[Fate Admin]

He felt as if his heart had finally shattered. Frostfire’s eye had chipped at it, and then Galekit and Dovesong and Windstrike had fallen ill and he had been helpless to save them, forced to watch them waste away to nothing until they took final shuddering breaths, taking a piece of his heart away with them to StarClan. And now Goldenflower was gone. He stared down at the earth where the elders had buried him outside of camp. He had worked over him… grooming the blood from his pelt… making his coat shine like he always remembered… rubbing herbs into his fur to take away that horrid scent of death.

He had returned to camp, dragged between two warriors from a border patrol, torn and battered and bloody and reeking of fox. He had gone out to hunt on his own and… now he was never coming back. Snowheart bowed his head, closing his eyes, “I’m so sorry….” They had only just… just admitted their feelings to each other. Snowheart had felt something for Goldenflower for some time, but had always felt guilty thinking about it… medicine cats were not supposed to have mates. It had taken him so long to finally admit it to him, and he had been so happy when Goldenflower felt the same way. Was this StarClan’s way of punishing him for taking a mate? For breaking their sacred code?

The few nights they had spent together, curled up in a shared nest, had been some of the happiest he had had in a long time. He regretted so much that he had not admitted his feelings earlier… so much earlier. He turned and bounded away from the grave, racing through the meadows and fields that LightningClan called home, the rush of the wind whipping his long pelt into wild disarray, but he didn’t care. The day was too beautiful to be so sad. Suddenly a flash of ginger fur crossed his vision and then he was tumbling head over paws as he collided with another cat. He pushed to his paws, shaking out his fur and turning around to see which unfortunate Clanmate he had possibly just trampled.

“Kindleflare!” he mewed in surprise. He shook his head, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, I… are you all right?” He padded closer to her, his instincts as a medicine cat for the moment enough to override his grief, especially with the thought that he would have been the one to cause her injury, had she sustained one.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:f78216]Kindleflare[/smear:f3e4d7]

~~~~~~~~~

Every muscle in her body was sore today. She'd allowed Nightstep to help her with some extra training, in hopes that it might make her feel less pathetic. All she wanted to do was be someone that her father could be proud of. Nothing could compare to the unconditional love she felt for the older tom, the little ginger she-cat looking up to everything he did. But it was hard when you were always left in your brother's shadow. She loved her brother too, there was no doubt about that but he was just... He was confidence. He found strength in his agility. He was proud.

Was it too much to be like that? It wasn't a question of whether Darkcloud loved her. She knew he did. That didn't mean she didn't wish her father would look at her with something other than tenderness. So.. Yes, she had asked Nightstep to help her improve. She had no idea how Blazepaw could handle having the tuxedo tom as a mentor. She'd always known her brother to be serious, but he worked her hard. Every muscle screamed as she moved, and the little ginger she-cat wasn't sure how she would manage to successfully bring back food for the Clan in this state.

It was here that she picked up the scent of rabbit. Forcing herself to move as smoothly as she could, the timid warrioress took a moment to fully decipher just where her prey was. Creeping forward slowly she prepared... Something startled the rabbit and it took off, Kindleflare sprinting off after it. But her aching body made her slower than usual. She tried her best to keep up, but she was pretty sure it was gaining distance. And then... Crash. Something rammed into her and sent her sprawling over the ground, a shriek of surprise leaving her.

When she finally came to a stop, she groaned rather loudly, her right front paw throbbing. She must have twisted it during the fall when she'd collided with... She was immediately distracted by a voice. Her ears flattened against her skull, and her brilliant orange eyes were stretched wide as she stared at the medicine cat before her. Her only consolation was that it wasn't Rookfrost, but Snowheart. Still, she'd managed to crash into LightningClan's medicine cat. She really was a pathetic excuse for a warrior.

"I-I- Y-You S-S-Sorry! I-It was m-my f-fault... Should h-have watched w-where I was g-g... Going..." She looked down at the ground then, embarrassment sweeping over her. "I... Ap-pologize for d-disturbing you... I-I'll um... I'll g-get out of... Your way..." She went to roll to her paws then, but was quickly sent crashing back down to a sprawled out position, flinching any time her paw made contact with the surface below her. With another groan (and apparently being distracted enough to forget Snowheart was there in the past thirty seconds), Kindleflare let herself flop onto her side, relieving pressure from her leg. When his scent crossed her nose again?

A head shot up off the ground and she stared rather mortified at the tom. The best she could manage? "U-Uh...?" Fantastic.

[Fate Admin]

Pale green gaze narrowing in concern, Snowheart took a few steps toward Kindleflare as she stuttered through an apology. He shook his head. It hadn’t been her fault at all, he had just been running blindly, the rest of the world had faded out of focus…. He sighed as Kindleflare began to roll to her paws, stuttering about getting out of his way. Only she ended up on the ground again. He frowned slightly and strode forward, closing the rest of the distance between them. Her head shot up to look at him as he crouched beside her.

“Calm down," he mewed softly, "And don’t worry, you haven’t disturbed me. Like I said, it was my fault….” He curled his fluffy white tail around his paws, looking her over. Nothing visibly seemed wrong with her. Perhaps she had hit her head on something. “You’re in pain. Where does it hurt?” He had seen the familiar pained look on her face as she tried to stand, but it was a bit unclear if her inability to stand was something simple like a leg or paw injury or if she really had hit her head, which was a lot more problematic, especially if it was disrupting her ability to move.

He leaned over her, worried he might have caused some real damage, but looking her over again proved futile. She wasn’t bleeding anywhere, which was good at least. His gaze narrowed at her forepaw, which he thought maybe looked a bit swollen compared to her other forepaw, but it was hard to tell. What a mess this had turned into. If anything was seriously wrong with her he would never forgive himself. He was a medicine cat, he was supposed to heal cats, not hurt them.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:f78216]Kindleflare[/smear:f3e4d7]

