The Kit and the Warrior (Closed)

Hazel eyes pinned on the small green reptile, the unsuspecting frog looking for bugs. It had no time to run away as a claws hit its side and was quickly killed by a bite to the neck. Nutfur whispered thanks to StarClan as she picked up the small creature, and began padding towards the gorge. The setting sun cast rays of orange light across her chestnut colored pelt, the wind not there to ruffle it. As always, there was the risk that someone would realize that she wasn't in her den, and then everything would be at stake. But there was no question if a kit should be left alone over night or not, so here she was. The thin forest changed into a grassy field the closer she came to the border, and she dropped the frog and scented the air. Her nose soon lead her to a patch of goldenrod, which she carefully picked out of the ground and carried them back to where she had left the frog. She didn't know if Hollowbranch had changed Cobwebkit's dressings the night before or not, but she was better safe than sorry. Managing to pick up both the flowers and the prey, she kept padding her way to the gorge. She looked around nervously a few times, making sure a patrol from neither clan was present, before walking across the bridge, careful to mask her scent with that of the herbs. No clan would be happy that she was crossing the border, and she wasn't happy that she had to. But where she was going was in no clan's territory, she just had to cross through WindClan to get there. After crossing the bridge, she found the path that she had walked every other night for the past moon, inching her way towards the cave under the bridge. Finally, her feet felt solid ground again. She had made it into the cave. She quickly set down the goldenrod next to the cobwebs that formed naturally in the cave, before letting her eyes adjust to the darkness and seeing the small gray kit. A smile spread over her face as walked over to him and dropped the frog at his paws.
"Hello Cobwebkit. I've returned once again," she greeted warmly, "Do you think you can chew your own food, or do you need to to mush it up for you?" At those words she nearly sighed, knowing that he should have an actual mother with milk to feed him instead of having to mush up his prey before he ate it. That's why she always brought frogs instead of fish. She noticed small red splotches along the cobwebs that covered his larger gashes, and realized that she would have to treat them again. All she knew was from the one time she had asked Goldenpaw, and that was just to chew up goldenrod, spread it over the wound, the cover it with cobwebs. She picked up some of the goldenrod and cobwebs, and carried them over to her adopted son. "It looks like I'm going to have to to redress your scratches today. Your going to have to be a brave little warrior and sit through it."

In the short time that Cobwebkit had been taken under the care of Nutfur and Hollowbranch, he had opened his eyes and begun moving around more, although he was still encumbered by his wrappings. With the help of his adoptive parents' daily conversations, he now understood a lot more words. While he was still hindered by his intermittently worrisome wounds, he had been healing gradually. Although he was still thinner than he should have been, he was in a much better state than when he had first been found. His grayish fur had grown a bit longer, a sign that his body was healing from the attack that had ripped away some of his fur in tufts.

The gray, now longer-haired kit had been wincing to himself when Nutfur arrived. He had tried to jump up on his own, but the larger wounds on his hind legs had reopened at the exertion, and he was left crouching in pain. Hearing her come in with pricked ears, Cobwebkit tried to hide his pain by sitting up straighter, although he blinked his golden eyes a little too rapidly to be normal. Turning his head towards her, he put on a happy expression. The kit replied, "I-I think I can do it. Thanks, Mom." He bent down and took a small mouthful, chewing slowly while also using the opportunity to grit his teeth against the pain of his reopened wounds, before swallowing and repeating.

Although he couldn't keep from occasionally crying or whimpering, he tried to keep his complaining to a minimum so that his new parents wouldn't leave him like his mother had. Sometimes they left him alone, and at first he had felt anxious and abandoned, but one or both of them had always returned. After several of these comings and goings, Cobwebkit had felt more secure that they would return. Even though he realized that they weren't his original parents, he called them Mom and Dad. Deep down he still reserved a spot in his heart for his true Mama, but he had grown fast to Nutfur and Hollowbranch.

When Nutfur mentioned that she would have to redress his wounds, the gray kit forgot to chew and almost choked on the third piece of frog. S-she already found out?! Coughing, he spat out the piece of frog onto the ground but soon felt guilty for wasting the food. Turning his golden eyes back onto Nutfur, he mewed sadly with his ears laid back, "Aw, I'm sorry, Mom! You went through all of that hard work for me." Thinking to himself, he lamented, I can't even jump without making Mom go through even more work...

OOC: I hope it's okay if he calls Nutfur (and Hollowbranch) Mom (and Dad). I know we didn't discuss that, but it does make sense. If you don't want him to, then you can just say something like, "Oh, I told you to call me Nutfur," or something.  

