TW: Sensitive Content The Colony army dreamers // emergency

[Lovebug!]

TW: injury, blood (not that detailed i think but just in case)​

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One moment, Lovebug had been watching Rowan scale the tree, barely resisting the urge to cheer loudly for her as she climbed higher and higher, moving expertly between branches. Rowan's so cool! We're totally gonna come back with something amazing! Her heart began to race excitedly as Rowan examined the trees around her—maybe she spotted a bird! Or even a squirrel!

The next moment, there was a sudden snap!, and a ginger blur came falling down through the branches, crash-landing onto the ground with a loud, sickening thud. Lovebug froze and stared, eyes wide, uncomprehending, the forest suddenly going silent around her. She glanced back up at the tree's dark, towering branches, heart pounding when she realized that no, that wasn't some random fallen animal, and yes, that was her best friend lying on the ground.

She slowly took one step forward, whispering in a shaky voice, "Rowan?"

Rowan didn't respond, unmoving; blood pooled around her ear from where she had snagged it on the branches.

Lovebug lurched forward with a sharp burst of wild, all-consuming panic. "Rowan!" she nearly shrieked, any nearby prey immediately scattering away from them at the sound. She insistently nudged her friend's shoulder, shivering in the approaching dawn's sudden chill, but Rowan still wouldn't wake—still wouldn't move. Lovebug quickly backed away, nearly stumbling over her own paws.

What do I do?! I can't carry her!!! But I can't just leave her here either!!!

She looked around desperately, hoping someone, anyone, would jump out of the bushes to help her save Rowan; as the night laid unmoving around her, cold and silent, Lovebug felt a sob tear at her throat. She glanced back at her best friend, the familiarity in her features blurring due to her tears, and knew that she had to do something. She was the one who brought Rowan out here—she would do what any legendary warrior would do.

She would save her.

Hiding Rowan in the least prickliest bush she could find, Lovebug took off at a sprint, running faster than she ever had before. Her heart thrummed against her aching chest and the blur in her vision made it difficult to make out any detailed landmarks, but she had to get back to the Colony, and so she would.

Trying to squint the tears out of her eyes, Lovebug gasped in relief as she spotted the tall trees signaling the Colony's camp—she burst inside, fur fluffed up with equal parts adrenaline and fear, and let out a loud, echoing wail.

"Someone! Anyone! Please help! Rowan's hurt!"

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//ooc: please wait until @serpent and @maplefrost post before replying!
context: here​

 

[maplefrost]

Maple hasn't been able to sleep at night for a while now, kept awake by the approaching cold of leaf bare and the gnawing of hunger. He'd taken to pacing around the camp, trying to keep himself warm by moving. He was afraid, all the time, of the tension in the air and the cold, afraid of green cough and kitten cough, afraid of visions of the death he's seen that still linger in the corners of his mind. Tonight too he'd given up on sleep, resigning himself to sitting guard outside the den where many of the pregnant mollys had settled. He's still not sure what he's guarding them from; ghosts of the past harm only those they haunt.

Something stirs up the undergrowth on the perimeter of the camp, making his ears perk up. He turns towards the sound just in time to see a familiar young she-cat burst into the camp–

"Someone! Anyone! Please help! Rowan's hurt!"

He jumps to his feet, all his fur standing on end. Rowan's hurt. Rowan's hurt. Rowan's hurt. He takes off towards where the voice had come from, coming to a sliding halt in front of Lovebug, whose eyes are wide with panic and fear–

"Where is she?" Maple asks, his voice a sharp edge, his own fear hidden somewhere beneath the meanness. "Where's my sister?"

 

[Lovebug!]

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Lovebug had paused to gulp in breaths of air, legs trembling, tears still streaming down her face, but she immediately lifted her head once she heard approaching footsteps. Maple raced over to her, nearly growling at her over his sister—over Rowan, over her best friend that she made come with her—and her heart panged. She swiveled her ears downward guiltily, shamefully—what would Maple do once he figured out it had all been her idea?

But she didn't have time to feel sorry for herself—Rowan was still out there, cold and bleeding and alone. She had to save her, and she knew that Maple could help. Sniffling, she shoved the aching feeling creeping up her throat down enough to reply, "This way!"

Lovebug shot back into the forest, nearly running into tree trunks in her haste to get back to Rowan. Spotting her ginger fur underneath the bush she had left her under, Lovebug skidded to a halt, panic once again gripping her heart and making her freeze as the scent of blood hit her tongue. She desperately, desperately wished she was dreaming as she stared at Rowan's still unmoving form—and begged to the stars that she really could be saved.

