Healing, Helping [open!]

Softbreeze sighed, back turned to the entance of her den as she shifted through her herbs, creating bundles as she went. That was the way she liked to organize her herbs, so she could grab them and go. At the moment she was preparing greencough wraps, stuff two sprigs of chickweed and three catmint leaves into each beech leaf, a yellow tansy flower and red poppy head on top of the herbs. To prevent the herbs from spilling from the sides, two wads of sticky cobwebs filled the side, wrapped around the entire leaf. Laying the leaf wrap onto another beech leaf, she used the stickiness of the cobwebs to stick the two leaves together and wrap the second leaf around the one containing the precious herbs. Using one claw, she cut a small slit into one side of the second leaf, and inserted the other side of the leaf through it very gently, then took a small vine of bindweed and tied it together.

One herb wrap complete. Surprisingly, they were easy to open without wasting herbs. Each bindweed knot was tied very loosely, and so all she had to do was pull one end of the vine to open her parcel, and then she could reuse the wrap for another set of greencough wraps, or whatever had been in between the beech leaves.

As she heard footsteps, she turned around and smiled warmly. "Welcome to my den!" She mewed, an eyebrow raised, and with a teasing tone, continued "What poisons have you swallowed this time?"

The scent of herbs was nothing unusual to his nose. If he could have heard the names he’d have known every herb by heart now. For moons, he had avoided this place. It reminded him too much of Aspenheart. The old tom had been a close friend. Memories of the tom made him choke slightly on the herb soaked air while he sat down in a clear spot of ground. His ears flattened while he scratched at them. At a blockage that was perpetual and impossible to get rid of. Though Starclan knew Aspenheart tried every method he could.

His gaze fell to the pale-faced she-cat. He didn’t know her name, but he called her ‘paleface’ in his thoughts while he lifted a paw and gestured to his ear once more. The tissue around the base was swollen and puffy with infection. Painful, but bare-able until this dawn.
“...sore.” The word was a strangled whisper. After Aspenheart’s death, he hadn’t spoken to any cat except Goldengale. Even then, it was just soft whispers that wouldn’t hurt his throat. His blue eyes watched Softbreeze. Somewhat unfocused. It was harder for him to do that these days. The world seemed coated in a slight fog of grey at the edges of his vision.

Softbreeze blinked warmly at Grousefrost, knowing her mentor's death had hit him hard. She'd watched Aspenheart treat Grousefrost's ears before and knew she couldn't reverse the deafness that inflicted them. Sniffing them gently, she could feel the heat and smell the infection. Gesturing to a moss nest for the tom to sit, she turned and grabbed horsetail and marigold, creating a poultice to rub around his ears. Checking her stores, she searched through her calming leaf wraps and grabbed a spring of thyme. Grousefrost looked far too stressed these days.

Chewing the golden flowers and horsetail together, she smeared the herby poultice around the infected area, and slid the thyme towards the tom. Chewing a thyme leaf herself (as it wouldn't do anything to harm her) she demonstrated what she wanted the tom to do. "Chew those." She mewed, slowly but not too slowly as to make him feel dumb.