Blood-Red Sunset

Blood painted his chest and paws as he padded into the camp with wounded body of the medicine cat apprentice, the orange light of the sunset shining over his fur. Even if his paws were in pain by all the walking, he couldn’t stop there. The Riverclan deputy made his way to the medicine cat den and he carefully placed Goldenpaw on the closest nest. With the adrenaline still running through his veins, Jaystream ran to Cloudstone. ”Cloudstone! Goldenpaw is hurt and she needs your help immediately! She passed out a while ago and she’s hardly breathing!” He screamed desperate before trotting back to the exit of the den. ”She said that you will need cobwebs to stop the bleeding. I’m going to gather them for you as fast as I can!”

Not waiting for an answer, the grey tabby tom left the camp, not minding the curious eyes of his clanmates when they saw the blood covering his pelt. Quickly, he searched for cobwebs in dead beech trees and fetched them in his jaws, impatiently to come back to the camp and see Goldenpaw.

"Jaystream! What's going on!" Ivystar raced into the medicine cat den after scenting blood from where she was helping to fix up some of the dens. She prayed that it wasn't an apprentice, no one young and vulnerable to the cold and illness. The blood scent was too intense to be a minor wound, StarClan have mercy... Then she saw the familiar pelt of Goldenpaw and she cursed their ancestors, swiping at the dirt floor with her unsheathed claws in anger. "Who. Did. This?"

Cloudstone's stomach turned when, once again, the scent of blood flooded his den. The tom barely recognized his apprentice through all the red seeping from her belly. "Dear StarClan." His paws were shaking as he rifled through what he had on paw. Horsetail, marigold, that's what he needed. He prayed he could count on Jaystream to bring them some cobweb. After he found what he needed, the medicine cat realized he couldn't see what he was doing through the blood. "Ivystar, Ivystar, I'm sure you can tear into who did this later, once you help me. Help me clear all this blood away so I can do what I need to do!" His white tail was lashing anxiously and he couldn't stand still.

'She will wake up, she will wake up, she will wake up...'

The tall tom ran into the camp once again with cobwebs in his jaws. He entered the medicine cat den where Cloudstone was trying to clean up all the blood coming out from Goldenpaw’s belly. He shivered when he saw that Goldenpaw wasn’t opening her eyes and he feared the worst. ”Cloudstone! Here are the cobwebs. Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked before turning his eyes to his angered mother.

”Ivystar... I found her in the Gorge. I don’t know who did this to her but... the place smelled like Windclan...” He mewed with his voice trembling, unable to contain his desperation. He couldn’t lose another friend because of a battle in the Gorge... His green eyes glanced at Goldenpaw, worried. He had to do something... anything...

ooc: cloudstone spilt that tea on ivy

At hearing Jaystream's words, she wanted to race over to the border herself and bring ruin onto WindClan, but she forced down her anger into a manageable ball within, all molten and burning. Listening to her medicine cat, she leant down and begun to lick at the apprentice's fur, tasting the metallic blood that acutely reminded her how close she was to death. Once Goldenpaw's life was saved, she swore that she would make sure Ashstar remember what happened the last time one of their apprentices were hurt. She would tearing down their walls and make them pay.

Momentarily glad that Ivystar began to help, the medicine cat internally recoiled at the taste of his own apprentice's blood, and was sure his leader felt very much the same. He was more than relieved to see Jaystream return and swiftly took the cobwebs from the other tom's grasp. Cloudstone chewed his herbs into a poultice, careful so as to not swallow any, and pressed it into the deeper wounds before trying to stall the blood loss with the spider web. "At least the bleeding lets us know she's alive," he mumbled. With a push, the black cat moved Goldenpaw onto her back in hopes of allowing gravity to help keep the puddle of red from growing any bigger.

He nodded his head to the deputy, but kept his eyes locked on his apprentice. "Thank you for finding her. I'm not sure what RiverClan would do - what I would do - if she was lost." He wasn't getting any younger; Goldenpaw needed to be his final apprentice.

Goldenpaw seemed to shake like she had just been submerged into the gorge, her belly shuddering with the contact of herbs and tongues. A groan seemed to wrench itself from her throat, her teeth clenching together albeit weakly. Goldenpaw could hear voices, chittering like lovebirds above her though there was something off and familiar about it all. Everything seemed to dull as her hearing heightened to the point it was practically unbearable. What was happening? Why was everything so loud and numb? Goldenpaw's heavy eye-lids opened, the light blinding her for a moment and faces coming into view. Cloudstone? Ivystar? Jaystream? What were they doing here? The next sense to come back was her sense of smell, and the scent of blood stung her nostrils so violently she couldn't help but wretch.

Stumbling to her paws from her back she dry heaved, her belly burning as she heaved. What was going on? Golden eyes stretched wide as she looked at the blood that splattered the ground, that had coated her belly, the blood that coated her clan-mates lips and paws. Slowly, Goldenpaw put the facts together and looked down at her belly, seeing horrendous scars that marked her stomach. She remembered her skirmish with the Windclan apprentice, the cat that showed her almost no mercy by ripping into her belly countless times. Her head swam, and she collapsed back onto her side. "Oh, my Starclan. How am I still alive?" She wheezed, her head thumping against the ground as she shut her eyes tightly, her head and ears pounding.

The warrior lowered his head, his eyes fixed on the unconscious she-cat. He barely moved his tail when Cloudstone thanked him. There was nothing to be grateful. It was something he had to do no matter what... Goldenpaw was his friend.

The wise medicine cat apprentice helped him each time he needed it and not only for healing physical wounds. What would he do without her? He didn't realize it until now... the golden-furred apprentice slowly became one of his closest friends since the day they shared a meal. She was there to listen at him and shares his own worries and, after that time, sometimes they spent time together, not worrying about big issues and just talking. Losing her... was something he didn't think about until now and he feared that. Without Goldenpaw... Jaystream would feel devastated and lost in a clan that wouldn't be the same anymore. When did the she-cat enter so deep into his life?

But his prays were heard in the moment Goldenpaw started to move. His dull eyes shone with a new hope and the handsome Riverclan deputy stepped closer to the she-cat. His irrational fear started to fade away as she talked once again. "Oh... Thanks to Starclan you're awake, Goldenpaw! I was so afraid... you passed out before I could start carrying you back to camp. I-I-I feared the worst... but Ivystar and Cloudstone came to help. Don't force yourself. You must rest now." He mewed happier than before. She was awake... Unlike Cinderpaw, the medicine cat was able to open her eyes. He couldn't ask for more in a situation like this.

At Goldenpaw's confused meows, Ivystar was finally able to unclench her tense jaws and breathe. Their medicine cat apprentice would live, Goldenpaw wouldn't be another casualty this Leafbare. But that didn't stop her from her task, efficiently licking her clean through the apprentice's dry-heaving, gently nudging her into a more comfortable position. She wanted so badly to ask, to demand of the apprentice which WindClan warrior or apprentice that she had to rake to ribbons, but now wasn't the time. She was too weak, and as Cloudstone said, violence could wait. She would get her pound of flesh soon enough.

"Yes, listen to Jaystream. Your body is weak, don't waste your strength... Cloudstone, how bad are her wounds? Will she recover?" Her greatest concern was that these wounds would hinder the apprentice permanently, she was likely Cloudstone's last apprentice, the medicine cat was getting old. To have anything happen to her, that was something neither of them could afford.