Mud-splattered Herbs [c]

Ooc: takes place after this topic. dawn is bleeding rather badly from her shoulder and has gotten dirt in it. she has a few other minor scratches (and the shoulder wouldn’t be bad if she hadn’t rubbed it in dirt trying to “walk it off”)

Dawnfeather had considered her shoulder for a few minutes, standing just outside camp as the first rays of light came over the horizon. She didn’t want to wake Muddy. She didn’t want to wake Beechaunt. She most certainly didn’t want to wake anyone. Especially so early. Surely she could fix it herself. Hawkuncle had taught her, after all.

It took only one attempt to spring into a tree. Well, maybe two. On the second, her right front leg completely refused to carry any weight. With a yelp, she slid down the tree trunk, scratching long scrapes in the bark with her claws, and landing awkwardly on her shoulder. Oh. Now it had dirt in it. That wasn’t good. She’d have to see Muddy.

The sun was nearly over the horizon when she plucked up the courage to limp into camp, keeping the weight completely off her right front leg. If she hadn’t kept trying to walk it off, it wouldn’t have been this bad… oops. A few sleepy heads turned as she hurried to the medicine den, obviously wondering what had happened.

”Muddy?” She called gently, poking her head into the medicine den. Hopefully Muddy was here… she rather thought Beechaunt was taking an apprentice to the Moonstone, but she might be wrong. Her shoulder stung… ow, ow. Ow.

Muddythorn was still half-asleep, drifting in and out of proper rest. His eyelids fluttered ever so slightly and his paws twitched as he dreamed, one of the strangest dreams he'd ever had. He was running up and down Highstones, not once pausing and at times running pretty much vertically upward. At least it was too strange to be anything to do with Starclan: he couldn't deal with more of that now. Suddenly, he was pulled out of his dream world by a voice calling his name.

The tom shot to his feet, almost falling over again when his head started spinning. Although it took him a few seconds, he soon worked out what had waked him. Dawnfeather. She was waiting ever so politely outside, and if it weren't for the distinctive scent of blood in the air, it would've been a completely normal situation, even as early as it was. "Dawnfeather? What happened?" Motioning to her with his tail, he tried to get her to come into the den. The sooner he could get a look at her wound, the quicker he could fix it. Now alert, he bustled around, looking for cobwebs and different herbs that could help. However, when he turned back around with a bundle of cobwebs in his mouth, he was surprised to see the state his sister was in. A few small scratches were fine, he could deal with that. But the gash on her shoulder was deep and filthy. "Start cleaning your shoulder. How did you get so much dirt in it? Please say you didn't try to use mud as a substitute for cobwebs." The dirt would only make it worse, and could easily lead to and infection. Infection, thats what else he needed to check for.

"How's the pain? Do you need poppy seeds?" He was definitely panicking slightly - he'd definitely deal with injuries before, but usually he had a bit of warning first. A closer look at the wound was needed, and whilst he did that he also checked for a fever. "Okay, you're a normal temperature. Thats great! No infection then, but one might pop up soon. Especially with all that DIRT in there!"

Dawnfeather stepped sheepishly in, sitting meekly to the side. Oop. Maybe she shouldn’t have woken Muddy up- but he’d likely not like that very much. “I’m fine, I’m fine Muddy! I just got into a little scrap with a ShadowClan apprentice. And fell into the dirt a bit. I don’t need poppy seeds, but thank you!”” Her shoulder stung, but she didn’t want to take up any of the precious herb stores. It wasn’t bleeding too badly… but if this had happened to anyone else she’d been flustered and insisting they took poppy seeds, laid down… oop.

“I didn’t get the dirt on it on purpose! I slipped… I was trying to walk it off. Sorry,” she added forlornly. She should bring back some herbs tomorrow. To replace the ones Muddy had to use.

"Walk it off? You can't 'walk off' a bleeding cut!" Muddythorn exclaimed, "Starclan, I thought you said you knew stuff about herbs!" Despite his chastising, he said it all with a smile on his face, a mix of amusement and disbelief.

Now that the wound was somewhat clean, Muddythorn began to bustle around looking for the right herbs. "Cobwebs. Definitely cobwebs. Lots of them." He muttered under his breath as he searched for them. Luckily they were one of those healing supplies that didn't run out too much as it grew colder, unlike many plant-based medicines. He needed something so it didn't get infected. That would be important, especially with the dirt. Oak leaves, there we go. And some marigold. That should work to slow some of the bleeding. After chewing and mixing them into a poultice (how on earth did any older medicine cats even taste their prey any more, what with all the constant eating and chewing of foul-tasting herbs?), his main focus was on the large gash. Hopefully the smaller scratches would heal by themselves, as long as Dawnfeather promised to keep them clean.

Poultice made, he began to smear it onto the she-cat's pelt. "I know it might be a pain to have this all over your pelt, but have some pity for me, I'm the one who had to chew it up!" He joked, much calmer then when he was woken to see his sister infant of him, bleeding. He secured the herbs with cobwebs, also adding some to the slightly worse-looking scratches. "You'll need to come back soon to get that redressed, and try not to walk on it too much, or climb, or do anything stupid." Starclan, he was spending too much time with Beechface.

“I know Muddy, I know,” she admitted, hanging her head. “I just… really didn’t want to use up any of the herbs. Maybe I could come on a herb patrol with you again and find some? To make up for it?” These were herbs that could be used to help cats who really needed it… alright, alright, like her.

”I wouldn’t do anything mouse-bra-“ Dawnfeather began in mild protest… then recalled why she was in here. Oop. “I won’t do anything else mouse-brained. There, that’s better,” she laughed. It stung a bit… but she could feel that it was improving. She was sure. ”Muddy, you’re great at this!” She purred, craning her neck to get a look at her shoulder. “Thanks so much!”

"You really think so?" Muddythorn said in surprise. He hadn't done anything extremely difficult, but his sister seemed to be impressed. For a cat who'd spent so long looking for his place in the clan, it felt good to know he was good at something. He'd just needed the chance to try it out. As a warrior, he'd always just hoped he would get better at hunting and fighting one day, but lacked the ambition and enjoyment of it to actually properly put himself to work at it. Now, he was going something he loved. And he was good at it.