What Happens Without a Medicine Cat? [OPEN]

Perhaps naively, she'd thought the worst of her injuries was behind her. She'd lost a life at fourtrees, Starclan had brought her back, she'd helped make sure the wolves were dead. Someone had slapped some cobwebs on to keep her from bleeding out on the way home. And she hadn't.

For a few days, it seemed as though her wounds would heal. Her duties were kept light at the insistence of a few clanmates, and the leader could not bring herself to grumble. Her sides ached fiercely where the wolf's jaws had closed around her. The words of the starry cat she'd been named for rang in her ears, so she'd relented. For a few days, the fatigue seemed to ebb away as her body healed.

Until it had come back. Along with nausea and an uncomfortable warmth where fangs had caught in her skin. The wounds themselves smelled sour, and Wolfstar had been forced to admit that something was wrong. Not for the first time, she found herself wishing for Plumleaf or Smokepetal's presence. Thymelight, or Hemlockfox. They weren't here, though. They were gone. Gone. And her own basic knowledge of herbs wasn't enough this time.

The night had been a restless one, sleep refusing to claim her as she'd tossed and turned in her discomfort. She should have been outside, assigning duties and mingling with her clan as she always did in the mornings, but even as the sun rose above Skyclan's camp, the leader lay curled in her nest, breathing fast and shallow as the den seemed to spin around her, though she did not move. Wolfstar closed her eyes against the sensation. Perhaps it would fade in a few moments, she just needed to stay, to breathe.

She wasn't sure when the darkness was broken, but bright starlight speckled the nighttime forest she stood in... She had been laying in her nest, hadn't she?

Dread pooled in the leader's stomach at the realization.

Wolfstar has lost a life.

Hickorysmoke had went out early in the morning but returned when the sun was still high in the sky. He hadn't seen or heard from his grandmother since the gathering. The young warrior had heard there was an attack at the gathering but he wasn't sure how injured his grandmother had been.

As he pushed into the leader's den he softly called out to her, but she laid still in her nest. Hickorysmoke slipped in and sat by the silver molly and watched for a brief moment. Her sides didn't rise or fall it was just like it had been on the patrol when he was an apprentice.

He laid down beside her and cleaned her wounds. They were something fierce in smell and taste but they needed to be cleaned. Hickorysmoke pushed back his urge to vomit as he continued his task. Soon he noticed a shallow rising and falling of his leader's side and he sighed in relief. "It happened again huh?" he mewed softly

Hollykit found himself shadowing one of the warriors to the leader's den. Spotting SkyClan's leader laying in her nest, he thought he heard the warrior say something like 'It happened again'. What happened again? Did it have to do with how injured she was?

Sneaking under the warrior's feet, the ginger tom quickly tapped the leader on her nose with his paw. It was still warm, and it seemed like she was breathing. Was she just sleeping, then? Did being injured make cats take more naps? Hollykit didn't know, so he sat next to their leader, waiting for them to wake up.

Lighttail had been on her way to visit Wolfstar as well, and her heart sank as she took in the sight. Wolfstar had died, again. Lighttail had witnessed her losing three lives now. How many more before her best friend was gone forever? She sat down, not saying a word, but drew Hollykit to her. The poor child really shouldn’t see this, but it was too late for that.

Fading slowly into existence with starlight gleaming in his pelt, Bloodstrike approached Wolfstar, his face as stoic now as it had been for most of his life. For several moments he said nothing, just stared at his descendent, but when he finally spoke, a small smile twitched at the edge of his lips. "Don't you think you should get a medicine cat so this might not happen, to you or to anyone else?" His tail tip twitched behind him. It had taken a long time to get used to having one again. "We will help you find one soon. Skyclan needs a medicine cat, a direct link to us as well. I can't promise our signs will be clear, because I am forbidden to interfere too directly for awhile. But you should notice something when we find a good one for you. I also can't promise it won't happen as soon as you return to your body, or even next moon. I'm not in charge of this stuff, I am just a messenger for now."

He sat down slowly, despite knowing he would need to get up and leave soon, or he would wait for her to leave the stars and then go on about his business.

"Do you have anything you need to say to me, before you return? You don't have much time up here, as you are probably aware by now." His voice had been gentle the whole time. What a change not constantly being in pain and angry could have on a cat.

The striped tom that was suddenly before her was silent for several long moments before he finally spoke. "We do." She acknowledged with a grimace. The knowledge that Skyclan had been extremely fortunate, that the only injuries and life lost during that gathering was hers...

"I wish I had learned more while my parents and siblings were around to teach me." She mewed. Four medicine cats among her direct family, and all she had to show for it was knowing how to keep wounds closed with cobwebs and how to make the traveling herbs to get them to the moonstone. That knowledge wasn't nearly enough. "Thank you, Bloodstrike." Her grandfather was as honest as the stars could be, she supposed. Hopefully they would find a medicine cat soon. Skyclan had gotten so very lucky so far.

---

Wolfstar blinked awake, to the feeling of clanmates pressed around her. The pain was gone, as was the pulsing heat in her sides. A quiet voice sounded, and the leader grimaced, opening her eyes. Stars, Hickorysmoke didn't need to see her like this again. Nor Lighttail. And... A kit, being drawn closer to the warrior. Hollykit, she was sure. Much too young to see something like a dead cat in front of him, even one who could come back.

"I'd rather it be me than any one of you. I didn't get a lecture by my mother this time... But my grandfather is right. We need a medicine cat." The leader sighed, pulling herself carefully to a sitting position and glancing over her pelt. Her long, normally plush fur had grown ragged over the various scars she'd collected over the seasons... The jagged marks the wolf's fangs had left were just the newest of them. Gingerly, she inhaled... They were no longer inflamed and leaking things they shouldn't, at least. "The infection is gone now, at least. I'm sorry you had to find me like that." She added with a grimace, a quiet apology to her friends. But for the kit too.