sensitive topics SEE YOU TOMORROW( return to camp )

[spiritpaw]

Shes in near hysterics as she returns to camp with Galeforce, Nettlepaw practically just a body between them. Theres blood in her chest and she knows it will take hours, days to wash it off. It’s not hers, its not hers at all but it bleeds the same and she can’t help the tug in her heart as eyes flick down to meet Nettlepaw’s body. Down the dip they go and despite being in camp she cannot help but feel a deep rooted fear. Perhaps not for herself but for Hyacinth and the others who were going out to catch whatever and whoever caused this. If it had messed up Nettlepaw this bad she does not doubt it will get a couple blows in on the other.

They drop him and Spirits paws feel like lead as she makes a bolt towards the medicine den. In the low light perhaps it would look like a bloodbath with how it smeared everywhere, the face truly did bleed a lot, but she needs Dandelion, needs him to understand its urgent. She throws herself in to the medicine den and this time she does not care about waking him up. "Dandelion he’s hurt- fuck, he’s hurt, he’s gonna die-" she gasps with heaving sides, her ears pinned back. "It’s Nettlepaw, I, I don’t know what happened but theres blood everywhere, please." she collects her pieces off the ground. Perhaps if Hyacinth did not show up she’d stick around the medicine den to shield herself from the gruesome thing, but Spirit had been given a task and by the Stars above will she carry it out.

She stumbles back. Her stomachs queasy as her eyes meet Galeforce’s. She barely recognizes shes trembling until she leans over Nettlepaw to make sure this guy still had a heartbeat. "Please dude, you’re safe now, don’t go." she feels faint herself with exhaustion dragging at her bones but she’d make SURE that he wouldn’t die even if she had to drag his starry ass back down from the sky.

// @Galeforce @nettlepaw. @Dandelionwish
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"speech"​

 

[Irispath]

The noise woke Yewberry up immediately. He forced his eyes open and shook the grogginess from his head, getting up to see what was wrong.

And boy was there something wrong.

His eyes widened in horror as he saw Nettlepaw. He raced over with as much haste as he could in the snow.

Those looked like claw marks.

"Who....Who did this....?" He said, still in shock from the severity of these injuries.

Anger bubbled up inside him. Was it one of these rogues Sootstar brought in!?

.... No. That's jumping to conclusions. There were still other rogues out there.

" Seems there's some outside rogues that are too big for their pelt...." He growled. He wondered if it was the same one that attacked him. He wanted a rematch.

He had to do something. Dandelionwish would likely need help with all this, and he was willing to lend his paws.
​

 

[Periwinklebreeze.]

IS IT OVER YET - CAN I OPEN MY EYES?​

periwinklepaw | 04 months | demi-boy | he/they | physically easy (pacifist) | mentally easy | attack in bold #ccccff​

---

It is the cloying scent of blood that reaches him first - metallic and burning through his sinuses until he think he can smell nothing else. On his paws in a heartbeat, he can feel his stomach sink as he spots a commotion - galeforce and spiritpaw dragging one of his clanmates home in tatters. The feeling only grows worse when he seems who they are carrying - Nettlepaw. The other boy has barely spared a few glances his way, maybe a conversation or two at most, but he'd liked the other boy. (even if he'd never admit just how much aloud). The sight leaves him feeling dizzied, sick - what is he like this? What. is. wrong. with. him. It's just a little blood damn it - why did it bother him so much! Feeling ill he has to jerk his head away from the sight, though the worry gnawing at his belly doesn't abate. There's nothing he can do now - nothing anyone can do to help except hope Dandy can fix this. 'Please, starclan, I don't wanna lose a friend...'

 

[Dandelionwish]

He had seen a lot of things already that were too much to stomach, but he grit his teeth and steeled his nerves because without Honeytwist there he was left to handle it alone. Infected claw scratches, deep wounds, gouges in the flesh, missing eyes, broken limbs, gently pushing a cats parts back inside them and wondering why StarClan would allow anyone to be hurt in such a way. Dandelionwish hated how he no longer flinched at the sight of an injury, hated how the smell of blood no longer turned his nose up, that he could look at a cat in pieces or dying and think to himself only fretful worry that he might not have enough plants to help them rather than disgust and unease. He was desensitized and at first he felt it made him less real, like he was no longer a living and breathing thing but only defined by his duty and no more. But upon the sound of panicked cries and piercing voices he was thankfully all too quickly that his emotions bottled up into a tight knot in his chest and did not get in his way as he was jolted awake by Spiritpaw's sudden frantic cry.
Blood, copper-scent, Nettlepaw, 'He's going to die'.
The Medicine cat rises in one swift fluid motion, mouth grabbing a wad of moss, already moving over to the entrance of his den where the battered apprentice had been partially dragged into the camp and he bolts over with urgency; it was horrific. His instincts carry him as his mind reels. He does not have time to think about who could do this? Was it a dog? How had this happened?
Instead he is scanning every tattered and bloodied part of the apprentice's body, eyes wide and head jerking side to side as he makes a mental checklist.
Superficial, most of them, scratches, was he pinned? Those could all be ignored, the main issue is apparent quickly. His god damn eye was missing.

