Drip.
"Greysight? Greysight? I think she's waking up! Greysight, can you hear me?"
Greysight's ears were filled with a heavy buzzing, but she could hear Mintpaw's voice coming through to her. The words became clearer as the buzzing faded. She heard another exchange of noises and felt the vibrations of a cat leaving the den.
"Hey, you alright?"
Greysight clenched her eyes shut, trying to ignore the sudden, sharp pain that exploded in her head.
"Yeah," she managed to grind out.
"No you're not," Roseclaw meowed, shoving some leaves in front of Greysight's face. "Eat these."
Greysight groaned and licked up the herbs, making a bitter face.
"How long have I been here?"
"Only since yesterday, its sunrise now," Roseclaw replied. "How are you feeling?" Her voice had taken on a new, more concerned tone that caused Greysight to scoff.
"I'm fine," she meowed hotly. However, she couldn't be further from the truth. Her head ached horribly, and she felt too weak to even move her legs. Luckily, Roseclaw was able to see right through her.
"I'm going to keep you in here for another day at the least," Roseclaw meowed.
"Roseclaw-!"
"Hey! I'm the medicine cat here, now be quiet and go to sleep."
Greysight grumbled something under her breath and rolled over so she was facing the wall. Roseclaw rolled her eyes and sighed.
'Why do you do this to yourself Greysight?'
The blind she-cat was always pushing her limits, something she really didn't have to do, or need to do for that matter. It was all too often that the blind she-cat had to stay in the medicine cat den.
Her ear twitched as she heard someone pad into the den, and she expected to see Mintpaw returning from her daily visit to give Longtail her herbs. However, it was Moonfur who had entered.
"Hey Moonfur, whatcha need?" It was rare for Moonfur to come into the medicine cat den. "If you came to see Greysight, she's sleeping right now. We need to let her rest."
"Actually, I came to check on Raggedear."
Roseclaw blinked in surprise. "Oh. He's right over here." she meowed, stepping to the side to reveal the shape of the black and orange tom. Roseclaw and Moonfur watched him silently for a moment, until Roseclaw padded away. Moonfur watched the sleeping tom's face, happy to see him looking so peaceful. Her sense of calm fell when she saw Raggedear's face twitching in his sleep. Slowly, yellow eyes blinked open and hazily took in their surroundings. He laid in silence for a long moment, choosing to stare at the roof of the den.
"You're awake."
Raggedear blinked and turned toward the noise in surprise.
"Moonfur? Where am I? What am I doing here?" His questions came out slow and calm, but Moonfur could detect a hint of panic.
"One of those rogue cats attacked you, he got you pretty good," she replied.
"Right..." Raggedear meowed, brow furrowing in concentration.
"You're allowed to leave the medicine cat den now. Thistleprick and Browneyes went on a patrol, but I thought you might like to do some hunting."
Raggedear pulled himself up, shaking the grass from his disheveled pelt.
"Okay."
He followed Moonfur's pale form into the clearing, blinking to adjust his eyes to the dim light.
"I think the border near OceanClan is good, and around the Dead Oak. What do you think?"
Raggedear shrugged. "Sure... You'd know the territory better than I would."
The walk was a quiet one, and Moonfur was beginning to feel uncomfortable. She and Raggedear had hardly ever talked alone before, and now that she actually had the opportunity to talk to him, she didn't know what to say.
"You and your brother are so different, you'd think you wouldn't get along very well. Has he always been so-"
"Just ignore him," Raggedear muttered. At first Moonfur thought she had made him angry, but as she looked closer, he didn't appear angry at all. Just an annoyed older brother. "He's always goofing off. Try not to let anything he says bother you, he's just trying to 'have fun'. as he puts it."
Moonfur laughed lightly. "He certainly has a way of getting on Darkpelt and Greysight's nerves. Then again, those two are both pretty hot-headed."
Raggedear 'hmph-ed' in response and the two continued on their way to the Dead Oak. Moonfur suddenly stopped abruptly, causing Raggedear to look back at her with a questioning glance.
"What is it?"
