Where do we draw the line?

[˚Reason˚]

Swansong
Medicine Cat of WindClan
&
Brightsky
Senior Warrior of WindClan

Swansong considered herself to be an experienced medicine cat, and a rather good one. While some of her clan mates would disagree with such a statement, Swansong enjoyed having confidence in herself and her abilities. It was a rare situation indeed, that Swansong felt like she needed her mentor's direction to take care of a patient. The usually collect white she cat had never seen such symptoms without a cure. It started with a sudden fever that wasn't there the previous day, and before the cat could even make their way to the medicine cat den to be check out, they felt dizziness and fainting. Worried warrior would bring the cat to her den and Swansong would give the cat borage leaves mixed with feverfew to lessen the fever and await their awakening. Once the cat would awaken they would immediately vomit. Startled, Swansong would give the cat some watermint to soothe their belly. Thankfully, the cats would respond to that, but not for long. Still battling the fever that would stubborn to desist, the cat would claim that it had headaches, sore throats and sore muscles. Swansong would give the cat honey to help the sore throat and rub the cat's muscles to help but nothing seemed to work. On top of that, the cat would vomit from all the different herbs it would be fed.

At the moment the medicine cat was sitting at the moss bed of a dark warrior who had been in her den for three days. Brightsky, was the first to fall to the disease and the cat she was most worried about. By the third day, Brightsky was so sore he could talk or walk and would threw up any herbs she would feed him. He couldn't seem to stay awake either, the plaguing fever had increased and make him pant from the heat, further irritating his throat.

Swansong felt pity for the warrior, but she had to shake these feelings. This mysterious disease was far from unexpected. It was obvious now what the mysterious dream she had almost a moon ago. The dream had slipped from Swansong's mind ever since the fight with the dog she had last moon and the whole deal with Smokepaw. Swansong shivered slightly, she worried for the apprentice and all the stress he would be having with all that had happened. Brightsky had only taken him out once for training and Swansong didn't know how he did because she refused to talk about it. The she cat's eyes flashed as she got to her paws and stretched in the small space of her den. Her eyes lingered on Brightsky as she leaned down and licked the tom on the forehead. "Hmmm, still very warm." She muttered, brow furrowing in confusion. What could she do to cure this?

[ℳintу]

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Stonepaw had been having quite an adventurous few days. He had a chance to attend his first Gathering and began some important training lessons with both Patchclaw and Bluestar herself. The tomcat was still young and oddly, still very petite. His new found pride (somewhat of an ego, truthfully) was only brought down by his unsatisfactory appearance. It was odd to him that he should have caught such a virus (especially since he had lived so long in the nursery, secluded from most of the Clan), and it was more of a hindrance than a source of worry for him. His breathing had become a bit short as of late, and his pelt had slowly been falling off him in patches - making him look more like an elder than an apprentice. Other than this, he was the same old cat. Gingercoat, on the other hand, was in a more miserable state. The red-furred she-cat was barely red anymore except for some uncomfortable itchy patches of raw skin that shone on her fur. She wasn't hairless at this point, but patches of her skin were showing through where all of her fur had fallen out. In addition, the spritely she-cat's eye appeared to be clouded over and she could no longer see out of it. She had begun to act like an elder - unable to really hunt for herself or the Clan and always complaining and asking apprentices to scratch her itching wounds. This day, the she-cat was a bit unresponsive when Stonepaw strolled by her. Worried, the young apprentice bit her ear hard until she finally opened her good eye, giving him a pitiful groan. Stonepaw had been feeling a bit congested and wanted to see Swansong on his own, but felt it a good time for Gingercoat to face the medicine cat once more (as she had been avoiding Swansong, saying she'll get over the problem on her own - most likely for fear of learning her problem was worsening or possibly incurable). Giving her a quick tug, her convinced the once-pretty she-cat to follow him to Swansong's den. "Swansong," Stonepaw meowed as they entered, glancing around the clearing. "Gingercoat and I are here to see you, if you have time." The pale she-cat followed him, only to sit at the edge of the den and stare blindly at Brightsky. He only got worse as time progressed, and the she-cat was scared of coming within an inch of him by now. Stonepaw's eyes flickered at Gingercoat and Brightsky, feeling a bit odd himself. Then again, Swansong was fine - if she didn't catch whatever Brightsky had, then they certainly wouldn't. "You see, I have a bit of a congestion problem. Gingercoat's been having itching pains all day from her red spots - and I think something's wrong with her eye," he spoke a bit quieter to Swansong, stealing another glance at Brightsky. "How's he doing?"

