Chapter 44: Shattered Alliance
The camp was filled with a cacophony of coughing fits, sneezes, and uneasy snoring as a good chunk of the camp got sick. It first, I believed it would pass. I was wrong, so very wrong. Poor little Elderkit was the first to go. The illness and the cold turned out to be too much for his tiny little body to handle. Tulipkit wasn't long for this world either. Every cat was pushing themselves to try and survive this outbreak, but losses were inevitable. What really set the camp on edge was Bluestar. Her white cough had just turned to green cough, or pneumonia for human. This wouldn't be so much an issue if it weren't glaringly obvious that Bluestar had far less lives remaining than four, which I still didn't get. How could Starclan even give a cat multiple lives? Tangent aside, the camp was in a disarray.
Tigerclaw had gone on a border patrol with just Dustpaw since we were lacking numbers a while ago. At first, I thought nothing of it until Dustpaw came bursting into camp.
"Tigerclaw is calling for Bluestar. He says he found Shadowclan scent crossing our border." Dustpaw mewed urgently.
Fireheart and I had just been requested by Yellowfang to gather some more catmint from the Twoleg Place. Fireheart, being one of the only active warriors, decided to inform Dustpaw of the situation.
"Bluestar can't come. She's got green cough." He mewed calmly.
"But Tigerclaw says it's urgent!" Dustpaw rebutted.
I decided to step in. "Tigerclaw is a smart cat. He won't get himself into trouble. Fireheart and I are going out to collect some more herbs, so we'll let him know the situation on our way back. That's the best we can do."
Dustpaw looked torn, but he ultimately capitulated. Unfortunately, Fireheart's too spirited apprentice caught wind of our discussion.
"I can let Tigerclaw know. It won't take long." She mewed in that all too familiar excitement.
"No Cinderpaw. Stay here. It's not safe by the Shadowclan border." Fireheart argued.
Cinderpaw seemed to concede before we left. When we reached the Twoleg Place border, I decided to double back away from the direction of Shadowclan while Fireheart would move towards the Shadowclan border where I hadn't gathered from before. Things seemed to be going well until I got a sense of uneasiness. I felt like something had just gone wrong. Relying on that instinct, I quickly doubled back to where I left Fireheart, only to find him pounding across the frosty soil with an injured apprentice on his back.
"Stop!" I yowled, noticing the leg that swung unnaturally through the ride. "You're going to make it worse! Set them down. I can stabilize them while you get Yellowfang."
Fireheart, knowing the seriousness of my tone, lowered Cinderpaw gently to the ground. I don't know if that apprentice was lucky or unlucky. For one, the only thing injured was her leg. She wasn't bleeding and seemed to be in shock. On the other end, that leg wasn't just broken. It was pulverized. The scent of gas fumes told the whole story. A car had managed to run over that leg. The best I could do at the moment was get Cinderpaw comfortable and feel out how bad the break was. Thankfully, Fireheart didn't have to watch as I put his apprentice through pain as I assessed. He'd already tore off to find Yellowfang.
The break was less than ideal. From what I could feel, there were several breaks, three minimum. On top of that, their break points didn't perfectly match. That meant there were loose bone shards in the injured leg. Moving it at all had a good chance of puncturing blood vessels and damaging the existing musculature. Without a proper doctor, this leg would never heal right. Not like we could open up her leg, pull out the bone shards, and put in a plate like a human doctor could do. At best, the leg would become lame. At worst, it would become a continuous liability.
I carefully straightened out the leg hoping that this would prevent the bone shards from settling into anything particularly nasty. I was fortunate enough to find a dead poppy flower to harvest some poppy seeds from. I convinced Cinderpaw to down two of them to lessen her pain. I still didn't know the overdose range and wanted to keep her somewhat still there. I'd rather her not die of shock.
Yellowfang showed up with Fireheart soon after. "What have you done so far?" She asked hastily.
"I got her leg straightened and gave her two poppy seeds. The break wasn't clean. Moving that leg has a good chance of causing internal bleeding." I stated.
"Then it's a good thing you got her settled down. Fireheart will work with me to carry her back. We have similar enough heights. I want you to watch that leg and make sure it isn't moving." Yellowfang ordered.
We loaded her up onto their backs with extreme care. As the pair walked, I constantly kept vigilance on that wounded leg. I didn't want it to slip and start swinging. Thankfully, no spontaneous issues presented themselves as we made our way back. Yellowfang and I got Cinderpaw settled into a nest in the medicine den. Yellowfang tried to splint the leg, but he break was too complex for the leg to rest right.
"Is she going to be ok?" Fireheart beggingly asked.
I was unfortunately the one to deliver the bad news. "She'll survive, but that leg is too far gone. At best, we can get it to be a gimpy one. Worst case scenario, that leg will forever prove a problem."
I could already see Fireheart tearing up. "So, she can't be a warrior?"
"I didn't say that. Right now we have two options." I mewed, catching Yellowfang's attention.
"Options?" She asked.
I kept a calm face as I continued. "Yes. We can try to set the leg, but those bone shards might continue to cut her up and compromise her health. The other option is we remove it."
"Remove it?!" Fireheart mewed in fearful disgust.
"Yes. We can use the tourniquet to choke off the limb after the first break. That'll get rid of the bone shard problem, but she'll lose a leg. We need a decision made soon. Fireheart, can you grab her mother? You two will need to make a choice on how to proceed." I mewed factually.
"Why soon? Can't we wait to see if it's a problem?" Fireheart questioned pleadingly.
"Sorry." I apologized. "If this sets wrong, we'll have to break her leg again to try the other method. I'd rather we make a decision now instead of leaving her to suffer from our negligence."
Frostfur was brought out to the medicine den. Fireheart was at her side, both mourning Cinderpaw's injury. Yellowfang talked it through with the pair on what their options would entail and how that would likely affect Cinderpaw in the future. Ultimately, the pair went with the safer option to remove the leg. With no great joy, Yellowfang and I set the tourniquet. Within a few days, the leg would atrophy enough for us to remove it safely.
After that less than pleasant event, I emerged from the medicine den to see Tigerclaw returning to camp. He stank of gas fumes, road tar, and Cinderpaw. I instantly knew what happened. Tigerclaw got hasty. He decided to bump Bluestar off early to secure his position. Unfortunately for him, he hurt what was mine. Let me tell you, no cat, not even Fireheart, knew me with hatred. Now I knew it. Now I had it. If looks could murder, Tigerclaw would be splattered across the country. This intense feeling must have been very visible. My fur wasn't bristled, and I wasn't in an aggressive stance, but it was still very obvious. I could only utter one phrase to the cat I now truly hated.
"You betrayed me Tigerclaw."
That was all that needed to be said. I didn't need a threat or a hiss. My voice was chillingly flat. Tigerclaw actually wilted a bit at the statement. I gave him that hateful look for a couple moments longer before turning away. No cat bothered to talk to me. I had just frightened the clan's fiercest warrior. He'd pay for what he did.