Dandelionwish finds himself taken back to Kestreltalon, remembers the way hers bled and oozed for what felt like too long before they were able to clean it and cobweb it up properly with some goldenrod. Goldenrod. Oh, thank StarClan he just got all of those. He was going to need so much for the eye alone, but...but he'd live. He'd probably live. If he was quick enough. If they stopped the bleeding. He unceremoniously shoves the wad of moss in his mouth over the eye-what was left of the eye-the eye hollow...and then he's barking orders like he just took Sootstar's job.
"Yewberry, cobweb-loads of it! As much as ye can manage to grab please!" He had some already but, but stars above it might not be enough.
"Spiritpaw, Galeforce, can ye help me get'em in the rest of the way to my den? Let's try not to drag'em-then I need moss, water..."
He leans down to help try and get the apprentice up off the ground, so they can move him without dragging-without filling every cut with dirt.
"Periwinklepaw, run ahead! Goldenrod, marigold-the yellow ones I showed ye before-get'em out fer me!"
He was starting to realize why Honeytwist had wanted an apprentice so badly, but thankfully he had a clan's worth of help lately...
​

 

[Galeforce]

↞ RACE THE WINDS

Maintaining his composure had become more than a little taxing on his psyche as they finally reached the camp. Being back in familiar surroundings didn't offer him any comfort but he knew that he couldn't allow himself to break now. He had his duties to complete; getting Nettlepaw to Dandelionwish, then heading back out to meet up with Hyacinthbreath and the others so they could hunt down the bastard behind the attack.

The warrior stood beside the broken form of the youth, guarding him for a moment or so until his gaze finally shifted to that of Spiritpaw. Her words roused something within him and he found himself rounding on her with a steely stare. "He's not going to die. Enough of such talk! You're going to stay with him just like Hyacinthbreath ordered, and you're going to give Nettlepaw words of encouragement whilst Dandelionwish tends to him. Understand? Meanwhile I'm going to seek out justice for this attack."

He's about to take his leave but then Dandelionwish requests for Nettlepaw to be moved the rest of the way into the den. Of course, that would be best. The tom decides to take on the duty himself, if anything to spare Spiritpaw from taking on the burden any further. Once he finished moving Nettlepaw into the medicine den he then turned to leave, pausing only so he could address the medicine cat. "You've got this, Dandelion. But... be ready for more injuries to come, we're going after the monster who did this." He felt that it would only be right to keep him informed only so that he would be better prepared.

"Duskfire! Shrewtuft! On me! We're heading out!" Galeforce hollered as he hurried to leave the camp so he could meet back up with Hyacinthbreath and the others.

// @Duskfire @SHREWTUFT
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[Periwinklebreeze.]

IS IT OVER YET - CAN I OPEN MY EYES?​

periwinklepaw | 04 months | demi-boy | he/they | physically easy (pacifist) | mentally easy | attack in bold #ccccff​

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He feels only relief as the medicine cat finally appears, clear gaze softening and warming as the brown furred tom takes charge. While they'd never solved his sleeping sickness, he knew that dandelionwish had cured many other ailments, and healed many wounds. He trusted him to help his clanmate. He's startled out of his relieved musings by orders barked his way sharply - uncharacteristically. It only makes it that much more apparent that this is serious. He gives only a jerky nod to acknowledge he's heard him before darting off - grateful that despite his young age his limbs are long and nimble.

He's staring at the herbs before he knows it, gaze searching out the shock of sunshine hue even as his jaws part - chasing the scent of sticky-sweet goldenrod and the damp-hay smell of marigold. Not that he'd known what hay was until just a few days prior - a brief glimpse of the horseplace and a warning to avoid it unless he wanted to end up hurt. He finally finds what he's looking for - relieved, he lets out a half-hysterical snort. Perhaps something useful had come about from his time in the medicine den after all - he not only remembered the names (and taste!) of the herbs shoved down his throat, but he'd actually managed to find the flowers dandy had needed.

