private bleed me red // wolfsong

[cottonsprig]

Cottonsprig visits the badger sett near daily - yet each visit is sparse in nature. She checks in on the few residents that remain, offers honey or other remedies to make the rest of their stay a little easier, and then she leaves. And for the few days that she's done this... she hasn't spoken to Wolfsong.

Perhaps it is because the tom displays himself in delusion, seeing her as nothing more than a specter during her visits. Or maybe it is because she fears his deduction, his all-knowing gaze flitting over her and in an instant, knowing all that she's done. Cottonsprig visits today, grief weighing in her chest for her daughter rests sickly in a nest back in camp, and presses towards Wolfsong with a fervor.

"Wolfsong," she says, her voice hushed. Has his children visited him? Has Sunstar? She cannot police the actions of either, but she wonders if he would have hung on so strongly if he hadn't had those tethers to hold to. "I'm sorry," Cottonsprig whispers shortly after. Her ears fold back, "I'm so sorry."

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖ 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

• ooc // low pressure pt for u <3 @WOLFSONG

• ❥ MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
  ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
  ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
  ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
  ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
  ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
  ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
  ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
  ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
  ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?

• 

  ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.

​

 

[WOLFSONG]

──ᨒ↟↟ᨒ↟ᨒ↟↟ᨒ── He has his moments of clarity, most often when Sunstar comes to visit him, but fewer as the sickness takes root. The lungwort is not preventative, and yellowcough will have its noxious due before the lungwort ushers it from the borders of his creaking chest. He shudders through every breath like a leaf trembling in a storm, and though he has lost his grasp of time, today rings the death knell for his lucidity. He drifts in and out of a restless, shadowy sleep, and at times those dark figures behind his eye expand out into the badger's den. Sometimes they are familiar to him. His Bearflight's broad shoulders, Sunstar's proud chin, his mother's sinew-bound prowl.

He feels most weak when he sees her. He wishes to call her tenebrous mimic for comfort, to curl around him as though he is still just a child in need of his mother. He may even attempt it, but if his throat croaks for her, she never responds to it.

At some point, Cottonsprig joins the illusory horde. She walks between fevered bodies, bends near to them, speaks in murmurs he cannot decipher. More time passes, uncountable to him, and she returns to the badger set. Unlike his other wobbling visions of the dead or absent, her shape does not disappear when the weariness blurs his vision. She is distorted, but still present. Perhaps she is Wolfsong's crow, an augur foretelling his death.

And then she speaks to him, and his missing visitors have never managed that.

He stares up at her face, confusion closing him in its grasp, enshrouding his mind. "Why?" He whispers, reedy. "They must have...you're here, so." He blindly claws at reason. "They have killed you, then." His eye closes. Even exhausted, the tears build to dampen his cheek. "Tell me who it was. Tell me— you must." Wolfsong inhales, his eye still closed. "There must be— there must be something. Some reason StarClan took you." He lip curls and his eye opens, still fever-bleary but scorching bright, and he begins to struggle to his paws. "They will answer to me."
​

WOLFSONG of WINDCLAN FORMER ROGUE TURNED MEDICINE CAT. 46 MOONS, HE/HIM, NPC X NPC. MATES WITH SUNSTAR (07/05/2023). BIOGRAPHY, PINTEREST, & PLAYLIST.

medicinal expertise med. part ii med. part iii med. part iv

• — ★★★☆☆ WOUNDS: You're (mostly) in safe paws. You'll know if he's less experienced if he asks for your permission to try a treatment. No wound can scare him away from knowledge.
  
  — ★★★☆☆ INFECTION: He can prevent most infections. If you feel feverish, let him know; he'll hum thoughtfully over herbs and sniff your wound before saying, "With your blessing..."
• — ★☆☆☆☆ ACHES & PAINS: If you complain to him of pain, he'll ask where. If it's a headache, you'll likely feel a bit better. For anything else, "Try this, if you'd like, and tell me how you feel."
  
