The Clouding Soot Shines One Last Time {Open}

Sootpaw had awakened early that morning. Something didn't feel right. He was off to see his mentor. If he was up he would tell him how he was feeling and see if he had caught something. He smiled at his sleeping sister as she pulled her tail tighter over her nose and he leaned down and whispered into her ear to rouse her. He padded outside of the apprentice den when his stomach suddenly lurched. He quickly crouched down as he felt he would throw up right then and there.

He let out a hiss as he collapsed onto the floor. His eyes rolled back into his head and his jaws snapped in the air. His tongue had caught between his teeth and he had cut himself again. He let out hisses and whimpers and his body started to spasm and he rolled around the floor. With unsheathed claws his clawed at the camp floor, kicking up dirt and debris. He lifted his head up and let out a gurgling sound as the blood from his tongue quickly flowed back into his mouth.

Sunpaw had waken up from the ruckus. "Sootpaw?" She wined as she stumbled out of the den, her voice hardly more than a whisper. Fully awake now, she had let out a screech. "Goldeneye! Fallowlight! Jaystar!" She had cried as tears started falling down her cheeks. She crouched and pressed herself against the outer wall of the den and started shaking from fear. "Sootpaw!" She yowled as he nearly clawed her paw. "Mommy!" SHe cried out, terrified for her brother's life.

Flurryshine’s head shot up, instantly awakened by her adopted daughter’s sudden screeching from outside, and she shoved her way past the sleeping warriors around her, not caring who’s side she kicked or who’s tail she treaded on. What she saw when she made it outside absolutely horrified her. Her sweet Sootpaw was having another one of his seizures! ”Sootpaw!” She raced to her poor adopted son’s side, staring down helplessly at him as he writhed in unimaginable agony. She whipped her head around to face Sunpaw, tears already beginning to brim her green eyes, and cried, ”Get Goldeneye and Fallowlight now!”

Sootpaw was not aware of anything going on around him. Unknowingly he caught a claw on his mothers face when she had bent close to him.

Sunpaw looked up, seeing the horrified look on her mother's face and dashed towards the medicine den. "S-SOOTAW I-IS SICK!" HE yowled n between pants of fear.

The sound of a terrified screech broke through the camp, ripping Lightstep from his dreams of gliding through the river like the fish he always hunted. The white warrior stared into the growing lightness of the den for only a moment before he spotted the familiar snowy pelt of his Clanmate, Flurryshine, scrambling to exit the den with thick waves of fear radiating off her pelt. A short distance away Mottledspark jerked up with a startled hiss as Flurryshine's hind leg caught the side of his head. However, Lightstep was too distracted with the she-cat's sudden exit to think much on his friend. The young warrior quickly got to his feet and followed Flurryshine into the dimly lit clearing to see Sootpaw, her adopted son, on the ground jerking and letting out choked cries. Oh, StarClan, no! he thought as he raced to the queen's side to see what he could do.

Mottledspark emerged from the den as Flurryshine screamed "Sootpaw!" and a cold shiver of fear ran up the dark tortoiseshell tom's spine. He had enough time to peer between Lightstep to see his best friend, Sootpaw, jerking on the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth - just like the first time. For a moment he stared, jaw gaping, frozen with fear and indecision. The warrior still remembered the first time Sootpaw had had one of these fits; Mottledspark had been the only cat there, and he had been injured trying to figure out what was wrong. Not only that but the apprentice's adopted mother, Flurryshine, had blamed Mottledspark and threatened him to stay away from her children. He dared not get too close even though his heart broke to have to once again watch Sootpaw have a seizure and be able to do nothing to help him.

When the white queen screamed at Sunpaw to fetch the medicine cats, the little apprentice dashed off obediently, and Mottledspark's gaze followed her. There's nothing I can do, Mottledspark thought sadly as Sunpaw disappeared. All I can do is hope the medicine cats get to him soon so he can recover quickly like last time... Feeling rotten for being unable to be there for his friend, even just in spirit, Mottledspark skirted around the commotion and headed towards the entrance of the camp. I'll just give them space. That's what Flurryshine believes is best for Sootpaw... that's all I want for him.

