Inpatient[closed for KJ]

Adderpaw fervently despised the medicine den. It was dark, damp and always so... cluttered with stuff. Flowers, leaves, cobwebs, moss... She was convinced they didn't even use half of this. And this one was even worse than what they'd had at their old camp. This one had so many cats in it. At least two at any given time, four in total. She'd counted the number of times they came in and out of the den every hour, her only form of entertainment in this dismal hole. She at least knew Sagelight and the smaller one, but there were two strangers here too. One was quiet, did her job. Seemed to be thinking about a lot of things. Adderpaw could respect that. But the other one... StarClan, he never shut up. She was stuck here for so long that he'd taken to having long, drawn-out conversations with her about whatever was going on in his life. Kept asking if Adderpaw was okay, if she needed poppy seeds, if she was in pain... Oh, if only she could let him know that his stupid naked face and his emotional spiels were causing her more pain than the burns ever could. 

Thankfully, that one was gone right now. If he was consistent with the last few times he'd left, he probably wouldn't be back for another half hour. Good. That left Adderpaw with half an hour of blissful silence. And no supervision. With a lopsided grimace, the apprentice hauled herself to a slumped half-sitting, half-laying position. It felt a bit like she was being attacked by a thousand tiny venomous snakes, but she brushed off the pain with little more than a flinch and got to her feet. She was slumped to one side and kind of dragging her tail along the ground, but there was nobody around to comment on her posture. She shuffled awkwardly to the other corner of the den, the one with all the herbs. They were laid out in an odd fashion; they seemed to be arranged by plant type. Flowers, roots, leaves, seeds, berries. She sniffed at the plants, though obviously to no avail. The smaller SkyClan medicine cat said she'd probably never smell again. Though, judging by the faces of other cats when they used the herbs, she should probably be glad she wouldn't. She started to bat the herbs about with her paws, deprived enough of entertainment that this amused her. Entranced by the bright red berries between her paws, she completely failed to register any movement at the mouth of the medicine den.

Beechpaw carefully made her way to the medicine cat den, mouth stuffed with about as much goldenrod and oak leaves as she could possibly carry. Their supplies had gotten low with how much they'd been using to treat the various burns on the Skyclan cats, so she'd offered to go and fetch more of them. It had been partially to give Sagelight a bit of a break, the old medicine cat looked exhausted and could certainly use one, but it had also let Beechpaw out of the overcrowded camp and stuffy den that she felt like she hardly had the chance to leave.

Beechpaw ducked into the stuffy den in question, and a muffled grunt of surprise escaped her at the scene in front of her.

"Adderpaw!" Voice muffled, Beechpaw nearly choked as she spat out the wad of herbs in her mouth. Once the herbs were out of her mouth and she could speak more clearly, she rounded on the older (but smaller) apprentice with a growl of frustration.

"I threatened to sit on dad earlier if he didn't rest. You're much smaller than dad is. Go, lay down." She huffed, stalking forward to pull the herbs from the injured she-cat. Beechpaw nudged her pointedly in the direction of the nest she'd been laying in when she'd gone out to gather herbs earlier, before carefully beginning to tidy up the disorganized stash. Most of the herbs were salvageable thankfully.

And if Adderpaw tried to leave, Beechpaw would make good on that threat, starclan help her.

Adderpaw accidentally squished a berry under her paw, startled by Beechpaw coming in. She wasn't supposed to be back for... For at least another 15 minutes. Weren't herb hunts supposed to take long? The tuxedo apprentice looked up at Beechpaw, paw covered in berry juice, and fixed her with her coldest, deadest stare. Well, second coldest. The former was reserved for that dolt of a brother of hers. Why did all her family members insist on imprisoning her in this herb hole? She was fine. She was no medicine cat, but Adderpaw was sure her muscles would stop working or something after another week here. 

She continued staring at Beechpaw and sat down, favouring her right side. She wasn't budging, especially not for the sake of her brother's daughter. Lifting her bad paw, she limply motioned to the exit of the den. Come on, let me out of here. I'm practically healed, look, I can stand and everything. Trying to get the message across, Adderpaw attempted to stand only to put too much pressure on her left side and crumple to a hissing heap on the floor. Still, she refused to go back to her dusty old nest and instead heaved herself back into a sitting position. As if to spite her, the weakened skin on her left leg cracked and began to ooze blood. Adderpaw didn't notice.

Beechpaw carefully re-ordered the herbs, dark eyes watching the half-burned tuxedo as she did so. The crushed juniper berry was a lost cause, but the damage wasn't too bad. She'd still have to go and replace the lost herbs later, though.

"You are not fine, and you need to rest." Beechpaw growled at Adderpaw as she motioned to the entrance of the den and attempted to get to her paws, only to fall once more. "You aren't invincible, Adderpaw. I know you hate being cooped up in here, but if you keep on like this it's going to make your recovery longer. Your side is bleeding again." She continued to growl at the injured she-cat, fur ruffled as she stepped forward and purposefully shouldered Adderpaw back toward her nest.

"Stay put." Beechpaw ordered, tone brusque. Turning, she picked up some of the goldenrod she'd dropped earlier, along with the oak leaves and a small bit of marigold. The poultice would prevent infection and slow the bleeding... if Adderpaw would just stay still for a little while.

Poultice made, Beechpaw stepped towards Adderpaw once more. It wouldn't take long to apply the herbs to the cracked skin if she sat still. Something which Beechpaw was starting to doubt being possible.