Chapter 24

Rainy day, wallowed wind.

It was only a few days until the gathering. Loneheart had kept busy wherever he could find a way to distract himself, although he didn't enjoy a second of it.

His life now seemed like a series of vignettes, with him going from task to task, barely remembering the last one as he moved on again.

Maybe he did enjoy it, he couldn't tell.

He noticed he was starting to zone out again and tried to bring his attention back to the task before him, but thinking about it further, he couldn't remember what he was supposed to be doing.

He was out in the forest near Shadowclan territory, so he decided to check the border to see if he could smell a recent patrol, suspecting he might have been on one.

The ground was a bit unstable, or maybe it was just him. Either way, he ignored it as well as he could and quickly navigated his way through the underbrush.

He tried to move like Stonefoot, wind through the night sky, but he found himself tripping over himself more than anything.

There certainly had been a patrol recently, he could already tell, but they seemed to be long gone at this point, so Loneheart changed direction and decided to just wander along the border and see if he could find any prey.

The Thunderpath was calmer than it usually was, he hadn't seen even a single monster yet today and it didn't smell like there had been one for a while either.

Loneheart wondered for a moment if he was dreaming, and almost debated getting closer to the Thunderpath, which seemed almost to call to him in fear and desire.

Loneheart kept his gaze averted, trying to block out every thought that came into his head besides being on the hunt for prey.

A bird called out above him, alerting all other creatures in the area that he was there.

Loneheart wasn't even very upset, he just wanted to watch as the bird got as far away from him as it could.

He continued walking down the path he had already designated for himself beside the Thunderpath, despite there probably not being any prey left in this area after they were all warned of the threat of death looming over them.

Loneheart looked over to Shadowclan territory, hoping that Rustpaw would pop out like he always seemed to do when Loneheart was here.

He ventured a closer look, desperate to find his friend, and his paws almost took him across the Thunderpath, when a voice called out at him, "What do you think you're doing?" Three Shadowclan cats appeared from the foliage, their hackles raised and looking like how any story in Thunderclan described them.

The cat that spoke, seemingly the leader of the patrol, stepped up a bit further towards him, keeping in mind the Thunderpath, "I asked you a question Thunderclanner, are you going to answer it?" She asked.

By the tone of her voice, Loneheart knew whatever he said wouldn't be taken kindly, and so he just backed off, lowered his head, and quietly said, "Sorry," hoping it would be enough for them,

"That's not an answer, apprentice," Loneheart didn't want to correct her, fearing she would only get angrier, "Look at me! What do you think you're doing?"

Loneheart obliged and lifted his head to look at the patrol. Besides the she-cat and another tom he didn't recognize, the third cat in the patrol Loneheart was sure he knew.

He couldn't really remember from where, or what his name was.

Maybe Dark-something, but he wasn't sure.

The Shadowclan warrior didn't seem to recognize him at least, a snarl formed on his face in the same way as his cohorts.

Loneheart realized he had to give them an answer, and said the first thing that jumped into his head, "I was just looking,"

"You were just looking? Into our territory? Yeah, that seems about right,"

"Hey! What's going on?" A new voice appeared into the scene, this time one from Lonehearts side of the Thunderpath.

It was Thunderclaw, which jogged Lonehearts memory that he definitely had been on a patrol this morning.

Thunderclaw already looked angry and stood right up to the Thunderpath to challenge the Shadowclan cats, "What are you doing harassing my warrior?" What ensued soon became a screaming match,

"Well you should tell your warriors not to invade our territory!"

"He did no such thing and you know it!" There was no coherence between the two shouting cats after that.

In only a couple of sentences, they had both decided to get angry and not back down until the other gave up.

Occasionally the other two Shadowclan warriors would throw out insults, and Loneheart just stayed silent, wanting to get out without having a fight be started because of him.

Both Thunderclaw and the Shadowclan patrol leader were inching closer and closer to the Thunderpath as they shouted, probably trying to see who would give in and either run into the others territory, or retreat into their own.

As they did, Loneheart started himself inching back, desperately wanting to leave.

If a fight were to break out, he didn't know what he would do.

He wasn't confident in his fighting abilities, and he knew they would lose if they were outnumbered as they were now.

And he wasn't sure when the Shadowclan cats would stop if they were to attack.