Lightstep glanced up as he spotted Mottledspark's dark tortoiseshell coat disappear out of the camp's entrance. How could he possibly leave Sootpaw at a time like this?! the white tom thought furiously, but the flailing Sootpaw had jerked upward and, it seemed, caught his claws on Flurryshine's face in his flailing, immediately dragging Lightstep's attention back to the present. "Flurryshine!" he gasped, quickly pressing his side to the queen's to give her both support and comfort. "W-We have to give him a little space; he can't control himself and he wouldn't want to hurt you," he meowed to her with a strained voice; how could he possibly ask her to back away from her child when he was hurting? He only wanted to help her, and letting her have an up-close and personal view of her son's suffering was certainly harmful. His pale yellow eyes looked to the medicine den as he tried to reassure the both of them, "The medicine cats will be able to help when they get here."

Sootpaw let out a gasp. ”Mottledspark!” He chocked out and his sides heaved as his spams slowed. Sunpaw dashed over to him and started licking his ears when a claw flew at her and sliced her nose. Sootpaw has begun spasaming again. ”Mother!” Sunpaw had run around Sootpaw to her mother and trembled beneath her legs.

Wolfsong woke up by the sound of yelling, he sat up with a grunt and looked around, when he saw that Flurryshine weren't in the warrior's den he got a bad feeling. He sprung up onto his paws and rushed out, within a few seconds he stood by the other cats that had gathered around his apprentice and stared in horror at Sootpaw "No... Sootpaw...". He felt so helpless when he saw his apprentice this way, there was nothing he could do to help and he hated it. He took a few steps closer to Flurryshine, atleast he could try to calm down his adopted mother. "Flurryshine, he'll be okay, last time this happened he was okay so he'll be okay this time too, I'm sure of it. I need you to calm down, I think it's better for him if you are calm, Goldeneye and Fallowlight will save him." he tilted his head slightly and tried his best to smile and not show how scared he were. He looked down at Sootpaw and kept telling himself that the young tom would be okay, he had to be okay.

Goldeneye charged out of her den, heavy paws slamming into the slush as she hurried to Sootpaws side. "Move out of the way." Goldeneye snapped, pushing Sunpaw to the side as gently as she could, her eyes narrowing at the aggressive mother across from her. Goldeneye went to work to soften the ground beneath the apprentices head and observing. There wasn't much she could do for a seizure, there were no herbs she knew that could help this sort of ailment. She'd have to consult the stars, she'd have to demand answers if they as so much did not want to give them to her. "There isn't anything I can do, we just have to hope that Sootpaw can ride this out. If he does, he won't be able to continue on his path as a warrior. I'm forcing him to retire, it'd be too dangerous to go to battle and seize on the field." She meowed, coolly, apprehensive.

Sunpaw growled as Goldeneye pushed her aside but gasped in horror. ”You can’t do that! He’s an apprentice! He can still hunt! He can help better than most warriors and if he risks death on the battlefield from his disease he still can easily win a battle. My brother will not be an elder! He can fetch herbs because his nose is quite sharp and he can help with battle training. His swiftness and mind is hard to beat! Right Wolfsong? He won against you! On the first day of training! He does not need to be a elder! She yowled, the words just tumbling out of her mouth. She gulped for air and look a glance at her brother before angerly padding to sit besides Wolfsong.

The thorn-sharp claws swiping sporadically across her muzzle caused Flurryshine to yelp, but she didn't flinch away from Sootpaw. It hadn't been until her mate's brother and one of her closest friends Lightstep gently led her a few paces back away from her spazzing son that the pain in her muzzle began to register, but it was nothing compared to the ache in her heart. Thankfully, Sunpaw did as she had been told and returned with Goldeneye following close behind, gently shoving her daughter away to inspect the cat that really mattered right now. She held her breath and stared at the golden battle-scarred molly, anxious to hear what she had to say.

"There isn't anything I can do, we just have to hope that Sootpaw can ride this out."

Goldeneye couldn't do anything to save her beloved son? What kind of a medicine cat was she in that case? What medicine cat didn't know how to heal any and all ailments? Was she really just going to sit there and let his poor son continue writhing in agony? Wasn't she at least going to try to use some kind of herb to help him?

"If he does, he won't be able to continue on his path as a warrior. I'm forcing him to retire, it'd be too dangerous to go to battle and seize on the field."

