Azure eyes studying the older warrior for a moment, Darkfall nodded. He had noticed that the she-cat’s eyes seemed to wander along his injuries, but decided to pay it no mind. The thought that she may be pitying him did cross his mind for a moment, but maybe she really did need an extra set of paws to help out. Regardless, he was going to use this opportunity to appreciate the consideration. The dark-furred tom wouldn’t admit to this of course, his pride wouldn’t allow him to do so. As a result, he just offered a slight smile - little more than a twitch of his lips and a wiggle of his whiskers to Woollyfeather.
Fighting the urge to scratch at his face, Darkfall then turned and began the task he had seen his partner doing moments before. ”Let me help with these,” he offered warmly while pushing some of the larger sticks out of the way.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to concentrate on his task for long because a sudden scream pierced the air. Head swiveling to the direction of the sound, Darkfall went sprinting towards it as fast as he could (though it looked more like he was running a solo three-legged race due to the limp). He didn’t even have time to think, his body moved on its own.
As he went in the direction, he saw a shape bolt past him yelling for ”Woolly” to help. ”What in StarClan’s green forest…?” he wondered as he began to slow down. To be honest, the tom was befuddled. Absolutely perplexe. Was that Hawkbite? What could possibly have him running away in such a manner? Did that scream belong to him too? Proceeding with caution now, Darkfall carefully limped in the direction the new enforcer had come from.
As he walked forward, Darkfall heard a familiar, yet hushed voice calling out. ’Larkfire!’ he thought and once again picked up his pace. The two of them weren’t exactly talking right now, but that didn’t mean he could just leave her! What if the scream was hers? Was she alright?? What was going on??
Limping to the area where he thought he heard the sound, Darkfall glanced around. Where was she? He could’ve sworn that he heard Larkfire’s voice somewhere around here and it was hard to pick up her scent amongst the smell of the rotting dead. His attention was drawn to a hole in the ground with recently upturned earth. Carefully approaching the edge, Darkfall peeked inside. There she was! Bleeding and stuck. [B]”Larky! Are you okay? Wait right there, I'm going to help you out!” He called to her.
[pp permission granted by @/Rose]
Crouching down to in an attempt to lift her out by her scruff, Darkfall started sliding in too. Flailing his paws with an unceremonious exclamation of “Ahhh!”, he fell right into the hole with an “oomf”. Groaning uncomfortably, he began to get up only to realize that what he landed on had a soft and lithe shape to it. Looking down, he realized he had landed right on top of Larkfire and found himself looking right into her amber eyes. Dumbfounded for a moment, he just stared at the she-cat, blinking and gaping stupidly. His heart felt like it’d beat out of his chest and his head was spinning. What was this situation!? ”Umm… Hello there Larky. I’m sorry about this, I definitely didn’t mean to land on you. Is your shoulder okay…? I hope I didn’t make it worse… but uh… actually.y'know what? First I’ll help get you out in a mome-“ the black tom’s rambling was cut short when his gaze was drawn to the corpse next to them.
”Sweet mother in StarClan…” the dark tabby gasped, was that Daypaw? And the smell! The rotting corpse smelled absolutely terrible and was nearly enough to make him gag. Of course… he held it in. If he threw up on Larkfire, he had a feeling that the young enforcer would never forgive him and he would never be able to face her after that. ”Let’s… get you out of here…” he said cautiously, starting to slowly lift himself off of the she-cat. The two of them were right next her brother’s corpse and Darkfall knew all to well how much she cared for the Turkish Angora and if he found himself next to his mother’s or one of his sibling’s bodies, he’d probably have frozen up out of shock.
When she'd asked for help, she hadn't meant for said help to land on top of her. Larkfire let out an angry hiss, amber hues snapping up -- and locking into Darkfall's vivid blue ones. She was speechless for a moment, realizing that they were much too close and her traitor of a heart had seemed to lurch sideways. With shock, obviously. Shock, that was it. "My name isn't Larky." The molly hissed lowly, and then realized that wasn't of importance at the moment. "Nevermind." She growled, cringing as pain lanced up her limb.
"Would very much like to get out of here." Larkfire said, tone salty. The corpse of her dead brother was beside her, the cat she'd once thought she'd loved had just flattened her to the ground, and her shoulder was bleeding quite profusely. What a day.
Darkfall visibly flinched. ”My name isn’t Larky” She had hissed at him. That was right. How could he forget? He was being overly familiar with her despite largely being absent for the last couple of moons. ”Yes of course… my bad Larkfire,” the large tom apologized, looking away dejectedly.
