Turn Back Time (OPEN)

Leopardsun shook her head. "I can stay," she said softly, and her ability to conduct herself at least somewhat professionally seemed to return with each word. "I'll be fine. If anyone should, I think..."

In the moment, she thought a lot of things.

"It's too much to expect of her kits," she whispered to Nightstar. "And I don't even want to think about how Sablepaw will handle this-" at that, something between resignation and premature exhaustion shone through her expression; because not for one second did she think maturely factored into that equation- "but I'd still feel better if family was close by. Besides, she's been quite supportive of me throughout my life. In a sense, I owe it to her to stay."

The deputy glanced to Fuzzybelly as she rose to her paws, sitting at Nightstar's side instead of lying on the ground and blinking apologetically. "If there's any way I can help, please let me know."

Snowpaw knew something was wrong. Either they were all crazy or she was. It was a lot to take in. She tried to steel her mind against the thought that it was probably her. It made more sense for one cat to be crazy than many. But why? How? Had she somehow lost time? How much? Finally, another familiar face appeared.
“Hi, Marshmallow,” she mewed. “I don’t know, I’ve apparently gotten pretty beat up.” She relaxed a little at her mentor’s concern. Snowpaw didn’t know the other cat well, but she trusted Frostgaze’s judgement in choosing her. “Yeah, a lot has definitely changed. I mean, either we’ve been invaded by insane rogues who think they’re ShadowClan, or…” Finally she got it. Tears came to her eyes. “Oh stars, it’s true, isn’t it? Have I really forgotten everything?” She looked from one cat to another, her expression that of a terrified kit. Her breath quickened a little.

Her eyes fell on the medicine cat, who looked thoughtful. Thoughtful and probably in almost as much shock as her. She didn’t know what she needed. Answers? Silence? What she wanted was to hide in Frostgaze’s fur, but she was afraid to ask where he was. She watched silently as the medicine cat gathered herbs. Hesitantly, she sniffed the piles. “Dock,” she repeated. “I recognize that. It was in my mother’s old territory too.” She winced a bit as Fuzzybelly touched her ankle and paw, along with the actual wound on her leg. She didn’t even know why the ankle and paw hurt, it didn’t feel like they were injured, just complaining. “There. Around the wound, and on the ankle and outside toe.” She nodded as Fuzzybelly suggested staying in the medicine den. Made sense enough, she frankly didn’t feel like moving. “I’d like to ask a few questions at some point,” she mewed hesitantly. Snowpaw was almost afraid of the answers. After all, what she’d heard so far was pretty shocking.

Snowpaw looked up as a sixth cat arrived, seventh counting herself. “Hello,” she mewed. She could see on the new cat’s face that she wasn’t expecting this. Snowpaw must be hurt pretty bad.
The den was getting cramped. Relief was evident on her face when Nightstalker (Nightstar?) directed the cats to file out. Soon it was only him, Fuzzybelly, and the gray cat who’d introduced herself as Leopardsun.
Snowpaw nodded. “Thank you, Nightstar,” she mewed, the name feeling foreign and detached from the cat before her. “Fuzzybelly, I can’t tell you what to do, but I think breaking whatever this is to the clan might be a good idea. Especially Deerpaw, she’ll freak if you don’t break it to her gently.”

Turning to Nightstar, she took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m only going to ask a couple things at a time. One, true or false, I forgot a big chunk of time. Two, if I apparently have kits, is there a mate somewhere worrying about me?”

Burdockpaw had hardly been a medicine cat apprentice when Snowfoot was brought in. They had treated her immediately injuries and left her to rest. But when she woke, a flurry of activity happened. She tried her best to follow Fuzzybelly, but was rapidly shoved aside by her clanmates. So the apprentice stood at the back of the den, silently, straining to hear and see what the medicine cat was doing. It was her first day, and she didn't want to miss anything or mess up. If this was her life now, she should know. The amnesia was curious to her, and she wanted to know more. She wanted to be involved. After standing silently for most of the interaction, Burdockpaw had enough. Clearing her throat, she waited for the other cats to notice her and let her through.

Someone had found him deep in Shadowclan territory, he couldn't remember who, hadn't cared much about what the cat had said. The moment Sablepaw had heard the words "Snowfoot" and "hurt" he had bolted for camp. A deep fear had set in as finally reached camp, breaking through the thorn tunnel and making his way toward the medicine den. Each step worsened his fears, and the scent of it clung heavily to him. He paused in front of the den. Could he handle seeing how bad it was? Sablepaw knew that his mother was conducting her rite today, what if she ended up like Roseburn? Quick deep breaths gave the apprentice the courage he needed. Pushing past the ferns, he could only stare at Snowfoot for a moment. She wasn't nearly as badly injured as he had feared, but it was still bad. The fear that had settled within him was quickly replaced with another feeling. How could you let this happen? Sablepaw's golden eyes burned with rage as he settled them on Nightstar. Had he not learned from Roseburn's rite? He could have done something, anything. Sablepaw kept his gaze locked on Nightstar for a few moments longer before turning his attention back to Snowfoot. Silently, he padded over to her, settling himself beside her. Being this close to her finally gave him a full scope of what had happened. Her ear had been torn, her leg had been bitten and will still gently weeping with blood, and all those scabs that marred her lovely face. Tears began to well in the apprentice's eyes as he took it all in. "I love you, mom. Stars, I know I don't say it enough but I love you so much." His voice broke as he spoke, but he didn't care. Let the few here know that he was weak, all that mattered was that his mother was alive, she was fine, and although he wanted nothing more than to bury himself in her fur, he held back. There was no telling if she had any internal injuries, and the last thing Sablepaw wanted was to cause her any discomfort.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Lighttail had been lurking behind the medicine den and heard everything. Coming around to the entrance, she looked at Sablepaw. “Sablepaw, I know you’re worried, but I need you to come with me,” she said. Her tone was not that of a big sister speaking to her little brother, but rather that of a warrior directing an apprentice. “I don’t know how much you heard, but we need to talk. Let’s go get Burnpaw, Swiftheart, and Dappledlight, they need to hear this too.”

OOC: I’ll be creating a debriefing topic for the aforementioned cats shortly.