Now Sootpaw was never going to become a warrior? He would never earn his own name or his own spot in the Clan among the other warriors alongside her? While she did completely understand -- and agree on top of that -- why Goldeneye had chosen to make this decision, she still wasn't happy with it at all. She had lost so much already, and now she had to watch her son's destiny crumble before him.

He would never be a warrior. All he would ever be was a cat whose life would be in constant, sheer agony from unpredictable seizures. He didn't deserve this.

Then Sunpaw began to talk. And talk. And talk. And she wouldn't. Stop. Talking. Did she not care? Did she not care that Sootpaw was in pain? That he could not become a warrior, no matter bad badly she wanted him to be? Did she not take into consideration how Sootpaw felt about all of this? Did she not think about what him continuing his apprenticeship would result in?

Sunpaw didn't care.

She didn't care about her son.

She had lost so much in life, and she didn't even care.

How. Dare. She.

It was at that moment Flurryshine felt her last strands of sanity snap.

Whipping around quickly, eyes blazing like green fire, Flurryshine turned on Sunpaw with her hackles raised. She stared unblinkingly, almost unrecognizably, at her adopted daughter, the sister of her poor son, one of her only two living children left. Then she slashed her claws across the apprentice's muzzle with enough force to knock her to the ground. "Shut up! I've heard enough from you, Sunpaw! Do you want Sootpaw to suffer? Huh? Do you really think so highly of yourself that you have the gall to think you could ever hold any authority, especially at a time like this? You'll never have any authority over a cat's life, Sunpaw! You aren't important enough! You will never be important enough!"

Panting, still high up in her moment of rage, unable to think clearly at all, Flurryshine turned away from her daughter and rounded on Goldeneye. Her eyes blazed with unmasked fury and hatred for the cat who never even tried to help ease her poor son's pain. Well... now she was going to do something. Oh, she was going to do something alright! "Goldeneye. I want you. To give Sootpaw. A dose of deathberries. If you refuse. To do anything to ease his suffering. Then the least you can do. Is end it. As Sootpaw's mother. I'm ordering you. To do this for him. If you won't. Then I will do it myself."

"Flurryshine. You should perhaps practice what you preach because the only cat that has authority over another cats life is Starclan themselves." She meowed, her tone hard and cold as she addressed the crazed queen. "You have no authority over what I do, or what you do to your son. It is his life, not your own. Even if I was cowardly enough to listen to a crazed queen, I wouldn't give him deathberries. That death is perhaps just as painful as the experience he is going through now. " She meowed, getting to her paws but her awareness never leaving Sootpaw's seizing form. "I recommend you step away from this situation, Flurryshine, before any cat gets hurt." Goldeneye meowed, no matter the rage bubbling up in her throat, she had to get Flurryshine away from her patient. She was a risk to Sootpaw's life after all. "You have no experience in this field. Thus you are nothing but a distraction. It is crucial that I pay attention to your son, unless... perhaps you don't truly care for his life? You just want him gone, perhaps that is why you so hastily declare that I put him down like a rabid dog?" Goldeneye meowed, her maw wrinkling in the beginnings of a snarl as she sat back down.

Gently, Goldeneye made sure to keep Sootpaw on his side, curling him up with expert touches. Keeping his airways clear, trying to prevent any vomit or blood coming up to choke him as he spasmed. Carefully she watched the young toms eyes for a moment before resting her paws gently on his sides, trying her best to comfort.

Sunpaw was flung to the ground and blood splattered onto the camp floor. ”I was telling Goldeneye he CANT be an elder!” She hissed with fury. Tears welled in her eyes. ”You won’t kill my brother! She screeched and leapt onto her mother. She raked her claws on her mother shoulder before leaping onto her back and she bit deep into her shoulder. She takes her hind claws along her mothers spine and batted her sides with her front paws, trying to knock her off balance. You’ll have to kill me first! She screamed into her mothers ear, letting go of her shoulder for a moment. You mother taught me to fight like this! She hissed. She did not mean fight dirty- she just wanted to remind her mother that she was attacking her daughter. Maybe if she realized what she was doing she would not kill Sootpaw!

