The seaspray glimmered in Rainflutter's long, grey fur as she stood on the cliffside, her back to the bright harvest moon. What's happened to him? she thought. Shouldn't he be here by now?

She swished her plumy tail across the grasses, fighting back her fear. Doesn't he realize what'll happen to TideClan without the cure?

A faint sound came from one of the the sparsely placed trees, and she flinched, before taking in a deep breath. I'm much too jumpy. It was just a bird.

But she hadn't eaten since she'd left camp... Had it been three days? Four? Rainflutter stalked towards the tree the sound had come from, carefully picking her way through the fallen leaves so as not to alert the bird.

She squinted up at the tree, searching for the bird. There was nothing there. But another sound came instead, raspy breathing.

A sick feeling crept over her, and she slowly pushed back the leaves in front of her. Bubblepaw's pale blue eyes met hers, wide and terrified.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, panting. "I tried. But they- they wouldn't give it to me-"

"Bubblepaw!" Rainflutter interrupted, brushing more leaves off her apprentice. "What happened? Are- are you hurt?"

"No," he mumbled, but Rainflutter could see him shivering. "But you need to leave me. I'm- I'm sick."

"What?" Rainflutter shook her head desperately. "No, no, no, no. How?"

"It doesn't matter how! Nothing matters!" Bubblepaw snarled, looking more miserable than she'd ever seen him. "The Clan is doomed. I am doomed. There's no cure. We can't get it. And you need to leave me before you get it!" A tiny whimper escaped him at the last part.

Rainflutter stared down at him, taking one last look at his ruffled grey and white pelt and his pleading blue eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'll come back for you. With a cure."

"Just go," Bubblepaw repeated, more softly this time. Rainflutter nodded, fighting the urge to lick him on the head and curl up beside him, and bounded away.

The hard, crumbly ground beat against her paws as she ran. They had to still be there. They had to. She didn't stop to catch her breath. She couldn't afford to.

Rainflutter knew she must have been running for hours, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't- her slugbrained, treacherous paw stumbled on a rock and she fell to the ground.

But she had to get up, she had to keep going. She stubbornly shoved herself up and kept running, her swollen paw held up.

Finally she could see it in the distance. The opening to the cavern. She ran faster, shoving more strength into her exhausted body. She was so close. The cavern got bigger and bigger until she was standing in front of it, panting.

"Hello?" Rainflutter gasped as the sunhigh light faded gradually behind her. "Guardians of the cure?" A pool of water shone in the middle of the cave, and she approached cautiously. "Guardians? Are you here?"

Bubbles popped up at the surface of the water, and she could see now that it was glowing because of the algae that clung to the sides. A fish was swimming in lazy circles around the pool.

"Is the algae the cure? Or the fish?" Rainflutter stuck her paw into the water, and the fish exploded to twice its size, spikes shooting out of it.

She yelped and jumped back, staring down at the fish with wide eyes. Was this a sign? Was TideClan just doomed, like Bubblepaw had said? No. It couldn't be. But the algae didn't seem like a cure, either.

If only Pearlso- she stopped herself. Pearlsong was gone. There was no point wasting time, she had to do something. Rainflutter sneezed. Oh, no. No, no, no... She tried to get up, to run back to her Clan, but she was suddenly so tired. And weak. And cold. Rainflutter lay on the ground in the cave, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the faint, familiar sound of crashing waves in the distance. She had failed Bubblepaw. She had failed her Clan.

628 words without the prompt.