Will the Rain Falling Down Ever Find an Ending? [OPEN WIDE]

OOC: Continuation of this topic.

IC: He didn't know how he made it. Between mud and blood, all that was recognizable from the Riverclan leader was his green eyes. The large, dark silhouette emerged in the camp like a big, dirty bear entering its cave. His breathing was getting louder and slower to the effort and the wounds that he carried on his body. He could no longer feel his back leg but that didn't stop the stubborn cat. He walked and walked with that extra weight over his back until he finally collapsed, a few paws away from the medicine cat den. He let out a pitiful cry and tried to look at the wounded she-cat from the corner of his green eyes. "F-F-Fallowlight... I-I'm s-so sorry..." He mewed weak, unable to bring the white and orange she-cat to her den. The world around him became blurry and everything was just red coloured. Jaystar wanted to just pass out but he forced himself not to. Despite the pain... the wounds... the blood... he had to make sure... Fallowlight was in her home. The silver tom blinked twice... hoping to see Mistlepaw or Goldeneye in front of him to aid the wounded medicine cat.

Mistlepaw had been angrily sorting the herbs her mentor had left for her, grumbling as she set about her work. It wasn't fair, honestly; why did her and grandpa get to go on an herb patrol, but she didn't? She was a medicine cat too, now! She could sort herbs any day, but there wouldn't always be a time when she could patrol with her grandfather, the leader of Riverclan! The gray and white tuxedo sighed angrily, green eyes gleaming with annoyance. When Fallowlight returned, she better expect nothing more than the silent treatment and an angry apprentice. Little did she no that, by ordering her to stay in camp, her mentor helped her to avoid trauma or even death itself. But she was just a naive apprentice, oblivious to the dangers that roamed around every corner. That is, until the effects of the danger came knocking on Riverclan's front door. The anguished filled yowl startled her out of her herb sorting daze. She froze, unsure of what to do and what caused the noise. That's when a foul, coppery scent filled her nostrils, causing her to gag. Starclan, what was that? It was nearly as bad as mousebile...abandoning the work she had been doing, the soon to be sole medicine cat of Riverclan padded out of her den, but immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw the battered, bloody forms of Fallowlight and Jaystar. Mistlepaw gasped, tears quickly forming in her eyes as she stared on in horror. "W..Wh-what happened?!" she squeaked, voice cracking with emotion. What was she supposed to do?! She..she had to help! Oh Starclan, they looked...they looked so lifeless and empty...were they..were they dead?!

Forcing herself to tear her eyes away from the brutal scene, she raced back into her den. The small amount of training the white and orange she-cat had given her swam in her mind as she bustled about, searching for whatever could help slow the bleeding. Cobwebs..cobwebs and horsetail, right?! She wasn't exactly sure, but they were her best bet. Grabbing the tall stemmed plant and the tangled spiderwebs, she hurried back to the two cats' sides. Immediately, Mistlepaw set about her work, hastily chewing the horsetail into a poultice and rubbing it onto their wounds. Then, she pressed the cobwebs into their fur, applying as much pressure as she could muster to stop the flow. After a while of alternating between both cats, Jaystar seemed to show slight improvement, but Fallowlight only seemed to get worse by the minute. The gray and white she-cat panicked silently; the oncoming crowd didn't help, and only fueled her growing fear. Finally, she snapped, hissing at any cat who dared to come too close. "Do something! Standing around like mousebrains isn't going to help! Help your leader!" she snarled at the nearest cat, eyes blazing as she replaced the crimson-soaked cobwebs on her mentor's wounds.

She had been out patrolling the border along the Gorge, but the pained yowl forced her paws to push faster, racing back towards camp. As she drew near, the scent of blood and fox filled her nose, and the warrior gasped as she pushed her way into camp. Her immediate fears were relieved when she discovered that a fox had not actually found their camp and forced it's way in, but were instead quickly replaced when she saw the two cats laying in front of the medicine den, not moving. Quickly making her way over, Mistlepaw emerged from the den with her paws full, setting to work moving quickly between the two. When she snapped at a nearby warrior, Dappleshine was hit with who these two cats were, Jaystar and Fallowlight! Stepping forward, she mewed to Mistlepaw. "I'll move Jaystar into the den, and grab some more cobwebs. Did you need more of.... umm.... that? Or anything else?" She gestured to the herbs at Mistlepaw's side and she gingerly picked Jaystar up, balancing him carefully on her shoulders. Once she received her answer, she made her way into the medicine den, settling the leader down in a nest gently before collecting more cobwebs, along with anything else the medicine cat apprentice had requested.