Scooping the delicate blooms into his paw and cradling them carefully - he's had enough taste tasting the damn things for a lifetime, or even two - he spins about face only to find the others already arriving. Its so much worse than he'd thought, he thinks idly, his brain trying to comprehend the sight before him. The taste of bile is bitter in his throat, and he thinks perhaps he might faint. It is only the knowledge that there are others relying on him that pushes him onwards, that keeps him from keeling over then and there. "Here-" he manages, words slurred just a bit.

 

[Irispath]

Yewberry was quick to scamper off to retrieve the cobwebs, and as ordered, brought as many spools as he could, his mouth packed, but gently, with them. He was thankful he knew where they were from his time in the den, because if he had to look for them he might panic.

He carefully but quickly made his way back to Dandelionwish and announced his return with a muffled "AH" since it was the only sound he could make.
​

 

[nettlepaw.]

It was not the forced comforting words of his clanmates or even the ground scraping his fur as he was dragged that finally stirred him from shock-induced oblivion ― the press of a moss wad against exposed angry nerves snapped him back to alertness, bloodied mouth agape in what would have been a scream. Nettlepaw gagged harshly on the blood trapped in his mouth, his remaining eye abruptly half-open and wild. His paws lash out into the air at the agonizing sensation in his skull, miraculously managing to avoid snagging on any of the figures hovering as he flailed.

Fatigue rapidly dulled his reflexive thrash, with the apprentice slumping back against the earth and panting through clenched teeth. Though awake and moving, the ability to register his surroundings was blurred by the returning veil of pain, reducing his senses to nothing but feeling. His left ear, though freshly notched, perked at the voices echoing above him, his other ear bent awkwardly over itself and unhearing. Through the haze, Dandelionwish's voice calling out familiar names reached him; Nettlepaw gave a thin whimper, torn muzzle parting in an attempt to utter an apology. This was his fault, his mistake. And now it had become his clanmates' burden ― the young apprentice tried to piece together a clumsy string of words, though his mouth and jaw screamed at him to stop with every muscle twitch and motion.

Yet before he could at least wheeze out a description of his attacker remembered through panicked glimpses, he was being hauled yet again to another place. His head lolled back, too exhausted to focus through the pain. He tried to stay awake again, he really did, but the dark calm of a stupor threatened to drag him back down beneath its surface. Part of him wanted it to succeed, though instead he remained trembling and only responsive to the jolts of pain whenever an unexpected paw prodded at his face.​

 

[OLIVESHADE]

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---

Its the shifting and shuffling of other warriors that has her half-awake enough to jolt upright when she smells the amount of blood being dragged into camp. The rest of those awake and their ensuing organized chaos become a blur as her focus zeroes in on Nettlepaw. On her beat to shit, halfway to Starclan in a neat little bow apprentice. Her rat. The one she never wanted.

"Shit."

The word is a hushed whisper, packing all the panicked disbelief and horror she was feeling as her skin begins to feel like there are ants crawling beneath it. The smell drenching the camp on its own has her trying not to gag, but her body wants to move, she just doesnt know where. She can see them moving him into the medicine cat den, see how much it crowds, see the warriors going after the culprit. 'What....what should I do? He's not going to die right? He can't. He can't he's just a boy.' And suddenly she's small again, nudging her mother awake in the morning but its not working. She was a child when it happened, just six moons old. He's just a child, just six moons old.

Olive starts moving without thinking taking several steps in the vague direction of the commotion but stopping, standing in the clearing frozen. Does she even have the right to do anything? If he was attacked...if he couldn't defend himself. That wasn't his fault. It was hers. It was her fault her apprentice might be dying.

'Please....Please.' She doesn't know what she's pleading the stars for at first, stars that she didn't believe in, but if they really were the closest clan to their supposed magical ancestors....

