[Hellion]

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"I heard a beaver was trying to build a den on the lake," It was Thornscar's voice that caught Troutsplash's attention as he headed toward the medicine cat's den. He paused long enough to reroute his paws to join with Thornscar, and the cats gathered at his words. "Should we chase it off?" Another voice, who used to form NightClan, interjected. Thornscar shrugged. "Can't say for certain; I doubt it will build a den. Too many cats around," Thornscar seemed confident in his statement, but Troutsplash doubted the tom. However, he offered no comment and renewed his paws back to their path to the medicine cat den.

Owlfrost curled tightly up in the nest; greencough had taken its toll on her. She slept a lot, and while out of the figurative woods, she was still weak and required supervision to ensure she didn't get sick again. He watched her for a moment, half expecting her to disappear on the spot. The first few days that fever raged within her, he feared he'd lose the last of his kin. While he knew Stormwind was out there in the world somewhere, he couldn't ever be sure she was still alive. Owlfrost was near, a constant in his life.

Caught up in his reflection, Troutsplash blinked away the sorrow for moons ago. He caught a fleeting glimpse of Rustpaw, and the idea struck him. "Hey! Rustpaw, I heard there might be a beaver at the lake; if you need to get herbs, please let me go with you," He called out, waiting with his tail tucked over his paws. He'd be willing to go having nothing else to occupy his time at that moment.

Abyss ● ## ● muse ● notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0

[Abyss]

“I shouldn’t be gone for too long.” Rustfeather’s voice was relatively light as she pushed some of her collection back into her nest in the back of the den. Both taking them out of their place within her nest and putting them back in always brought a tiny spark of joy into the young she-cat. Her collection of shells was growing almost by the day, and one of her favorite parts of her day was always when she got to sort through them, arranging them by size or color or shape, always a different system. Though, a light chuckle fell from her maw at the thought that sooner or later she would practically be sleeping on shells rather than nesting material. At least she had another place where she could keep the rest of her collection that wasn’t there in the Medicine Den.

She stood from where she sat and turned to face the small ledge where she and Shadowchaser had organized all of their herbs. Leafbare had been difficult, especially with all of the sickness that had torn through the clan. Even she herself had gotten sick, though thankfully she wasn’t as bad off as many of her other clanmates. Even Shadowchaser had gotten quite sick, which only made things even more difficult and hectic when it came time to treat the rest of the clan. Nearly the whole Medicine den was filled to the brim with sick cats, all varying in how serious they were. It almost came as no surprise when both Rust and Shadow had gotten sick, though thankfully it had been later on when more cats had been treated already.

While it had all been very chaotic and provided a lot of experience, including in self-treatment, she found that now, as Newleaf brought its first rays of warmth, that their supply of herbs was…..way too thin for comfort. They had gotten by up until this point, but their numbers were very low, and some herbs had already run out. They were waiting as patiently as possible for the new herbs to grow with the changing of the season, and while she highly doubted that any of them had grown large enough to harvest yet, it was still a good plan to go out and find where some seedlings were beginning to poke out from the soil. Out of all places, she had a feeling that the lake would be one of the best locations to find all sorts of herbs, so that was her plan. Plus, going there gave her the chance to check on her hidden treasure, and to perhaps find some more to add to it.

As she exited the den and just began to pad towards the hollow entrance, a voice caught her attention. Large amber eyes turned to find a familiar face approaching her, one who she had actually seen not too long ago. Besides Troutsplash having been a clanmate of her’s even prior to the earthquake, he had been one of the cats who found himself in the Medicine den during the reign of sickness. Thankfully, he had not been super sick like some of the others. So while she did appreciate getting to see an old clanmate, she was thankful that he hadn’t required her healing assistance for long.

His words were a little bit quick and sudden, catching her off-guard. A beaver at the lake? She blinked a few times in surprise, unsure of what to think of this statement. She didn’t doubt that there would be plenty of animals flocking to the lake now that the weather was growing warmer, but she hadn’t expected a beaver so soon. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that sooner or later there would be talk of a dam growing. At least the lake was big enough that a dam wouldn’t cause too much trouble (knock on wood).

“Oh, hey. I…actually haven’t heard that yet. I have been over there a good bit lately and I haven’t smelled anything. Then again, I’ve probably been in the wrong area.” She lightly shrugged, glancing out of the camp entrance towards the forest. “I was planning on heading that way anyway to see what areas have the most herbs sprouting. I’d be fine with some company.” She turned back to the silver tom, offering a smile before turning and going on her way again.

At first she was relatively quiet, having usually been alone when taking this little trip. She did it almost on the daily, so where to go came naturally to her. But remembering that she wasn’t currently alone did not. Finally she turned, peering over at her new companion. “How have you been feeling?” While the question was partially aimed at his own experience with sickness, she knew that he had family who had been even more sick than he was. She knew too well how sickness of loved ones brought hardship, and checking on others experiencing that was one way she found to distract herself from her own thoughts on the matter.

844 | Hellion | Notes