Heal what has been hurt

[Moonraven]

It was a strenuous walk from the border back to WindClan, Twistedpaw wasn't heavy, but she was deadweight on his back. Batglare was silent due to the rabbit clamped within his muzzle. She had insisted they bring it, so how could he leave it behind? The brown and white senior warrior ignored how he could feel her wet blood sinking into his pelt. Guilt washed over Batglare like an ocean tide as he walked back to camp as quickly as his paws could carry him without jostling Twistedpaw.

Crossing the prairie and reaching the hillside that led to the plateau, he walked past the dens and headed straight to the Galewood, splitting up from Swiftfire as he went towards the back and Swiftfire straight to Twilightstar's den. He knew the leader would be furious with RiverClan after their recent invasion and the loss of Fallownose, but that was her problem to deal with now.

Walking around the back of the tree and finding the opening hidden behind ferns, Batglare lowered himself closely to the ground and carefully inched his way into Lightningstorm's den. It was a struggle to avoid bumping Twistedpaw into anything, but he made it inside without hassle.

Dropping the rabbit in his maw, he walked over to a nearby burrow and carefully worked on setting Twistedpaw down, trying to keep her from feeling more pain, but he was sure any movement hurt. Warriors were the ones who often suffered wounds like this, not apprentices who accidentally misplaced their paws. RiverClan truly had gone too far with this.

He didn't go far but did move out of the way for Lightningstorm as soon as he heard the paw steps. "She accidentally crossed into RiverClan's territory while hunting. Some warriors caught her and attacked her. I wasn't watching her as well as I should have." He briefed the medicine cat miserably. It's been a long time since Batglare's failed one of his apprentices like this. He hoped Twilightstar had some form of punishment in mind, otherwise he'd have to find one for himself.

He should have gone with his gut instinct and stayed on her. RiverClan should not have reacted so meanly towards an apprentice, but he should not have allowed her to go anywhere without him. He had trusted Swiftfire to hunt with her and he shouldn't have. He hadn't expected the warrior to leave her to hunt alone after Swiftfire complained about hunting in pairs. He wouldn't forgive Swiftfire for playing her part in this disaster, but most of the blame was his. She was his to protect and teach.

"Will she be alright?" He questioned Lightnintstorm without taking his gaze from Twistedpaw. He'd probably had to deal with the mental and emotional repercussions, but physically Lightningstorm was the best to ask about it.
@Alchemist Kitsune [Lightningstorm] | @TheNyanCatMinecart [Twistedpaw]
[Hopes this works]

[TheNyanCatMinecart]

(Twistedpaw is unconscious atm, but I'll make a quick post to acknowledge her presence!)

~ TWISTEDPAW OF WINDCLAN - AFAB SHE/HER ~

Small, skinny, black she-cat with a light gray belly and tail-tip, a crooked jaw, a mangled tail, and one blind eye.

Everything hurt.

When Twistedpaw had been lifted onto Batglare's back, disillusioned and only able to comprehend three things - her mentor, the rabbit, and RiverClan - her wounds, particularly the deep gashes in her stomach, had screamed at the top of their lungs. But exhaustion forced stones into her windpipes and dragged her toward lapping black waves. All she could manage was a faint groan. It paled in comparison to the burning agony, a mockery of the raging wounds that cloyed the air with a metallic stench.

It only got worse as Batglare walked. Each pawstep felt like claws of fire shoved into her flesh. Twistedpaw had cried out, but her voice quickly faded as the colors of the world dulled and blurred to a blackish mess. Even the faintest of whimpers had faded to a whisper on the breeze, then an empty void. The only sign of her pain were the hot tears that trickled from her eyes.

Rabbit... Batglare had grabbed it, and that offered some relief. But now it was getting difficult to tell what was real and what wasn't. The apprentice's world was fading and growing colder as the warmth seeped out of her body in a scarlet wave. Her mind reeled. Nothing felt right. The world was disintegrating.

Then a miracle occurred. The pain began to fade into a dull ache. And even that began to disappear. A faint buzzing sound assaulted her ears, but that was okay because it didn't hurt anymore. And oh, the darkness... it promised the comfort of sleep and easy dreams.

Twistedpaw let herself drift away.

By the time Batglare reached Lightningstorm's den, she was nothing more than a limp heap on his impressive back. Her black fur was matted and stained with dark red; some spots were fresh, while others were beginning to turn rusty. Her crooked jaw dangled in a disturbing manner; her mangled tail looked very strange as it encircled her. She was a deadweight. However, she still breathed, albeit faintly, and there was no blood coming from her nose and mouth. A good sign to show that she was still alive - albeit severely wounded.

@Alchemist Kitsune @Moonraven

[Alchemist Kitsune]

| Lightningstorm |
Flock Together [Tier 3] - Inactive | Mind Reader - Active

---

The acrid taste of blood had wafted into her mouth before she had heard them. It was such a constant in her life, yet it never failed to alarm her. In an instant, she was gathering supplies, grateful that she had taken up sleeping in front of the herb storage once more. It was uncomfortable, and provided for many an unrestful night, but it served its purpose. Not another case of poisoning had taken over the clan. Not that it should. She allowed no death berries into her storage. No strange weeds she knew nothing about. But she knew WindClan was fickle. Eager to kill their own for purposes unknown. If she was to be blamed for a death, she would prefer to be in the knowledge she had done all that she possibly could.

