camp i will crochet you a hat | body return

[SCORCHSTORM]

(cw: descriptions of injury, blood, corpses)

Scorchstorm carries her brother back to camp.

Keeping Frostwind's ever-cooling weight upon her back in this blizzard is no small feat. The wind buffets them both, but where her pain makes her body stubborn against it, he lacks the strength to do anything except flop uselessly according to the will of the gales. What she had ignored, what she continues to ignore, is that Frostwind has no strength because he is dead. Even as his blood spills over her shoulders in some kind of reverse baptism; even as the tens of minutes accumulate between his last breath and the one that is so surely to come; even as he lacks a heartbeat — she ignores it all. Maybe it is the shock. Maybe the snow had swirled about him in just the right way to give breath to his lifeless flanks. He is dead, but Scorchstorm cannot — refuses to — see it.

She had not waited for her patrol to carry Frostwind back to camp. As far as she knew, they still hunted the rogues who had done this. If they didn't come home, it would be on her order — but the thought barely registers. Scorchstorm grows frantic as she nears the threshold between camp and territory; as the scent of heather manages to carry itself over even the harshest winds.

Rogue blood stains her throat and chest and Frostwind's blood freezes into her back. When she enters camp she looks more monster than woman. "Cottonsprig! Celandinepaw!" she bellows even while she trots towards the medicine cat's den. "Please! Frostwind, he...." He's missing an eye, he stopped breathing, he hasn't moved since the rogue attacked. All the evidence points to one thing, but Scorchstorm closes her mind to it. Her voice grows ragged as she pleads, "you have to help him."

She offloads the corpse with the tenderness of a dove. Frostwind's head lolls with the motion. Scorchstorm searches the mollies for any reaction, tail lashing anxiously. Any tears that pool are quickly blown away or frozen in the blizzard's harsh cold.

𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍, 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄 ✧

• ooc. seeking out @cottonsprig and @CELANDINEPAW , but no need to wait!
  set the same night as this thread! also the same night as bunnypaw's injury in this thread, AND this thread where scorchstar and sedgepounce are searching for the apprentices. lots going on LOL
• SCORCHSTORM —— lead warrior of windclan, mentored by sunstar & badgermoon . scorchstreak x badgermoon . littermate to rumblerain, frostwind, and luckypaw ✦ penned by meghan
  
  ✦ a broad-shouldered tortoiseshell with low white and dual-toned amber eyes. extremely loyal to sunstar and her family, and enjoys a deep connection to the moorlands
  ✦ demigirl / she they pronouns / lesbian / 20 moons & ages every 1st
  ✦ peaceful and healing powerplay permitted / underline & tag account when attacking
  —— will start fights / will not flee / may show mercy. fights honorably and with great ferocity. can tank a few hits, but is not the sturdiest cat in windclan. starts fights with the intention of finishing them permanently, but will not aim to maim or kill obviously young cats
  
  ✦ "speech", thoughts, all opinions are in character
  ✦ full biography — msg on discord for plots — toyhouse
  

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[cottonsprig]

Cottonsprig pulls apart another sprig of catmint as she watches patrol after hungry patrol leave camp; it's not as if their clearing can save them here, but at least here they can tuck into the folds of old rabbit burrows and badger dens. Out in the moorlands, they are more than likely to catch colds and anything worse. She prefers to be safe compared to sorry - she already lost Quietcrow to her selfishness and negligence. Whitecough does not prove as dangerous but she won't wait around to see if it will.

The shouting of her name is frantic, paired with that of her apprentice. Catmint leaves is left in a scattered pile as she pulls herself from her den, briefly seeing the siblings - one piled atop the other - before diving back into her den. Swaths of cobwebs, marigold, dandelions - herbs bittered by frost and bitten by the cold, herbs that are better than nothing. Cottonsprig leaves her den in the same flurry of fear, looking on to Scorchstorm with wide eyes. She tries to discern, first, how much of that blood is the molly's, and how much is the tom's at their paws.

And then... Oh.

There is no light or happiness to discern that not a drop came from Scorchstorm. This mangled form does all too well to reveal the stillness of his chest and the lost fear in his still open eyes. Cobwebs are placed to his side, the herbs she brought neatly tucked by her haunches. She kneels over his body, presses her nose to the quickly cooling skin of his chest. There isn't even a remnant of a beat. Could I persuade you, that he had passed the moment he was struck? She was not there when it happened. Would the lead warrior believe her if she tried?

"Scorchstorm," she says softly, and she thinks of Harrierstripe, and how the news found her and her siblings. Does she still hold grief over the fact that his body was never returned to them? Could she look on to him - to Addervenom, Bluefrost, Moorblossom - in the same way the fire burned tortoiseshell is forced to see Frostwind? It hurts to even think of. "I'm sorry," she continues, ache edging into every syllable. The wind tries to steal her sorrows before they can reach her friend. "He's with StarClan, now. There's nothing I can do for him..."

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.

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