~~~~~~~~~

She spent a good few seconds just staring at the medicine cat as he approached her. Even with her pain, and knowing that it was pretty much his job to do so, having him look her over so carefully was embarrassing to the flame-colored she-cat. Deep amber eyes were stretched wide as she held her breath. Because apparently, holding her breath would make her look more relaxed or less suspicious. Still, she couldn't help but notice that the snow white tom seemed genuinely apologetic. She was so used to just assuming everything was her fault... Maybe this time it really hadn't been...

His words sunk into her, and though it took her a moment to react, she did manage to. Ears still flattened against her skull, she glanced down at the ground. She had readjusted her position so that she could remain in a more upright position, without putting any unwanted weight on her paw. Dismissive words began forming on her tongue, prepared to tell him that she was fine and he probably had more important things to worry about than her clumsy self. Something in his eyes however... It threw her off guard, that same concern she'd picked up on earlier.

Gaze back on her paws she began softly. "I... I th-think it's my paw... It... It's been... Th-throbbing and I c-can't put w-weight on it.... That's um that's why I f-fell back d-down..." She admitted, wincing when she tried to flex the claws on her sore paw. She hadn't often visited the medicine cat's den, her unease spiking whenever she thought of the dark medicine cat who reigned there. Snowheart seemed to be his total opposite, however, in color and personality. She'd never spent much time interacting with him, which was probably terrible of her. She'd never given him a chance, just because he shared a den with a cat whom she feared.

It was really comforting to know that there was at least one friendly cat amongst the ranks of LightningClan who could heal her if she ever ran into some trouble... Like right now.

[Fate Admin]

As he was looking her over, he realized just how much she looked like Firebird. His ears twitched back and he felt a little guilty. She was his kin, but the two of them had never really spent any time together. They were around similar age, they’d been in the nursery together, but he’d been so wrapped up in becoming a medicine cat, he supposed, he had never really paid her or her siblings much attention. He’d spent most of his time lurking around Rookfrost’s den, a place none of the other kits seemed to like to be, not that Snowheart could blame them after spending the majority of his life in the company of the dark tom.

He noticed she seemed to be calming down a little, her stuttering getting a bit better when she began to speak once more. He nodded in response, glad to know it wasn’t a head injury after all, “I thought it looked a little swollen.” He reached out with one of his own paws, “I’m going to put a little pressure on it. Since you don’t seem to be in a whole lot of pain I don’t think you’ve broken anything, but I want to be sure. Let me know if it hurts too much and I’ll stop.”

He gently pulled her paw toward him with his own and leaned down to press his nose gently into it, searching for anything that shifted wrong or made Kindleflare react. Her paw seemed a bit warmer than it should have been, but he couldn’t find anything that indicated a break, thankfully.