The bloodied she-cat was hardly able to open her eyes. Even in the moments that she was able to, blood from the top of her head dripped into her eyes, blurring her vision. Pain flooded Fallowlight's small body, her long matted with mud and the blood of both herself, Jaystar, and the fox that had so viciously attacked them. When her body made contact with the ground, all she could muster was a slight huff. All she knew at that moment was pain. As life slowly ebbed away from the medicine cat, the only thought running through her mind was that she wasn't ready. There was so much left for her to do; she had an apprentice to train, a Clan to provide care to. She couldn't die now... She finally had something to live for! She weakly lifted her chin when she heard her apprentice's voice, panicking. There was no need for that; Jaystar would survive his wounds. As for herself... There was nothing to be done. When Mistlepaw had finally calmed down from the initial shock of the news... She tried her best to muster a goodbye to the young she-cat. "Don't w-w-waste... effort... Don't h-have long." A tear fell from the dying she-cat's face as she gazed into her poor apprentice's eyes. "A-Amberdawn... Pr-Pricklebush... Handle y-your tr-training..." More tears, more so from the pain of saying goodbye and leaving her apprentice than the pain throughout her body, fell onto her cheeks and mixed with the blood on her face. "I l-love you... Everything will b-be o-okay." She reaffirmed with a forced and very slight smile. "I would l-l-like to s-s-say... goodbye... to J-Jaystar." Pain riddled her body, but she couldn't go without saying goodbye to the only true family she had left in this world.

The wounded leader let out a few, quiet cries of pain when the she-cat pressed the cobwebs on his wounds but he let it be, closing his eyes tightly hoping it would end soon. His granddaughter... she had a blessed talent that Starclan saw in her. He knew she was doing the right thing so he let his life on her paws.

However, something kept bugging him. Unable to find calm and peace, the senior warrior struggled to stay awake, moving his paws in an attempt to feel the ground under his body. And then... he heard her... the voice of the she-cat he had tried so hard to save. The tired tom opened one of his eyes slowly. The shapes were still blurry but the red was gone. He wasn't on the camp's ground anymore and the scent of herbs was quite strong. Even with his messed up sight, he could identify Dappleshine by his side and a few paws away... Mistlepaw by Fallowlight's side. And then... he heard her calling his name.

At that moment, reality came back to him like a flood and he saw that... there was nothing else they could do for her. Again... Jaystar would lose a loved one because he was unable to save them. Unwanted tears started to run through his cheeks and without a warning, he forced himself to stand up from his nest. He didn't care if the cobwebs broke or if the bleeding started again. All he knew... is that his daughter needed him. Like a clumsy kit, he dragged his body out the medicine den and laid down in front of the she-cat, who was slowly leaving this world. More tears came out of his green eyes when he met her gaze, making him let out a pitiful and sorrowful cry. "I am so... sorry... for everything... You deserved... so much... you deserved... much better than this... than me..." With the last inch of strength, he placed his head under her chin carefully and sunk his nose on her neck's fur... crying silently. Now, all he could do... was to hope he could give him a good, warm and comfortable place to die. To feel loved one last time before she could join the stars above them. But... despite Jaystar trying to make her feel a little good before leaving them... inside... the leader wanted her to stay with him... The tom wanted her so desperately to get better, to step one from the medicine cat den safe and sound... to hear her voice, her lectures... all of that. Inside... he wanted his daughter back... "Please... don't leave me..." He whispered out loud, curling his tail around his bloody body.

Noise flashed through his dreams, pulling him up out of the murky darkness that clothed him in its sweet embrace. Instead, he opened his eyes his eyes to see a somehow more tangible darkness in the form of the inside of the medicine cat den. Moss blew away from his muzzle as he let out a short huff of air, one small part of him vaguely irritated at being woken up, the other half accepting it fatalistically. Nearby, he could hear pawsteps running back into the den, and he caught a glimpse of some cat whose name he should remember - but couldn't - dashing back in, her eyes wild as she started grabbing herbs.

Not able to summon any emotion, he didn't bother to turn his head to watch her as she darted back out again, cobwebs and leaves dangling from her jaws. It wasn't anything to do with him. He breathed in through his nose, preparing to attempt to fall asleep again.

And stopped short, eyes widening as a mixture of scents flooded into his nostrils with the force of a hurricane. The coppery smell of blood and fox mixed in an unholy alliance he had hoped never to smell again, raking cruel claws of panic into the dull, hazy fog that kept him in its grip. He couldn't breathe, images flashing through his mind in vivid streaks. It tossed him into a whirlpool, where neither up nor down existed, just chaos. Snow bit into his pelt, a large paw whacked into his skull, and a ginger-pelted tom was throttled before his eyes. A she-cat with her throat torn out lay stiffly in the centre of camp. He curled in on himself.