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[maplefrost]

Maple doesn't actually hear what Lovebug says, he only sees her mouth open, and then she takes off back into the forest. He follows hot on her heels, heart pounding in his chest like a runaway horse, off beat and staccato. The undergrowth tears at his fur and branches whip against his muzzle, and then he smells blood– and Rowan. His panic grows, reaching dizzying heights as he catches sight of orange fur underneath a bush.

Lovebug comes to a halt next to the bush, and Maple stops so abruptly that he nearly slams right into her. He scrambles towards Rowan, lowering himself down and squeezing under the bush, his much larger body barely able to fit under there. He feels a branch dig into his skin, but he doesn't have the mind to care. Rowan is lying motionless in front of him, ear bleeding and with a swollen paw.

"Rowan?" Maple tries, voice barely above a whisper, coming out hoarse and strangled. "Ro, come on," he presses his muzzle against her side, nudging her gently, "wake up. You have to wake up!"

His ears are buzzing, mind still racing. Why won't she wake up? He has to get her back to camp. What if she dies? What if he loses her too? He grits his teeth for a moment, then carefully picks her up by the scruff of her neck– it's awkward, not as easy as it was when she was still a kit. But he's got no other choice, and he has to get her back to camp, to find someone who can help– he takes of back towards the camp without glancing back to see if Lovebug has followed. His nose is full of the smell of blood and Rowan's fur, his heart somewhere in his throat, lodged there like a bone. He can barely think straight, relying on muscle memory to bring him back to where he has to go.

Halfway there, Rowan makes a noise. Maple immediately puts her down, panicked, pressing his muzzle against her side again.

"What is it?" He asks, "I'm right here Ro."

But Rowan isn't making any sense, mumbling as if deep in a dream. The only thing Maple manages to make out is Serpent. He shakes his head, picking Rowan up again and taking off running, running as fast as he can. He reaches the camp completely out of breath, sides stinging and paws aching. Who can help? Who does he go to?

Serpent. He has no idea if she actually can help, but it was the only thing Rowan had managed to convey to him. And if anyone where to know someone who would know what to do, it would probably be her. He carries Rowan to the centre of the camp and desperately calls out–

"Serpent!"

 

[serpentberry]

She had anticipated that the child would take her advice - but not in the silence and cold of the night. Not with someone as ill equipped with the season as Rowan may be, and much less prepared for if anything goes sidewards. She rests entangled with Hawthorne, the wildness of their kits keeping her from sleeping deeply. There's shouting by the camp's entrance, but there always seems to be shouting nowadays, and Serpent only raises her head slightly. She almost wants to stuff Hawthorne's ears with the moss they have, so that the tom does not leave their bedding so soon. However by the time she gathers the courage to attempt, the shouting is gone, replaced by hurried footsteps.

Her mate's stirring keeps her awake, and his insistence on checking with the issue pushes her, too, to her paws. She lingers by the entrance of their den as he departs, eyes half lidded and fatigued, but soon enough, Maple breaks through the colony's unmendable walls again. And strewn across his back is a familiar, small, nearly russet colored form.

No... Oh, how the guilt grabs her with its dirty claws and wretches her heart from her chest. She wavers even as Maple summons her with a bark, eyes widening. She only approaches when she sees Rowan's sides rising and falling with pained breaths - but the guilt remains. Rarely has she felt this terror, this gnawing understanding that another's pain is (yet again?) caused by her. She thinks of her mother, father, lost siblings - and she trembles before she presses forth.

"I'm here, I'm -" a sharp pain in her side, reminding her of her condition and her lacking capabilities. She grinds her teeth together and searches camp for a companion of hers, calling to them with a, "Cica! Cica, get your behind over here. I'm too - I'm too pregnant for this," a comedic line, if not for the fearful issue at hand. Regardless of how quickly the other medicine minded cat approaches, Serpent does her best to work around her stomach.

"Ro - Ro," she whispers to the young cat. Scrapes litter her sides, her ear seeming to take the brunt of the damage. Her gaze looks to the youngling's brother first, then her friend not too far away. "Tell me what happened," she knows. She knows what happened. She acts like she doesn't, "We can help her more if we know."

[ mentioning @Hawthorne & calling for @cicada ]

 

[maplefrost]

The sight of the heavily pregnant she-cat is almost enough to make Maple feel guilty for springing this on her in the middle of the night– almost. His fear is deeper rooted, gnaws at him like hungry cats gnaw at bones in leaf bare. He feels like half a cat.

Tell me what happened.