'Please don't take him away. Please don't make me be alone again.'
​

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[Duskfire]

I WANT SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS​

---

The commotion broke out the moment Galeforce and Spiitpaw returned to camp, a bloodied Nettlepaw carried between them. Duskfire was on his paws and rushing over before Galeforce even had to call for him, slipping through the crowd to meet with the other tom as Dandelionwish sprung into action. "Fill us in on the way- was this a predator attack, another cat? There had to have been evidence left behind after an attack like that, and ever detail would be important.
​

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windclan deputy - male - 22 months - single - tall, strong bengal tomcat

 

[SHREWTUFT]

shocked gasps would ripple like a wave throughout the clearing as spiritpaw and galeforce enter camp on hurried paws dragging in the mauled figure of another apprentice who barely looked to be clinging onto life. the sight of poor nettlepaw had shrewtuft's stomach twisting in all sorts of uneasy knots, whatever attacked him was hell-bent on ensuring that one of them didn't come out alive.

voices from all directions erupted from the cats beginning to gather around but she'd never fail to pick out the one that belonged to her brother who was quick at work yappin' out orders all while keeping his head on his shoulders. as proud as she is of that lug for getting in the groove of his job it still worries the sepia-toned warrior that he has to do all this work by his lonesome and before she can do anything else her name is called out above the noise by galeforce who beckons her to follow.

shrewtuft worries her bottom lip between teeth for a brief second before she's turning sharply on her paws and bounding on after the two toms, chocolate ears angling forwards as duskfire asks for information whilst they escape out onto the moors. whoever did this sure as hell wasn't gonna get away with it, not as she lives and breathes. ​

[ penned by cobi ]​

 

[coalfoot]

———————————————【 coalfoot | windclan | male 】——————————————

【◈】It was supposed to be another calm night. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Coalfoot had no words.

A distant screech had rang out into the night, stirring the dark tom from his slumber. Groggy and cold, he had wormed closer to the nearest furry form, keen on sharing warmth and slipping back into the comfortable black.

It was short lived.

Panic. Screams of desperation.

Jerked far more harshly from his sleep, Coalfoot was vaguely aware that something was wrong. He fought himself, struggling into wakefulness and lifting his heavy head. Others waking from the commotion were already up and moving, words incoherent but urgent and fast. A paw dragged itself to his face, scrubbing at his eyes and teeth gritting. Something's wrong. Get up.

To his paws he clambered, tired green eyes flickering about and doing their best to process the scene before him. They locked onto a familiar form. Limp. Red. His own blood seemed to rush away, as if it were him bleeding out on the frozen earth. Exhaustion trickled away, a myriad of feelings flooding in. Dread. Fear. Horror. Despair. That was Nettlepaw. Nettlepaw was hurt, and he- his-- Coalfoot swallowed hard, unable to look a moment longer, heart pounding and head light.

Cats were rushing this way and that, scrambling to help at the command of Dandelionwish, but he was locked in place. He should be helping. Was Nettlepaw going to die? This couldn't be happening.

Oh, StarClan.

[penned by its_oliverr].

​

 

[ASPENPAW_]

( ♬ ) Just like so many others, Aspenpaw is nestled comfortably in her bed of moss, hardly feeling the chill of the night in her sleeping state. No room for thought in her unconsciousness, she's blissfully unaware of what's been going outside of camp until the sounds of clamor reach her ears. Faint at first, but as the source continues further into camp she finds herself sluggishly shooting to her paws, unsure of what to make of the disturbance. Surely it's nothing good that there isn't an effort being made to keep quiet, and before she can fully register the figures that seem to be the source, the sharp tang of blood hits her nose, lighting up her senses and dragging her more fully into wakefulness. Still, everything seems blurred as Aspenpaw finally starts to piece together what's going on - somebody's hurt, it's Spiritpaw and Galeforce and Nettlepaw, Nettlepaw's hurt - and she's practically frozen in place. Dandelionwish appears, calling for help from those around, and she's still left right where she is, trying to wrap her mind around what's happened.

While not especially close with Nettlepaw, Aspenpaw would still consider him one of her friends, and now he's bleeding out in Dandelionwish's den in the middle of the night, hurt by who knows what. Everybody seems borderline frantic, rushing about to help, with some of the warriors gathering to go find out what had happened, and she realizes that if nobody really knows what's going on aside from Nettlepaw's injuries, he might not be the only one hurt. Frantically, her eyes dart about camp, searching to make sure that everybody is still around and in one piece. She finds herself primarily searching for Periwinklepaw, Wisteriapaw, and Dustpaw - she's already laid eyes on Spiritpaw, and as much as she fears for Moonshadow and Hyacinthbreath, they're both capable warriors, more so than any of the apprentices. Unless Dandelionwish needs anything from her, there's really no reason to try and crowd into his den and risk distracting him from helping Nettlepaw, so Aspenpaw hangs back for now, only able to pray to Starclan that Nettlepaw will be okay, and that whatever happened to him won't happen to anyone else.​

