minor injuries

Leopardsun carried her prize pelt (or, well, the fox that she had chosen for it) into ShadowClan's camp with pride, leaving it safely out of the reach of the hollow's muddy ground on a shaded rock as she made her way into the medicine den. "Sorry to bother you, Fuzzybelly," she greeted. "I don't think I was hurt too badly, but it's not something I could take care of on my own... So here I am."

She could still feel the sting of the slashes on her side and her back, but she otherwise felt fine. Not dizzy or more exhausted than she would have expected to, so she suspected it wasn't anything to be too worried about- but she'd rather not bleed all over her perfectly good nest, let alone anyone else's, and she would definitely rather not risk the wounds getting infected. As much as she didn't want to inconvenience the Clan's medicine cats, avoiding them now would make things worse later.

Fuzzybelly perked to the sound of Leopardsun's voice. The deputy seldom came by, not that he blamed her. She seemed the sort to always need control, not in a mean way, but in a 'I need everything to happen for a logical reason, all the time' way, and medicine was never that way. Different cats with different paws, after all.

"Hullo, Leopardsun," he meowed, smelling faint blood, grabbing cobwebs and marigold.

Thankfully, the deputy was pretty adept at her kill, and most of her injuries were topical. They were long, which needed the herbs to prevent infection, so he was glad she was there, but it would not be the stay that Roseburn, Duskflight, or Snowfoot would be undertaking.

"There, that should do it. How're you feeling, Leopardsun? After everything that happened the other day?"

Fuzzybelly flicked his tail to a sleeping Snowfoot, who appeared to still be living in a time before either of them were born.

"Like, actually?"

"Thank you," she said as he patched her up, and she meant it. It wasn't that she distrusted the medicine cats, after all, or even that she disliked the practice. It was simple practicality: she was capable of dealing with things alone, and there were other cats that weren't as lucky- case in point, Snowfoot.

Fuzzybelly continued, though, gesturing to the cat in question; and she closed her eyes for a second to gather her thoughts. She was about to say she was fine when he pressed again, and she sighed. "That's... A complicated question, isn't it? There's no easy answer."

Much like life, she supposed. But still.

She could at least be honest with Fuzzybelly. He was a medicine cat: just like with Nightstar, they were meant to work together to keep everything running smoothly. It would be difficult to do that if she ignored his questions, wouldn't it?

"It's been difficult," she admitted. "I imagine it would be for anyone."

"You're such a good deputy, Leopardsun. You think of everyone. Everyone before yourself."

Fuzzybelly gave a weak smile back at her. "StarClan willing, not for many moons, but you may be Leopardstar one day. And, as your medicine cat, I have to say, you have to take care of you, too. You're allowed to feel, to hurt, to mourn. It doesn't make you less of a leader to take care of yourself."

"When you and Nightstar were in ThunderClan, I was with Froststar in SkyClan, after the flood. Froststar worked tirelessly, I don't think he slept after we were all displaced. And then, he got greencough. I must have given him every sprig of catmint in SkyClan, but it was too little, too late. He tried to push through it. But even with all the lives he had left, his body couldn't recover."

He gave a slow nod. "You're absolutely right. This would be hard on anyone. But what is it for you? Whether you take lives at the Moonstone or not one day, that's in paws far greater than mine. But the point is the same. You have to take care of yourself."

Leopardsun blinked as Fuzzybelly kept talking. The idea of being Leopardstar, of leading ShadowClan rather than just making sure things ran smoothly- it was strange to think about. She wasn't sure she'd ever seriously thought about it since she was a kit, or a very young apprentice.

"...I wasn't with ThunderClan," was the first thing she said. "I was in SkyClan. With you and Froststar. I just... Tried to keep out of the way. We were imposing on them, I didn't want to take advantage of their charity any more than I had to. Ask Echomist. Or Honeylight."

She shook her head. "Froststar... He always did what he thought was best for ShadowClan. I'm not playing two parts at once. When he was my mentor, he was acting as leader for Murkystar on top of being deputy. And when we were stranded in SkyClan... What was I supposed to do? Sit there and watch him die, instead of doing something?" The deputy looked at her paws. "I watched my parents die. I lost my sister. I couldn't watch as I lost him, too."

Slowly, she looked up again. "And now, with Snowfoot... I can't do nothing. She's never been anything but supportive, she was there that night... And she lost Vixen just like I did. Even if she doesn't remember any of it, I... There's no one else who does, now. Not the same way. And even if none of that were true... She's family. Even if it's difficult for me, I have to support her."