Per the Warrior Code, no cat was supposed to kill if they didn't have to, and Loneheart didn't want to think that they would, he knew they probably wouldn't go anywhere close to it, but all the stories that cats told about the fierce and ruthless Shadowclan cats made him hesitant.

Suddenly a shriek cracked through the air.

A monster flew by with an awful noise, and at the same time, the cry of a cat crushed underneath it.

Silence soon filled the air.

Loneheart ran up to see what had happened, as did the Shadowclan warriors, their menace gone, replaced with shock and worry.

The Shadowclan she-cat was lying on the Thunderpath, both her front paws bent in ways they weren't supposed to be.

Thunderclaw watched on with what seemed like a slight amusement in his eyes, as her cohorts dragged her off of the Thunderpath.

She was barely breathing.

One of the Shadowclan cats bolted off, probably to get their Medicine Cat, and the cat that Loneheart recognized stayed behind looking after his clanmate.

Thunderclaw began walking away, back towards camp. Loneheart ran after him, saying, "Should we help them?"

"She's got help," was all he said in return.

Thunderclaw had never spoken many words to him before, and yet now he felt a true hatred for the deputy.

He held himself back from cursing him out, and just watched him walk away.

Thunderclaw didn't look behind him to even see if he was following anymore and disappeared into the underbrush.

Loneheart turned back, deciding to try and help anyway. He hurried towards the Thunderpath, almost making the same mistake that the she-cat had.

He stopped to feel the rough ground of the Thunderpath to feel if there were any monsters coming, and when he was sure there weren't, he ran as fast as he could to the other side.

He quickly ran up to where the she-cat had been dragged and asked, "What can I do?" The tom that Loneheart recognized jumped, seemingly not having realized that Loneheart had crossed the border,

"What are you doing here?" The tom tried to sound threatening, but the fear in his voice was overwhelming,

"She needs help, and I can help,"

"We're already getting help," His voice was shaky, "Just, go back to your own territory. I don't want you here,"

"But she needs help now,"

"Don't stress me out!" The tom screamed and started pacing. The she-cat was lying on the ground with her front paws stuck in the air and her eyes glazed over with shock. Now Loneheart was starting to get stressed, and asked, "Do you have thyme in Shadowclan?"

"What?" Loneheart was surprised that the tom hadn't chased him out of the territory yet, but he supposed it was a stressful situation,

"Is there thyme around here somewhere?" He repeated his question,

"Why would I know, I don't know anything. What's it to you if there's thyme here?" He was obviously stressing out a lot, and Loneheart realized he wasn't going to get any useful information out of him,

"I'll be right back," he said, and then bolted away.

The Shadowclan tom didn't even try to stop him.

Darkoak.

That was his name.

It always seemed like such an important name, and yet still Loneheart had forgotten it.

He ran through the forest of pine trees and the dark prickly bushes, searching for the leaves that he knew would help.

Loneheart always hoped that he would never have to play the role of a Medicine Cat ever again, but it didn't seem like he had much choice.

He had had a choice, but it was one he would have never been able to pick. Thankfully, soon enough a miracle struck and Loneheart came across the thyme.

Quickly biting the stems of a few plants and took as much as he could, retracing his steps back to where the two Shadowclan cats were.

He tripped a couple times on the way, not knowing or understanding the territory, and he had a few small scratches on his pelt from the bushes, but he didn't care right now.

Everything was exactly how he had left it, and Darkoak was still pacing.

He threw the thyme down in front of the warrior and then got underneath the she-cat to try and lift her up so she would be able to swallow the leaves, "Chew the leaves and feed them to her,"

"What, what is it?"

"Thyme, it's, go-good for shock,"

"Why-"

"There's no time to hesitate! Just do it," Loneheart was shocked at just how much he was stressing about this, despite not even knowing this warrior.

Darkoak followed what he said and started chewing.

Loneheart was having a hard time holding the she-cat up, high enough so that her front paws wouldn't be touching the ground and making things worse.

Darkoak started slowly pushing the mushed-up leaves into the she-cats mouth, and thankfully, she was able to swallow it, probably just instinctively.

Loneheart was starting to stumble under her weight, and it looked like she had gotten enough of the thyme to help with the shock, so he said, "Come hold her up, so that uh, her paws are off the ground. Her front paws,"

Once again, the Shadowclan warrior did as he asked, this time without question.

Loneheart was able to slip away and started to examine the she-cat's paws.

