Proving myself to me

Primroselight was finally going to do it today. She was teaching herself how to climb trees. Her training during her apprenticeship had mostly focussed on learning to use her other senses to make up for her lack of sight, and when she showed a clear fear and distaste in being up in the canopy, her and Smokefeather had avoided it slightly. Also, it didn't help that the entire territory burned down not long after she had become a 'paw. It probably would've been safer for her to bring another warrior along to help her, give her some tips in climbing and so there was two of them in case something happened, but her pride couldn't take that much of a hit. This was something she could (and would) so by herself. She would just stay near-ash camp.

As she headed out the entrance, she had to mentally prepare herself for what she was about to do. There was so many reasons she liked to avoid the trees, and now she was subconsciously listing them all of. What a great way to calm nerves. The unpredictable layout of the branches, the way that should couldn't hear or smell what was ahead of her, a general dislike for heights, just to name a few. But she would do it now. She would become a real SkyClan warrior. One that could utilise the clan's most recognisable trait.

A sturdy oak stood in front of her, and she had to gulp slightly. She didn't know whether she was in sight of camp (although she hoped she wasn't), but she was definitely within yelling distance. She couldn't bear for someone else watch her fail more than they already did. But she could do this. If she just kept telling herself that. Digging her claws into the slightly ashen wood, she pulled herself up so she was hugging the trunk. Hoping that she was doing it correctly, she pulled herself up further and further, until she found a v-shaped nook that she could rest in. She was much smaller and lighter than Dawnhawk or Bloodstrike, but a lack of climbing experience meant she lacked the needed upper body strength.

But getting up the trunk was just the start. There was much more to climbing than making it a few tail-lengths above the ground. Most warriors of her clan could chase prey across the branches without falling. Her claws dug extremely deep into the branch, she chose what felt like was probably the widest limb. To an experienced climber, it would be clear that this branch was dead and therefore not safe at all, but Primroselight had no idea. She only thought that it was how trees went after a fire.

Further and further she crept, hanging on with all her strength. She could feel that she was nearing the end of the branch, but what was she meant to do? Maybe she could turn around...

Caw! Caw!

As Primroselight was trying to turn around, the call of a bird caught her attention. Attention that she couldn't afford to be diverted. Her hindquarters slipped from underneath her, sending a searing pain through the shoulder she was using to cling to the tree. She wanted to hold on longer, but she knew it wasn't physically possible. Tears streaming from her eyes, she let go, sending her to the ground. She landed with a small 'oof' sound on the forest floor. She couldn't move her injured leg. She couldn't stand up. "Help!" She yelled, hoping someone would hear her. All she could do was lie there in pain, waiting for someone to come to her aid. She would need some serious help from Beechface

The leaf-fall air was cold as Beechface made her way back towards camp, a bundle of herbs in her jaws. Tansy and Coltsfoot, Feverfaw, Ragwort and Daisy leaves. She was amassing a stockpile before the cold of leaf-bare truly set in, while being careful to leave enough growth in Skyclan's ravaged territory for things to grow back in newleaf.

A cry split the quiet air, not that far from camp, and Beechface's head snapped up as she was broken out of her thoughts. She'd recognized her sister's voice, and bounded through the trees in the direction her shout had come from, fur fluffing in alarm, recognizing the pain in her voice. On the very slim chance she was somehow wrong, there was a distinct difference between angry yowls and pained yowls, and she'd never known her sister to get angry. No, it was pain.

"Primroselight! What happened?" Beechface exclaimed, tone sharp with worry. She only just remembered to drop the bundle of herbs so she wasn't mumbling around them, but was quickly at the cream-pointed she-cat's side, brow furrowed in concern as she took in Primroselight's soft form.

Beechface tried to avoid thoughts of what her parents would say if it was something serious. There was no blood, no scent of foxes or other predators. That was good. Beechface focused on the injured warrior in front of her, carefully checking over her form for injuries. The shoulder was the only obvious thing, and it seemed out of place, almost. If it wasn't the source of Primroselight's pain, Beechface would be shocked.

Gingerly, careful not to press any harder than absolutely necessary, Beechface ran a large fore-paw over the wounded shoulder. Nothing appeared to be broken, but it definitely wasn't laying right. There was swelling, but the injury had been recent. It couldn't be left like this for long, however. Much as she wanted to get her sister back to camp first to give her something for the pain, getting Primroselight back to camp first would take longer and only cause her more pain than was necessary.

"Your shoulder is dislocated, does anything else hurt?" She asked, retreating for a moment to find a sizable stick. Something for her to bite down on. For pain that was all she had out here, but a dislocation was much better than some of the alternatives that had first run through her mind.

"I'm going to have to pop this back into place before anything else. Bite down on the stick, it'll hurt." Beechface's tone was brisk, no-nonsense, yet oddly calm. For the moment. Focus on the injury first, then yell at the injured warrior, she told herself.

Beechface took a breath to steady herself, carefully bracing her paws on Primroselight's shoulder once more. Her sister wasn't likely to thank her for the pain that popping the dislocated joint back into place would cause, but at least the pain would immediately lessen once it was back in place. She'd have a nice, cozy nest in the medicine den after this, of course. The shoulder would still be very sore and she'd need to stay off of it for a few days at least.

