to his mother if he stumbled across another Clan's territory. She'd probably ground him again. He shook out his pelt in an effort to get thoughts of Ivystar out of his mind. He was here to gather herbs, and that's what he was going to do.

Oversized eyes were, Dennis thought to himself after dropping yet another bundle of feverfew on his herb pile, quite the asset in the dead of night. He ignored the herbs he knew he already had; it wasn't late enough in the year to overstock for Leafbare. Besides, there was still plenty of herbs to go around and he wasn't missing out by not gathering them right this second. His work here was done. He deftly tied the herbs to his back with cobwebs and prepared to leave the clearing, hoping he'd be able to find his way back in the dark, when a sudden gust of cold air stopped him in his tracks.

Wind was obviously nothing out of the ordinary in the forest, but something about this didn't sit right with the spindly medicine cat. He looked up. The stars looked like they had somehow brightened since he'd last seen them. The sudden wind was only worsening with every second, whipping Dennis' ears every which way. Leaves and dust left their resting place on the ground and began to fly in every direction as the wind crescendoed. Dennis was frozen, like a deer on the Thunderpath. But the wind itself wasn't the worst part. No, what had Dennis rooted to the spot was the howling.

It wasn't like normal whistling against the branches, at least not in the petrified Tom's mind. It was louder, deeper. Like the wind was inside his own head, trying to drown out his thoughts. Dennis squeezed his eyes shut. This had to be StarClan's doing. There was no other explanation. He braced himself against the wind, trying to ignore the wailing of the harsh wind against his ears. He stood there for what seemed like minutes, though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds.

Suddenly and without warning, the wind dropped. Quite literally, all the debris around him fell to the ground instantly as if it had never been in the air in the first place. Similarly, the howling cut off so suddenly it made Dennis' ears ring. A tickling sensation on his front paws made him open his eyes, albeit hesitantly for fear of bringing back the wind somehow. The culprit was a large white feather, supposedly carried there by the wind. It was smooth and sleek, somehow unruffled. Dennis sucked in a deep breath he'd been holding and with shaky paws stuck the feather under the cobwebs on his back. He didn't have the clarity of mind to ponder what this could possibly mean. Stars, he didn't want to. All he wanted to do now was get out of this clearing.

With a last look back at the stars, he set off towards camp in a three-beat trot.