"Good job. I'm so proud of you," Nutfur purred at Cobwebkit's initial reply, glad that the small kit was able to chew his own food. It had been rather tedious to have to chew it up for him every other night, but it had worth it to see him recover. The brown warrior began chewing the goldenrod into a poultice, realizing her days of chewing for her adopted son would't be over quite yet. Not that she minded. At his guilty response to coughing up the food, she gaze lovingly at him, refraining from nuzzling his shoulder due to his injuries. He shouldn't have to feel guilty for small little mistakes. The warrior code did say not to waste food, but it wasn't reversible now. And it wasn't the whole frog. Spitting out the poultice, she reassured him of that. "It's fine, honey. There's still more left. You can eat that while I dress your wounds."
After speaking, she took the freshly chewed goldenrod in her paws and smeared it over the large bleeding wound in the small tom's leg. She was gentle and had obviously done this many times before, though her lack of any other medical knowledge was apparent. The golden flower was the only herb she knew of, and it didn't seem to be enough. But she had no idea of anything else to do. It wasn't exactly a good idea to tell Goldenpaw the exact situation, knowing it might get her thrown out. After the gash had been coated with the chewed up plant, Nutfur picked up the cobwebs and placed them over it. It was a little sad that he was named after something used to treat his wounds, but she saw it as a symbol of his healing. And the name fit his long gray fur as well. As she treated the tom's wound, she decided to make conversation. "Did you do anything fun since my last visit?" She was curious if he did anything with Hollowbranch.

OOC: Mom is fine.

Cobwebkit cheered up at seeing how forgiving Nutfur was. Raising his ears and purring a little, the gray tom bent down to chew some more of the frog. He put up with Nutfur's ministrations to his wounds, although he winced occasionally at the stinging sensation.

He thought about Nutfur's question before replying through a mouthful of frog, "Well, Dad played with me, but other than that he told me to stay in the den, like always. I wish I could go outside and go explore." He looked ruefully down at the cobwebs covering his legs.

"I'm sorry you can't go outside. Neither my clan of Hollowbranch's would take you in, and we can't risk loosing you. I know it's tough, but it is for your own good," Nutfur explained sadly. Though she knew Ivystar didn't take kits in, she wouldn't want that to happen if she did. The thought of her adopted son's mind being corrupted was to scary of an idea. As she finished applying the dressings, she wondered if there was anything she could do to help with Cobwebkit's want to travel elsewhere. Obviously their tactic of playing games inside had started to stop working, so she would need to come up with something new. After a few moments of hesitation, she walked around and sat in front of him, gazing into his yellow eyes lovingly. "Would you like to hear a story about the clans? I know it isn't as good as traveling the territory yourself, but I think you would like it."
Hopefully that would help to quench his current thirst for adventure. Kits in the clans spent their first six moons in camp, and though this could hardly be called a camp, she was sure he would last that long. Maybe they could give him an apprentice name and walk him around the moors and fields close to the gorge. Anything farther would be too risky, but maybe that would be enough. They could teach him to hunt and fight, and he could live at the farm. They would visit often, and he could start a family of his own... No. She was thinking to far ahead, and it wouldn't do. Right now, she should stay focused on keeping him alive and safe through kit-hood.

Cobwebkit nodded his head in understanding but then cheered up at Nutfur's suggestion of a story. He had been curious about where his adopted parents often went when they weren't around watching over him. "Oh, will you? Please tell me a story!" His yellow eyes grew wide with excitement.

"Okay." Nutfur wondered for a moment what story she should tell. She settled on the time she had been captured by twolegs. "Once, when I was an apprentice, I was walking near Fourtrees when I met a cat named Roaringpaw. He used to be the medicine cat of ShadowClan. We were talking when we noticed a few more cats were also there. Two ThunderClanners, two loners, and a WindClan warrior. We didn't have a chance to talk, because some twolegs came! The grabbed us and shoved us in a den made of a hard silver material. One ThunderClanner, Leafpaw, received a gash on his back for fighting, and I got this." Here she held up her paw, showing the scar that ran across it. "One loner named Bat figured out how to escape the cages. The warriors attacked the twolegs while Roaringpaw and I ran. We regrouped, but even though there was a medicine cat apprentice with us, he didn't have any herbs. That's when a fox attacked us!" Now she paused a moment for dramatic affect. "It was huge! But Specklefang, one of the ThunderClanners, killed it. Burdened with untreated wounds, we dragged ourselves back to the forest. I got back to RiverClan, and I had never loved it more in my life." For a moment she wondered if it was a bad thing to tell Cobwebkit about how much she liked her clan. After all, he couldn't be in it. But her story did feature two loners, so that was hopefully a plus.