Moonfur shushed him, causing the tom to blink in surprise.
"There's a rabbit right over there," she whispered through gritted teeth. Raggedear followed her gaze to see a small brown rabbit digging away at the ground, oblivious to the presence of the two cats. They had been so focused on their conversation, neither of the warriors had sensed its presence.
Moonfur and Raggedear exchanged glances and bent down into their hunter's crouches. "We'll both take a side," Moonfur whispered. Raggedear nodded briefly and began creeping off to the right while Moonfur took the left, all the while keeping her eyes on the rabbit.
Once in position, Moonfur waited until she could see the familiar yellow gleam of Raggedear's gaze and shot out of her hiding spot in the brush. The rabbit flew in the opposite direction, right towards Raggedear and into their trap.
Raggedear leapt at the fleeing rabbit, missing by an inch as the creature skidded to avoid his claws. Moonfur's eyes flashed as she moved to chase after the prey, but her paws suddenly slipped from under her, causing her to fall onto the ground.
She heard Raggedear's pawsteps as he flew by her and raced after the rabbit. Sighing to herself, Moonfur pulled herself up from the ground.
'I don't understand how you manage to trip over your own paws all the time.'
Moonfur shook her head, standing up and shaking the dead leaves from her pelt; she needed to be more careful now. Her ear twitched as Raggedear padded out from the trees, the brown rabbit dangling stiffly from his jaws. "Nice catch," Moonfur meowed. "Or at least I'm sure it would have been had I seen it."
Raggedear shrugged. "It was nothing special. Are you okay?" the rabbit in his mouth muffled his voice, but Moonfur was able to catch his words.
The pale she-cat scoffed.
"I'm fine."
Raggedear merely blinked and conceded with a small nod, the ghost of a small, amused smile hidden on his face. Moonfur followed the tom as the two left the clearing, watching him curiously. She found it hard to believe that Raggedear could really be so conflicted on the inside.
Moonfur and Raggedear had finished their hunt with a lot of luck and the two were able to return to camp proudly with two rabbits and a crow. At the current moment, she was sitting with Raggedear, Roseclaw, Lostheart, and Greysight; who had finally been released from the medicine cat den.
There wasn't much conversation, as the group of cats were mainly involved in their own thoughts. Even Sunstar had come out of his den, but he sat away from the other cats in a far corner of the camp.
The silence was broken when Thistleprick came running into the clearing, grabbing the warriors' attention. His eyes landed on the group and he immediately hurried over. Lostheart stood to face him, expression unchanged.
"What's wrong?" She noticed that his eyes were neither fearful nor worried, but wide with surprise.
"Browneyes and I were patrolling in the fields near the TreeClan border, and we ran into a group of, uh, not clan cats," he breathed.
"Did they have the collars?"
Thistleprick blinked and shook his head. "No. We were going to send them away, but they said they were looking for a cat and it was really important."
Roseclaw, Greysight, and Moonfur had stood up now as well, listening eagerly to the spotted tom. "Said they were from the mountains, looking for a 'Dark Sky of Dawn.'"
Moonfur's paws suddenly went stiff.
"I told them we couldn't help them and we were about to chase 'em off, but one started rambling about a pale she-cat with dark eyes and a patch in the shape of a moon."
Moonfur's eyes were wide as the other cats suddenly turned to look at her, but she could only blink in response. "...They're looking for me?"
Thistleprick nodded eagerly while Lostheart took notice of the worry and confusion in Moonfur's eyes.
"Let's go then," Lostheart meowed. Moonfur nodded and Lostheart turned to Roseclaw, Raggedear, and Greysight. "If you see Darkpelt, make sure you tell him where we are."
"Hey, I'm coming too!" Greysight began, beginning to pick herself up, but Roseclaw quickly pushed her back down with both paws. "No, you're not! You're going to stay here and rest!"
Greysight thrashed under Roseclaw's weight. "Get off of me, fuzzbutt!" Roseclaw rolled her eyes and held the smaller she-cat down while Lostheart and Moonfur chased after Thistleprick, but she couldn't help feeling worried, especially after her new discovery.