Just a Fall, Really

[Cloverstar]

It was with some difficulty that Cloverstar limped into the medicine den, nearly stumbling over herself several times. The pain in her broken leg was flaring up again, making her grit her teeth. It took more than a bit to suppress a wince.

"Sunblaze? Morningflare?" She looked around briefly before flopping down into the nearest nest with a sigh. "Uh...my leg is...not in the best condition. If you could see how bad it is...?"

[Morningflare]

Morningflare approached his leader. His leader had come to him for help. He found it amusing, yet he was also annoyed by the fact that she was wasting his time- he figured she had at least 8 lives left, he hadn't bothered to check. Regardless, even if this injury killed her, she wouldn't die. But Morningflare valued his job, so he decided to ignore that fact, and treat her.

"Hello leader," He said, nodding at her. He moved over to where she was squirming about on the ground. His gaze finally met her twisted, broken leg. It was disusting."Oh, from here, it looks pretty terrible," He said, cringing. "Don't worry though... that probably won't take one of your lives."

He went back to his supplies, grabbing a two poppy seeds, making sure the remaining seeds were not pushed into their incorrect locations. He walked back over to her, motioning for her to eat both poppy seeds. "They will reduce the pain while I move the leg back into its proper position. Believe me, you want them." Once she was finished eating them, he continued. "Now we wait for them to kick in. Tell me when the pain in your leg begins to fade, then we will start."

He sat down in front of her. All they could do now was wait. To make it less awkward, he decided to bring up a conversation. "So... now would be a good time to tell me how you managed to do this to your leg?"

[Cloverstar]

"Yes, I guessed as much," Cloverstar mumbled in response. Losing one life to Drought had been bad enough. Losing two, at this rate, was unthinkable. She normally wasn't too fond of visits to the medicine den, since it meant lying around and not being able to do anything while her injuries or illness healed. But she was too tired to really care about anything at the moment.

She looked up when the poppy seeds were offered, and ate them as required. Almost immediately, a sense of peacefulness washed over her, something akin to falling asleep. She could barely keep her eyes open, even though the pain in her leg was less fading and more numbing.

I'm surprised he hasn't asked me what happened, she thought hazily.

And of course, that had to be the moment when Morningflare did ask. She winced. "Um...a fall. In a ravine. Out in the territory...have you seen ravines there before? It was really...really, uh, steep."

[Morningflare]

He watched a Cloverstar seemed to go into a trance. Maybe he had given her slightly too much. He should have broken the 2nd seed up. He had made an error, at least it wouldn't kill her. Maybe it was for the better, now that he thought about it. The last thing he needed was his own leader questioning his style of medicine. This way, she'd most likely forget the majority of what was about to happen.

"Yes, I have seen them," He responded to her, half listening. He moved over to her leg, inspecting it. It disgusted him, he wanted to stop looking at it. But now he was determined to see this through. It would earn him good standing in the clan. He inspected the joints, getting an idea of where the leg should go. "Brace yourself," he said.

He grabbed the leg, popping it back into place. He let it loose, but then cringed. He had messed up again, it was still dislocated. He grabbed it again, this time more carefully, pushing it back into the socket. There we nothing he could do to reduce her pain at this point; she already had taken 2 poppy seeds. Any more than that was dangerous. She would have to endure.

Cloverstar

[Cloverstar]

Pain should have shot through her at the sound of the pop, but the poppy seeds had kicked in to the point that any sensation now felt dim, too far away to be of note. She felt an involuntary wince run through her at the push of her leg back into place, but otherwise, nothing.

Maybe he's trying to kill me, Cloverstar thought hazily. Maybe the poppy seeds are really poison, or maybe he'll cut my throat when I fall asleep, or maybe...maybe...Drought...

She couldn't even see straight at this point. Everything seemed to be dropping out from under her again, in almost exactly the same way as the ravine. 

"I wish Mother was here," she mumbled, feeling her eyes close. Her head dropped, hitting the nest. "She always...knew how...how--how to makethisbetter...make it a lotless...hurt...ing...ful thing."