"Minkpaw! You heard her, we've gotta get going, now!"

"RUN!"

The yellow eyes of a fox bore into his shivering form. Out there, someone was dying. Through the chaos whirling in his brain, he could hear voices - real ones - speaking. nearby, the smell of blood was closer, and he blinked, one eye catching sight of a large tom stumbling from a nest towards the entrance. He was almost unrecognizable, but it was also clear he was Jaystar. Or was it Sharptooth? No, it was his grandfather. he watched, unable to do more than shudder in his nest as the tom moved out to a still, small form at the entrance to the den. For just a moment, a thorn was driven into his heart as he remembered Lionpaw. Was this just another memory? Then the faint scent underneath it all drifted up his nose. Fallowlight. The medicine cat who had tended his wounds and looked after him when he... when he.... He blinked violently, the movement obscuring the sight of the RiverClan leader burying his nose in the smaller cat's fur for a moment.

This was not a moment he should intrude on, this precious final moment between a father and his daughter. Maybe if he'd been able to feel anything, he would have felt a bitter spark of envy at the thought that at least Jaystar had known her. Instead, he closed his eyes, burying his muzzle in his own fur and the moss beneath him, wishing somewhere in his mind that it would all stop, and he would wake up to find his family surrounding him. "Goodbye, Fallowlight. Find peace wherever you walk...."

Scorchclaw's ragged breaths caught in his throat. The large deputy plunged into the stream that surrounded the island camp, crossing it with the full speed befitting of RiverClan's strongest swimmer. As he emerged from the water, he did not even bother to shake himself off. At last, he was standing at the entrance of the clearing, rivulets of stream water still running off his pelt. The sandy ground was streaked with blood. Again! The thought echoed helplessly within him. Again, this has happened... He should have been used to such a scene by now. He had come home to it time and time again... The vile scents of blood and fox polluted the air like a disease. A crowd of his clanmates had already gathered, their gazes directed towards a singular point. The many different colored pelts obscured his vision, causing the dread within him to mount. He took a deep breath, closing his green eyes. Calm down. To panic is not befitting of a leader. When he opened them again, they were cold and hard. He stepped forward, shouldering his way through the gathered cats.

Jaystar's name was right on the tip of his tongue... Then the tabby tom's green gaze fell on the huddled forms at the entrance of the Medicine Den. Both forms were streaked with blood and mud, their identities almost unrecognizable. It took him a moment to even recognize that they were cats. At last, however, he realized who they were. Whatever he had been about to say died away without ever being voiced.

Jaystar wept openly, burying his face in Fallowlight's fur. Today, RiverClan would lose a medicine cat that had served them well.

Features twisting, Scorchclaw lowered his head. This was something he had no place in, and he knew it―the last moments between two cats who held each other too dearly. He clenched his jaws in silent fury. So even our medicine cat will be taken from us...

Even though it was against her will, life was slowly fading from the small she-cat's body. Her breathing was ragged, her vision going dark around the edges. She couldn't let go, though, not until she got to say goodbye to Jaystar... A bittersweet happiness filled her when he finally appeared in front of her. She had hardly cried at all, not even when the pain was at its worst. But now, with Jaystar tucking his nose into her fur, the tears on her face loosened the blood and dirt matted into her thick fur. Goldeneye shined through in her when she thought of StarClan, and the talking to they would get when she got up there. Of all the times to take her home, they had to choose such a difficult one. Was it not clear enough to her ancestors that Jaystar had been through enough? They had taken his lives, his family... What more did they want from him? "Shh... It's o-okay..." Despite the pain tearing through her muscles and the aches in her body, she curled closer to the larger tom, her fluffy tail resting on his back. "Stay s-strong for me, okay? For RiverClan..." Her tears mixed with Jaystar's as they held each other close for her last few moments.

The pain slowly started to fade, and panic started to rise within Fallowlight. She didn't want to leave her Clan, she couldn't... A sob racked her body when Jaystar begged her not to go. "I d-don't wanna..." Her blue eyes opened for just a moment to lay eyes on Jaystar from this world one last time, scanning his wounds and the dirt packed into them. "B-burnet, c-c-comfrey... goldenrod..." Her gaze momentarily shifted to Mistlepaw before her eyes shut for the final time. Her muscles began to relax one by one, her headache easing as she was brought into a bitter state of bliss. With her last breath, she was able to speak her last words to the tom she called her father. "I love you, Jaystar..." With those, words she joined StarClan. "Hello, Fallowlight." Her eyes opened, and she was greeted by the familiar eyes of Silverfang. "StarClan welcomes you." As a member of StarClan, Fallowlight was finally home.