At least Primroselight was a smaller cat... And wasn't usually aggressive... A quick snap of movement, and the deed would be done.

Primroselight breathed a short sigh of relief as she heard Beechface rushing to help her. She would definitely get scolded by her sister later, but at the moment a medicine cat finding her was probably the best possibility. Trying her best to take deeper breaths to control the pain, her head cleared slightly and she noticed the paw of her injured leg was sitting in a small pool of liquid. Blood. It was probably just a missing claw that would grow back, nothing compared to the agony her shoulder was in. To be fair, there was so little blood that she wasn't surprised that Beechface's main focus was the clear injury. She would wait a little to answer her sister's questions, hopefully saving her wraith for when the pain had dialled down a few notches.

Her face was still soaked with tears, but she took the stick in her mouth and prepared for her shoulder to be popped back into place. She tried to brace herself for the pain, already biting down hard. Before, she had had mostly minor injuries; a sore throat and burnt paw-pads like very cat who had witnessed the fire, a few smaller scars after encounters with predators, so this new, unbearable pain was foreign to her. Hopefully it would all be fixed soon though. Unable to think straight, she just tensed and waited for the burst of pain to come.

Beechface took another breath, then quickly popped the dislocated joint back where it belonged. Primroselight wasn't likely to thank her for the fresh wave of pain that would likely cause, but with the shoulder now in place it would fade quickly to something more manageable.

"Alright, you going to tell me what you were doing that dislocated your shoulder?" She'd noted the tears on her sister's face, probably from the pain and not the expectation of a lecture, or so Beechface hoped. Primroselight would be the one cat capable of making her rethink snapping at anyone, especially her.

Beechface gentled her grip on Primroselight, but made no effort to loosen her grip so much that Primroselight would be able to move away just yet.

"Stay still, I'm not letting you put weight on that just yet." More like she wasn't letting Primroselight up until she got an answer. Beechface finally noticed the blood by her paw, and let out a soft huff. She didn't have the herbs on-paw, so it would have to wait until they were back in the medicine den. It would be simple enough to treat though, and was less worrisome than her shoulder.

Primroselight cried out in pain as Beechface popped her shoulder back into place. The stick crunched in her jaws slightly, but held up. Although, now that it was fixed, she did feel a little better. It still ached and felt bruised, but the searing, fire-like pain was gone. But of course, now that some of the pain had faded, she would have to explain herself to her sister. This would be fun.

"Climbing..." She whispered, but soon realised that Beechface wouldn't let her go until she got a real answer.

Taking a deep breath, she wiped the tears from her eyes with her uninjured forepaw, trying to stall a bit. "I-I needed to prove that I was a real SkyClan cat who can climb trees. I just didn't think it would be so difficult... or scary." She added quietly on the end. She wriggled slightly in her sister's grasp, but her shoulder yelled at her to stop. At least now she understood why she wasn't allowed to get up. It was find when she stayed still, but any movement made a lot of the pain come back to the weakened joint.

Comfort had never been something that came naturally to Beechface, but for her sister, she'd try. She leaned forward, resting her chin between Primroselight's ears for a moment. She could tell the smaller she-cat was in pain, and Beechface hated seeing it.

It was probably a good thing that Primroselight couldn't see the thunderous expression that settled over Beechface's features. If a look could set the forest on fire, Skyclan's home would be up in flame again. Where she had never found comforting others easy, anger was something familiar. Perhaps too familiar.

"What mousebrained idiot put that idea into your head? You know Wolfstar and Foxfire both hate being in the trees, right? That doesn't make you any less of a Skyclan cat." Beechface growled. The one time she'd ever seen Wolfstar climb a tree was when they'd seeen those twolegs back in greenleaf... Starclan help whichever cat had made Primroselight feel lesser just because she didn't enjoy climbing. Beechface would rip their fur off and enjoy every second of it.

"I only heard you because I was on my way back to camp. Which is where anything useful for this foolishness is." Beechface muttered sourly. And getting the smaller warrior back to camp would be fun. She scanned their surroundings for any signs of the herbs that would have been useful, but found nothing. Cobwebs and sticks would only go so far to keep the joint (and the leg attached to it) still. Ragwort and juniper berries in a poultice would help far more, but if she bound her leg and shoulder with cobwebs now, she was going to have to unbind it immediately once they got back to camp just to get the poultice on her shoulder and to get the swelling down... Better to just get the injured warrior back to camp and tend to the injury properly. A temporary splint would do nothing but be more painful without herbs or any other preparation first.

Beechface retreated once she was sure Primroselight would stay still on her own, quickly snatching up the bundle of herbs she'd dropped earlier.

"Okay, let's get you back to camp. Lean on me, and we'll just have to try not to jostle your shoulder too much. No putting weight on it, either." Ideally she could be carried between two others, but finding someone else would take longer than Beechface was comfortable with. She wasn't about to leave her sister alone and wounded out here. A wounded cat would attract predators, and one of the foxes that had been harassing the clan still had yet to be found. No, that was not a risk Beechface would ever be willing to take. It would be awkward with their height difference and Beechface's considerably longer stride, but she'd do her best to adjust and keep Primroselight from any unnecessary pain as she could.