Foxblood. Pt 2 [Closed]

When Coyotegrin awoke the sun was just starting to rise with a glow barely permiating the darkness. At first, her body didn't hurt and she couldn't quite recall where she was or why she was there. As her eyes slowly blinked open, the utter bloodshed and battlescene in front of her came to view, jolting her up with a wince. The fox's body still laid in sight, still unmoving with it's partially cracked open maw and glazed over eyes. It all came back to her at once; the constant battle, the adrenaline, and the blood. That is when the pain came rushing back to her and she shivered from it all. Carefully she pulled her tail in front of her to inspect the damage. Thank StarClan, only her tail tip of her long tail had been snapped and leaving it at an awkward angle. Her eyes scanned her body wounds to see if she was still bleeding. Her fur was still wet with the blood, so the bleeding must have stopped only recently. But was she quite a sight. Her entire pelt was matted with both her and the foxes blood and ginger red fur clung to it in tufts. Slowly she stood up, testing out her body a few steps before setting her sights and starting to slowly walk a few tail-lengths before stopping suddenly. She killed this fox. Two of them actually. ShadowClan had some sort of weird new thing where they wore pelts of predators they killed... Perhaps Nightstar would help her out with her own trophy. Begining to slowly walk back to the fox, she also secretly hoped it would gain respect for WindClan, but more likely just herself. Which was fine.

The journey back to the joint camp was slow going and rough between the injuries and rocky terrain while carrying a heft carcass. Dawn had already shed a decent amount of light when she topped the crest above the camps. Coyotegrin knew, unfortunately, that Nightstar would be sleeping. Hesitating briefly, she was unsure if she could still ask for help. Gripping the pelt tighter in her jaw, her eyes hardened. She didn't care, she earned this. With a new wave of determination the warrior carefully navigated her way down and promptly started stalking to where Nightstar slept. Ignoring every other cat around her, her eyes remained focused on the sleeping form.

With a thud, she dropped the body next to Nightstar and stood over him. It would probably be bad to startle him, but she didn't care. As a leader, Coyotegrin knew all to well from her time sleeping next to Shrikestar that he would be awoken from sleep frequently. With a not-quite-gentle but not-quite-rough shove into his shoulder, the bloodied and torn cat took a step back. "Nightstar." she said flatly, waiting for the tom to stir. Oh, what a sight he would wake up to. A tiny WindClan warrior covered and dripping in blood with an almost feral look to her eyes.

Nightstar was sleeping, unusually deeply considering the circumstances, but with all the torrent of emotions he himself had been through lately, it came as no surprise. So when he had a paw prod at him, the Shadowclan snapped up and awake with a snarl. The blood scent was strong as it wafted across his nostrils before he really saw the bloodied form of a fox, laid hardly a tail length away from his prone form. The black toms hackles raised as he looked at it, then the bloodied and beaten form of Windclans tunnel... cat of all cats. They were allies, that was for certain, but what were his guards doing to miss a bloodied cat with a dead bloody fox go to their sleeping and vulnerable clan leader? He could have been slaughtered in his sleep.

Breathing heavily out of his nose with blatant irritation, he forced his hackles flat. Scrunching his face to push any remainder of sleep out of his eyes, he glowered at the she-cat before him, making it clear that this action was not appreciated. "What?" If she expected some sort of... charity, because they were allies, then maybe she had another thing coming... whatever she wanted from him.

Coyotegrin merely blinked as Nighstar growled and snapped awake and lashed out at her. She waited a few heartbeats for him to calm down before speaking. "These foxes killed two of my children and my first mate. I killed them back. I want this one skinned like your clan does. The other can stay at the bottom of Highstones to rot and warn the others." Her tone, still flat, she glanced around to see if anyone was listening in before murmuring quieter. "Don't consider this a charity from a clan leader to another clan, please. This is a personal favor. I'll repay a similar one in turn." She wouldn't give up clan secrets like the tunnels (not that they existed anymore anyway, but Nightstar didn't know that) because that would be betrayal. Plus, skinning wasn't exactly a clan-security secret. But Nightstar didn't give anything for free, and Coyotegrin was smart enough to know it. So, a personal favor from cat to cat would be her only card, and she wanted it. She wanted Nightstar to go easy, just this once. For her, not for WindClan.

He listened quietly, his annoyed expression hardly leaving his face for an instant as he considered her request. He didn't say a word, letting the silence stretch intentionally as if to torture the she-cat deliberately. Coyotegrin was... useful, and a personal favour could not be ignored, but how far would she be willing to go if he collected on it? Would she kill for him, if he asked? Would she be a piece he could use for his political gain? Maybe she could be, if he humoured her, and used his resources to sweeten the deal.

