Time Waits For No One (and it doesn't wait now, either) [open]

Rookfire was back in the Twolegplace. Though Smallbean was able to escape, the black tuxedo was unable to do so, leaving him back at square one. Hey, it wasn't that bad in the Twolegplace, right? He didn't have to worry about food, and his Twolegs still didn't take him to the Cutter. Meanwhile, his clanmates were living in leafbare... in harsher conditions than Rookfire had ever seen before... with his clanmates possibly even starving to death while he lived in luxury...

He needed to go back.

Twolegs were thankfully not nocturnal, so Rookfire planned to escape at night. It started with him running around, making sure that he was fit enough to help ShadowClan once he returned. Then, he began taking more naps during the day, so that he could be more active at night. Those naps got longer and longer, only waking up to eat, then going back to sleep. During the night, however, he ran around, using the energy he stored during the day to practice hunting prey. Of course, there was no prey to catch, due to the fact that he was confined to the Twolegs' home, not even able to enter the backyard due to Smallbean's escape a moon ago. He tried, of course, but he was too short to reach the device that the Twolegs used to open the door.

It took a while, but Rookfire was able to jump onto the device. However, the door wasn't opening like Rookfire hoped it would. After some thought, he realized that the Twolegs pushed the device to one side to open the door, meaning that Rookfire needed to do the same. Jumping down from the device, he searched for something that could let him push the device. Finding a long, smooth branch, the black tuxedo grabbed it with his mouth and dragged it towards the device. After a few tries, he was eventually able to push the device with the branch, opening the door enough for Rookfire to squeeze outside and escape from the Twolegs. Goodbye, he thought silently, before escaping into the night.

The journey back to the Clans was tougher than Rookfire had even imagined. Due to the chilling breeze at night, Rookfire found it smarter to sleep during the day, since he thought if he slept at night he would wake up in StarClan. As he hunted for prey, gathered herbs, just to survive for the next few sunsets, he eventually found himself at the Moonstone. Thank StarClan. I'm close now. Resting in the Moonstone's cold chambers, he eventually rose up one last time, ready to get back to ShadowClan territory.

Of course, that was probably the hardest part, just because of the danger of the territory, but Rookfire had to trust that he knew where he needed to go, and hope that he wouldn't starve or freeze to death while doing so. Making sure to not fall into the marshes, he made his way back to ShadowClan camp at sunrise. "Flint! Murky, Misty, Bat! I'm back!" The former medicine cat was tired, hungry, and weak, but he was still happy to be back to help ShadowClan. "It took a while, but I'm here!"

Flintshard had been napping in the shadows of the elder's den, his chin pressed against his chest as he snored gentle despite the crisp leaf-bare air and the layer of snow he was resting on. At the sound of a voice - a voice that in recent moons, had only come to haunt his dreams - that awoke him, he stirred awake. A small powdering of snow that had gathered on the tom's pelt fell as he took a few confused heartbeats to realize that he recognized the voice and looked up to see Rookfire standing in the entrance of the camp.

"Rookfire!" he gasped, throwing himself to his paws - only to stumble as he had forgotten he couldn't support himself with his dead leg. He hit the snow with a huff, struggling to right himself but he barely cared about his own problem. Rookfire was back - and in such good time. They needed a medicine cat with Basilbloom gone, with so many injured... "W-Where have you been?" he demanded as he finally managed to stand, limping his way over with narrowed eyes, but there was the hint of relief in his stern stare before he turned to see what other Clanmates had gathered. "Somebody fetch Murkystar!" he ordered, before his eyes fell once back on Rookfire as he waited impatiently for an answer.

Swiftheart's ears perked up hearing the noice outside of Flint greeting someone... Padding out fo the warrior den she saw a stranger cat standign there but it looked like Flint was super happy to see them.

She ran over excited to meet them. Hello! I am swiftheart... Daughter of Murkystar and Mistyfalcon she introduced herself... from picking up context she guessed that Rookfire must have been missing for a long while.

She nodded her head in respect to the long lost medicine cat.

Hearing Flints request to go get the leader she nodded bounding off to her mothers den.

Mommmm! she meowed excited as she usually was

We have a long lost visitor back! Rookfire has returned! she yelled for her mother standing outside of the leaders den to tell her the good news.