Please don’t stop the fight))

Lightstep nodded at Wolfsong in acknowledgement when the furry black tom appeared on Flurryshine's other side to offer her words of encouragement and support, just as he had done. As if acting on a will not her own, Flurryshine took a few paces back between the two toms at their gentle nudging. An instant later Sunpaw had re-emerged from the medicine den with the muddled tabby medicine cat Goldeneye right on her tracks. The apprentice reached Sootpaw's side first, trying to offer gentle licks of comfort only to be caught by a flailing claw just as Flurryshine had been a moment before. Lightstep pressed his side against Flurryshine's, knowing that he was just as powerless to do anything for Sootpaw as the queen beside him and knowing for at least that instant how frightened she must feel. They waited as Goldeneye pushed Sunpaw aside and began her examination.

Then the words came, the only ones that Lightstep was certain Flurryshine didn't want to hear: "There isn't anything I can do. . . . I'm forcing him to retire, it'd be too dangerous to go to battle and seize on the field."

That moment was when their experiences differed: Lightstep himself felt his hopes and dreams for the young tom shatter. His heart would have been broken if he had received that news as an apprentice. The young warrior did his best to keep strong, though his jaw clenched as his throat tightened with the threat of tears. Contrarily, Lightstep saw Flurryshine break. The white she-cat had been inconsolable with sorrow at her mate's disappearance, her son's mauling, her mother's drowning, Sootpaw's first seizure. Now, she was a different, desperate sort of inconsolable.
Sunpaw, frightened for her brother, had been shouting and wailing and complaining about the unfairness and what was best for Sootpaw and what he would want. While Lightstep thought, She doesn't understand - she's too young to realize the wisdom in Goldeneye's words., Flurryshine broke and immediately whirled on her adopted daughter, eyes blazing with fire that Lightstep had never seen before. In fact, he barely recognized the she-cat at all as, wrought with grief, she snarled at the apprentice and struck a paw across her face. Lightstep gasped and said, "Fl-Flurryshine--"

However, he was quickly interrupted as Flurryshine turned on Goldeneye and made a demand which made Lightstep's blood go cold: "Goldeneye. I want you. To give Sootpaw. A dose of deathberries." "Flurryshine, what are you asking...?" he asked softly, but the white she-cat was fixed on Goldeneye as the medicine cat gave a scathing response. ". . . perhaps you don't truly care for his life? You just want him gone, perhaps that is why you so hastily declare that I put him down like a rabid dog?" Lightstep's shoulder bristled as he hissed, "Goldeneye, that was uncalled for!" Sure, Lightstep didn't agree with Flurryshine's request, but he didn't blame her for making it. He felt that he understood her reasoning. Twice she had watched Sootpaw wound himself with his spasms; his dreams of becoming a warrior were dashed at Goldeneye's command. He understood that Flurryshine wanted to take away her son's pain, but...

”You won’t kill my brother!" Sunpaw shrieked out with no eloquence, and before Lightstep even knew what was happening the apprentice had lunged at Flurryshine with claws unsheathed and teeth bared, attacking with every intention to cause harm.

"Sunpaw, Flurryshine, stop!" Lightstep yowled, but in the thick of the fighting he knew he could do nothing. Wincing, the young white tom tore himself away from Flurryshine's side and sprinted to find his grandfather and RiverClan's leader, Jaystar. "Jaystar! Help, please! Sunpaw and Flurryshine are fighting, and Sootpaw's having another episode!" Lightstep announced, his voice hoarse with worry. Flurryshine was a strong warrior, but Sunpaw was young and reckless. Either one could end up damaged if the situation weren't gotten under control quickly enough.

Pale silver ears flicked at the sounds of shouting from outside of the nursery. She padded towards the entrance of the den before noticing the sight of one apprentice on the ground... Flurryshine's kit... her heart clenched with worry as she padded forward, just in time to hear Goldeneye's declaration and Flurryshine's cold demand. Her heart sunk to her stomach as she watched the scene play out before her with sadness. Sootpaw was far too young for the elder's den. He deserved to live a long and full life. Her thoughts were interrupted as Sunpaw attacked Flurryshine.