"Very well. But I will not let you bleed all over my clans space." He meowed simply, pushing himself to his paws as he looked around for a particular cat. When he did not see her though, he merely called, "Burdockroot!" He yowled simply, and while he waited for his medicine cat, he turned to Coyotegrin. "Burdockroot will treat your wounds, and I will accept this favour. And I will be collecting, one of these days and it will be worth it to me." He meowed with honesty, for at least he did not sugar coat his intentions.

Coyotegrin didn't have the patience or energy to play the whole political game with Nightstar, nor the psychological warfare thing he always seemed to have going on. Still, she could understand his annoyance so she waited patiently for his response. All of his demands were fair, and she hadn't even considered the blood part of this. Did the fox not bleed when they skinned it? She didn't dare ask as he called for the medicine cat. StarClan, he really didn't like to be woken up. With a curt nod Coyotegrin agreed to the terms physically. "I draw the line at killing a WindClan cat, kit, or medicine cat, and borderline on the apprentice. As well as sabotaging WindClan. For obvious reasons." Nightstar wouldn't be that cruel, would he? Again, this was a personal favor, so literally killing a kit wouldn't make sense... Right?

Burdockroot had just finally fallen asleep behind her rock with her herbs when her name was called once more. Groaning she rolled over and shook her long fur out before padding to the leader with silent paws. They hadn't had much time to speak since he returned, but did he have to talk now? As she came into view of him, she also saw a small bloodied figure next to a fox... StarClan... Taking her sweet time Burdockroot finally came up silently behind the WindClan warrior? "What?" She said in an annoyed tone. Clearly, he didn't want to speak. Did he expect her to groom this cat personally or something? That wasn't on the duty roster StarClan gave her.

Coyotegrin nearly jumped with a startle as Burdockroot suddenly appeared behind her but calmed down before her shock was too noticeable. Cocking her head to the side, she didn't turn but peered at the medicine cat.

"Of course." Nightstar responded plainly, mildly surprised that she didn't draw the line solidly at apprentices, but he'd take what he could get. Thankfully, Burdockroot arrived, albeit annoyed herself and he couldn't blame her any. He, however, did his best to convey his apologies silently. "Burdockroot, could you give Coyotegrin a look over, and treat her wounds? Can't have a... valuable asset such as herself to bleed all over the place." Giving the medicine cat a small, bashful smile before he turned back to Coyotegrin.

"It'll take some time, to get this all set up to be a suitable pelt to wear." Nightstar meowed, rather hoping that she did not press for him to teach her. While it wasn't exactly Shadowclan only knowledge, Riverclan and Thunderclan cats often times having pelts of their own, he didn't particularly want to spread the know-how any further. "Or... did you want to learn how to do it?" Nightstar sighed, a reluctant offer, but it was an offer.

Burdockroot eyed the "valuable asset" in front of them. It was just a tiny WindClan warrior, that other patheticly small and sniveling cat was Deputy. Perhaps it was because she seemed to be Shrikestar's mate? Shaking her head she strode back to her rock to get herbs. Her and Batsong had been sharing frequently enough, and her code dictated it shouldn't matter so... she tried to not let it bother her.

Coyotegrin watched the angry medicine cat stalk away. Her and Batsong were on the verge of enemies but at least she had a decent bed-side manner. Turning back to Nightstar she fixed an intense stare into his eyes. "I do want to learn, unless you'd like to skin more foxes in the future. I won't share the knowledge." She might, but she felt no need to right now anyway.

Burdockroot returned. "Let me work first." She motioned for Coyotegrin to lay down and reluctantly, she did. The medicine cat began to work without another word.

"Sure." Nightstar meowed plainly, his eyes narrowed in suspicion but otherwise laying the discussion to rest. Waiting until Burdockroot was as satisfied with her work as she could get, he nodded and pulled the fox closer to him.

"So, the first thing you want to do to get a good pelt is-"

A considerable amount of time passed as Nightstar dutifully demonstrated and showed Coyotegrin how to get a pelt from the fox. Nightstar was quick to get the fox's body out of the area by sending one of his warriors to take care of it, before turning to look at Coyotegrin. "I'd suggest airing it out until it completely dries, this will take quite a while regularly, but more so now that it's leaf-bare. Once it's dried you can wear it or use it as bedding, or whatever else." Nightstar meowed.