Sickness Strikes (c)

Dandelionflight curled up in her nest and let out a small cough. Her ears felt like they were frozen, and she tucked herself deeper in the moss. She hadn't been feeling well lately and feared that she might have greencough. She knew that she should see Muddythorn, if that was the case, and dragged herself out of the den. Her paws pricked with coldness from the earth underfoot. Slowly she made her way across the clearing and to the medicine den. "Muddythorn!" She rasped into dark den. Hopefully he was here and could help her.

Muddythorn's head shot up at the sound of his voice, and he spotted the form of a warrior at his den entrance. "Hi! Is everything okay?" He said cheerfully. However, when he padded closer, it was clear that Dandelionflight was here for a reason. The scent of sickness was apparent on her pelt, to the point where the medicine cat wondered why she hadn't come to him sooner. "Dandelionflight, what's wrong?" He put a gentle paw against the she-cat's forehead, which was unusually warm, yet the warrior was shivering as if she was cold. A fever. It could be a sign of anything: infection, normal sickness or even greencough.

"Having you been coughing lots? Do you feel strangely cold?" He questioned. It wasn't supposed to be an interrogation, but with herb supplies running low, he didn't want to give her something that wouldn't do anything.

Muddythorn soon appeared from inside the den and checked her temperature. He soon asked some questions about her sickness. "I've been coughing a little. I do feel cold, but I can't tell if that's from sickness or it being cold outside." She meowed to Muddythorn. She fluffed out her fur against the cold air outside. Her paws felt like they were going numb, and she asked, "Can we go in the medicine den? I feel like I'm going to freeze out here."

"Of course, of course." Muddythorn responded, leading the tabby into his den where, although it didn't gain as much warmth from body heat as the warriors' den did, it was very sheltered from the chilling wind. "Take a nest as well, see if you can get some rest, even if it's only a little bit." There were no other patients currently with him, despite the clan's large size and the harsh weather. Something that made the medicine cat feel very fortunate.

During this time, he'd managed to rule out infection as a cause of the fever, given there was no scent of it on Dandelionflight's pelt. She'd also said she had only been coughing a little, but then again warriors seemed to have a general thing for playing down how ill they were. At least with that much information he could hope to Starclan that it wasn't greencough. Not yet, at least. "Okay Dandelionflight," he began as he picked small amounts of herbs off of his piles. It pained him that he couldn't just give her plenty of what was needed, but he had to do his best to conserve his supply. "From what I can tell, I think you have whitecough. If you take this," he said, pushing the few dried coltsfoot leaves towards her, "hopefully it won't get worse. I would give you more, but if it doesn't get better over the next few sunrises, please come back and I'll see what I can do."