Her mouth filled with herbs she would no doubt need, Lightningstorm rushed to the entrance, meeting Batglare face to face, a cat she had dealt with recently. It was instantly clear that he was not the injured party this time around, but much like her first mentor, the warrior wasted little time with words. Concise and to the point, the medicine cat found herself frowning at his explanation. An apprentice accidentally crossing the border should not result in such brutality. This had not been a fight. This had been torture. A simple execution of cruelty for cruelty's sake. It never failed to surprise her just how capable of destruction warriors were, the irony of how it was the ones the medicine cats' could not save the only lives that seemed to be remembered by the savage rats not lost to her.

"She's out like the bloody night right now. If you hadn't told me this was done by cats, I would have thought we had bigger problems than the minks in our paws," the healer stated bluntly, twitching her tail to guide the tom through the burrows to a nest. She didn't want this apprentice moved once she was done tending to her wounds.

Once inside one of the patient nests, Lightningstorm got to work, cleaning the injuries on the battered molly. Her dark fur was matted with blood, especially on the side of her face, her ear so in tatters she couldn't make it out through the mess made there. If Twilightstar had been angry at RiverClan before, the clan was certainly making sure that they remained enemies for some nice, long time. The water soaked moss she had brought along soon more red than green, the medicine cat turned her attention to her herbs. With her patient unconscious, there would be no need for poppy seeds yet. The risk lay in making those injuries heal as soon as possible. Especially her tail. Familiar as the calico was with the fact that Twistedpaw had been cruelly named for her tail, the Abyssinian mix was far more used to seeing broken limbs, and the few breaks in them were... concerning to say the least.

"It's not my place to ask why she was not informed of the borders before the hunt if it was her first time there, or how exactly she was left alone. But I will have to report this incident to Twilightstar if no one else has already, and I'll expect she'll have questions regarding... well... all of it. Right bloody mess, too, innit?" she mewed, mashing mushrooms together before pressing them to Twistedpaw's flank, eager to stop the bleeding on that gash as she tended to the rest of the wounds littering her body. "Hard to tell, but her tail seems to be broken in multiple segments. Considering the state of her tail prior to this, I am not sure how much I can do to help it, but I will be using broom to help fix the bones as much as possible. Ears don't quite grow back either, far as I know, but she's lucky. The bleeding seems to be all on the outside, so her hearing shouldn't be affected as terribly as it would first appear."

A somewhat relieved sigh escaping her, Lightningstorm began making a broom poultice, her paws kneading away until the concoction was nice and mushed up. Gratefully, the herbs were still left over from her last patrols sent. She wasn't certain they would be in season anymore, having picked them up just as they were wilting. Water and a deft paw worked wonders to bring out the medicinal properties she so desired, however, and carefully, she was soon lathering up the portions of her tail that seemed freshly swollen. While she would usually have attempted to use sticks in an attempt to straighten the limb, she wasn't sure if that would be possible here... not to mention she had no sticks. Patrols tended to assume the sticks weren't an important part of her medicinal stock and simply refused to bring them time and time again. Perhaps next time she left to go hunting she could look for some herself, but for now, moss would have to do.

"Only time will tell," the calico mewed, continuing her conversation from before as she wrapped the segments of the apprentice's tail before moving on to her ear. "Whether she lives or dies. She's lost a lot of blood. I'll have to keep her under observation for at least a few days, just to make sure. I'll wrap her wounds and medicate them best I can, but they really roughed her up."

Her far too earnest words almost brought the memory of Cowtuft's look of disapproval to mind, the patched giant's preference for softer, kinder treatment of his patients easily clashing with Lightninstorm's knack of honesty. The spotted lass certainly had a soft spot when it came to kits. The rare good warrior who had simply been caught in the crossfires of a bad attack in an attempt to protect someone else. But Batglare was healthy. He was fine. And Twistedpaw could hardly hear her unconscious as she was. Best let the brown and white tom how dire the situation is than give false hopes and have everyone pay the price afterwards, including herself. Besides, gentle words and politeness had given him nothing more than exile. The warriors were quick to forget any goodwill thrown their way, eager to kill at the first chance. Why bother wasting the energy in kindliness that would never be reciprocated in the first place?

Ear patched and lathered with poultice, the cobwebs attached to her skull to keep her from scratching the area and causing more damage, the healer turned to the apprentice's flayed flank instead. The mushrooms had soaked up the blood, helping stem the flow now. Another sigh of relief escaping her, the pale tortoiseshell worked swiftly. Paws deft and expert at patching wounds from a young age, she brought a poultice made from goldenrod to the molly's injuries. An herb especially good at keeping injuries both clean and help them heal faster, she preferred to use these only in emergencies. As it was, she could hardly think of a more pressing matter than Twistedpaw's near open belly. Once that was applied, she covered it up with more cobwebs, knowing she would need to keep an eye on it for some time. Guess she wasn't sleeping tonight much... huh?

"That's as much as I can do," she mewed, the long work patching up the injuries done. "Everything else is up to time... And StarClan, I suppose. If they can be bothered to give a rat's arse."

---

@Moonraven [Batglare] | @TheNyanCatMinecart [Twistedpaw]
| This healing thread is considered complete. Because Twistedpaw is unconscious, I had Lightningstorm work on her swiftly as we had discussed. There is no need to continue here unless someone wishes to move this roleplay along into personal roleplay territory? By this point in the public roleplay I would say that Twistedpaw's injuries should be almost completely healed. Perhaps a bit of pain, but most should be almost fully scarred over and her tail should be as healed as it could get considering the lack of a splint! |