My face still hurts (Closed for Night)

Rockthorn hopped into camp, his shoulder and jaw swollen and hot, pain radiated from the young tom as he limped towards his mother- no Darkstar's den. Rockthorn didn't bother to call for her, his jaw hurting too much for him to really speak, shuffling in he slumped down onto his rump as he looked down at her with bleary eyes the clotted blood from his scratches almost crusting his eyelids together.

He didn't let his friends clean away the blood, he wanted the evidence of Hawkpaw's wrong doing evident on his face. He was breathing heavy, his jaw so swollen it was making it hard for him to properly breathe, so if his entrance didn't wake her his breathing or the stench of blood would. But, for safe measure he prodded Darkstar with his tail just to be sure.

Darkstar's head lifted, still a bit drowsy from her sleep. For a moment she didn't recognize Rockthorn as him, the blood coloring his fur made her think of someone else. He looked more brown than grey. 'Beanfoot?' For a moment the leader thought she was still a warrior, and that the cat before her was her brother waking her to go on a patrol. But the half-dream faded away within a blink and she saw the bloodied and mangled form of her son.

"Dear StarClan," she murmured, sitting up with a jolt. Without hesitation she began to lick the wounds on his face, her muzzle twisting when she saw the damage that had been done to his jaw. "What... What happened to you?"

Rockthorn felt a wave of relief rush through him, quickly comforted by his 'mothers' tongue lapping away his blood. Sourness made him want to spit despite, but that would be a time for later. "Hawkpaw attacked me when he asked me and Falconpaw to go on a patrol, I accepted because I wanted to spend time with Falconpaw. I nearly slain Hawkpaw, Falconpaw convinced me otherwise." His words were muffled and hard to hear, pain making his eyes scrunch shut.

The tom gave a pained grunt, his shoulders shuddering before he slumped to the ground a sob racking from his chest his jaw feeling like fire was engulfing it. Was it broken? He knew a few teeth would be broken but his jaw if it was broken on top of a ripped open lip, he'd probably starve to death.

The leader's gaze hardened as she listened to Rockthorn's encounter with Hawkpaw and Falconpaw, rage quickly building in her heart. Not only was this a deliberate breaking of the warrior code, this was her son for StarClan's sake! Still, she tried to stay calm. Her son needed rest and acting aggressively wasn't going to help him.

"Do you why he attacked you? Did he tell you?" She pressed her head on top of his, trying to ignore the feeling of his blood drying in her fur. She hated the taste of a Clanmate's blood more than anything. 'Hawkpaw.' Her eyes narrowed behind the tom's back. 'I welcomed him into ThunderClan and this is how he returns the favor? When will the forest finally be rid of Bear's influence?' For the moment she provided her beloved son, scarred as he was, a shoulder to cry on.

Rockthorn gave a shaky nod, as his mother asked why Hawkpaw had done it. But the tom couldn't understand why she couldn't see the link between Hawkpaw and Falconpaw, but nonetheless he let a whiny mew from his swollen jaws. "Falconpaw's mother, Hawkpaw tried to kill me because of my killing Falconpaw's mother." He whined, shoving the top of his head into the groove between Darkstar's chest and leg, his jaw too tender to push into that groove like he always had done. "I've tried everything to make up for that." Rockthorn whined some more, but more out of pain than anything.