Brambleclaw's Fury

Part 2

"Help!" cried Brambleclaw. Squirrelflight, who had been joking around with Ashfur spotted Leafpool first and sprinted over.

"Leafpool!" she cried, coming to a halt. Ashfur ran off to get Firestar.

"What happened?" she turned her eyes to Brambleclaw, and he saw concern, fear, and panic reflected there. He knew immediately. They didn't have a medicine cat, besides Leafpool. Only she knew how to take care of this. Then Brightheart shouldered her way through the gathered cats, with Firestar behind her. Leafpool groaned.

"Get me some poppy seeds and marigold- marigold has yellow petals, and poppy seeds are round and black or dark brown- go, now!" Brightheart ordered. Rainwhisker raced off to get them. She turned to Whitepaw. "Find the biggest leaf you can find", she said, then turned to Brackenfur. "Go get a medicine cat from one of the other Clans!" he nodded and raced off, and so did Thornclaw. Brambleclaw wondered how Brightheart knew all of this. Firestar nudged Leafpool, his eyes full of concern. Sandstorm and Squirrelflight already knelt down, sniffing her pelt. Firestar looked to Brambleclaw, and he saw his leader suppressing panic in his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked. Brambleclaw shook his head.

"We-we went to go get catnip at the old Twoleg place", he forced his voice to be steady. "And a snake got her..." he trailed off. Brightheart looked distressed and hissed angrily. "Why can't I remember any good herbs to help her?" Squirrelflight gave Firestar and Sandstorm a fearful gaze.

"She'll be okay... won't she?" she looked terrified for her sister. Leafpool twitched feebly, and Brightheart reported anxiously that her heartbeat was in a strange rhythm. Rainwhisker came with the marigold and poppy seeds. Brightheart took the leaf he carried the herbs in and began muttering to herself. She began chewing up the marigold, and she had Sandstorm hold open Leafpool's jaws, so she could swallow it after smearing some of the paste on Leafpool's eye, where the fresh savage fang marks still hadn't stopped bleeding.

Whitepaw came back and Brightheart placed the leaf as a sort of bandage over Leafpool's eye to stop the pulp from rubbing off. Leafpool hissed and thrashed about. Eventually, after a while, Brackenfur and Thornclaw came back with Mothwing.

"What happened?" she hissed, looking at Leafpool.

"A snake bit her eye," croaked Brambleclaw. It wasn't supposed to happen like this! Squirrelflight could never know this was his fault. Mothwing's eyes widened. She glanced at them.

"What did you give her?"

"Poppy seeds and I put some marigold on her eye... and made her swallow marigold, in case she didn't need to put it on her eye", said Brightheart.

"She wasn't supposed to swallow it," Mothwing said flatly. "We don't do that in RiverClan". Brightheart's eyes widened in distress like she had just killed Leafpool.

"Will it hurt her?" Mothwing shook her head.

"No." She glanced at the wound under the leaf. "You've done all that can be done, for now. I'll stay here for a while, to help her get better. For now, she needs rest." No cat objected to this, and they moved Leafpool to a nest in the medicine den. Mothwing sat in the nest across from her. Firestar, Sandstorm, and Squirrelflight tried to come in with her. She shook her head.

"Not right now. You can check up on her later." Firestar and Sandstorm shook their heads while Squirrelflight protested out loud.

"I'm staying. And so are Firestar and Sandstorm." Mothwing shook her head.