  — ★☆☆☆☆ BROKEN BONES: At best. he can ask you to remain lying down in the den. He may try to distract you with conversation while he considers what herb to feed you.
• — ★★★★★ TRAVELING HERBS: Going somewhere? No worries; Wolfsong knows just what you need to stay hale and healthy during your journey. The rest is up to you.
  
  — ★★★☆☆ KITTING: Thanks to Starlingheart and his own pregnancy, he's better prepared for the arrival of kits, but any complications will need a little faith and a lot of luck.
• — ★☆☆☆☆ POISONS: It's best if you avoid eating anything unfamiliar to you— it's probably just as unfamiliar to Wolfsong. The best he can do is offer you yarrow and sit with you.
  
  — ★★★☆☆ ILLNESS: If it's white or greencough, you'll likely recover. Otherwise, prepare for odd concoctions and the usual request that you consent to a little trial-and-error.

​

 

[cottonsprig]

Cottonsprig has memories of seasons past, when yellowcough first tore through them. Cats claimed to have seen the dead during their stays with the sick. Parts of her had wondered if there was truth to the matter, or if the feverish nightmare that induced the idea. Both feel viable to her, in truth - but she will not be the one to discern the difference for her patients.

His one-eyed gaze is bleary, unfocused around her at first and then even when it settles on her form, it struggles on its own. She can almost see how the rabbit runs in his mind, sluggish and tripping over itself, unknown what its running from. Another apology wants to slip from her tongue so freely, but the medicine cat before her speaks instead. His voice is strong despite his illness, but the ick infecting his chest poisons his mind, too.

"No, Wolfsong, no -" she tenses her jaw as she steps closer. A soft snow-colored paw lifts to press to his cheek, passive warmth to what feels like steamed heat beneath his fur. A fever, no doubt, but she doesn't yet cast her gaze to the remedies she's tugged with her. "I'm - I'm here. I'm alive," the sadness in her throat threatens to close it. "You're alive. Open your eye. We are both still here, amongst the living. Neither of us have left yet," Cottonsprig presses her promise firmly, though the shame in herself rises like a tidal wave in her chest.

"You've taken lungwort, yes?" she asks. "We have plenty. You would be foolish to not," his former apprentice tests him, pushes for his spark to reignite further. He will pull out of this hazy nature and come out again fully well once more. StarClan would not be so cruel as to make this a teaching moment for her.

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖ 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

• ooc //

• ❥ MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
  ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
  ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
  ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
  ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
  ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
  ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
  ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
  ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
  ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?

• 

  ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.

​

 

[WOLFSONG]

──ᨒ↟↟ᨒ↟ᨒ↟↟ᨒ── He is still not entirely convinced that Cottonsprig is flesh and blood, not starry dream. Even after she touches his face, he tells himself it is not beyond the breadth of StarClan's power to visit him so vividly. She tells him that he is alive, too, still among their clanmates— but is he? Is he truly among them, or just some crawling thing picking at the carrion in their wake, checking for the dead and dying and ushering them back to their proper places? He eyes her warily, though he does not pull away from her. Too weak, perhaps. In body, mind, or spirit. That it may be all three is not so far out of the realm of possibility, either.

"I am no fool," he says sourly, but he is not certain of that, either. Is a fool aware of their folly, or inured to it? Either way, he will not be seen as a fool to her, whether Cottonsprig or StarClan's apparition, and he settles back down from his fevered rage to simply watch her, slogging through his syrupy mind to discern why she looks at him so. It is guilt. If she is truly his returned apprentice, what cause is there for such shame? Does she believe her warrior prowess above the scoundrels who stole her away?

While he remains skeptical of her identity, this is a mystery even his addled thoughts wish to resolve. "Tell me," he rasps, holding her figure in his blurring eye. "You come to me penitent. What are your sorries for?"
​

WOLFSONG of WINDCLAN FORMER ROGUE TURNED MEDICINE CAT. 46 MOONS, HE/HIM, NPC X NPC. MATES WITH SUNSTAR (07/05/2023). BIOGRAPHY, PINTEREST, & PLAYLIST.

medicinal expertise med. part ii med. part iii med. part iv

• — ★★★☆☆ WOUNDS: You're (mostly) in safe paws. You'll know if he's less experienced if he asks for your permission to try a treatment. No wound can scare him away from knowledge.
  
