private FOR AWHILE A VERY OBSCURE ONE

[RAVENSONG]

Ravensong spends most of his days staring emptily across the medicine cat den. They bleed into each other and once he had woken up so cold he had almost believed it was leaf bare already. The feverfew had brought some clarity to his delirium that had intensified because of his yellow fever, but he knew in his bones that every day that passed without lungwort that he would be a step closer to his grave. Mudpelt and Steepsnout were further along than he.

Before he would be irritated to be sitting in one place for long. Now, he almost could believe that his legs are rooted to the moss that he lays on. He loathes getting up. His eyes flutter shut. For a moment his tensed muscles relax and he can feel himself doze into sleep. To sleep is a welcome relief from the pain of the waking world, but he wonders which day he would sleep and not wake up. It had to happen eventually. How did that SkyClan warrior die? Was it in a fit, or had they passed peacefully.

Ravensong's eye flashed open and the fur along his spine bristled as his head snapped toward the entrance of the medicine cat den. "Who's there?" His voice was a growl that rasped out into a much weaker and less intimidating choky gasp.

@Snakeblink

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

•  
• 
  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN
  — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them"
  — openly suffers from chronic migraines
  — single, but "it's complicated"

​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

The sepulchral voice calling out from the depths of the medicine den gives Snakeblink pause, but only for a moment. He knows who it belongs to, and why it sounds this way. It’s only how rough it sounds that surprised him. Ravensong’s taciturn attitude takes a strange new light in the wake of his fever: it loses much of its edge, replaced by… pity, perhaps, though he doubts the black cat who appreciates the sentiment.

”It is only me,” he murmurs back, overly conscious of the den’s quiet atmosphere of convalescence. ”I brought food — you should eat.”

It’s a little embarrassing how much of Snakeblink’s care for others has revolved around bringing them food, lately, but what more can he do for the sick and injured? He doesn’t know how to purify a wound from infection, or how to tell lungwort apart from wild violets. But he can hunt, and he does — lately it feels like it’s all he does. How else can he lighten the burden growing ever-heavier on their leader’s and medicine cat’s shoulders?

He pads up to the patch of moss from which Ravensong glares sullenly at him, depositing the mouse between the black cat’s paws and taking a single step back. He’s not worried about contagion, although he probably ought to be. He tries, in a sort of desperate manner, to only worry about the things that could reasonably be within his control: it’s already a sizable list of anxieties that doesn’t need to be added to.

After giving the younger tom a quick once-over he frowns, hesitant. “Is there… Anything more I can do? I have set the apprentices to soaking fresh moss balls in water, if you would like me to get you some.”

Besides bringing him enough to eat and drink so he doesn’t waste away in confinement, Snakeblink is — frustratingly — at a loss for what more to do.​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 45 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

​

 

[RAVENSONG]

Food is just as important as medicine at this stage of the sickness. Feverfew won't fill bellies and he knows weaker bodies will perish quicker than others. Although his appetite is lethargic, the scent of the mouse makes its way through his inflamed sinuses and he feels a familiar pang of hunger.

But ever aloof and dignified, he does not tear into it like he liked to. He would not with Snakeblink still around. His eyes shift upward to the tabby and he sighs. There does not seem to be any indication of leaving soon. The raised fur along his back falls and he curls his paw over the body of the mouse. Still warm, he can tell, enough to incite his senses. "Thank you." He rasps.

"Not enough." He mutters. He cannot bring himself to leave the camp with his aches and pains and the fear of spreading yellowcough ever further. His herb supply is depleting.

"Water is good," He stutters, attempting to gather his thoughts. "But not enough. Do you know what feverfew looks like?" He takes a deep breath, the words causing pain in his throat so badly that he has to pause.

☾₊ ⊹ темная ночь — dark is the night

•  
• 
  RAVENSONG of RIVERCLAN
  — LH BLACK POLYDACTYL MALE (CARRYING CINNAMON, DILUTE) a tall, slender creature with pitch-black feathery fur, large ears, and a sharply angled skull held up in an aloof manner. smells of dried herb, speaks with a low and rumbly accent and walks with an elegant slinking gait.
  
  — born in twolegplace and orphaned at a young age, he joined riverclan at its inception and began training as a drypaw warrior known for a bitter temperment until beesong made him his medicine cat apprentice. after his mentor's untimely death, he had been named ravensong at the moonstone, young heart revitalized with anger and guilt. he is a somber and thorough medicine cat that guards every word spoken in the confines of his den.
  
  — secretly loves "the stars but not so much what inhabits them"
  — openly suffers from chronic migraines
  — single, but "it's complicated"

​

 

[Snakeblink]

MAYBE I'D BE A SAINT IF I WEREN'T ————————————​

Ravensong takes the mouse, though he doesn’t dig into it. Snakeblink takes it as a half-victory: his standards for success have plummeted with their recent troubles, which is probably better for his sanity.

It’s hard to tell if Ravensong’s muttered not enough is aimed inward or at the warrior darkening his entryway. Snakeblink opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again, hesitant: he would defend the medicine cat from his self-recriminations, but could not do the same for himself. The lack of medicinal knowledge living outside of Ravensong’s head is a shadow hovering over all of them, and no one is more aware of the limited scope of Snakeblink’s usefulness than the lead warrior himself.

He does what he can — and awaits with baited breath as Ravensong gathers himself, hoping for something else, another task to keep the fear at bay.

The question leaves him floundering for a moment, wracking his brain for what he knows of feverfew. Precious little. But they have had to gather a lot of it this past moon, and he was assigned to herb patrols more often than not: the bitter taste of its cutting lingers in mind.

”It is… a white flower, correct?” He remembers struggling to pick it out in the underbrush because it looked so similar to another, less useful flower. His eyes dart around the den, scrutinizing the small piles of medicinal herbs that he can see. One looks a little more familiar: he slithers past Ravensong to pick it up, gingerly putting it down in the medicine cat’s field of view. ”This one?”​

——————————————————————————————————— so god damn lonely ​

ooc. information.

• 
  
• — Snakeblink • he / him. 45 ☾, riverclan warrior
  — a sleek, skinny tabby with long ears and a scar over his right eye.
  — gay, not actually evil, penned by @Kangoo
  
  
  

​

​