Hi everyone! *Insert funny joke here* Now, on with the show!
Tadpolekit blearily opened her eyes. For a moment she was utterly confused. Why wasn't she in the nursery? Where was Tansyfoot and Shadekit? Looking around some more, she could see piles of herbs in cracks in the wall. This must be the medicine cat's den. She had never really properly been in here before; herbs and berries held little interest for her. Shadekit and Honeykit had once messed up all the herb stocks in here, and had got punished by Tansyfoot. But where was Shadekit? And what had happened after she was attacked?
"You're up," mewed a friendly voice from the other end of the den. "Juniperfern, get Tansyfoot and Shadekit in here, and then go into the forest and get Aethernose."
Tadpolekit turned to see Stormbreeze, one of the two medicine cats
"You gave us quite the scare there, little one," she said, her voice soft and comforting. "How is your wound there?"
For the first time since waking up, Tadpolekit acknowledged the gnawing pain in her side. A brief flashback to how she had got it, with the WindClan warrior holding her in his mouth against the rock reminded her how why she had it, and scared her to bits, as she remembered what the warrior had said, threatening to kill her family.
"It hurts" mewed Tadpolekit shakily. She was so, so, scared. What if she said the wrong thing and ended up causing that WindClan warrior to come back and finish her off after taking out her family?
Suddenly, there was a thundering of paws as Tansyfoot and Shadekit rushed in, followed quickly by Juniperfern, Stormbreeze's old apprentice.
"My kit!" Tansyfoot piratically threw herself onto her kit, and began licking her ears affectionately followed by a groom of Tadpolekit's pelt. Tadpolekit, self consciously flattened herself on the ground, but Tansyfoot took no notice.
"Juniperfern," said Stormbreeze "I need you to go into the forest and find Aethernose. I think he went hunting to try and work off some of his energy." Juniperfern nodded, and left the medicine den.
"How did you find me?" asked Tadpolekit. She noticed Shadekit close his eyes before he opened his mouth to speak. The memories he must be having….
*Flashback from Shadekit's POV*
"Shadekit!" went his sister's scream.
Shadekit froze. His sister would never scream like that unless something really bad was happening. Stopping his playful search for the lizard, he sprinted back to where he had last seen Tadpolekit. After a frantic run, he found her, unconscious, lying next to that sharp edged rock with a pool of blood welling around her. There was also a hint of fox dung in the air.
Shadekit began to panic. How was he supposed to heal her? He wasn't a medicine cat! Desperately he put his paws on the long cut of which the blood was streaming out of. But the cut was just to long! He began to screech at the top of his lungs for help.
"Aethernose! Tansyfoot! Seedstar! Anyone!"
After a couple of heart beats, and some more desperate calling for help, a patrol, led by Fawnheart, with Juniperfang, Tigerpelt, and their respective apprentices, Ashenpaw and Snookpaw quickly ran over to the two kits, one unconscious, bleeding out, the other, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
"Tadpolekit!" Ashenpaw raced over to her unconscious friend and tried to help stop the bleeding by putting her tail over the long wound. While it was long enough to cover the whole wound, she wasn't able to push it down hard enough to keep all the blood inside. Tadpolekit still bled.
"Snookpaw!" said Fawnheart "Go find Stormbreeze or Juniperfern now!" Snookpaw nodded, and raced off.
"I think it's cobwebs for bleeding," Fawnheart shakily mewed. "I'll go see if I can find some." The black she-cat whisked off into the forest.
Juniperfang pushed Ashenpaw's tail off Tadpolekit's wound, replacing it with her own, while, at the same time shooting Shadekit a dirty glance. Shadekit felt a wave of anger hitting him. I know alright! We shouldn't be out of camp! I'm being punished enough right now, thanks! Despite the dirty look, the blood leaking from Tadpolekit's body had stemmed to a slow trickle.
"Is it true?" asked an out of breath Juniperfern, followed by Stormbreeze. "How hurt is she?"
Juniperfang lifted her tail and Shadekit closed his eyes. He didn't want to see what had happened to his amazing sister. Stormbreeze's gasp reminded him, and he squeezed his eyes even harder shut.
"We are going to need a lot of cobwebs for that." mewed Stormbreeze softly.
"I have some!" panted Fawnheart. Shadekit opened his eyes to see Fawnheart with a couple small cobwebs stuck to the fur on her side.
