Settled between the nursery and apprentices' den, and large enough to hold several warriors, the healers themselves, and the herb storage—the medicine den shelters under the roots of an old, sprawling tree and stretches under the earth itself. The stream that runs through the middle of camp circles through the main portion of the den.
Trying to even out unsteady raspy breaths, Crackle'paw shoved himself in to the Medicine den. The many cuts along his torso stung to high heaven, but being the brave and fearless cat that he was, he didn't dare show it. The golden pair of eyes flashed paranoid looks around the den before stomping himself all the way inside. Shaking out the white pelt that was now streaked in blood, the sinewy apprentice announced his presence. "Medicine cat! I demand your assistance! " The rough voice ended in a few signature coughs, before he plopped down onto the ground; blood stained paws impatiently clawing at the ground.
// I'm sure if should mention anyone lol \\
__________________
" Death is not mercurial. It's patient... unlike life."
Trying to even out unsteady raspy breaths, Crackle'paw shoved himself in to the Medicine den. The many cuts along his torso stung to high heaven, but being the brave and fearless cat that he was, he didn't dare show it. The golden pair of eyes flashed paranoid looks around the den before stomping himself all the way inside. Shaking out the white pelt that was now streaked in blood, the sinewy apprentice announced his presence. "Medicine cat! I demand your assistance! " The rough voice ended in a few signature coughs, before he plopped down onto the ground; blood stained paws impatiently clawing at the ground.
// I'm sure if should mention anyone lol \\
This new medicine den felt... Emptier. Even after the apprentice had taken the liberty of decorating it, hanging moss between the entrance that lay between the main and quarantine part of the den, it still felt empty. The whole camp felt empty, actually.
But Cinderpaw didn't have the time to really dwell on that right now. Especially not when the pale form of an apprentice burst into the den, fur very noticeably stained with blood. The tabby's face turned grave, rushing to steady Cracklepaw should the wounds be severe enough to make him collapse.
"Let's lie down. What or who did this to you?" She asked, urgency lacing her voice. She attempted to guide the young tom to a nest where he'd hopefully rest, and disappeared past the moss curtains for a moment to gather what she needed - marigold, and a couple cobwebs that Gentledoe and Spiderthroat had brought back.
Beginning to chew the plant into a poultice, like she'd done with Ospreypaw before, she began examining the troublesome tom's injuries. The one above the eye seemed to be the worst.
Was she wrong in thinking this was from a fight? He was definitely something of a provoker - Cinderpaw had heard the things he'd said to Winterpaw, after all. Him getting into a scrap with a denmate definitely wouldn't be beyond belief. Still, she remained silent as she moved to spread the poultice across the gash carved in his forehead.
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.
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.
"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.
The first place they went to look, blue eyes scanning even deeper as they went further into the dena Ms even in the herbstorage in case Rainfall was hiding back there. When the warrior could locate them in the den, they exited and moved onto the next spot of their search for Rainfall.
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❝ You drew the first blood
Like playin' God
Closin' the doors up
While I'm fed to the dogs ❞
The medicine den felt like an old friend to Roseraven. She hadn't realized how much she missed this place. The herby smell was strong but nostalgic. But she could not allow herself to linger. The adrenalin was wearing off, and she needed to do as much as she could before breaking down.
The young cat made a B-line for the herb storage, with brisk steps. Some of the plants were a bit stale but they would do. It seemed they were a bit low on borage and burnet, and had no dock leaves, though admittedly those were optional.
The tabby grabbed a wad of moss and dipped it in the medicine den stream. She walked over stiffly to Spiderthroat and began dabbing up the wounds on his pelt. If he were to protest she would just glare at him. She wasn't sure why he was wounded. He was a violent ruffian, maybe he was out fighting people for no reason.
The she-cat's paws worked fast, with medical precision. After cleaning up his wounds, she added some marigold and closed them up with cobwebs.
"Done. Do you feel like going out to get some herbs or would you rather I wait for you to feel better." she asked with an even tone.
The Calico watched as the stand in medicine cat patched him up. Ears twitching, a million questions running through his mind. Much like 'why are you so dramatic?' and 'why's that smell a little bitter.' and 'did I properly bury the body?' The things that most cats think about on a day to day basis.
"So. You wanna tell me what the yellow flower does or do we want me to mess around and find out?" he asked as he looked down at where it was wrapped.
Than she asked about herbs, and the Warrior lifted his head. "I can send em out, I've had enough outings for the day. Thanks for the patchup." he chuffed.
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"Without worrying about our appearance, let's conclude today."
Spiderthroat is the Deputy of ThunderClan
|| Site || ToyHouse ||
But these fingers and these palms
Full of love despite the scars
They show indisputably I have so much more to grow
Oh, I can change, I can evolve
I can get up when I fall
I'll live contentedly, I don't need a reason why
Standing tall and standing strong
I have found where I belong
In the arms of somebody, there is no more need to cry
The Calico watched as the stand in medicine cat patched him up. Ears twitching, a million questions running through his mind. Much like 'why are you so dramatic?' and 'why's that smell a little bitter.' and 'did I properly bury the body?' The things that most cats think about on a day to day basis.
"So. You wanna tell me what the yellow flower does or do we want me to mess around and find out?" he asked as he looked down at where it was wrapped.
Than she asked about herbs, and the Warrior lifted his head. "I can send em out, I've had enough outings for the day. Thanks for the patchup." he chuffed.
Roseraven was happy to at least be a bit useful. She was surprised that she'd been able to slip into the routine of healing. She thought she'd never heal again. It was nice. But it would end eventually. It would be good for others to know how too.
"It's marigold. You mush it up and put it over wounds to prevent or heal infection." she explained.
"I didn't think it we were low enough on herbs for a full patrol, but I suppose it would be good anyway. Very well, we'll need borage, burnet, cobwebs and dock leaves." she declared coldly.
Bumblestar hadn't visited this den yet following the rebuilding, but there was always a first for everything. Following the meeting, she had lingered back to give the new healers space, but she was bored now, and now was really as good a time as any. The cream and brown tabby side-stepped the stream that trickled into the opening and poked her head inside, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light.
"Yo, Drizzlecloud, Springpaw. You guys good to have that chat right now?"
ThunderClan Medicine Cat's Den
Re: ThunderClan Medicine Cat's Den