Rookfire was happy to see Flintstar again, which turned to shock when he collapsed on the ground. Despite Rookfire's feebleness, he rushed towards the tom. "Hey, Flint! What ha-" Rookfire started, before seeing Flintstar get up and limp towards the black tuxedo. "Yikes. That leg's not doing anything." When Flintstar asked what happened to Rookfire, the former medicine cat responded. "Twolegs took me, Flint. I was looking for herbs... and they took me. I couldn't do anything about it. Smallbean, WindClan's medicine cat, was also taken by these same Twolegs, so I at least had some company while there."

Noticing an unfamiliar face walk up to him, he grinned at the she-cat. She's another of Misty and Murky's kits... Nice! "Hey there! It's nice to meet you, Swiftheart." When the she-cat rushed to the leader's den to wake up Murkystar on Flintstar's request - well, his name wasn't Flintstar anymore, but Rookfire didn't know his new name - Rookfire turned back to the dark gray tom, a more serious look on his face. "What did I miss, Flint? What happened since I was gone?" The harsh season definitely affected ShadowClan like he thought it would, but he was gone for a few moons, and he wanted to know what they needed most, so that Rookfire could help them where they needed it the most.

"A rogue group attacked us. They didn't get to camp but we didn't stand a chance." Nightstalker mewed, coming up from behind Flintshard, a brow-raising, and his maw twisting into a frown, his scars shifting with his expression. Watching his sister dash off towards their mother's den. "I'm Nightstalker, Swifthearts brother." He introduced but was otherwise stiff and cautious. While everyone seemed to know this new cat, he didn't and was more than happy to express his discomfort until his mother welcomed and confirmed that this strange cat was indeed previously Shadowclan.

Mistyfalcon, barring the odd nightmare, was generally quick to fall asleep and stay asleep. Perhaps it was the pain from his still-healing injuries, the poppy seeds and whatever else Batglow had given him just about wearing off, but this morning that was not the case. Faint dawn light was starting to seep into the den, and he huffed in annoyance, turning his head towards a darker corner of the den. If he kept still just a bit longer he might be able to-

A familiar voice he hadn't heard in moons yowling. Well, there went his chance of falling asleep. Mistyfalcon's ears slid back in annoyance, and he turned, wearily pulling himself from his nest. His legs were a bit stiff, protesting the movement, but he ignored the pain, limping out of the den.

"Rookfire?" He grinned, limping forward. "You're back! Taken by twolegs, you said?" His lip curled in disgust at the idea. Swiftheart had already ran to wake Murkystar, he noted, while Nightstalker hung back, seemingly less than thrilled to Mistyfalcon's eyes, but then, his son seemed hardly thrilled at anything. "Yeah... Rogues. Dawnhawk's got new family, it seems. You remember him, right? The one Skyclan could never shut up about?" Poor Moonshine would've been upset about the entire situation, he was sure. Skyclan had been right to fight a war over him, though Mistyfalcon wasn't happy in the slightest that their problem had now become Shadowclan's problem as well.

As a tom spoke to Rookfire, telling him about the rogue attacks, Rookfire nodded solemnly. That must have been how Flint's leg turned as terribly as it did, which was so bad that it forced him to retire. Now, Murkystrike was Murkystar, and she had the tough challenge of rebuilding ShadowClan after the attack. When the tom introduced himself as Nightstalker, Rookfire introduced himself to the tom. "The name's Rookfire," he said. "I was ShadowClan's medicine cat before I was taken away." From Flint's injury, the attack seemed to be at least a moon old, since it wasn't being treated at the m-

A familiar voice caused Rookfire to turn around, noticing Mistyfalcon limping towards him. Unlike Flint's injury, his injury was being treated, which threw the timeline that the black tuxedo had made in his head out of whack. Did Flint get injured before the attack? If so, when did that happen? "Hey, Misty!" he said, grinning at his friend. As the medicine cat listened to Mistyfalcon explain what happened in more detail, Rookfire nodded in understanding. This wasn't Vea's group of rogues. This was a new group, led by Dawnhawk, who had gained... quite a reputation when he went around. "Yeah, I remember him," Rookfire said, lashing his tail. "I guess SkyClan was right to not shut up about him. He's dangerous."

