Crowpaw bounded into camp, her jaws stocked with celandine. Two days had passed since the Gathering.
Hollytuft and Nightstorm were grooming each other while Redfang dozed beside them. Timberheart and Fernstar were sitting against each other on the highledge, deep in a conversation. Coalfrost and Moonpaw were wrestling close to the barrier. Junipercloud and Sootfall were sharing a big, fat mouse.
Shinepaw and Lionpaw dropped their prey –a mouse and a squirrel- at the fresh-kill pile before bounding over to Hazelwhisker and Spiderleap with a rabbit they snatched up. Hazelwhisker greeted them with a warm purr. "Did you catch that?" Spiderleap asked.
Shinepaw shook her head. "No, but we did catch a squirrel and a mouse," she mewed.
"Well done," Spiderleap purred.
Flowerpaw stumbled out of the apprentices' den before stretching and yawning. She turned and was about to walk to her parents, until her eyes caught sight of her foster siblings. Her face twisted with fury, her eyes blazing. The fur on her shoulders rose and she whipped around before racing out of camp, almost barreling into Stormsky as he was padding into camp. "Hey, careful!" he yelped.
Firemoon padded in after him, and then Adderfang and Dustwind followed. "Why's she in such a hurry?" Dustwind murmured, lashing his tail.
Crowpaw pushed aside the lichen of the den before walking into the cave. Featherheart was washing some burdock roots in the pool in the back of the den. Jayfeather was mixing a poultice before smearing his sticky, green paws onto Flamingheart's shoulder. "What happened to you?" Crowpaw asked as she dropped the celandine.
"Flamingheart got into an argument with a bramble thicket while chasing a rabbit," Jayfeather snorted as he scooped up more poultice and smearing more onto Flamingheart's shoulder. Flamingheart squeezed his eyes in pain.
"What do you think I'm putting on him?" Jayfeather asked.
Crowpaw sniffed the air. "Don't cheat," Featherheart yelped and slapped his tail over her nose. Crowpaw glared at him. "What would you put on him?" he asked.
Crowpaw thought for a moment, going through all the herbs in her head. "Marigold?" she mewed carefully.
"Quite right," Jayfeather mewed before sniffing Flamingheart's wound. "I want you to stay in for a day or two and if you feel even the slightest pain I want you to tell me right away," he mewed, stepping back.
Flamingheart flexed his shoulder before heaving himself to his paws. "Thanks, Jayfeather," he murmured before limping out of the den.
Jayfeather and Featherheart watched after him. "He's not going to listen to you, you know that, don't you?" Featherheart murmured.
Jayfeather twitched his ears. "Right, I'll tell Acornfall to keep a lookout for him," he grunted before turning and scraping the leftover leaves into a pile.
"Crowpaw," he mewed.
Crowpaw snapped up her head. "What is it?"
Jayfeather pushed his way into the cleft. "I want you to go gather ragwort leaves," he mewed. "Cloudtail keeps complaining about his joints aching."
Crowpaw sighed. She'd already been out to gather celandine and marigold. Whatever. "Where can I find it?" she asked.
Featherheart snagged up a leaf with his claw. "You can find ragwort just about everywhere," he mewed before soaking the leaf up and then straightening it out next to a row of foul smelling leaves.
