The fallen snow hushes the air, leaving everything quiet and damp. I battle my way through drift after drift, my red staining the white that's all around me. Damn, it's hard to move with a limp leg. Unshed tears glisten in my eyes while I try to force out the thoughts clogging my brain, my weak point. If I had learned anything, it was to dissipate all emotions left inside me until I was nothing but a shell. A big, stupid, fuzzy shell of me. A fat tear rolls into my whiskers to drop to the frozen powder beneath. The powder slurps up my pain and smiles.
A murmur of voices sounds up ahead, and I freeze in my spot, a hope that I won't be found logged in my mind. I can smell them before I see them. Warm, happy Clan-smell with the lingering scent of rabbit dangling tantalizingly on each word. My mouth waters.
"...Oh you think so, do you? If you'd seen that bear, I'm telling you, you--"
The leading voice breaks off. I press myself as low to the ground as possible before my leg overly throbs from the strain. They've detected me. Footsteps crunch in the snow, making my ear fur tremble. The Clancats' scents grow stronger until I can see their paws about a foxlength ahead of me. I regather myself and look up at these new cats. Will I have to fight them? The fur ripples along my spine, knowing that I'm in no condition for battle. Their faces, however, look puzzled instead of having the anger that I'm used to.
"What's going on? Are you all right?" Asks the light grey one, his voice and eyes concerned and confused.
The words stick in my throat.
"'an 'ou talk?" Another one asks, a mist-grey and white she-cat with a distorted mouth. I raise a subtle eyebrow at her. Can you? My gaze darting to her front legs, averted from her mouth, I muster, "I--I'm fine." My throat stings like crazy. How long has it been since I've had a decent drink of water?
"'ou don't 'ook fine." The she-cat's eyes narrow. "'ho did this to 'ou?"
'Ooh did this to ooh?'I stifle my smirk and shake my head, not responding. This is a mistake; my skull now feels as if it's being split open and black clouds my vision, causing me to wonder if I'll lose contiousness for the last time.
"Come on," a different voice says softly. "we should get you back to Camp."
I cooperate as they nudge me gently in a slightly different direction than from where I'd been heading, too dizzy to protest. It's a difficult walk, and one slathered in fear, but at last we manage to make it back to whereever they're taking me. Where did they say again? Some sort of camp? I'm in BirchClan territory, right? My head spins. I can't think straight. I sort of hope they have a medicine cat who can make this all go away...but if they do it all for me, how can I get stronger?
We approach a large intertwining of undergrowth, which I assume to be their home. Twigs stick out here and there but mostly the walls are made up of some bramble, dried reeds and branches, all interwoven with various forest plants and debris. The patrol's apparent leader, the tomcat, stops at the entrance to look back at me. "All right, there's going to be a lot of new scents when you enter the clearing. I want you to stick by me, got that?"
I nod, slowly, not too intent on creating another flurry of pain for myself. The cat gives me a weak but reassuring smile and pushes his way through a hole in the walls. I wait, thinking that perhaps the other two will go in before me and tickling the idea of running off when they do. But I feel a small nudge from behind, signaling that they want me to go in next. "Go on." The blue cat whispers. "We'll be right behind you."
Taking a deep breath, I gather up the strenght I have remaining and walk into BirchClan camp.
Inside, cats swarm the clearing. Two apprentices are battling it out next to a couple sharing tongues. A tired mother chases her hyper kit across camp. Two of the cats who had taken me in murmer with each other for a second before the tom breaks off and the disabled one looks me in the face.
"I'm goi(ng) to take 'out to Sil'ermoon. She's goi(ng) to help 'ou feel better." She's obviously trying to soothe me, but instead a new jet of alarm shoots through my bones. What if this ''Sillermoon'' knows who I am and that I'm not supposed to be here? What if they betray my position to Night Sky? I follow her, however, to a rounded stone den at the edge of the clearing and into the shaded cave. The moment I enter, the aroma of many different herbs hits my nose, the strength of it causing me to stumble back just a little and wince slightly.The she-cat goes in ahead of me, calling out the name of their medicine cat.
"What is it?" Asked a high, kind voice. Sillermoon backed up out of a space close to the wall. She had a silver pelt and light, sparkling blue eyes--no cat that I recognized.
"We found 'er out in the woods scratched u' 'retty bad." She she-cat that had found me shook her head in her shock. "I don't know where she 'ame from...we 'ust found 'er out there, 'ust wandering..."
Sillermoon was frowning now, and she padded over to inspect me. I flinched down, feeling uncomfortable with her eyes scalding my every inch. "It's all right, you can leave now..." She murmered to the other, who dipped her head, but hesitated before leaving the den. "What happened?" The medicine cat asked a moment or two after she'd elft. Her eyes were concerned and puzzled and she stared directly into mine. I figeted. What did I look like? Vulnerable, no doubt.
"I don't like to talk about it." My throat still hurt when I spoke, but the pain was less than the last time. The cat nodded gently, and she drew in a breath as if to say something else, but didn't. I cut back a whine of pain when she applied an herb to one of my many wounds. I looked down at what she was doing. The source of this new pain is at the base of my front right leg, where Sillermoon had extract trickling into a gash that looked almost infected. My eyes shifted to the ground, and I tried to make out the shape of each indivigual dust speck, feeling trapped by this Clan and attempting to distract myself.
"Your leg is infected." Bingo. "You're going to have to stay here in my den for at least a week." A week? My claws itch, and I'm hardly able to force back a growl. A week? What would I even be able to do? And all while being confined in a small hallow surrounded by cats I didn't know in an enemy Clan?...I didn't like it. Home popped into my mind, especially my mother's face, and my eyes glistened with weakness. I sniffed and blinked repeatedly. I jumped at feeling her tail brush against my shoulder. I looked up to see that her face was shimmering with sympathy, then jolted my head away yet again. I shifted, but said nothing. Just waited, cold, uncomfortable, and compltely out of my element.
"That's all I can do for now. You'd better get some rest...that must have taken a lot out of you." She motions toward a nest by the wall of the den, close to the entrance. "Do you think you'll need any poppy seeds to help you drift off?" I shake my head, then slink over to the nest to lie down, wincing at the pain. I feel several herbs loosen when I bend my legs, but don't say anything. My brain screams at me to get up, to do something with myself instead of just lying there in the open, but dizzyness swamps me and in seconds I fall fast asleep.
