An Odd Morning

[Yoko]

It was a warm bright morning, the birdsongs were well underway. The greenleaf breeze refreshed the entire camp. A relief from the heat. As the Golden Warrior limped silently across the clearing, he pondered the coming season. It would be cold soon. Not that ThunderClan would need to worry much about prey. But he would miss the heat of the season, and the ease of hunting when prey was so plentiful.

He was thankful that the clearing was mostly empty, most of the patrols were out. The young warrior stood in front of the Medicine Cat Den, one hind-leg raised and flank stinging.

"Good morning, Earthfoot," he called in cheerfully, always happy to see the ThunderClan Medicine Cat. He smiled, his whole body relaxed except for his hiked up leg. "I know you're probably busy and all, but can you help me out?"

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

"Poppy, marigold, thyme... oh! I'm missing watermint... I'll have to get some more of that... I need to quiz Sagepaw soon too." ThuderClan's medicine cat rambled to himself. Though he didn't normally talk to himself, he found it easier to concentrate on count supplies if he talked out loud. The greenleaf had been kind to the Clans, offering much prey and medicine, although it would be coming to and end soon. Now was the time to go through stores of herbs and make sure that they were stocked before the frost settled in and killed all of the sensitive plants. Not all of the herbs he used were so easily killed by the cold, but the ones that were needed to be carefully accounted for.

"Good morning, Earthfoot," A voice behind him made the medicine cat's ears swivel in the direction the noise was coming from. "I know you're probably busy and all, but can you help me out?" Earthfoot turned around to see the young warrior Rabbitheart, looking as cheerful as ever even with one hind leg obviously raised. So he'd injured himself, hmm? At least he wasn't whining like a kit about it like some warriors tended to do. Earthfoot tilted his head a bit at the warrior.

"Hello, Rabbitheart. I'm never too busy; what happened? A thorn in your paw or something?" He asked, moving closer to inspect the leg. A day's work for a medicine cat; counting stores one moment and tending to injured cats the next.

[Yoko]

The medicine cat was working as Rabbitheart had assumed he would be. He seemed to be in good health, like most warriors these days. ThunderClan was lucky to be in such good shape now. It meant that they would be better prepared to get through the winter, not that the laid-back warrior was worried about such things. Why should he be, with a Medicine Cat as skilled as Earthfoot around?

Oddly, Rabbitheart shifted his flank a little away from Earthfoot as the Medicine Cat approach. Tilting his head he chuckled, "Well, you see, its not that simple unfortunately...I'm afraid I've been a bit of a mouse-brain."

He chuckled again, but there was a hint of rare embarrassment. He hobbled forward on his three legs. "I was out hunting and I brushed up against a thorn bush and well..."

He lifted his hind leg to the light a bit, so his golden flank was more visible. It was still a bit hard to see, but there were about a dozen small specks along the upper side of his hind-leg.

"Pretty mouse-brained of me, huh? This really was my own fault, so if you have more important things to handle, I can wait awhile."

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

"So I suspect that you're limping because of the thorns, and you don't have anything stuck in your paw?" Earthfoot let out a brief sigh. Well, it hadn't been the first time something like this had happened- not too long ago he'd had to pull brambles out of Ravenkit's fur!- but it wasn't often that a full grown warrior found himself stumbling into a thorn bush. Normally it was apprentices and kits that this sort of thing happened to.

"Like I said, I'm not busy. But do you really need my help to get them out? It doesn't look like you have any serious injuries..." Giving Rabbitheart's leg a tentative sniff, and finding that he scented no blood, he looked back to the warrior. All it really took to get a thorn out was a tug, although he suspected Rabbitheart might want a poppy seed... still, he wondered why he'd had to come into his den for something like this.

[Yoko]

Rabbitheart flinched a little, trying to seem convincing. The Medicine Cat, of course, was not easily fooled. He looked at Earthfoot with his light-blue eyes and lighthearted smile. "Perhaps I didn't," he mewed. "But I'm afraid I've always had this small problem with thorns. I can't bare to pull them out myself. It's the anticipation of the sting that always gets me..."

He shifted his gaze to the corner of his eyes. He so a small fleck of black darting past the Medicine Cat Den entrance. The Golden Warrior turned back to Earthfoot, meaning to keep him occupied a while longer.

"You wouldn't tell my father about this would you? Rainstorm likes to think of me as the bravest warrior in the Clan," he chuckled. "I certainly don't agree with him, but I think he sort of needs to believe it..."

He grew quiet. The golden tom had his faint worry-less smile, but his eyes were a bit sad.

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

It was quiet. Earthfoot couldn't really believe what he was hearing, that a warrior need help getting some thorns out of his fur because he didn't want to do it himself. He had always thought Rabbitheart to be a brave, strong tom, if a bit silly at times. But he was a medicine cat, it wasn't as if he could just tell him to do it himself and kick him out of his den. (Well, he could, but he wasn't that heartless.) Sighing, Earthfoot sat down and moved closer to inspect the leg again, this time really getting a good look at how many thorns were tangled in the golden fur.

"Alright, I'll help. But if you don't want anyone to find out about this, you need to keep your mouth shut." There was only so much wailing he could take from the pain of a little thorn being pulled out.

Locking his eyes on one thorn in particular, he grasped the tiny thing in his teeth and gave a sharp jerk. The thorn came out, but not without tearing a bit of fur out with it. Spitting out the thorn onto the ground next to him, he said, "That wasn't so bad. You sure you can't do this on your own?"