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:f78216]Kindleflare[/smear:f3e4d7]

~~~~~~~~~

She nodded slowly, her dark amber eyes flicking from her paw to his paw. Her body tensed slightly, mostly in anticipation of pain. When his white paw finally made contact with hers, she did find herself wincing slightly, but it wasn't unbearably painful. She whispered softly, just under her breath, more a reaction than anything important. "O-Ow..." She hesitated then, her tail tip twitching in response to the sore nature of her paw. Her head tipped then, curiosity sparking in those eyes. It was often a good thing for her to be curious. It helped her... Forget, just for a moment.

"I... D-Don't know that it hurts too much... It is sore.... But n-not unbearable..? I h-hope that makes sense..." She fell quiet for a moment, slowly glancing up at him to meet his gaze. Reflected in those gentle eyes was the curiosity that drove her forward. "U-Um... I hope it's o-okay for me to ask... W-What are you l-looking for..? You always just... S-Seem to know... And I th-think it's... R-Really amazing... You are r-really good at what you do... How... How would you kn-know if it was... Umm.. Broken..?" She really did want to know. She held a lot of respect for those who could practice the art of medicine.

...In the case of Rookfrost, however, her respect was totally extinguished by the fear she felt whenever those dead eyes met hers. Pushing aside the thought of the demonic medicine cat, Kindleflare refocused herself on her question. She didn't want to find herself shutting down before hearing the answer to it. For the most part, her curiosity was quelled by her timid personality. And yet... In the presence of Snowheart, she felt more relaxed. It was similar to how she felt in the presence of her father, though nothing could quite compare to the calm that snaked over her when Darkcloud was around.

[Fate Admin]

He nodded as she spoke, expanding upon what she was feeling from her paw. Raising his head from his inspection, he looked at her in surprise as she started asking what it was he was looking for. His ears flicked back modestly as she praised his abilities. He released her paw from his own and stood, moving around to her side. “It’s actually… kind of nice when someone takes an interest in what I’m doing. Most warriors don’t really care, as long as they feel better when I’m done,” he purred, amused more than anything. He never expected or asked for warriors to care about the details of his work, they were warriors after all, it wasn’t their job to know such things.

“First off… we probably wouldn’t be having such a nice conversation if it was broken,” he purred again, to lighten his next words a bit, “There would probably be a lot more yowling than talking. But you can’t always judge the severity of an injury just by a cat’s reaction to it, since some cats have a really high pain tolerance. What might have one cat yowling in pain could have another feeling only mild discomfort.” He pushed himself gently against her shoulder in order to support her, “Here, you can lean against me. What you have seems to be a sprain, nothing serious, but you’ll need to rest and stay off your paw for a few days. Right now it would be good for us to get you to the Crystal Creek, luckily it’s not far. The cold water should help with the swelling and the pain, but you’ll have to get your paws wet.” His pale green gaze glinted, his tone lightly teasing.

“If you had break… well, a lot of times you can see there’s something very wrong,” he wasn’t sure if he should go into detail or not, but he was having a surprisingly good time talking about it so he continued anyway, “The bone might stick out unnaturally, or something might look bent wrong.” He glanced over at her, hoping talking about something like that wouldn’t kill her curiosity, “But if you can’t see anything, it still might be broken, or fractured. There’s always swelling to look for, and usually the injured area is warmer than usual. With some gentle prodding you can feel broken bones shift when they shouldn’t, and when you find the right spot, even the most stoic cats usually have some sort of reaction to you touching it.”

He paused, wondering if maybe he was rambling on about it too much, and he purred apologetically, “I’m sorry. I don’t really have anyone to talk to about these things, and it’s what I do… it’s my life, you know? Warriors can come back from patrol and talk about how they caught this prey or that prey or that they met this cat at the border with each other and everyone can relate, but… no one really cares when I find new chickweed growths.” He shook his head, his tone quieter, “Sorry… I’m doing it again. It just gets a bit lonely sometimes….”

[BlooRey DVD]

[smear:f78216]Kindleflare[/smear:f3e4d7]

~~~~~~~~~

She found herself with the softest smile at his comment. It was a good point, saying that they probably wouldn't be conversing so pleasantly if she had actually broken her leg. It made sense. She'd never experienced it before, but even the name just.... Sounded like it hurt. The smile faltered as he continued on, talking about the other possible signs of a broken leg. She herself didn't have that great a pain tolerance, not like her brother, so she imagined that she'd be one of the yowlers. It was a little bit comforting to know that she hadn't broken her leg.

Leaning a little of her weight onto his shoulder as she rose to her paws, she murmured a thankful reply. She heard him mention the Crystal Creek, as well as something about it being beneficial to her injured paw. Smiling gently, her ears flattened embarrassingly against her skull. "I can d-deal with a little water i-if it will help my p-paw." She assured him, following his lead at a slightly awkward pace, doing her best not to put unneeded weight onto it. She quickly fell back into silence, turning her attention back to what he was telling her on injuries.

At the thought of a bone actually protruding from some poor cat's leg, she shivered slightly. The interest in her eyes didn't die, however, as she nodded slowly. She repeated everything he said in her head, as though she were committing it to memory. Cold water helps swelling... Swelling indicates something is wrong... When he apologized for rambling, she found herself giggling. When she managed to catch her breath again, she smiled at him. "N-Nothing to apologize f-for, really! I think it's... R-Really interesting. So... Y-You can always t-talk to me about it, okay?"

Noticing they had arrived at Crystal Creek, she stepped away, not wanting to make him walk into the water when he didn't have to. It took her a moment to slip into it, and even then it was a little awkward. She nearly fell face first, but managed to stay standing. She made a sharp sound at the chilliness, which caused her to laugh at herself. Slowly lowering her injured paw into the water, she blinked up at Snowheart. "You're right, it... It d-does feel better. S-So... Cold helps with s-swelling... S-Swelling indicates s-something is wrong and is o-often accompanied with w-warmth... What... What does the ch-chickweed you just mentioned do..?"