Quote:
Originally Posted by Leafí
v-Crackle-paw-v
Annoyance burning his pelt more than the bloody cuts, Crackle'paw bit back a hiss of defiance. The medicine cats guidance was unwanted, so he jerked away from the shoulder that attempted to assist him. " Gah! I'm fully capable of walking there myself! " he snapped the words a bit more bitterly than expected. He wasn't a cripple! He had his own legs, and he certainly didn't need to be coddled like some child! Huffing out a growl he followed Cinder'paw to a nest and took a seat.
Flicking his whip like tail over his paws, the apprentice flattened his large ears in response to the question. Should he tell her the truth? Would she snitch on his actions? Now that he thought of it... Yes she most certainly would tell everyone, and then he'd be in deep trouble. Not wanting to let his guard down, he automatically snapped out a quick response " Nothing of your concern! Stick to your job and let me be!" hunching his shoulders, he was amply aware of how defensive he sounded. All the more suspicious to someone who was looking for answers. Answers that he wasn't willing to give fully. Regaining his composer, Crackle'paw winced as she slathered the weird looking slop into his cut. He once again bit back an aggressive snarl by clenching his jaw firmly.
Letting the silence slide by for a few more heartbeats he opened his mouth and restated his answer, " But, if you must know, I got into a fight with a... Rogue.."Yup it was definitely a rogue. " They crossed our border and became a problem, so being the warrior that I am," he stated proudly " I removed the problem." A small smile that wavered on the edge of pure insanity and quiet humor, formed across his maw. " You needn't worry about it though, they won't come back. Ever." A soft giggling rolled in his throat as the memories of whatever happened replayed in his mind. He had technically told the truth... He just twisted it ever so slightly to fit his needs. As far as he was concerned this dim wit didn't need to know about his personal business, she could stick to her own business. And that was tending to theses wretched wounds.
// @littlelove \\ |
"Alright, alright. Simmer down, would 'ya?" He was... certainly a spicy one, wasn't he? Still, Cinderpaw refused to let up on her questioning - Even if the tom smelt mostly like Thunderclan, something so faint it was almost unrecognizable clung to his pelt. She took a few moments during his recount of his story to analyze it.
As she applied cobwebs to the wound over his eye, it clicked.
"You know, you aren't supposed to be out alone, let alone by Shadowclan border." Cinderpaw normally wouldn't particularly care, but bouncing around by their border with them was no joke at this point, not after Dawnpaw. Still, the information was troubling. She knew their border markings were probably weak thanks to the whole... camp getting swallowed by the earth thing, but
nobody caught a rogue until an apprentice did? Stars. She continued in applying the ointment and pasting cobwebs over the smaller wounds.
"I'll be letting Thrush-- star know to do something about all of that."
"You won't be steppin' a paw out of camp until all of this--" She paused, to gesture at the wounds across his back and face that she was almost done bandaging.
"--is healed. You hear me?"
Besides the fact she doubted he would give the wounds time to heal judging his personality, the way he spoke about...
removing the rogue made something within her feel... off. It wasn't his job to be running rogues off the territory anyway, and she'd train him personally if he felt being confined to camp was halting his training. Some of these kids just needed an eye kept on them, because of all they'd experienced.
"Aaaaaaand... you're done. Make sure the cobweb over your eye doesn't fall off." She knew how hard it was to get it to stick on faces.
---
It wouldn't stop bleeding. All the scratches and tears along her back had clotted and dried up into scabs thanks to her grooming, but the one along her foreleg hadn't. She lapped at it again, metallic tang of blood against her tongue overwhelming, and pulled back to inspect it again.
Near-instantly, more blood came forth to stain her fur, and she let out an irritated groan. Sure, it wasn't a big deal, but it was annoying to go around bleeding on everything! She'd already dribbled a line of it across the camp clearing, much to her embarrassment. No way was she wasting any herbs on herself either - she'd already used up more moss than she wanted trying to soak it away. Not to mention it was beginning to sting with how many times she'd poked at it in impatience.
In her waiting for it to stop, her mind drifted to what they actually had in stock. They had more cobwebs now, thankfully, more marigold than they'd hopefully need for a while, and... well, Spiderthroat had brought in these bright red flowers. Roses, probably? She'd never heard of any use for them before from Sundust, so she just kind of assumed they'd end up wilting away in the back of their stores.
... She peeked her head through the moss and into the shadows of their new herb stores, and at the crimson flowers. A couple had already fallen off, strewn across the stones and appeared almost like pools of blood in the darkness.
They'd rot away anyway. She wasn't a wasteful cat, most of the time. She was the only one that she could test them on. At least, that's what Cinderpaw said to herself as she dove into the darkness to grab a clump of petals off of the flower head (that was the least thorny part, and she'd like to at least delay the whole "more pain" thing) and pasted a couple onto her wound. Worst case scenario, they didn't work. Well, worst-worst case scenario, they'd actually poison her and die. But she'd never heard about them being toxic, and at least that'd be a
funny way to go.
After a few minutes, she lifted it off of her wound, only to find still-wet blood staining the underside. Dammit.
Could she think for a moment? How many times had she had to use entire petals or leaves before? ...Well, she hadn't been doing this for very long yet, but it was usually that she had to chew them up before they did anything. At least, that's how you used marigold, and that was also a flower, so maybe all flowers worked like that. She didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at flowers, if you could tell. The tabby went to pluck the other half of petals off of the flower's head, leaving it bare.
Making things into a poultice was what she knew best, and as she spread the sweet ointment onto her wound she wondered where her exploratory spirit had gone. Was she still the cat who snuck out of camp and brandished a centipede against her denmates and walked for seasons just to track down some star in the sky?
Probably not, but she was supposed to be. When she scraped the poultice off to find her cut had clotted over, she figured she should try this sort of thing more often.
Maybe she'd try the stem sometime later, much to the chagrin of her mouth. You couldn't have prosperity without suffering, or something.
[ -1 rose ]