There were small bits of bone sticking out of her front paws where she had been hit.

They were covered in blood and maybe some other sort of liquid.

He wasn't really sure what to do now.

He knew the bones had to be set, but he wasn't really sure how and certainly wasn't confident enough to try that.

They would just have to wait for the Medicine Cat to arrive, which couldn't be much longer.

In this time Loneheart now found himself pacing.

He took off a couple of leaves of thyme and ate them himself, recognizing that he was overstressing, and then laid a few in front of Darkoak as well, although he had an awkward time trying to eat them whilst still holding the she-cat.

Suddenly a noise appeared from behind, and two cats appeared.

One was the tom who had run off when the accident happened, and the other was who Loneheart could assume was the Medicine Cat.

On seeing Loneheart, the tom sank down and started to snarl, "What are you doing on our territory?" He growled.

The Medicine Cat just walked past both of them to go and inspect the she-cat, and Loneheart noticed that she had a limb in one of her back legs.

Loneheart stepped aside to give a bit of space for the Medicine Cat to work. He saw that she had also brought thyme, so, not wanting to give the warrior too much of it, said, "I already gave her some thyme,"

The Medicine Cat looked to him for a second, with a look somewhere between suspicion and curiosity, before snapping back to her patient.

She put into her mouth three poppy seeds, and then got her to drink from a piece of soaked moss that she brought, both things that Loneheart felt he should have known to do.

It didn't take very long for the poppy seeds to work, and the warrior shut her eyes, not for them to open for a while now.

The Medicine Cat turned to the warrior who had brought her here, who was still crouched down, hostile and eyes burning, "Seedbrook, help Darkoak and carry her back to camp. Don't let her broken legs touch the ground,"

"Tornclaw! There is an enemy warrior on our territory! What exactly are you planning to do about this?" The warrior replied.

Loneheart hated it when cats talked as if he wasn't there.

The Medicine Cat, presumably named Tornclaw, turned to him next without replying to Seedbrook, "How did you know to give her thyme?"

"I, I did a uh, a bit of Medicine Cat training," Again turning away from who she had been talking to, Tornclaw said to Seedbrook, "He can come with us. Pheasantheart is out right now, and I could use help with this," She explained.

Loneheart didn't particularly want to be involved with this anymore, but he would still go, just to make sure that the warrior made it back safely.

Seedbrook opened his mouth to protest, but Tornclaw beat him to it and said, in a more commanding tone, "Don't try to argue with me Seedbrook. Just do your job,"

After that, Seedbrook gave up and went to help Darkoak with carrying the warrior.

Tornclaw gestured to Loneheart with her tail to follow her, and Loneheart felt he had no choice, even though he knew he could just run in the opposite direction and be in Thunderclan territory in seconds.

Shadowclan territory changed very little wherever they seemed to go.

It was all marsh and pine trees, dark bushes and mud, black grass and a feeling of uneasiness in every step he took.

Although Seedbrook was too busy, and Darkoak was still a bit out of it, Loneheart felt stressed and afraid of what Shadowclan might do to him.

He no longer would be able to get off relatively easy due to being an apprentice, he would have to face whatever consequences were decided for him.

He wondered why he hadn't just run away, and why he still didn't.

Maybe part of him wanted to be here. Maybe part of him enjoyed the hate, or relished in it even.

He knew he shouldn't be thinking these kinds of things, but his mind was wandering through places darker than Shadowclan's territory.

Not long after, the group came upon a small camp, surrounded only by the trees and the dark that made up the territory.

Immediately the air was tense. Loneheart stepped aside to let Darkoak and Seedbrook move in, "Bring her to my den," Said Tornclaw, who stepped aside with Loneheart, "Come on," she said when they had moved past.

The camp looked very similar to Thunderclans, almost frighteningly so.

Having scented him, cats began pouring out from whatever crevice they had been in to greet their guest with shouts of anger and confusion, "Just ignore them and follow me,"

Loneheart did as he was told, keeping his eyes to the ground the entire time to avoid more pairs of eyes on him.

He already felt like a prisoner here. Keeping only her hind paws in view, Loneheart followed Tornclaw until the daylight vanished and he realized he was now in a den, presumably the Medicine Cat Den.

Inside was organized a bit different from Berryflights Den. In fact, it was almost completely reflected, with the opposite sides being used for herb storage and for patients.

