camp what i saw, i don’t know | patchpaw fleeing into camp

Patchpaw [in.]

Patchpaw [in.]

i pray we meet again soon
Sunningrocks [TC '23]
Oct 4, 2022
87
4
8
THERE'S A WORLD THAT WAS MEANT FOR OUR EYES TO SEE​
slight tw for description of blood

There was not an inkling of clarity for the poor apprentice as she staggered her way down the tunnel. Her shoulder roughly bumped somebody coming up but she hardly paused to see who it was, for she could barely see at all, and mumbled a faint, rushed apology. Thorns dragged against her pelt before she finally broke past the shrub barrier and into the camp. Her limbs trembled precariously under her weight, her head swayed, and the blood rushing in her ears muddled the sound of many cats talking.

”Help—please—someone, anyone—h-help, before—“ Patchpaw’s voice shook with the effort as she couldn’t even bring up the tom, instead gasping out, ”ShadowClan warrior—unburied another apprentice—same fate—going to kill me, I-I don’t wanna die—“
For a second, she stood still staring with one eye wildly at the dirt, before the whole forest tilts and her spindly legs finally give way. Feeling the cold ground against her bloodied cheek was somehow comforting, though her mind could only barely register the faint stinging. Her one good eye was already starting to close when she caught one last face.
”Dad…”

She was out like a light.


The camp had been relatively peaceful until Patchpaw had barged in, shouting something about ‘help’ and multiple other things at the same time. It was difficult to see her face properly, though, as multiple evident claw marks covered most of her face, her eye had swollen shut, and blood dripped to the dirt. There was the faintest putrid smell clinging to her pelt, worse than any mousebile. She swayed once, then twice, then crumbled to the ground in a heap of calico fur as she passed out.

@emberstar (tagging so emberstar sees this, but anyone is welcome to respond + anyone can be the person she bumps into!)
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He had just been about to catch a mouse when he heard Patchpaw scream. The mouse ran, but he didn't care, his head shot up and looked around frantically.

"PATCHPAW!?"
He called, and took off in the direction of the scream. He followed the scent of blood, the smell of death and decay hitting him but it wasn't his priority. Patchpaw was.

Shortly after Patchpaw arrived in camp, Rabbitnose came running in. When he saw Patchpaw on the ground and bloody, his heart stopped.

"PATCHPAW!!!!"

He raced over to her and shook her. " Please get up- BERRYHEART!!"

Not again. He would not go through this again.

((@BERRYHEART taggin u cus rabbit is YELLIN)))
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I AM THE DEVIL THAT YOU FORGOT​
"Aw shit! What the hell happened to ya, kid?" Blackmoon's expression twisted into one of growing concern as he hurried over to where Patchpaw had collapsed, nothing about what he had just witnessed or heard giving him much to go on beyond knowing that it was something dire. Needless to say but his heart went out to Rabbitnose in that moment as he looked to the other tom. At least the other warrior had had the sense to call for their medicine cat. "Patchpaw, help is coming. Rabbitnose, speak to her, keep her calm." Panic would do them no good, though he wouldn't lie that his gaze kept flitting over towards the camp the entrance. Was the source of Patchpaw's injuries out there? Were they heading their way? Blackmoon didn't like the uncertainty and he wasn't content with letting the risk linger, not with vulnerable kits in the camp. "I'll check outside the camp for threats!" He called out as he hurried for the tunnel through the brambles.
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WE'VE BEEN DOIN' ALL THIS LATE NIGHT TALKIN' ✧​
"What's going on?" Fireflypaw calls out worriedly as he rushes after Blackmoon, unsure if the tom was getting himself into another situation with his grandmother or one of the apprentices. He was half-right, it seemed. There stood Patchpaw, bleeding from her face and smelling of the color green. Fireflypaw stood there in shock for a moment, eyes fluttering as he took in the sight of the wounded apprentice.

Should he help? That wasn't his job though, was it? He wasn't a medicine cat. What if doing something made things worse?

