☾ ShadowClan ☾ The Wily and Proud |☾ ☼ ϟ ≈ ☁|

"Ashrock that is not resting," Opalmist scolded him shaking her head as she moved to apply the paste to his paws. She sighed a bit, "You want to continue working this way your paws will never heal and they will be split. You will be in pain the rest of you life and what type of warrior will you be or help to your clan if you can barely walk because of the pain," her tail swished slightly irritated behind her. She rolled her eyes a bit from his response, "You want to be helpful get proper rest," her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. The medicine cat stood her ground against him, not budging in her stance.

"I would be thankful for the help," Hiddendream smiled softly before giving a soft laugh, "Yeah at least you toms dont have to go through this. I dont think you would last kitting from what Ive heard," she smirked a bit.

(I wondered if you did that on purpose XD)

"Thanks again, Shortcloud." Cedarstar nodded to her. "If you need anything else, let me know. I'm..." He sighed and sheepishly shrugged. "I'm rather bored in here."

(I've got cats that can go on a patrol if you want Shortcloud to take one out)

Ashrock flinched when she applied the herbs, their juices stinging so sharply into his pads, he let out a hiss. "Oh, yes, I'll just lay around all day be accused of not caring by my clanmates. If I work to hard, they think I'm trying to take Cedarstar's place again. If I don't work hard enough, they accuse me of being lazier than Smokestorm. I can't catch a break, so I might as well keep myself busy."

"From the screams I've heard from kitting she-cats, I probably wouldn't." Eaglesight agreed with her with a teasing grin. "I'll stick to doing the brute work around the camp while you she-cats take care of the kits."

Treadtail cowered away again but forced himself to get his words out at the same time. "I-I-I know you're bad with th-th-th-thunderp-pa-paths too. I was h-h-hoping you could h-help me." When he said Thunderpaths his flattened tail seemed to instinctively curl in, as though it was terrified that another monster was going to get it again.

"Ashrock...you need to stop paying attention to what others think of you and start thinking about yourself," Opalmist shook her head, "Yes you support the clan and you want what is best but you have to give yourself time to heal or else things will just keep getting worse for you," she told him sighing. She pulled back from him satisfied with how much paste was put on his pads, "I can give you something for the pain if you wish," she meowed putting the coltsfoot back in its proper place. Turning back to him, "If you cant do the job because you are hurt then you are of no help. Its better to take care of this now and heal then go do what needs to be done," she told him.

Hiddendream shook her head, 'Yeah I am not looking forward to that part. Wish I could just skip over that part," she smiled a bit not really wanting to think about how painful kitting would be.

Ashrock stared at the icky paste on his pads and he couldn't help but scoff. "What are you going to give me? Poppy seeds? I think I proved myself undeserving of them." He shook his head and looked outside the den. With how long he had been sitting still for Opalmist to apply the poultice, his exhaustion was catching up to him. After burying twenty-one cats and all the work around camp he had done...he was starting to feel it. He let out a sigh. "I have to do the job, because Cedarstar can't. I know him. I know its probably driving him mad having to lay in that den and heal while the Clan needs their leader. If I do double duty around the camp, then when Cedarstar gets better, he can focus on leading and not rebuilding."

"Oh, please." Eaglesight chuckled. "You'll be tough as claws through the kitting process. I believe in you."

"Ashrock...you are exhausted. You need to rest before your body decides to give out on you and forces you to rest. By that point you will have shut down and who knows how long you will be out for. If that is what you wish to do go ahead but dont come back to me when you are having issues," Opalmist spoke moving to grab something laying it in front of him. Two poppy seeds laid in front of him, "Take them and get some rest. I trust you Ashrock. You have always had the clans best intention at heart even if you were misguided its all you want," she told him.

"Uh huh sure it will," Hiddendream rolled her eyes before giggling slightly.

Ashrock lashed his tail in frustration and Opalmist's bold display of faith in him. It irked him. She was just like Stonesong and Coalpaw: believing in him when he wasn't anyone to believe in. He had half a mind to walk away from the poppy seeds, head back outside to rebuild his brother's Clan. Yet, the sting of his pads drove deep into his paws and he wasn't sure he could stand without wincing. If a medicine cat was telling him he needed to rest, then he probably needed to rest, Stonesong and Coalpaw just saw it before he did. "Fine." Ashrock growled out the word, but he did feel his heart tremble. There were more reasons to why didn't want to rest than he even admitted to himself. "I'll take your foxdunged seeds and I'll go rest." Part of him wanted to ask if he could rest in here, that way the other warriors didn't bother him, didn't see him slacking off, but he had his fill of the medicine den and with Cedarstar confined to the leader's den. It wasn't like his brother was going to know he spent a night in the warrior's den. Ashrock stood up, his face twitching from the pain in his paws and the ache in his exhausted muscles. He licked up the poppy seeds right in front of Opalmist before turning to leave the den. However, at the den's entrance he stopped. He didn't look back at the medicine cat, but he spoke through gritted teeth. "Thank you, Opalmist."

"Hey," Eaglesight nudged her. "You're tougher than you realize, Hiddendream."

He stayed quiet for a long while, refusing to answer and hoping they understood the answer. He didn't go on border patrols anymore... he only went on hunting patrols, and even then he wasn't of much use but he still had to do something to provide for the clan.

Treadtail immediately fl8mched away, his eyes going wide as he looked at Frogleap in fear. "N-no. Can't do that. I c-can't. No."

"B-But... the m-monsters. They'll try to g-get me a-again." His shaking was frantic and his body was tense as he spoke, the words barely even coming out. "I'm s-scared to go b-b-back."

"The monsters don't leave the Thunderpath, Treadtail," Frogleap mewed calmly. "As long as you're not in their way, they won't get you, any cat here can testify to that." He stood up and stepped closer to the tom. "I know you're scared, but you took an oath when you earned your warrior name, Treadtail. You vowed to uphold the warrior code and defend ShadowClan even at the cost of your life. So, let me ask you the same thing Pinefeather asked me: are you a warrior or are you coward?"

Hey)

I can’t find it)

Pinefeather slowly padded back into camp. She was tired, having escaped the fire only to have to go warn Riverclan. The trek back through the territory only made her sad, seeing all the destruction.

Closesky perked up when he spotted Pinefeather return to camp. He padded toward her. "You're alright, Thank StarClan." He smiled at Moonpetal as well. "Did you make it to RiverClan in time?"