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Consciousness finally came to me and when it did I was met with two brown eyes staring back at me.
"Hey," says Foxpaw. "You alright?"
I gasped and jumped so suddenly that my entire frame wracked with pain. Whimpering, I lay back down.
"D-Dog?" I say, confused and still out of it. "What...?"
Foxpaw frowns and nudges my head and I'm suddenly aware of how close we are. I feel my pelt heat up and look away.
"I do smell dog," the reddish tom states. "But that was a while ago and it's fading. You're Clan should have come and got you by now. Did you not come with someone?"
I think and everything comes back. The dog, Brightmoon's death, Shadedsoul beating me...Everything. I shiver and before thinking about it, blurt out, "Yeah, but my Clan doesn't care."
There's a moment of silence, and then I realize what I said.
"I mean, um," I mutter. "That they, uh...Er..."
"Your Clan should care!" Foxpaw yelps. "I'm a Medicine Cat Apprentice from another Clan and I cared! I cared because you're an injured she-cat in need of help!"
I bristle. "It's not that bad.."
Foxpaw cools. "Alright. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. But you didn't answer my question."
I blink. "What?"
"Are you alright?"
The question takes me completely off guard. No cat had ever asked me that before. A simple question, yet meaning so much.
"Yeah," I murmur, a wisp of a smile on my lips. "I'm...I'm alright. Thanks to you."
And then for some reason I'm blushing so hard I swear my pelt is going to become as red as Foxpaw's. Said tom just gives me a weird look and I find myself staring at him. Seeing I'm caught, I blush harder, shaking in embarrassment.
Foxpaw leans over and I flinch away, but he just adjusts a bandage I didn't see was on my hind leg, which is now wrapped up.
"As long as you're okay," he states slowly. Then, "I fixed you up as best as I could without a Medicine Cat Den. You were injured pretty badly and I'm surprised you woke up so early."
"Thanks, Foxpaw," I whisper, and then duck my head. Why am I acting like this?
He starts. "How did you...Oh!" Foxpaw then blinks. "I never did get your name...?"
I give him a shy smile and immediately start feeling my fur heat up again. "It's T-Tinypaw..."
The red tom is oblivious to my feelings. "That's a fitting name," he states, then his ears flicker. "I mean, you're just...small, compared to me."
I grunt, shake my head and stand up slowly. Foxpaw surprises me by helping me get up.
"S'fine," I say. "I'm used to it."
Foxpaw just frowns again, then says "Alright. Let's get you up, okay? Really slow."
"Huh?" I say dazed, and then I realize that I'm completely out of it. My head is throbbing, my chewed leg aches, and my heart is beating so fast I don't know what...
What, what?
Sleep, something says.
And I suddenly think that's a great idea.
...
Foxpaw's P.O.V
The small white she-cat in front of me suddenly goes limp so I nudge her. She doesn't wake.
"You're one funny she-cat, Tinypaw," I say aloud. "Happy one moment and bristling the next."
And it's true. First she was confused, the curious, then angry, and then suddenly very tired. I considered diagnosing her with bi-polar syndrome, but then decided to just write it off as a side affect from all the blood loss. Besides, if she fainted, she obviously lost more blood than I thought.
"Now, I have to figure out a way to get you back to your Clan," I murmur, leaning down. But that's when I really see Tinypaw up close.
Her face is more boxy than the usual cats, but it gives her a foreign look. A slender tooth is poking out from under her top lip, but I feel as if it makes her look fierce. Her ears are tilted oddly, but it again gives her a foreign look. The only real problem is her hind leg, which is twisted up awkwardly. I figured her leg was probably the reason she was teased, as she had mentioned.
"You have a beauty that is exotic to these lands." I breathe to unhearing ears. And I think it's true. This she-cat, with all her her weirdness and emotion changes and different forms, had captured my attention.
And attraction, a tiny voice in my head whispers. But I shake it away. Not only was I a Medicine Cat, I was from a different Clan, and cats were forbidden to mate in these circumstances.
What about the lost love stories of Spottedleaf and Fireheart?
I find myself giving a sad smile the air in the wetland around me. I had long since been told the kit-tales of the long lost love between the fiery Warrior and the caring Medicine Cat. In kithood, I had loved the story, but as I grew older and heard the real version of what happened, I realized what a tragic tale it was.
Though it felt like just yesterday my mother was chatting on about lost lovers in the olden-days...
"Let me tell you a story," my mother, Oceanside, had said.
"What of?" I asked.
"A tale of love," Oceanside breathed. "And what it can do to you."
I had furrowed my brow, but nodded. "Okay."
Oceanside smiled and began to tell the tale.
"Long, long ago," she started. "Before the Clans even moved here, a young kittypet had joined Thunderclan-"
"Kittypet? What?" I screeched. Oceanside nodded.
"Yes. A kittypet. And this kittypet was a tom named Rusty. The leader back then, uh, Bird...Boar...Er, Bluestar, she seen something in him and allowed Rusty to join her Clan, despite every cats distress against it. Later, he was named Firepaw."
I piped up. "Fire? Red fire? Like how I'm red?"
Oceanside giggled. "Yes, Foxkit. He was red like you. Anyways, the Medicine Cat in Thunderclan, Spot..Spottedleaf, she seen something in him too. It was forbidden, but as she got to know Firepaw better, she fell in love with him. He in turn fell for her too. They were in love, and later Spottedleaf got pregnant, though she told not Firepaw or anyone. This caused her hormones to go all maternal, and one moon, while the Clan was at a Gathering, she attacked a loner tom that had been abusing a kit. The tom killed her."
I was startled. "What?! B-But she had a mate, And kits..and...and..."
Oceanside nodded and continued. "Firepaw came back and found her body, and was filled with grief, though he couldn't say why and couldn't even cry because then others would figure out that they had been mates. Later, he took on a new mate, a Warrior by the name of Sandstorm, but she was more of an excuse than anything. Firepaw grew up, became Firestar, and his first kit, mothers by Sandstorm, was named Leafkit, after Spottedleaf, because even after all that time, he still loved her."
I was weeping silently now. "Momma, why would you tell me that? Firestar was supposed to have Spottedleaf as a mate and be happy and...and.."
Oceanside had cuddled me. "Foxkit, I told you that story to tell you that life isn't always fair, and since I know you want to be a Medicine Cat, to also show you the consequences if you ever fell in love and it was forbidden. You must be taught these things, my kit, to prepare."
I shook myself out of the memory and realized the sun was setting and that I still needed to get Tinypaw back Shadowclan Camp. Grabbing her scruff and hauling her limp body onto my back, I shake until she's on firmly. Then I turn to the wicked curled trees in front on me that make up the edge of the Shadowclan forest. Seeing how shady the path is, I wonder how I'll be able to see.
Oh well.
I step into the darkness.
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