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.