  — ★★★☆☆ INFECTION: He can prevent most infections. If you feel feverish, let him know; he'll hum thoughtfully over herbs and sniff your wound before saying, "With your blessing..."
• — ★☆☆☆☆ ACHES & PAINS: If you complain to him of pain, he'll ask where. If it's a headache, you'll likely feel a bit better. For anything else, "Try this, if you'd like, and tell me how you feel."
  
  — ★☆☆☆☆ BROKEN BONES: At best. he can ask you to remain lying down in the den. He may try to distract you with conversation while he considers what herb to feed you.
• — ★★★★★ TRAVELING HERBS: Going somewhere? No worries; Wolfsong knows just what you need to stay hale and healthy during your journey. The rest is up to you.
  
  — ★★★☆☆ KITTING: Thanks to Starlingheart and his own pregnancy, he's better prepared for the arrival of kits, but any complications will need a little faith and a lot of luck.
• — ★☆☆☆☆ POISONS: It's best if you avoid eating anything unfamiliar to you— it's probably just as unfamiliar to Wolfsong. The best he can do is offer you yarrow and sit with you.
  
  — ★★★☆☆ ILLNESS: If it's white or greencough, you'll likely recover. Otherwise, prepare for odd concoctions and the usual request that you consent to a little trial-and-error.

​

 

[cottonsprig]

He holds her gaze with scrutiny, and Cottonsprig again finds fear that he knows. That his delusion would declare her sin, brazenly so that all in the badger sett can hear clearly. That the spirits that cloud his vision motion to her, that they hiss with the wind and chill his addled mind. She presses her lips together, desperate to find her mentor in the fog that is his mind - not the man so lost to his fever.

But this is your doing, she tells herself with a softened stab to her own heart. He doesn't lean into her hold or press warmth back to her, and so she relinquishes the embrace. The only solace to be had is that he's taken care of himself, and this illness is only running its course. She'd offer him another dose of lungwort, as if chewing on the purple leaves would scare yellowcough into escaping quicker. But she doesn't, for in the same breath, he is no fool. And for the sake of her apprenticeship beneath him, neither is she.

"I made a mistake, Wolfsong," she breathes. It is not her kits - she'd never think their existence to be wrong. It is her flight, her willingness to leave the very Clan she swore herself to. Regardless of her mother, regardless of her father - she was born on these very grounds and she abandoned them. "I... When you're well, I will tell you. I cannot now," too many ears, maybe, or she continues to fear the whims of his sickness. "Believe me - I will tell you when you're able."

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖ 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

• ooc //

• ❥ MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE
  ♥♥♡ WOUNDS ; can confidently stop bleeding and mend lacerations. will often request that you keep your injury clean and wait it out first.
  ♥♥♡ INFECTION ; as a side effect of likely her own doing, very dutiful with technique and treatment shortly thereafter.
  ♥♡♡ ACHES & PAINS ; will defer to a dark tunnel and rest. if pain persists, maybe she will offer something.
  ♥♡♡ BROKEN BONES ; has never dealt with a broken bone. likely will ask that you never move. ever again.
  ♥♥♥ TRAVELING HERBS ; learned well from her previous mentor. will pile even too many remedies to tough the wilderness with.
  ♥♥♥ KITTING ; having kittens of her own and helped several others with their litters, she is very well versed with calming techniques and quelling pain.
  ♥♡♡ POISONS ; she knows what they are... but that isn't enough, isn't it?
  ♥♥♡ ILLNESS ; having worked through two yellowcough bouts, she is confident in her remedies. much else... she's operating on trial and error.
  ⸻ cottonsprig is a dutiful and excitable medicine cat. she enjoys company and loves conversation. she'd rather not have too many curious noses snooping around her den... but who is she to quell curiosity?

• 

  ⸻❥ cottonsprig is the primary medicine cat of windclan. a former princess to the moors, she harbors many guilts for her actions throughout her short life. she has no consistent partner, unwilling to commit and settle, and she is training celandinepaw in medicine.

​