Rookfire remembered hearing from the Asylum guards that Dawnhawk replaced Iniko as the Standard Captain when he was an apprentice, and he naively hoped that he'd be just as good of a cat as Iniko was. He was extremely disappointed, especially when the Asylum began to treat the Clans even more poorly than Iniko would have ever let them. Rookfire thought about his own apprentice, Basilpaw, who he was taken away from before he could properly train her. "Is Basil doing alright with all of these cats injured? Is she... even here right now?"

"Rookfire?" Murkystar's voice came from the entrance of her den, her tortoiseshell fur barely outlined against the darkness within. Shocked, the she-cat approached slowly, as if she was afraid she would move too quickly and startle away the vision before her. As she drew close, she realized that the tom in front of her was going nowhere, and a loud purr rumbled in her throat. "Welcome home, Rookfire. It's so good to see you again, I wasn't sure that I ever would." She purred, lowering her head in greeting. "You've certainly missed a lot... And we're not in the best shape right now, due to the recent attack, but I can fill you in on everything that happened here and you can do the same for what happened to you in my den, if you'd like. Basilbloom is not here right now, she was sent several signs from StarClan regarding a herb, and she set out with some other cats from each clan to attempt to find it. Come, let's head to my den, we can talk more there. Mistyfalcon, Batglow, Frostgaze, and Flintshard, you're welcome to come along. Swiftheart, could you please fetch some prey for Rookfire? Bring it to the den." She mewed, turning to head back towards her den.

Noticing Murkystar walk towards him, Rookfire gave her one of his trademark smirks. "Murky! It's been moons since I've seen ya!" the black tuxedo said excitedly. When she offered to have him in her den, Rookfire grinned. "That sounds great! I'd love to know what happened in ShadowClan while I was gone." And I have a ton of stories from my time with the Twolegs, too, his mind added, though he'd save himself from telling the story until he heard about what happened to ShadowClan while he was away.

When the ShadowClan leader told him about his apprentice, who did get her medicine cat name, searching for a herb she got from a dream in StarClan, Rookfire nodded. "Got it," he said. "Hope she and the others are able to find it." Rookfire wondered why he didn't get anything from StarClan. Perhaps he was a bit far away to find this herb. He definitely didn't see Basilbloom or any other cats approach him while escaping from his Twolegs. Following Murkystar into the leader's den, Rookfire looked around with a grin. The nostalgia from ShadowClan camp made him smile. "Do we need a medicine cat while Basil's gone looking for that important herb? I still know my herbs enough to treat my clanmates, and if we need herbs I can always organize herb patrols. Or do we need warriors more to help catch more prey?"

"It's wonderful to see you again, Rookfire." She purred, leading him to her den and settling down. "I hope so too, they should be back any day now!" She purred, drawing her tail close. After a moment of thinking, she sighed. "Honestly, Rookfire, I'm not sure what we need more. Basilbloom taught Frostgaze some basic herbs, and refreshed Batglow's memory on them before leaving, but the extra paws would be welcome. Especially with the recent injuries we've all received. It's been a harsh leaf-bare though, and extra paws for hunting and the increased patrols following the attack on us would be just as helpful. Do you think you could help with medicine cat duties while learning some basics about hunting and fighting, and once Basilbloom and the others return we can discuss further?"

Rookfire nodded when Murkystar told him about ShadowClan's state. It seemed that it would be great to be both a warrior and a medicine cat. He did get some battle training from Asylum, but he hadn't fought in what seemed like moons, and his hunting wasn't that polished. "Yeah, that sounds good to me," the black tuxedo said, grinning at the ShadowClan leader. "I'll just be glad to help out, any way I can!"

Swiftheart returned back over to the group mouth full of prey as Murkystar had told her to get she set it down at Rookfires paws as the clan leader had instructed "Its so good to have you back Rookfire!" she purred happily. "I look forward to getting you even more..."

she had overheard a bit of the conversation as she was walking over "hmm perhaps we could go hunt at some point Rookfire?" she asked if he was interested.

Swiftheart was starting to feel alot better from the battle and was slowly also getting over her patch of sad/bad mood of late and back to her more normal good feelings which she was very happy and grateful for.

Snowpaw crept out of the apprentice den, still half asleep but already awaiting the day’s assignments. She was surprised this morning, however, to find a strange cat being enthusiastically greeted by the leader and several other cats. Who was this stranger? She approached the nearest cat and whispered, “Who’s that?”

OOC: Anyone can be “the nearest cat”