Stormbreeze took the cobwebs off Fawnheart's side and moved Juniperfang's tail out of the way. The cobwebs covered about half of the wound, requiring Juniperfang to still keep her tail on some of the wound. Stormbreeze flicked her tail, annoyed.
"It's not enough," she growled. "We don't have enough cobwebs to cover the wound fully. And I'm not sure how long Juniperfang's tail can keep the blood inside her.
"We have extra cobwebs in our den." mewed Juniperfern softly.
Stormbreeze turned to her. "She might not survive the journey if she is being moved."
At the word "survive" Shadekit felt a wave of sickness crash over him. While he had known all along that there was a chance that Tadpolekit might die, the fact that the more experienced cats had not mentioned this crushed the tiny piece of hope that injuries like this were common, and that cats always survived this. His mind flicked back to reality when he heard Juniperfern speak.
"She is going to die anyway if we keep her here," the dark ginger she cat mewed. "Juniperfang's tail is soaking up too much of the blood rather than keeping it inside." Stormbreeze's tail thumped loudly on the ground as she realized their only choice. She looked sadly at Juniperfern and nodded wordlessly. The two she cats picked up the little body as gently as could and began to head back to camp.
The journey was the most somber of Shadekit's life. Fawnheart and the rest of the patrol, with the exception of Ashenpaw, who wanted to stay with her injured friend, had sped back to camp to warn the clan, but, the short walk to camp, was spent in a very depressed silence. All Shadekit could think about was the worst case scenario. If she died…. But he kept his eyes fixed on his sister's flank, and for now, he could see the very shallow movement of breathing. But it was so shallow, so hard to see….
Eventually, the four cats got to camp, and the cats that were in camp stared at them wide eyed with the tragedy that had happened. Tansyfoot was out on a walk with Willowstorm, and hadn't yet been alerted of what had happened, and neither was Aethernose, who was on a hunting patrol. The cats made it into the medicine den, and Ashenpaw and Shadekit sat down and watched the medicine cats work, and watched the unconscious Tadpolekit, willing her to be OK. Soon, Tansyfoot and Aethernose had arrived, and joined them in their somber, silent, watch. A day passed, and Aethernose went hunting to work off his energy; he had been pacing all night. Tansyfoot was offered prey, and refused, while Shadekit didn't want to suckle. Ashenpaw nibbled halfheartedly on a frog, before putting it back and leaving to go join a patrol. They were persuaded to go for a short walk around camp by Juniperfern, but Shadekit could only think Will she ever wake up?
*End of flashback*
"That's how we found you," finished Shadekit. "But there is one thing that I don't understand. How did you end up injuring yourself so badly?" Tansyfoot and Stormbreeze nodded, showing their curiosity.
Tadpolekit froze up. What if she said the wrong thing? She definitely couldn't tell them the truth. That WindClan warrior had made things very clear that he would kill his mother and brother, and probably more who she cared about if she talked. She simply had to lie.
"I saw a butterfly floating above me and I tried to catch it. But my leg gave out as I tried to jump making me land very awkwardly, and as I fell, my skin got cut on that sharp rock."
"Now you know why we don't let kits out of camp." said Stormbreeze
"How should she feed?" asked Tansyfoot. "She can't yet move back to the nursery."
"You are going to have to feed and sleep in here until she is better. Graytail or Willowstorm, when she has her kits can feed Shadekit. We should probably get them both on fresh-kill as soon as possible."
As Tansyfoot and Stormbreeze continued to talk, Tadpolekit became bored. Her mind found its self back at the ginger WindClan warriors words of threatening to kill her. How could she ever be happy with his words hanging over her head? Why hadn't he just killed her? Terror gripped her as Tadpolekit realized that life would never be the same again.
I'd like to apologize for the long wait in getting this to you. Sorry about. Updates will be irregular, but they won't take as long as it did this time. Also, if you are wondering what my fanficton name (Willowstorm) is doing in the story, one of my OC donors gave it to me without realizing. They've apologized, but I don't really mind. I'm going to be sad if I have to kill her off though. And it is kind off odd that she is pregnant in the story when in real life I'm male. Also, did you enjoy Shadekit's POV?
I'd also like to apologize to you for putting both Juniperfern and Juniperfang in the same part of a chapter. I'll avoid that in the future.
Thanks for all of the reviews! Please review, they keep me going, they keep me going, and I will see you next time!
Thanks!
- Willowstorm