( WE'RE ALL JUST SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING ☾ )

 

[WEASELCLAW]

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

The horrible stench of blood alerts him before the chaos does. Weaselclaw stares with shock at the mangled corpse Spiritpaw drags into camp with her. Fur torn, bones broken, a gaping, bleeding darkness where his eye had been. His heart hitches, throat closing. There's the faint, undeniable stench of rogue over the atrocities committed, but he has no time to ponder that. Hyacinthbreath, despite no longer being a lead warrior, rallies cats, including their deputy, to search for the culprit.

He's left to his own devices. Dandelionwish is the medicine cat, and he's got cats assisting him with fetching and pressing cobwebs to wounds, so Weaselclaw directs his ire elsewhere: Oliveshade. She looks stunned, dazed, caught half in a nightmare she never believed would come true.

Weaselclaw's fury is partially misdirected, but he does not know this. He stalks toward the she-cat and thrusts his face into hers, snarling. "And do you understand now why it's important to actually train your apprentice?" He's quivering with his fury. "Do you understand that Nettlepaw was relying on you to teach him to survive, and you-- YOU! -- have failed him?"

He catches Aspenpaw's silvery pelt and his anger is like a wildfire belted with wind. He can imagine her in Nettlepaw's place, absolutely destroyed, dismantled like a piece of prey by a picky eater. Oliveshade had considered Nettlepaw an inconvenience -- and look what had become of him. "If it were up to me, you would never train an apprentice again," he hisses at her.

- ,,​

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[OLIVESHADE]

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---

As cats rush past her, waking and saying their own prayers towards Nettlepaw, Oliveshade sees and hears none of it. Her vision truly begins to blur, head spiralling into madness-

A madness that comes to a pitiful, sorrowful head as Weaselclaw shoves his face into hers and screams.

The lead warrior is met with wet eyes, the younger molly's horror spilling onto her cheeks and melting the snow underneath them as tears fall off her chin. "I killed him." Dandelionwish is a medicine cat but everyone knows that they're all still learning. More than half of them didn't know that herbs did anything before Starclan supposedly blessed their chosen with knowledge they still had to fuck around and find out with. He already looked like a corpse when he came in. If their medicine cat, scarcely trained and scarcely his senior, couldn't heal him by some miracle-

"I can't....I won't you're right." Weaselclaw bashes into her head everything she's already realized, but she's unable to handle the weight of each word spoken truth into the cold air. The tunneler curls in on herself, claws digging into the ground as she no longer meets his eyes. She opens her mouth to scream but all that comes out is a breathless sob.

If Nettlepaw ever forgave her for her transgressions, it would be too soon, no matter how old the both of them became. ​

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[Dandelionwish]

Be ready for more injuries to...he was going to whack Galeforce on the head for that when the fool came back. Better hope they did their job right and dragged in a dead rogue rather than another wounded clanmate. Teeth clenched and expression darkening he turned to offer Perwinklepaw a brief nod of acknowledgement to the herbs placed down and ready for him to use; perfect, exactly. Real glad a few cats were picking up on what some of these plants looked like by name; was really making his job easier somewhat.
"Unless ya'll putting the blood back in'em then SCRAM! Take this somewhere else where he don't gotta hear it!"
Weaselclaw's bark was worse than his bite, that was certain enough and Oliveshade's face crumpling was enough to show she scared even if she had not been exactly on the ball to begin with. A shame it took Nettlepaw being maimed for her to focus up, she'd get to apologize directly to his face later if the medicine cat had anything to say about it.
Mismatched eyes returned to Nettlepaw: he was the priority right now and everything else would become just a blur. "Aspenpaw, if yer not joining the patrol and can stomach it can ye help me and Perwinklepaw try to.....clean'em up a bit?" The less blood everywhere the more obvious the injuries. That eye was already being worked on to rid it of dirt and congealed blood as gently as he could so it could be packed and poulticed by the rest of the apprentice was more red than white now and it was unsettling to have to see. That eye was by far the worst of it though, at a glance the rest seemed small and manageable but there was no saving this. His stomach lurches as he remembers Kestreltalon's bloodied face and oozing eye socket and his nose wrinkles; he's made of much stronger stuff than that now. Dandelionwish could handle this.
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