A Kit In Danger (for WindClan especially, but Open)

After running out, Ashkit stopped and took a deep breath. No warriors had noticed. Finally, she could explore! It was so good to be out of the nursery! She felt almost like an apprentice. Or better yet, a warrior! What might her warrior name be? Ashkit kept going until she saw a strange black path. It smelled weird. There was a strange noise, and a light, coming from the other end.

As anyone who knew her could attest, Ashkit was very curious. You might say it was her fatal flaw. So, of course, she had to touch the strange path. It felt hard, like stone, and yet rough against her pads. It was warm as the sun had been shining on it all day. The noise grew louder. She turned towards the noise. Faster than she could react to, a huge... thing... ran down the path and hit Ashkit. She crumpled down against the strange, hard ground.

Ashkit opened her eyes. First, all she saw were bright lights, the memory of the monster's eyes imprinted on hers. She glanced upwards and saw two cats with stars in their fur...

"Graybriar! Thrushheart!" Ashkit called to her parents in delight. "Is this it? Have you come to take me home with you?"

Her mother's gaze was proud yet sad and longing. "No, Ashkit," Graybriar meowed. "It is not your time yet."

"That is what we have come to tell you," Thrushheart said in his commanding, deep voice. "That and you have a great destiny in this Clan."

"So... you're not mad?" asked Ashkit hopefully. "That I chose not to be in ShadowClan?" But her parents were fading away. She came back to reality- she was stranded on the Thunderpath, consumed almost entirely by pain. She let herself drift off to sleep, hoping maybe Gorsepaw would come find her, or some other cat.

Or better yet, that she could join her parents and that they were mistaken about a destiny in WindClan.

OCC: Yeah, she's not dead. Anyone can find her.

What was a kit doing on the Thunderpath?! Unfortunately for Fennelcloud, she couldn't get there in time and saw the horrible monster hit the poor thing. Thankfully, the kit was small enough that it went underneath the monster, but not without injury. Dashing towards her, Fennelcloud carefully and quickly dashed over the Thunderpath, picking up the kit cautiously by the scruff and darting over to Windclan's side. The Shadowclan queen was simply out for a nice stroll after she had asked Mistflower to watch over her kits and now she was rescuing a Windclan kit. Did Starclan lead her out here just to do this? Placing Ashkit on the ground as gently as the queen could manage, she looked up into the tall grass that consumed Windclan's territory. With no one in sight, she looked back down at the small she-cat. "It's okay, little kit. There's nothing to worry about now. You're safe. Hopefully a patrol will be by soon," she purred, even though Ashkit was unconscious. If Fennelcloud new the way to Windclan's camp, this wouldn't have been an issue, but the queen had no idea... "Is anyone out there?!" she called out into the moor.

It was beautiful as always out on the moors - Littlepath had found himself hunting and hunting over and over again. Things seemed to be going smoothly. No sort of trouble, or drama everything seemed to be quiet today and he always enjoyed some quiet time. It was relaxing and you didn't need to stress about anything. A fresh killed rabbit laid at the small warriors paws - his blue green eyes beaming with excitement from his fresh kill. The tom looked up surprised when he had heard someone calling out. He quickly got a scent of the air easily being able to notice that it was a shadowclan warrior!

What was a shadow clan warrior doing on windclans territory? Did the mousebrains not know borders?? He quickly zipped of towards the direction of the disgusting shadowclan smell. His ears perked once he spotted a beautiful ginger she-cat looking around cluelessly. The tom quickly reacted remaining cool calm and collected he greeted the she-cat friendly. "Ahem.. hello." He spoke formally his tail flicking - oblivious to the kit that is near her . "How may I help you.. or may I ask why your on windclans territory?" He spoke cooly his head tilting.

Ashkit opened her bleary, pain-filled eyes. The camp swam before her eyes. Not recognizing Littlepath, she thought he was his brother- the cat she had last talked to.
"Gorsepaw?" she muttered almost inaudibly. "I lost that honeycomb. I'm really sorry I wasted it. Can you help my leg please?" She succumbed to sleep again.

