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Goldenpaw trudged through camp with a very prominent limp in his front left leg, hobbling along making a b-line right for the medicine cats den. While training with his mentor earlier he had twisted it in a funny way and had lost his balance and fallen over then; he had thought that was the end of it but before long it was starting to trouble him. The pain became worse and worse with bolts of it shooting up his leg every time he put any pressure on it, he had decided that it was time to see Rookfrost. This wasn’t exactly a pleasing thought as his medicine cat wasn’t at all social and he didn’t much care to be around him no matter how good he was with medicine. As he reached the medicine cat’s den however he perked up realizing that Rookfrost was away with their new leader for the nine lives ceremony, he was going to get to spend time with Snowpaw! “Snowpaw!” He called into the den all to eagerly.

[Fate Admin]

Snowpaw sighed, picking carefully through their remaining herbs to check for those which were long past useful. Rookfrost was generally pretty meticulous about it so he honestly wasn’t finding much anyway, but he was bored out of his mind and though the snow finally seemed to be melting, there wasn’t enough gone yet to allow for new growth, and even in places where it has melted completely, the ground was saturated and anything growing would probably drown in the snowmelt at the moment. He wished he could have gone with Rookfrost and Redwind to be a part of her leader ceremony. Not every medicine cat got to witness the making of a new leader in their lifetime, and Snowpaw felt like he might have missed his one chance at it. Leaders had nine lives… surely Redstar would still be around when he joined StarClan… wouldn’t she?

His fur fluffed out as he came to the sudden (and very obvious) realization that Redstar would have to die if he were to witness a leader ceremony himself… not just Redstar but Rookfrost too. He sighed again and shook his head, putting the small pile of herbs back in their place and moving on to look through another when some cat called his name. Perking up a bit he left the herbs and padded out to see who it was, finding Goldenpaw waiting for him, “What do you need, Goldenpaw?” His pale green gaze flitted over the other apprentice’s body, looking for any immediate sign of injury. The first thing he happened to note made his tail fluff out slightly in embarrassment. He’d never really paid much attention to such things before, but something about the sun glowing on his fur, making Goldenpaw live up to his name, made Snowpaw gawk at the other tom, admiring just how handsome he looked….

He felt hot under his fur and blinked in surprise at the formation of new feelings within him that he’d never had before. He didn’t even know what they meant, but they made him feel funny and he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. Clearing his throat he stepped forward, as the second thing he had noticed was the way Goldenpaw seemed to be favoring one foreleg, you know, after he’d gotten over how wonderful Goldenpaw’s fur looked glowing in the sunlight, “Erm… tell me what happened?” He tried to chalk it up to simply admiring another’s good fur day, he’d done that before, but it had never inspired such strange feelings in him before.

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The golden tom wasn’t left to wait for long, the fluffy white medicinecat apprentice was there to assist him before he could even call out a second time. “Hi!” He said cheerily as his insides fluttered as his anticipation was rewarded, the moment was everything he thought it would be and he was excited to see the tom he had spent such time with in the nursery. However he didn’t get a response very quickly, instead it seemed that Snowpaw was at a loss for words and for a moment Goldenpaw couldn’t figure out what the problem was. It wouldn’t be long though before his pelt seemingly burst into flame as waves of embarrassment washed over him, Snowpaw was stunned by him. In that moment the golden tom felt beautiful and wanted beyond measure, however it wasn’t long before his friend had broken free from his golden glory and asked about his injury, “This leg-“ Goldenpaw said giving it a wiggle, “I hurt it during training and it has been hurting more and more.”

[Fate Admin]

Snowpaw’s pale green eyes took on a light of concern and he stepped closer. Surely it wasn’t broken, there’s no way Goldenpaw would be so calm if that were the case, so that was good. A pulled muscle or a sprain perhaps? But where was the question. He could make use of the snow to bring down any swelling and help numb the pain as well, but first he needed to know where to put it. He turned, brushing his tail against the shoulder of Goldenpaw’s uninjured leg, “Come and lay down in my nest. If it is what I think it is you shouldn’t be moving around. Lay on your good side.”

He led Goldenpaw over to a secluded corner where he’d made his nest, trying to remember everything Rookfrost had ever told him about sprains and what to do for them. Rest, he remembered that, all activity should be suspended until the cat could walk without pain again or it could make it worse. Snow for a cold compress helped too, but could pretty much only be used during leaf-bare, so that was lucky for Goldenpaw he supposed. His tail flicked as he struggled to remember anything else. He remembered things so much better after he actually had paws-on experience, and he’d never seen Rookfrost treat a cat with this problem before.

He took a slow breath and pushed away his doubts. He would be fine, Goldenpaw would be fine, everyone would be fine. After Goldenpaw got himself comfortable, or as comfortable as an injured cat could get, he reached out with one paw to press down gently on the other tom’s shoulder, “Tell me where it hurts the most.” If his whole leg was hurting, the shoulder made sense. If it had been just his paw he didn’t think his whole leg would be hurting. He watched Goldenpaw’s face for signs of increased pain as he continued to press gently on his leg.

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Goldenpaw nodded to the white fluff as he was instructed to lay down in the nest. He hobbled over without complaint trying to not seem whiney around the tom he so adored, nothing would be worse than to have Snowpaw think he mewled like a kit over a little injury. It seemed like Snowpaw was a bit unsure on how exactly he was to treat the golden apprentice but Goldenpaw noted little hesitation as he launched right into his examination. Goldenpaw smiled realizing that Snowpaw was the learn by doing type and he liked to believe he was too, although he failed to realize that most all cats were that way but it didn’t matter in his head he likened himself to his friend and his heart swelled. As Snowpaw started to press down on his leg his visage started to change, his confident smile changed to one much less so and after enough pressure was added he whimpered out like a kit, “Ow…” He should have said it was hurting long before he did but he didn’t wish to appear weak infront of Snowpaw and now he had paid the price.