Chapter 13:
Rosepaw felt a claw poking in her side.
"Wake up!" Snowbelly mewed. "The patrol is back!"
Rosepaw jumped up and followed Snowbelly to the camp clearing, where cats were pouring out of their dens. The sun hadn't risen yet, but Rosepaw could still see enough in the moonlight. Rosepaw scanned the camp for the returning patrol and spotted them with their tails held high and chests puffed out with pride.
To her left, Snowbelly yowled, "All the cats from the patrol need to come see me!"
Obediently, seven out of the eight cats lined up beside where Rosepaw and Snowbelly had layed the herbs before their nap.
"Dawnstar, you need to let me look at you too!" she ordered. Turning to Rosepaw, Snowbelly ordered, "Send me the worst cats first, and line up the rest in order of urgency."
Rosepaw nodded and scanned the cats as her mentor prepared the herbs. Wingfeather has a long scratch on her flank, but it didn't look very deep. Greyfoot's ear was nicked, but other than that he looked unscathed. Clawfoot was bleeding from a heavy gash in his stomach. "Clawfoot looks pretty bad." she told Snowbelly.
The medicine cat nodded and waved the orange tom over. Rosepaw checked the remaining cats: Jaggedwing had a small scratch on his nose, Sharpeye and Leopardshine looked like they had completely missed the fight, but Rockfall's eye was swollen shut and Dawnstar had a deep gash on her shoulder.
"You need to look at Rockfall and Dawnstar next." she informed her mentor, who grunted her thanks.
"I'm putting a poultice of Marigold on so it won't get infected, and the Marigold will also stop the bleeding." Snowbelly explained, patting on the poultice. She motioned to the Horsetail on the ground beside them. "Chew that up, will you?"
Rosepaw obediently chewed the herb and then deposited it on Clawfoot's still-bleeding stomach.
"Now pat it down and put more cobwebs on top to hold it on." the medicine cat instructed.
She patted the gooey mess onto the tom's stomach and then topped it with a layer of cobweb.
Snowbelly shook two poppy seeds onto a beech leaf and Clawfoot lapped them up. "Straight to bed, and see me as soon as you wake up." she sent the orange tom off and moved on to Dawnstar.
"Please see the other cats first." The ThunderClan leader protested weakly.
"Don't be mouse-brained, Dawnstar." Snowbelly chastised. "You've lost a lot of blood. Rosepaw, chew up some dock and Goldenrod for me." the medicine cat pressed cobwebs onto her leader's deep scratch to stop the leader.
Rosepaw took the bitter herbs in her jaws and chewed, careful not to swallow any of the precious juices. When she finished, she spit the herbs out on Dawnstar's wound. Snowbelly nodded approvingly and placed more cobwebs on top of the poultice.
"Give her one poppy seed for the pain." Snowbelly instructed. "As soon as I treat the rest of the cats, you can make an announcement, Dawnstar. Then straight to bed."
Dawnstar nodded and padded over in front of the Highledge to wait for Snowbelly and Rosepaw to finish.
The medicine cats moved on to Rockfall. Snowbelly poked his eye with her paw.
"Ow!" the grey and black tom protested. "It was Snakefur, he scratched my eye." he complained. "I'd like to give him a scratch he'll remember!"
Snowbelly shook her head grimly. "You might not see out of this eye to do it."
"What!?" Rockfall gasped.
"I'll do everything I can." Snowbelly promised him, while Rosepaw looked on in horror.
How could Snowbelly not be able to fix his eye? It's what medicine cats do, for StarClan's sake! Rosepaw thought. What if one day I'm not good enough?
Snowbelly broke through Rosepaw's thoughts. "Go find some celandine, Rosepaw. It's beside the borage."
"How will I know what it is?" Rosepaw asked.
"It is a yellow flower with four petals." Snowbelly replied impatiently.
Rosepaw raced inside the medicine cat's den. Panting, she tried to remember where the borage was kept. Think. She ordered herself. She remembered that borage had blue star-shaped flowers and fuzzy leaves, and then spotted it immediately. Now, Snowbelly said the celandine had four yellow petals... Rosepaw identified the celandine, picked it up in her jaws, and bolted back to the clearing.
Snowbelly nodded her thanks and popped the herb into her mouth. Once she had chewed it to get the juice out, she deposited it on her paw. Snowbelly rubbed the poultice onto Rockfall's eye, trying to get the juice to seep through his swollen eyelid.
Rosepaw wrapped Rockfall's eye in cobwebs until she was positive the poultice wasn't going anywhere.
"The other cats only need a poultice of dock," Snowbelly mewed. "We can do those by ourselves." the medicine cat padded over to fix up Wingfeather.
Rosepaw trotted over to Jaggedwing.
"You're first day as a medicine cat apprentice and Snowbelly's letting you work by yourself?" the grey tom's mew was filled with surprise.
"I know enough." Rosepaw snapped.
Jaggedwing purred. "Well, you sound like a medicine cat, anyway."
What's that supposed to mean? Rosepaw bristled as she chewed up the small tangy dock leaf. She deposited her poultice on Jaggedwing's nose, patting it down with her paw. I'm going to have to wash my paws tonight. She thought with a grimace as she laid some cobwebs on top of her poultice.
Snowbelly had finished both Wingfeather and Greyfoot by the time Rosepaw padded up to her.
Before either cat could speak, Dawnstar yowled, "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting!"
The summoning wasn't really necessary, because nearly all of ThunderClan was still in the clearing.
Now every cat was looking at Dawnstar. She mewed, "As you know, we left to set scent-marks on the correct boundary by the abandoned Twoleg nest. ShadowClan was waiting in the shadows to ambush us, but we fought them off and gave them enough scratches to tell them that ThunderClan is stronger than ever, and we will fight for our territory."
Yowls of agreement ran through the Clan.
"After we chased them off, we set the correct scent-markers, where they will stay as long as I am leader." Dawnstar announced. "Now, every cat needs to get some rest, except Mosswater, you're leading the dawn patrol. Take Owlpaw, Foxtail, Voletooth, and Nosetail." Dawnstar leaped down from the Highledge and headed straight for her den.
ThunderClan, except for the dawn patrol, dispersed into their respective dens, leaving Snowbelly and Rosepaw.
"Come on, Rosepaw," her mentor mewed. "let's get some rest."