Tornclaw got to work right away, grabbing a few things out of the stores and rushing over to where the warrior was lying.

The other two cats were already gone, and would probably be the ones to tell the clan what had happened, and why Loneheart was here, "Do you know how to mend a broken bone?" Tornclaw called to him where she sat, already wrapping one of the warrior's legs with cobwebs.

Loneheart was even more confused now. He didn't know why she had brought him along if she wasn't sure of his abilities, "Not really," He responded.

He understood a bit from when Aspenpaw had broken his leg and Berryflight taught him some there, but he had never done it and had no confidence that he wouldn't just make it worse, "Alright, come over here," She said, her voice a bit lower from concentrating mainly on her patient.

Loneheart went over and could hardly look at the warrior.

Tornclaw was pushing her bones back into her leg to where they were before.

Even in her deep sleep, the warrior winced at the ordeal, "Hold your paw here while I wrap it all up," She gestured right onto the wound.

Seeing no other option, he looked away and put his paw on it, feeling a mash of blood, chewed herbs, and hard bone.

It didn't take too long for Tornclaw to wrap it enough to where he could take his paw off, but Loneheart still felt incredibly disgusted.

He thought about his own wound, who's scar still plagued his neck, and he wondered what would be left behind to remind the warrior of what had happened when she had healed.

Everywhere that he felt, scars were considered a sign of strength and bravery, but every time Loneheart saw his reflection, that bare skin that poked out, he felt so small.

It felt like he had no control. It told him that he was weak, that he could only live off the mercy of others.

Tornclaw moved in front of him to start working on the other leg, bumping Loneheart back and out of his head, "Come do it again," she said, and Loneheart obliged to the same action, reasoning with himself that it was much worse for the warrior than it was for him, and that it would be even worse for her if he didn't help.

Soon it was over, and Loneheart turned his back on the affair, intending to walk away before realizing that he had nowhere to go.

He was stuck in the middle of unfamiliar territory, right in Shadowclan's camp. He wondered if he would be able to find Rustpaw at any point, although he also just wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

It had been so long since he had seen his friend, and every time he thought about the Shadowclan tom, he was flooded with terrible memories.

Of his mother's death, of the prisoners, condemned to war and execution, dead now as he thought of them, and of his own blood, spilt to nurture the earth, he was reminded, but for why he could not say.

Hollowed his heart when he thought of these things, but still he longed for companionship of another rather than his own mind, "Why did you bring me here?"

"I wished to see how they would react,"

"Do you have no care for what they may do to me?" His voice spoke the thoughts of his that were of uncertain origin.

Somewhere, some place, deep in his mind, far past his comprehensible feelings, he spoke these words that he himself heard for the first time as they left his mouth,

"Into danger you have brought me, known danger, but disregarded for only a sake of your own, to see anger and hate in the eyes of those you surround yourself with, and for why? Do you find joy in others' misery? Why heal when you prefer to hurt?"

"I know you not to be of this forest, a rogue surrounded by a coat of glory" He turned, his head risen high, "You come here, by will of your own, and to me you hold accountable for your own folly. I care not for if you make it away from here, bloody or otherwise, for it is that blood that told you to come here, isn't that right? It is the blood of scoundrels and traitors, murderers and thieves, that you have come to my aid, isn't that right? You think now that you've completed a good you deem worthy, you may be given the blood of the forest, greatness and power, isn't that right?"

"Your own eyes deceive you greater than any scoundrel or traitor. It is your hate that creates my charity, perhaps it may be of that for which I do what I do. But it is not blood. Your blood is as tainted as my own. If my blood is of scoundrels and traitors, your blood is of scoundrels and traitors. If my blood is of murderers and thieves, your blood is of murderers and thieves. Who possibly can hold the pure blood that you speak of, for blood is blood, our crimes and hate and love and charity is unimportant, and it's all over, you will see, friend or foe, forest or city, love or hate, we were all equal in the end,"

"Leave now, run home if you may make it, I listen to your lies no further-"

"I speak of no lies!"

"I listen no more! It is of your own choosing now that you stay here. I will offer no more protection to you than to anyone of impure blood. Leave my camp, leave my life, I wish to see you no longer!" And so it was then that he vanished, leaving only soft steps in the mudded grass in his wake, and a lingering memory that would be carried by the two for much time to come.

Until I write again,

-Gojira