Silently nodding, Darkfall untangled himself from the young enforcer and surveyed the whole they had fallen into. The hole itself wasn’t particularly deep, it was just the ground around it had given way and that was what had led them in. Turning his azure gaze back to Larkfire, Darkfall frowned. Her shoulder looked really bad, and he was worried that he could potentially cause worse damage to it. UGH! Why was this so complicated!? Letting out a growl of frustration, the slightly older tom mumbled a stream of colorful curses and obscenities.
Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention back to Larkfire. ”Alright, this might hurt. Like a lot but I ask that you bear with me for a moment,” Darkfall warned ”I’ll get you out of here.” and with that, he reached down and grabbed Larkfire by her scruff. Beginning to lift the smaller cat, he could feel the wounds on his face and ear stretching and straining against the pressure. Grimacing slightly, he put his front paws on a solid foundation of earth and began to heave the two of them up. A sharp pain shot up his injured leg and he let out a muffled yelp of pain before shakily pulling them out of the grave. Carefully dragging Larkfire away from where they had fallen, he released her and sat down on his haunches. Great StarClan that hurt! After briefly inspecting his strained paw he looked back down at the cat next to him.
”Are you able to stand?” He asked carefully, ignoring the blood dripping into his right eye from his reopened wounds. Though it had been some time since the two properly conversed, he vividly remembered how stubborn and unyielding she could be. Taking this into mind, he felt that there was a good chance she’d try to play the injury off despite all the blood pouring out of her shoulder.
Dawnstar finished piling dirt on top of the grave she had been working on and turned at the sound of the yowl. She caught sight of Hawkbite screeching like a loon and running around with spiders attached to him. It seemed like a Woollyfeather problem. His antics caught a whole new bout of chaos as caught sight of Larkfire stumbling into a grave. It seemed like Darkfall was already moving to help her. So the clan leader left it alone. She moved on to the next grave, the vile emotions building within, as she carefully thrust her front paw into the earth to make room for the dislocated body. There were bones scattered around the grave, some of the broken and cracked.
Once she had most of the unearthed mud from the old grave, she began pulling the bones back into the hole, ignoring the strain it caught on her healing wounds. It was funny how she came to this grave to talk to bones now that she thought it. Even though it brought her a sense of relief she was swiftly reminded that the dead never responded when she spoke, and just how alone she truly was.
What would you think of me now, mother? Dawnstar chuckled as she peered that the large skull in front of her right before she pushed it not the grave alongside the rest of the decomposing remains. The leader began piling on the dirt over the grave, although paused mid-paw swipe as her sensitive nose caught the scent of blood.
She shook some straight dirt attached to her ear while glancing around in hopes of locating the scent. It was all that hard to locate Darkfall with Larkfire, it seemed like the warrior had successfully pulled Larkfire out of the grave she had fallen in. Yet, it appeared both were sporting injuries. Larkfire especially. "Larkfire, what did you do to your shoulder?" Dawnstar huffed tiredly as she marched over to the pair, leaving her grave behind.
"And you look like you've torn open healing wounds." Dawnstar shifted her intense amber gaze over to Darkfall. She didn't have the energy to scold them for whatever foolishness caused this. "You're not working with open wounds, and that shoulder looks bad. Help each other get to Elmshadow and then go rest."
Woollyfeather gave a grateful mrrp as Darkfall began helping her with a nearby pile of sticks. She'd trotted over to assist him remove the tangle, which a harrowing howl broke through any thoughts she might have had.
With a feeling of panic, she turned back to where the sound was, Darkfall was already running in the direction.
Dropping the twigs in her mouth, she followed after the younger warrior. Her steps faltered as he passed Hawkbite, as her friend darted her way, shrieking. Calling for her.
She darted forward to catch the brown tabby one of the last few times he tripped over his paws. This kind of fear wasn't something she was used to seeing from her friend, and there was a prickle of fear that accompanied her concern. "What's wrong? What happened?"
She craned her neck to look where he'd come from, eyes scanning for whatever could have caused such a reaction. Had they missed some of the dogs, or had her waiting to bring a group to clean allowed something else to make a home in their graveyard.
Woollyfeather was somewhat aware that Larkfire and Darkfall had fallen into a grave and that Dawnstar had ordered them to seek medical attention, but focused on trying to find whatever had spooked Hawkbite.
After a moment, she saw the little spider that had managed to attach itself to his pelt. She reach a paw put and scooped it onto her own paw before squishing it onto the ground. "..... Was it the spider, dear?"
She had to keep herself from laughing at how silly the situation was. She had gotten worked up over some silly little spiders.