Her eyes immediately looking back down at Ashkit, Fennelcloud was relieved to see that the little kit was waking up. At least she was alive, thank Starclan. Glancing back up at the Windcland warrior that appeared, the she-cat tensed up, but didn't move. She didn't want to fight-- that was the exact opposite reason why she was here "I saved one of your kits from being flattened on the Thunderpath," she meowed, trying to keep her voice calm and collected without nervousness or irritation getting mixed in. "She was already hit once. I'm glad I found her on time. I would have taken her back to your camp, but I assumed a patrol nearby wouldn't exactly care for that." Pausing for a moment as Ashkit fell unconscious again, she looked up worriedly at Littlepath. "We don't have time for this. We-- You need to get her back to camp to your medicine cat. I don't know how long she can last with her small size."

OOC: Timeskip to camp

There was something about the day that gave Gorsepaw the chills, an omniscient feeling of dread that started with finding the fresh berries he'd picked the other day filled with worms. He was on edge, and when the scent of blood wafted into the camp, the calico shot out of his den onto a bloody scene.

The kit's back leg had been mangled by what was most likely a monster. There wasn't much time, if there was to be any chance of saving that leg, he had to work fast.

"Bring him over here!" He called out to the warrior carrying him, Shadowclan or Windclan, he didn't care, the kit needed to be healed as soon as possible.

Ashkit opened her eyes again, this time fully lucid. "Oh, hi, Gorsepaw. Wait... weren't you over there? What's wrong with my leg?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed, now I need you to hold still, Ashkit." The calico kept calm, not wanting to panic the little kit who was in bad shape. He needed to check the leg bone and muscle damage, but didn't want to alert the kit something was terribly wrong or cause pain. It was a tough position to be in as Ashkit was, as his named suggested, only a kit.

"You! Bring him to my den, carefully. And you! Fetch moss so that he has somewhere soft to lay." He barked out orders to whatever cat was nearby, there was no time for foolishness about ranks or clans. After making sure his orders would be followed, Gorsepaw ran back to his den to prepare a poultice. Comfrey for any broken bones, goldenrod for the gashes, and finally marigold for any infections were chewed up into a pulp. Then he prepared some juniper berries, feverfew and poppy seeds with a bit of that fresh honey for the young kit to eat.

Ashkit was carried into the medicine cats' den. So strange to think she had been there just half an hour ago, and now she was back again. Except this time, instead of exploring the den and being confused about honeycomb, she was lying on the dens' floor, her leg a wreck from an excess of curiosity and plain carelessness. She itched to look at her leg, but forced herself not to as she was convinced that looking at the damage might make it worse. Besides, Gorsepaw could fix it.
...right?

"Ashkit, I need you to eat this mix." Gorsepaw nudged over a leaf with the berries and seed mix, the honey should have made it easy to eat, but the bitterness was something he could do little about. He needed the kit to take some painkillers before doing anything to her leg. A cat so young could die of shock if she went through too much pain. While the effects wouldn't kick in immediately, it was better than nothing.

Once she ate the mix, then he'd apply the poultice with catchweed to hold it in place.

Ashkit ate the mix and grimaced. "Yuck. What happened to my leg? How will this help?" A gentle lifting of the pain in her hind leg answered her. "Ohhhh... that feels nice."

"Now hold still. This might sting a little." Gorsepaw placed the poultice mix onto the kit's leg, then he manoeuvred some sticks to hold her leg in place and wrapped everything in Rush leaves. He gave the kit soothing licks as he did all this, knowing it must be painful. But it was for her own good, this would allow her legs to heal properly, and with luck, she might be able to use her leg a few moons later.

It was a good sign that she could still feel her leg. "You alright? You've just broken some bones, but they'll heal."

"Okay." Ashkit shuddered. "Wait- Gorsepaw, what are bones? How do you break them? How long will it take to heal? Does this mean I can't be an apprentice?"

"Bones are inside of you and they help you move. Your leg bones are broken at the moment. It might take a few moons to heal, but you'll be an apprentice in no time." There was, of course, a tiny chance that Ashkit may not be able to gain a full range of motion in his leg again, but that wouldn't impair him from being a warrior. Broken bones healed, and muscles could be mended.

"Oh, thank goodness." Ashkit gingerly tried to move her leg. "Ouch. So I have to stay in here, then?"