Frozen Hope

Chapter 3

Oh StarClan, we've arrived. Thought Cherrypaw.

Flamepaw groaned in pain, and Hailcloud's fur was on end. "Will he be okay?" he asked, very repitively also. Fear scent was coming off of him strong. He looked very panicked. "This is my fault. I told him he could go up, I should of-"

Raintuft blinked. "Shh," she replied, softly in a slight hiss. "It's not your fault. He'll live. It doesn't look too severe."

Too severe!? He's lying on the ground in pain! Cherrypaw thought with a very loud sigh which earned her a confused look from Raintuft.

Hailcloud let out a sigh of relief, sitting nearby.

"He's dislocated his leg." Raintuft bit her muzzle, her blue eyes glaring and staring for a moment. "Well, we can use these cobwebs to help soothe the pain." she mewed to Cherrypaw. "Lend me these poppyseeds. We'll need to push the joint into place and take him back to camp with support."

Cherrypaw nodded. She rolled them over to Raintuft who pushed them over to Flamepaw, whom was still groaning in pain. He ate the seeds and stopped, his eyes looked as if they were going to shut any moment. Raintuft placed some cobwebs near his hind leg.

"Okay, let's get going to camp, and quick." Raintuft mewed. "We need to relocate it, but to do it very quickly after it's just been dislocated is a bad time."

Hailcloud nodded, gripping Flamepaw by the scruff, Cherrypaw pressed against Flamepaw's side. "You're going to be okay." she murmured. Raintuft stood at the other for support. Together, they dragged him back to camp.

. . .

They arrived shortly after, Flamepaw was practically asleep quivering on the ground in his moss bed. "If we mix cobwebs, bindweed and broom into a poultice, it should help him, a lot. We're going to need to push his leg into place."

"Push it? With our paws?" Cherrypaw said with disbelief. "Won't it hurt him?"

"No we use our ears." Raintuft said sarcastically with amusment. "And it may hurt him, but it's better to have pain dealt with rather than sit and suffer. The legs not going to push back into place itself, is it?" added Raintuft.

Cherrypaw nodded. "I guess." It was fairly dark outside but not all that late. Leaf-bare. She thought with fatigue.

"Okay. I've pressed it on." mewed Raintuft. "Let's push his leg back."

Cherrypaw joined her. "When?"

There was a short pause. "Now!" she mewed, and Flamepaw groaned again, but only opened his eyes ever so slightly. Cherrypaw heaved all she could into it. There was a pop sound.

"It's in place." mewed Raintuft. "That wasn't so bad was it?" She smiled. "Maybe for Flamepaw. I don't think he minds." she laughed.

Cherrypaw giggled, seeing Flamepaw resting with ease put her at ease.

"He can't train for about half a moon, however." Raintuft mewed. "He can dislocate it again easily. He may limp as well so we need to be easy on him. It will still be slightly painful where the joint is, perhaps."

Cherrypaw had nodded. Raintuft was wise and obviously she needed to learn these things. "We should tell Hailcloud." she mewed.

Hailcloud popped his head into the den. Speak of StarClan! She thought, smiling. He padded in slightly with a curt nod.

"How is he?" pestered Hailcloud, worry scattered in his eyes once morr. He had tilting his head with curiosity. 

Raintuft sighed. "He's dead," there was a glimpse of playfulness in her eyes.

"What?" Hailcloud froze. After a moment he tried looking over Raintuft's shoulder. "No!"

He broke past Raintuft, running over to his apprentice. "He's breathing!" He hissed. "You mousebrain!'

Raintuft laughed, her blue eyes glowing deviously. "Don't disrespect your medicine cats, Hailcloud." She winked, and Hailcloud looked away, hiding his expression. Before that, Cherrypaw could swear she saw a glimpse of red in his cheek fur.

Raintuft stood, resting her tail-tip on his shoulder. "I'm only kidding. I wanted to see your reaction. I just get so worked up in herbs that I just need to let out a laugh once in a while."

Hailcloud looked up. "I knew that," he said defensively. "I-I was only trying to see what your reaction would be to mine."

Raintuft stood away. Her eyes glowing mischeviously. "Oh, I see." She narrowed her eyes. "So the geniune worry when I said Flamepaw was dead was all just acting, huh?"

"Yep." Hailcloud stood proud and tall. Raintuft almost nudged him over.

"You can't fool me, Hailcloud." She mewed, blinking slowly and twitching her ears.

"Maybe I can, Raintuft." replied Hailcloud, with a crooked grin.

I should just leave them be. I need to collect herbs anyways. Cherrypaw thought. That was weird to watch.

She padded out of camp, to find Gravelpaw right in front of her.

"You better of saved Flamepaw." He said, his fur bristling slightly. "Antpaw and him are my friends and if you can't save them, I'll, I'll-"

"Oh come on, Gravelpaw." Cherrypaw hissed, staring at him steadily with her blind blue eye. If I can't avoid him, then may as well just stand up for myself. "You know well you won't do anything to your sister, that has an important role in the clan."

"Important." He mocked with narrow eyes, exaggerating his words. He got louder, angrier and quicker as he spoke. "You're not important. You're just a failure." He sneered, once more.

"Gravelpaw!" called Hawktalon, padding over. "Don't call your sister that." He said, shaking his head disappointingly. "Before you say you didn't, I watched you."

There was a long brief pause, Gravelpaw had looked away at this point.

"She's a medicine cat. It's a very important role, in fact, dare I say more important than a warriors." Hawktalon narrowed his eyes at him. "Call cats that and you'll end up in the Dark Forest- and trust me, your mother and father wouldn't be proud if you turned out like that."

Cherrypaw gave a satisfied glance at Gravelpaw, who just stared and flattened his ears.

"I'm sorry, Cherrypaw." Hawktalon dipped his head curtly at her. "Don't believe anything he says. You're a saviour to our clan. You could not control what happened to you, but at least you made the best of it." He then purred with a smile, signalling to Gravelpaw it was time to leave.

"Say things like that again and you'll have no prey to eat at the end of the night. I would never say anything like that to Blueblossom or Doeflight, so it doesn't excuse you doing it." Hawktalon scolded once more.

"Feel free to tell me if he is being a nuisance, Cherrypaw." Hawktalon nodded, before walking away in a strict tone with Gravelpaw.

Satisified, Cherrypaw continued on her journey. A battle that she had finally won against her brother. She felt good, purring as she left camp..