Rabbitnose begins to yell for Berryheart, Fireflypaw deciding to make sure nobody came too close to the apprentice. "Back up! Give her some space!" He warned those who came too close, watching as Blackmoon took off to make sure the person responsible was gone from the territory. He'd heard rumors of a rogue attacking an apprentice from his father's clan; but the words Patchpaw spoke.. ShadowClan warrior? Eyebrows scrunched together in thought as he worked on keeping some space between Patchpaw and other cats. Rabbitnose was fine, was fine-

"It is not her time, Miss.." He mumbles softly to the ground, a paw smoothing over the grassy floor- as if speaking to nature herself. Dawnglare had taught him enough to know that the ground was where they returned to when they died; StarClan was only where their spirits went. "May She show mercy.."​
 
”Move, MOVE!"

His voice carried through the whole camp as Spotflare sprinted forwards and crossed the camp in record time, seemingly appearing out of nowhere at his daughter's side. He had been previously sharing some fresh-kill with his son Cherrypaw when Patchpaw burst into camp. Now, a cold sweat broke over him when he came closer and saw the extent of the damage. Her blood dripped into the dirt and she did not respond to Rabbitnose shaking her or the other yelling cats, nor did she respond to her own father pressing his nose into her fur.
”You're--you're gonna be alright, Patches, I'm here, dad's here, I promise... I won't leave your side, please, stay together until you can get help..." He spoke as though she could hear him, but there was not a twitch in her ear, only the steady, rhythmic breathing of her flank rising and falling. His voice cracked out of a mix of anguish and relief, and he nuzzled against her neck with a subdued cry, his claws sinking into the ground.

There was a moment of silence before Spotflare steeled himself to stand back up again, his hackles rising as anguish changed to fury.

”You were supposed to be watching her." His gaze was like staring into the hot depths of fire. "Where the fuck were you?"
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A CANDLE IN THE NIGHT IS MY ONLY WAY OUT​
 

Knowing how ill-dealt he was with ichor, the hand of squeamish bestowed upon him at birth, Berryheart had dreaded for weeks the day he would be called to a scene that smelt of nothing but injury. His name, so seldom called before these new moons, broke the air in a panic. To rely on him in a pinch... when he was younger he would have thought such a thing deeply unwise. With age selfishness had fallen from his pelt like water, though... his fickle spirit lay humbled now, and so to the beck and call he ran. Or- ambled, as fast as he could make it on three paws.

A frown crossed his features as he waded through the crowd. Down upon the apprentice he peered, askew eyes barely focusing for even a moment before he began to press cobwebs onto her wounds- though the limited amount he had brought out with him would not suffice for long. "My den." he said, flick of his flecked head in the direction of it. It was not far. His den seemed a strange expression, but in that moment it fell from him rather naturally. A swift order, curt even, but this situation required quickness. He could not move her, not alone. "I'll prepare. Move her." Determined, and as level and calm as ever, he turned swiftly away from the sight. The scent and the appearance of the poor child sickened him, set him woozy on his feet, but to the threshold he soon made it.​
[ PENNED BY PIN ]​
 

Rabbitnose barely heard Blackmoon as he spoke, but it still registered. He couldn't exactly talk to Patchpaw right now, though. She was passed out and it was all his fault.

This was all his fault.

He should have taught her to fight first thing. He just....He thought learning to hunt and learning the territory was a good start.....It was almost leaf bare and....

He swallowed hard.

And then Spotflare arrived. When the tom turned his gaze on him, he could feel the fire burning into him.

"I...We ... We were hunting. She must have wandered off, I..... I'm so sorry." He managed. "I s-should have kept a better eye on her....."

He couldn't even meet Spotflare's gaze. When Berryheart said to move to his den, he was quick to gently lift Patchpaw up to help move her to the medicine den.

He was never forgiving himself for this one.
​
 

Kittens, as he had learned, did not like being confined to places and told what to do. It was a tragic truth. Sunfreckle wished dearly he could impart the warning of how dangerous the world was without scaring them but sadly fear was the only motivator available to kits who thought themselves older than their few moons. He rushed out of the nursery at the frantic cries, eyes widening in horror at Patchpaw's poor bloodied and limp form before a sharp blur of movement had him turning his head in time to see the older warrior leaving instructions and leaving the camp.