[atrb=style, background: #95A2CF;border: 0px;][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, border: solid #FFFFFF 0px; width: 300px; height: 20px; float: center; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;] A P P R E N T I C E   O F   W I N D CL A N [/style][/style]

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table layout design made by minty

[˚Reason˚]

The white she cat fought off the waves of guilt-filled confusion at not knowing what to do about the illness(disease/plague/bug/flu she really had no idea what to call it). She didn't have time to panic, she was a medicine cat for StarClan's sake! And the only medicine cat in the clan, besides her apprentice Smokepaw. Swansong tried to get her mind off the smoke black tom with his beautiful blank eyes. Swansong froze, where had that come from? Sure, Swansong liked her apprentice, well... even that was rather debatable. In fact, the black and white cats didn't get along too well so far and this disease was straining their relationship even more. The WindClan cat hadn't even seen her apprentice in a while, she really had no idea where the tom was. Swansong looked down at her paw that was supporting her and saw all the other cat paw prints around it that belonged to both her and Smokepaw. There was a definite size difference, after all he was still younger than herself. The she cat shook her head viciously, there was still no reason why she would think of Smokepaw like that!

Fortunately, her thoughts were interrupted by the small voice of Stonepaw. "Of course!" Swansong meowed quickly, scrambling to her paws, and towards the apprentice and warrior.

Gingercoat looked just horrible with the patches in her fur and her eye. Swansong felt a pang of worry for the warrior and quickly pointed towards the moss bed next to Brightsky. "Just lay yourself down next to Brightsky, Gingercoat." Swansong meowed softly, bringing herself closer to the other she cat so she could guide her to the nest if she needed help.

Once the warrior was in the nest, Swansong went to her herbs and sorted through them, thinking of what would work best. Comfrey or dock? She wondered to herself then compared the properties of the two herbs in her mind from moons of experience. She quickly decided to go with dock. Picking up the green leaves, she brought them back to Gingercoat and set them down carefully under paw.

Bright amber eyes darted to the dark brown tom who lay next to the she cat and gave him a sympathetic look. "Not well." She answered shortly to Stonepaw's words, not wanting to lie to the tom and get his hopes up. "I will give him some lavender later this evening. I can not give time too much or it will make him sick." She explained simply, before taking the dock leaves in her jaws and chewing them up into a poultice. The earthy taste assaulted her tongue, but Swansong has found after moons of chewing up herbs, her tongue had started to become immune to their taste.

Swansong carefully applied the dock to Gingercoat's itchy skin, knowing they would take effect soon enough and soothe the she cat's skin. The medicine cat looked carefully at her eye and came up with a blank as what to do. She had never had to deal with a eye injury, maybe Smokepaw would know something? If not, Swansong decided to go to ThunderClan for some advice from Fleetingthunder. Nodding to herself, Swansong lay her tail on Gingercoat's pelt. "Sleep, Gingercoat. I will tell Bluestar that you won't be available for warrior duties today."

The white she cat turned her attention to Stonepaw. "are you busy today, Stonepaw? I think I may need some help with some chores today." She asked, hoping to get some time away from her den, and away from the smell of deathly disease. "I need to talk to Bluestar about Gingercoat, restock some herbs and maybe take a trip over to ThunderClan to talk to their medicine cat. I could use some company."