Profile picture drawn by Rani and used with permission
Add me on PokémonGo: K9WVBVJYJ
While I do not (currently) have any cats in the Clan's, I try to have at least a few role plays with my outsiders (Sedgestorm, Woollyfeather) and my StarClanner Coldamber. Most of my role plays until I feel well enough to keep up with sweeps will be related to Covenant of the Sky duties.
He was grateful for the attempted catch, but Hawkbite ended up just flopping on the ground close to Woollyfeather. His heart was pounding in his chest so hard, the Enforcer could swear the warrior might be able to hear it. He merely offered an exasperated nod and sigh as she confirmed his fear. The threat was taken care of though, he'd gotten away.
Eventually, the tom would rise to his paws and give his pelt a shake. His gaze would shift over the chaos he started, seeing two cats leaving due to some injuries. The embarrassment heated his ears. "Ahah... sorry. I just- the spider was SO big," He spoke, looking towards the grave he was working on. "I- I will get back to work and hopefully that massive monster is gone," His tail was lashing with embarrassment.
Just as simple as that, Hawkbite offered her an uneasy smile before padding warily back towards the grave. Thanks to him, he'd have more work to do since Larkfire needed to leave. Thankfully there weren't too many more graves left.
Larkfire
She/Her | Shadow Fiend & Beefed Up (T1) Purrk
Darkfall got her out. Out of Daypaw's grave, and that was that. Grinding her teeth together to keep from hitting him upside the head for moving her when her shoulder was aching so bad, Larkfire mentally tried to keep arguing with herself that there was no other choice. Her heart was running at an odd pace by the time she got out, seeming to sympathize with the pain her whole body was feeling.
"Thank you," She said in a breathy voice -- eventually when the sky didn't look like a rippling pool of water and Larkfire was focused enough not to throw up on her former best friend. Her gaze flicked up with surprise at the sound of Dawnstar's familiar timbre. She opened her mouth to say something - to say that technically she had done nothing to her shoulder, that it'dgotten injured all by itself, and then realized that was pointless. To be frank, being a smartass about hurting yourself was probably not the right thing to do.
The youngest enforcer cast a glance in Hawkbite's direction, watching him work with a peculiar expression. Hadn't he just been yelling his head off about something? Surely she hadn't imagined that? Letting out a wordless grunt, Larkfire tentatively tipped to the side, wondering how much pressure she could put on her aching front limb. She waited a beat at most, letting herself adjust to the protesting fire in her veins before moving on.
Moving on, as in, she muttered an; "Okay." to the leader that sounded way too petulant for her liking and then started shuffle-limping away, glancing once over her shoulder for Darkfall. Unintentionally, of course. She didn't care if he followed or stayed, duh.
Grunting what sounded like a “You’re welcome” in response to Larkfire’s thanks, Darkfall’s ears flicked toward the sound of approaching footsteps and saw the large form of the leader approaching. Meeting the she-cat’s gaze when she turned to him, the tom opened his mouth to protest, but quickly changed his mind and nodded silently.
Truth be told, Darkfall didn’t feel like it was okay for him to just leave the way things were. His injuries would close up eventually and he couldn’t even feel the stinging from his face at the moment. If it were anyone else, he might have argued that he was fine but because it was Dawnstar he was dealing with, he knew any effort arguing would be wasted. Additionally, he knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to go grave diving with open wounds all over his face. He could already imagining the aloof medicine cat giving him an earful if his injuries were to be infected due to his negligence.
Feeling a frown starting to creep its way onto his face, he forced his features into neutrality. Just what in the world had caused Hawkbite to react the way he did? This was all his fault and he was just over there hanging out with Woollyfeather while Larkfire was all injured. UGH, this was frustrating.
It wasn’t long after he had that thought that he realized Larkfire had already begun walking away and was looking back at him, presumably to see if he was following. Turning back towards Dawnstar, he dipped his head ”You can count on me to make sure she gets to the camp and looked at safely,” the tom promised before quickly limping off after his former best friend. As he got beside her he whispered so as not to be overheard by anyone else ”Go ahead and lean on me so you’re not putting so much pressure on that leg.” He said this but he himself wasn’t that much better off, but he tried not to let that show by giving her one of his signature toothy grins (mind you, blood is still leaking into one of his eyes) and trying to walk without limping as much as possible.
The Enforcer nodded at Woollyfeather's directions, quietly moving off to work. She was so focused on her work that when something fell on her she jumped, fur spiked and eyes wide.
Glancing up, Vixensnarl couldn't figure out what dropped the small twig on her. With a huff she forced the fur along her spine to lay flat, briefly glancing around to make sure no one had seen before going back to her duty.
Re: Healing The Grove [Moonlit Grove Restoration]
