how to treat death incarnate (solo)

Everything hurt.

His muscles felt so weak he could barely stand, his throat hurt from coughing so hardly, and his stomach could barely keep water down, let alone fresh-kill. Rookfire hated feeling so... weak, powerless. He knew herbs, for moon's sake, so how can he not treat this illness? But when it came to that, neither he nor ShadowClan's current medicine cats could figure out a solution to the sickness. And now everyone had it, or at least the vast majority of ShadowClan cats had it, which left the clan as a whole crippled.

And somehow, he got the worst of it.

Perhaps it was because he was the oldest cat in the clan - but before the sickness, it really didn't feel like he was. And some other cats in ShadowClan - many of them younger than him - had similar symptoms. What kind of curse is this?

He hated it. He wished it could go away. But it stayed, like quills of a porcupine, hooking into the fur and never letting go.

"How's it going, dad?"

Rookfire turned up at the voice of his son. At least Poppycloud was strong enough to help out - for now. He let out a cough, small red specks dropping on the ground. It was... a relief, whenever he could cough like that. He knew it was bad for him, but he also knew he couldn't hold the cough, either. "Still coughing blood, so not great," he replied. "Don't forget to take caution spreading... whatever this is. Still got no cure yet."

"Gotcha." Poppycloud was always a good listener - which was both good and bad at times. Good for right now, since it was important for him to listen right now. But sometimes, Rookfire worried that he listened too well, like he had no beliefs of his own and instead changed his opinions based on what Rookfire thought and said. Stars, I hope Marshmallow didn't start that.

He always had that doubt of the former ShadowClan she-cat, even when she was nice to him and her kits, just from the tidbit of advice he got from his late friend Mistyfalcon. He didn't like doubting his clanmates, but he also didn't think that she cared about him, so he tried keeping a layer of distance between him and her. His kits were beautiful cats, though, and his relationship with Marshmallow wouldn't change that.

Poppycloud coughed onto the ground, keeping his maw to the ground before standing back up again. "Do you think... you and Sunflare are gonna be okay?"

Honestly, with all the pain he was in? He felt... awful, like StarClan itself was preparing to bring him to the stars. It seemed impossible for him to survive this right now. "Hopefully," he replied. Hopefully... we'll recover, and ShadowClan will be alright.

But it's way too early to think about that.

"If there's anything I can do to help... please tell me." Poppycloud said. "I'm alright. It hasn't affected me as badly."

Rookfire smiled. "First things first, make sure you rest yourself when you're not hunting or patrolling. ShadowClan needs-" Another whooping cough took over the black tuxedo's body, adding a couple drops of blood to the medicine den. "ShadowClan needs warriors. So stay healthy." That was all he could say. "I'm gonna do the same and sleep." Turning over, the black tuxedo tucked his nose under his tail.

StarClan, please help us. I'm begging you.