Aspenleaf
Skyclan Warrior
The first thing Aspenleaf noticed when he woke up was the sticky-soft scent of medicinal herbs. The second thing he noticed was the pain in his leg.
He barely held back from yowling at the lightning-intensity of it, shooting up his leg and reverberating all through his body. His heart raced, and he breathed hard, trying to come to his senses. It took what felt like a long time for the pain to subside to a level where he could think, and he didn't dare move. He concentrated instead on the scents, wishing he knew which one would quench the pain. He couldn't remember coming in here - some cat must have dragged him. He blurrily remembered getting to camp, leaning heavily on a patrol-mate, every movement jostling the point where his leg seemed to be on fire.
Aspenleaf was an orange and white tom, not exceptionally large but certainly not small. He'd been assigned to hunting patrol that day. He'd had a feeling of foreboding as he left the camp, but that feeling was so typical he'd begun to ignore it. He wished now he'd been more careful.
The patrol had split up in a stand of birch trees along one of the smaller streams in the territory. Never happy to be alone, Aspenleaf had nonetheless done his best to conquer his anxiety by chasing a squirrel up a tree. He'd thought himself lucky to spot it - this time in leaf-bare, prey was scarce, especially the squirrels who slept through the cold. But luck hadn't followed Aspenleaf as he crept along a branch after the squirrel. The wind had turned; it had scented him; it had jumped to a neighboring tree and, surprised by the shaking of the branch, Aspenleaf had fallen out of it. Everything after thatwas a haze of pain with only snippets of memory sprinkled in.
When he had enough control of himself to meow without screaming, he took a shaky breath and called out. "Roseglow?" he asked, hoping the medicine cat was still in her den.
Aspenleaf
Skyclan Warrior
It was a relief to hear the medicine cat's voice - not from the pain, but at least from the fear of being alone. "It's pretty bad," Aspenleaf said, hoping he didn't sound as pathetic as he felt. "The pain, I mean. Um. If you could- I don't know what helps, but-" he made the mistake of trying to shift his position, and hissed as a fresh wave of pain washed over him. "Yes, please," he said meekly.
He dared to glance at his hindleg, and found with some relief that it was no longer hanging at a disconcerting angle. Roseglow had wrapped it with ivy that seemed to be holding it straight. Thank Starclan, he thought. Just catching sight of his leg as he'd limped towards camp had nearly made him sick.
"Can you fix it?" he asked, as Roseglow turned back to her herb stores.
The ginger medicine cat had been desperately attempting to avoid a full blown panic attack ever since Aspenleaf arrived into her den being helped by a clanmate. Being new to her role with no-one in the camp to train her, Roseglow was lucky enough that no one came to her den with serious ailments or injuries - that was until Aspenleaf arrived with a broken hindleg. Eyes wide, she had directed the barely conscious tom to lay in a nest and cave him poppy seed - both in order to calm his nerves and allow him some sleep, and to buy her some time to figure out how to approach his injury. Sitting by his side in order to soothe him, she waited for the tom to fall asleep before pushing herself to her paws and going over her herb store. Luckily, she had replaced the lavender dangling from the cracks in her den earlier in the day, the soothing scent would hopefully calm both their nerves.
After spending some time sniffing and identifying the herbs, Roseglow settled on a poultice of comfrey, cobwebs, and nettle to rub on the wound. This will work until I find better herbs to help. Chewing and spitting the paste, the feline rubbed it as gently as she could on his broken leg, worriedly looking over the tom as he let out whimpers of pain in his sleep. I need to find a way to keep his bone straight, I don't think it would heal otherwise. Thinking for a moment, her gaze wandered through her den before it landed on a stick - the perfect length to match Aspenleaf's hindleg. Quickly, she grabbed the stick and a long ivy stem before returning to her patient. "Please don't hurt." She murmured to herself, gently nuzzling the warriors hindleg in order to straighten it out before placing the length of the stick along his leg and wrapping it with ivy. Although it would work while Aspenleaf was asleep, Roseglow was careful to allow him some freedom of movement, planning to make a more secure wrap when he woke.
Allowing herself a moment to breathe, Roseglow stepped into her nest further down in her den, wanting to keep a watchful eye on Aspenleaf but finding herself slowly drifting into sleep after an exhausting day.
Suddenly, Aspenleaf's voice rang in her ears, and the feline jolted awake. "I must have fallen asleep." The medicine cat pushed herself to her paws and quickly made her way to the warriors side, gently sniffing his leg - it was still irritated and inflamed, and she could only begin to imagine the pain Aspenleaf was feeling. "How are you feeling? I added a poultice directly on your leg, and a stick to help the bone heal." She looked at the tom, face twisted in worry, "Do you need anything for the pain?" Of course he does, Roseglow, why didn't I give him anything beforehand? "Or more poppy seed to sleep?"