"Blackmoon-no! Blackmoon, wait!" No, he was going to get his fool self killed running off alone like that and Sunfreckle couldn't chase after him, even if he wanted to, he was a little too out of shape to keep pace with a warrior right now so he shoved himself between Spotflare and Rabbitnose, shouldering his mate to and stopping him from moving Patchpaw because the wild fury in her father's eyes was enough of a warning he had lost his sensibilities, the red tabby looked pointedly after the retreating senior warrior. "Rabbitnose, please, go after him!" With a pointed look he directed himself to lean into Spotflare, urging the other to focus on his daughter, "Get her up, let's go-let's take her to Berryheart, I'm right here with you." He gives Fireflypaw a confused but careful look before nudging the grieving father again.
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╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮​

Patchpaw is hurt, hurt bad, and Morningpaw only watches the frenzy with terrified rainstorm eyes. The little she-cat had wandered away during training, that's all -- careless, but she'd stayed within ThunderClan's territory, surely, hadn't she?

She presses her flank to Fireflypaw's, trying to stifle the wail of terror that threatens to tear from her throat. She and Patchpaw weren't especially close, but they were denmates, had been denmates since they were tiny. She knows about the rogues in SkyClan that had killed an apprentice -- but she heard ShadowClan warrior and began to gasp.

"Not even ShadowClan would hurt her, would they?" She asks her brother, trembling. "Oh, StarClan, I hope she's okay..." It's the first time she's been made to face how viciously cruel the forest could be.

The stench of blood makes her woozy. How can I be a warrior when it's like this all the time? She's almost dizzy with her own fear, her own grief at seeing Patchpaw hurt.

- ,,​
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Still seething, Spotflare leaned back down to carefully grip Patchpaw by the scruff of her neck. His smoldering eyes locked not a moment too long on Rabbitnose before his gaze tore away to focus on his daughter. With help from Sunfreckle, the two of them lift her small body up and carry her off after Berryheart to the medicine cat's den.
Feeling her hang limply from his jaws, Spotflare couldn't help but be reminded of when she was a kit. He always had to fetch her before she fell off a ledge or fell into a pen with strange animals, but it was different this time.

Whether or not it was a mistake to allow her to become an apprentice so early would be decided later, Spotflare mused to himself with eyebrows furrowed deep in thought. He helped Sunfreckle set her in a nest inside the medicine cat's den, where her body slumped into the moss and her head rest against the floor. After taking careful time to position her in a way so that she was at rest and Berryheart could reach the claw wounds across her face, he took a few steps back and sat down.
”Thank you, Sunfreckle. Until she is healthy and safe, I am not leaving her side," Spotflare demands, his eyes narrowing at Berryheart. His voice still had an edge of stress.

”Then I will find who would dare attack my daughter and repay the favor."
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A CANDLE IN THE NIGHT IS MY ONLY WAY OUT​
 

Sunfreckle blocked him before he could help move Patchpaw, and he could still feel Spotflare boring into him. He met his gaze only for a moment before he and Sunfreckle carried Patchpaw off. Sunfreckles words were almost lost on him until they finally registered.

He felt frozen to the ground. He lingered for a moment before Badgerstrike trotted up beside him, giving him a nudge.

"Let's go." She said. She had only seen part of what happened in camp, but she could gather that someone needed an ass beating and honestly, that's all the context she needed.

Rabbitnose didn't reply. He quietly walked off after Blackmoon, quickening into a trot, and into a sprint. Badgerstrike followed him. She knew how her brother was when he felt something was his fault, and she didn't want to leave him alone.

Besides, if something happened to HIM out there, well damn. It would be open season on any unfamiliar face she spotted within their borders.

They had been apart for so long.....She was quite ready to get back to being the overprotective sister.
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Reactions: creamsnekkle

I AM THE DEVIL THAT YOU FORGOT​
Blackmoon hadn't gotten too far ahead, likely to Rabbitnose and Badgerstrike's benefit. When he realised that he wasn't alone anymore he lifted his head and nodded at them. "This way, I have the scent trail left behind by Patchpaw. If we follow it back then we should run into some clues." With luck they'd catch the bastard behind the whole affair. His claws were itching for some use, that was for sure. Though he had no idea what they were about to run into.
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