Maple blinks down at Serpent, silently cursing himself for not asking Lovebug– he racks his brain for an answer, trying to put the pieces together though he's missing half of them. Half of him. She'd gone out at night, with Lovebug. She knows she's not supposed to leave, so what would make her leave? He begins to pace, walking back and forth next to Rowan's body. What would make her leave? Her friend asking her, and why would they leave... hunting, she must've gone hunting. She always wants to help. Always wants to be the hero. Forgets to look after herself in the process. And she'd been hidden in a bush, near a tree, her ear damaged and her paw twisted, and–

"No," he says, shaking his head, "what was she thinking?" he digs his nails into the dirt, flattening his ears. "She must've fallen trying to climb the tree," he whispers, staring at his sister. "She'd been talking about it, and I told her– I told her it was a bad idea, that she'd get hurt, but– she kept insisting it would be fine, and that she would catch something for us to eat– she just wanted to help," tears sting at his eyes, so he squeezes them shut and pushes his face into the fluffy fur at Rowan's neck. "She's my sister," he says, voice breaking around the words. "She's my sister."

 

[rowanpaw]

Rowan is standing in a field. There's lush green grass growing all around her, so high that it brushes against her belly. She's not hungry, nor is she thirsty, instead perfectly content. The sun is hanging high in the sky, warm and bright.

But wasn't it night?

A breeze sends ripples through the grass, and she looks out over the grassy ocean, feeling almost wistful. In the distance, she spots a vague russet furred shape– mother?

Isn't their mother dead?

She takes off at a run, darting through the grass like a rabbit, the shape coming closer and getting more clear. A pair of ears, and a tail, and then a sound– meowing. Lots of tiny little meows.

Her littermates died before their mother. Rowan knows that, so why…

"Mom?" Rowan calls out, "mom!"

But just as she's about to reach her, she slips further away again, and Rowan tries to keep running, but she's suddenly so tired. And hungry. And cold. But if she can just catch up to her mom, everything will be fine. Her mom will take care of her. And Rowan can tell her about everything her and Maple have done since she left, about the colony, and Lovebug, and Serpent, and everyone else. She just has to keep running.

It happens before Rowan has a chance to process it– one of her paws snag on a root hidden by the grass, and she's sent skidding across the ground, pain shooting up through her leg.

"Mom!" She screams, but her mother does not come. She's never going to come. "Mom!"

She cries, and cries, for nothing and for everything. She wants the whole world to know that she has no mother, no one to cry to, no one to run to, no one who will take care of her– then she feels something warm, something familiar, press into the fur of her neck–

Oh. Of course. How silly of her– she has a brother.

 

[cicadabuzz]

Cicada arrives quietly but swiftly at Serpent's call, their steps purposeful, ears pricked forward to catch the urgency in the other healer's voice. As they approach, their sharp gaze sweeps over the scene, noting the distress etched into Maple's hunched shoulders and the fearful tremor in Lovebug's stance. But it's Rowan's battered, motionless form that commands their full attention. Without a word to the others, they move to her side, their movements fluid and deliberate. They lower their nose to Rowan's ear, catching the tang of blood and the faint, uneven rise and fall of her chest. The ear is torn badly, bleeding sluggishly, and her paw is swollen—sprained, likely. Cicada's eyes flick briefly over her body, cataloging the scrapes and bruises. Judging by the lack of response and the vague muttering Maple had described, she may have bumped her head when she fell.

"She lives," Cicada murmurs, their voice steady and even, meant to ground the others more than to comfort. "But she'll need careful tending." They glance at Maple, their eyes narrowing slightly as they address him directly. Cicada steps in closer, their paw pressing lightly against her chest to feel for any abnormality in her breathing. Satisfied that there's no immediate threat to her lungs or ribs, they begin their work. Cicada lets their tail drift around in front of them, carefully grabbing the cobwebs wrapped around the tip with their teeth. They lean closer, setting the cobwebs in place. They press the cobwebs to her torn ear, staunching the bleeding with a firm but careful paw. They proceed to pull a few small pieces of marigold from their tail, chewing them into a poultice before applying it to the worst of Rowan's scrapes.

Her sprained paw is last. Cicada inspects it with a light touch, their whiskers twitching thoughtfully. "We'll need to bind this," they mutter, looking over at Lovebug. "Find me something sturdy; smooth and clean. Go quickly." They don't wait to see if the young cat moves, their attention returning to Rowan. As they finish tending the immediate injuries, Cicada leans in close, their voice low. "You'll wake," they murmur, voice even, neither warm nor cold. "But you must rest now." Straightening, they turn to Serpent, their voice steady once more, passing forth blunt words. "She'll pull through so long as the damage to her head is not too severe. One of us will need to keep her nearby and watch her through the night. If she stirs, she mustn't move much. The sprain will need days to heal, perhaps longer." They flick their tail, already planning how to balance Rowan's care with the needs of the colony.