Immediately, she padded forward. Moving past Lightstep to glare at Sunpaw who seemed attached to Flurryshine's back with a dissappointed look in her blue eyes.
"Sunpaw! Respect your mother." She ordered, waiting for the apprentice to release her claws. Fully expecting the young apprentice to listen to her. "I understand you are scared." She added softly, her gaze softening "If you can't control yourself, you should go to your den." With her words spoken, she stood up and padded over to Flurryshine, pressing her delicate silver pelt to Flurryshine's white one and giving the apprentice a brief but pointed look. Her heart ached at the painful discussion.

"Flurryshine." She murmured softly as she pressed close as though comforting one of her own kits. "Goldeneye, You musn't give up hope on him so fast... perhaps he could not fight, but he could be a decent hunter. Perhaps the Clan's kit-sitter." The image was endearing. Though Sootpaw would likely be deeply unhappy about it. Her ears flattened to think of such a young life laid to waste. "... there is hope for every cat. To discount him so early, so young, is a discredit to him." Her blue gaze looked at Flurryshine's green one meaningfully. "Let yourself believe in him, as I always have believed in you."

Minkpaw slept in the medicine cat den, his flanks rising and falling with the steady rhythm of deep sleep. Completely unaware of the outside world or the sudden drama that had started, he only stirred when someone came rushing in, practically yowling about something to do with an apprentice. Lifting his head and blinking blearily, he tried to make sense of what was going on. There was an apprentice in the den, and as he watched, Goldeneye hurried after the other, both heading out into the clearing.
What just happened? A sense of intrigue pulled his paws toward the outside where everything was apparently happening, and he limped out in time to see the medicine cat reach a small knot of cats huddled around... something. What's going on...? curiosity drawing him forwards, he could see a small form stretched out on the ground in around the other cats, its limbs moving oddly.
Then Goldeneye turned to Flurryshine, and he got his first proper look.
The cat on the ground was barely recognizable, his eyes rolled up into his head as his limbs jerked and scratched the ground, his pelt dirty and ruffled. Minkpaw froze in place as he spotted spittle mixed with blood trickling from the tom's panting maw, shattered flashes of memory coming back with a force that would have left him reeling had he been able to move. There was thick snow around him once again, a howling wind blowing in his ears and leaving him deafened as a form writhed in the churned up whiteness, foam bubbling at its snarling muzzle as its fangs sunk into Sharptooth's back, her own teeth buried in its throat. Red flew everywhere as its crazed yellow eyes bored into his.
Dimly, he realized he was shaking as the intense vision receded, but he felt numb to everything except the scene playing out in front of him as Goldeneye finished speaking. The other apprentice started wailing at something the medicine cat had said, the sound almost making him wince as it broke slightly through his haze of numbness.
Then another voice rose, the anger in it biting into his ears and making him flinch as Flurryshine whirled on the young cat, striking out with a paw and spraying droplets of blood. He didn't see a grieving cat, he saw a fox snarling at Sunpaw and unconsciously he stumbled backwards, ears flattened against his head. Without warning, the little cat sprang up and started attacking the other, drawing her claws across Flurryshine's pelt and sinking her teeth into the other's shoulder. Caterwauls rang across camp, rebounding off everything and chasing their way into his ears.
Minkpaw broke.
Huddling into a ball as tight as he could, he shoved his paws over his ears, shivering violently as his lips pulled back from his teeth. Make it stop! He barely felt the twinge of pain as the movement pulled slightly at the wound on his leg, and at that moment he couldn't care less if someone saw him. It was too open, he could feel the beasts clamouring all around him, their howls baying for his blood. Somehow it was safer curled in on himself, where he couldn't see them.
He stayed in that position, even when the yowling died down, eyes clenched tight, his body shuddering slightly as short breaths hissed in and out between his teeth.
(ooc: exercising my drama muscles :P)

Wolfsong filled with rage, kill Sootpaw? He let out a loud growl "I agree with Goldeneye, prehaps you should step away Flurryshine!" he spat out as he forced himself not to strike at the she-cat. No one was killing Sootpaw! He really liked him, which was pretty rare for him to like anyone. He looked at Sunpaw as the apprentice attacked her mother but didn't make an attempt to stop it, he didn't care if Flurryshine got hurt, she deserved it. He took a step closer to Sootpaw and sat down, he'd wait it out with Sootpaw and no one was gonna lay a paw on him, he'd make sure of it "You got it buddy, you're strong." he told him with a small smile on his face.