Open to Join Plot Thread A little hope, however desperate [9RP’21]

I’d rather bear the weight of others than let others carry pain alone.

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Basilflame had heard a bit of commotion a day or so ago from the Rowanglade’s den, on that day she had been particularly worried about and and was chatting with Sunbear and Berrykit in the far side of camp, her ears flattened. She had seen Pipertuft wounded and getting moved to the medicine den. After what felt like forever and with her paws moving with little slowness, the longhaired point she-cat gave a soft goodbye to her dam and the small (yet somehow large for a nursery dweller) kit before heading for the medicine den.

However, but the time she had arrived, the calamity had become and eased silence, but silence after a wound that she saw was nothing to be comforted by. Nothing something like that. "Rowanglade! I saw Pipertuft get moved into camp a little while ago is she-" Basilflame paused, her flattened ears quivering as if trying to force themselves lower than they were, her ginger striped tail curled between her hid legs.

"… How is she" Basilflame kept a comfortable distance, breathing room so the den didn’t feel tighter, so the air didn’t feel heavier than it was. From looks alone it looked grim, herbs were packed onto a wound that seemed fatal and her brows furrowed, this didn’t look good… "Would… would you need space?"

Healing is a matter of time,
but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

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The questions made Rowanglade raise her head to look Basilflame. The sick den where she was laying shared an entrance with the medicine den where she and Pipertuft normally slept was.

”Unconscious. Since she was brought.” Rowanglade didn’t feel she should be anything but honest. ”I don’t need space. She won’t be bothered by talking. It may even help. Sometimes cats can be drawn out of a coma like this when they hear others around.”

She still couldn’t understand what had possessed her to obey her apprentice a day’s cycle ago when Pipertuft had thrown herself into the fray. And now… the coma was already deep. If they didn’t come back quickly from something like this they rarely came back at all. But it was still within sense that she might wake. No need to make up troubles.

Rowanglade already had enough of those.

I’d rather bear the weight of others than let others carry pain alone.

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"Oh, talking helps." Basilflame repeated, although, the words were mostly a reminder to herself. She couldn't even imagine to know what it was like to be a medicine cat... to deal with something like this. She didn't envy Rowanglade, not at all. But she was here to help. "Her wound... it doesn't look..." Basilflame couldn't find the words, not exactly... so she just moved in beside Rowanglade, hoping that the worried expression she was wearing would speak more than her words would let her.

Basilflame's landed on Pipertuft, her once vibrant eyes were shut as if she were asleep, but her breathing, the slow rising and falling of her chest, it seemed so shallow. From what she had seen... from the bodies she's witnessed, it was over before she could say goodbye, but with Pipertuft... she didn't even know if she would pull through. She just hoped that Pipertuft would prove her worries wrong and wake up stronger than ever.

For a moment, she searched for what to say, her ginger paws kneading at the ground, one hesitently reached out and brushed against Pipertuft's fur, it was still warm and had volume, but for how long? Finally, the words came to her, a question. "Rowanglade, you were with Pipertuft when... when the rogue was there. What... what happened?" The word left room for Rownglade to interpret and answer how she needed, any answer would give Basilflame some sort of view on this, however simple or complex the answer was.

Healing is a matter of time,
but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

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”It’s very deep. Such things heal slowly.” Rowanglade avoided mentioning too much. It wouldn’t do for Warriors to worry about exactly how insufficient treatment could be in the field.

Then came the question. This was the first of the Warriors to ask. Fawnstar and Aspenberry knew the details, but debriefing with them after things was necessary. Rowanglade sighed deeply.

”We’d left Sacredmoor and the Thunderpath. The rogue came at us from the treeline when we were leaving it for the moors…” She reached out and ran her tongue over Pipertuft’s still ear, getting not even a twitch in response. ”The rogue leapt on me. Pipertuft leapt on her.”

Next was the hardest part of the story. ”Then she screamed at me to run. It felt like StarClan screamed with her!” Rowanglade hadn’t been able to resist the force of that command, the echo of the rabbit’s paws in the distance. She closed her eyes to hide the regret in them. She had wanted so badly to protect Pipertuft… ”I listened.”

She couldn’t keep her feelings from her voice, lacing the words with pain.

I’d rather bear the weight of others than let others carry pain alone.

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"It sounds like... maybe she had StarClan's support while protecting you. Far-fetched... maybe, but Medicine Cats would know more about that than me" Basilflame replied after letting Rowanglade to finish the story, and then some to make sure she had truly finished before replying again, Basilflame wasn't keen on interrupting such a respectable cat.

Basilflame lowered her ears as she caught the pain in the medicine cat's voice, a burning pain that Basilflame had felt before. More times than she would have preferred it and she knew that pain would be felt again, if not here, than somewhere else in the future, she wanted to be there for her clanmates when that day came. 

The ginger lynx point she-cat pressed her nose into Rowanglade's fur a soft sign of comfort that she hoped was welcomed, and even more hoped that it hadn't been misplace. "You've been medicine cat for longer than I've been alive, my mother, she sought you in her time of need, not every cat could claim that. But you can." she added, moving her nose away from Rowanglade's fur.

"Either she makes it out or she doesn't" Basilflame stated in a much more hushed tone, glancing down as Pipertuft's flank moved in slow, hollow breaths, as if clinging to a life that was already losing it's light. "If she doesn't, you'll have so many cats here to support you. While... I can't speak for everyone, I know me and Sunbear will be around if you need someone to talk to."

Healing is a matter of time,
but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

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”I do think StarClan may have had a paw in it. A rabbit gave a warning thump when she yelled.” The echo of the banging paw would always ring her mind until the end of her days. ”Using hindsight, Running Rabbit takes much care.”

The Medicine Cat’s proverb had been used for time immemorial to help memorize the meanings of the different omens. Plants, animals, sky phenomenon: It could all be imbued by StarClan with a message.

”She truly is in StarClan’s paws now.” Rowanglade’s voice was a sigh. ”I’d told the other Medicine Cat’s I intended to put her before StarClan. She was ready to be a Medicine Cat. I won’t be retiring before the gathering now…”

She didn’t address the offer to talk. But once she’d figured out her own feelings on the matter she might take Basilflame up on the it. Maybe after she’d gotten to speak privately with the rest of the Medicine Cats. Whatever Laughingfox’s message to Pipertuft was she wanted to talk it out. It’s just… Basilflame couldn’t understand the full weight of what had happened. The implications of the private message from a StarClanner.

”A coma is a dangerous thing. She’s been in this one long enough to be worrying.” She wasn’t going to hide the direness of the situation. Rowanglade could find no point in it. All cats of the Clans faced death every day. ”But she has swallow reflex enough that we can get some water and blood into her. That means we can hope.”