 

[juniperstar]

juniper

at some point she'd managed to unravel herself from Sable's draping arms, those that seek to hold her, caged in a loving grip. there's cold where his form had once been but it's almost nice.. a moment of chilly solitude between fitful sleep. until there's a commotion from outside... Juniper snaps upright and alert to the sound of scrambling paws, panic-shrill voices, names being yelled to summon others. what could be unfolding so early, before the sun has even finished rising? no one should've left in the small hours of the nights when predators lurk in the unknown expanses of the land they have yet to completely explore.

she staggers to her paws, turning to press her nose into Sable's cheek with a soft murmur, "I'll go check it out... you sleep." for all his griping he had been hunting enough to freeze his paws... he'd need to rest if he intended to make another attempt today. skirting past other nearby sleeping bodies, the spotted cat surveys the clearing with an anxious twitch of their tail tip, landing on a small group forming- Serpent and Cicada are amongst them and at first their fear flies to an early labor... and unexpected delivery too soon. but Serpent seems unhurried, does not cower against the ground in pain.

her approach is slow and hesitant, peering around the rounded middle of a friend. Rowan? the sight of someone so young in such a state is enough to make her guts twist in discomfort... almost on its own an inspiration for overwhelming nausea. Cicada assures them a promising recovery, if luck had not smacked the young girl too hard on the back of the head. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she'd never been much for games of memory and theory like their more medically inclined cast but... she could handle simple things like watching and waiting, fetching water and praying. their vision shifts towards Lovebug, a frown creasing the edges of their lips. "Don't worry, you did the right thing- Rowan's safe now." a lecture in asking what they were thinking going out alone so late could wait until the immediate fear was not so prominent.

 

[Lovebug!]

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Lovebug let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding when she saw Maple manage to pick Rowan up by her scruff—and broke into a quick, frantic sprint after him as he raced back to camp. She wasn't keen on letting her best friend out of her sight again, no matter how fast Maple was weaving through the trees. I have to make sure she's okay. Because if she isn't, then... I.... Lovebug didn't dare finish the thought.

The adrenaline in her bones was starting to fade away, giving way to exhaustion, but she didn't dare slow down her pace. On the way, Rowan had begun to softly mumble under her breath, and Lovebug's face lit up, thinking she had woken up—but it was just the unintelligible mumbling of a deep sleep. The warmth of hearing her friend's voice still settled in her chest, nestling deep in her heart, making her steps feel a little lighter, a little easier. Maybe, in her dream, she's soaring through the treetops, and she managed to catch something... really amazing.

When they reached the Colony camp, Maple immediately began calling for Serpent. Lovebug hung back, looking pitifully small as she stared at Rowan's unmoving form, barely paying attention to the discussion around her. The comfort of knowing her friend was at least alive had settled her a little, but her stomach still felt as if it was dropping into a bottomless pit at even the memory of the fall. Her torn ear, her twisted paw... would Rowan be angry with her when she woke up? I shouldn't have been so selfish, Lovebug thought miserably. I should've just went alone.

Lovebug's ears perked up at a command directed towards her, and she looked up to see Cicada, their attention returned to Rowan—but it was clear that it had been them who had spoken. She took a moment to shake her head, clearing the fuzziness from her brain. Something sturdy, something smooth and clean.... I can do that. Determined to help out with her friend's recovery, she began to briskly walk back towards the forest, setting her exhaustion aside—but stopped once she spotted Juniper approaching the scene. She shrank a little under their gaze, a fresh wave of guilt pooling in her stomach, but then....

"Don't worry, you did the right thing—Rowan's safe now."

With a bright, wobbly smile and a new fresh set of tears gathering in her eyes, Lovebug set off.

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[maplefrost]

Maple listens carefully to the words of the other cats, watching intently as they look over his sister's body. He's still standing very close to her, like any minute now a fox would break into the camp and steal her away. He'd almost lost her once before– she was only two moons old at that time. Their mother had died, maybe out of grief, shortly after all three of Rowan's littermates had passed. He'd been young himself, and had the fox been fully grown, maybe they would've both followed their family into an early grave, putting an end to their miserable bloodline. But he'd managed to fend it off, sending the young fox running. He still hears it sometimes. Sometimes he still hears kits meowing, and sometimes he still sees their little faces slowly disappearing as he pushes dirt back into the hole he'd dug.

He will not lose Rowan now.

One of us will need to keep her nearby and watch her through the night.

Maple looks up, but before he can reply, Juniper appears. Once she's finished talking, Maple speaks up.

"I'll watch over her. She's..." A beat. "She's my sister," he says again. And then, "Once her paw is bound, should I carry her back to her nest, or is there somewhere else– somewhere safer? I'll do anything. Just... just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."