(Book 1) Warriors: Separations - Six Stars

Chapter 6

Cinder groaned. It had been a day since the dog attack, and her wounds from both the dogs and the thorn bush she had gotten stuck in just moments before were killing her. Every part of her body throbbed with pain, and she had to sit and wait for Cherry and Misty to gather herbs. She couldn't even relax, much less sleep. She was splayed out uncomfortably on her nest of hay, waiting for her friends to return.

"Cinder! We're back!"

Cinder couldn't move much, but she lifted her head to look at the returned cats. Cherry and Misty burst through the barn door, carrying more herbs than Cinder thought possible. She sighed in relief. Chervil always made her wounds feel better. Cherry and Misty ran up to her nest. Cherry and Misty began chewing up the chervil, their tails lashing and ears pinned. They were nervous, and it showed.

Cinder knew that her injuries weren't fatal, but it definitely felt like it. She willed them to hurry, the pain was getting worse by the second.

Finally, Cherry and Misty finished.

Misty shoved her mushed up herb poultice over to Cherry, and grabbed cobwebs, prepared to cover Cinder's wounds in them after Cherry applied the herbs. Cherry ran to Cinder's hind leg, rubbing the chervil onto it. Cinder relaxed. She felt so much better as the juices soaked into her wound. Misty quickly wrapped cobwebs around it. Cherry ran around Cinder's whole body, covering her cuts and scratches in the chervil. Misty kept on chasing after Cherry, wrapping up the scars as quickly as she could manage.

By sunhigh, Cherry and Misty were done patching Cinder up.

"So, what did we learn?" Cherry teased her.

Cinder rolled her eyes. Her wounds stopped hurting, but she wouldn't be able to leave the barn until Cherry let her. "I don't know, run around bushes instead of going through them? I'm not a kit, I learned my lesson well enough without you having to rub it in." she retorted.

Cherry rubbed Cinder cheek with her own. "C'mon, you know I'm joking. Get better soon!"

Cinder sighed. She couldn't be mad at Cherry, not after she had worked so hard to patch Cinder up. Misty laughed and walked to their freshkill pile to grab a thrush. It was a pretty fat thrush, and Cinder's belly growled as she looked at it. She hadn't eaten since before she and Cherry went off into Windclan, and the dog attack really wore her out. Cherry and Misty had some scratches, but the dog seemed to target Cinder for some reason.

Misty seemed to notice how hungry Cinder was. She dropped the thrush at Cinder's paws.

Cinder looked at the freshkill. Her mouth watered, but she shook her head. "No, I can't! I haven't contributed anything to our freshkill pile, I should really do something before I can earn that–" Misty brushed her tail over Cinder's mouth. "Oh, hush. You're injured. Plus, me and Cherry are quite capable. We also heard that there's a rogue wandering around in Riverclan territory, maybe we'll get a new addition to our group.

Cinder nodded hopefully. Maybe then Misty and Cherry would have to be the only ones dealing with Cinder's mishaps. She nodded thankfully to Misty and dug into the thrush.

She relished every single bite of the delicious, juicy freshkill. It was so much better on an empty stomach.

Misty grabbed a bird for herself and settled down next to Cinder. "I wonder how Speckledstones is doing." Misty ventured. Cinder nodded. "I hope he's doing well. I know that Skystar doesn't trust him much, even though they're brothers." Misty scoffed. "He becomes the leader of Windclan, and he suddenly thinks he's just above the rest of us." Cinder laughed. "I'm sure it's more complicated than that. Speckledstones told me that Whiteclaw isn't very accepting of kittypets and rogues joining the clans."

Cherry walked into the barn, bits of red, orange, and golden leaves clinging to her fur. She held a mouse and a carrion in her jaws. "Hungry?" she queried.

Misty and Cinder shook their heads no. Cherry shrugged, dropped her carrion, and settled down on the other side of Cinder on her hay nest. She dug hungrily into her mouse. "Are you feeling better, Cinder?" she asked Cinder. Cinder smiled. "Yup! Thank you guys so much, I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You'd be dead."

Cinder widened her eyes at Cherry's boldness. "Well, that was harsh." she huffed. Cherry nudged Cinder. "Just kidding. I was a helpless kit when my neighborhood went into flames. Eventually you would've learned how to hunt and fend for yourself. Plus, I almost starved due to my one eye, but even I could survive out in the wild. You've got two perfectly good eyes, you would've used them better than I can." Cherry reassured her.

Cinder wondered for a moment. "What's it like having one eye?"

"It might seem like hunting would have been really hard, but I didn't know how to hunt before I had to go into the forest, so I didn't have to adjust too awfully much with the one eye and hunting." Cherry answered. Cinder nodded. "It was hard to adjust to only having one eye." Cherry added. Cinder chuckled. "I bet."

Cinder snuggled into her nest. She felt like a kit again, cooped up in a comfortable nest, warm and full, and she had Cherry and Misty with her as well. She felt so at ease, and slowly, she began to drift off to sleep.